Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

mnem
*Out standing in his field*

What, you have a field as WELL 

It's not uncommon. 

Its pretty easy to see that you're not a townie 

[Specmaster]

On the subject of Philips, I think we should roll back technology to 1960-1980. Far more interesting and I could have landed a job there instead and done some analogue stuff rather than ending up in software.

On a side note, I've been playing with a re-thinking of the Tektronix 130 LC meter with some slightly more modern parts? Why, for the hell of it! Plus I'm getting bored of sitting in front of Kicad. I'm much more happy with a pencil, some paper, a calculator and a soldering iron in hand.

The 130 is a neat little tube based device which uses a pair of oscillators running at around 140KHz. You null the fixture by zero beating them with a variable capacitor. These drive two inputs on a mixer, an LPF and then a schmitt trigger and then a pulse integrator. This ultimately gives a very linear reading of the difference frequency between the oscillators.  You connect the DUT, a low value L or C to one of them and the second oscillator slows down. The difference is recorded as a voltage and deflects a panel meter.

Theres a rather nice (but large) HP LCR meter in the Philips auction, in fact the same type as in that rifa video of Simon's that you posted earlier.

[bd139]

Yeah that’s the one I was researching when I found Simon’s video

[mnementh]

mnem
*Out standing in his field*

What, you have a field as WELL 

That's what the tax bill sez. Now if it just wasn't full of all these pesky Christmas Trees somebody planted 30 years ago...


mnem
Also, bears.

They'd be ready for timber harvest here @30, how old do they need to be there ?

Not sure they'll ever be big enough; they're actual Christmas trees. Pines and firs intended to be planted whole as landscaping. I suspect they may be some midget variety, as they seemed to spring up to 6-10 feet in no time, then lingered thereabouts for years.


mnem
*Back out into the suck*

[Cerebus]

I'll just leave this here.

Today's XKCD:

[Specmaster]

That pretty well sums it up for any of us, although the timescale will vary 

[mnementh]

 ~ Warning: NSFW! ~

Yes... that chart must be some collateral function of the Problem Solving Flowsheet I've kept pinned up inside my tool cabinet in every shop I've ever worked in. 

mnem
I fu**ed with it.

[Specmaster]

Yep, seen that one before and in many guises as well 

[mnementh]

Oh yeah... it's probably as old as blinkenlighten. My other favorite version is the Management Problem Solving Flowchart; not so much because it's funny, but because literal, direct application at work as insight into the source of all the "shit that rolls downhill" has saved my ass more than a few times.


mnem
When the fertilizer hits the industrial air circulator, it is best to be working offsite.

[mnementh]

Woot. Might go for that 33120A. No low level out means cocked attenuator relay which is easy to fix.

I was looking at that one and its brother, but figured no way in 'ell either'll go cheap enough I can afford the freight.

*Sigh*


mnem
POIT!

Not sure they'd ship anyway. Haven't dealt with an auction house I'd trust with shipping yet anyway.

What would have been nice is it finishing the weekend before which is the Strawberry Fair in Cambridge. I haven't been to it for a number of years but it was a right laugh back in the early 90s. To quote wikipedia:

"It has been held every year since 1974 except 2010, when it was cancelled due to 'continuing hostility' from drunken attendees and unbridled drug use. After a year's hiatus, the fair continued in a new form, with a perimeter fence erected around the festival and searches to check for excess alcohol, drugs and weapons."

Excess drugs, alcohol and weapons were the only reasons to go dammit! 

Edit: Just had major flashback. I'm not going. Bad idea 

Oh, wow man... We have a similar thing here in Poteet, TX; the Poteet Strawberry Festival every April. And EXACTLY the same hazards! One of the many reasons I'm looking to get the flurp outta Texas!

Crazy that we have the same small town right around the corner here on the other side of the pond!


mnem
And not the fun kind of crazy, I promise you.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Philips has a long association with Cambridge. In the late 1960s, the Dutch firm took over the world-famous Pye group of companies in the city, pioneers of TV and radio sets.

In 1986 Pye Telecom, the radio communications division, was renamed Philips Radio Communications Systems and grew into a £200 million turnover international group of companies.

W G Pye, founded in Victorian times, became Philips Scientific in 1988.

Two Cambridgeshire-based descendants of Pye, Sepura PLC and Team Simoco Group, are still leading companies in radio communications.

[/quote]

Wasn't Pye a Test and Measurement manufacturer in it's own right? I vaguely remember trying to fix a HV voltmeter with light spot indicator. But I'm not totally sure about the name.

[bitseeker]

Woot. Might go for that 33120A. No low level out means cocked attenuator relay which is easy to fix.

I was looking at that one and its brother, but figured no way in 'ell either'll go cheap enough I can afford the freight.

Not sure they'd ship anyway. Haven't dealt with an auction house I'd trust with shipping yet anyway.

Yeah, most auction houses in the US that I've seen don't ship. They'll have a list of couriers that you can hire or you can send your own service/schlepper out to pick up. So far, I've only bought from local auctions. Much simpler and I know it'll make it home safely. If it doesn't, then I guess I'll need a more crafty flowchart.

[mnementh]

Philips has a long association with Cambridge. In the late 1960s, the Dutch firm took over the world-famous Pye group of companies in the city, pioneers of TV and radio sets.

In 1986 Pye Telecom, the radio communications division, was renamed Philips Radio Communications Systems and grew into a £200 million turnover international group of companies.

W G Pye, founded in Victorian times, became Philips Scientific in 1988.

Two Cambridgeshire-based descendants of Pye, Sepura PLC and Team Simoco Group, are still leading companies in radio communications.

Wasn't Pye a Test and Measurement manufacturer in it's own right? I vaguely remember trying to fix a HV voltmeter with light spot indicator. But I'm not totally sure about the name.

My guess would be that was produced by Pye Telecommunications in the 40s and later; evidently they enjoyed some significant popularity as mobile radio providers for police and military during and after the war. They even made some of the early RADAR receivers used in wartime according to the wiki.


mnem
*Toddles off to ded*

[Specmaster]

Philips has a long association with Cambridge. In the late 1960s, the Dutch firm took over the world-famous Pye group of companies in the city, pioneers of TV and radio sets.

In 1986 Pye Telecom, the radio communications division, was renamed Philips Radio Communications Systems and grew into a £200 million turnover international group of companies.

W G Pye, founded in Victorian times, became Philips Scientific in 1988.

Two Cambridgeshire-based descendants of Pye, Sepura PLC and Team Simoco Group, are still leading companies in radio communications.

Wasn't Pye a Test and Measurement manufacturer in it's own right? I vaguely remember trying to fix a HV voltmeter with light spot indicator. But I'm not totally sure about the name.

My guess would be that was produced by Pye Telecommunications in the 40s and later; evidently they enjoyed some significant popularity as mobile radio providers for police and military during and after the war. They even made some of the early RADAR receivers used in wartime according to the wiki.


mnem
*Toddles off to ded*

Yes that's exactly what Pye used to do besides a few domestic radios and TVs. I lived in Haverhill for a time many years ago and they had a factory there solely making the Police radios. My ex worked there till they closed it down and I believe they relocated to Cambridge.

From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

[Specmaster]

This morning I got a SMS message informing me that Royal Mail will be delivering a parcel to me today from 4PX, does anyone know what 4PX is?

The only 2 items I'm waiting for is a package from China and its way too early for that, and the other is my meter from RS but their website has been updated and unless they've changed name, it won't be from them either??

[bd139]

4px is China. They’re a reshipper.

[Specmaster]

Well if its what I ordered a few days ago, they've outdone themselves on this then 

[bd139]

Better than Farnell. Got a US sourced order turning up. Two weeks so far! 

[Specmaster]

Humph, Farnell sound like my saga with RS then.

I see Mystic Meg has a Tek 7603 listed today, any good?

[bd139]

Nope STC buggerized one. Wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. They are basically hacked up so you can't swap the plugins out easily.

[med6753]

Decisions, decisions...which one do I use??  The new 2465 now occupies the spot above the 2465 DMS previously occupied by a B&K 2120. The 2120 has been a loyal servant since I purchased it new in 1991. Gonna put it in "storage" but kept fully functional.

I mentioned before that it appeared that the sweep cal on the new 2465 was off. It isn't. It's right on. The problem is the detent on the var sweep pot is a little flaky and needs a cleaning. Next time I open it up I'll take care of this minor issue. Other than that I haven't found any other issues and I've put perhaps 10 to 15 hours on it.

[bd139]

Attempts to reproduce the functionality of the Tektronix 130 going well. the original unit:



Reference oscillator and mixer working. This allows me to do frequency comparison of the reference oscillator and a signal generator.

Simple bit of kit really, especially now it is devoid of tubes. Left to right: colpitts oscillator ~140KHz, buffer, attenuator, mixer (diff amp). Yes I know it's on a breadboard - will deal with the problems associated with that later on



Output near zero beat. Notice the low frequency component which is close to 100Hz despite both inputs being around 140KHz



Next stop: LPF the output to get the LF component out, amplify and clip, integrate.

Why buy a Tek when you can build your own!

Decisions, decisions...which one do I use??  The new 2465 now occupies the spot above the 2465 DMS previously occupied by a B&K 2120. The 2120 has been a loyal servant since I purchased it new in 1991. Gonna put it in "storage" but kept fully functional.

I mentioned before that it appeared that the sweep cal on the new 2465 was off. It isn't. It's right on. The problem is the detent on the var sweep pot is a little flaky and needs a cleaning. Next time I open it up I'll take care of this minor issue. Other than that I haven't found any other issues and I've put perhaps 10 to 15 hours on it.

Moment you put the B&K away the tek will blow up

[mnementh]

Decisions, decisions...which one do I use??  The new 2465 now occupies the spot above the 2465 DMS previously occupied by a B&K 2120. The 2120 has been a loyal servant since I purchased it new in 1991. Gonna put it in "storage" but kept fully functional.

I mentioned before that it appeared that the sweep cal on the new 2465 was off. It isn't. It's right on. The problem is the detent on the var sweep pot is a little flaky and needs a cleaning. Next time I open it up I'll take care of this minor issue. Other than that I haven't found any other issues and I've put perhaps 10 to 15 hours on it.

A bee-yoo-tee-full soyt t' see! Jesst war-r-rms th' cockles of me 'eart, it duzz!! (Whatever-r-r th' 'ell they ar-r-re!)


mnem
And so my army grows!  Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!! 

[Specmaster]

Attempts to reproduce the functionality of the Tektronix 130 going well. the original unit:



Reference oscillator and mixer working. This allows me to do frequency comparison of the reference oscillator and a signal generator.

Simple bit of kit really, especially now it is devoid of tubes. Left to right: colpitts oscillator ~140KHz, buffer, attenuator, mixer (diff amp). Yes I know it's on a breadboard - will deal with the problems associated with that later on



Output near zero beat. Notice the low frequency component which is close to 100Hz despite both inputs being around 140KHz



Next stop: LPF the output to get the LF component out, amplify and clip, integrate.

Why buy a Tek when you can build your own!

Looking really good, just don't blow it up 

Other news, still no sign of RS returning the meter, have emailed them now and asking WTF is going on, 5 day door to door service Yah, pull the other one, even factoring in the May bank holiday doesn't extend the time to 10/11 days 

[bd139]

Ask for your money back when you get the meter back.