Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Yep, access is far better than that on the SC110 and I'll wager, it is better than your 212 mini scope?

Yes, the access on the NLS mini-scope appears to be much easier than the 212. In order to troubleshoot anything on the 212 you have to spread it out like in this picture and hope everything stays connected yet doesn't short out to anything else including yourself. 

 

[Andrew_Debbie]

Damn you... I keep clicking on the thumbnails so I can go ogle the listing! 

mnem
Uggghh... no coffee this morning, I has a Dr appointment...

ogle away   --->  https://www2.ppauctions.com/auction/337/7e-communications-ltd?page=5

[med6753]

Damn you... I keep clicking on the thumbnails so I can go ogle the listing! 

mnem
Uggghh... no coffee this morning, I has a Dr appointment...

ogle away   --->  https://www2.ppauctions.com/auction/337/7e-communications-ltd?page=5

Since it's in the UK I'm not tempted so much. If it were here me and Cubdriver would be hating you. 

[Specmaster]

Yep, access is far better than that on the SC110 and I'll wager, it is better than your 212 mini scope?

Yes, the access on the NLS mini-scope appears to be much easier than the 212. In order to troubleshoot anything on the 212 you have to spread it out like in this picture and hope everything stays connected yet doesn't short out to anything else including yourself. 

 

Hmm, that looks so much more accessible for servicing, wish my SC110. I have 2 daughter boards that have to joined together and pugged into the main board via 4 sets of header pins and sockets, then there is the CRT board that needs to unsoldered from a 20 pin right angle header in order to get to the pulse generator IC for the SMPS etc. 

I expect back in the day, the service dept had some header extender cables to enable the thing to be laid out like your 212. I suppose its not impossible to fabricate a set of these if I can find the required plugs and headers, just seems like a lot of fuff just to solve what should be a simple task.

[mnementh]

...I expect back in the day, the service dept had some header extender cables to enable the thing to be laid out like your 212. I suppose its not impossible to fabricate a set of these if I can find the required plugs and headers, just seems like a lot of fuff just to solve what should be a simple task.

"Help! I'm lost in 'lectric spaghetti HELL!!"

mnem
Been dere, dunnat, sold the shirt.

[Specmaster]

...I expect back in the day, the service dept had some header extender cables to enable the thing to be laid out like your 212. I suppose its not impossible to fabricate a set of these if I can find the required plugs and headers, just seems like a lot of fuff just to solve what should be a simple task.

"Help! I'm lost in 'lectric spaghetti HELL!!"

mnem
Been dere, dunnat, sold the shirt.

I might have to end up doing that myself to fix this thing. Once its done, it would be so much better than the Thandar SM630 ScopeMaster with its piss poor LCD screen.

[tggzzz]

...I expect back in the day, the service dept had some header extender cables to enable the thing to be laid out like your 212. I suppose its not impossible to fabricate a set of these if I can find the required plugs and headers, just seems like a lot of fuff just to solve what should be a simple task.

"Help! I'm lost in 'lectric spaghetti HELL!!"

mnem
Been dere, dunnat, sold the shirt.

I might have to end up doing that myself to fix this thing. Once its done, it would be so much better than the Thandar SM630 ScopeMaster with its piss poor LCD screen.

Let me know if you do; I have two in the queue

Good news, after finally getting to play around with my two resistor decade boxes, and doing mental arithmetic to calculate the tolerances:

• Jay Jay R7 10/100/1k/10k/100k: internal resistors are large 1%, tolerance <0.5%, residual resistance 29mohms
• Muirhead D-825-P 1/10/100/1k/10k: internal resistors are the standard pornographic Muirhead wire on bobbin resistors, tolerance <0.1%, residual resistance 19mohms

Muirhead really made nice stuff; I'm a fan.

[BU508A]

Damned enablers!     

[mansaxel]

Damned enablers!     

Thank you for enabling me to fix my brainfucks.



Now with drip-stop angle on cables, and a straight entry through membrane.  Also, a reassuring (according to some, only to the gullible) IP65 label on the click-on lid.

Now, just to get the facts straight; Thorsman is part of Schneider Electric these days, so this is not some dodgy importer of crap goods. Au contraire! This is the favourite brand of sparkies; best boxes, cable canals, clips, and so on. Lots of attention to making a safe product that is easy to install, and able to claim a premium price for this.  Getting bought by Schneider does not look like it made those things worse.  Likely inflated the price, though...

[BU508A]

Thank you for enabling me to fix my brainfucks.

Honestly, I'd fixed it with those special clamps.
Reason: Their height goes along with the height of the hole in the membrane.



Another solution is using those PVC tubes. The height goes along with the height of the hole of the membrane as well.
A second advantage is: I find them easier to install, especially on wood. Simply screw the clamps tight with the cordless screwdriver, thread the cable through the empty tube and then clip the tube in place.

This is the favourite brand of sparkies; best boxes, cable canals, clips, and so on.

Sparkies choice here is usually Hager.

They've bought Tehalit, one of the best (imho) manufacturers of cable canals. For example.

[Andrew_Debbie]

Since it's in the UK I'm not tempted so much. If it were here me and Cubdriver would be hating you. 

7E are a 15 mile drive from  Heathrow.       

[med6753]

Since it's in the UK I'm not tempted so much. If it were here me and Cubdriver would be hating you. 

7E are a 15 mile drive from  Heathrow.       

From here to JFK to Heathrow to there is more than a sufficient barrier for me but I won't speak for Cubdriver. 

[TERRA Operative]

Got PCB's delivered today, and got Rev1 of my TDS500/600/700 PSU tester working.
I've made a few changes (Like including the lower 4 power resistors into the design instead of bodged on top etc) so if I do another PCB run it'll be just about perfect.

[Ice-Tea]

Excavated a few Bulgy McBulgefaces from a 2k€ PSU at the core of a, what, 50k? 100k? 200k RF Gen? None of them read over 1% of nominal. One failed to even register as a capacitor.

Not sure if I'm happy or not. And how much I should recap...

[Andrew_Debbie]

Well lookie here. There's an NLS mini-scope on Ebay right now. No current bids. Starting at $55 USD. 2 days left.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/175200523795?hash=item28cac3d613:g:EnQAAOSwuUViL4CN

There's some pictures of the inside and access doesn't look bad at all. Too bad the TE budget at the moment is shot. 

I typed nonlinearsystems.com into  Chrome and to my amazement they are still around (at least on the web)

https://www.nonlinearsystems.com/

Company founder Andrew Kay is widely credited with developing the first digital voltmeter in the early  1950s.


https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/technology/sdut-andrew-kay-mit-kaypro-computers-pioneer-2014sep03-story.html


I've yet to see one of the early NLS DVMs come up on eBay.

A few of them are around.

https://youtu.be/xFic_Fn5ujM


https://youtu.be/flDgE-VRPTE

[TERRA Operative]

Excavated a few Bulgy McBulgefaces from a 2k€ PSU at the core of a, what, 50k? 100k? 200k RF Gen? None of them read over 1% of nominal. One failed to even register as a capacitor.

Not sure if I'm happy or not. And how much I should recap...

2kEuro PSU, and they use crap Chinese caps?....

Replace the lot with a decent brand I say....

[mnementh]

Excavated a few Bulgy McBulgefaces from a 2k€ PSU at the core of a, what, 50k? 100k? 200k RF Gen? None of them read over 1% of nominal. One failed to even register as a capacitor.

Not sure if I'm happy or not. And how much I should recap...

2kEuro PSU, and they use crap Chinese caps?....

Replace the lot with a decent brand I say....

That many bad that way... I'd be looking into the root cause, not just hating on the Bunkonium caps. I think I smell a "device designed to be a perfect capacitor oven" scenario, myself.

mnem
 

[AVGresponding]

One for Med here:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275203378554



Much easier to work on than the 212, I'm sure...   



One here for Vince:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284715424647



If this was a UK seller I'd already have sent a kick-in-the-balls offer.



@Mans, is this cheap enough yet to make it worth me spending £20 on fuel to go and collect it?     https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/294876708630

[Ice-Tea]

Excavated a few Bulgy McBulgefaces from a 2k€ PSU at the core of a, what, 50k? 100k? 200k RF Gen? None of them read over 1% of nominal. One failed to even register as a capacitor.

Not sure if I'm happy or not. And how much I should recap...

2kEuro PSU, and they use crap Chinese caps?....

Replace the lot with a decent brand I say....

No Chinese in sight. Korean and Taiwanese. All clustered around the same heatsink, though. So I'm guessing that thing got a bit toasty and it whacked the elcos.

[Martin Miranda]

sorting. 

[Specmaster]

Damned enablers!     

Thank you for enabling me to fix my brainfucks.



Now with drip-stop angle on cables, and a straight entry through membrane.  Also, a reassuring (according to some, only to the gullible) IP65 label on the click-on lid.

Now, just to get the facts straight; Thorsman is part of Schneider Electric these days, so this is not some dodgy importer of crap goods. Au contraire! This is the favourite brand of sparkies; best boxes, cable canals, clips, and so on. Lots of attention to making a safe product that is easy to install, and able to claim a premium price for this.  Getting bought by Schneider does not look like it made those things worse.  Likely inflated the price, though...

Personally, I'd have put bigger proper drip loops in, so it looked like a U bend on waste pipe, but I suspect that was the best you could do because you never had sufficient cable? Always good practise to include a proper loop, then you have some extra cable to spare if at anytime you need it due to reconfiguration of the wiring in the box.

[med6753]

Excavated a few Bulgy McBulgefaces from a 2k€ PSU at the core of a, what, 50k? 100k? 200k RF Gen? None of them read over 1% of nominal. One failed to even register as a capacitor.

Not sure if I'm happy or not. And how much I should recap...

2kEuro PSU, and they use crap Chinese caps?....

Replace the lot with a decent brand I say....

No Chinese in sight. Korean and Taiwanese. All clustered around the same heatsink, though. So I'm guessing that thing got a bit toasty and it whacked the elcos.

Regardless. If you found that many tits up get rid of all of them. It's the only way to go. 

[med6753]

One for Med here:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275203378554



Much easier to work on than the 212, I'm sure...   

Thanks for the heads up. I fully expect the bidding to go ape shit on it and I'll just sit back and watch. 

[Specmaster]

...I expect back in the day, the service dept had some header extender cables to enable the thing to be laid out like your 212. I suppose its not impossible to fabricate a set of these if I can find the required plugs and headers, just seems like a lot of fuff just to solve what should be a simple task.

"Help! I'm lost in 'lectric spaghetti HELL!!"

mnem
Been dere, dunnat, sold the shirt.

I might have to end up doing that myself to fix this thing. Once its done, it would be so much better than the Thandar SM630 ScopeMaster with its piss poor LCD screen.

Let me know if you do; I have two in the queue

Good news, after finally getting to play around with my two resistor decade boxes, and doing mental arithmetic to calculate the tolerances:

• Jay Jay R7 10/100/1k/10k/100k: internal resistors are large 1%, tolerance <0.5%, residual resistance 29mohms
• Muirhead D-825-P 1/10/100/1k/10k: internal resistors are the standard pornographic Muirhead wire on bobbin resistors, tolerance <0.1%, residual resistance 19mohms

Muirhead really made nice stuff; I'm a fan.

OK, I'm doing it, just ordered a Dupont crimping kit with enough single row 5 and 6 pin bodies along with female and male pins, crimper and cable to make up my own set, just need 4 x 5pin male to female and 1 x 6 pin male to female extending leads in order to move the daughter boards out of the way.  If you need to remove the CRT board from the main board, there is also enough kit in the set to allow a set of female to female leads (may need more ribbon cable), 2 x 5pin and 1 x 6pin.

Kit arrives tomorrow from Amazon, so I will leave it alone until the leads have been made.

[Vince]

Got PCB's delivered today, and got Rev1 of my TDS500/600/700 PSU tester working.
I've made a few changes (Like including the lower 4 power resistors into the design instead of bodged on top etc) so if I do another PCB run it'll be just about perfect.

Wow I didn't remember you talked about doing this littel thing ! How cute ! 

You are really taking this TDS repair to industrial levels ! 

So that means that when your " TDS Mk1 repair cook book " will be finally out, it will also contain a QR code linking to a website where one can download Gerber files for it ! 

Keep going, I am loving it !