Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[xrunner]

Dear god, this is my 5. forum post, I have not received/unpacked all my new equipment nor have the knowledge to build a circuit...

Yet it been indicated that i might suffer from CAP, FUSS, GAS, LED, LSUG, PETA and TEA.

Hmmm ... In your case you were probably born with TEA. I've seen that happen in a few rare cases. It's still going to be an issue in your life however, so you can count on support in this thread. 

[SingedFingers]

Problem is this thread is like going to alcoholics anonymous and being handed a beer 

[MrW0lf]

Afraid infected with TN. Trying to milk 6-digit horizontal accuracy out of low end scopes... Ordered 10-digit counter just for that, paid extra to get it QUICK  Hope havent cought VN because it would square the expenses... that means forced medication if wife finds out 

[AF6LJ]

This is the official TEA (Test Equipment Anonymous) house for everyone who has GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). Share your stories of woe, trying to manage all the wonderful test gear you keep scoring. Maybe group therapy will cure you. Then, again, maybe not. Well, as long as you enjoy it, what's one more multimeter in the grand scheme of things?


Glossary of Terms and Condition Variations

• CAP: Costly Accessory Phobia - Counteracts the effects of TEA.
• CCMHA: Cheap China Modules History Accumulator - The urge to document history of engineering progress on small cheap Chinese electronic modules.
• DMM: Duplicate Meter Mania
• FUSS: Future Usefulness Speculation Syndrome - The inability to part with or sell equipment as a result of rationalization about potential projects for which it will one day be useful.
• GAS: Gear Acquisition Syndrome
• GPSDO: Generic Pathological Syndrome Desiring Oscilloscopes
• HFO: High Frequency Obsession - May be a mutation of TEA. The gear you own will never have enough frequency range driving you to buy faster scopes, better generators, faster spectrum analyzers, etc.
• LED: Lab Equipment Disorder
• LSUG: Lazy to Sell Unused Gear
• METH: Maintaining Endangered Test gear at Home
• NOS: Now On Sale or New Old Stock - A serious contributor to TEA.
• NTSC: Nixie Tube System Collector
• PETA: Preservation of Equipment Through Acquisition
• SCOPE: Serious & Chronic Obsession with Personal Electronics
• SPEED: Systematic Preservation of Endangered Electronic Devices
• TEA: Test Equipment Anonymous, Test Equipment Addict or Test Equipment Addiction
• TN: Time Nut - One who is obsessed with timing and time accuracy. A significant contributor to TEA.
• VN: Volt Nut - One who is obsessed with measurements and measuring accuracy, precision and resolution. A significant contributor to TEA.

IMD  Instrumentation Mania Disorder, There isn't enough hours in the day to stop thinking about test equipment.

[xrunner]

IMD  Instrumentation Mania Disorder, There isn't enough hours in the day to stop thinking about test equipment.

Good one. 

[rrinker]

 Well now I'm watching one of those GW Instek power supplies as well as the multimeter. I guess I can't NOT take advantage of the windfall from the ITT auction.

[TiN]

By the way, what was that thing that you received and were teasing us about a few pages ago?

Few pages ago I received little 1:10000 preamp made by zlymex and Pipelie volt-nuts
Little bird hinted me they will be available for sale. Get ready, TEA/GAS crowd...

[JenniferG]

Dear god, this is my 5. forum post, I have not received/unpacked all my new equipment nor have the knowledge to build a circuit...
Yet it been indicated that i might suffer from CAP, FUSS, GAS, LED, LSUG, PETA and TEA.

My name is Teza, and I think I might need to see someone about the above...

Sound about like me   But I have a little knowledge about basic circuits .. but really know nothing heh.

[worsthorse]

it began with a nixie tube frequency counter i found at an obscure auction website.  then there was the ham swap meet. what harm could come of going? somehow my wallet ended up a hundred fifty bucks lighter and i found myself with a tek 475A that i needed to troubleshoot the fixer-upper CPS250 bench supply i also bought there. a week later, i added a wavetek model 22 sweep generator. can a four channel rigol and a spectrum analyzer be far behind?

[xrunner]

I guess I can't NOT take advantage of the windfall from the ITT auction.

Exactly.

Good, very good rationalization skills. 

[Cubdriver]

Glad you got that 8010A working correctly again

By the way, are there any web resources which go over the history of Fluke multimeters from the start to present?  And perhaps comparing the details of each along the way.  Would be a great read.  Wondering the same for HP/Agilent/Keysight line of multimeters.

Erm...  You actually might NOT want that information.  It can cause you to become even more GASsy*.  As in "Oh, that's cool!  I'd like to find one of those."  "Oh!!  That one too."  "And I didn't even know THAT existed!"  "Well, I should probably get the second one too, since it's available and cheap, and they rarely come up!  They aren't making any more of them."  "Wow - this is a really early one - it's marked CPS and the one I have now is marked Hz.  Must have!"  (That last one was the actual rationalization I used a few years ago to buy a second 5245L)

I made the mistake of starting a collection of HP T&M catalogs.  This let me easily find a lot of cool old equipment that piqued my interest, and, to the great dismay of my credit card and pain to my UPS & FedEx guy's backs, my evilBay search has been full pretty much ever since.

-Pat

* We can provide sufficient inspiration for that here in this thread.   

[mtdoc]

Erm...  You actually might NOT want that information.  It can cause you to become even more GASsy*.  As in "Oh, that's cool!  I'd like to find one of those."  "Oh!!  That one too."  "And I didn't even know THAT existed!"  "Well, I should probably get the second one too, since it's available and cheap, and they rarely come up!  They aren't making any more of them."  "Wow - this is a really early one - it's marked CPS and the one I have now is marked Hz.  Must have!"  (That last one was the actual rationalization I used a few years ago to buy a second 5245L)

I made the mistake of starting a collection of HP T&M catalogs.  This let me easily find a lot of cool old equipment that piqued my interest, and, to the great dismay of my credit card and pain to my UPS & FedEx guy's backs, my evilBay search has been full pretty much ever since.

Yep.  Looking through back issues of the HP Journal is even worse.

Then there's the old Tektronix catalogs..

Speaking of which, I just had a GAS flair up and bought a Tek CMC251 counter.  Good to 1.3GHz and with a <1ppm time base.  I made a lowish offer on a decent looking used one on the 'Bay and it was accepted.  So $100 +$14 shipping and it's on its way. 

My excuse: I don't have a high frequency counter and heck - it would have cost $600 new in the early 1990s.......    

[bitseeker]

Can we add another one for TEA please? I like to make Test Equipment Acquisitions!

Certainly. Duly added!

[bitseeker]

IMD  Instrumentation Mania Disorder, There isn't enough hours in the day to stop thinking about test equipment.

Added!

[bitseeker]

Glad you got that 8010A working correctly again

By the way, are there any web resources which go over the history of Fluke multimeters from the start to present?  And perhaps comparing the details of each along the way.  Would be a great read.  Wondering the same for HP/Agilent/Keysight line of multimeters.

Erm...  You actually might NOT want that information.  It can cause you to become even more GASsy*.  As in "Oh, that's cool!  I'd like to find one of those."  "Oh!!  That one too."  "And I didn't even know THAT existed!"  "Well, I should probably get the second one too, since it's available and cheap, and they rarely come up!  They aren't making any more of them."  "Wow - this is a really early one - it's marked CPS and the one I have now is marked Hz.  Must have!"  (That last one was the actual rationalization I used a few years ago to buy a second 5245L)

Too late for me. I'm awaiting the arrival of a Fluke 8100A.

Why? Well, because (1) it's got Nixie tubes, (2) I don't have a multimeter with Nixie tubes, (3) I don't have a Fluke bench multimeter, just an HP, an Agilent and two Keithley, and for bonus points (4) I have an extra PH-163 power cord.

[Cubdriver]

Too late for me. I'm awaiting the arrival of a Fluke 8100A.

Why? Well, because (1) it's got Nixie tubes, (2) I don't have a multimeter with Nixie tubes, (3) I don't have a Fluke bench multimeter, just an HP, an Agilent and two Keithley, and for bonus points (4) I have an extra PH-163 power cord.

No nixie multimeter?!?     I'm happy to hear that you've managed to fill that gaping hole on your bench! 

My dose for the day - just grabbed a 5532A counter for $47 shipped.     Dammit I need to stay the hell off of evilBay!!!!   

-Pat

[Cubdriver]

Yep.  Looking through back issues of the HP Journal is even worse.

Then there's the old Tektronix catalogs..

Speaking of which, I just had a GAS flair up and bought a Tek CMC251 counter.  Good to 1.3GHz and with a <1ppm time base.  I made a lowish offer on a decent looking used one on the 'Bay and it was accepted.  So $100 +$14 shipping and it's on its way. 

My excuse: I don't have a high frequency counter and heck - it would have cost $600 new in the early 1990s.......    

I don't currently have any Tektronix catalogs, and figure it's probably best that I don't get any.  I have a bad feeling (from the few 500s that I've gotten) that the TM500 & 5000 series plug ins could easily become as addictive as I'd imagine heroin infused crack laced with meth would be...   

At least I'm somewhat limited on the old 500 series scopes because of their prohibitive shipping - need to find those locally, and they're not too common.

-Pat

[Housedad]

I realized that I have a new version of TEA to offer to the Glossary..  For newbies like me that just can't resist buying something even though they already have one, is

Early Onset TEA Syndrome or EOTS

It is a severely debilitating form of the addiction to the wallet and budget, as it does not progressively get worse, but blossoms into full fruit from the first drool while looking through Ebay.  Some may feel that it is a congenital problem and not learned or acquired.

[rrinker]

 It all started when I FOUND (yes, found) a Fluke 8012A that was going to be tossed. It got tossed alright, into my bag. It powered up and the display seemed ok, but as I was away and had no test leads I couldn't actually see if it worked. When I got home I plugged in some test leads and - it's perfect! Works great!. Fast forward a few years until I find this place, and that Fluke History page - that bugger of a thread got me to pick up an 8060A AND a 45! Finally I bit a bench and bought a scope (Siglent  SDS 1102CML), my first new piece of test gear (not counting crappy Harbor Freight multimeters of which I have like half a dozen stashed around the house). All I needed yet was a power supply and lo and behold, Dave does a video on the HP E3610A. Off to ebay and - hey, nice price. All I've bought since are little add-on type devices - I got one of those USB microscopes like Dave mentioned in the $300 electronics lab video and it works quite well - I have some vision loss in my right eye and displaying things highly magnified on my 27" display works out quite well.

 But it never stops - since this thread was created now I'm after yet another multimeter and another power supply. Sheesh! I already put an offer in for one of the GDM-8251As. I used to just look at things like this as neat but not something I need. Now it doesn't matter if I need it, I need it. Maybe I need to block this thread.....

naaa....

[xrunner]

But it never stops - since this thread was created now I'm after yet another multimeter and another power supply. Sheesh! I already put an offer in for one of the GDM-8251As. I used to just look at things like this as neat but not something I need. Now it doesn't matter if I need it, I need it. Maybe I need to block this thread.....

Humanity has lost another person they would have called "normal" before this addiction happened to you.

It's OK, we're all in this together.

[Housedad]

It all started when I FOUND (yes, found) a Fluke 8012A that was going to be tossed. It got tossed alright, into my bag. It powered up and the display seemed ok, but as I was away and had no test leads I couldn't actually see if it worked. When I got home I plugged in some test leads and - it's perfect! Works great!. Fast forward a few years until I find this place, and that Fluke History page - that bugger of a thread got me to pick up an 8060A AND a 45! Finally I bit a bench and bought a scope (Siglent  SDS 1102CML), my first new piece of test gear (not counting crappy Harbor Freight multimeters of which I have like half a dozen stashed around the house). All I needed yet was a power supply and lo and behold, Dave does a video on the HP E3610A. Off to ebay and - hey, nice price. All I've bought since are little add-on type devices - I got one of those USB microscopes like Dave mentioned in the $300 electronics lab video and it works quite well - I have some vision loss in my right eye and displaying things highly magnified on my 27" display works out quite well.

 But it never stops - since this thread was created now I'm after yet another multimeter and another power supply. Sheesh! I already put an offer in for one of the GDM-8251As. I used to just look at things like this as neat but not something I need. Now it doesn't matter if I need it, I need it. Maybe I need to block this thread.....

naaa....

I know what you mean.  They ARE nice multimeters especially for the price.   I bought two of them!  But then again they are my first....

[bitseeker]

I realized that I have a new version of TEA to offer to the Glossary..  For newbies like me that just can't resist buying something even though they already have one, is Early Onset TEA Syndrome or EOTS

Added.

[lowimpedance]

So what happens when the other half sees your pile of 'stuff' nice collectables growing and grunts a dismissive PFFT ?.
Well naturally you think it means Parts For Future Treasures and retort with a BAH, which is your code for Boat Anchor Home, and off you go to surf your favorite web site.

[Housedad]

I realized that I have a new version of TEA to offer to the Glossary..  For newbies like me that just can't resist buying something even though they already have one, is Early Onset TEA Syndrome or EOTS

Added.

Awesome! Thank You!

I know it must have been from birth with me, as my Father gave me a middle name of Tee.  Reading this thread, I wonder if it might have stood for  Test Equipment Enthusiast or something along those lines.

[Towger]

So what happens when the other half sees your pile of 'stuff' nice collectables growing and grunts a dismissive PFFT ?.

That's simple. She does not see it. I spread it around.

I am at work at the moment, IT with no electronics.  But just on the shelfs above my desk I have:
2 bench multi meters.
2 handheld multimeters.
2 2 x channel bench power supplies.
2 Nixie clocks. One I build, the other a huge military 19" rack job. I have a soft spot for 19 rack equipment.
1 function generator.
1 Dummy Load
1 Variac.
1 SWR/Power meter.
Countless boxes of parts and half finished projects.
etc.