Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Mr. Scram]

Bother. Just when the issues with the previous shipment were sorted, I received another package with what looks like another defect. I started buying name brand professional gear to finally be done with this kind of nonsense, but it looks like that isn't working out.

I'll trawl through the manual this weekend to make sure I'm not missing anything, but considering a spare works exactly as expected things aren't boding well.

[bd139]

Brand name kit gives you no guarantees past someone to lick your butt if it goes wrong and possibly some form of traceable cal and safety certification.

This is incidentally the same reason I end up building kit occasionally: I get fed up with the design and shipping flaws in other stuff. I can design out as many flaws as I need to and make my own compromises that I am aware of. Usually more compromises but in the right places

[Mr. Scram]

Brand name kit gives you no guarantees past someone to lick your butt if it goes wrong and possibly some form of traceable cal and safety certification.

This is incidentally the same reason I end up building kit occasionally: I get fed up with the design and shipping flaws in other stuff. I can design out as many flaws as I need to and make my own compromises that I am aware of. Usually more compromises but in the right places

Yes and no. While any individual thing isn't guaranteed to work, quality control, materials and maintainability are generally better. The Weller base station would be an example, that's some good stuff. It has a proper PA6 plastic casing with some glassfibre filled bits in the right places, nice Zamak cast base, you name it. They could easily have cheaped out by using ABS and the other usual suspects and it's certainly more likely to stand up to use and abuse better.

Obviously, there are a lot of brands taking advantage the trust people have in more expensive tools, so quality can vary drastically.

[Specmaster]

Got home from holidays on Wednesday after 10 brilliant days on the Central coast of NSW, paid my local post office a visit and collected 4 parcels including my Quicko T12 Soldering Station. 

In true EEVBlog style I took it apart without turning it on first! 

Mines the "compact one" like SpecMasters:




It needed some TLC as many of the soldering joints were frankly crap and the PCB needed a clean with Isopropyl!



I re-did all the TH joints with some 60/40 Rosin core solder:



and the control board TH joints weren't great



improved:



I cant believe how small this thing is and how fast it heats up! Super Impressive and really nice to solder with, the handle is so light and your hand is so close to the tip the control you have is great!



I have found the tip temp display seems to jump around a lot but for the money im not complaining. I just need a proper handle holder for it and something to hold the tips not being used  (the tips are all really nice quality too, this was very pleasant surprise).

High res pics for those wanting a closer look: https://imgur.com/gallery/f5We0

I'm glad that you are happy with yours, it is as you say, small but highly efficient. The temperature jumping around on the display does settle down the more use it but as the thermocouple is part of the tip assembly, this will change with every tip change you make.

I'd seriously recommend that you consider the modifications I made to mine with regard to the earthing of the case itself and the connection between power socket and the board itself as I feel strongly that this will become a source of problems in the future.

I'm so happy that I've purchased another as a collection of parts to assemble and I have got 2 iron holders / rests like the attached and I have enlarged the holles on the top and dropped my spare tips into them (they need something in the bottom to hold them upright but I'm working on that) and it keeps them nice and handy to hand when required.

Nice to see that we have the same desoldering tool (mine is the desoldering half) I think it works brilliantly, how do you get on with yours?

[bd139]

Delivery finally!

One Thurbly Thandar PL154 15V 4A supply arrived. Not only is it in good condition, but it has the shorting bars, was well packaged, works 100% correctly and is in good physical condition. £30 well spent (+£14 delivery) 

Don't turn it on, take it apart. Seems to be manufactured about 2000:



Now turn it on...



I chucked a few resistors across it and measured current and voltage and it is pretty spot on 

Also batteries arrived for my TF930  counter. Will install them this evening.

Just in time for the weekend 

[capt bullshot]

Some serious TEA happening here (Germany / EU):

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/(deeu)-group-sale-of-5-anritsu-mg3633a-signalgenerators-(10-khz-to-2700-mhz)/

Take a chance and jump in ...

[AF6LJ]

Delivery finally!

One Thurbly Thandar PL154 15V 4A supply arrived. Not only is it in good condition, but it has the shorting bars, was well packaged, works 100% correctly and is in good physical condition. £30 well spent (+£14 delivery) 

Don't turn it on, take it apart. Seems to be manufactured about 2000:



Now turn it on...



I chucked a few resistors across it and measured current and voltage and it is pretty spot on 

Also batteries arrived for my TF930  counter. Will install them this evening.

Just in time for the weekend 

I'll say this...
It is very colorful inside.
Looks nice.

[Specmaster]

Delivery finally!

One Thurbly Thandar PL154 15V 4A supply arrived. Not only is it in good condition, but it has the shorting bars, was well packaged, works 100% correctly and is in good physical condition. £30 well spent (+£14 delivery) 

Don't turn it on, take it apart. Seems to be manufactured about 2000:



Now turn it on...



I chucked a few resistors across it and measured current and voltage and it is pretty spot on 

Also batteries arrived for my TF930  counter. Will install them this evening.

Just in time for the weekend 

I'll say this...
It is very colorful inside.
Looks nice.

Looks good

[bd139]

Made here in the UK too!

Hopefully not like this:

[Specmaster]

Made here in the UK too!

Hopefully not like this:

I don't know for sure but I think they make all their gear here in the UK?

[Specmaster]

Postmans just been, lovely big selection of caps so now I can start the recapping process on my 30" monitor and see if it cures it. If not onto AliExpress and order up a new T-Conn board and then wait and wait and wait for the slow delivery to arrive and then hopefully I'll be the proud owner of a huge monitor. Downside is that to use it, I'll have to rearrange / reduce the amount of test gear on my shelf behind my bench - bummer 

[Cubdriver]

What is it with you Limeys?  You drive on the wrong side of the road, you put your power switches in upside-down....   

<ducking>

 

-Pat

[Specmaster]

What is it with you Limeys?  You drive on the wrong side of the road, you put your power switches in upside-down....   

<ducking>

 

-Pat

Yep and then we call the trunk, a boot, the fender is a bumper, the hood is a bonnet, the stick is a gear lever and the hot wire is the live wire etc etc oh and er the zit we call a spot 

[bd139]

What is it with you Limeys?  You drive on the wrong side of the road, you put your power switches in upside-down....   

Our power switches turn off when you lean on them and our dominant hand is conveniently situated on the side you can stick it out of the window to make signs at other drivers

Replaced batteries in the TF930. This is why you need to use the correct sized batteries - little thermistor hiding there which is part of the charge controller. You have to blob some heatsink compound on it so it contacts the battery properly.



Anyway job done. Works perfectly:



Edit: rotate image

[Specmaster]

Now yours looks like mine with those batteries installed [emoji106]

[Cubdriver]

Our power switches turn off when you lean on them and our dominant hand is conveniently situated on the side you can stick it out of the window to make signs at other drivers

 

Mine too - I'm a southpaw!   

-Pat

[bd139]

Now yours looks like mine with those batteries installed [emoji106]

Yeah mine looked like that before as well 

Our power switches turn off when you lean on them and our dominant hand is conveniently situated on the side you can stick it out of the window to make signs at other drivers

 

Mine too - I'm a southpaw!   

-Pat

Hahaha you are optimised for your location

[Specmaster]

Now yours looks like mine with those batteries installed [emoji106]

Yeah mine looked like that before as well 

Our power switches turn off when you lean on them and our dominant hand is conveniently situated on the side you can stick it out of the window to make signs at other drivers

 

Mine too - I'm a southpaw!   [emoji14]

-Pat

Hahaha you are optimised for your location

Thought you had different make of battery?

[bd139]

Nope exactly the same cells. Just knackered.

[Specmaster]

Nope exactly the same cells. Just knackered.

Their gooduns those GPs

[bd139]

Yep. I always buy Gp batteries anyway so I was rather happy to see some in that.

[neo]

Our power switches turn off when you lean on them and our dominant hand is conveniently situated on the side you can stick it out of the window to make signs at other drivers

 

Mine too - I'm a southpaw!   

-Pat

I'm ambidextrous! I favor my left hand ultimately however.

[Cerebus]

Yep. I always buy Gp batteries anyway so I was rather happy to see some in that.

Another GP fan here. The thing that turned me on to them was the fact that they produce a useful, and accurate, data sheet for every battery they make.

[bd139]

Yes. Also very well defined products and no marketing overload. Plus they never seem to leak. I have used probably 3000-4000 or so of them over time and I’ve only had one failed cell and it failed to open circuit.

[djos]

Looking good! Nice bit of tidy work there as well. Interested to see how they compare to other irons.

  I just got two notifications from aliexpress this morning saying my package has arrived in the U.K. Thought hey it’s the T12 iron! Turns out unfortunately not. Got the 9501 handle and 200 UV LEDs.

This is becoming a serious “issue” I think. TEA is bad but I think there’s another thing that is developing.

Case in point: For some strange reason I am now the owner of 500 3mm LEDs. I don’t need that many but it was only £0.80 for 300 more than the 200 I didn’t need to start with. I will be stress testing them. Hopefully they blow up spectacularly like the LEDs I used to buy from Tandy in to 1980s and not like the ones you buy from reputable dealers that just go dark. Oh and 60 TO92 voltage regulators because I need some 78L06’s and can afford to wait. Oh and some 2n3904’s because I’m interested to see if the no brand ones are any worse than the On Semi ones I’ve beem buying by the bucket load. Oh and some no brand TL431’s (this is my favourite IC) so I can build some current sinks for the above LEDs.

Cheers, I'm loving it so far, the handle is super light and easy to use but the lightness does seem to make it feel a bit cheap even tho it's pretty solid and not flimsy.

Oh that's gold, you won't be running out of led's anytime soon.