Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

Just replaced the NiHM cells in my TTi TF930 counter. Good as new now.

Do you ever have job go so smoothly that you think you must have done something wrong? Well, it was one of those. Barring getting the soldering station and a few tools out the whole job must have been 10 minutes tops - I even remembered to dot a little thermal compound onto the thermistor that nestles up against one of the cells.

So, take it over to the stack of test gear, plug it into a PSU, turn on PSU - no charging indicator. Damn! Knew it was too good to be true. Then I think, "GP green NiHM - very low self discharge", and unplug it from the PSU, turn it on "bingo!". It wasn't charging because it had a full charge already.  Glad now I was extra careful about what I let the tab strips from the cells touch.

I've got to agree with BD139, the way the cells are arranged on the board is one of the best and easiest installations for tabbed cells I've ever seen. If I have a need to design in some rechargeable cells to a board in future I'm stealing that setup.

[Ero-Shan]

Looks to be a proper bobbing set up.

I’ve heard that if you get the length of the chain just right, the really big HPs will bite.

Of course if you’re not careful, some of the smaller introduced Chinese species will sneak in and steal your bait.

It is not even my own chain, had to borrow it from a friend. Is it either HP or Chinesium? Or is there a chance for others like Fluke, Datron, R&S, ... as well? Might be worth buying my own chain, then. 

[bd139]

Just replaced the NiHM cells in my TTi TF930 counter. Good as new now.

Do you ever have job go so smoothly that you think you must have done something wrong? Well, it was one of those. Barring getting the soldering station and a few tools out the whole job must have been 10 minutes tops - I even remembered to dot a little thermal compound onto the thermistor that nestles up against one of the cells.

So, take it over to the stack of test gear, plug it into a PSU, turn on PSU - no charging indicator. Damn! Knew it was too good to be true. Then I think, "GP green NiHM - very low self discharge", and unplug it from the PSU, turn it on "bingo!". It wasn't charging because it had a full charge already.  Glad now I was extra careful about what I let the tab strips from the cells touch.

I've got to agree with BD139, the way the cells are arranged on the board is one of the best and easiest installations for tabbed cells I've ever seen. If I have a need to design in some rechargeable cells to a board in future I'm stealing that setup.

It’s a pretty nice set up. I was rather impressed.

Just lost vertical amp on my 465. Grr. Looks like one of the output transistors has blown up. Anyone know what a 151-0466-00 is? Motorola branded. Not sure what 2N number it is. Can’t seem to find it. Grr.

5W TO39 NPN. I imagine an older RF PA transistor will do the job if Vce goes high enough so if I can’t find original I’ll locate something that looks about right and see if it blows up.

[Specmaster]

Just replaced the NiHM cells in my TTi TF930 counter. Good as new now.

Do you ever have job go so smoothly that you think you must have done something wrong? Well, it was one of those. Barring getting the soldering station and a few tools out the whole job must have been 10 minutes tops - I even remembered to dot a little thermal compound onto the thermistor that nestles up against one of the cells.

So, take it over to the stack of test gear, plug it into a PSU, turn on PSU - no charging indicator. Damn! Knew it was too good to be true. Then I think, "GP green NiHM - very low self discharge", and unplug it from the PSU, turn it on "bingo!". It wasn't charging because it had a full charge already.  Glad now I was extra careful about what I let the tab strips from the cells touch.

I've got to agree with BD139, the way the cells are arranged on the board is one of the best and easiest installations for tabbed cells I've ever seen. If I have a need to design in some rechargeable cells to a board in future I'm stealing that setup.

Oh er, I got 2 of those Tf930 when they were on Ebay, both of mine are minters and have good batteries too.

[tggzzz]

Just replaced the NiHM cells in my TTi TF930 counter. Good as new now.

Do you ever have job go so smoothly that you think you must have done something wrong? Well, it was one of those. Barring getting the soldering station and a few tools out the whole job must have been 10 minutes tops - I even remembered to dot a little thermal compound onto the thermistor that nestles up against one of the cells.

So, take it over to the stack of test gear, plug it into a PSU, turn on PSU - no charging indicator. Damn! Knew it was too good to be true. Then I think, "GP green NiHM - very low self discharge", and unplug it from the PSU, turn it on "bingo!". It wasn't charging because it had a full charge already.  Glad now I was extra careful about what I let the tab strips from the cells touch.

I've got to agree with BD139, the way the cells are arranged on the board is one of the best and easiest installations for tabbed cells I've ever seen. If I have a need to design in some rechargeable cells to a board in future I'm stealing that setup.

It’s a pretty nice set up. I was rather impressed.

Just lost vertical amp on my 465. Grr. Looks like one of the output transistors has blown up. Anyone know what a 151-0466-00 is? Motorola branded. Not sure what 2N number it is. Can’t seem to find it. Grr.

5W TO39 NPN. I imagine an older RF PA transistor will do the job if Vce goes high enough so if I can’t find original I’ll locate something that looks about right and see if it blows up.

From http://w140.com/Tektronix_Xref_sm.pdf

[bd139]

From http://w140.com/Tektronix_Xref_sm.pdf

Had no idea that existed. Thank you

Well half the vertical is dead and Q4482 is seriously knackered. The collector-emitter junction is a dead short and the base-emitter junction is a deadode not a diode. 

Turns out it was 151-0446-00 (not 466) which is a pretty standard 2n3866. This is also handy because... from the hall cupboard of doom I have found, Philips branded dated week 20 1998..:



And there's my evening project

Thank you tggzzz (and a silent key who I nabbed them off)

Edit: boo hiss. Looks like a couple of resistors have burned as well. Might have to rebuild the vertical amp and test it properly outside the scope    Smells "interesting".

[Specmaster]

That's handy, could have been far worse, a hybrid.

Strikes me that Teks are a bit unreliable once they get to a certain age, maybe their design is that they are pushed to the limit already and as they get older things let go and die?

[mnementh]

... when peering into the guts of some test equipment you are fettling with.

Fettling - a proper English word, and I know of what I speak as SWMBO is a potter and my ex is the granddaughter of a sagger maker's bottom knocker.

Yes indeed.

Merkins sometimes have difficulty understanding that towns used to employ people to knock you up. Yes "knocker up" was a job title.

Apparently that continued until the 1970s. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35840393

Well, no it's not just a matter of not understanding that particular bit of local color... over here, "Knocking you up" or "getting knocked up" pretty universally means to get you pregnant. From cowboy slang "knockin' boots". So I think you could see where a lot of us would give you that look like a tree full of owls... 

Looks to be a proper bobbing set up.

I’ve heard that if you get the length of the chain just right, the really big HPs will bite.

Of course if you’re not careful, some of the smaller introduced Chinese species will sneak in and steal your bait.

Oh, I'm so proud of you... said that with a straight face & e'eythang. Remind me never to play Poker with you. 

Just replaced the NiHM cells in my TTi TF930 counter. Good as new now.

Do you ever have a job go so smoothly that you think you must have done something wrong? Well, it was one of those. Barring getting the soldering station and a few tools out the whole job must have been 10 minutes tops - I even remembered to dot a little thermal compound onto the thermistor that nestles up against one of the cells.

So, take it over to the stack of test gear, plug it into a PSU, turn on PSU - no charging indicator. Damn! Knew it was too good to be true. Then I think, "GP green NiHM - very low self discharge", and unplug it from the PSU, turn it on "bingo!". It wasn't charging because it had a full charge already.  Glad now I was extra careful about what I let the tab strips from the cells touch.

I've got to agree with BD139, the way the cells are arranged on the board is one of the best and easiest installations for tabbed cells I've ever seen. If I have a need to design in some rechargeable cells to a board in future I'm stealing that setup.

Over here we call that a " zipless fu** " (well, at least old farts like me do or did) ; from swinger era term meaning a tryst that went so effortlessly you don't even remember taking your pants off.



And another entry in the "Things we do for our morning cuppa..." file: This morning I made a 1.25mm allen wrench because I couldn't find a driver, and I needed to install these stainless steel screws in the pot-lid of my venerable old KRUPS coffeemaker so it would brew. All before 7am...  Of course they were the only ones I had that were even close to appropriate.

This thing has died and been resurrected more times than that girl from HEROES; partly because it belonged to my mother, so I tend to give it the benefit of the doubt far more often than I should, and partly because it's the only drip-coffeemaker I've ever had that actually makes a tolerable cup of mud, which was the reason she kept it. Oh, and partly because it just seems to know to die only when I'm in a forgiving mood.


mnem
I owe, I owe, so off to work I go...

[Specmaster]

... when peering into the guts of some test equipment you are fettling with.

Fettling - a proper English word, and I know of what I speak as SWMBO is a potter and my ex is the granddaughter of a sagger maker's bottom knocker.

Yes indeed.

Merkins sometimes have difficulty understanding that towns used to employ people to knock you up. Yes "knocker up" was a job title.

Apparently that continued until the 1970s. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35840393

Well, no it's not just a matter of not understanding that particular bit of local color... over here, "Knocking you up" or "getting knocked up" pretty universally means to get you pregnant. From cowboy slang "knockin' boots". So I think you could see where a lot of us would give you that look like a tree full of owls... 

Could picture a long line of applicants for that particular job function 

[tggzzz]

... when peering into the guts of some test equipment you are fettling with.

Fettling - a proper English word, and I know of what I speak as SWMBO is a potter and my ex is the granddaughter of a sagger maker's bottom knocker.

Yes indeed.

Merkins sometimes have difficulty understanding that towns used to employ people to knock you up. Yes "knocker up" was a job title.

Apparently that continued until the 1970s. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35840393

Well, no it's not just a matter of not understanding that particular bit of local color... over here, "Knocking you up" or "getting knocked up" pretty universally means to get you pregnant. From cowboy slang "knockin' boots". So I think you could see where a lot of us would give you that look like a tree full of owls... 

Oh, we realise that - but Merkins are somewhat parochical.

Unlike you, we smoke fags (but AIUI some Merkins would like to do that in America), we sit on our fannies and bums, and seeing someone in their pants implies a distinct degree of familiarity.

We also tend not to confuse conversations; we keep them separate (apart from that laughable habit of "round robin Christmas letters").

[bd139]

That's handy, could have been far worse, a hybrid.

Strikes me that Teks are a bit unreliable once they get to a certain age, maybe their design is that they are pushed to the limit already and as they get older things let go and die?

Well the design life on that Tek was expected to be around 5 years and it was made in 1974. It's 2018 now so it's doing pretty well so far

Bits of me started to let go before I was 44 (teeth, eyes, hair, knees) 

Can't see any other damage. Think the resistors are victims of the transistor giving up.

[bitseeker]

Anyone here know what it means when a 3456A displays FFFFFF F

It previously worked and i just now changed the caps   

Might be Overload?

Well it kinda was. I had a capacitor installed backwards. 

As soon as you said "changed the caps," the first thing that came to mind was orientation error.

Please stone me to death,

It's not an uncommon occurrence. At least it didn't blow up (or you didn't mention that it had).

but in my defense it was installed correctly, ground to ground plane, they just meant for it to be backwards.

Was it on a negative voltage rail or something? In such a case, of course, ground is positive.

[bitseeker]

This time I've got a little picture puzzle that I just couldn't resist to do. Although my back will hurt for weeks and I'll probably get a hematoma (was donating blood this morning, and heavy lifting is not recommended shortly afterwards). It's not as pretty as I wanted it to be, but I'm not all that pretty, either.



The kayak is actually a 'T-Canyon', often affectionately called "Teekännchen", which in turn translates to 'small tea can'.

I like puns, especially the bad ones. 

What a hoot! Definitely worthy of entry into the Points of Interest index.

[Specmaster]

Yes, but the Tek can be fitted with new parts.

I remember how I used to laugh at my dad because he had a full set of false teeth quite early in life and then later my mum did the same. Would not use toothpaste because it was full of chemicals and also fluoride which IIRC she used to say caused your teeth to rot, instead used one of the most corrosive things she could have used, salt, so with that and a lot of fruit juice which is extremely acidic she also lost all of her teeth with the exception of one, bless her, it was too was rotten but she wanted to keep as it was the only thing holding her falsies in place.

Thank god I still have most my own teeth and I hope I continue to as well.

Other parts of me have given up already, hair is receding slowly, waistline expanding, feet and knees also grumbling and a trapped nerve affects my left pinkie finger, now where is the shop that sells new parts for humans 

[bitseeker]

Looks to be a proper bobbing set up.

I’ve heard that if you get the length of the chain just right, the really big HPs will bite.

Of course if you’re not careful, some of the smaller introduced Chinese species will sneak in and steal your bait.

It is not even my own chain, had to borrow it from a friend. Is it either HP or Chinesium? Or is there a chance for others like Fluke, Datron, R&S, ... as well? Might be worth buying my own chain, then. 

Maybe if you put one into a crabbing pot, you'll be able to trap some more that wander by.

[bitseeker]

now where is the shop that sells new parts for humans 

Although mostly unobtanium, they're working on rectifying that.

[tautech]

Well half the vertical is dead and Q4482 is seriously knackered. The collector-emitter junction is a dead short and the base-emitter junction is a deadode not a diode. 

Turns out it was 151-0446-00 (not 466) which is a pretty standard 2n3866.

When I did regular CRO repairs I looked for a well spec'ed generic plate driver amp and came up with BF259 which mostly always had a better Vmax than what designers used. Other specs were better than close enough to make it a pretty useful generic replacement.

[bd139]

Yes, but the Tek can be fitted with new parts.

I remember how I used to laugh at my dad because he had a full set of false teeth quite early in life and then later my mum did the same. Would not use toothpaste because it was full of chemicals and also fluoride which IIRC she used to say caused your teeth to rot, instead used one of the most corrosive things she could have used, salt, so with that and a lot of fruit juice which is extremely acidic she also lost all of her teeth with the exception of one, bless her, it was too was rotten but she wanted to keep as it was the only thing holding her falsies in place.

Thank god I still have most my own teeth and I hope I continue to as well.

Other parts of me have given up already, hair is receding slowly, waistline expanding, feet and knees also grumbling and a trapped nerve affects my left pinkie finger, now where is the shop that sells new parts for humans 

Actually fluorosis destroyed a number of my teeth. There’s a healthy balance

[bd139]

Well half the vertical is dead and Q4482 is seriously knackered. The collector-emitter junction is a dead short and the base-emitter junction is a deadode not a diode. 

Turns out it was 151-0446-00 (not 466) which is a pretty standard 2n3866.

When I did regular CRO repairs I looked for a well spec'ed generic plate driver amp and came up with BF259 which mostly always had a better Vmax than what designers used. Other specs were better than close enough to make it a pretty useful generic replacement.

That’s good to know. I might have some of them too

[Cerebus]

... instead used one of the most corrosive things she could have used, salt, so with that and...

Your blood, and most intra-cellular and extra-cellular fluids are 0.9% salt so, if salt were corrosive to bodily matter you'd fall apart in pretty short order.

[tautech]

Well half the vertical is dead and Q4482 is seriously knackered. The collector-emitter junction is a dead short and the base-emitter junction is a deadode not a diode. 

Turns out it was 151-0446-00 (not 466) which is a pretty standard 2n3866.

When I did regular CRO repairs I looked for a well spec'ed generic plate driver amp and came up with BF259 which mostly always had a better Vmax than what designers used. Other specs were better than close enough to make it a pretty useful generic replacement.

That’s good to know. I might have some of them too

Grab some datasheets and check them out, I'd be interested if you're of the same opinion as I.



C'mon guys and gals we need knuckle down and get another ~60 posts in to become #2 in the 'By Replies" stats !

[Specmaster]

... instead used one of the most corrosive things she could have used, salt, so with that and...

Your blood, and most intra-cellular and extra-cellular fluids are 0.9% salt so, if salt were corrosive to bodily matter you'd fall apart in pretty short order.

I'm not so sure on that, neat salt brushed directly onto the teeth and into the gums? I'm no expert but that sounds highly abrasive to me wearing down the enamel and creeping beneath the gumline?

[Cerebus]

... instead used one of the most corrosive things she could have used, salt, so with that and...

Your blood, and most intra-cellular and extra-cellular fluids are 0.9% salt so, if salt were corrosive to bodily matter you'd fall apart in pretty short order.

I'm not so sure on that, neat salt brushed directly onto the teeth and into the gums? I'm no expert but that sounds highly abrasive to me wearing down the enamel and creeping beneath the gumline?

Corrosive? Abrasive? Which are you going for? BTW, salt as a dentifrice is as old as the hills. Soot and salt was a traditional, if odd sounding, toothpaste.

[bd139]

Put some on a slug and you decide 

[Specmaster]

... instead used one of the most corrosive things she could have used, salt, so with that and...

Your blood, and most intra-cellular and extra-cellular fluids are 0.9% salt so, if salt were corrosive to bodily matter you'd fall apart in pretty short order.

I'm not so sure on that, neat salt brushed directly onto the teeth and into the gums? I'm no expert but that sounds highly abrasive to me wearing down the enamel and creeping beneath the gumline?

Corrosive? Abrasive? Which are you going for? BTW, salt as a dentifrice is as old as the hills. Soot and salt was a traditional, if odd sounding, toothpaste.

With the abrasion wearing away the enamel, exposing the denteen which is softer the faster will be the erosion etc. Neither my dad or mum would tolerate sugar or sweets of any sorts but used salt daily and they both lost their teeth. I use normal Toothpaste and have most of my teeth and I'm 69.