Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Have fun with your new "free" toy.

mnem
The Chinese word for "crisis" is the same as for "opportunity".

[mnementh]

normally 3 years factory, pickup / drop off by courier, turnaround 7 - 14 days. Been there, done that ...

Yeah, bitch part is now trying to resolve that when all my proof-of-purchase is locked away in a trailer in BuffaloNY. And the MB was purchased in the US, and I now live in the GWN.

Obviously, the path of least misery will be to just buy a new one from Amazon; would be up/running in 48 hours. But that's a ~$400 hit right now, thanks to... COVID/Global Chip Shortage/Top of the Line MB... 

mnem
would still cost less than a heart attack... 

[Kosmic]

Have fun with your new "free" toy.

mnem
The Chinese word for "crisis" is the same as for "opportunity".

I was gladly paying for the non-broken version. It's a shame really since all that could have been avoided with a bigger box and a little bit of proper padding.

[mnementh]

I hear you; was just trying to put a brighter face on it.     I too have enough "projects" right now; didn't need this new bundahoo.

mnem
*knee-dreep in the hooplah*

[Cerebus]

Joy to UK. Busts within 6 years: replacement via retailer.

It may well take quite a bit of arm twisting to get them to actually comply with the law however. That obligation also points up how much of a scam paid-for extended warranties are unless they contain some genuine extras like on-site service, which of course they almost always don't - they just want you to give them more money to do what they would legally have had to do anyway.

My favourite trick when some spotty oik of a sales assistant tries to sell me an extended warranty is to fain a concerned voice and say "Oh. Are they that unreliable that I need the extra warranty? Perhaps I'd better not buy it." and watch while they try to navigate that without either saying that "Yes, it is crap." or "No, it's fine, I was trying to earn commission on selling you something you don't need.". 

[bd139]

Counter pron. HP 5384A check out.

Went really well - nothing wrong with it at all I can find.

Good first sign - original HP stickers still covering the screw holes. And oh yes it did have four actual HP feet which I have already removed here.



Insides - nice neat and tidy. Date codes point to late 1992 as the build date



Quick look towards the display



Hole ready for something better than the built in oscillator. I have taken measurements. Distance between the three pins is 0.3". Distance between the three and the single one is 1.5". Bounding box is 2"x 1.25" centred. Will knock a board up in Kicad for this and a footprint for the OCXO I have ordered.



10MHz "standard" oscillator.  3.6 Roentgen Not Great Not Terrible. Will be removed when the above is done...



Bottom of the board. Nice HP design, clearly Zukon output though as always



Close up



I'm really liking this. It's fairly small and it'll do 11 digits over 10s which is plenty. 11 digits only between 1.0 and 1.299 multipliers apparently. Assume that's a register or buffer limit but fine for standard 1/10MHz references

[Specmaster]

Thats lovely and clean and I do love that large ground wire, nicely done.

[bd139]

Joy to UK. Busts within 6 years: replacement via retailer.

It may well take quite a bit of arm twisting to get them to actually comply with the law however. That obligation also points up how much of a scam paid-for extended warranties are unless they contain some genuine extras like on-site service, which of course they almost always don't - they just want you to give them more money to do what they would legally have had to do anyway.

My favourite trick when some spotty oik of a sales assistant tries to sell me an extended warranty is to fain a concerned voice and say "Oh. Are they that unreliable that I need the extra warranty? Perhaps I'd better not buy it." and watch while they try to navigate that without either saying that "Yes, it is crap." or "No, it's fine, I was trying to earn commission on selling you something you don't need.". 

Oh yes. You have to go full Karen on them. I am the arsehole who pulls his phone out and starts recording that conversation. No one wants to say no on record...

[McBryce]

the idea was to check if the disk drive was indeed working.
WIthout boot disk or any software or knowledge about the Atari that is somewhat difficult ...
I confess though that currently I am too tired to read any FM.

I'll have a look through my collection. I definitely have 800XL DOS boot disks, but I may have an 800 boot disk too that I could send you. It's possible to make one on an old PC with a 5.25in drive, but it's complicated and involves WinXP too.

McBryce.

[Saskia]

@McBryce
that offer is highly appreciated.

The seller responded and promised to send a boot disk.

I'll keep everybody updated.

@mnementh my experience with Asus is that if you cannot produce a proof of purchase they take the manufacturing date which is stored in their product warranty database.

Check with the serial number on their webpage and they will let you know if the board is still under warranty.

[mnementh]

Aorus product line is GigaByte. I've found the transaction in my PP history, as I used that card to pay. However, no line items, and multiple bits/pieces were purchased.

Now searching my file folders and going to look on my BU HDD to see if I did the smart thing and scanned or phone-pic'd the damned receipt.

w00t! Original paper receipt was in my important personal papers folder; wifey to the rescue. I swear; I'd lose track of my arse if it weren't for her.   

mnem
 

[Robert763]

Tek 492 update.
The issue with the main control not changing from marker to center frequency goes away if you turn the span control a few clicks   Could still be be noisy 5 V rail or strobe decode, but might be a leaky diode in the span control circuit. I've a put a bunch of capacitors in my Farnell basket but haven't pulled the trigger yet.
I have been doing some more testing with it having dug out a couple of microwave sources. I seem to be fine at 10.35GHz and also at 24.1 GHz. The latter was using the external waveguide mixer and diplexer so it's good to know that they are working OK.

[capt bullshot]

Small update on the PM3300 (I've opened a thread in the repair section):

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/voltech-pm3300-power-meter/msg3521946/#msg3521946

[bd139]

Ok definitely need a frequency standard here. Each connected to the other counter’s reference output.

Although neither counter have budged from that for over an hour now.

[Robert763]

Think about why one is reading 14Hz high and the other 14Hz low.
You need a third source, even a not very accurate one and measure that with  both counters.

[bd139]

Yeah I know why. There's a 14Hz offset between the reference clocks. That doesn't answer which one is correct, so I'll probably buy a Bodnar GPSDO and use that as the primary reference i.e. the third counter which is GPS disciplined.

That is however moot because the Racal just blew up rather smellily (is that a word)? Looks like the failed ZTX550 before was because a tant on the LC pi filter on the hybrid DC line was going intermittent short. It just went total short and burned up the L 



I think I'm going to have to replace all the tants in this one as a precaution. There's about 30 in it.

[AVGresponding]

Joy to UK. Busts within 6 years: replacement via retailer.

It may well take quite a bit of arm twisting to get them to actually comply with the law however. That obligation also points up how much of a scam paid-for extended warranties are unless they contain some genuine extras like on-site service, which of course they almost always don't - they just want you to give them more money to do what they would legally have had to do anyway.

My favourite trick when some spotty oik of a sales assistant tries to sell me an extended warranty is to fain a concerned voice and say "Oh. Are they that unreliable that I need the extra warranty? Perhaps I'd better not buy it." and watch while they try to navigate that without either saying that "Yes, it is crap." or "No, it's fine, I was trying to earn commission on selling you something you don't need.". 

feign*


Sorry, grammar/spelling Nazi act finished for the week.
NB: The week runs from Sunday to Saturday...

[Specmaster]

Yeah I know why. There's a 14Hz offset between the reference clocks. That doesn't answer which one is correct, so I'll probably buy a Bodnar GPSDO and use that as the primary reference i.e. the third counter which is GPS disciplined.

That is however moot because the Racal just blew up rather smellily (is that a word)? Looks like the failed ZTX550 before was because a tant on the LC pi filter on the hybrid DC line was going intermittent short. It just went total short and burned up the L 



I think I'm going to have to replace all the tants in this one as a precaution. There's about 30 in it.

Ouch

[tggzzz]

Yeah just carted my mother to the hospital in an ambulance.

Thanks for your various good wishes. She's back home: no problems found other than old age.

She's very washed out; if her 100th birthday party was in the next ?week?, it would kill her! That and covid make planning somewhat difficult

[bd139]

Good to hear 

[URI]

I'm confused an pissed at the same time..

I found a nice offer for a sensor from a seller in Finland on ebay.de.
Made a reasonable offer, seller made a still acceptable offer that I accepted.

I should have read his description of the ad better:
He writes in his terms and conditions that -if I'm a private person 24% vat will be added to the (ebay-)price.
He obviously declares his ebay-prices vat free.
I wasn't aware that this is possible.
With 24% vat the price is not what I accepted..   

I already paid the ebay price+shipping, he now wants me to send the extra vat to his paypal account.
 

[bd139]

Report him to eBay. Seller misrepresenting.

[beanflying]

I think I 'nearly' have a stable three year old  So for this sample at least after some extended running in over time it is well up to the task of 4 1/2 - 5 1/2 digit meters with some aging.

[mnementh]

I'm confused an pissed at the same time..

I found a nice offer for a sensor from a seller in Finland on ebay.de.
Made a reasonable offer, seller made a still acceptable offer that I accepted.

I should have read his description of the ad better:
He writes in his terms and conditions that -if I'm a private person 24% vat will be added to the (ebay-)price.
He obviously declares his ebay-prices vat free.
I wasn't aware that this is possible.
With 24% vat the price is not what I accepted..   

I already paid the ebay price+shipping, he now wants me to send the extra vat to his paypal account.
 

Your contract is with eBay, not him. Any "binding contract" between yourself and the seller in those terms and conditions isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Open a dispute with PayPal and/or eBay immediately; do not hesitate.

ALL PAYMENTS, including VAT, are supposed to be made through eBay, or it is a violation of their terms and conditions.

Cancel the order. Report him. If you believe he isn't just scamming you and just want out of the deal, tell him you are not comfortable paying any portion of the purchase outside of eBay, and that you aren't comfortable doing business with someone who doesn't understand his responsibility to disclose the fact his VAT-FREE advertisement is ONLY for wholesale customers.

mnem
Run, don't walk to the nearest exit.

[URI]

Report him to eBay. Seller misrepresenting.

Oj, just saw it: The seller also includes shipping into his vat-demand..