Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Having the land leaves me options but due to the hole in the ground, holler as its called,  my options are limited to the front. Though also of note is it cost an exorbitant amount of money to build anything other than a tent.

What is this hole in the ground thing then?

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[Kilo Tango]

Watch what happens the moment one dies. There's a mechanism in the universe called quantum unavailability. The moment you need something, it disappears off the planet, even though someone was selling some about 10 minutes before your requirement appeared.

I had a broken Heathkit panaplex display clock for 5 years. The moment I got rid of it, a whole load of working displays turned up on ebay.

yes like my trying to find bits to finish my R & S FSIQ analyser.

I am sure somebody took them as " they might come in useful" and they are probably in somebody's junk box, but can I find them 

Ken

[neo]

Having the land leaves me options but due to the hole in the ground, holler as its called,  my options are limited to the front. Though also of note is it cost an exorbitant amount of money to build anything other than a tent.

What is this hole in the ground thing then?

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I technically live on a mountain and the hole in the ground is pretty much an inverse hill.

[Specmaster]

Having the land leaves me options but due to the hole in the ground, holler as its called,  my options are limited to the front. Though also of note is it cost an exorbitant amount of money to build anything other than a tent.

What is this hole in the ground thing then?

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I technically live on a mountain, the hole in the ground is pretty much an inverse hill.

Oh I see, I was thinking it was something like engineering works going on.

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[neo]

No, fortunately not engineering works just a beautifal landscape feature with a forest, half the reason i bought this place was for the scenery.

In the spring and in the fall my favorite way to get here features sprawling valleys and landscapes with almost magical colors.

[Specmaster]

No, fortunately not engineering works just a beautifal landscape feature with a forest, half the reason i bought this place was for the scenery.

In the spring and in the fall my favorite way to get here features sprawling valleys and landscapes with almost magical colors.

Your lucky, all I have is endless streets full of houses.

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[bd139]

At least there’s no ticks, snakes or crocodiles in those rows of houses

[Specmaster]

At least there’s no ticks, snakes or crocodiles in those rows of houses

True. I missed out on that Fluke 27, I was putting the bloody shopping away  when it finished, went cheaply too, £16.65, it was the latest version of the 27 as well with Cat ratings.
Now I want one is when your quantum unavailability theory will kick in and the ones that will around will be the earlier ones and had a hard life or will go stupid money 

[neo]

At least there’s no ticks, snakes or crocodiles in those rows of houses

I got snakes, coyotes, armadillos, possums, porcupines, deer, rabbits, bobcats and someother, larger form of mountain cat. Supposedly if you go deep enough even wolves and maybe a bear.

With the exception of wolves and bears I've seen all those personally.

Interestingly enough i have a half bobcat half house cat hybrid as a pet who i call garfield

[Specmaster]

At least there’s no ticks, snakes or crocodiles in those rows of houses

I got snakes, coyotes, armadillos, possums, porcupines, deer, rabbits, bobcats and someother, larger form of mountain cat. Supposedly if you go deep enough even wolves and maybe a bear.

With the exception of wolves and bears I've seen all those personally.

Interestingly enough i have a half bobcat half house cat hybrid as a pet who i call garfield

There you go, another advantage you have over us Brits, your very own zoo 

[neo]

At least there’s no ticks, snakes or crocodiles in those rows of houses

I got snakes, coyotes, armadillos, possums, porcupines, deer, rabbits, bobcats and someother, larger form of mountain cat. Supposedly if you go deep enough even wolves and maybe a bear.

With the exception of wolves and bears I've seen all those personally.

Interestingly enough i have a half bobcat half house cat hybrid as a pet who i call garfield

There you go, another advantage you have over us Brits, your very own zoo 

  Great advantage that is too... until they become a nuisance.

[bd139]

At least there’s no ticks, snakes or crocodiles in those rows of houses

True. I missed out on that Fluke 27, I was putting the bloody shopping away  when it finished, went cheaply too, £16.65, it was the latest version of the 27 as well with Cat ratings.
Now I want one is when your quantum unavailability theory will kick in and the ones that will around will be the earlier ones and had a hard life or will go stupid money 

Bugger I’d have paid at least 30 for that!

[Specmaster]

At least there’s no ticks, snakes or crocodiles in those rows of houses

I got snakes, coyotes, armadillos, possums, porcupines, deer, rabbits, bobcats and someother, larger form of mountain cat. Supposedly if you go deep enough even wolves and maybe a bear.

With the exception of wolves and bears I've seen all those personally.

Interestingly enough i have a half bobcat half house cat hybrid as a pet who i call garfield

There you go, another advantage you have over us Brits, your very own zoo 

  Great advantage that is too... until they become a nuisance.

Yep, thats what having pets is like, they have their moments and then they can be pests too 

[neo]

At least there’s no ticks, snakes or crocodiles in those rows of houses

I got snakes, coyotes, armadillos, possums, porcupines, deer, rabbits, bobcats and someother, larger form of mountain cat. Supposedly if you go deep enough even wolves and maybe a bear.

With the exception of wolves and bears I've seen all those personally.

Interestingly enough i have a half bobcat half house cat hybrid as a pet who i call garfield

There you go, another advantage you have over us Brits, your very own zoo 

  Great advantage that is too... until they become a nuisance.

Yep, thats what having pets is like, they have their moments and then they can be pests too 

Between my rabbit, either of my 2 dogs or any of my 5 cats, at least none wants to kill me. Let alone can.

[Cerebus]

There you go, another advantage you have over us Brits, your very own zoo 

There's one just up the road from me, we call it Essex. 

[Specmaster]

There you go, another advantage you have over us Brits, your very own zoo 

There's one just up the road from me, we call it Essex. 

Well almost got it right, its called Brentwood, Essex, home to TOWIE 

[mnementh]

Quote from: Specmaster on Today at 09:30:27 AM

One more try


Your AD584KH looks way newer than the one in my example, mine is obviously a salvaged part. I just used it to check some of my DMMs - never tried it with the most recent aquisitions (TTi 1604 and Rigol DM3058). The calibration info on the back of the reference source says 2.49832v, the readings on the TTi was 2.4963v (when I remembered to put it in hi-res mode afterwards!), the Fluke 97V was 2.497v, The Rigol DM3058 was 2.4981v, and the Uni-T 70D 2.497v. So not bad, and I suspect the TTi 1604 is reading a little low anyway. Probably some losses in the leads too.

Salvaged is not necessarily bad. I'm hoping for an LH model on my reference; this will only come as salvaged or NOS parts. Plus pre-aged, etc...

Yes, but can't use vodka to clean circuit boards 

Sure you can. Will it work well and get the board clean? Eh. Details.

Does a fabulous job; I can say this with Absolut certainty. 


mnem
And my friend Tito agrees.

Welp... they delivered my AD584 voltage reference from eBay while I was away visiting family over Thanksgiving; now that I'm back, I finally have a little time for puttering on the bench. I got lucky and what was delivered is actually an AD584LH version, so quite pleased to get it for $7 even with the wait.

At first I intended to just cut off the part of the board with that stupid 15V battery connector, but then I found this ridiculously overkill filter cap rattling around the bottom of my parts drawer that just had to go in that hole. A little circuit rework to add a 10 ohm resistor to act as a basic fuse and to prevent inrush current from smoking the RPP diode, then a 1500 ohm bleeder and now I'm happy. The cap charges in about a second and discharges in about 10 seconds, so I'm pretty certain I won't have to worry about fluctuations caused by poor contact in the coax power connector, plus I can power it using a cable I already had made up for one of my LiPo chargers.


mnem
Fun Fact: Dictionary.com's Word of the Year, based on a sharp increase in searches for the term in year 2017, is " complicit ".

[bitseeker]

Nice "power conditioner."

[neo]

Mt.Carlson made it look so easy, it is not so easy. I tried to do it like him only to crash and burn.

I just finished recapping an old Heathkit 0-12, i royally botched the main filter caps, as it turns out in appearance only, and the fitting of some of the capacitors is half improvised due to lead length.

After 4 hours of work, 2 cuts and a burn, i go fetch the CRT and put the thing mostly back together, i left the case off initially and i tenuously turned it on for a test, using a light bulb in series to current limit it of course, and IT WORKED!  No explosions!

1 down, 3 to go and 4 capacitors short 

[Specmaster]

Mt.Carlson made it look so easy, it is not so easy. I tried to do it like him only to crash and burn.

I just finished recapping an old Heathkit 0-12, i royally botched the main filter caps, as it turns out in appearance only, and the fitting of some of the capacitors is half improvised due to lead length.

After 4 hours of work, 2 cuts and a burn, i go fetch the CRT and put the thing mostly back together, i left the case off initially and i tenuously turned it on for a test, using a light bulb in series to current limit it of course, and IT WORKED!  No explosions!

1 down, 3 to go and 4 capacitors short 

Hahaha, yep I agree the lead length on the older caps was longer, plus the cap itself was often longer which doesn't help if the installer made use of those features. I just recapped a calibrator and what seemed like a 20min  job took way longer as I had to rework other bits as well in order to make the leads reach.

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[bd139]

I've found this numerous times as well. The old Philips axial electrolytics had much longer leads than they do now under the Vishay/BC brand. I bought some old ones a few years ago for a refurb and they were about 3 inches long on each end!

[Specmaster]

I've found this numerous times as well. The old Philips axial electrolytics had much longer leads than they do now under the Vishay/BC brand. I bought some old ones a few years ago for a refurb and they were about 3 inches long on each end!

I don't like extending the leads if I can avoid it, it adds another future potential problem with bad joints.

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[bd139]

Indeed. Same.

I tend to, and this is shockingly bad to some, actually drill another hole in the board if it's possible to do so and then use a radial and glue it down. You can see a couple of unglued ones here I did in a Heathkit counter (FML that was totalled by the previous owner - I had to build an entirely new timebase for it):



If it's point to point wired, you're screwed

[Specmaster]

Indeed. Same.

I tend to, and this is shockingly bad to some, actually drill another hole in the board if it's possible to do so and then use a radial and glue it down. You can see a couple of unglued ones here I did in a Heathkit counter (FML that was totalled by the previous owner - I had to build an entirely new timebase for it):



If it's point to point wired, you're screwed

Yep, done that as well. The calibrator was a Heathkit and the part I was working on was point to point at the back of the case they had used tag strips for connections.

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[Specmaster]

Well at last Ebay is picking up, got 5 things again on my watch list, lets see what I end up with, not going to say what I'm watching or where incase it puts the mockers on it, don't want to be paying stupid money which is what tends to happen if your not to careful and caught up in the adrenaline rush at the auction closing stages.