Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

A liter?! Can't really believe that, does not look that large.

That's just a guess, based on my Dragon paw mugs, which are 20 oz... let me go find a measuring cup... 

mnem
 

This is my mug, when I'm in need of huge amounts of coffee. Capacity: 850ml

https://www.amazon.de/Bada-Bing-Kaffeebecher-Matheformeln-Kaffeetasse/dp/B07DVKZD3Q


There's a little riddle: on that cup, there is a tiny mistake. Can you spot it? 

[exor]

Yesterday arrival: The IdealTek pliers which I've ordered at TME.

Here are some pictures. The grid has minimal distance of 1mm and the resistor is for size comparisons.

The ES6023B:


The ES6025:


Working with the ES6025 is a real joy. Good handling, precise pliers, I like it! Will be a good successor to my P-500. 

Not a tool but my first cherry cake in 2022:


The Gooseberries on the left are part for my fruits in rum, which I've started yesterday as well.

Looks delicious! In here we don’t have Gooseberries or any other berries yet, so rhubarb with rolled oats, butter, brown sugar, raisins, brown syrup and Bacardi Carta Negra will do. This was before the oven, now nothing left.

[BU508A]

How cool! Will show it to my sister, since she is a huge rhubarb fan. :-)
And no, her name is not Barbara!   

[mnementh]

are you talking about? This is a Canon, not some drug-store POS. 

mnem
 

Eh ? It looks minuscule on that pic  ! Doesn't it ?! 

Either that or it's the mug next to it that's 10 times the size of a normal mug, and can contain a gallon ?! 

No, that would be this one... which I just got for my dad as a gag Father's Day present. SHHHHH!!!!

mnem
^*slight exaggeration. But only slight.

[Cubdriver]

are you talking about? This is a Canon, not some drug-store POS. 

mnem
 

Eh ? It looks minuscule on that pic  ! Doesn't it ?! 

Either that or it's the mug next to it that's 10 times the size of a normal mug, and can contain a gallon ?! 

No, that would be this one... which I just got for my dad as a gag Father's Day present. SHHHHH!!!!

mnem
^*slight exaggeration. But only slight.

Holy crap - VAT-o-coffee!  The HP mug looks like a shot glass with a handle relative to that lineup!   

-Pat

[AVGresponding]

The usual test over here is "If the resistor leg sticks to a magnet, it goes back to where it came from".

That's a VERY good metric.

This can go wrong, for example like these electrolytics,



and these Vishay resistors (OK, it's the resistor body that is magnetic, not the legs)

Well... this pic took me an hour or more to put on my PC, as the usb controller on my Cat S61 seems to have decided to die. Not happy.

[bd139]

Yes to note it should only be used against your average axial resistors and only the legs 

[BU508A]

My Lovecraft mug for special occasions 

[AVGresponding]

That HP664224A went for a hundred quid plus shipping, someone got a decent bargain there.

[bd139]

That HP6642A went for a hundred quid plus shipping, someone got a decent bargain there.

Not bad. Those things weren't cheap when they were new!

[tggzzz]

OK, I am have got a mug.

People of a certain age might recognise the one on the left.
I don't know how they made the one in the middle; I've never seen another like it.
The one on the right came from Stanford shopping mall, next to the university.

[mnementh]

Eh ? It looks minuscule on that pic  ! Doesn't it ?! 

Either that or it's the mug next to it that's 10 times the size of a normal mug, and can contain a gallon ?! 

No, that would be this one... which I just got for my dad as a gag Father's Day present. SHHHHH!!!!

mnem
^*slight exaggeration. But only slight.

Holy crap - VAT-o-coffee!  The HP mug looks like a shot glass with a handle relative to that lineup!   

-Pat

Wifey and I are guessing 50/50 odds whether he uses it as a coffee mug or as a dresser catchall. 

mnem
*toddles off to his son's Junior High Grad-jee-a-shun...*

[bd139]

OK, I am have got a mug.

People of a certain age might recognise the one on the left.
I don't know how they made the one in the middle; I've never seen another like it.
The one on the right came from Stanford shopping mall, next to the university.

I had a wind up hopping Buzby. Loved it.

[Cerebus]

OK, I am have got a mug.

People of a certain age might recognise the one on the left.
I don't know how they made the one in the middle; I've never seen another like it.
The one on the right came from Stanford shopping mall, next to the university.

Most mugs are slip cast.  You can slip cast any shape as long as the outside surface doesn't have undercuts.

The plaster moulds used for slip casting, even those used for massive runs of standard commercial mugs, are quite short lived things -  a hundred reuses would be exceptional rather than normal. So there's no impetus to re-use a mould once it's made, it's not like an injection moulding mould that represents a big investment.

Two thirds of a slip casting mould, with the freshly cast mug still in situ:

[dl6lr]

Tektronix 1240 Update:

I finally traced the problem with the horizontal sync down. It was a famous Z-Capacitor C521. It would draw excessive current if fed with more than abt. 2V. The Peak Atlas ESR70 measures it very fine, as there is no DC bias, the capacitance is well in limit and the ESR is not too bad. But it will "regulate" the voltage at Pin 5 of the LM1391N/MC1391P to something like 2.5V. And look what I found out: Tektronix installed it in reverse, as the positive leg goes to ground! Must have been a factory fault as the solder was untouched.

Negative spikes at TP452 (mentioned in separate thread https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/tektronix-replacement-diode/) were found to be a measurement artifact, the flyback transformer badly injects pulses to the probe and a slight shift in position gives those spikes observed. But diode CR452 was found to be perfectly OK.

Now the deflection snychronises and a stable picture is drawn.

Replaced the Li-Iodine on processor board by a CR2032 holder, just to be sure.

Ongoing work will be some ROM PACKS,  build some TTL Pods P6462 which does not require custom Tek ICs (Pods are prohibitive expensive if available) and maybe build a GPIB COMM PACK.

[med6753]

The TE gods are not smiling upon me today. Got everything back together and STILL have no -15V. 

The only thing left is either the transformer or CR1472 has gone tits up. Measured transformer. 19.1VAC. Output from CR1472. 0 volts. There are no shorts. CR1472 is stone cold. It's dead Jim.

IIRC those get unpleasantly hot in normal operation.

Yes. If you have really low impedance capacitors they tend to go bang as well.

Not as hot as the bridges in the Hp 1740A though 

I don't think this bridge really had a chance to go bang with the new capacitor because there definitely was an open circuit. Mystery as to why it's gone. And yes, all the other bridges get very warm.

Already have the 465 parts mule pulled apart and it has several of what appears to be the same P/N bridges but I will check the parts list.

I wouldn’t replace it with a pulled one. They are a notorious weak point. Even the Chinese no brand ones are better now. I think I got a tube of 50 for the 1740A for the price of one Tek labelled part 

I do agree. Those old rectifiers aren't not  as good as the modern ones. The combination of old rectifiers and modern capacitors can overload the diodes (peak current). If I had to replace the rectifier, I would certainly go for a modern one. And if the others get warm or hot as well, I would change them, too.

Well the 465 has 3 of the identical P/N (152-0488-0) 200V, 1.5A. I pulled one and I'll install tomorrow and see what happens. If it blows it's cookies I'll give you all the opportunity to snicker and laugh at me.   

[Specmaster]

 

OK, I am have got a mug.

People of a certain age might recognise the one on the left.
I don't know how they made the one in the middle; I've never seen another like it.
The one on the right came from Stanford shopping mall, next to the university.

Love that Buzby mug 

[BU508A]

Well the 465 has 3 of the identical P/N (152-0488-0) 200V, 1.5A. I pulled one and I'll install tomorrow and see what happens. If it blows it's cookies I'll give you all the opportunity to snicker and laugh at me. 

I do not think it will blow up immediately. But keep an eye on the temperature. If it is getting warm or hot, it will fail sooner or later. Most likely, when Murphy will bite you in the butt.

[bd139]

They sometimes just go bang when you turn them on. Usually when some ham has been inside them so med is fine because he's not a ham 

And now for something completely different. Poked the Z50 out of the window with the 250mm lens on it.



Need. More. Zoom. This could get expensive 

[xrunner]

Coffee mugs?

How many do you want to see? 

[dl6lr]

I don't know how they made the one in the middle; I've never seen another like it.

They are very common here at the north sea. The slanted mug with some obvious references to the wind...

"Sturm ist erst, wenn die Schafe keine Locken mehr haben"
(Storm is not before the sheeps don't have curls anymore)

[Cerebus]

They sometimes just go bang when you turn them on. Usually when some ham has been inside them so med is fine because he's not a ham 

And now for something completely different. Poked the Z50 out of the window with the 250mm lens on it.



Need. More. Zoom. This could get expensive 

Back in my Pentax 35mm SLR days I used to have a 500mm f8 mirror (catadioptric) lens that I'd use with a 2x adaptor to make up an effective 1000mm f16 lens for astrophotography.

It was when using that I discovered that it was quite easy on a clear winter's night to get the silver oxide SR44 batteries in the camera cold enough that they'd stop working. (It's quite common when taking astrophotographs to let your camera and lenses cool down for a while before starting so they don't become the source of a heat haze of rising warm air.)

[tggzzz]

They sometimes just go bang when you turn them on. Usually when some ham has been inside them so med is fine because he's not a ham 

And now for something completely different. Poked the Z50 out of the window with the 250mm lens on it.



Need. More. Zoom. This could get expensive 

A couple of hours ago I was on the way to the kitchen when I saw exactly that in the centre of my back window, just above the hills on the horizon. It stopped me in my tracks.

Now I've seen such moons many times before, but not in that position.

[Cubdriver]

This one is from 2013 - took it with an EOS-M, and EF-M adapter, stacked 1.4x and 2x teleconverters on a 100-400mm zoom at 400mm.  Had to keep tweaking the tripod setting because I could literally watch the moon move across the viewfinder.



I had a pic of the setup somewhere (looked ridiculous - the M looked like a cigarette package on a bazooka), but unfortunately can't put my hands on it.

-Pat

[Zoli]

Some time ago, I've purchased a Fluke 8060A(parts only, $42.00 - little expensive). Install new alkaline, turn on - no display. Open up, start checking - why the brand new battery has only 8.2V?
Well, the Gorilla was here, and left two shorts(Gorilla1-2.jpg; red arrow:short on the bottom, continued on the top thru a capacitor pin hole). Removing the shorts, the LCD came back to life; time to start the capacitor replacement.
Oops, more Gorilla footprints: broken LCD bracket(LCD_Support.jpg) and button support(Assembly_Support.jpg), Well, I need to dig out/install the Tools_of_Trade: Dremel, vertical tool stand, 0.5mm Carbide drill.
Glued the parts together with CA(Loctite.jpg) as placeholder, then proceed with the drilling. After drilling, add a drop of CA on the top of the hole, move the wires(0.45mm, leftover from the 10µF replacements) in-out a few times to fill the hole with CA, add a drop of accelerator on the top, then let cure for 24 h.
Replace the caps(surprisingly, no leaks) and the MAC socket, let the PCB and MAC soak in isopropanol for 24 h, short iso rinse, then dry for 24h more. Assembly, test - almost spot on. But since it has a good family to join, I've adjusted a bit...
Anyway, when I will have the time, I will make some tools to properly adjust/calibrate the whole family...