Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bitseeker]

Nice one, Rob. I like things that don't power up. Often it means the thing got less than the normal amount of use for its age.

[Mr. Scram]

I want one but my wife says I can't have one.

If sounds like your wife just volunteered to populate 500 boards.

[smurph]

Well..  I have been out of GAS recently.  But only because I was saving up for something that I have wanted a for a long time.  And I tired, unsuccessfully, to cut my left index finger off.  Yeah, that set me back a bit.    I now have "Franken Finger!!!"  Luckily it still works like it is supposed to.  But I digress...  Anyway, I've been wanting an electronic load.  And I got one today!  A Transistor Devices DLF-400-100-800.  Now I can dump my big ass resistor and light bulb pile!  Pictures when it arrives.     But I'm so stoked about it I just had to post!

Now I have to build some shelves.  Because the last square foot of working area on my bench will be gone in a few days. 

I was reading previous posts about trying to keep multiple volt meters in agreement.  Yeah...  well...  that sucks.  But for some reason, volt meters being off by a few uV never bothered me.  What bothers the crap out of me is frequencies not agreeing!  Why does one bother me and the other doesn't?  I turn things on and the OCXOs all take a different time to warm up, etc...  So if one is different than the others, is it warmed up?  Or does it have a problem?  Etc...  Fortunately, there is a cure for frequency standards.  I now just use one OCXO (Racal Dana 1992 04E) for a reference and built a nice frequency distribution amplifier and feed every other piece of TE with it.  My "standard" might not be correct, but at least everything agrees!!  And that somehow makes me happy enough to where my time discrepancy phobia doesn't take over.  I did set the Racal Dana's frequency to a GPSDO a friend of mine has.  Maybe I'll do that once or twice a year and be happy because I really don't want to get a GPSDO.  )Nix that, I really do want one and I'm trying to convince myself otherwise.  You guys know how it is...)  But is there a fix like that for volt nuts?  I don't think so.  I sure hope I don't become a volt nut!

Steve

[neo]

Well..  I have been out of GAS recently.  But only because I was saving up for something that I have wanted a for a long time.  And I tired, unsuccessfully, to cut my left index finger off.  Yeah, that set me back a bit.    I now have "Franken Finger!!!"  Luckily it still works like it is supposed to.  But I digress...  Anyway, I've been wanting an electronic load.  And I got one today!  A Transistor Devices DLF-400-100-800.  Now I can dump my big ass resistor and light bulb pile!  Pictures when it arrives.     But I'm so stoked about it I just had to post!

Now I have to build some shelves.  Because the last square foot of working area on my bench will be gone in a few days. 

I was reading previous posts about trying to keep multiple volt meters in agreement.  Yeah...  well...  that sucks.  But for some reason, volt meters being off by a few uV never bothered me.  What bothers the crap out of me is frequencies not agreeing!  Why does one bother me and the other doesn't?  I turn things on and the OCXOs all take a different time to warm up, etc...  So if one is different than the others, is it warmed up?  Or does it have a problem?  Etc...  Fortunately, there is a cure for frequency standards.  I now just use one OCXO (Racal Dana 1992 04E) for a reference and built a nice frequency distribution amplifier and feed every other piece of TE with it.  My "standard" might not be correct, but at least everything agrees!!  And that somehow makes me happy enough to where my time discrepancy phobia doesn't take over.  I did set the Racal Dana's frequency to a GPSDO a friend of mine has.  Maybe I'll do that once or twice a year and be happy because I really don't want to get a GPSDO.  )Nix that, I really do want one and I'm trying to convince myself otherwise.  You guys know how it is...)  But is there a fix like that for volt nuts?  I don't think so.  I sure hope I don't become a volt nut!

Steve

How did you nearly cut your finger off? Sorry freak accidents, medical oddities and mutilations are of interest to me to a limited degree.

[bitseeker]

Anyway, I've been wanting an electronic load.  And I got one today!  A Transistor Devices DLF-400-100-800.  Now I can dump my big ass resistor and light bulb pile!  Pictures when it arrives.     But I'm so stoked about it I just had to post!

800 watts, nice! Don't dump the resistor and light bulbs, though. They're useful, too (turn-on transient tests, AC current limiter, etc.).

What bothers the crap out of me is frequencies not agreeing!  Why does one bother me and the other doesn't?

Ah, it's always something.

I now just use one OCXO (Racal Dana 1992 04E) for a reference and built a nice frequency distribution amplifier and feed every other piece of TE with it.  My "standard" might not be correct, but at least everything agrees!!  And that somehow makes me happy enough to where my time discrepancy phobia doesn't take over.  I did set the Racal Dana's frequency to a GPSDO a friend of mine has.  Maybe I'll do that once or twice a year and be happy because I really don't want to get a GPSDO.  )Nix that, I really do want one and I'm trying to convince myself otherwise.  You guys know how it is...)

Cool, that's the plan for my 1992 as well.

[smurph]

How did you nearly cut your finger off? Sorry freak accidents, medical oddities and mutilations are of interest to me to a limited degree.

I was doing stupid stuff...  It always is like that.  I was chasing down a radio charger problem and I found it was a bad wall wart power supply.  It was late, and I was tired.  But I wanted to fix it soooooo badly for some reason.  So I was trying to crack it open with my pocket knife and ended up cracking myself open instead.  All of the way to the bone!  With the force I was using and the sharpness of the blade, it was effortless.  SURPRISINGLY so.  It was a full on gusher too because I hit a rather largish artery and had to use super glue to staunch the bleeding.  And I juuuuust missed the tendon pulley system that allows you to bend at the first knuckle.  So I got lucky.  Real lucky.  Stupid mistake, for sure.  I usually put those things in a vise and put pressure on the cases and crack them with a chisel.  But no...  I couldn't wait.

I had just sharpened that pocket knife too.  It was too dull to cut butter just a week before.  Peachy... 

Steve

[smurph]

800 watts, nice! Don't dump the resistor and light bulbs, though. They're useful, too (turn-on transient tests, AC current limiter, etc.).

I really wanted a bigger one, as I have worked on a few 2kW and up power supplies.  So no, I probably won't dump the resistors and light bulbs because I might still need them in series with the e-load!  But the bigger 1kW and up loads are just too far out of my price range.  This one will do fine for the majority of the power supplies I do (ham radio power supplies).  It is going to be sooooo nice.  I guess I will still be in struggle mode on the big power supplies for solid state amplifiers and such (50v-3kW). 

I was going to build one, but the costs are still prohibitive.  I got this one on eBay for less than the cost to build one myself.  I'm relatively new at this ( 5 years or so) so I haven't cultivated a proper junk box from which to draw parts.  But I'm getting there. 

Steve

[bitseeker]

If you're doing constant current tests, you can use more than one load in parallel to dissipate additional power. Fire them up one after another until you reach the required level. So, you just need to score three more of those 800W units. See how TEA occurs naturally?

For transient testing, I don't know if the timing of multiple units could be synchronized in order to act as a single large load. Seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

[cellularmitosis]

I saw a mysterious voltage standard on ebay today.

"HP/Agilent ET-5188 voltage standard, you won't find this in any HP catalog because it was made for in-house use"

http://www.ebay.com/itm/263108070666

I decided to make a bit of a low-ball offer and I got lucky!  Picked it up for $75 + shipping.

I've been thinking about making a few electronics videos on YouTube lately.  For $75, I figure its worth it just to make a tear-down video, even if it turns out to be a dud.

Interestingly, it has decades based on 2.5 and 5.  Might be fun to hack a pair of input jacks into it, bury an LTC2400 inside of it, and give it the extra functionality of being a 5V-range 24-bit data-logging ADC.

[alm]

Interesting. Finding documentation might be tough if what they say about it being for internal use is true. I wonder what product it was designed for. 1/2.5/5 is a somewhat strange series. 1/2/5 (e.g. oscilloscopes) or 1/3 (analog meters) would make more sense to me.

I see a switch for remote programing, but nothing that looks like an input for analog or digital remote programming. Maybe it is on one of the sides that is not pictured?

[cellularmitosis]

I see a switch for remote programing, but nothing that looks like an input for analog or digital remote programming. Maybe it is on one of the sides that is not pictured?

I was wondering the same thing.  Perhaps they made a small batch of these, and remote programming was an option, but they didn't bother to remove the front-panel switch.

I'll make sure to start a thread when it arrives and take lots of photos of the tear down!

[Vgkid]

Glad you bought it  , it popped up on my ebay search a few weeks ago. I even looked at the listing.

[Oldtestgear]

I am an addict. I suffer from TEA plus many of the other acronyms used. At least here I can admit my issues without fear of total ridicule by others. My problem ( Others call it that) started about ten years ago when I decided to get back into electronics. I was in electronics all my working life except for about 20 years I worked in the semiconductor industry in sales & marketing. Anyway I wanted a few bits of kit  - a scope, PSU, sig gen etc. Nothing fancy, just basic usable gear. Then I met a guy running a cal lab who HAD to get rid of surplus kit due to a restructuring exercise. Three vans full of Tektronix, HP, Racal  kit & I was totally hooked. Now I have almost completed a pretty decent cal lab of my own & will rehome anything with a pedigree that I find. Does not matter what it s or how big provided it needs a home & is affordable.  I know the problem is serious as I am running out of space......

Thanks for reading.

Phil

[bd139]

Welcome! I just got rid of a load of older stuff (a sin, sorry!) so I've got some gaps to fill

[tautech]

I am an addict. I suffer from TEA plus many of the other acronyms used. At least here I can admit my issues without fear of total ridicule by others. My problem ( Others call it that) started about ten years ago when I decided to get back into electronics. I was in electronics all my working life except for about 20 years I worked in the semiconductor industry in sales & marketing. Anyway I wanted a few bits of kit  - a scope, PSU, sig gen etc. Nothing fancy, just basic usable gear. Then I met a guy running a cal lab who HAD to get rid of surplus kit due to a restructuring exercise. Three vans full of Tektronix, HP, Racal  kit & I was totally hooked. Now I have almost completed a pretty decent cal lab of my own & will rehome anything with a pedigree that I find. Does not matter what it s or how big provided it needs a home & is affordable.  I know the problem is serious as I am running out of space......

Thanks for reading.

Phil

Welcome to the TEA thread and forum Phil.

Don't feel bad, feel lucky. You're in good company. 

[bd139]

Ooh while I'm here, a friend of mine has offered me a free but dead Tektronix 453A. I think the filter caps are shot.  I really don't need it. Persuade me I do because if I don't take it, it's going to the tip apparently and I'd feel bad about that.

[WastelandTek]

Tektronix 453A... because if I don't take it, it's going to the tip

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo, please no...god

just the tunnel diodes please...the CRT???


nononononononono...no tip

[bd139]

That's enough persuasion. It's mine. I'll see if I can fix it

I *really* like Tektronix kit from the 1960-1980 period but it's hard justifying it sitting around, plus I'm a bit sour because the HV multiplier in my old 475 decided to snuff it. I sold it to someone who could be bothered to get the A4 board out and replace the offending black box of annoyance.

[tggzzz]

Tektronix 453A... because if I don't take it, it's going to the tip

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo, please no...god

just the tunnel diodes please...the CRT???


nononononononono...no tip

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-453A-1-Oscilloscope-/292206781746

[bd139]

Ok so that's two Tek 453A's I'm going to end up with now 

[WastelandTek]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-453A-1-Oscilloscope-/292206781746

yeah, but that one is in the parts stream, those Esaki diodes can not be had at any price.

I would not do it myself, but I would rather see them parted out than binned.

[bd139]

Fear not with the skip destined one. It's now mine, confirmed, and will be arriving in about 3-4 weeks when he comes down from Hull.

I'll go for a thorough evaluation then refurb/part out depending on the outcome. The case is pristine though apparently and it comes with some elusive Tek probes so it should be a positive outcome I think. The individual in question was quite anal about keeping stuff working and clean but he's getting a bit old and just deals with canned black box Ham equipment now rather than building anything.

I've got a 50MHz Philips crate I'm keeping around for the sake of hanging on to some analogue kit. It may replace it as it has 10 more MHz and 10x the street cred

[Hydron]

On the topics of accumulating test gear and old Tek kit, I have a bit of an problem:

- The lab tech at work has retired and left behind his Tektronix 465 scope (which he rescued from a skip (dumpster) years ago and got going)
- The company isn't likely to want to keep it, so it's probably destined for the skip again unless I or someone else rescues it a second time
- While I'd love to keep it myself, I already have 3 DSOs and no room for a big analogue beast (especially as I keep buying more kit, latest being an old tek current probe setup)

Any suggestions on what to do with it? I don't really know a lot about old Tek gear - is a 465 (in not amazing cosmetic condition) something worth trying to save? I believe it works (but needs some adjustment), and I hate to see stuff unnecessarily thrown away.

[tggzzz]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-453A-1-Oscilloscope-/292206781746

yeah, but that one is in the parts stream, those Esaki diodes can not be had at any price.

I would not do it myself, but I would rather see them parted out than binned.

In my experience that seller is conservative, in that his descriptions are accurate or pessimistic. I'm a satisfied customer. His collection can fairly be described as an Alladin's cave.

[WastelandTek]

Any suggestions on what to do with it?

Bring it home and offer it up on the forum? or ebay or craigslist (or whatever "list" you have over there), it will find a home.

It is up to us, right now, to shepherd as many of these as possible through the "white elephant" years until their true value is realized.