Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Rummaging through the memory stick of an old camera I found something that might inspire bd139 to get on with fixing up his D83's:

Thanks for this. Inspiration is needed

They look awesome, stop slacking and get the job done, you will have some nice gear there.

[bd139]

I’m writing down a list of replacement HV parts now actually

[Specmaster]

I’m writing down a list of replacement HV parts now actually

Oh good, problem is it's so bloody hot concentrating is hard.

[bd139]

Yep. Got a fan blowing up my arse.

That scammer is back again over and over again. I’ve managed to write a filter that catches that scammer at work. Going to turn it on later I think as it doesn’t appear to result in any false positives. It looks for new sellers it hasn’t seen before and lists all the item titles and if there are at least 5 that match a sample I took by hand it adds the seller to the shitlist. I’ve written half my own eBay API in python now.

[mnementh]

And still flogged over and over by the lot with Amiga Denial Syndrome.

I still remember one of my colleagues who had an A1200 fitted into a PC case. Had PPC accelerators and all sorts. But mostly duct tape and denial.

A PC is the best platform surely?

It probably is but some people still are hanging on to the amigas for some reason.

I can understand from the point of wanting to play old games etc but the guy was convinced the software he was writing was going to change the world, on AmigaOS 

This is my life in a nutshell. 

Amiga and Vector Graphics DID change the world; they made polygon object representation feasible, and they invented the core concepts behind "texels"... their descendants gave us all the amazing Hollywoo CGI we take for granted nowadays. Problem was/is, to run any OS with HAL that can be properly optimized for VG, you need a supercomputer or cluster computing the size of one, because it requires parallel processing to do properly.

Trying to fit that into a box with the processing power of a walnut via was the core fallacy of the Amiga... you'd need to cluster every one ever made and mod them to the nth degree to do anything useful; and then you'd STILL need a monster machine to slave them all to. You can only optimize code so much before you start to trade away stuff you need.   


mnem


Tempest FTW!!!

[mnementh]

Check this out. When I grow up I want to have the same toys. The owner is the admin for a Vintage Tek Facebook group.

If I had that bench I would never leave home and become that weird old hermit gray beard that no one ever sees. Oh hell, I'm that already!   

That's beautiful [emoji106]

 *Wipes a tear from the corner of one eye* [emoji106]  [emoji106]  [emoji106]


mnem
I think I hear breakfast calling my name...

[CopperCone]

who gets panic attacks when they see a local oscillator unlock flag? 

[bd139]

And still flogged over and over by the lot with Amiga Denial Syndrome.

I still remember one of my colleagues who had an A1200 fitted into a PC case. Had PPC accelerators and all sorts. But mostly duct tape and denial.

A PC is the best platform surely?

It probably is but some people still are hanging on to the amigas for some reason.

I can understand from the point of wanting to play old games etc but the guy was convinced the software he was writing was going to change the world, on AmigaOS 

This is my life in a nutshell. 

Amiga and Vector Graphics DID change the world; they made polygon object representation feasible, and they invented the core concepts behind "texels"... their descendants gave us all the amazing Hollywoo CGI we take for granted nowadays. Problem was/is, to run any OS with HAL that can be properly optimized for VG, you need a supercomputer or cluster computing the size of one, because it requires parallel processing to do properly.

Trying to fit that into a box with the processing power of a walnut via was the core fallacy of the Amiga... you'd need to cluster every one ever made and mod them to the nth degree to do anything useful; and then you'd STILL need a monster machine to slave them all to. You can only optimize code so much before you start to trade away stuff you need.   


mnem


Tempest FTW!!!

I sold out on 68k for this:

https://youtu.be/hrj-EEnsacQ

[bd139]

Good news! I’ve managed to reverse engineer the eBay complaints API and can call it. Wrapped up nicely as:

report_fraud(auction_id)

Going to plug this into my scripts and auto submit that bastard who is clearly automating the eBay fraud with stolen credentials. Fight fire with fire!

Edit: have I just started a tech war

Edit 2: someone has listed four 6.5 digit HP 3456A’s... https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F113138841567

[mnementh]

Oooooh... that's yummy. A part of me wants the whole stack, just to bathe in the warm LED glow... 

Of course, while I was looking at that... guess what eBay had to "suggest". https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192592446246   


mnem
Clearing out... clearing out... ARGGGHHH!!!

[med6753]

I’m writing down a list of replacement HV parts now actually

Oh good, problem is it's so bloody hot concentrating is hard.

The heat wave here finally broke on Friday and I was able to shut down the A/C and give my electric bill a break. Yesterday was a beautiful day with temps in 70's F and low humidity. Open windows and let the fresh air in. But alas it's supposed to get hot again and today the temperature is creeping back up. I was checking my digital thermometer and it records and stores the lowest and highest temp recorded until cleared or the batteries are changed. In January it stored a low of -8.4 F and last week a high of 96.9 F. That's one hell of a spread but typical for this region.

Amiga: My Brother had one. I think he still has it but it quit working a long time ago. I was never a gamer and at the time not much into PC's so my reaction was "meh" 

Change of plans here. I know I said yesterday that I was going to work on the 465 again. Decided to put it back into the cart until later this week. My objective for this week off from work was to get the PSU in that newer 2465 re-capped. So I'm concentrating on that and started today.   

[med6753]

Oooooh... that's yummy. A part of me wants the whole stack, just to bathe in the warm LED glow... 

Of course, while I was looking at that... guess what eBay had to "suggest". https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192592446246   


mnem
Clearing out... clearing out... ARGGGHHH!!!

At least all the readings (mostly) match except for that one. One in every crowd. If they didn't match it would drive me batshit crazy. 

[mnementh]

(SNIP)
Change of plans here. I know I said yesterday that I was going to work on the 465 again. Decided to put it back into the cart until later this week. My objective for this week off from work was to get the PSU in that newer 2465 re-capped. So I'm concentrating on that and started today.

Interesting. Roughly what was your cost on components? Care to share your BOM?


mnem
*Back to the salt mines*

[bd139]

Got to like the LEDs on those HP meters. I did think about pulling the trigger on an offer of £180 as I’ve seen distinctly hooky ones going for £120 then I told myself do I really need it? Aaand the answer is nope. Well not that one. But this is TEA so it’s not that simple.

However I only actually have one DMM at the moment, excluding the Uni-T 33A i gave to my youngest to use as a tricorder (minus probes of course for safety reasons!) and the shitty Brymen one that came with the DG1022Z  and this is a problem. I have had to lead swap numerous times this week and it’s annoying the shit out of me. I need another one.

I was looking for bench meters and there are just none I want. The 34401A’s are too expensive for what they are and my use cases really, the TTi ones have zero review or reputation and the rest are shit, GP-IB only or crappy stuff. I looked at cheaper meters and I just can’t bring myself to buy a cheap meter now. Also have empty credit card thanks to a couple of sales (metcal is paid off entirely already!) and there are new boxed Fluke 87V’s galore on eBay for around £235 which is less than half the RS/Farnell ex VAT price. These are around due to market saturation.

Decisions decisions  ... can anyone save me or come up with something else.

[PA0PBZ]

Oooooh... that's yummy. A part of me wants the whole stack, just to bathe in the warm LED glow... 

Also, isn't that the DMM with the most buttons ever?

[med6753]

(SNIP)
Change of plans here. I know I said yesterday that I was going to work on the 465 again. Decided to put it back into the cart until later this week. My objective for this week off from work was to get the PSU in that newer 2465 re-capped. So I'm concentrating on that and started today.

Interesting. Roughly what was your cost on components? Care to share your BOM?




mnem
*Back to the salt mines*

Under $30 USD. All parts from Mouser. BOM is the chart attached originally from the Tek Yahoo Group. I'm just replacing the caps on the Inverter/Regulator boards, not the A1 board.

Edit....I used that same chart 2 years ago to recap the 2465 DMS.

[med6753]

Got to like the LEDs on those HP meters. I did think about pulling the trigger on an offer of £180 as I’ve seen distinctly hooky ones going for £120 then I told myself do I really need it? Aaand the answer is nope. Well not that one. But this is TEA so it’s not that simple.

However I only actually have one DMM at the moment, excluding the Uni-T 33A i gave to my youngest to use as a tricorder (minus probes of course for safety reasons!) and the shitty Brymen one that came with the DG1022Z  and this is a problem. I have had to lead swap numerous times this week and it’s annoying the shit out of me. I need another one.

I was looking for bench meters and there are just none I want. The 34401A’s are too expensive for what they are and my use cases really, the TTi ones have zero review or reputation and the rest are shit, GP-IB only or crappy stuff. I looked at cheaper meters and I just can’t bring myself to buy a cheap meter now. Also have empty credit card thanks to a couple of sales (metcal is paid off entirely already!) and there are new boxed Fluke 87V’s galore on eBay for around £235 which is less than half the RS/Farnell ex VAT price. These are around due to market saturation.

Decisions decisions  ... can anyone save me or come up with something else.

How about one of these?

[mnementh]

(SNIP)
Change of plans here. I know I said yesterday that I was going to work on the 465 again. Decided to put it back into the cart until later this week. My objective for this week off from work was to get the PSU in that newer 2465 re-capped. So I'm concentrating on that and started today.

Interesting. Roughly what was your cost on components? Care to share your BOM?

mnem
*Back to the salt mines*

Under $30 USD. All parts from Mouser. BOM is the chart attached originally from the Tek Yahoo Group. I'm just replacing the caps on the Inverter/Regulator boards, not the A1 board.

Edit....I used that same chart 2 years ago to recap the 2465 DMS.

Thanks. I knew I'd seen that list out there, but keep getting distracted when I set out to find it. Yapoop is like that... 

mnem
This is me, like EVERY SINGLE DAY...

[mnementh]

Okay... a question for the group.

Best bang/buck and accuracy out of the box for a 5.5 digit daily driver meter. At least 6000 count with 10A AC/DC current, (20A preferred, even if only short duration like most Fluke industrial models), impedance beep continuity, and junction test minimum requirements. Would prefer wide format portable. Segmented LCD or matrix display, as long as it has BL. Capacitance preferred.

Essentially what I'd like is a Fluke 87-III ^, with one more digit.

New or used, sub $200, ~$100 preferred.

mnem
*Back out into the suck*

[tggzzz]

Change of plans here. I know I said yesterday that I was going to work on the 465 again. Decided to put it back into the cart until later this week. My objective for this week off from work was to get the PSU in that newer 2465 re-capped. So I'm concentrating on that and started today.

Can't be bothered to check if you know, but don't forget the errors around C1132/C1115. Trust what you see in the holes, not any of the documentation.

[tggzzz]

(SNIP)
Change of plans here. I know I said yesterday that I was going to work on the 465 again. Decided to put it back into the cart until later this week. My objective for this week off from work was to get the PSU in that newer 2465 re-capped. So I'm concentrating on that and started today.

Interesting. Roughly what was your cost on components? Care to share your BOM?

There's been a lot of discussion about that on the TekScopes group in the last month.

[Kosmic]

Got to like the LEDs on those HP meters. I did think about pulling the trigger on an offer of £180 as I’ve seen distinctly hooky ones going for £120 then I told myself do I really need it? Aaand the answer is nope. Well not that one. But this is TEA so it’s not that simple.

However I only actually have one DMM at the moment, excluding the Uni-T 33A i gave to my youngest to use as a tricorder (minus probes of course for safety reasons!) and the shitty Brymen one that came with the DG1022Z  and this is a problem. I have had to lead swap numerous times this week and it’s annoying the shit out of me. I need another one.

I was looking for bench meters and there are just none I want. The 34401A’s are too expensive for what they are and my use cases really, the TTi ones have zero review or reputation and the rest are shit, GP-IB only or crappy stuff. I looked at cheaper meters and I just can’t bring myself to buy a cheap meter now. Also have empty credit card thanks to a couple of sales (metcal is paid off entirely already!) and there are new boxed Fluke 87V’s galore on eBay for around £235 which is less than half the RS/Farnell ex VAT price. These are around due to market saturation.

Decisions decisions  ... can anyone save me or come up with something else.

Don't forget the 3456a is a voltmeter (voltage & resistance only).

[bd139]

Got to like the LEDs on those HP meters. I did think about pulling the trigger on an offer of £180 as I’ve seen distinctly hooky ones going for £120 then I told myself do I really need it? Aaand the answer is nope. Well not that one. But this is TEA so it’s not that simple.

However I only actually have one DMM at the moment, excluding the Uni-T 33A i gave to my youngest to use as a tricorder (minus probes of course for safety reasons!) and the shitty Brymen one that came with the DG1022Z  and this is a problem. I have had to lead swap numerous times this week and it’s annoying the shit out of me. I need another one.

I was looking for bench meters and there are just none I want. The 34401A’s are too expensive for what they are and my use cases really, the TTi ones have zero review or reputation and the rest are shit, GP-IB only or crappy stuff. I looked at cheaper meters and I just can’t bring myself to buy a cheap meter now. Also have empty credit card thanks to a couple of sales (metcal is paid off entirely already!) and there are new boxed Fluke 87V’s galore on eBay for around £235 which is less than half the RS/Farnell ex VAT price. These are around due to market saturation.

Decisions decisions  ... can anyone save me or come up with something else.

Don't forget the 3456a is a voltmeter (voltage & resistance only).

Yep one reason I’m skipping it.

Okay... a question for the group.

Best bang/buck and accuracy out of the box for a 5.5 digit daily driver meter. At least 6000 count with 10A AC/DC current, (20A preferred, even if only short duration like most Fluke industrial models), impedance beep continuity, and junction test minimum requirements. Would prefer wide format portable. Segmented LCD or matrix display, as long as it has BL. Capacitance preferred.

Essentially what I'd like is a Fluke 87-III ^, with one more digit.

New or used, sub $200, ~$100 preferred.

mnem
*Back out into the suck*

Trying to answer that exact question at the moment.

[Cerebus]

Okay... a question for the group.

Best bang/buck and accuracy out of the box for a 5.5 digit daily driver meter. At least 6000 count with 10A AC/DC current, (20A preferred, even if only short duration like most Fluke industrial models), impedance beep continuity, and junction test minimum requirements. Would prefer wide format portable. Segmented LCD or matrix display, as long as it has BL. Capacitance preferred.

Essentially what I'd like is a Fluke 87-III ^, with one more digit.

New or used, sub $200, ~$100 preferred.

mnem
*Back out into the suck*

Keithley 197A (the non-A versions don't have a backlight). 200,000 count, 1 year basic DC accuracy - 0.011% + 2 count  (24 hour 0.005% + 2 count), 200uA-10A, 200mV-1kV, 4 wire ohms 200Ω-200MΩ, microvolt, milliohm and nanoamp resolution, optional GPIB, optional battery pack. Paid £58 for my non-A one in April last year.

[med6753]

Change of plans here. I know I said yesterday that I was going to work on the 465 again. Decided to put it back into the cart until later this week. My objective for this week off from work was to get the PSU in that newer 2465 re-capped. So I'm concentrating on that and started today.

Can't be bothered to check if you know, but don't forget the errors around C1132/C1115. Trust what you see in the holes, not any of the documentation.

I am well aware of that error in the service manual.