Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Saskia]

Regarding those estrogen units: you late a danger freak ...

[mnementh]

I left the 4503 alone for a day and tonight I thought I'd fire it up and test it again, its gone bleeding nuts again, back in the innards i shall have to dive yet again, it was working fine Wednesday 

It's not doing anything the usual British electrics do. Work one minute and not the next. I.E. : Lucas. 

Oi! Bloomin' cheek!

I've no doubt there are plenty of US equivalents, I expect the dragon can name a few as it seems to be one of his favourite things to pick holes. Reminds me of someone, give me a moment... umm...
What immediately springs to mind is old US valve radios with 2 pin plugs so you can make the chassis live wrt earth!

Auto electrics from all manufacturers are still a significant reliability problem here, due to the environmental conditions they are subjected to. Even golden era Toyotas are not immune.

Specmaster has just gotten very unlucky/lucky (depending on your POV wrt chasing down intermittent faults), as mine has never missed a beat.

70s-00 era Chrysler products.

They have made some of my favorite combinations of design and mechanical engineering: the B-Body and powertrain options available, the Viper, retro Prowler & RAM pickups (and even the PT Cruiser, so  ) and their reboots of the Charger and Challenger... but they never did learn how to WIRE a vehicle. Poorly designed connectors (I think they just bought the cheapest they could get... period), shitty loom assembly methods that made splices carry mechanical load, cheap low-strand-count wires that break all the time... horrible. How many K-cars I sent to the boneyard for rando electrical faults... 

Of course, '60s era Ford used LUCAS pretty heavily, so....

mnem
*Casts a prayer to Ifni for all the Chrysler owners who read this*

[tggzzz]

Ditto, here too. Along with damp garages. 

Bah. Wimps.

I'm storing my Fluke 8125 in my not far off open to the elements garage. Right next to the chipboard that has been there for decades and is still OK.

Key points: 8125 is milspec and bulletproof, with a lot of silica gel inside the squaddie-proof case, and there is plenty of ventilation so that it is never really damp there.

[0culus]

I toed a little bit further into voltnut territory.  I couldn't resist a good deal on a 3456A voltmeter.  It works perfectly and is in great shape except for front panel damage where some gorilla went at a label. 

You won't regret it!   
In fact, they are very nice voltmeters, lower noise than 34401A and easier to repair as long as now special part goes to heaven -and the special parts count is also lower than the of the 34401A..

Watch out for the electrolytic caps in the power supply -all my three 3456A of different ages (serial # beginning with 25*, 28* -the newer ones) had dead caps there resulting in one or another fault sooner or later. They all came working fine without (selftest) errors though.

Also check for the right quartz for 60Hz.
-One of my 3456As -that must have been in service in a Germany based company- had the wrong (matching 60Hz instead of 50Hz) quartz built in throwing away noticeable amounts of noise ratio against power grid hum (50Hz in Europe). 

    I toed a little bit further into voltnut territory.  I couldn't resist a good deal on a 3456A voltmeter.  It works perfectly and is in great shape except for front panel damage where some gorilla went at a label. 

Bonus Tek 184 pr0n.   

Good score on the 3456A; evict those evil RIFAs and leaky electrolytics and she will love you long time.

And gratuitous Tek pr0n is ALWAYS welcome over my morning cuppa. 

mnem

Thanks! On the bright side, it does not have the infamous orange colored caps in the power supply. Someone may have already done a cap job on it, as mine is very close in serial number (22 prefix) to the one forum member kj7e has, but his still had the duff orange capacitors when he got it.

The 500 MHz multiplier board in the 184 is one of the purest expressions of RF black magic anywhere. 

[mnementh]

Found this earlier. Interesting read and pictures:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNjVlcaYM4Fre6F_AGtX6Jw0K1BIylWILAPAXds9WwPalniCJwPFOX5v8h1T-CtoQ?key=OVBmbGlwa2dXUXg1a2JBUnpvYWotNVB6cUdyTkVR

"Design electronics like it is 70's at CERN"

Just had a look at this again from an analysis perspective and I have got to say that I wish I was old enough to be the guy who had the job of putting this together in the first place. Lots of standard LM, AD, 74 ICs, analogue tat, manageable double layered boards with neat ground runs. Also gives me some hints on tri-rail routing on something I have in mind. Bliss.


    This is art.

*sigh*   I know (well, knew... it was a lifetime two lifetimes ago) how to do that. It was why they hired me for my first gig at [REDACTED].

The Lucas rubbish? Well over here regardless if it was an MG, Triumph, or Rover the owners would bitch about electrical issues, constantly. Maybe it was a revolt due to having to put the steering wheel on the "correct" side. 

And hey, the "All American 5" which would shock you and knock you on your arse at least did one thing. It worked, all the time. 

Yeah, I expect it's much the same as over here we say that about French electric on cars and Alfa Romeo car always breakdown 

No, in mechanicking circles LUCAS was the butt of many jokes as well. Some of the worst-engineered switches and engine controls to ever hit the highway; we often wondered how in the hell they EVER passed design vetting. "What engineer signed off on this POS, and can I get some of what he was smoking...?" was a running joke at the parts counter, where we had a whole section that was just common-failure LUCAS parts for almost every major brand.

We won't talk about live-chassis radios... those remained a thing over here far too late, with capacitor-fed resistor/rectifier power-supplies in tabletop clock-radios well into the AM-FM era that were deemed safe because "completely enclosed in a plastic case".

mnem
 

[0culus]

Live chassis was all importantly cheap though...no pesky expensive hunk of iron to impact the bottom line. 


...nowadays we just have shitty SMPS everywhere. And the bottomfeeders of those can be fairly dangerous too, to say nothing of all the QRM. 

[Cerebus]

Found this earlier. Interesting read and pictures:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNjVlcaYM4Fre6F_AGtX6Jw0K1BIylWILAPAXds9WwPalniCJwPFOX5v8h1T-CtoQ?key=OVBmbGlwa2dXUXg1a2JBUnpvYWotNVB6cUdyTkVR

"Design electronics like it is 70's at CERN"

Just had a look at this again from an analysis perspective and I have got to say that I wish I was old enough to be the guy who had the job of putting this together in the first place. Lots of standard LM, AD, 74 ICs, analogue tat, manageable double layered boards with neat ground runs. Also gives me some hints on tri-rail routing on something I have in mind. Bliss.



This is art.

That reminds me, I forgot to get the lacing cord out and vibration proof those rigid copper wires in the current shunt I built this week. I'll do it later, I've the tail end of a migraine at the moment and I most definitely don't feel in the mood for close work at the moment.

[mnementh]

Live chassis was all importantly cheap though...no pesky expensive hunk of iron to impact the bottom line. 


...nowadays we just have shitty SMPS everywhere. And the bottomfeeders of those can be fairly dangerous too, to say nothing of all the QRM. 

Yes, but they are one of the few readily-available Darwin Awards left; perhaps we shouldn't hate them TOO much...

mnem
"Can you say 'Electric Shock Hazard', bois and grrls...?"

[med6753]

Regarding those estrogen units: you late a danger freak ...

As the late Groucho Marx said: "Behind every great man is a woman. And behind her is his wife". 

[Cerebus]

I think it may stem largely from the era when industrial actions were the order of the day.
There are other memes, as we call them nowadays, such as the "Friday Ford".

Back in the mid/late '90s when Vauxhall first released the Vectra, the very first one I saw in the flesh was on fire at the side of the road...
My current car is a Mk3 Vectra...


Are any of you bidding on either of these? If not I can snipe at them with a clear conscience (and an overdrawn bank account   
 ).
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-54510A-Digitizing-Oscilloscope-250mHz-1Gsa-s-fully-working/233617391806


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Thurlby-CM200-Digital-Capacitance-Meter/293611491997

The Lucas rubbish? Well over here regardless if it was an MG, Triumph, or Rover the owners would bitch about electrical issues, constantly. Maybe it was a revolt due to having to put the steering wheel on the "correct" side. 


And hey, the "All American 5" which would shock you and knock you on your arse at least did one thing. It worked, all the time. 

Bet it wouldn't if you left it outside in the weather for a year or two!   

if that scope were on this side of the ocean the freqq would be bidding.

some people hate the one knob concept, but after adapting to the weird operating style of my 54502 and 54504 they are my go to bench scopes.

good luck. (but don't go crazy and overbid.....after all.....they are old dinosaurs.  and you do have to deal with the ps caps......and the damn dallas chip )

I'll see your one knob and... take that too..

Personally I'd rather have one big knob than none at all. (He said with a straight face.)

[AVGresponding]

Now them's some big-assed coils!

[Specmaster]

As you know, I'm looking for some Avo spares and there's this meter I've been tracking on eBay until now, take a look at the various photos and the over condition, sold as spares but the price,  That is more than I've paid for 2 others that are working perfectly FFS 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184319906518?ul_noapp=true

[bd139]

Doesn’t surprise me. Prices are mental at the moment. It’s a sellers market. Fortunately I’m a seller at the moment  . Ryzen went within 30 minutes of me listing it. Cooler next morning.

[worsthorse]

I’m moving towards minimalism. From there I will branch out again. Sensibly this time.

hmmm, forgive me if I express a tad of skepticism wrt the "sensibly" part.   

[Specmaster]

Now them's some big-assed coils!

That is scheduled to be operational way after most of us have shuffled off to meet our maker, geez that is a massive project indeed.

[bd139]

I’m moving towards minimalism. From there I will branch out again. Sensibly this time.

hmmm, forgive me if I express a tad of skepticism wrt the "sensibly" part.   

Thank you for that level of confidence in me. You are however 100% accurate 

[0culus]

I’m moving towards minimalism. From there I will branch out again. Sensibly this time.

hmmm, forgive me if I express a tad of skepticism wrt the "sensibly" part.   

Immutable TEA Law #0: TEA will always expand to fill the available space. 

[Cubdriver]

I’m moving towards minimalism. From there I will branch out again. Sensibly this time.

hmmm, forgive me if I express a tad of skepticism wrt the "sensibly" part.   

Immutable TEA Law #0: TEA will always expand to fill the available space. 

...and beyond...

-Pat

[0culus]

I’m moving towards minimalism. From there I will branch out again. Sensibly this time.

hmmm, forgive me if I express a tad of skepticism wrt the "sensibly" part.   

Immutable TEA Law #0: TEA will always expand to fill the available space. 

...and beyond...

-Pat

    

As you well know... 

You getting on discord this afternoon?

[AVGresponding]

I’m moving towards minimalism. From there I will branch out again. Sensibly this time.

hmmm, forgive me if I express a tad of skepticism wrt the "sensibly" part.   

Immutable TEA Law #0: TEA will always expand to fill the available space. 

...and beyond...

-Pat

    

As you well know... 

You getting on discord this afternoon?

*this evening

bd139 will probably not be there; he will think it was yesterday and he already missed it!

[worsthorse]

I’m moving towards minimalism. From there I will branch out again. Sensibly this time.

hmmm, forgive me if I express a tad of skepticism wrt the "sensibly" part.   

Immutable TEA Law #0: TEA will always expand to fill the available space. 

...and beyond...

-Pat

    

As you well know... 

You getting on discord this afternoon?

yes, i am planning on it, though i might not arrive at the crack of one.

[mnementh]

Regarding those estrogen units: you late a danger freak ...

As the late Groucho Marx said: "Behind every great man is a woman. And behind her is his wife". 

"Behind every great woman is a man... shoving her out the window so he can take the credit." ~mom

I’m moving towards minimalism. From there I will branch out again. Sensibly this time.

hmmm, forgive me if I express a tad of skepticism wrt the "sensibly" part.   

Immutable TEA Law #0: TEA will always expand to fill the available space. 

Actually, it's Law #1... but if we renumbered them zero-index fashion, we could still have our 10 Laws and not lose any.... Hmmmmm... bitseeker...? Whaddayoothink...?

mnem
 

[AVGresponding]

Law 12: Incipient impecuniosity is insufficient impediment to increasing impending insolvency.

[0culus]

AVG's alliteration game is strong.   

[Cerebus]

Ebay heads up.

There is another set of those HP probes up that tggzzz (sp?) bought the other week (and I've brought one from the same vendor). They seem to have lots but be putting them out in singles rather than listing them all in one go. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.



Listing: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303595255565?ul_noapp=true £13.75 buy it now.