Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

Yep, and then buy a whole stable of 6.5-digit meters since he didn't really need 8.5.

bd's ears must be burning up right about now.

Good, that there aren't that much good 6.5-digit DMM around so far.

8846A
K2000
7061
34461A
DMM6510
...

[tggzzz]

Both channels check out excellent both Hi-Z input and Lo-Z input.

First pix is 10MHz square thru a 50 ohm feed thru terminator into the Hi-Z input. 2nd pix is direct coax into the Lo-Z input. I can now put the covers back on the attenuator decks and move on the the trigger/slope replacement. 

I think you are right to move onto the trig/slope replacement.

I don't want to rain on your parade, but I hope the poor risetime and wiggles are due to whatever signal source you are using.

I'd like to see something more like these...

Homebrew signal source 1ns/div




Homebrew signal source, 20ns/div


1MHz cal out 100ns/div

Trust me. It's the source, not the scope. The IG-4244 does a decent job but it ain't perfect. The traces I got on this 485 are identical to what you would see on a 475A, 2465, and the 50 ohm input 7A24 on the 7904.

Excellent.

You also know what your next TEA purchase could b e:)

[Mr. Scram]

Yep, and then buy a whole stable of 6.5-digit meters since he didn't really need 8.5.

bd's ears must be burning up right about now.

As opposed to us lot who positively do need 6.5 digits for life and death things like measuring other precision instruments in a precision circle jerk.

[med6753]

Decided to wait in changing out the trigger/slope control until I get the capacitors for the power supply. The Trigger Board (Upper left) has to be either completely removed or at least unbolted and moved to the right to get access to the control which is on the far upper left (hidden). Can't move the Trigger board with the larger PSU board in place. But that board is going to be removed when I do the re-cap. And thanks to the modular construction of the 485 takes less than 5 minutes to pull out. So when I remove that board I'll do the trigger/slope control at the same time.

   

[beanflying]

Thanks both - much appreciated.

Shows self test pass, seller has a 14 day returns policy and it's a later model.

Worst case I can return it and it'll bounce for more than that 

Edit: I now own a 34401A. That spider was radioactive and gave me TEA spending powers 

Welcome into the voltnut hole  Now to 'know' if those last two digits are really what they should be to have it calibrated or not 

[Specmaster]

Fucks sake. You wouldn’t believe it but I just got bitten by a sodding spider here. Damn hand swollen up. Much grr.

Did you get to see the spider at all? Was one like this?

[bd139]

Welcome into the voltnut hole  Now to 'know' if those last two digits are really what they should be to have it calibrated or not 

Thank you. I'm getting it calibrated straight away 

Fucks sake. You wouldn’t believe it but I just got bitten by a sodding spider here. Damn hand swollen up. Much grr.

Did you get to see the spider at all? Was one like this?

Yeah looked exactly like that. A false widow. Bastard thing. I was chopping down some ivy and it landed on me, did its thing then bailed out. Just caught it as was departing. Swelling stopped at about 3 inches across and has reduced now to about an inch. Have cleaned up the area properly and keeping an eye on it. Felt shitty for about an hour afterwards so called 111. Still not called me back 


Edit: despite the volt nuttery above, there is progress on the time nuttery front, thanks to another forum member I may have an official crystal oven for my 5334B.

[worsthorse]

Back from my garage visit. Turned out to be a guy who fixes old ham gear. He wants to clear space to make way for new old broken stuff to fix... 

Here's what I loaded into the truck during the visit.



There is an 8443A, a 7603 with five plug-ins, 114 and 191 signal generators, a wavetek 2001 1.4 GHz sweep generator, a 4300 and two TM500 plugins... the SC504 scope and the SG502 level sine generator.  It all works, though the SG502 has a flickering display. Oh, and six or seven TM500 side panels and about forty feet of RG316. Two hundred bucks for the whole lot.

The CL ad is down as I really don't have place to store anything more until I sell some of the stuff I am already working on. I should have a pretty interesting table at Rickreall this year...

[nfmax]

Welcome into the voltnut hole  Now to 'know' if those last two digits are really what they should be to have it calibrated or not 

Thank you. I'm getting it calibrated straight away 

Keep an eye open for Keysight special offers, they come occasionally if you sign up for email alerts. I got my 34401A calibrated for half price, and with a 12 month Keysight warranty on the instrument. About £75 + VAT including collection & delivery, IIRC. I've had it calibrated once since, and it didn't need any adjustments - which is nice

[med6753]

Back from my garage visit. Turned out to be a guy who fixes old ham gear. He wants to clear space to make way for new old broken stuff to fix... 

Here's what I loaded into the truck during the visit.



There is an 8443A, a 7603 with five plug-ins, 114 and 191 signal generators, a wavetek 2001 1.4 GHz sweep generator, a 4300 and two TM500 plugins... the SC504 scope and the SG502 level sine generator.  It all works, though the SG502 has a flickering display. Oh, and six or seven TM500 side panels and about forty feet of RG316. Two hundred bucks for the whole lot.

The CL ad is down as I really don't have place to store anything more until I sell some of the stuff I am already working on. I should have a pretty interesting table at Rickreall this year...

Nice haul!  What about the 547 you mentioned too?

[worsthorse]

That's actually a different person... there's a whole lab there. I don't think I am going to buy either the 547 or 575, especially since there are no fixtures for the 575. I also have so much stuff in the queue and no place to safely store stuff right now. That said, I will probably go look at it all tomorrow.

And today this appeared in CL:

https://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/ele/d/banks-hp-and-tektronix-test-equipment/6968595610.html

The person that posted this emailed me a week ago and asked if I wanted to buy the whole lot at once. I said I would come and look at it but wasn't interested in buying a garage full of stuff. I am fairly certain that most of it is non-working. Must be late summer basement clean out time here in the NW.

[Specmaster]

@tggzzz you should definitely make the journey to visit RAF Hendon, well worth the effort.

[bd139]

Welcome into the voltnut hole  Now to 'know' if those last two digits are really what they should be to have it calibrated or not 

Thank you. I'm getting it calibrated straight away 

Keep an eye open for Keysight special offers, they come occasionally if you sign up for email alerts. I got my 34401A calibrated for half price, and with a 12 month Keysight warranty on the instrument. About £75 + VAT including collection & delivery, IIRC. I've had it calibrated once since, and it didn't need any adjustments - which is nice

Thanks for the heads up - that's a pretty good deal!

I was going to take it to Calmet (as they're only about a ten minute drive from here) and they will do it for the same +VAT but no warranty obviously!

[Specmaster]

Welcome into the voltnut hole  Now to 'know' if those last two digits are really what they should be to have it calibrated or not 

Thank you. I'm getting it calibrated straight away 

Fucks sake. You wouldn’t believe it but I just got bitten by a sodding spider here. Damn hand swollen up. Much grr.

Did you get to see the spider at all? Was one like this?

Yeah looked exactly like that. A false widow. Bastard thing. I was chopping down some ivy and it landed on me, did its thing then bailed out. Just caught it as was departing. Swelling stopped at about 3 inches across and has reduced now to about an inch. Have cleaned up the area properly and keeping an eye on it. Felt shitty for about an hour afterwards so called 111. Still not called me back 


Edit: despite the volt nuttery above, there is progress on the time nuttery front, thanks to another forum member I may have an official crystal oven for my 5334B.

Yes, the advice with those things is to seek medical advice quickly, nasty little buggers and I think that I have a few of those in my garage which I desperately need to clear out, its about 6ft deep wall to wall in stuff I took from my Mums when I had to dispose of her stuff so the equity release mob could take procession for sale a few years back so needless to say but were are a bit 

Good news on the 34401A, they are a good meter but sadly still a bit rich for my blood at the moment. With the continuity function on them its almost a handheld in bench meter case, very handy as it will always be there on the bench in pride of place and ready for use. Personally, I'd be inclined to switch it on only when you know that you're going to be using it, those displays can be costly to replace.  I do that with my Fluke 8840A and 8842A's as you will remember the very first 8840A I had must have switched on and left daily throughout its life as the display was barely readable and in sunlight, impossible but for what I paid for it, was well worth it because I flipped it for 3 times what I paid 

[Mr. Scram]

If you're really worried about the display fading you could get your readings through GPIB and turn off the front display. The faded ones you see around likely have very long service lives behind them as few of us are likely to ever come close to that. Unless you just keep everything powered for the sake of it or something.

[bd139]

Yes, the advice with those things is to seek medical advice quickly, nasty little buggers and I think that I have a few of those in my garage which I desperately need to clear out, its about 6ft deep wall to wall in stuff I took from my Mums when I had to dispose of her stuff so the equity release mob could take procession for sale a few years back so needless to say but were are a bit 

I think I'd chuck a couple of bug bombs in there and let them do their work first! I imagine if you get bit a few times in a row you'd be in trouble.

I've got two courses of some hooky flucloxacillin stashed here worst case 

Good news on the 34401A, they are a good meter but sadly still a bit rich for my blood at the moment. With the continuity function on them its almost a handheld in bench meter case, very handy as it will always be there on the bench in pride of place and ready for use. Personally, I'd be inclined to switch it on when you know that you're going to be using it, those displays can be costly to replace.  I do that with my Fluke 8840A and 8842A's as you will remember the very first 8840A I had must have switched on and left daily throughout its life as the display was barely readable and in sunlight, impossible but for what I paid for it, was well worth it because I flipped it for 3 times what I paid 

Yeah burns a bit. Only doing it because I had some cash excess in the budget from bouncing some stuff off eBay from the downsizing operation. On the display replacement side, eBay seems saturated with the things. I may purchase a display as a spare just in case as I intend to keep this as the main bench meter. With limited space it can sit on the shelf and not get in the way (or keep landing on my toes like the handhelds do ).

If you're really worried about the display fading you could get your readings through GPIB and turn off the front display. The faded ones you see around likely have very long service lives behind them as few of us are likely to ever come close to that. Unless you just keep everything powered for the sake of it or something.

Yeah MTBF is something like 17 years on the things! This one looks pretty tidy and display is bright:

[factory]

But why has it been sold twice with the same pictures? 

David

[bd139]

He's got a few he's shifting. I did a few checks after noticing that. They're all the same condition.

Worst case I get a discount 

[Mr. Scram]

Your Google fu is better than mine at the moment. 

[0culus]

Incoming boat anchorage...

Today's grab: HP 6264B DC power supply, 0-20V, 0-20A. Hoping to use this as a stationary power source for a 12V transceiver. This thing is a beast. Check out the pound of solder for scale on the caps and the transformer. 

[Cubdriver]

Nice haul, wch.  I got a pair of 8443As in a lot I snagged a few years ago.  Haven't opened one up as they seem to work (the counter part, anyway), and I haven't had time to poke and prod.  Nice, solid seeming instruments for sure.



-Pat

[xrunner]

Incoming boat anchorage...

Today's grab: HP 6264B DC power supply, 0-20V, 0-20A. Hoping to use this as a stationary power source for a 12V transceiver. This thing is a beast. Check out the pound of solder for scale on the caps and the transformer. 

Neon PWR indicator - check
Massive steel front panel - check
Gigantic caps - check
Old School toggle PWR switch - check
Analog meters - check

Boat Anchor status granted 8/31/2019. 

[bd139]

There was one of those HP supplies at MKARS. It was 120V, I've already got a 10A unit, it might break my car and the heating works here so I skipped it 

AFAIK it has an SCR preregulator so you'll potentially need a fat ferrite on the feed to your radio. My 6286A knocks out a little hash. Also OVP. If that goes overvoltage, any DUT is going to just disappear

My 6286A is known as Mjolnir 

[0culus]

That's a good name for it. 

The surplus joint has a whole wall of racks full of big ass power supplies, including some of the higher amperage models in this lineup. I don't really need 50A, and I really don't want one that weighs around 100 lbs. Above this one was a Fluke HV supply, +/- 10 kV. I don't even want to know how much that one weighs.

[bitseeker]

Incoming boat anchorage...

Today's grab: HP 6264B DC power supply, 0-20V, 0-20A. Hoping to use this as a stationary power source for a 12V transceiver. This thing is a beast. Check out the pound of solder for scale on the caps and the transformer. 

Yes, that qualifies as a very stationary power source.