Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

It's only anecdotal, but it seemed from the various sold listings I've seen that scopes, multimeters, and the like that included probes (even if they're cheap inexpensive ones) tended to fetch more (sometimes much more) than those that did not. YMMV

When I sell a scope I try to sell it with probes even if they are utter crap. Somehow people expect a scope to have probes included and they lose interest in a scope without probes. Personally I think used probes are like someone else's used underwear. I don't want to go anywhere near that because you never know what happened with it. Probes don't have eternal life.

Maybe I've been lucky; the secondhand HP10020A and Tek P6137 probes have all been just fine.

Mind you, although simple passive probes, they aren't the kind of probe you would give to a neophyte.

[STMartin]

I have TEA. Or GAS. I don't know which, but they taste the same.

It was a short road littered with excuses. My final project in college was to build a system to record data on cassette tapes, like the old Vic-20s. After many hours of watching Dave's videos I finally found an excuse to get me a lab too. It's for school. I wanted a good grade, after all, right? Right.

So I picked up an Extech 530 DMM. Then a pair of HP 3610s. An Instek SFG-1013. And the centerpiece of it all, a Rigol 1052E. My first scope. I was thrilled. I plastered excited pictures of it all over my Facebook. I literally slept with my arm around it the first night, and stared lovingly into that coveted display the next morning. You know your deep in it when you sleep with an oscilloscope.

Lab completed and project finished, I thought I was done. After watching countless dozens of Dave's videos, I finally found an excuse to expand the lab. What if I repaired broken power supplies from eBay and made some money? I want to make some money, after all, right? Right.

So I picked up an HP 34401 to trace shorts. A BK 8500 to properly load test. A Bob Parker ESR tester. A Hakko 888D. I also got the Rigol DG1022, because it had lots of buttons and was cheaper than I thought it would be. I finally set sail on my eBay journey.

Not that I needed all that for the trip. But once you get locked into a serious gear collection, the tendency is to take it as far as you can.

So I sold a handful of repaired HP supplies. Most were missing buttons I could get from Keysight, one needed the power switch re-soldered, and another wasn't broken at all. Two of them really got to me though. A 6031 with 1000W of power I couldn't imagine ever needing but wanted anyway. And a 3646 that I fell in love with, but broke again after fixing it. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to keep selling gear I really liked, so I quit.

Emotionally spent, I thought I was done. After watching hundreds of Dave's videos, I finally found an excuse to expand the lab. With all this gear, I might as well learn more about electronic design, after all, right? Right.

So I picked up The Art of Electronics and the Lab Course, as well as two boxes stuffed with components to go with it. I got my dad's old component bins, and 10 months of a subscription box brimming with microcontrollers, LCDs, sensors, radio modules, and gobs of other things.

Now the worst is yet to come. After coming against my beloved Rigol's limitations more than once, I've had my eye on a brand-new Keysight 3024 for months. And the cheeky bastards will give you a free 1102 if you buy one. I know I should sell it. I mean, what will I ever need 8 channels of oscilloscope for?

When I get this scope, I think I'm done. After watching nearly all of Dave's videos, I've finally found an excuse to expand the lab.

I hope there's room in the bed.

[Berni]

We sure wouldn't mind seeing what that electronics lab looks like. Lots of nice gear in there.

But there are uses for having two scopes. For old CRT scopes the reason for having two is so that when one breaks you can use the other to fix it. I found myself with two digital scopes and its actually usefull. The big high performance windows scope takes over a minute to boot up, is loud and heats up the room due to its large power draw, but the old MSO6034 scope boots in a few seconds and runs quiet, its also quicker to set up. So its the little scope for the basic jobs where you just want to check if a signal is there, but when i need to go to high bandwidths or do fancy analysis on the signal i go to the big scope.

[Cubdriver]

Now the worst is yet to come. After coming against my beloved Rigol's limitations more than once, I've had my eye on a brand-new Keysight 3024 for months. And the cheeky bastards will give you a free 1102 if you buy one. I know I should sell it. I mean, what will I ever need 8 channels of oscilloscope for?

Dayum!!  Most of us with TEA/GAS buy OLD stuff!  You've REALLY got it bad!!!  (Or must let us in on the internal dialog you have with yourself , that we may learn to emulate it!!)

Teach us, master!!   

When I get this scope, I think I'm done. After watching nearly all of Dave's videos, I've finally found an excuse to expand the lab.

I hope there's room in the bed.

    Oh, I agree, you're 'done'.     Just not in the way you think!!   

-Pat

[bitseeker]

Welcome aboard, STMartin! So what are you going to be designing with all that nice gear?

[Cubdriver]

And mentioning the Fluke 8100A to someone on here last week got me searching (for similar things, not what I suggested to the other guy), and I've just acquired an 8120A.  A quick check on the 8440B shows it to be within a least-significant digit or less in DC, so that's encouraging.  Pics and a teardown at some point in my 'spare' time...

-Pat

[WastelandTek]

I have TEA. Or GAS. I don't know which, but they taste the same.

...

I hope there's room in the bed.

[neo]

And mentioning the Fluke 8100A to someone on here last week got me searching (for similar things, not what I suggested to the other guy), and I've just acquired an 8120A. A quick check on the 8440B shows it to be within a least-significant digit or less in DC, so that's encouraging.  Pics and a teardown at some point in my 'spare' time...

-Pat

Lucky you, i want one of those but am hoping i find it at hamfest since at this point anything i buy eats into my money for that.

[bitseeker]

And mentioning the Fluke 8100A to someone on here last week got me searching (for similar things, not what I suggested to the other guy), and I've just acquired an 8120A.

Cool. That's the model with a current function, right? Does it have the battery, too?

[bitseeker]

BTW, I like my 8100A, too. (And so do I.)

Does yours emit high frequency noise? Just curious because mine does.

Mine just has a medium hum from the display. It's pretty quiet, which is why I didn't notice it before with other stuff running. How high is the noise on yours? Like CRT high?

[neo]

BTW, I like my 8100A, too. (And so do I.)

Does yours emit high frequency noise? Just curious because mine does.

Mine just has a medium hum from the display. It's pretty quiet, which is why I didn't notice it before with other stuff running. How high is the noise on yours? Like CRT high?

If a CRT is a 10 then if I have the cover off and get my ear right close to the display it is a solid 6 maybe 7.  Cover on it drops to a 5 or 6 right close to it and a 3 at a couple feet of distance.

[neo]

And mentioning the Fluke 8100A to someone on here last week got me searching (for similar things, not what I suggested to the other guy), and I've just acquired an 8120A.

Cool. That's the model with a current function, right? Does it have the battery, too?

Fluke 8800A = LED (unfortunately) 5.5 digit DCV, ACV and ohm meter.
Fluke 8120A = Nixie 4.5 digit DC V, AC V, DC current, AC current and ohm meter.
Furthermore i am madly in love with both of them.

EDIT: to correct brain fart.

[med6753]

I gotta stay off E-bay. (I'm a terrible liar)  Just bought a Fluke 8050A. I don't need another DMM (Yes, I do!). It will join my Fluke 87, 8021B, 8000A, 8010A, Mastech MS8040, and Tek 2465 with DMM option. That's too many DMM's (No, it isn't). I need therapy (Not gonna happen). There's no hope for me (You finally admitted you are weak).

Anyway, when it shows up I'll do a show and tell.

It arrived yesterday. In the condition as advertised. "Powers up and it appears all functions work". Initial tests confirm it. AC volts seemed in spec and Ohms pretty close. DC volts is off. Picture 1 is 1.0000V reference on the 2V range. Picture 2 is same reference on 20V range. Clearly out of spec. Picture 3 is a quick peak inside. Appears unmolested and I found no evidence of any calibration stickers or residue anywhere. So I suspect it's never been calibrated.

Today I performed an initial cal. First I verified the power supply was OK. No issues. Calibrated the DC volts are per the manual and everything fell into place. See picture 4. Going to let it burn in for several hours and perform a final calibration. Then it will join my Fluke family.       

[Cubdriver]

And mentioning the Fluke 8100A to someone on here last week got me searching (for similar things, not what I suggested to the other guy), and I've just acquired an 8120A.

Cool. That's the model with a current function, right? Does it have the battery, too?

Yep - current in 5 ranges, 100uA to 1A.  Resistance, too.  Thankfully straight AC powered, no leaking batteries to worry about.

-Pat

[Cubdriver]

And mentioning the Fluke 8100A to someone on here last week got me searching (for similar things, not what I suggested to the other guy), and I've just acquired an 8120A.

Cool. That's the model with a current function, right? Does it have the battery, too?

Fluke 8100A = LED (unfortunately) 5.5 digit DCV, ACV and ohm meter.
Fluke 8120A = Nixie 4.5 digit DC V, AC V, DC current, AC current and ohm meter.
Furthermore i am madly in love with both of them.

I don't know if there's an 8100 variant with LEDs, but the 8100A I got a few months ago glows orange...  (Even more reason to love it.  Now to find time to wring it out...). Could you be thinking of the 8000A, which has an LED display?



-Pat

[STMartin]

Here ya go.

It looks pretty sad at the moment, crammed onto a tiny desk. Don't have enough outlets for the Instek. The 3011 I haven't been able to repair yet.


I'm probably addicted to collecting components too. Cheaper and you get more. Not pictured are $700 of parts from Digikey and Mouser for the AoE labs, and two more of those component bins.

[STMartin]

Welcome aboard, STMartin! So what are you going to be designing with all that nice gear?

Stuff that would be challenging and fun, but serves no useful purpose.
Like a rotary cell phone with touchscreen texting.
Or a computer built from 7400 logic, complete with OS, programming language, and a videogame.
Or a data recorder that uses VHS tapes.
Or a really advanced version of one of those color organs.
Or if you've seen No Country for Old Men, they had a radio beacon and a tracker. I'd like to see if I could do that with 1970's technology. But then I'd probably have to get that Rigol Spectrum Analyzer...

I was actually thinking of making a YouTube channel about it.

[Berni]

That's the true spirit of a electronics hobbyist

Quite the tall stack of equipment to get it to fit on that desk, sure wouldn't want to give that too much of a bump. I see you noticed the little Agilent analog PSUs on ebay too. I bought a pair cheap from a guy and i liked them so much that i bought another two. By changing one just 1 capacitor inside you can get the LED display to update at any speed you want. I set mine to about 15 updates per second to make it nice and snappy yet not a blur of numbers. Lovely little things these PSUs. Tho careful when opening them, the front panel plastic gets brittle

But don't think that moving to a bigger lab will solve your problem for long. I did just that and eventually ended up putting a full sized 42U server rack in the lab to hold the older large test gear. Well after a year or something the rack is full to the top with test gear. To make things worse i just scored a good price for a big Tektronix arb signal generator and a HP vector signal analyzer on a ebay acution. They are on there way trough the mail...where am i gonna put those.

[neo]

And mentioning the Fluke 8100A to someone on here last week got me searching (for similar things, not what I suggested to the other guy), and I've just acquired an 8120A.

Cool. That's the model with a current function, right? Does it have the battery, too?

Fluke 8100A = LED (unfortunately) 5.5 digit DCV, ACV and ohm meter.
Fluke 8120A = Nixie 4.5 digit DC V, AC V, DC current, AC current and ohm meter.
Furthermore i am madly in love with both of them.

I don't know if there's an 8100 variant with LEDs, but the 8100A I got a few months ago glows orange...  (Even more reason to love it.  Now to find time to wring it out...). Could you be thinking of the 8000A, which has an LED display?



-Pat

OH  my brain mixed numbers up again, sorry for confusion. 8800A and 8100A are very easy for my brain to mix  and both are rambling around in my head. my problem is i want all three, like a true tea member. 8100A 8120A and 8800A all are on my list.

Just out of curiosity, anyone have a comprehensive list for fluke multimeters in the 60s and 70s?

[Rbastler]

I gotta stay off E-bay. (I'm a terrible liar)  Just bought a Fluke 8050A. I don't need another DMM (Yes, I do!). It will join my Fluke 87, 8021B, 8000A, 8010A, Mastech MS8040, and Tek 2465 with DMM option. That's too many DMM's (No, it isn't). I need therapy (Not gonna happen). There's no hope for me (You finally admitted you are weak).

Anyway, when it shows up I'll do a show and tell.

It arrived yesterday. In the condition as advertised. "Powers up and it appears all functions work". Initial tests confirm it. AC volts seemed in spec and Ohms pretty close. DC volts is off. Picture 1 is 1.0000V reference on the 2V range. Picture 2 is same reference on 20V range. Clearly out of spec. Picture 3 is a quick peak inside. Appears unmolested and I found no evidence of any calibration stickers or residue anywhere. So I suspect it's never been calibrated.

Today I performed an initial cal. First I verified the power supply was OK. No issues. Calibrated the DC volts are per the manual and everything fell into place. See picture 4. Going to let it burn in for several hours and perform a final calibration. Then it will join my Fluke family.     

Does yours have the diode bridge near the big HCR fuse ? I see yours has the 100k trimmer R5 too. Apart from mine having burned shunt resistors, it was also missing the diode bridge for input protection, plus mentioned trimmer resistor.
I have to say, that it was send in for repair twice, because the post stickers where directly on the instrument. Maybe somebody there took the parts out ?
It was still worth cleaning an replacing everything. Paid 10€ for it

[bitseeker]

Here ya go.

It looks pretty sad at the moment, crammed onto a tiny desk. Don't have enough outlets for the Instek. The 3011 I haven't been able to repair yet.

Wow, that's what you'd call a TOWER Fit (The Only Way Everything Really Fit).

Welcome aboard, STMartin! So what are you going to be designing with all that nice gear?

Stuff that would be challenging and fun, but serves no useful purpose.
Like a rotary cell phone with touchscreen texting.
Or a computer built from 7400 logic, complete with OS, programming language, and a videogame.
Or a data recorder that uses VHS tapes.
Or a really advanced version of one of those color organs.
Or if you've seen No Country for Old Men, they had a radio beacon and a tracker. I'd like to see if I could do that with 1970's technology. But then I'd probably have to get that Rigol Spectrum Analyzer...

I was actually thinking of making a YouTube channel about it.

Funny, I was thinking the same thing as I read your list. I'd subscribe to it!

[med6753]

I gotta stay off E-bay. (I'm a terrible liar)  Just bought a Fluke 8050A. I don't need another DMM (Yes, I do!). It will join my Fluke 87, 8021B, 8000A, 8010A, Mastech MS8040, and Tek 2465 with DMM option. That's too many DMM's (No, it isn't). I need therapy (Not gonna happen). There's no hope for me (You finally admitted you are weak).

Anyway, when it shows up I'll do a show and tell.

It arrived yesterday. In the condition as advertised. "Powers up and it appears all functions work". Initial tests confirm it. AC volts seemed in spec and Ohms pretty close. DC volts is off. Picture 1 is 1.0000V reference on the 2V range. Picture 2 is same reference on 20V range. Clearly out of spec. Picture 3 is a quick peak inside. Appears unmolested and I found no evidence of any calibration stickers or residue anywhere. So I suspect it's never been calibrated.

Today I performed an initial cal. First I verified the power supply was OK. No issues. Calibrated the DC volts are per the manual and everything fell into place. See picture 4. Going to let it burn in for several hours and perform a final calibration. Then it will join my Fluke family.     

Does yours have the diode bridge near the big HCR fuse ? I see yours has the 100k trimmer R5 too. Apart from mine having burned shunt resistors, it was also missing the diode bridge for input protection, plus mentioned trimmer resistor.
I have to say, that it was send in for repair twice, because the post stickers where directly on the instrument. Maybe somebody there took the parts out ?
It was still worth cleaning an replacing everything. Paid 10€ for it

As far as I know all the parts are there. As I mentioned I saw no evidence that any repairs have ever been done. And everything works. I've already put it back into the case but if I take it apart again I'll look.

[bitseeker]

OH  my brain mixed numbers up again, sorry for confusion. 8800A and 8100A are very easy for my brain to mix  and both are rambling around in my head.

No worries. It's easy to do, especially where there isn't an apparent semantic association between the number and one or more characteristics of the product. I prefer schemes such as 6030 for a 60V, 3.0A power supply.

my problem is i want all three, like a true tea member. 8100A 8120A and 8800A all are on my list.

I had the 8100A, 8120A and 8200A on my list when I started looking for a Nixie multimeter. The first one to show up with everything intact, battery option, Fluke logo, etc. was the 8100A. So, in true non-TEA fashion, I stopped there. But since this is the TEA thread, I'll have to add, "for now".

I do like the aesthetics of the 8100A more, so I'm glad it made it onto my bench. A 5.5-digit Nixie meter would've been even nicer, but consider that most compact Nixie multimeters I've seen are only 3.5-digits, 4.5 works just fine.

Just out of curiosity, anyone have a comprehensive list for fluke multimeters in the 60s and 70s?

I don't, but you'd probably be able to compile one just from the many Fluke-related posts in the Test Equipment and the Repair sections of the forum.

[Cubdriver]

OH  my brain mixed numbers up again, sorry for confusion. 8800A and 8100A are very easy for my brain to mix  and both are rambling around in my head.

Perfectly understandable considering there are so many part numbers, and they're not necessarily sequential as far as date of introduction.

my problem is i want all three, like a true tea member. 8100A 8120A and 8800A all are on my list.

What, no love for the 8110A?     (That's one that's still on my list)

Just out of curiosity, anyone have a comprehensive list for fluke multimeters in the 60s and 70s?

There's none that I'm aware of, and I'm afraid to start collecting Fluke catalogs from that period.  The HP ones have gotten me into enough trouble!

-Pat

[neo]

OH  my brain mixed numbers up again, sorry for confusion. 8800A and 8100A are very easy for my brain to mix  and both are rambling around in my head.

1) Perfectly understandable considering there are so many part numbers, and they're not necessarily sequential as far as date of introduction.

my problem is i want all three, like a true tea member. 8100A 8120A and 8800A all are on my list.

2( What, no love for the 8110A?     (That's one that's still on my list)

Just out of curiosity, anyone have a comprehensive list for fluke multimeters in the 60s and 70s?

3) There's none that I'm aware of, and I'm afraid to start collecting Fluke catalogs from that period.  The HP ones have gotten me into enough trouble!

-Pat

1) Thank you.
2) I do like it but i would rather have an 8100A or 8120A first, probably doesn't that by in large they kind of match my current favorite fluke, an 8000A
3) Fluke DMMs just trigger my TEA and GAS i guess. All started with the 8000A in perfect condition i got for 5 bucks at the last hamfest.

Furthermore, ironically, my favorite meter is currently not a fluke it is a fairchild. Though to be fair it may be a volt ohm meter on paper but is really either or, the adjustment for ohms screws up the volts, so fluke is still my favorite DMM.