Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[neo]

Depending on the depth, you might be able to use the Simpson meter with female-to-female safety banana lead couplers that are somewhat common and are part of some test lead sets.

Yep, thats the plan, its just I don't have any with me, going to buy few of them.

Nice find, i have a particular affinity to Simpson made instruments, and based off the one i own they have their quirks. Like for example using a custom made connector only really available with the purchase of the instrument as an output terminal.

This is my very 1st analog multi-meter, all mine are digital, planning to do full overhaul and restoration work on it, hopefully nothing seriously damaged inside, especially the moving coil. 

With analog meters it is nigh impossible to blow out the meter with the circuitry they put behind them. I'm not saying it can't be, just that it takes some pretty harsh abuse to destroy a panel meter.

[deflicted]

I found a Simpson 260 a few weeks ago at an estate sale. Got it, along with a Power Designs 5015T power supply, and an armful of other stuff for $20. I feel your pain re: the weird plugs. Mine is an earlier (series 2 or 3) Simpson 260 that uses the pin-type plugs. I had a heck of a time tracking down a set of those for cheap.

If you look at the schematic, they're actually very simple. Or at least, simple enough that a noob like me had no trouble understanding how it works (although I'm sure there are some nuances I missed). So hopefully you won't have too much trouble getting yours back in working order.

Now if only I had a use for an analog meter. Most of the measurements I do with a multimeter are on stuff with relatively high impedance, such that taking a reading with an analog meter is mostly useless because the resistance of the meter is enough to affect the voltage I'm trying to measure. The only thing I've measured with it so far where this wasn't an issue was a lead acid battery.

[neo]

I found a Simpson 260 a few weeks ago at an estate sale. Got it, along with a Power Designs 5015T power supply, and an armful of other stuff for $20. I feel your pain re: the weird plugs. Mine is an earlier (series 2 or 3) Simpson 260 that uses the pin-type plugs. I had a heck of a time tracking down a set of those for cheap.

If you look at the schematic, they're actually very simple. Or at least, simple enough that a noob like me had no trouble understanding how it works (although I'm sure there are some nuances I missed). So hopefully you won't have too much trouble getting yours back in working order.

Now if only I had a use for an analog meter. Most of the measurements I do with a multimeter are on stuff with relatively high impedance, such that taking a reading with an analog meter is mostly useless because the resistance of the meter is enough to affect the voltage I'm trying to measure. The only thing I've measured with it so far where this wasn't an issue was a lead acid battery.

This is TEA after all, when have we ever asked for a reason? Let alone a sane reason? If it makes you smile and is test equipment the only answer is MORE, MORE, MORE!!  I for example bought a 5340A frequency counter largely to keep my nixie tube multi-volt-meter company.

[bitseeker]

                          need < have < want

[BravoV]

With analog meters it is nigh impossible to blow out the meter with the circuitry they put behind them. I'm not saying it can't be, just that it takes some pretty harsh abuse to destroy a panel meter.

Yeah, have the same gut feeling as well, but finger crossed, and also the left selection switch is very stiff, probably with the ball bearing's lubrication.

So tempted to open it as its too easy, and once its opened, I know I will be itching to tinker with it, just can't afford the time for it currently. 

[denimdragon]

I've finally come to grips with reality...  I can't stop testing, measuring, and auction/ebaying and I'm still in my first year of school

How much equipment/stuff in general do you have?

Currently 10 oscilloscopes (working on resolving this), 3 FG, 4 DMM, 2 DC power supplies, 2 LCR meters, Numerous Probes (included a Tek TCP0030 in route), 1 Extech 380560 Milliohm Meter (in route), 1 Tektronix PS282 DC Power Supply (in route).

Not a ton, but when you considering I started purchasing June 11th with an "innocent" oscope purchase for my bday present

I love repairing stuff and I'm an EE freshman (an old freshman at that), and I figured I'd get a head start 

[neo]

I've finally come to grips with reality...  I can't stop testing, measuring, and auction/ebaying and I'm still in my first year of school

How much equipment/stuff in general do you have?

Currently 10 oscilloscopes (working on resolving this), 3 FG, 4 DMM, 2 DC power supplies, 2 LCR meters, Numerous Probes (included a Tek TCP0030 in route), 1 Extech 380560 Milliohm Meter (in route), 1 Tektronix PS282 DC Power Supply (in route).

Not a ton, but when you considering I started purchasing June 11th with an "innocent" oscope purchase for my bday present

I love repairing stuff and I'm an EE freshman (an old freshman at that), and I figured I'd get a head start 

Well, at least you have an lcr meter. I have over 20 dc power supplies, so many im tripping over them, but only two oscilloscopes, a dodgy one, a broken one and no lcr.

[Cubdriver]

I've finally come to grips with reality...  I can't stop testing, measuring, and auction/ebaying and I'm still in my first year of school

How much equipment/stuff in general do you have?

Currently 10 oscilloscopes (working on resolving this), 3 FG, 4 DMM, 2 DC power supplies, 2 LCR meters, Numerous Probes (included a Tek TCP0030 in route), 1 Extech 380560 Milliohm Meter (in route), 1 Tektronix PS282 DC Power Supply (in route).

Not a ton, but when you considering I started purchasing June 11th with an "innocent" oscope purchase for my bday present

I love repairing stuff and I'm an EE freshman (an old freshman at that), and I figured I'd get a head start 

Sweet!!  You're halfway there!   

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/why-does-everyone-have-twenty-oscilliscopes/

 

-Pat

[neo]

Good news to any TEA affected person, the 5340A i got a deal steal on actually is able to count 480 MHz.
Meaning that the high frequency end is functional. 

[Cubdriver]

Good news to any TEA affected person, the 5340A i got a deal steal on actually is able to count 480 MHz.
Meaning that the high frequency end is functional. 

 

That's great news!!

-Pat

[neo]

Good news to any TEA affected person, the 5340A i got a deal steal on actually is able to count 480 MHz.
Meaning that the high frequency end is functional. 

 

That's great news!!

-Pat

Isn't it just? Now if only over half of the display worked the way it should...

[Cubdriver]

Isn't it just? Now if only over half of the display worked the way it should...

Indeed.  Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to look at the service manual tonight.  I suspect your blanking issue has to be something with the carry signal from the third digit counter somehow getting buggered up.  Just haven't found the time to dig in to it.  Perhaps Saturday night...

-Pat

[neo]

Isn't it just? Now if only over half of the display worked the way it should...

Indeed.  Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to look at the service manual tonight.  I suspect your blanking issue has to be something with the carry signal from the third digit counter somehow getting buggered up.  Just haven't found the time to dig in to it.  Perhaps Saturday night...

-Pat

I think it isn't in fact actually a blanking issue because even when the tubes do light two things happen, either A) the blanking circuitry is bypassed and it just simply doesn't count; or B)In the 250MHz-18GHz range they will light in any range below 100k but are just noise.

But were getting off topic for this thread.

[denimdragon]

I've finally come to grips with reality...  I can't stop testing, measuring, and auction/ebaying and I'm still in my first year of school

How much equipment/stuff in general do you have?

Currently 10 oscilloscopes (working on resolving this), 3 FG, 4 DMM, 2 DC power supplies, 2 LCR meters, Numerous Probes (included a Tek TCP0030 in route), 1 Extech 380560 Milliohm Meter (in route), 1 Tektronix PS282 DC Power Supply (in route).

Not a ton, but when you considering I started purchasing June 11th with an "innocent" oscope purchase for my bday present

I love repairing stuff and I'm an EE freshman (an old freshman at that), and I figured I'd get a head start 

Sweet!!  You're halfway there!   

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/why-does-everyone-have-twenty-oscilliscopes/

 

-Pat

It may get worst before it get's better 

[schmitt trigger]

Looks like it to me.  GPIB/HPIB has been around since the dark ages.  It was around before anyone thought about using it to connect to a PC.  To use it, one needs some more TE related equipment.  There are lots of USB -> GPIB controllers out there. 

Steve

Actually, the latest Archeological excavations have shown that the GPIB bus was available to the Egyptians during the Ptolemaic Period. 

[deflicted]

Looks like it to me.  GPIB/HPIB has been around since the dark ages.  It was around before anyone thought about using it to connect to a PC.  To use it, one needs some more TE related equipment.  There are lots of USB -> GPIB controllers out there. 

Steve

Actually, the latest Archeological excavations have shown that the GPIB bus was available to the Egyptians during the Ptolemaic Period.

I'm not saying it was aliens. But it was totally aliens.

[WastelandTek]

I'm not saying it was aliens. But it was totally aliens.

shhhhhhhhhhhh

[Berni]

There is still in debate if the greek Antikythera mechanisms GPIB port was IEEE488 standard or just used the same connector just because of it being common.

But really all you need to do is get a GPIB Ethernet bridge, even better when it has a Agilent badge on it for it to fit in with all the rest of the equipment, so you can think of it as another piece in your collection.(Just don't get a really old bridge or you might also need to start a collection of 90s networking equipment and 90s PCs to make it work)

It makes you go from "Oh crap it has GPIB" to "Oh neat its got GPIB" since most things that don't have it will usually make you use USB or RS232. Only fairly new test equipment has it common to have ethernet built in.

[djos]

Looks like it to me.  GPIB/HPIB has been around since the dark ages.  It was around before anyone thought about using it to connect to a PC.  To use it, one needs some more TE related equipment.  There are lots of USB -> GPIB controllers out there. 

Steve

Actually, the latest Archeological excavations have shown that the GPIB bus was available to the Egyptians during the Ptolemaic Period.

I'm not saying it was aliens. But it was totally aliens.

Couldn't resist. 

[alm]

But really all you need to do is get a GPIB Ethernet bridge, even better when it has a Agilent badge on it for it to fit in with all the rest of the equipment, so you can think of it as another piece in your collection.(Just don't get a really old bridge or you might also need to start a collection of 90s networking equipment and 90s PCs to make it work)

The oldest HP Ethernet bridge I am aware off is the HP E2050A, which can do 10baseT and supports VXI-11, so works just fine with modern hardware / software. I am not aware of any older models, but that does not mean they do not exist. There might have been a token ring one? I seem to recall that the old NI bridges (GPIB-ENET) are different, since they use a proprietary protocol but are not supported by current NI-VISA releases. So you would indeed need an old OS version to support those.

[Berni]

The oldest HP Ethernet bridge I am aware off is the HP E2050A, which can do 10baseT and supports VXI-11, so works just fine with modern hardware / software. I am not aware of any older models, but that does not mean they do not exist. There might have been a token ring one? I seem to recall that the old NI bridges (GPIB-ENET) are different, since they use a proprietary protocol but are not supported by current NI-VISA releases. So you would indeed need an old OS version to support those.

Yeah the NI bridges are a proprietary pain in the ass.

According to the release notes of the Agilent IO library the support for HP E2050A was removed in version 14.0 that came out in Dec 2004:
http://www.keysight.com/upload/cmc_upload/All/Revision_Matrix.htm?&cc=SI&lc=eng

Not sure if that means that it wont work at all with it or that you just need to go trough some more hoops to set it up as a generic LXI device, perhaps even having to talk to everything trough its address rather than having that convenient virtual GPIB port.

I use the Agilent E5810A to get my GPIB instruments networked. It is obsolete at this point(Replaced by the gigabit ethernet version) but is still officially supported by the latest IO Library software. Super easy to set up, just enter its IP and magically all the GPIB devices show up. Occasionally one of these pops up on ebay for a reasonable price.

[alm]

The HP E2050A is supported by python-vxi11, just like other VXI-11 compatible bridges (e.g. Tektronix AD-007). It can be configured via Telnet. Since python-vxi11 is an open-source pure-Python implementation, I see no problem as long as 10baseT connectivity is feasible (which I would expect to be a long time). Much longer than Keysight/NI/Microsoft's attention span .

[Berni]

Well its convenient to have it work out of the box trough the standard visa DLLs since most software out there uses those to talk to test gear. I can still fall back to direct TCP/IP in the future once support for this one does indeed get dropped.

The whole idea behind a GPIB Ethernet bridge is convenience anyway, one can get by perfectly fine with the cheap USB to GPIB dongles that are everywhere (I still keep one of those, for when i want to just quickly get in to GPIB of a instrument that is laying in parts on the bench)

[alm]

That is true for now if you use Windows and are interested in commercial software like BenchVue and LabVIEW. But even older VXI-11 bridges work fine on modern hardware and software, so it is a far cry from requiring a collection of 90's networking hardware and computers.

[German_EE]

I'm sorry brethren but I've been very bad. Last weekend I was at the Friedrichshafen ham radio show and I ended up coming home with the following:

1) A Fluke / Philips frequency counter. I already have one frequency counter and now I have two, but this was a bargain. Now I will need a third frequency counter to see which one is correct.

2) A Wavetek function generator, thirty Euro and it doesn't even work (no output)

3) An eight digit frequency counter module for my signal generator project. See above, why should my RF signal generator need a separate counter?

4) Four front panel voltmeters for my lab power supply project.


It's no good, I can't break free of this habit, I need to see all those dials and displays.