Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

They might be electrician. The guy I use is worse

Those little 1uF 63v jobbies from China certainly go off nicely. They'll blow a hole in the wife's tupperware easily (oops). I occasionally buy a few when I do an order with Tayda or somewhere purely to blow up.

I've got some interesting sprague cans here I pulled out of that HP 6206B. Considering taking them in the garden on an extension lead

[URI]

Please do post - it's one of the best things looking at before/after photos 

Ok, her you are: My "new" Oltronix B300D dirty and cleaned side by side:


I just did a cleaning of the outer surface first. I haven't touched the inside yet because it's working well and clean inside.
What one can't see on the photo is the cleaned inside of the binding posts.   
I will probably check the electrolytics when the time is right.. 

[bd139]

Looks like new. Nice job 

[bitseeker]

If you want to maintain the vintage look i.e. on an old radio chassis etc, it's better to gut the can entirely and leave it hollow, then solder the caps under the chassis.

Yep, that's the method Paul Carlson uses in his restoration videos. It's not only safer, but preserves the look without the hassle of disassembling the old cap, disposing of the innards, restuffing, affixing, etc.

[bd139]

His is one of my favourite YouTube channels

Some quick porn before bed. I got both the 465B and the 475 working perfectly at last!

So October is two working Tektronix scopes, an HP power supply and all for the total expenditure of £98.04 including replacement parts. Good month of TEA 



(and before anyone says anything, yes I know the 465B's vertical is off - some numpty has been at the trimmers. I'm going to borrow a Tek 191 off a former colleague and calibrate it properly in a few weeks when we meet up for our quarterly beer-o-thon.

[bitseeker]

Good month of TEA, indeed. Great stuff, bd139.

[Specmaster]

Yes indeed, you've earned a packet of Chocolate Digestives to with your TEA.

[mnementh]

If you want to maintain the vintage look i.e. on an old radio chassis etc, it's better to gut the can entirely and leave it hollow, then solder the caps under the chassis.

Some nice Russian cans going off here to show the destruction possible:

[LINK to video of Russian NoGoodSenseNiks doing stuff that will burn down a house once Murphy catches up with them]

Those guys are Darwin Awards waiting to happen... 

ebay has already announced its decision to me and that includes the full refund, so little worries.
Like you I don't believe it till I see it.
Got up this morning, checked my paypal account and tada: ebay has refunded me the full price plus all shipping costs including customs! 
My first reaction was transferring the refund to my bank account anyway. 

Looks like you got really lucky... best buy a Lotto ticket.

It's perfectly safe if you don't do anything stupid. Problem is we're stupid animals

My wife tells me I'm a dumb ass all the time... 

That post was mainly for the benefit of those who haven't seen a can blow

Hahaha. Similar. I used to buy old valve radios from jumble sales, come home, plug them in and see what happened. Usually were dumped off at a jumble sale for a reason after being left in a shed for a few years. Not very healthy capacitors galore. You haven't lived though until you've blown the cap, it shorted then smoked a transformer and had to crawl out of the kitchen door on the floor to avoid the smoke

Oh and selenium rectifiers - pong

Been dere, dunnat, burned the shirt. While I was wearing it.   

My first practical electronics course in high school; we'd plug small electrolytics into the outlet strips across the top shelves of the workbenches so when the teacher flipped them on fist thing they'd pop off... well, after a few such gags, ol' man Firch didn't turn on the strips first thing in the AM; he showed a video lecture presentation on Tesla coils and Van DeGraaf generators and waited until we were watching some especially aggressive man-made lightning to set them off.

I think I was the only one who noticed; but the capacitors had been relocated to sockets right by the regular perps. Fortunately, my cap was "accidentally" knocked onto the floor... but I got the message. 


Lastly, thanks for the test gear pr0n you guys... well done indeed. 


mnem
13th Commandment: Thou shalt police they workbench for MOOP, both carefully and frequently.

[bitseeker]

My first practical electronics course in high school; we'd plug small electrolytics into the outlet strips across the top shelves of the workbenches so when the teacher flipped them on fist thing they'd pop off... well, after a few such gags, ol' man Firch didn't turn on the strips first thing in the AM; he showed a video lecture presentation on Tesla coils and Van DeGraaf generators and waited until we were watching some especially aggressive man-made lightning to set them off.

Nice! Chalk one up for the teacher's revenge.

[neo]

I got the probed for my 7704A and i'm left wondering how its meant to work?
I understand the bit of how the readout pin works, it uses a resistor to ground, but what i don't get (yet) is how i tell it to do anything useful because of it.

[Specmaster]

I don't think that you do, it tells the scope that its plugged in and the scope will automatically switch in and the extra features as it thinks necessary, check the  know the manual and it should tell you how it works.

[bd139]

It shorts the BNC shell to the ring. That’s all it does. If you have a readout on your scope it changes the vertical scale to the right one I.e it will show 50mV div for a 10x instead of 500mV or on the 4xx ones it lights up the other bulb.

I wish my rigol had that!

[neo]

i physically checked and there IS 11k resistance between readout and shell, just as the article said. My really nice probe didn't have any continuity, so i'm assuming thats broken.

EDIT:

Broke readout on one probe aside, it works. Now i feel stupid for not checking both, should i be fussy that the nicest probe in a lot sold as working is not in fact fully working?

[bd139]

It only passes a small current though so 11k is probably fine as well. As long as the indicator changes that’s all that matters.

[neo]

Apologies, i was unclear the 11k is the one that works. There is one with a 1x/10x switch, P6063B, that does not have continuity on the readout pin, thats the one i bid on the auction for and it does not do anything to the readout.

The resistance is meant to be there, 11k for 10X 6k for 100X and i don't know the value for 1x.

[bd139]

1x should be open circuit in theory.

[Fungus]

If you want to maintain the vintage look i.e. on an old radio chassis etc, it's better to gut the can entirely and leave it hollow, then solder the caps under the chassis.

Yep, that's the method Paul Carlson uses in his restoration videos. It's not only safer, but preserves the look without the hassle of disassembling the old cap, disposing of the innards, restuffing, affixing, etc.

I didn't even know that "restuffing" was a thing. That's madness.

[neo]

1x should be open circuit in theory.

That makes sense, but back to the point the P6063B does not have functional readout despite being advertised as working. How fussy should i be?

If you want to maintain the vintage look i.e. on an old radio chassis etc, it's better to gut the can entirely and leave it hollow, then solder the caps under the chassis.

Yep, that's the method Paul Carlson uses in his restoration videos. It's not only safer, but preserves the look without the hassle of disassembling the old cap, disposing of the innards, restuffing, affixing, etc.

I didn't even know that "restuffing" was a thing. That's madness.

Of course restuffing is a thing. If it can be done it is a thing, doesn't matter how insane it is if it can be done then it has been, or will be, and is, or will be, a thing. We are a mad race.

[mnementh]

 

[WastelandTek]

Apologies, i was unclear the 11k is the one that works. There is one with a 1x/10x switch, P6063B, that does not have continuity on the readout pin, thats the one i bid on the auction for and it does not do anything to the readout.

The resistance is meant to be there, 11k for 10X 6k for 100X and i don't know the value for 1x.

the extra conductor in the probe lead in the P6063 and similar probes is the first thing to go

I would recommend probemaster, they make very nice, brand new replacements for all the old Tek probes, and they sell replacement parts for their products at reasonable prices.

[bd139]

Big booey hooey here. The EGR on my car just exploded this afternoon. So it has been unceremoniously dumped outside the garage and will be looked at tomorrow. Hope the hell they fix it before Kempton or no TEA for me 

[tggzzz]

Don't be so negative; come with a backpack to Kempton Park station, which is right by the venue But come on the bus

[bd139]

Found a bus route! 290 bus literally goes 2 mins from my front door right past Kempton. Phew 

I hate busses. Disease factories! Also need to find an Oyster card or cross fingers Apple Pay works.

[Specmaster]

Don't knock buses, I used to be an engineer on them, did my apprenticeship on the buses (not LT) never did me any harm...  or did it?, thats where I became hooked on TEA 

[Mr. Scram]

Found a bus route! 290 bus literally goes 2 mins from my front door right past Kempton. Phew 

I hate busses. Disease factories! Also need to find an Oyster card or cross fingers Apple Pay works.

I know buses are tedious, but diseases are your main concern? Let that immune system do its thang!