Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tautech]

I hope also, this is the 200, it was expensive. 
I have buyed from a german store, they have to give 2 years warranty.

Nice, lets hope you don't need to use it.

Buddy got his from Aliexpress and ~1 year later developed some internal PSU fault that he wasn't able to track down as he only had CRO's however as he got me into scopes some 20 years back when he gave me a Telequipment D83 that needed fixing and it sent me down this TE rabbit hole so in gratitude I gave him a SDS1202X-E a few years back so he has a better tool to fix his Hantek.

[bd139]

It's done. The Type 422 has a fresh coat of paint with a 1000% improvement in appearance. It's still much too cold to paint in the garage so I had to resort to other means. Don't ask because it involves denial, potential liability, and certainly wrath of the landlord. But there's no collateral damage nor over spray so we got away with it. 

For now this guy is done as I want to concentrate on the Type 321A. The replacement capacitors should have shipped yesterday but so far have not heard anything from Mouser.

Very nice job 

[Saskia]

the speed you fixerupper these things is astounding. I envy you for your spare time and energy.

[tggzzz]

It's done. The Type 422 has a fresh coat of paint with a 1000% improvement in appearance. It's still much too cold to paint in the garage so I had to resort to other means. Don't ask because it involves denial, potential liability, and certainly wrath of the landlord. But there's no collateral damage nor over spray so we got away with it.

Long ago I cured paint on a metal chairframe in the gas oven. No, the door wasn't closed!

[dl6lr]

I need a lot of pink bubble wrap for all my TEA puppies, I do not trust the relocation service monkey at all.
Any suggestions where to buy tons of that material here in Germany?

With tons of TE available for cheap in USA, does it make sense to relocate all your gear?

[BU508A]

soon ...



(not this one.  )

I hope, mine is coming as the 230V~ version (if there is one).
If not, some toroidal transformers are very good friends of mine... 

[mansaxel]

soon ...



(not this one.  )

I hope, mine is coming as the 230V~ version (if there is one).
If not, some toroidal transformers are very good friends of mine... 

Is it the israeli one? If so, it's been on my watch list for ages. And in that case, I'm happy for it to be going to a good home.

Edit: Yes, there is a 230V version, and, as with most (all?) PD supplies, that was not reconfigurable. Had to be ordered either or.

[BU508A]

soon ...



(not this one.  )

I hope, mine is coming as the 230V~ version (if there is one).
If not, some toroidal transformers are very good friends of mine... 

Is it the israeli one? If so, it's been on my watch list for ages. And in that case, I'm happy for it to be going to a good home.

Edit: Yes, there is a 230V version, and, as with most (all?) PD supplies, that was not reconfigurable. Had to be ordered either or.

No, it is coming from Germany and it is looking very clean from the outside. It seems, that the adjustment of the meter itself is a bit off but the output is very accurate. I'll get it next week then I'll do a little check and, of course, a teardown.

I wanted one of those units for a long time and today I stumbled over one and bought it. 

[med6753]

the speed you fixerupper these things is astounding. I envy you for your spare time and energy.

After all the years and years of working and doing for everyone else now that I'm retired this is my time. 

[Zucca]

soon ...
(not this one.  )

I hope, mine is coming as the 230V~ version (if there is one).
If not, some toroidal transformers are very good friends of mine... 

Yeah very sexy, but I never understood, is there some sort of black magic inside those pd power supply?

[mansaxel]

Yeah very sexy, but I never understood, is there some sort of black magic inside those pd power supply?

[factory]

I also have one of these but here is one in the USA  eBay auction: #392659657016

That was the first frequency counter I ever used!

bean.....you are evil.

hmmmmmmmm.  about an hour and 10 minutes.  free local pickup. 

what should i offer?

They are shits of things to use in real life, as the funny stepped readout is hard to read!

Looks like my little cube furnace. Any hollow-state in it to keep your toes toasty?

mnem
 

Nah!---------unlesss you count the incandescent lamps that make up the readout.
There are six vertical columns with lamps behind glass lenses marked 0-----9.

If you are, for, instance, looking at a frequency of 191919 kHz, you read the first "1" from the second row of the first column, go up to the top of the next column for the "9", then down again for the next "1" & so on.

http://madrona.ca/e/edte/RacalSA520/index.html     the little brother.

boards are soldered together?  digits are back-lit with incandescent bulbs?  crap connectors on the front and rear?

gotta say that is putting me off a little.

and the offset handle just looks wonky as shit.  am guessing that is where the center of gravity is located?

not even a sniff of hp goodness or design in this poor little hopeless looking thing.

but still, i do have a record of rooting for the underdog.
 

You forgot to mention the transistors in those Racal counters that expire as quickly as the IC's do in a HP 5360A. 
Having said that my SA520 was working fine when I took this picture a few years ago. Note the handle is made of some kind of crappy metal like Mazak and is slowly disintegrating.


Also have the 8 digit SA540, this also has soldered in boards and was working when I acquired it, but has since stopped counting. Sadly no manuals or circuit diagrams seem to exist, ignore the Indian scam websites that claim to have it (they don't have any manuals & pass off other peoples hard work & websites as their own).


And finally I acquired this crusty relic last year, a SA505A that has spent too much time in Cornwall and has suffered badly as a result, even had sand & salt crystals in it, forgot to photo the holes in the bottom of the cover.
I've yet to try this one, but have found Farnell sell the very odd 4 pin Bulgin connector it uses, again no service info seems to exist, but this older one does use plug in circuit boards (all transistorized), size is similar to a HP1740 scope.



David

[mnementh]

I also have one of these but here is one in the USA  eBay auction: #392659657016

That was the first frequency counter I ever used!

bean.....you are evil.

hmmmmmmmm.  about an hour and 10 minutes.  free local pickup. 

what should i offer?

They are shits of things to use in real life, as the funny stepped readout is hard to read!

Looks like my little cube furnace. Any hollow-state in it to keep your toes toasty?

mnem
 

Nah!---------unlesss you count the incandescent lamps that make up the readout.
There are six vertical columns with lamps behind glass lenses marked 0-----9.

If you are, for, instance, looking at a frequency of 191919 kHz, you read the first "1" from the second row of the first column, go up to the top of the next column for the "9", then down again for the next "1" & so on.

http://madrona.ca/e/edte/RacalSA520/index.html     the little brother.

boards are soldered together?  digits are back-lit with incandescent bulbs?  crap connectors on the front and rear?

gotta say that is putting me off a little.

and the offset handle just looks wonky as shit.  am guessing that is where the center of gravity is located?

not even a sniff of hp goodness or design in this poor little hopeless looking thing.

but still, i do have a record of rooting for the underdog.
 

Funny how the crowd is drooling over that totally useless piece of shit yet when I propose some useful units for consideration we get whining. "Not enough digits". "Not enough function". "Doesn't wipe my ass".   

now be fair med.  the freqq never criticized fluke counters.

for what they are, they are very useful devices.   for radio stuff you mostly do not need all those superfluous digits.  in my experience with fluke counters they had pretty good trigger level set circuits.  and they were all orders of magnitude better than that racal POS.

BUT having said that.......the hp5315a/16a was much better still (and oh by the way.......the 5314a was a disappointment despite the HP badge). end of rant.

Hey now... I was not fawning over the little red-headed bastard; I was making fun of it.   

mnem
And looks my most successful agitatin' in days... was completely a side-effect. 

[BU508A]

After all the years and years of working and doing for everyone else now that I'm retired this is my time. 

Marc Almond - The days of Pearly Spencer

Modified by BU508A to

The days of Papa "Tek" Smurf

A tenement, a dirty scope
Abused and broke, but he has hope
Inside it's clean and so complete
Just need a loving hand

His eyes are having this special gaze
Watching as the patterns race
On the screen and grid with that green trace
And the CRT's brightness shuns

Chorus:
The days of Papa "Tek" Smurf
     Ahh Ahh Ahh
The repair has just begun

Comparing scope with schematic maps
Looking at the swollen caps
Removing too their tantalum chaps
He desolder on and on

Order replacements for the repair
But only at Mouser because they are fair
Delivered by UPS because they care
About parcels on the run

Chorus:
The days of Papa "Tek" Smurf
     Ahh Ahh Ahh
The repair has just begun

Papa throws the caps in the bin
wait for the new ones while rub his chin
But on-time delivery makes him grin
Soon the repair will be done

Waves of square that can't be beat
The issue's gone bowed in defeat
Adjustment's done the spec's were meet
The gorilla's fails undone

Chorus:
The days of Papa "Tek" Smurf
     Ahh Ahh Ahh
The repair is on the run
The days of Papa "Tek" Smurf
     Ahh Ahh Ahh
The repair is on the run
The repair is on the run

A tenement, a now clean scope
Reparied, burned in, a connected probe
Adjusted, but it was hard to cope
All exertions now are gone

It's placed now next to the chairs
Will be used in service for many years
The issues now are memories
Written down in a thread well known

Chorus:
The days of Papa "Tek" Smurf
     Ahh Ahh Ahh
The repair is finally done ...

[tggzzz]

soon ...
(not this one.  )

I hope, mine is coming as the 230V~ version (if there is one).
If not, some toroidal transformers are very good friends of mine... 

Yeah very sexy, but I never understood, is there some sort of black magic inside those pd power supply?

The 2020 has an LM399, 1mV steps, and a trimpot to set to 10uV.

Some things are just right.

[factory]

Anybody on the east side of Canada looking for 1 ton of misc TE ? the auction is sitting at 200$ right now.

https://www.gcsurplus.ca/mn-eng.cfm?snc=wfsav&sc=enc-bid&scn=382932&lcn=531590&lct=L&srchtype=&lci=



It's a good thing I'm 12h away. A little bit closer and I would probably had to rent a van to bring everything back home.

Can't help thinking there will be lots of damage with all that TE thrown in a box.  Guessing someone else filled the smaller one.

David

[factory]

..... and fix their code.

 


I do love a dreamer.

I don't know dreaming would be to reverse that geo-blocking bullshit ePay introduced years ago, can't even send helpful messages. 

David

[mnementh]

We talked about MOSFETs for DC loads the other day.
I happened across the FDL100N50 today while looking for something else.
With a good enough heatsink (liquid cooled maybe) it has a DC SOA good for at least 1500W within 100A and 500V. Rjc is 0.05 deg C/W  so a 25 deg C heatsink actually has some headroom at 1500W. It's pretty linear with about 20mV/a gate sensitivity

https://www.onsemi.com/pdf/datasheet/fdl100n50f-d.pdf

Whufff... Robert. At first I thought this part was like bringing a tank to a knife fight... but after looking at the much broader SOA right around where I want to operate combined with the much higher ^VGSS, I'm feeling like it might not be a bad idea to invest in this $25 (delivered) part to upgrade my $30 toy electronic load from China.

The primary failure mode (aside from ding-dongs just not paying attention to the ^PD), is due to excessive ^VGSS from a weakness in the original design. That extra overhead really does make me feel a lot better.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention! I'm going to pass this on to our Cheezy Electronic Load thread.

mnem
 

[factory]

snip...
Oh look there it is in one of my stacks of TE. 

Nice, cozy stack. That current adapter is a bit of a non-conformist, eh?

Yeah Hickok completely failed to make it half rack mount sized, the current adaptor* is intended to go under a DMS-3200 with the voltmeter plug-in, I do have one somewhere and one out of three mainframes that actually work.



David

*accidentality bought a second current adaptor for £0.99 + p&p last week, I guess Hickok aren't very popular over here in the UK.

[mnementh]

It's done. The Type 422 has a fresh coat of paint with a 1000% improvement in appearance. It's still much too cold to paint in the garage so I had to resort to other means. Don't ask because it involves denial, potential liability, and certainly wrath of the landlord. But there's no collateral damage nor over spray so we got away with it. 

Nice Med, I didn't realise you had the hat for it too. 

Ditto from the Canuck-dwagon med. Looking sharp, ehhh...!   

Making me wonder how I could get away long enuf to do that road trip with Al...   

mnem
 

[mnementh]

the speed you fixerupper these things is astounding. I envy you for your spare time and energy.

After all the years and years of working and doing for everyone else now that I'm retired this is my time. 

Amen! Can't wait 'til it's my turn to be a crusty ol' curmudgeon who likes his tools better than people... 

mnem
Don't read this.

[nixiefreqq]

holy crap!  now they are writing poems about med.  will he go down in history as some kind of blue oscilloscope legend?  will they sing songs about him in the distant future?  (sort of like john henry the steel drivin' man?).

this has turned into a really really weird place.

in other news.  i have escaped the curse of the bean.  thanks to factory there is no way my old gnarled  fingers will be typing an offer on that racal.

it's only hope is cub.  (he is much more patient, caring, and thoughtful.......and would probably rehabilitate that poor orphan.  others on this thread would buy it just to set on fire).


edit   just went back and re-read it.   it IS a song about med.  do we know what music goes with the lyrics?

edit 2  never mind.  just found the video.






 

[Specmaster]

The TMK500 lives to fight another day, I was able to fashion another wiping contact by cannibalising a mini grabber probe for its "spring contact"

Here it is being put through its paces on the AD584-M, also checked on AC and reads the same as my other meters so I'm happy with that and the resistance and buzzer ranges all work as well. Current I'll calibrate tomorrow.

[mnementh]

   The TMK500 lives to fight another day, I was able to fashion another wiping contact by cannibalising a mini grabber probe for its "spring contact"...

That is Empirical Re-engineering at its finest there, Spec! Grand-dad would be proud! 

mnem
 

[vk6zgo]

   The TMK500 lives to fight another day, I was able to fashion another wiping contact by cannibalising a mini grabber probe for its "spring contact"...

That is Empirical Re-engineering at its finest there, Spec! Grand-dad would be proud! 

mnem
 

"Stock in trade" for Techs working in Broadcasting, where:-

"I have to wait for the manufacturer to fill up a container in Lower Slobbovia, with our part at the very bottom, then about a month for the ship to reach the wrong side of the country, then be emptied out, repacked in another container, trucked across to WA, sit around at the agent's store, then finally make its way here."

Just doesn't "hack it"!