Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

I hate playing "Where's Waldo".  I see the calcs in the second and third picture.  In the first, I see "Groot", "The Hulk", etc. but no calc?

On top of the 34401A to the left.

[tggzzz]

thank goodness you have not acquired the vulgar habit of sneaking a calculator into every test bench portrait.

...
One doesn't win the war against the equals button merely with words

Ah, good old-fashioned agit-prop. Reminds me of the 70s and 80s when "class war" was everywhere. Glad we've moved on from that. (Haven't we?)

[Neomys Sapiens]

My low cost aquisition Racal modulation meter came in, as well as a portable cheap-as-dirt B/W video service monitor, which conveniently appeared at the bay just when I realized that nothing in my current TOE would display a baseline analogue video signal.
The latter was even listed as being in good working order, but to verify that, I have to retrieve the video signal generator from its high perch and find a place to set them up and connect them first.  A place where I will not trip over them or worse, that is. Maybe even today, if I can call up the energy to store them properly afterwards.
But the modulation meter is another story. I guess I will have to take it to my day lab in order to test it. Especially as it was listed as having unknown status. Even with the big Analogic, I could only scratch its range while creating a clean signal.
And another instrument is underway, sort of. After my last, disturbingly expensive watch failed totally, I realized that mechanical isn't for me and bought a late issue G10 from the UK. Unfortunately, the transportation of it has been tasked to a organisation known as Royal Snail. but it has the trident sign and tritium on it, and it is immaculate, so what could I want more?
For your amusement: the video monitor.

[bd139]

That's rather cool. Nice flat CRT!

Ah, good old-fashioned agit-prop. Reminds me of the 70s and 80s when "class war" was everywhere. Glad we've moved on from that. (Haven't we?)

Unfortunately no. We just created a whole new communication system to reach all the thickos to do the same thing. Alas that's one for another forum

Considering the Tek 453A on eBay at the moment. It just looks like it might need a nice home.

[bsudbrink]

I hate playing "Where's Waldo".  I see the calcs in the second and third picture.  In the first, I see "Groot", "The Hulk", etc. but no calc?

On top of the 34401A to the left.

I'll have to take your word for it.  On my monitor, all I see there is "dark".

[med6753]

Considering the Tek 453A on eBay at the moment. It just looks like it might need a nice home.

Says the one who said "I'm done with Tek". 

[bd139]

Considering the Tek 453A on eBay at the moment. It just looks like it might need a nice home.

Says the one who said "I'm done with Tek". 

I decided I was on holiday from them

[med6753]

Considering the Tek 453A on eBay at the moment. It just looks like it might need a nice home.

Says the one who said "I'm done with Tek". 

I decided I was on holiday from them

Have we been talking with a woman all this time? Because you sure do change your mind like one. 

[mansaxel]

thank goodness you have not acquired the vulgar habit of sneaking a calculator into every test bench portrait.

Probably because I had my back to the computer rack, where the numeric processing takes place 
I do have a portable pocket calculator (A Sharp EL-506P with a = button, and still on its original set of batteries since 1984), but the last time I used it was to do the math for my ham license exam. Internet-connected general purpose computers were frowned upon as calculators during the test.  (yes, some people found themselves with a reduced set of calculating assistance after that.)
For most other math, there is LibreOffice, bc or dc; or if data is structured, I might do math in a database engine or in an awk or shell script.
With the plethora of "=" methods mentioned, my phone still runs a -- hp -- Model 42 emulator. I swing both ways, as the saying goes.
vi AND emacs.

[mnementh]

Looks great!!!    So, WHEN are you gonna defile it, Painty Smurf? 

mnem
*agitating-ily*

Saturday morning so all the neighbors can witness the defiling and be further convinced that they need to stay away from me. 

HAHAAAAA!!! Always best to make a show of it; loud & proud. Just don't get any on the cat. 

(Attachment Link) interesting: pink color generate views... 

I think it's because that's the pic I stuck in my response, so everybody who reads the thread automatically adds one to its counter. Or maybe that's the one everybody tries to lick; with Dave's server, it's hard to tell exactly WHAT it's counting...

thank goodness you have not acquired the vulgar habit of sneaking a calculator into every test bench portrait.

Okay... what's this gauntlet doing here, so cavalierly thrown upon the floor...?   

I decided I was on holiday from them

Have we been talking with a woman all this time? Because you sure do change your mind like one. 

D'OH! Never Mind!!!   

mnem

[bd139]

Have we been talking with a woman all this time? Because you sure do change your mind like one. 

Got three daughters so perhaps there's something in the air 

[worsthorse]

One thing I'm super curious about now that I've seen yours...the Type 114 is the only piece of Tek gear I own that says "TEKTRONIX, INC, PORTLAND, OREGON" rather than Beaverton. Was this something that changed at some point?

My 115 and 191, from the same era, are the same.

yup.  i have at least four boxes with a portland address.

[0culus]

Interesting. 

Now I gotta decide if I want to work on fixing the P6042 current probe I got at hamfest (open conductor on the Hall sensor circuit looks like) or build another Jim Williams pulser prototype (finally got some 2 pF caps and a heavy duty holepunch so I'll do it proper Manhattan style this time).

[worsthorse]

Type 114 porn.

Top view. No evidence of modifications.



2 bottom views. Again, no evidence of modifications. Beautiful construction. Looks like an HP with the gold plated board.




Does it work? Sure does....extremely well. Just a few dirty spots on the pots. 



That mark on the front left of the case is damaged paint, not the remains of a label. But no other damage. I will defile and ruin it for future generations by giving it a fresh coat of paint.

med, what’s the sn on yours? mine is very early. i noticed the hat sink on yours is “manufactured” for example, while mine is clearly an addition.

[med6753]

med, what’s the sn on yours? mine is very early. i noticed the hat sink on yours is “manufactured” for example, while mine is clearly an addition.

003983.

[Cubdriver]

My newest toy arrived the other day.  It's displaying the dreaded YTO unlock error that is apparently common to the breed, but some online searching indicates that this is often a result of bad caps causing the YTO drive voltages to be out of spec.  I'd initially wondered why the spec an section was made 'upside-down, but now realize that's so it can be operated on while both pieces are still attached to one another.

Unfortunately, I need to deal with a broken ball joint on my friend's car tomorrow, so lord only knows when I'll get to this...





The boards that carry the caps frequently causing the issues with the YIG oscillator reside behind the hinged silkscreened acrylic cover just below and to the left of center of the photo below.


Fun, fun!!!

-Pat

[xrunner]

My newest toy arrived the other day.  It's displaying the dreaded YTO unlock error that is apparently common to the breed, but some online searching indicates that this is often a result of bad caps causing the YTO drive voltages to be out of spec.  I'd initially wondered why the spec an section was made 'upside-down, but now realize that's so it can be operated on while both pieces are still attached to one another.

Oh cool (not the problem but the analyzer)! I used to use those all the time when I was still working. I will be very interested in any progress you make on it.

 

[Cubdriver]

My newest toy arrived the other day.  It's displaying the dreaded YTO unlock error that is apparently common to the breed, but some online searching indicates that this is often a result of bad caps causing the YTO drive voltages to be out of spec.  I'd initially wondered why the spec an section was made 'upside-down, but now realize that's so it can be operated on while both pieces are still attached to one another.

Oh cool (not the problem but the analyzer)! I used to use those all the time when I was still working. I will be very interested in any progress you make on it.

 

I will keep everyone posted.

-Pat

[0culus]

My newest toy arrived the other day.  It's displaying the dreaded YTO unlock error that is apparently common to the breed, but some online searching indicates that this is often a result of bad caps causing the YTO drive voltages to be out of spec.  I'd initially wondered why the spec an section was made 'upside-down, but now realize that's so it can be operated on while both pieces are still attached to one another.

Unfortunately, I need to deal with a broken ball joint on my friend's car tomorrow, so lord only knows when I'll get to this...





The boards that carry the caps frequently causing the issues with the YIG oscillator reside behind the hinged silkscreened acrylic cover just below and to the left of center of the photo below.


Fun, fun!!!

-Pat

Awesome! If you go search on youtube there are a couple of different people showing the repairs. I want to get a really nice 66B...I have a 66A but it's severely gimped in terms of GPIB functionality compared to the 66B. Yours looks to be in great shape! 

[0culus]

med, what’s the sn on yours? mine is very early. i noticed the hat sink on yours is “manufactured” for example, while mine is clearly an addition.

003983.

002275 here.

[Kosmic]

My newest toy arrived the other day.  It's displaying the dreaded YTO unlock error that is apparently common to the breed, but some online searching indicates that this is often a result of bad caps causing the YTO drive voltages to be out of spec.  I'd initially wondered why the spec an section was made 'upside-down, but now realize that's so it can be operated on while both pieces are still attached to one another.

Unfortunately, I need to deal with a broken ball joint on my friend's car tomorrow, so lord only knows when I'll get to this...





The boards that carry the caps frequently causing the issues with the YIG oscillator reside behind the hinged silkscreened acrylic cover just below and to the left of center of the photo below.


Fun, fun!!!

-Pat

Congrats on your new acquisition   look like the screen is in good shape.

[Addicted2AnalogTek]

Something in my 7854 has decided to take an occasional dump to ground, and I've only managed to notice because the case shocked me earlier. As far as I can tell, there's no other faults occurring when this happens. It's only a mild shock as one would expect from an otherwise functioning device.  The fault exists regardless of what plugins I've got installed, so it's definitely in the mainframe itself. It does take around 30 minutes of operation before the fault manifests itself, and it's doing so fairly consistently.

I've never had to track down a "mild" fault such as this.  Anyone have any suggestions on how to tackle tracking down the bugger?

The power supply voltages and ripple were good last I checked, but I'll be checking them again at startup and once the fault manifests.

As for tracking down the fault to a particular board, I'm considering using a 7A22 in another mainframe with the negative input probe attached to the ground at the mains input and move the positive input probe around each board's ground test points to narrow the fault down to the board, then continue from there to find the bastard.

Does anyone have any ideas?


On another note, my 184 from the Vintage TEK museum arrived today and it's in rather nice condition! The last one I had didn't have a shield over the 500 Mhz oscillator board, yet this one does.

[med6753]

Something in my 7854 has decided to take an occasional dump to ground, and I've only managed to notice because the case shocked me earlier. As far as I can tell, there's no other faults occurring when this happens. It's only a mild shock as one would expect from an otherwise functioning device.  The fault exists regardless of what plugins I've got installed, so it's definitely in the mainframe itself. It does take around 30 minutes of operation before the fault manifests itself, and it's doing so fairly consistently.

I've never had to track down a "mild" fault such as this.  Anyone have any suggestions on how to tackle tracking down the bugger?

The power supply voltages and ripple were good last I checked, but I'll be checking them again at startup and once the fault manifests.

As for tracking down the fault to a particular board, I'm considering using a 7A22 in another mainframe with the negative input probe attached to the ground at the mains input and move the positive input probe around each board's ground test points to narrow the fault down to the board, then continue from there to find the bastard.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Am I reading this right? You're getting a shock off a supposedly grounded chassis? Correct??   

If yes you need to determine why your scope isn't grounded. Is there a problem chassis to ground prong on the power plug? Or do you have bigger problems with the lack of a ground on your mains wiring? You need to figure this out first.

I think, but not sure, that the EMI filter has capacitors in it tied between hot and ground. If you don't have the chassis grounded these caps could cause the chassis to elevate to a fairly high potential, sometimes as high as 80 to 90 volts. The current is real small but you might feel it. And if the caps are going leaky then the current will go up. And also this leakage current could damage other equipment.

Be safe. If you are getting a shock off the chassis of your equipment something is seriously wrong and you need to shut it down and determine ASAP what's going on. 

[Cubdriver]

My newest toy arrived the other day.  It's displaying the dreaded YTO unlock error that is apparently common to the breed, but some online searching indicates that this is often a result of bad caps causing the YTO drive voltages to be out of spec.  I'd initially wondered why the spec an section was made 'upside-down, but now realize that's so it can be operated on while both pieces are still attached to one another.

Unfortunately, I need to deal with a broken ball joint on my friend's car tomorrow, so lord only knows when I'll get to this...

Fun, fun!!!

-Pat

Awesome! If you go search on youtube there are a couple of different people showing the repairs. I want to get a really nice 66B...I have a 66A but it's severely gimped in terms of GPIB functionality compared to the 66B. Yours looks to be in great shape! 

Thanks!  I got it from an ebay vendor in New Hampshire that I've had good luck with.  Their shipping, while not dirt cheap, is fast, and the items are very well packed.

The video I watched the other night was put up by a guy named Kerry Wong.  My fingers are crossed that this will be something relatively minor.  I may need to do some monkeying with the display, too, as the text seems dim relative to the rest - I need to turn the brightness up to the point where the trace starts blosing out before the text shows up.  I figure there is likely a balance or separate brightness control hidden in it somewhere that needs a tweak.  Will need to dig further into the display before tweaking anything, though, so as not to knock things out of whack with ham-fisted twiddling.  The YTO repair will be the first order of business, though.

-Pat

[Addicted2AnalogTek]

Something in my 7854 has decided to take an occasional dump to ground, and I've only managed to notice because the case shocked me earlier. As far as I can tell, there's no other faults occurring when this happens. It's only a mild shock as one would expect from an otherwise functioning device.  The fault exists regardless of what plugins I've got installed, so it's definitely in the mainframe itself. It does take around 30 minutes of operation before the fault manifests itself, and it's doing so fairly consistently.

I've never had to track down a "mild" fault such as this.  Anyone have any suggestions on how to tackle tracking down the bugger?

The power supply voltages and ripple were good last I checked, but I'll be checking them again at startup and once the fault manifests.

As for tracking down the fault to a particular board, I'm considering using a 7A22 in another mainframe with the negative input probe attached to the ground at the mains input and move the positive input probe around each board's ground test points to narrow the fault down to the board, then continue from there to find the bastard.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Am I reading this right? You're getting a shock off a supposedly grounded chassis? Correct??   

If yes you need to determine why your scope isn't grounded. Is there a problem chassis to ground prong on the power plug? Or do you have bigger problems with the lack of a ground on your mains wiring? You need to figure this out first.

I think, but not sure, that the EMI filter has capacitors in it tied between hot and ground. If you don't have the chassis grounded these caps could cause the chassis to elevate to a fairly high potential, sometimes as high as 80 to 90 volts. The current is real small but you might feel it. And if the caps are going leaky then the current will go up. And also this leakage current could damage other equipment.

Be safe. If you are getting a shock off the chassis of your equipment something is seriously wrong and you need to shut it down and determine ASAP what's going on. 

Yes, you've definitely read that right!  I'm confused as well, seeing as how I rewired the circuit my equipment uses myself, all the way back to the breaker panel.  I'm going to go through it all again over the weekend, checking each connection and each ground to the rods outside the house, and then check the wiring in the 7854.  It's only this unit, so I believe it's a fault within it and not the house wiring, but I'll revisit the house electrical system again anyway.

Thanks for screwing my head back on... I tend to miss the simple things when it comes to sorting out issues.