Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[neo]

Well after a long half month of abstaining, yelling shut up to the voices in my head and keeping the dogs of doom at bay i have finally succumbed to them. Instead of what you might have come to expect me to buy, a multimeter, i bought a power supply.

Power-Designs Ambitrol-TW-4005 0-40VDC Dual Power Supply, somebody before me bought one and posted a picture here. Like them i just couldn't resist the meters, add to that my astounding lack of reliable, adjustable power supplies and i had all the reason i needed.

Luckily with pay after delivery this gets pushed onto next years budget.


I'm afraid my TEA is terminal, but at least i finally got my multimeter addiction taken care of, always was a sap for a good pattern. 

P.S. Most times i try to embed pictures their tiny.

[AF6LJ]

Those are good supplies and nice looking to boot...

[Specmaster]

Well after a long half month of abstaining, yelling shut up to the voices in my head and keeping the dogs of doom at bay i have finally succumbed to them. Instead of what you might have come to expect me to buy, a multimeter, i bought a power supply.

Power-Designs Ambitrol-TW-4005 0-40VDC Dual Power Supply, somebody before me bought one and posted a picture here. Like them i just couldn't resist the meters, add to that my astounding lack of reliable, adjustable power supplies and i had all the reason i needed.

Luckily with pay after delivery this gets pushed onto next years budget.


I'm afraid my TEA is terminal, but at least i finally got my multimeter addiction taken care of, always was a sap for a good pattern. 

P.S. Most times i try to embed pictures their tiny.

Red knobs, very seasonal

[GreyWoolfe]

Merry TEAmas to all!!  I got a new Quick 857.  So much nicer than my Yihua 858.  Never had mince pies, but the turkey is in the oven and we are going to have cornbread casserole, mashed sweet potatoes and asparagus to go with.  After dinner, a bit of Sambuca Romana that is sitting in the freezer, chilled to the perfect temperature.

[bd139]

Sounds like a good day

I just drank an entire bottle of wine and I can’t move now. 

[Specmaster]

Sounds like a good day

I just drank an entire bottle of wine and I can’t move now. 

[emoji23][emoji23]

[beanflying]

Tis the day after here, leftovers for at least a week in the fridge as per normal 

On topic I did just buy a 6 bottle wine fridge to hack into a 20-25 degree controlled chamber.

[Specmaster]

Back on Tea, I meanwhile is getting on with the modification of the T12 solder station, looks like I'm the sad old git here, truth is that it's this or sitting through hours of the soaps on TV, which would you prefer [emoji23][emoji319][emoji319][emoji320]

Edit: Here are the photos as promised. As you can see, only 1 screw required to act both as earth stud and PCB retainer, board is wedged tightly between the stud and the front sockets so is going nowhere. IEC socket, removed, flipped over and had the tabs bend at right angles to increase the internal clearance, heat shrink used where required to increase insulation between the terminals and the wires as there is a lot of criss crossing to reach their respective terminals on the PCB.
All tested and works a treat, mechanical stress between PCB and IEC socket is now removed. job done and copious amount of sparkling wine consumed. 

[bd139]

Indeed. Or the 10th rerun of Kingsman. Wine has worn off now

My T12 has been dispatched. Now for the 20-40 day wait 

I wonder if they'd consider stuffing SpaceX's "BFR" earth to earth transit full of cargo and blasting it from Shenzhen to London so I can get my crap quicker 

[Specmaster]

Well you can hope and make a wish, but I doubt it will be granted. Mine took 15 days to arrive so you should be around the same, except of course you will have News Day taking its toll.

I was going to buy another iron, the same one as you have ordered but I think I'll hold off on that for now, I was also going to order a slighter longer case for mine but the suggestion made to flip the backplate made think about flipping the socket instead which has made it easier to use the same case, so saved myself £8.

The reason for holding back on the order is that I may decide as well, once I have used this one for a while, to order 2 of the 9051 handles as well at the same time if this one, as suggested proves to be a little awkward to handle.

Now I think I'll grab myself another mince pie before going bed 

[bd139]

I’ll probably have forgotten about it then. I’ll let you know how mine goes. Your earthing looks much safer 

Handle on the T12 can’t be any worse than the weller one I use which is huge. I’ll admit that it is somewhat difficult to slide into some positions. Looks to be about the same proportions as the old 936/937 style handles. Do you have a link for the 9051 handles?

Incidentally I’ve been reading about how the T12 tips work and building an analogue controller would be pretty easy as well. I am interested in such things when the OLED eventually gives out you see

[Specmaster]

That'll be cool but the OLED itself is very reasonable just as a replacement controller on its own.

A link is what I'm looking for, either that or a wiring diagram to fit the handle which is available with a 5 or 8 pin plug, with a 4 pin plug and maintain the same  functions, as is currently available.  As soon as I find a solution I'll let you know.

[neo]

Sad news on Christmas, my Fluke 8800A just bit the dust.
It may be fixable, but given what i know about Flukes and my defeatist personality construct I'm gonna call it a goner.

[bitseeker]

Well after a long half month of abstaining, yelling shut up to the voices in my head and keeping the dogs of doom at bay i have finally succumbed to them. Instead of what you might have come to expect me to buy, a multimeter, i bought a power supply.

Power-Designs Ambitrol-TW-4005 0-40VDC Dual Power Supply, somebody before me bought one and posted a picture here. Like them i just couldn't resist the meters, add to that my astounding lack of reliable, adjustable power supplies and i had all the reason i needed.

Oh, boy. You know there's a(n) (un)healthy variety of PD supplies out there just waiting to be collected, right? Welcome to the shiny side. I'm not 100% sure how many have found their way into my lab, so far, but I suspect you won't be lacking for very long.

Sad news on Christmas, my Fluke 8800A just bit the dust.
It may be fixable, but given what i know about Flukes and my defeatist personality construct I'm gonna call it a goner.

Sorry to hear the news. However, unless it all went up in smoke, it's never truly a goner, just a new transplant donor.

[neo]

Well after a long half month of abstaining, yelling shut up to the voices in my head and keeping the dogs of doom at bay i have finally succumbed to them. Instead of what you might have come to expect me to buy, a multimeter, i bought a power supply.

Power-Designs Ambitrol-TW-4005 0-40VDC Dual Power Supply, somebody before me bought one and posted a picture here. Like them i just couldn't resist the meters, add to that my astounding lack of reliable, adjustable power supplies and i had all the reason i needed.

Oh, boy. You know there's a(n) (un)healthy variety of PD supplies out there just waiting to be collected, right? Welcome to the shiny side. I'm not 100% sure how many have found their way into my lab, so far, but I suspect you won't be lacking for very long.

Sad news on Christmas, my Fluke 8800A just bit the dust.
It may be fixable, but given what i know about Flukes and my defeatist personality construct I'm gonna call it a goner.

Sorry to hear the news. However, unless it all went up in smoke, it's never truly a goner, just a new transplant donor.

No it didn't let the magic smoke fly, the display is still good, the power supply is still good, everything else is highly suspect due to the tantalum shorting.

As far as PD power supplies i'm going to need a new lab if i start collecting them, my multimeters are taking up almost all the free space in my current lab.

I get incredibly bored without either a project worth screwing around with or some new toy to play with. Unfortunately for the finances i found new toys also happen to be incredibly fun as projects as well. 

[Specmaster]

I know what you mean, I shall be on the look out for new toys soon I arranged for money to my birthday and Christmas presents from family this year so I can put it to good use 

Sorry to hear about the 8800A, are the caps really expensive then?

[neo]

I know what you mean, I shall be on the look out for new toys soon I arranged for money to my birthday and Christmas presents from family this year so I can put it to good use 

Sorry to hear about the 8800A, are the caps really expensive then?

I paid $35 for it, i spent another $20 replacing every single tantalum in the thing as well as electrolytics for good measure. Alas the catalyst that led me to do that also led to something going wrong in the thing.

I'll check the logic chips if i can be bothered but from what i know of Fluke the main chip is toast. When the tant shorted it threw around the voltage rails.

It works, in a looser sense, it displays numbers but it won't read anything. The display is literally just free running and displaying whatever crosses its electronic mind. 12345 53214 10435 etc

[Specmaster]

Yep, sounds like the custom chip has been addled and I would think the only way of getting another today is from a donor 8800A

[xrunner]

Hey, I found a decent looking Fluke 45 on Ebay. Since I haven't got anything recently, and I don't have a Fluke bench meter, I thought I'd spring for it.

Do you all think it was a good decision to buy it?

(I know, I know - that's like asking a drunk if they want a free bottle of Jack Daniels  )

[Cubdriver]

You know you're gonna need another for symmetry, right?     <uncaps bottle of Jack>

-Pat

[xrunner]

You know you're gonna need another for symmetry, right?     <uncaps bottle of Jack>

-Pat

One? Well yes, I guess if you want either horizontal or vertical symmetry as I choose, but if you pick one, then that leaves the other to fill, for completeness. Oh dear, let me check my bank account. 

[bitseeker]

Hey, I found a decent looking Fluke 45 on Ebay. Since I haven't got anything recently, and I don't have a Fluke bench meter, I thought I'd spring for it.

Do you all think it was a good decision to buy it?

With VFD and a dual display, absolutely! Next up would be an 8842 to keep it company.

[xrunner]

With VFD and a dual display, absolutely! Next up would be an 8842 to keep it company.

Thanks.

Interesting thing I just noticed - the seller has an EEVblog DMM in the pic! 

OK - who here is selling me this meter LOL!

[beanflying]

Shows a certain lack of commitment to the cause selling test equipment I think

[neo]

Shows a certain lack of commitment to the cause selling test equipment I think

Perhaps he doesn't belong to our glorious cause?