Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Robert763]

They say to fry an egg you need 158 Deg F ...

Or a UPS driver ?  We need to keep those guys/girls alive so they continue to deliver TEA to everyone. 

Had a couple of deliveries yesterday and offered both drivers a bottle of water from the fridge. They accepted with thanks.

[AVGresponding]

Ok just bought a dead Marconi 2022E signal generator from scottrade12. Down the rabbit hole we go 

Almost certainly it's one of several problems:

1. The osc is duff and this runs the synth and CPU -> run off external one and test then replace it.
2. The power supply is duff -> debug and fix
3. Probably several dead OM345's -> MAR6 MMIC + friggery.
4. Attenuator duff -> kill me with fire.

And just like the Keithley 199 that Robert bagged, someone snaffled the Fluke 8505 he had. Oh well, there's always more...

That 34401 I linked at the weekend went for just over £200 including shipping, not a bad price.

[Vince]

/off to count how many ATMega128A-AU is hiding in those pieces of tapes

[...}

/And the results are in: I wish 42, but the reality sez 59; now, what to do with that many ATMegas(selling is not an option)? Anyone interested?

HERE HERE  !!! 

59 is way too many I agree with you !! 

If they can cross the Atlantic, I would be more than happy to give some of them a good home.

I have settled on the ATmega 15 years ago when I started work on my first gizmo / legacy OBD thingy for the Lotus Esprit.

Needed something with an affordable programmer, and since I was on Linux I needed something that a tool chain was available for, and also wanted a compiler that's free yet is not artificially limited.
Saw that there was a port of GCC for the AVR, and that "Dragon" USB programmer that can even do JTAG... had to import it from the US though, was not available in Europe at the time.

Then got the biggest AVR I could get that was still available in a DIP package, because well 15 years ago surface mount was pure Sci-fi to me. So that meant I bought a few Mega32.

That allowed me to make my first prototype, with a 4x20 text LCD. However now that this one works, 15 years later I would like to modernize my design. Want to replace the text LCD with a large graphical one (seen on the pics below), 256x128 pixels, so I can make a more user friendly and more feature rich user interface,and just better looking if nothing else. Graphics means I will need more code space and RAM for the routines that I will have to write and bitmaps that I will need to store, so a mega128 with 4 times more code space, twice as much RAM and 4 times as much EEPROM, would be cool ! It's surface mount of course, but nowadays this does not scare me anymore. It would allow me to free some space on the board so I can potentially add more features to the gizmo. Same for the backlight and power supply, think I can redesign them to make them more compact / modern, and free even more board space for better purposes.

Then there is that other Gizmo I talked about the other day that I want to make to use the printer / recorder output of my old Nixie tube TE.
And then also I have this High voltage low current adjustable power supply I would like to make as well.... and this, and that....

Yes, your chips would be very much welcome here, appreciated and loved ! 

[bd139]

Spare ATmega parts are probably worth a small fortune at the moment. China started cloning them a few years back as well 

[Vince]

You mean there are counterfeit AVR chips for sale on the interweb ?

hopefully if you buy from a major supplier like Digikey / Mouser / Farnell, you get good chips...

[Vince]

Oh, I see Mouser says they have none in stock and expect delivery  in 12 MONTHS ! 

Oops...

They do have the mega32 in stock though.

[25 CPS]

I needed to knock out some errands at home today so I grabbed that U1231A + U1177A multimeter and IR -> Bluetooth dongle I picked up for cheap a while ago and got started by putting new batteries in the U1177A which wouldn't power up.  And groan:



Pop those out, do a fast cleanup job with an old toothbrush and it still won't power up with new batteries.  I'll go at the battery contacts properly later and see if it can be salvaged.

Next, the thermometer receiver in the bathroom conked so I took the batteries that were going to go into the U1177A and went to put them in that.  And groan:





Today seems to be the day for leaked AAA cells.  At least I was able to get the thermometer receiver cleaned up and working again.  My next test equipment project is going to be to pull everything that's battery powered and replace the batteries and start a spreadsheet to track battery changes.  I'm tossing the idea around of replacing them annually if they don't run down and get replaced sooner to stay ahead of any potential leaks damaging something that could be expensive.

I know a lot of people seek long battery life in multimeters for understandable reasons but at the same time, there is something to be said for meters running them down quick enough that they don't hang around long enough to become destructive.

[srb1954]

On unrelated news: The -hp- 4952A with some photos (outside only at the moment), more to come...

Firmware written in Smalltalk, IIRC. Hardware engineers (in Tek and HP) rapidly recognised good languages/environments when they saw it

However, HP weren't so good at making their minds up on which microprocessor to use in the 4952A. There are at least 3 different architecture processors used in this product.

It must have been a nightmare to manage 3 different S/W teams.

[Cubdriver]

I needed to knock out some errands at home today so I grabbed that U1231A + U1177A multimeter and IR -> Bluetooth dongle I picked up for cheap a while ago and got started by putting new batteries in the U1177A which wouldn't power up.  And groan:



Pop those out, do a fast cleanup job with an old toothbrush and it still won't power up with new batteries.  I'll go at the battery contacts properly later and see if it can be salvaged.

Next, the thermometer receiver in the bathroom conked so I took the batteries that were going to go into the U1177A and went to put them in that.  And groan:





Today seems to be the day for leaked AAA cells.  At least I was able to get the thermometer receiver cleaned up and working again.  My next test equipment project is going to be to pull everything that's battery powered and replace the batteries and start a spreadsheet to track battery changes.  I'm tossing the idea around of replacing them annually if they don't run down and get replaced sooner to stay ahead of any potential leaks damaging something that could be expensive.

I know a lot of people seek long battery life in multimeters for understandable reasons but at the same time, there is something to be said for meters running them down quick enough that they don't hang around long enough to become destructive.

Ouch!!!

Eneloops will be your friends.


Those blue ones are over ten years old.

-Pat

[med6753]

I needed to knock out some errands at home today so I grabbed that U1231A + U1177A multimeter and IR -> Bluetooth dongle I picked up for cheap a while ago and got started by putting new batteries in the U1177A which wouldn't power up.  And groan:



Pop those out, do a fast cleanup job with an old toothbrush and it still won't power up with new batteries.  I'll go at the battery contacts properly later and see if it can be salvaged.

Next, the thermometer receiver in the bathroom conked so I took the batteries that were going to go into the U1177A and went to put them in that.  And groan:





Today seems to be the day for leaked AAA cells.  At least I was able to get the thermometer receiver cleaned up and working again.  My next test equipment project is going to be to pull everything that's battery powered and replace the batteries and start a spreadsheet to track battery changes.  I'm tossing the idea around of replacing them annually if they don't run down and get replaced sooner to stay ahead of any potential leaks damaging something that could be expensive.

I know a lot of people seek long battery life in multimeters for understandable reasons but at the same time, there is something to be said for meters running them down quick enough that they don't hang around long enough to become destructive.

Ouch!!!

Eneloops will be your friends.


Those blue ones are over ten years old.

-Pat

Manufactured / distributed by Papa Smurf's Shade Tree Battery Works. 

[Cubdriver]

I needed to knock out some errands at home today so I grabbed that U1231A + U1177A multimeter and IR -> Bluetooth dongle I picked up for cheap a while ago and got started by putting new batteries in the U1177A which wouldn't power up.  And groan:



Pop those out, do a fast cleanup job with an old toothbrush and it still won't power up with new batteries.  I'll go at the battery contacts properly later and see if it can be salvaged.

Next, the thermometer receiver in the bathroom conked so I took the batteries that were going to go into the U1177A and went to put them in that.  And groan:





Today seems to be the day for leaked AAA cells.  At least I was able to get the thermometer receiver cleaned up and working again.  My next test equipment project is going to be to pull everything that's battery powered and replace the batteries and start a spreadsheet to track battery changes.  I'm tossing the idea around of replacing them annually if they don't run down and get replaced sooner to stay ahead of any potential leaks damaging something that could be expensive.

I know a lot of people seek long battery life in multimeters for understandable reasons but at the same time, there is something to be said for meters running them down quick enough that they don't hang around long enough to become destructive.

Ouch!!!

Eneloops will be your friends.


Those blue ones are over ten years old.

-Pat

Manufactured / distributed by Papa Smurf's Shade Tree Battery Works. 

They came in other colors, too.   


-Pat

[grizewald]

In case anyone is unaware, this is what is happening in London at the minute. I feel for those poor people affected and hope that everyone is safe and sound. If only the blonde buffoon hadn't reduced the fire cover when he should have been increasing it eh
[video]

Finally got some time to look at the footage you posted. Truly horrific. I've never lost everything in a fire and hope I never do. It's hard to imagine how the people who used to live in those burned out shells are feeling at the moment.

When I look at how little people's gardens protected them from the fire, it also makes me think about my situation...



I live in the apartment marked by the red dot at the end of the building. If the forest that my bedroom looks out towards ever caught fire, it's game over and probably so quickly I wouldn't be able to save more than my passport, my daughter and our skins.

[Zoli]

I needed to knock out some errands at home today so I grabbed that U1231A + U1177A multimeter and IR -> Bluetooth dongle I picked up for cheap a while ago and got started by putting new batteries in the U1177A which wouldn't power up.  And groan:



Pop those out, do a fast cleanup job with an old toothbrush and it still won't power up with new batteries.  I'll go at the battery contacts properly later and see if it can be salvaged.

Next, the thermometer receiver in the bathroom conked so I took the batteries that were going to go into the U1177A and went to put them in that.  And groan:





Today seems to be the day for leaked AAA cells.  At least I was able to get the thermometer receiver cleaned up and working again.  My next test equipment project is going to be to pull everything that's battery powered and replace the batteries and start a spreadsheet to track battery changes.  I'm tossing the idea around of replacing them annually if they don't run down and get replaced sooner to stay ahead of any potential leaks damaging something that could be expensive.

I know a lot of people seek long battery life in multimeters for understandable reasons but at the same time, there is something to be said for meters running them down quick enough that they don't hang around long enough to become destructive.

A month or two ago Shoppers Drug Mart priced-to-clear the 12pack Energizer Lithium AA : CAD19.49; last one I've saw two weeks ago; date on the batteries is 08-20; maybe is worth to look around?

[grizewald]

Ok just bought a dead Marconi 2022E signal generator from scottrade12. Down the rabbit hole we go 

Almost certainly it's one of several problems:

1. The osc is duff and this runs the synth and CPU -> run off external one and test then replace it.
2. The power supply is duff -> debug and fix
3. Probably several dead OM345's -> MAR6 MMIC + friggery.
4. Attenuator duff -> kill me with fire.

In view of who you bought it from, probably:

5. All of the above, plus some other things that you never even imagined could be broken. 

I guess it depends a lot on how long it's been sitting outside in one of his shipping containers.

Best of luck!

[GreyWoolfe]

@Greywoolfe
pls find attached an emotional support Woody.

And I will hug him and squeeze him and cuddle with him all night long as Mrs GreyWoolfe is in Texas until Saturday.  Many thanks for your kindness.

WRT my recent question regarding very specific pinball transformers it seems that I was able to dig one up, I have the Hermes shipping number.
I had to cough up 300 Brussels sprouts Pesos for it though.

You can have my Brussels sprouts for all eternity if you're feeling short. 

mnem
now my broccoli... that's another story altogether. I'll fight you over that. 

Love broccoli but love Brussels sprouts more.  Roasted in the oven with a bit of olive oil and lots of salt.  YUM!!!!

I needed to knock out some errands at home today so I grabbed that U1231A + U1177A multimeter and IR -> Bluetooth dongle I picked up for cheap a while ago and got started by putting new batteries in the U1177A which wouldn't power up.  And groan:



Pop those out, do a fast cleanup job with an old toothbrush and it still won't power up with new batteries.  I'll go at the battery contacts properly later and see if it can be salvaged.

Next, the thermometer receiver in the bathroom conked so I took the batteries that were going to go into the U1177A and went to put them in that.  And groan:





Today seems to be the day for leaked AAA cells.  At least I was able to get the thermometer receiver cleaned up and working again.  My next test equipment project is going to be to pull everything that's battery powered and replace the batteries and start a spreadsheet to track battery changes.  I'm tossing the idea around of replacing them annually if they don't run down and get replaced sooner to stay ahead of any potential leaks damaging something that could be expensive.

I know a lot of people seek long battery life in multimeters for understandable reasons but at the same time, there is something to be said for meters running them down quick enough that they don't hang around long enough to become destructive.

Every January, all hand held TE that uses batteries gets new batteries whether they need them or not.  Some stuff rarely gets used so I won't take a chance on leakage.

[Zoli]

/off to count how many ATMega128A-AU is hiding in those pieces of tapes

[...}

/And the results are in: I wish 42, but the reality sez 59; now, what to do with that many ATMegas(selling is not an option)? Anyone interested?

HERE HERE  !!! 

59 is way too many I agree with you !! 

If they can cross the Atlantic, I would be more than happy to give some of them a good home.

I have settled on the ATmega 15 years ago when I started work on my first gizmo / legacy OBD thingy for the Lotus Esprit.

Needed something with an affordable programmer, and since I was on Linux I needed something that a tool chain was available for, and also wanted a compiler that's free yet is not artificially limited.
Saw that there was a port of GCC for the AVR, and that "Dragon" USB programmer that can even do JTAG... had to import it from the US though, was not available in Europe at the time.

Then got the biggest AVR I could get that was still available in a DIP package, because well 15 years ago surface mount was pure Sci-fi to me. So that meant I bought a few Mega32.

That allowed me to make my first prototype, with a 4x20 text LCD. However now that this one works, 15 years later I would like to modernize my design. Want to replace the text LCD with a large graphical one (seen on the pics below), 256x128 pixels, so I can make a more user friendly and more feature rich user interface,and just better looking if nothing else. Graphics means I will need more code space and RAM for the routines that I will have to write and bitmaps that I will need to store, so a mega128 with 4 times more code space, twice as much RAM and 4 times as much EEPROM, would be cool ! It's surface mount of course, but nowadays this does not scare me anymore. It would allow me to free some space on the board so I can potentially add more features to the gizmo. Same for the backlight and power supply, think I can redesign them to make them more compact / modern, and free even more board space for better purposes.

Then there is that other Gizmo I talked about the other day that I want to make to use the printer / recorder output of my old Nixie tube TE.
And then also I have this High voltage low current adjustable power supply I would like to make as well.... and this, and that....

Yes, your chips would be very much welcome here, appreciated and loved ! 

This week 10 will go your way, with surprise added.

[Zoli]

...
Manufactured / distributed by Papa Smurf's Shady Tree Battery Works. 

FTFY 

[Zoli]

Spare ATmega parts are probably worth a small fortune at the moment. China started cloning them a few years back as well 

Two mandatory conditions for a good price: trusted source and in moisture-safe pack not older then a year.
I've got this ATMega's(date code: 1409) a couple of years ago, on an exposed reel, as write-offs in "lean transformation "; so being MSL3, for automated processing it needs baking-> big hit on the price-> not worth the sales complications(incorrect baking is one way transformation: IC -> popcorn).
Conclusion: avoid the MSL>1 stuff, unless you do hand solder; even with hand solder some capacitors(ECPU1C105MA5, MSL4) sometimes fail on me, but IC's(even SOT-23) never so far
Now, are you interested, too?  You can make some really nice Arduinos out of them 

[mansaxel]

Totally agree, TH FTW.

I don't believe that I ever wrote that I find SMD horrible. It is a requirement for much of what we want to do.

[mansaxel]

WRT my recent question regarding very specific pinball transformers it seems that I was able to dig one up, I have the Hermes shipping number.
I had to cough up 300 Brussels sprouts Pesos for it though.

You can have my Brussels sprouts for all eternity if you're feeling short. 

mnem
now my broccoli... that's another story altogether. I'll fight you over that. 

If I prepare the Brussel sprouts(insert a (relatively thin)slice of garlic in each cut open stem; add a hint of fresh ground black pepper; steam it just crunchy; salt), after the first you will fight me over the rest
/off to count how many ATMega128A-AU is hiding in those pieces of tapes

Cut them in halves, dip them in boiling water for 1 minute, then fry them in a generous amount of butter with equally generous amounts of salt and pepper, until there's some browning. Serve.

This can be done to many cabbages; savoy cabbage is especially tasty this way.

[mansaxel]

I live in the apartment marked by the red dot at the end of the building. If the forest that my bedroom looks out towards ever caught fire, it's game over and probably so quickly I wouldn't be able to save more than my passport, my daughter and our skins.

I used to live three stops closer to town. Nice area, that. Yours probably more so than where I lived. Now am on the other side of the city, but with much more forest:



That, too, will burn if lit. We'll have to make sure it does not.

[cyclin_al]

For everyone working on 465B scopes, GC Surplus has half a dozen up for auction with a bit over 15 hours to go:

https://gcsurplus.ca/mn-eng.cfm?snc=wfsav&sc=enc-bid&scn=422225&lcn=571280&lct=L&srchtype=&lci=&str=1&lotnf=1&frmsr=1&sf=ferm-clos

It might be local pickup only in Dartmouth, NS, so if they won't ship, that could be geographically inconvenient for just about everyone.

Edit:  Browsing through the listings, it looks like there's six lots of five Tektronix 465B scopes for 30 in total plus a lot of five of the military version of the 2235:

https://gcsurplus.ca/mn-eng.cfm?snc=wfsav&sc=enc-bid&scn=422200&lcn=571255&lct=L&srchtype=&lci=&str=526&lotnf=1&frmsr=1&sf=ferm-clos

If they're lucky, a government lab received new equipment and they're blowing out the old stuff.  If they're not lucky, a government lab got closed down and they're fire sale-ing the equipment after laying everyone off.  Either way, if they won't pack up and ship scopes, I'm not sure the local market within an easy drive of the Halifax/Dartmouth area can absorb 30 vintage Tek scopes like that all at once.  Even if they are willing to pack up and ship them out, I'm not sure there'd be much market for them given what the packing and transportation costs would be like even if each lot sells for very little money.

There is no mention of shipping and but even if there was shipping a lot of 5 across the border will not be cheap. I have a strong suspicion that if they don't get sold they will most likely be crushed.

My experience is they will re-list them later on.  In fact, this same location of GCSurplus had a huge package of oscilloscopes for sale about two years ago in the midst of pandemic lock-down.  It was mentioned in this thread ... about 6 pallets if I recall.  I wonder if the same lot has been stored and then broken down into smaller lots.

Hmmmm, let me see ... 15 hours of driving one way.

EDIT:  It was March 2021 when GCSurplus had the huge package of oscilloscopes in New Brunswick, not Nova Scotia.  At the time, none of us were allowed to travel there due to lockdown.  We were discussing it when the bidding was at $200 and Kosmic was thinking of circumnavigating the travel restrictions by using a canoe    I think that lot eventually sold for $3k+... 

[Robert763]

Ok just bought a dead Marconi 2022E signal generator from scottrade12. Down the rabbit hole we go 

Almost certainly it's one of several problems:

1. The osc is duff and this runs the synth and CPU -> run off external one and test then replace it.
2. The power supply is duff -> debug and fix
3. Probably several dead OM345's -> MAR6 MMIC + friggery.
4. Attenuator duff -> kill me with fire.

And just like the Keithley 199 that Robert bagged, someone snaffled the Fluke 8505 he had. Oh well, there's always more...

That 34401 I linked at the weekend went for just over £200 including shipping, not a bad price.

No options on the Fluke, an expensive DC voltmeter.

[Neper]

WRT my recent question regarding very specific pinball transformers it seems that I was able to dig one up, I have the Hermes shipping number.
I had to cough up 300 Brussels sprouts Pesos for it though.

You can have my Brussels sprouts for all eternity if you're feeling short. 

mnem
now my broccoli... that's another story altogether. I'll fight you over that. 

If I prepare the Brussel sprouts(insert a (relatively thin)slice of garlic in each cut open stem; add a hint of fresh ground black pepper; steam it just crunchy; salt), after the first you will fight me over the rest
/off to count how many ATMega128A-AU is hiding in those pieces of tapes

Cut them in halves, dip them in boiling water for 1 minute

...which is the accepted trick to make the bitter taste go away, no matter how you cook them afterwards.

[tggzzz]

WRT my recent question regarding very specific pinball transformers it seems that I was able to dig one up, I have the Hermes shipping number.
I had to cough up 300 Brussels sprouts Pesos for it though.

You can have my Brussels sprouts for all eternity if you're feeling short. 

mnem
now my broccoli... that's another story altogether. I'll fight you over that. 

If I prepare the Brussel sprouts(insert a (relatively thin)slice of garlic in each cut open stem; add a hint of fresh ground black pepper; steam it just crunchy; salt), after the first you will fight me over the rest
/off to count how many ATMega128A-AU is hiding in those pieces of tapes

Cut them in halves, dip them in boiling water for 1 minute, then fry them in a generous amount of butter with equally generous amounts of salt and pepper, until there's some browning. Serve.

This can be done to many cabbages; savoy cabbage is especially tasty this way.

Cabbage Thoran. Saute finely chopped onions, add finely chopped (savoy) cabbage, add cumin and salt (plus turmeric and chilli if you like), serve topped with grated dessicated coconut. Fast, delicious, low calorie.

Meanwhile, over here https://www.eevblog.com/forum/cooking/ ...