Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Mr. Scram]

Cutting holes in venerable equipment sounds horrible, to be honest. They're only original once.

[bd139]

I've had some extra holes added to me over the years. Keeping something 100% original isn't necessarily the best objective in my mind. If it's working and of use and fulfils its purpose then it's good.

I've just spoken to my mother (as I said before she actually worked for Telequipment) who said not to touch it with a twenty foot barge pole. To quote her exact words: "if it hasn't been used then it probably didn't work when we sold it, or did but for not very long!". They had a high return rate because their QA was shit apparently so this might have gone out and come back again, sat in storage and then auctioned off later when Tek shut them down. Also she suggested that because they were priced under Tek by so much that they used to get "funny old smelly men in sheds and labs buying them would use them until they had as many holes in as their clothes".

[tautech]

TBH I'd give up trying to find the right lead and look at forward engineering always on these. I have spent months trying to find out what the damn thing was. Found a picture of the insides:



As you can see from the above, someone drilled a hole underneath the socket and put a captive lead on 

Missing leads is a mega-common problem on these.

The hack above I'd be worried about hot pins sticking out so I'd just nibble the hole out big enough for an IEC panel mount socket and be done with it.

When I did it, I removed the connector, put the posts back on and tied the mains lead around one of the poles and cable tied the fuck out of it.

I don't remember that weird mains socket on the D83 I had. IIRC it'd already been converted to a bog standard IEC socket like this:
https://www.jaycar.co.nz/iec320-male-chassis-power-plug/p/PP4005
The mains fuse was retained and the conversion looked simple, neat and tidy.

[neo]

Here is a good question, i have come to know paper caps to be  replace on sight part are the tantalum caps of the 70s and 80s deserving of the same treatment?
    One catastrophic failure of one is enough to make me think so, just wanting second opinions. 

Edit; Interestingly enough flukes are rotten with them but the Keithley 179A i got sidesteps them all together.

[bd139]

Yes replace the bastard things. The last three scopes I had from the 70s/80s were plagued with shorted or otherwise dead ones.

[Mr. Scram]

I've had some extra holes added to me over the years. Keeping something 100% original isn't necessarily the best objective in my mind. If it's working and of use and fulfils its purpose then it's good.

I've just spoken to my mother (as I said before she actually worked for Telequipment) who said not to touch it with a twenty foot barge pole. To quote her exact words: "if it hasn't been used then it probably didn't work when we sold it, or did but for not very long!". They had a high return rate because their QA was shit apparently so this might have gone out and come back again, sat in storage and then auctioned off later when Tek shut them down. Also she suggested that because they were priced under Tek by so much that they used to get "funny old smelly men in sheds and labs buying them would use them until they had as many holes in as their clothes".

I've had too many nice items that were ruined by some previous schmuck owner who thought he'd "improve" the thing. If making changes is inevitable, which often is the case, I prefer doing it in reversible ways. It can take a bit of creativity, but the results don't tend to be worse and often are actually better.

[Specmaster]

I've had some extra holes added to me over the years. Keeping something 100% original isn't necessarily the best objective in my mind. If it's working and of use and fulfils its purpose then it's good.

I've just spoken to my mother (as I said before she actually worked for Telequipment) who said not to touch it with a twenty foot barge pole. To quote her exact words: "if it hasn't been used then it probably didn't work when we sold it, or did but for not very long!". They had a high return rate because their QA was shit apparently so this might have gone out and come back again, sat in storage and then auctioned off later when Tek shut them down. Also she suggested that because they were priced under Tek by so much that they used to get "funny old smelly men in sheds and labs buying them would use them until they had as many holes in as their clothes".

I've had too many nice items that were ruined by some previous schmuck owner who thought he'd "improve" the thing. If making changes is inevitable, which often is the case, I prefer doing it in reversible ways. It can take a bit of creativity, but the results don't tend to be worse and often are actually better.

Maybe another entry might be made from beneath with out spoiling its appearance might be a solution, and removing all connections to the existing socket. Thus allowing the overall appearance to be undamaged and allow the possible re-adoption of the normal power entry if a suitable plug is found later?

[beanflying]

Trawl evilbay for something from the period even if it is not genuine. I have a couple of places locally that have some ex military gear for bits and pieces like that too as per a few (dozen) pages ago 

Secondhand Sewing machines at your local junk shop might be a source.

[mnementh]

Cutting holes in venerable equipment sounds horrible, to be honest. They're only original once.

 I tend to agree, especially in the case of a museum piece like the one we were discussing earlier. I've already suggested several ways one could make safe, serviceable power connections using the original connector, and in short time too.

Other examples... particularly ones that are hideously disfigured already... I have no qualms with modernizing, especially if done carefully with metal nibblers as bd139 suggested earlier so it looks as if it might have been a manufacturer retrofit. I am guilty of such shameless modding myself countless times.

I've had some extra holes added to me over the years. Keeping something 100% original isn't necessarily the best objective in my mind. If it's working and of use and fulfils its purpose then it's good.

I've just spoken to my mother (as I said before she actually worked for Telequipment) who said not to touch it with a twenty foot barge pole. To quote her exact words: "if it hasn't been used then it probably didn't work when we sold it, or did but for not very long!". They had a high return rate because their QA was shit apparently so this might have gone out and come back again, sat in storage and then auctioned off later when Tek shut them down. Also she suggested that because they were priced under Tek by so much that they used to get "funny old smelly men in sheds and labs buying them would use them until they had as many holes in as their clothes".

*Looks down at his grub shirt and shorts, still lingering after housechores... does a quick whiff test...*  "Heeeeyyyy...!"


But another equally plausible explanation is that some old HAM bought it and died after using it a month, then it sat in a closet for decades because the surviving family lost the damn oddball cord.

I've had too many nice items that were ruined by some previous schmuck owner who thought he'd "improve" the thing. If making changes is inevitable, which often is the case, I prefer doing it in reversible ways. It can take a bit of creativity, but the results don't tend to be worse and often are actually better.

Yes, I've been in the same boat myself... valve era & early transistor era B&K equipment, for some reason, seems to attract those exact type of owners like bees to clover...


mnem
I made this dot right here.

[Specmaster]

Just received email that part of my order from AliExpress for my 2nd T12 soldering station has arrived here in the UK, pretty impressive given that I ordered the items on the 3rd Jan, they were accepted by the airline yesterday and arrived here today. Hopefully my other items ordered at the same and accepted by the airline yesterday will also turn up real soon as well. Just want the controller from Banggood, ordered same day etc to arrive and then I'll be building it 

[bd139]

That’s good news. Mine are all in the void between China and here still. Well just got a text from Royal Mail saying the handle is turning up today. Nothing to attach it to yet

[Specmaster]

That’s good news. Mine are all in the void between China and here still. Well just got a text from Royal Mail saying the handle is turning up today. Nothing to attach it to yet

Haha it's the handle that I have been told is here as well[emoji3]

[beanflying]

So MICSIG 1104 with all the bells and decoding options seems to be the answer for my 'current' oscilloscope wants & needs. Subject to changing my mind AGAIN

[tautech]

So MICSIG 1104 with all the bells and decoding options seems to be the answer for my 'current' oscilloscope wants & needs. Subject to changing my mind AGAIN

Do you need portability ?

[beanflying]

I am still doing some service work on Coffee Machines so potentially handy to be done on site instead of dropping an exchange one in and taking the old one home (up to 150km). Generally most of the blocks get replaced if faulty on site as downtime over $$ makes it sensible and generally in depth fault finding isn't done in the field. Batteries might be interesting to potentially reduce noise for my amateur decent into voltnuttery 

Rather than been slugged bogus (my opinion) high $$ for 'unlocking' software or features such as rom type plugin's they seem at this stage to be adding value to existing customers and units in the field.

Feature set to $ they are in the ball park with others in the sub $1k AUD and some of those I wouldn't touch with a very long stick.

I suspect a more serious bench scope may still be needed as well 

[bd139]

Our coffee machines (£2k a pop) in the office blow up about once a month so this is probably good business to be in

The trick is to charge out for that 150km round trip if you can, then use that to buy a nice scope for home

[beanflying]

I try and avoid fully auto machines. To many zero trained expert users involved

Paid traveling for sure, regular service runs spread the $ around but breakdowns $ each way and a bit more on weekends or out of hours

[bd139]

FFS went for a piss because I'd been holding on for ages and Mr Postman turned up and I missed it. He crammed my UV leds through the door but the soldering iron handle alas would not fit.

Also it appeared for a moment to have been in a weird state only possibly explained by quantum mechanics. It was both delivered successfully and unsuccessfully until the red slip was observed on the door mat. Grr:

[Specmaster]

That's just typical, cannot wait a split second, unless of course you were pissing for the nation 

[bd139]

I reckon he had the red slip ready to roll. Looks too neatly written to be done in mid air. Probably didn't even get the package out of the van.

[Specmaster]

My Postie has just been, got a parcel for me..... opened it up with great expectation..... bloody charger for our Dyson vac 

EDIT: update on the other parts from China for T12, Controller (Banggood) shown as shipped, Case and power supply for T12 (AliExpress) shown as accepted by airline still but not left country of origin. Microscope shown as shipped (AliExpress).

I hate this waiting game...

[bd139]

I hate it when that happens. Toys. Oh wait. No toys

I have just fired up a whole bunch of the UV LEDs and they certainly work pretty well. 3 in series with a 150 ohm resistor gives 30mA at 13.8v and enough to light the ceiling up from 1.5m away. Now to work out what I've got lying around I can use as a diffuser that won't attenuate the UV part of the spectrum too much!  All of them are going to be soldered to stripboard and then this is going to go between two black Ikea picture frames for the £10 UV exposure box so I don't have to wait 4 weeks for my boards to turn up.

Going to spend lunch working out how to wire these up to a suitable piece of stripboard so the LED distribution is tight but even

[Specmaster]

Sounds great, one of these days I'll get around to making something instead of constantly repairing stuff and maybe I'll have a go at making some of my own pcb's, always used stripboard before for anything I made. In fact I got some stripboard the other day to make up that battery eliminator for the Heathkit VA7, still wait for other bits to arrive for that one though.

[bd139]

It's quite good fun making boards.

Have chucked some LEDs on some stripboard. In groups of three with +/- busses alternately between rows. I've chucked 45 in three rows and it's blinding. UV is not good so I'm wearing sun glasses when testing. I've designed it so I can actually get another row in between the ones there if I need MORE POWER. May not be necessary!

[Specmaster]

It's quite good fun making boards.

Have chucked some LEDs on some stripboard. In groups of three with +/- busses alternately between rows. I've chucked 45 in three rows and it's blinding. UV is not good so I'm wearing sun glasses when testing. I've designed it so I can actually get another row in between the ones there if I need MORE POWER. May not be necessary!

Wow, all that light for 395 mill amps, make a sunbed next!