Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

What size of screw, I got a load from the parts machine and I think they are american as I had some missing from the original scope and none of the screws I had would fit, but these from the crap one did. If you know what you want, if I've got some, you can have them.

[bd139]

They're quite large. Turns out they're mostly present just screwed into the wrong holes and there are two missing ones. Non critical. Phew

Whoever did the bodge/repair job was at fault by the looks. Actually the supply looks like it was a 110v one that has been converted based on the tap arrangement that has been set up. The bodge is connected to the neon only so it doesn't blow up connecting it across the primary. Needs careful resolution and some Kapton over the bodge so far. Not end of world. I will include a picture of the gory details:

[Specmaster]

Ooh that looks nasty, accident just waiting to happen.

[Rbastler]

Got seven INA120GC (Instrumental Amp), one OPA177EZ and a REF102C in a metal can. I already build a little board with the REF102C. All for free.

The REF102C is already in the first stage to be transformed into some test equipment. Im sure the rest will also find its place 

[Cubdriver]

Wow, bd - that's some ugly looking soldering on that PS - I think I was better at it in sixth grade with a soldering gun.     The people they let work on these things....     Nice to know it's now in capable hands and will be rehabilitated.

The end seal on C10 looks none too healthy.  Bummer - seems you'l be changing some caps.

-Pat

[bd139]

Yeah it’s a bit “grim”. They have unnecessarily cut a trace as well. Looks like someone looked at the service manual and their brain just fell out. I will repair and rework then stick some plastic sheet in the base of the supply.. One of the nasty things with these supplies is the mains runs on board traces and the bottom is full of holes. What could go wrong? bzzt dead. Want to avoid that. One of my colleagues many years ago accidentally fed solder through a hole in a power supply and it ruined his day shall we say. Look how close a mains trace is to the board lug as well. Not terrible on 110v but 240 is pushing it.

Capacitors are all scheduled for replacement. They will be replaced with quality Vishay Sprague/BC units.

All the rusty screws and fittings are now swimming in some Tesco malt vinegar

[Cerebus]

All the rusty screws and fittings are now swimming in some Tesco malt vinegar

It's an HP power supply - you could at least have sprung for Waitrose malt vinegar!

[bd139]

Hahaha! 

[URI]

Gnarf!
ebay / hermes (?) have destructed my latest received buy -an HP 8110A. 

The instrument weighs 9kg and was wrapped up in several layers of bubble wrap (with small bubbles..) and the outer padding was lightly stuffed old newspaper in a cardbox measuring 61cm x 61cm x 17cm whilst the HP 81106 is 8,9 cm x* 42,6 cm x 52,1 cm without the rack mounts mounted it came with. With rack mounts on the HP 8110A is 48,6 cm wide. Leaving less than 6cm on every side to be filled with stable padding which the stuffed newspaper wasn't. Since I bought it from a US seller it was shipped going through the ebay Global Shipping Center in Erlanger, Kentucky. There it seems to be repacked into the package I received.

As the result the HP 8110A has now a beaten up face: The front panel lost all its mounting points and can be pulled off without loosening screws. 


The left Rack Mount was ripped of the chassis including the mounting points:



The display filter glass is deply pushed in and the PCB with the VFD on it hang loose behind the front plate. 


The VFD has not been damaged, fortunately. 

The seller -asked for a partial refund- responded he has nothing to do with it, he delivered it to ebay Global Shipping Center in Erlanger, Kentucky in on piece. That transport was done by fedex.
I don't think I have a chance to get ebay refund me any part of my costs. 

I hate it really when a mechanically intact instrument beaten up at transport due to poor packaging an inappropriate handling. 

On the plus side is a HP 8110A sold for parts/repair that's nearly fully equipped with two channels and reference PLL option that seems to be fully working (have not gone into deep but both channels work, trigger input works ).
For 350$ plus shipping and plus customs it does not really seem to be a bargain but if one looks at the ebay-offers over the last months it's not so bad for me.
I regret having to look for spare parts to get an also mechanically intact instrument in the end..

[AF6LJ]

I think it is time to contact the packer and shipper and raise
 HOLY HELL!!!

[Mr. Scram]

That thing looks thoroughly beaten up. I can't disagree with the seller, as he may have packaged it a lot better than this. I hate to think that people can do this on a large scale and sustain a business with it. You receive a package, carefully undo any protection, then treat the package as a football, only to have the seller and buyer duke things out about who pays the bill.

If it were some random guy on eBay, sure, but this is institutionalized wilful neglect.

[Mr. Scram]

After checking the internet I'm not so sure: was the box actually repackaged?

[bd139]

This is why I do all the purchases on the credit card. Not happy? Chargeback!

If it doesn’t arrive as described then it’s between the seller and eBay.

[Mr. Scram]

This is why I do all the purchases on the credit card. Not happy? Chargeback!

If it doesn’t arrive as described then it’s between the seller and eBay.

Still, having perfectly good gear smashed to bits like that hurts. It's so wasteful.

[URI]

After checking the internet I'm not so sure: was the box actually repackaged?

Ah, wait! Thank you for that question!
On the cardbox there was a fedex-printout for sending it to Erlanger! Bingo!
It seems the seller originally packed it so poorly.  And has the guts to tell me he is not responsible!

[AF6LJ]

Having worked in a shipping department I have to ask the following questions.
1. where are the rigid foam blocks to protect the front and support the sides of the unit.
2. Where is the rigid foam sheets covering parts of the top and bottom of the unit.
Usually at the corners and extending to a quarter of the way toward the center.
3. Why wasn't the unit double boxed, if not why wasn't a double strength box used?
I have more questions but this is enough..............

[AF6LJ]

After checking the internet I'm not so sure: was the box actually repackaged?

Ah, wait! Thank you for that question!
On the cardbox there was a fedex-printout for sending it to Erlanger! Bingo!
It seems the seller originally packed it so poorly.  And has the guts to tell me he is not responsible!

This is grounds to demand your money back.
I would...

[bd139]

Sometimes this plays in your favour. I got a Lenovo T440 with a crushed lid because a seller packaged it in a 2 inch thick Jiffy bag (?!?!?). eBay sided with seller. Credit card company sided with me. Ebay tried to take the chargeback out of my bank. The bank stopped it (under instruction as an unauthorised payment). eBay and PayPal barred my account.   Kept laptop. New lid and screen was £85 and at the time that was a £500 machine

This is why I have 5 eBay accounts! As far as I’m concerned, they are a monopoly who use dirty tactics so at any point I’ll weapon up and screw them back hard.

[URI]

Having worked in a shipping department I have to ask the following questions.
[..]

Thank you for that!
I've made a second attempt showing (photos!) that the seller itself packed it the way it was likely to be damaged and kindly but strongly appealing to his fairness to compensate the degradation of the instrument.
It's not much but hope dies last..   

[Specmaster]

I must admit, that was my worst nightmare that my Fluke 8505A would arrive like that. It too came from the USA and was send via Fedex through Erlanger on the Global Shipping scheme and I very relieved when it finally arrived to discover it was the same condition as the photos showed. It was packed on all sides with 50mm rigid foam blocks and where the controls and screen is, between the rack handles, there was extra custom cut pieces of rigid foam as well.

The seller did say that he would take it to be properly packed and I assume that fedex did the packing, it certainly cost enough for shipping but when I look at yours, I'm so pissed for you.

I would say that based on my own experience that if the seller says he asked got Fedex to pack it then he / she is lying to you, press for damages / refund in full.

Was it a private seller or a disposal company? If the latter then they will not to risk getting bad feedback. Good luck.

[URI]

[..]
The seller did say that he would take it to be properly packed and I assume that fedex did the packing, it certainly cost enough for shipping but when I look at yours, I'm so pissed for you.

In my case the seller did the packaging as he has wrote me. But he insists that ebay has checked the packet at erlanger and that something must have gone wrong there and he sees absolutely no responsibility on his side. 

I would say that based on my own experience that if the seller says he asked got Fedex to pack it then he / she is lying to you, press for damages / refund in full.

I'm with you, I don't trust his stories:
After I mentioned the outer padding was made of stuffed newspaper he told me the guys at erlanger must have taken out all of his foam he used for padding and must have taken newspaper instead.
After I said I only found a newspaper from the sellers location in the packet, nothing from erlanger, over 600miles away from the sellers site, he told me that indeed did he use newspaper but padded all corners with foam that the guys at erlangern didn't reuse.

I have received two HP 6643A and two HP 3456A all well packed and padded with foam or in strong bubble wrap (the big bubbles) and styrofoam chips and in double layered cardbox packages. All of those were packed by the individual seller and if ebay did inspect them they were able to not degrade the padding/packaging.

And how should I justify a full refund for a damaged item that was sold for parts/repair?

Was it a private seller or a disposal company? If the latter then they will not to risk getting bad feedback. Good luck.

It's an agent who sells things for other people. And in the kind of way he denies his responsibility and pushes it over to ebay he doesn't seem to fear negative feedback. 
In fact he has only one negative feedback due to delayed shipping.

[bd139]

Seller is clearly full of shit. Report him to ebay. Full refund! Keep the item! You can justify it because the state received was not the state advertised. It doesn't matter if it's for parts or not. I'd negative feedback the bastard afterwards. They tend to push for amicable solutions which are nice to agree to and then ruin their feedback

....

Some quick HP porn before bed and some more repair photos. I've undone the "fucked up mess" which is as nice as I can be about it on the board. My wife accused me of having Tourettes while I was doing it because of the ranting I have no idea what they were thinking. They actually just clearly couldn't read the damn schematic or were drunk or on drugs or something. They're the sort of muppet who holds the soldering iron wrong in iStockPhoto pictures and wonders why it starts smelling of bacon. I've stuffed some Kapton over it to prevent anything that slides into the enclosure hitting the mains traces. Not the best solution and will replace with some cut plastic when I find something suitable. Binding posts unstuck. I haven't cleaned them yet as I only just did that and it's 00:54 now and I'm about to fall asleep.

Repair 1 - new trace and jumper not crudely tacked on:



Repair 2 - Kaptonize! (3 layers over carefully trimmed pointy bits, 1 over flat traces hence the weird overlaps)



Some post-clean artistic HP porn:



Front after a good clean:



I really love doing this. Shame there is no money in it now 

[Specmaster]

Seller is clearly full of shit. Report him to ebay. Full refund! Keep the item! You can justify it because the state received was not the state advertised. It doesn't matter if it's for parts or not. I'd negative feedback the bastard afterwards. They tend to push for amicable solutions which are nice to agree to and then ruin their feedback

I second this line of attack, my USA parcel came double boxed as well, the meter was encased in rigid foam, then boxed then that box was bubble wrapped thickly and all placed in a another box for shipping and in addition I had a receipt sent to for an extra insurance policy the seller took out on the package which was about $80 which was almost the total cost of the shipping.

Had you seen photos like that prior to bidding then you would have have bid, its as simple as that, you expect to get something as you saw it, let the seller take up a dispute and claim with the carrier, thats his problem, not yours.

[bitseeker]

Some post-clean artistic HP porn:

Wow. That might be too artistic for this thread. LOL!

Front after a good clean:



I really love doing this. Shame there is no money in it now 

Beauty! Yeah, you'll just have to live with our appreciation.

It's interesting that that one has pointy corners. My 6200B has rounded ones.

[Cubdriver]

That cleaned up beautifully!

bitseeker, my 6289A has sharp corners, too.  What year is your 6200B?



-Pat