Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

Wut? Huh? 

This might be a little more interesting if you had a better picture of Brandi. 

The character we've 'adopted' as Brandi is really Red Sophia, a parody of Red Sonja.

[neo]

She's probably not just collecting them, but has a real use for them as well (Marmalade?). I have hundreds of preserving jars. I also use them (this year's peaches are numerous, but hardly bigger than their stones - not worth the effort of preserving them).

She had a reason for the first couple dozen. Past those not really and even with those she doesn't can much anything anymore, no time and no garden.

[mnementh]

Heh...

https://games.slashdot.org/story/18/09/01/1518239/after-24-years-doom-2s-last-secret-has-finally-been-discovered

mnem
Then there must still be hope for all my missing left socks.

[factory]

An update on the faulty HP 5248M counter.

Last weekend I decided to sort out the seized latch preventing the removal of the plug-in, this went OK but it was very fiddly to put all the display parts back together, many of the decimal & symbol neons have parted company from their rusty legs in the process, so I will have to repeat this at some point to replace them.



Also I confirmed the tunnel diode on the A17 high speed counter board was open circuit, that area was oscillating at high speed even with the A21 function board removed. A salvaged & tested 1N3718 was fitted today, and finally it stopped counting.



It now seems to be behaving the same as Cubdriver's 5248M, i.e. it only counts with the crystal oscillator output on the back connected to the external oscillator input, also some ranges and functions are still faulty.
So I still need to work on the A17, A21 boards and the first two display boards.



David

PS The two darker nixie's are not faulty, just a different brand/type (NEC).

[mnementh]

Whoah... now that is some hardcore "tired iron" resurrection.  Reminds me of my shovelhead & softtail chopper projects as a youth... hours and hours of grunge and "fiddly bits". 

mnem
"The older I get, the better I used to be."

[med6753]

Wut? Huh? 

This might be a little more interesting if you had a better picture of Brandi. 

The character we've 'adopted' as Brandi is really Red Sophia, a parody of Red Sonja.

OMG, I was married to English redhead once.  They are batshit crazy. 

[bd139]

Snap. Still am. Can confirm

[Specmaster]

I saw one in the Chelmsford branch of Iceland today, and she was giving her husband both barrels in public, so yep, they are batshit crazy alright, poor bloke, like a rabbit caught in the headlights, never knew what hit him 

[mnementh]

Wut? Huh? 

This might be a little more interesting if you had a better picture of Brandi. 

The character we've 'adopted' as Brandi is really Red Sophia, a parody of Red Sonja.

OMG, I was married to English redhead once.  They are batshit crazy. 

Nuthin' compares to redheads with green eyes, which virtually all are some significant portion of Gaelic/Scottish lowland descent. Every one I've ever known were at the same time stunning physical presences and brilliantly volatile, bordering on bipolar personalities.

I have a thing for inconvenient females.

mnem
"If the fire in my belly matched the fire in your eyes, my dear... the whole world would be consumed in the aftermath of our union." ~ unpublished works

[med6753]

Yep, she was 2nd generation English. Her grandparents came from somewhere in England and had a dairy farm in Maine. She spoke with that heavy New England accent just like the Kennedy's. Cute little thing but freaking nuts. 

[URI]

..back ontopic..   

Inspected my "new" HP 4260A LCR meter.

First I discovered that the digital LCR-counter didn't go down to 0000 mechanically, lowest was ~0006.
So that was probably the reason why my small value caps (68nF/1nF) measured with a significant error.

To fix (aka calibrate) that the service manual said, I should loosen two screws. Incorrect. Version mismatch?
I loosened 17 screws in the end, took off all knobs and removed the front plate to be able to loose three more screws to get the counter gear separated from the potentiometer (R3) gear.   

The manual said that at 0000-position the potentiometer R3 should have 5Ohms. In fact it had 22Ohms at 0000-position, but when counting up the LCR-counter it first went down over a minimum of 2.5Ohm to then go up to 5kOhm..
This potentiometer (5kOhm type) is so delicate you have to use an appropriate (=analog) meter otherwise even a 2 1/2 digit resolution of a DMM will drive you crazy.     
To complete this calibration I had to work on another two grub screws in the hub of the gear-wheel sitting on the shaft of potentiometer R3.
Now at 0000-postion R3 has ~5Ohms on my analog meter.   

After fixing that I poked around a bit, pulled all card boards out and put them back in...
Everything looked good -besides being relatively old.

Now, after putting the 4260A back together, the 1µF foil cap measures 0,97µF and the 68nF foil cap measures 68,5nF, both with D<<0,001.
Electrolytic caps with higher D-Factor of 0.2 - 0.4 all read to low, for example one of my new 820µF caps reads ~640µF with D ~0.35.
The 470µF electrolytic cap that measured ~70µF now measures ~386µF.   

But not too bad until now.   
Will inspect further.

_{Toddles off to bed..}

[med6753]

Good progress!  Keep us updated.

[mnementh]

(SNIP)

Now, after putting the 4260A back together, the 1µF foil cap measures 0,97µF and the 68nF foil cap measures 68,5nF, both with D<<0,001.
Electrolytic caps with higher D-Factor of 0.2 - 0.4 all read to low, for example one of my new 820µF caps reads ~640µF with D ~0.35.
The 470µF electrolytic cap that measured ~70µF now measures ~386µF.   

But not too bad until now.   
Will inspect further.

_{Toddles off to bed..}

That's to be expected, I suspect; at the time that instrument was made, brute-force filter capacitors were still primarily tested at pretty low frequencies appropriate to linear power conditioning. Even DC-DC converters operated at much lower frequencies than they do now. Modern caps now have much lower ESR; pretty much anything larger than 220uF will show 0.0xx or 0.00x ohms; I'd think that's GOTTA affect the accuracy of the capacitance reading the capacitance ratings over the decades. That unit operates at a fixed 1KHz; now they test at 1KHz/10KHz/100KHz to get a slope of Capacitance vs ESR.

*Checks fleaBay*

My DE-5000 was scanned at Osaka INTL Airport Yesterday... I might have stateside tracking by Tuesday! 

mnem
SQWEEEE!!!

[Ero-Shan]

An update on the faulty HP 5248M counter.

Great job so far! Lots of work, but with a counter like this, very rewarding! I'd rather look at engineering pieces of art as this is one of than at paintings like the 'Mona Lisa'.

It truly deserves to be restored! 

[mnementh]

How Software Development (And Hardware Development in the Modern Corporate Environment) Works

I just binged and caught up on XKCD; this one REALLY struck a chord. 

mnem

[bd139]

That XKCD is basically my life so far.

I did a stupid thing last week and took another renewal at the same outfit so I’m back on the wagon again as of Thursday 

[xmo]

Well, guys - thanks for reminding me that I still carry the scars of a red-head encounter.

Kind of like an RF burn - deep and painful and a takes long time to recover....

[mnementh]

That XKCD is basically my life so far.

I did a stupid thing last week and took another renewal at the same outfit so I’m back on the wagon again as of Thursday 

And of course, I found and posted the one on "Computer Voting" just as you were posting...  [F5]...[F5]... [F5]...

mnem
Murphy's a bitch, and she has puppies.

[Specmaster]

That XKCD is basically my life so far.

I did a stupid thing last week and took another renewal at the same outfit so I’m back on the wagon again as of Thursday 

What happened to your product venture then?

[mnementh]

Well, guys - thanks for reminding me that I still carry the scars of a red-head encounter.

Kind of like an RF burn - deep and painful and a takes long time to recover....

Good lord... encounters like that aren't scars (although they do often come with actual scars ); they're proof that you've LIVED.

Don't try to bury the experience; wear it as a badge of honor.   

mnem
*Veteran of a Thousand Psychic Wars Failed Love Affairs*

[med6753]

Well, guys - thanks for reminding me that I still carry the scars of a red-head encounter.

Kind of like an RF burn - deep and painful and a takes long time to recover....

Amen Brother.  They will rip your heart out and stomp on it with no regrets. 

[mnementh]

That XKCD is basically my life so far.

I did a stupid thing last week and took another renewal at the same outfit so I’m back on the wagon again as of Thursday 

What happened to your product venture then?

Yes indeed; do tell. Enquiring dwagons want to know.  };=)~~~~<

mnem

[bd139]

Delivered and handed over ages ago. Works pretty well so far I understand. I have had to answer a few emails about it every week and sorted. Easy money. It’s a risk profiling engine that understands relationships between people over time as well as their history and association basically. Nearly all current profiling engines fall short on laundering and mispurposed products which this one doesn’t. Massive problem that screws us all. Dude who pulls that £8k loan and hits a casino then defaults immediately is the sort of thing this stops.

Edit: Facebook has been mentioned as a possible data source...

[Specmaster]

Delivered and handed over ages ago. Works pretty well so far I understand. I have had to answer a few emails about it every week and sorted. Easy money. It’s a risk profiling engine that understands relationships between people over time as well as their history and association basically. Nearly all current profiling engines fall short on laundering and mispurposed products which this one doesn’t. Massive problem that screws us all. Dude who pulls that £8k loan and hits a casino then defaults immediately is the sort of thing this stops.

Edit: Facebook has been mentioned as a possible data source...

Yeah, we know about that one, but you announced that you were going to be developing a consumer product yourself rather than working for someone else, that and a number of other ideas you had?

[bd139]

Oh that.

That’s slowly going along. I am having motivational and time difficulties. Motivation because theres no envelope of cash dangling at the end and time because I keep buying broken test gear 

Once I’ve shifted this lot of gear I going on a TEA holiday for a bit to get somewhere. I did think about using Kickstarter but that’s too much responsibility