Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[TERRA Operative]

The Tek J16 turned up this morning, it's smaller than I thought it would be, I expected it to be just a little smaller than a HP 3478A.. A good thing that it's small though, it's nice and compact.
For comparison, I reckon it's large enough that a reasonably sized handheld multimeter could just fit inside a gutted J16 enclosure wthout too much room to spare.

I already found some drifted carbon composite resistors to replace, and the electrolytic main DC filter cap after the rectifier in the PSU module might be replaced too I think. I'll see how the trimpots behave before replacing them, they are the usual white bodied ones with the grey cap. I've had them fail a number of times before, but at least IME they aren't as bad as the type with the blue dial.

Besides that bit of spit-polishing, it appears to work ok, as in it turns on and shows 0.00 on the display.

Next step is to find or build a sensor head for it.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Aquisitions seem to run in similar cycles round here - I also recently stocked up on Type K thermocouples!

And good luck with that Hioki! I came close to add a very much desired Siemens U-I-Functionmeter B1080 to my repair queue yesterday, but was outbid. It seemed to have some sort of power problem, which might have worked out ok.

BTW - don't all robots go by 'Robert'?

[Neomys Sapiens]

I found an interesting little vise on Ebay Classifieds which is not from Bernstein, but similar in some respects.
It is called a 'Uni-Spann'. The jaws are rotatable and have robust serrations and prisms as well - not plastic inserts like the Bernstein Spannfix. So it seems compact, but suited to more robust tasks. Added to the TOE right away.
 
And with that it becomes clear why I prefer this spelling for that class of workshop implement - if I would have to say that I'm expanding my vices, that could lead to some misunderstandings!

[Zoli]

I found an interesting little vise on Ebay Classifieds which is not from Bernstein, but similar in some respects.
It is called a 'Uni-Spann'. The jaws are rotatable and have robust serrations and prisms as well - not plastic inserts like the Bernstein Spannfix. So it seems compact, but suited to more robust tasks. Added to the TOE right away.
 
And with that it becomes clear why I prefer this spelling for that class of workshop implement - if I would have to say that I'm expanding my vices, that could lead to some misunderstandings!

You can't have enough vices!
P.S.: I have only 3 panavises... pics later

[capt bullshot]

Not done much today, listed a few more from the bag of random ICs into LibreOffice Calc, triggered the google "we think you are a robot" crap many times today looking them up  , got 164 done so far.

...

The Hioki looks quite interesting, hope you're successful repairing it.

[xrunner]

I haven't got any of the older TEA recently, but I did recently made a couple of small RF power meters which I was talking about in another thread, but since some of you don't get out much ... 

They use a little boards that have a log amp. One uses the AD 8307 and the other the AD 8310 log amp. The rest of the meter uses an Arduino UNO, OLED display, and either buttons or a rotary encoder to set and my own software. They can accept up to +13 dBm without attenuation. If you want to measure a Megawatt transmitter simply add an attenuator in front of it.

I'm thinking of making yet another one that can accept up to 10 W with no external attenuator, but I haven't settled on the internal attenuator I want to use yet.

[Brumby]

Nice to have gear that can accommodate such signals ... but you are teaching bad habits.   

[Vince]

NIXIE DVM REPAIR

P.S. you should really avoid using the N***e word, as it just helps google index TE, for the display choob rapists to find & destroy.

Yeah your right, the dealers & knowledgeable people know exactly what the number bulbs are & will carry on ripping them out, or attempt to sell the complete item at high prices.
The people that might not know, are those clearing relatives or friends collections and aren't remotely interested in electronics, they might google an uncommon model number, find about these choobs and do the same as the greedy sellers, i.e. rip them out & trash the rest.

I'm not saying you have to stop using Nixie, I just prefer to avoid using it myself, I often put alternate words/gibberish instead. Also most of my non US TE doesn't use Nixie anyway, as it's a brand name of one manufacturer, for example the Rochar book just calls them 'digital tubes'.

David

Yes good point...Rochar called them digital tubes. So I got curious and checked my other French Nixie TE...

Metrix calls them " Indicator (tube) " or " Decade Indicator ".. it's not even a tube nor digital... just "decade" indicator.
Ferisol calls them "Digital Tubes " like Rochar does.
The datasheet for the tubes used in the Ferisol (ZM1030/1032) calls them quite a mouthful : " Cold Cathode Digital Indicator Tube "...... 

I would check what the manual says for my Enertec counter but I only have it in paper form and I don't know where it is, must be buried in some box somewhere...

So yeah as you say, Nixie is purely an American name..... but at least we can agree that this name is the only one that really stuck worldwide these days... someone using any other name than Nixie probably would not be understood.... or worse, mis-understood, as there are other types of "digital indicators" that are not Nixies. Like the "Dektaron", or the Panaplex, or the "Numitron", or the column indicators in your older HP gear, or also the kind, I forget the name, with transparent acrylic digits lit by incandescent bulbs from the edge.... do they even have a dedicated name ? If so, it escapes me right now...

So I think I will keep calling them Nixie for clarity, to be understood unambiguously worldwide, BUT might have fun coming up with random misspellings... à la Trannystors ! 

[TERRA Operative]

Poking away at the Tek J16 digital photometer tonight. I replaced a couple of the drifted carbon composite resistors that I had in stock and had a go at a preliminary adjustment, only to find it wouldn't respond at all. hmmmm.

Well all the IC's are socketed, so out with the Retro Chip Tester and time to test all the IC's (plus each chip gets reseated in it's socket to boot).

I found one chip had a leg bent back 180 degrees and the contact in the socket was stretched open so it wouldn't make contact even if I straightened the leg. So I desoldered the socket, re-bent the contact and reinstalled the socket, using as close to the same amount of solder as factory to try to keep it all looking as original as possible.
Straightening the leg on the IC had it all making excellent contact again.

Then....
I found a bad chip! (I love this chip tester!), a 7492, divide by 12 counter is bad... Good thing I can get an exact replacement from Akihabara for about a dollar.

So bed time for me now, I gotta get up a bit earlier to do the Akihabara shopping. I'll get that chip, some replacement rubber feet, a DC filter capacitor for the power supply and a few resistors for calibration purposes etc.


I also updated the Tekwiki page with more info and some internal photos before I started replacing parts. See the link for the nudie pics.

https://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/J16

[Black Phoenix]

So bed time for me now, I gotta get up a bit earlier to do the Akihabara shopping. I'll get that chip, some replacement rubber feet, a DC filter capacitor for the power supply and a few resistors for calibration purposes etc.

How I miss Akihabara's Electric District. Shenzhen Electronics Supermarkets are nice but in terms of old stuff you get more online in 2nd hand apps than in shops there.

Plus the fake ICs and other stuff like tools that you need to be double cautious.

[Vince]

[...]

I'll get OrCAD fired up and play around with a design.

-Pat

OrCAD ?! 

Feels like I am meeting a ghost or something !

Never thought I would hear that name again.... first and last time I heard of its existence, and used it, was at school in 1996/1997 I think.... we had a copy of it running under MS-DOS.
Then we moved to Protel IIRC, fancy on windows 3.1 with a 17" CRT monitor and 16MB of RAM... a power house ! 
I would routinely kill my class mates to make sure I was the one getting that computer...

For all these years I thought that Protel took over OrCAD, then Altium took over Protel....  but I thought no way he is using MSD-DOS OrCAD.... you got me suspicious so.... just looked it up and, wow go figure, OrCAD STILL exists today ?!   

https://www.orcad.com/

Must be good as well I guess... they don't even mention price on their website, you need to contact them to get a quote...

So I guess all these years I was wrong then, and OrCAD never had anything to do with Protel, and it kept living its happy life of its own ?! 

How comes nobody ever talks of OrCAD all these years... it's all about Altium / Eagle / Kicad...

Anyway, might download their trial version just out of curiosity... will bring back 25 year old memories...though I guess it bears little today with the MS-DOS version I used 25 years ago...

[capt bullshot]

Shahriar does a teardown and quite comprehensive explanation of a Siglent VNA:



Want one - but hey, no won't buy one as it doesn't cover all the way down to 5Hz as my crusty old 3577A does 

[factory]

Aquisitions seem to run in similar cycles round here - I also recently stocked up on Type K thermocouples!

And good luck with that Hioki! I came close to add a very much desired Siemens U-I-Functionmeter B1080 to my repair queue yesterday, but was outbid. It seemed to have some sort of power problem, which might have worked out ok.

BTW - don't all robots go by 'Robert'?

The K type probe actually ended up costing nothing (so far*), the seller noticed the parcel hadn't moved since it was collected and after having a complaint from someone else with the same problem, they opened a claim with Ervi and refunded me, they said not to bother contacting them if it arrived and to keep it. 

*Well it looks like I need to buy more TE, none of my handheld DMMs have a temperature measurement function  , all my DMMs are in the post linked below.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3589932/#msg3589932

Not heard of the B1080 and google search isn't helping much, can't find much for the Hioki 8220, even the Hioki website has nothing except a Megohmmeter that has recycled the model number, bit like HP with their computer/printer carp using the same numbers. 
It dates from the mid 90s and having read the instructions, the only way of getting the logged data off the meter is to use a printer, the Centronics cable was included.



I've had a quick look inside.

An overall view of the mainboard, with data back-up cell (probably very dead), underneath is the switch/button board.



One of the two input channels, with some of those expensive fuses, quite a few HP optocouplers used for each channel.



Power supply section using Maxim buck regulator and the step-up supply for the CFL display backlight. Not sure about these Panasonic Panapissy capacitors type HFQ, the type HF in stuff at work are a change on sight component for me, seen far too many incontinent ones, all dating from the early 90s. 





Can't see much of the display board, the AA leaktube compartment fits in the space here.





P.S. triggered the google Robert random event again  , now got 216 ICs listed, 141 different types, sorted the LibreOffice calc sort problem, had a column that I started listing just the numbers, than formated the column to text. The sort function ignored this & though some were text & some numbers, typing the ones it thought were numbers in again sorted it.



David

[factory]

Poking away at the Tek J16 digital photometer tonight. I replaced a couple of the drifted carbon composite resistors that I had in stock and had a go at a preliminary adjustment, only to find it wouldn't respond at all. hmmmm.

Well all the IC's are socketed, so out with the Retro Chip Tester and time to test all the IC's (plus each chip gets reseated in it's socket to boot).

I found one chip had a leg bent back 180 degrees and the contact in the socket was stretched open so it wouldn't make contact even if I straightened the leg. So I desoldered the socket, re-bent the contact and reinstalled the socket, using as close to the same amount of solder as factory to try to keep it all looking as original as possible.
Straightening the leg on the IC had it all making excellent contact again.

Then....
I found a bad chip! (I love this chip tester!), a 7492, divide by 12 counter is bad... Good thing I can get an exact replacement from Akihabara for about a dollar.

So bed time for me now, I gotta get up a bit earlier to do the Akihabara shopping. I'll get that chip, some replacement rubber feet, a DC filter capacitor for the power supply and a few resistors for calibration purposes etc.


I also updated the Tekwiki page with more info and some internal photos before I started replacing parts. See the link for the nudie pics.

https://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/J16

Nice pictures  , also see another probe added to the Tek wiki page now, a very specialist one for red LEDs (only).

David

[TERRA Operative]

I kind of want that LED probe to play with now, and the adapter for yellow/green too.....

[vk6zgo]

Re. Tautech, An interesting stance to take by someone who relies on their public image to run a business... 
Meh, whatever.


On the TEA front, I just bought this Tek J16 Digital Photometer.
Once I get a sensor head for it (or figure out how to make one...) I plan to use it to set the correct screen brightness when calibrating and adjusting TDS600 and 700 series scopes.


Sorry, late to this.
The J16 is just a picoammeter. The probe is just a photo diode and lens. IIRC the is also a link and calibration resistor to set the correct range. Any decent photodiode will do the job.

The J16 is interesting.

I'm pretty certain it is the same model as the "dead" Tek photometer we had sculling around in the back of the Test Equipment cupboard" in the Monitor Maintenance section at the TV Studio.

It was complete with the probe, but hadn't been used for years, having been replaced by a Minolta one which, apart from not being "dead" like the Tek, was more "user friendly" for a harassed Tech trying to set up the white on colour monitors.
The PAL spec was "illuminant 65", & the variation from that was more directly shown by the Minolta.

Dunno what happened to the Tek, I hope someone glommed onto it, rather than it going to landfill.

[Brumby]

I gotta get up a bit earlier to do the Akihabara shopping. I'll get that chip, some replacement rubber feet, a DC filter capacitor for the power supply and a few resistors for calibration purposes etc.

Some of us are jealous.  Most of us are thankful we don't have such access or that etc could prove very embarrassing.

[EEVblog]

Shahriar does a teardown and quite comprehensive explanation of a Siglent VNA:

Shahriar really does comprehensive videos.
For those that haven't seen it, I spoke to him about his lab and the gear he acquires on my live show:

[DH7DN]

Shahriar is an amazing guy, truly a teacher and an inspiration... Thanks to one of his videos, I was able to repair my broken Agilent E4432B Signal Generator. The broken part shown in one of his repair videos was a perfect match to my Agilent 33322-60020 step attenuator failure.

I've covered this repair in my blog (shameless self-promotion). 













Schematic drawing


Replacement part

[tautech]

Shahriar does a teardown and quite comprehensive explanation of a Siglent VNA:

Yes it was another fine video from him and IIRC he's done SSA3000X analyzers and SVA1000X analyzer/VNA's for Siglent and their SSG5000X RF gen yet they do need also give him the new SDG7000A AWG too to pick to bits also.

Who ever gets tired of watching his work ?

[PA0PBZ]

Who ever gets tired of watching his work ?

Me, because often when it's time to go to bed there's this notification that he posted another video and... well, I don't have to explain 

[HenryFeng]

[...]

I'll get OrCAD fired up and play around with a design.

-Pat

OrCAD ?! 

Feels like I am meeting a ghost or something !

Never thought I would hear that name again.... first and last time I heard of its existence, and used it, was at school in 1996/1997 I think.... we had a copy of it running under MS-DOS.
Then we moved to Protel IIRC, fancy on windows 3.1 with a 17" CRT monitor and 16MB of RAM... a power house ! 
I would routinely kill my class mates to make sure I was the one getting that computer...

For all these years I thought that Protel took over OrCAD, then Altium took over Protel....  but I thought no way he is using MSD-DOS OrCAD.... you got me suspicious so.... just looked it up and, wow go figure, OrCAD STILL exists today ?!   

https://www.orcad.com/

Must be good as well I guess... they don't even mention price on their website, you need to contact them to get a quote...

So I guess all these years I was wrong then, and OrCAD never had anything to do with Protel, and it kept living its happy life of its own ?! 

How comes nobody ever talks of OrCAD all these years... it's all about Altium / Eagle / Kicad...

Anyway, might download their trial version just out of curiosity... will bring back 25 year old memories...though I guess it bears little today with the MS-DOS version I used 25 years ago...

ORCAD PCB is a trimmed down version of Allegro since release 16, a much more serious PCB layout tool than the rest. ORCAD schematic is not that popular but it has pretty much all the features a schematic tool needs, plus you can cross probe between ORCAD Schematic and PCB.

[Vince]

Oh, I see you have been lurking for 2 years on the forum and this is your very first post ! ... to help me out, thank you very much !! 

OK... so it's not Orcad anymore then, the original product / SW is gone and now it's just a rebranded cut down version of Allegro.

I just did the sensible thing and clicked on the " About OrCAD " page on their site... why didn't I think of doing that sooner....

https://www.orcad.com/about/orcad-history

The entire history of OrCAD is there to see.

So looks like "Allegro" is the product name for the PCB suite made by a company named " Cadence Design Systems "... which acquired OrCAD in 1999, then in 2005 Allegro "light" replaced the original OrCAD code base. So from that point on, OrCAD was no more, only the name survived.

Well you learn a little something every day...

I wonder if Google could find me the old MS-DOS version I was using at school in 1996/97.... could be fun to play with it on my vintage computer, would bring back some memories.... I am a bit nostalgic I must admit !

[McBryce]

Shahriar does a teardown and quite comprehensive explanation of a Siglent VNA:

Yes it was another fine video from him and IIRC he's done SSA3000X analyzers and SVA1000X analyzer/VNA's for Siglent and their SSG5000X RF gen yet they do need also give him the new SDG7000A AWG too to pick to bits also.

Who ever gets tired of watching his work ?

His videos are almost off topic, he speaks of voodoo and black magic, not the electronics that I understand. And besides that, I can't afford ANY of the equipment he features.

McBryce.

[Vince]

Oh come on, he once featured his Tektronix 2232 scope, I bet you can afford that one ! 

I love mine... even though it went kaput 3 years ago.... need to fix it some day !

A focus problem developed after months in storage... probably benign... need to look into that...

OK, OK... he didn't really "feature" that scope... merely showed it briefly inside a video that was about I can't even remember what.... still, he has SOME gear that most of us can afford !