Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cubdriver]

About 0.42 A when idle, maybe a 1 Amp peak when taking a picture.
The contacts (like the rest of the camera) look very new. It always ran on NiMH batteries, is configured to use them and never had any problems. (Tried with all I could muster, and alkalines, too. No avail.) As I wrote, the camera even showed them as 'full' for about 2 seconds. My guess would be very short surges in the many-Amp range which the slow meter of the PSU doesn't show. But I'm not inclined to waste more time or energy on that dud. A Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS30 should be on its way anytime now. This time I did hit the 'Confirm' button. 

I've never actually measured the draw on any of my cameras, but at a glance nearly half an amp at idle seems to me to be an awfully high draw.

I hope your new Lumix arrives quickly and 'in good nick', as Dave would say, and look forward to photos of your gear.   

-Pat (who has pics of a Fluke nixie meter and HP power supply in the queue to rename, upload, and caption.)

[URI]

Shortly after writing about it I came across an ebay-offer of an HP 3437A and won it tonight (with only one arm.. )! 
The triax 3-lug input connector requires an adapter or a matching cable worth a multiple of the price including shipping I paid.

Who does think I was lucky because I've got the whole day to look after & bid for TEA-worthy gear doesn't know the whole story, by the way:
I had no success bidding on an agilent 8110A nor on HP 8116A's nor on a differential probe and I was even outbid on a weller PCB holder mounting frame. 
Where's the compensation for my aching broken arm..? 
The time being off for recovery isn't willing to correlate with my supposed time of increased number of bargained test equipment.
Bad for my TEA but good for my bank account. 

[Specmaster]

Shortly after writing about it I came across an ebay-offer of an HP 3437A and won it tonight (with only one arm.. )! 
The triax 3-lug input connector requires an adapter or a matching cable worth a multiple of the price including shipping I paid.

Who does think I was lucky because I've got the whole day to look after & bid for TEA-worthy gear doesn't know the whole story, by the way:
I had no success bidding on an agilent 8110A nor on HP 8116A's nor on a differential probe and I was even outbid on a weller PCB holder mounting frame. 
Where's the compensation for my aching broken arm..? 
The time being off for recovery isn't willing to correlate with my supposed time of increased number of bargained test equipment.
Bad for my TEA but good for my bank account. 

Practise makes perfect, you have to select wisely don't you know, weekends are very bad for winning on Ebay, everyone else is at home doing the same thing

[URI]

Practise makes perfect, you have to select wisely don't you know, weekends are very bad for winning on Ebay, everyone else is at home doing the same thing

That was the time from monday to friday summed up. 
Sunday gave me the 3437A. 

[Specmaster]

And the missing plug??

[URI]

And the missing plug??

I'll wait and see what the future working days will bring to me..   

[neo]

Great news the wallet gave me (limited) permission to bid on that scope! Now lets ignore that this isn't Christmas and hope for a Christmas miracle.

[bitseeker]

Good luck on the scope, neo. Hope you get it at the price you want.

[Cubdriver]

Great news the wallet gave me (limited) permission to bid on that scope! Now lets ignore that this isn't Christmas and hope for a Christmas miracle.

Fingers crossed for you.

-Pat

[Specmaster]

Be warned however that once you get your first scope, it won't be your last, as they say you'll need at least another one in order to repair the first one, I now have 5 full sized CRO's in working order, 1 usb/blue tooth scope and a battery portable with another full sized on the bench again soon, all in 10 months  I think I need help 

[bd139]

Have some help: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/contests/uk-geek-car-boot-sale-(i-e-a-hamfest)-kempton-park-november-5th-10am/ 

This is literally 10 minutes up the road from me. I'm screwed.

[tggzzz]

Have some help: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/contests/uk-geek-car-boot-sale-(i-e-a-hamfest)-kempton-park-november-5th-10am/ 

This is literally 10 minutes up the road from me. I'm screwed.

No you're not, you'll be relieved () when you return home.

Just concentrate on all the postage you won't have spent, and how much more free time you will have. After all, you won't feel the need to be hunched over fleabay auctions, and since you can see equipment working, you won't have to find manuals and do repairs.

[bd139]

I was considering more the fact that I will have to explain my purchases when I get home. The first thing coming out of the car will get a raised eyebrow. It's the ones after that...

What would be ideal is a TM500 mainframe because it looks like one thing

[tggzzz]

I was considering more the fact that I will have to explain my purchases when I get home. The first thing coming out of the car will get a raised eyebrow. It's the ones after that...

Some strategies:

• man-up, and deal with it
• prepare the ground; concentrate on how much you haven't spent, and how much free time you will now have that can be spent on "interesting" things (for some strange and wonderful definition of "strange")
• get an upgrade to v2.0 

[neo]

Be warned however that once you get your first scope, it won't be your last, as they say you'll need at least another one in order to repair the first one, I now have 5 full sized CRO's in working order, 1 usb/blue tooth scope and a battery portable with another full sized on the bench again soon, all in 10 months  I think I need help 

Well you see, i have a very devastating type of TEA. If i buy something it has to be better than what i had before, this my third scope. My first was a ballantine 20MHz which doesn't work, i think they fleeced me but they were amicable when i confronted them; obviously anything is better than a broken 20MHz scope so i got a Hitachi V-1065A. So then they only logical next step would be a digital oscilloscope or a 7000 series Tek   

While on the topic of logical steps its also interesting how i got to this many multimeters,
Harbor freight freebie>fluke 8000A for 5 bucks at hamfest>spare multimeter in the form of 8010A>nixie tube 3.5 digit multimeter>3.5 digit instek with capacitance>5.5 digit fluke 8800A>broken 8800A so then a slight step backwards into 4.5 digit meters with a Keithley 177 and 8050A>8200A because NIXIE TUBES!
And that is how i came to possess 8 multimeters excluding my 3 VTVMs, after all those multimeters i need to catch my oscilloscope collection up to the madness.

The harbor freight free multimeters suck until you just want to test something and want something you can afford to risk catastrophic failure with.

[bd139]

Those harbour freight things aren't actually that terrible for the money (I think they're under £2 here!). Apart from the shoddy input protection, naff test leads, 1M DC impedance which is a bit low and the lack of useful AC ranges, mine reads the same as my Fluke 8024B!

I've got a classy one here I haven't even opened yet. It has hold and backlighting. Actually I'm going to crack it open quick .... brb.

[Berni]

You know what they say. There is always a better piece of gear out there...or was it a bigger piece of gear...or was it a bigger fish...why would you want a huge fish anyway, a huge scope ain't so bad tho.

[neo]

Those harbour freight things aren't actually that terrible for the money (I think they're under £2 here!). Apart from the shoddy input protection, naff test leads, 1M DC impedance which is a bit low and the lack of useful AC ranges, mine reads the same as my Fluke 8024B!

I've got a classy one here I haven't even opened yet. It has hold and backlighting. Actually I'm going to crack it open quick .... brb.

I've found the problem is not their technical limitations its their mechanical ones. Every single one that i haven't electrically blown up has either had the LCD, the switch, the battery clip or the leads literally fall apart.

I actually had one once that completely fell apart,the back broke off and everything.

You know what they say. There is always a better piece of gear out there...or was it a bigger piece of gear...or was it a bigger fish...why would you want a huge fish anyway, a huge scope ain't so bad tho.

Thats the problem it only ever gets bigger or more expensive 

[bd139]

I took it to bits. This is the free one I got with my scope. I've got another one I got with my arb as well in the hall. These smell funny but are based on the DT830 design.

The really annoying bit? It has tubular banana jacks. None of that pressed and folded shit that you get on Uni-T meters at 10x the cost. Oh and a PTC and ceramic fuses. Miracle!





I'm considering taking it in the garden this weekend and stick it on an mains extension block and test it on each range 

[neo]

Oh thats a nice one, all the bits are there too. Quite impressive for harbor freight.

[AF6LJ]

I would consider it an embarrassment for someone who worked in the electronics field to be seen in the same room with one of those meters. 

[bd139]

It's considerably less bad than some of the kit my father had and he was a professional EE. They didn't do safety back then at all

[tggzzz]

It's considerably less bad than some of the kit my father had and he was a professional EE. They didn't do safety back then at all

Or even school children.

Lumps of potassium and sodium plus a beaker of water (still have some downstairs), potassium cyanide, mercury swirling around a tray, tesla coils, radioactive sources (one fob-watch was more powerful than any of the school's sources), jumping jack and banger fireworks, etc, etc.

I tried to compensate for the lack of those by taking my daughter backpacking around India and by launching her into the sky. She still thought I wrapped her in cotton wool until, at university, she saw what other people hadn't done

[bd139]

Yes indeed. Did A level chemistry here and our teacher really didn't give a crap what we took out of the store. That was until we blew the fume cupboard out with picric acid. About 50g of it went off that we were trying to extract to set off on the field. It showered my good friend and accomplice in glass. Good job he had a face shield on. He learned that when he lost half his hair the previous time 

Tip: never move a shock sensitive explosive by convincing your lab partner that it's ok to scrape it off the drying rack with a spoon.

You have to embrace danger a little bit to be aware of it. This is also why I didn't end up a chemist. They actually left me in a lab full of chemicals once in my summer job between college and university and I must have stolen about 10kg of oxidising agents

Never did get my hands on some Toluene.

That little meter is pretty safe compared to the above

[Specmaster]

Yes indeed. Did A level chemistry here and our teacher really didn't give a crap what we took out of the store. That was until we blew the fume cupboard out with picric acid. About 50g of it went off that we were trying to extract to set off on the field. It showered my good friend and accomplice in glass. Good job he had a face shield on. He learned that when he lost half his hair the previous time 

Tip: never move a shock sensitive explosive by convincing your lab partner that it's ok to scrape it off the drying rack with a spoon.

You have to embrace danger a little bit to be aware of it. This is also why I didn't end up a chemist. They actually left me in a lab full of chemicals once in my summer job between college and university and I must have stolen about 10kg of oxidising agents

Never did get my hands on some Toluene.

That little meter is pretty safe compared to the above

I always knew you was a bit of a rebel, so normal gunpowder wasn't good enough for you then, you wanted to make some TNT. "You was only supposed to blow the bloody doors off"