Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Berni]

Yep this is why i got into the habit of using that red tool cart as a convenient mobile table when working on big things. Not only can it hold equipment of pretty much any size (Since it can overhang on all sides) but it also gives you easier access to all the sides of it as the cart is easily moved around on its caster wheels (Something very useful when said equipment is as heavy as this).

Big heavy boatanchors are the best gear tho. It sometimes surprises me how tightly they cram things even in gear this big, yet most modern gear is a single PCB solution.

[URI]

Hi all,

I'm happily back from vacation and stressy weeks at work before that.. 

Huh, catching up from June 11th was quite a piece of work, took me five days.     
You guys are crazy -over 550 pages already! 

Well over 30°C (34°C to 36°) outside and up to 34°C at work (open plan office) and I relaxed at 25° to 26°C in my flat..
Nights at 22°C lowest. I'm not made for this, no. 

Waiting for lower temperatures (no air con at home or at work, using the bike for going to/from work) and drinking water like a camel in the meantime..

Repair of my HP 6114A was stalled because of my work eating up all my free time and is still stalled because the soldering iron stays cold with these temperatures.

[mnementh]

You lot and your fancy "space". Wish I had some 

Don't be naive. Space is a temporary illusion, waiting to be filled.

Think how much money you save because you don't have any (more) space.

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/63e0d4d1-1b7e-4204-ab3a-002aa4c4fc6a

Yep this is why i got into the habit of using that red tool cart as a convenient mobile table when working on big things. Not only can it hold equipment of pretty much any size (Since it can overhang on all sides) but it also gives you easier access to all the sides of it as the cart is easily moved around on its caster wheels (Something very useful when said equipment is as heavy as this).

Big heavy boatanchors are the best gear tho. It sometimes surprises me how tightly they cram things even in gear this big, yet most modern gear is a single PCB solution.

Yeah, not so great for me; no matter how magical that boat anchor is... when you have size 13 feet, it just can't miss 'em. 


mnem
*THUMMMPTHUDDD-OWW! OWWDAMMITOWWWWW!!!*

[tautech]

Still tidier than mine.

Here is what it looks like right now mid repair.

Wow
What is that Berni ?
I've never seen a CRT plugin like that.

[mnementh]

In Other News...

My archaeological dig through the mountains of JENGA has yielded an interesting find; aside from having to follow my own advice to "Triage mercilessly" and dumping out an entire unit of drawers full of assorted electrolytics that I know are at least 20 years old (yes, I'm crying a little inside), I also unearthed a couple drawer units full of vintage semis. IIRC, these came from one of my first repair-shop gigs; I bought out the guy whose bench I took over and all of these were in his personal stores.

 I'm guessing '80-90s era, as I see a lot of ECG transistors sorted by ECG number in pairs and Sharp, Toshiba & Fujitsu audio & power amp chips as were commonly used in stereo amps and as motor drivers in VCRs.

Anyways... these haven't seen the light of day since San Antonio and I haven't died for lack of their company, so time for them to go somewhere else. Any of you guys know anyone who's had luck moving large quantities of these kinds of semis? Maybe someone who'd like to buy them out or sell 'em for a percentage?





Ifni save me...


mnem
*doggie paddling as hard as I can*

[Specmaster]

Yeah, not so great for me; no matter how magical that boat anchor is... when you have size 13 feet, it just can't miss 'em. 

mnem
*THUMMMPTHUDDD-OWW! OWWDAMMITOWWWWW!!!*

Amen to that, I can vouch here as a fellow sized 13 foot and very wide member of the awkward foot brigade 

Pissed off by the almost total lack of footwear on offer to those afflicted with big syndrome. 

*THUMMMPTHUDDD-OWW! OWWDAMMITOWWWWW!!!* precisely, bloody painful stubbing your toes on boat anchors 

[mnementh]

Yeah, I wish I ONLY stubbed my toes on 'em... they seem to develop selective gravity whenever they're anywhere near close to an edge I can possibly put my feet anywhere close to. 


@tautech -

That's Berni's new HP Parametric Analyzer / Boatanchor which we were all commenting on.


mnem
*back to the dig*

[tautech]

@tautech -

That's Berni's new HP Parametric Analyzer / Boatanchor which we were all commenting on.


mnem
*back to the dig*

Yes, thanks.
The missing encoder knob and the front panel removed put me off. 

Berni, did you start a thread for it ?
Found it.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hp-4145b-semiconductor-analyzer-repair-with-photos-(display-garbage-dead-rom)/

Off for a read.

[Berni]

Yep its the unlucky HP 4135B that i ended up with.

You actually have to take the front panel apart this far in order to get the display module out of it. Only then can you get to the vector graphics board that is broken in mine. Figuring out how to get to it was a nightmare without the service manual.

Its gonna be a lovely bit of kit if i get it working. Its a 4 channel SMU that does up to +/- 100V and up to +/- 100mA. Its also capable of measuring currents on all channels down in to the femtoamps. In the end plotting all of this SMU goodness on a graph.

In Other News...

My archaeological dig through the mountains of JENGA has yielded an interesting find; aside from having to follow my own advice to "Triage mercilessly" and dumping out an entire unit of drawers full of assorted electrolytics that I know are at least 20 years old (yes, I'm crying a little inside), I also unearthed a couple drawer units full of vintage semis. IIRC, these came from one of my first repair-shop gigs; I bought out the guy whose bench I took over and all of these were in his personal stores.

 I'm guessing '80-90s era, as I see a lot of ECG transistors sorted by ECG number in pairs and Sharp, Toshiba & Fujitsu audio & power amp chips as were commonly used in stereo amps and as motor drivers in VCRs.

Anyways... these haven't seen the light of day since San Antonio and I haven't died for lack of their company, so time for them to go somewhere else. Any of you guys know anyone who's had luck moving large quantities of these kinds of semis? Maybe someone who'd like to buy them out or sell 'em for a percentage?


Ifni save me...


mnem
*doggie paddling as hard as I can*

Hey you never know when you might need a obscure transistor when fixing a piece of ancient gear. We all know how annoying it is to wait for a replacement part in the mail, if you can even source the part in the first place.

[mnementh]

Yeah, I've been telling myself that for at least 20 years...  At some point, I have to let the instinct for self-preservation win. 


Hey, you know... I've got this bin full of TO-3s that all have the numbers worn off. Could be made useful again with the application of a piece of kit like that...  

mnem
*Puttin' on muh flame-proof jammies right now*

 

[tggzzz]

In Other News...

My archaeological dig through the mountains of JENGA has yielded an interesting find; aside from having to follow my own advice to "Triage mercilessly" and dumping out an entire unit of drawers full of assorted electrolytics that I know are at least 20 years old (yes, I'm crying a little inside), I also unearthed a couple drawer units full of vintage semis. IIRC, these came from one of my first repair-shop gigs; I bought out the guy whose bench I took over and all of these were in his personal stores.

I did that with some old caps that I never liked. It was only later that I realised how much audiophools pay for Mullard  mustard caps.

[Neomys Sapiens]

I can't yet decide whether 'the mountains of JENGA' remind me more of E.R.Burroughs or Lovecraft. But not a place to visit for the sane-minded, that's quite sure.

[bitseeker]

14,350 unit tests.  205 integration tests. 45 post infrastructure validation tests. 2 DR process documents. Well tested at least. There’s 2.5x as much test code as runtime.

Congrats on getting that out the door.

Need to find something else to do with my life though. Fed up of this.

Yeah, I feel the same. Not sure what, yet. Might take a sabbatical to figure it out.

[bd139]

That’s what I’m doing now 

It started with cider and a scotch egg yesterday. That revealed nothing useful. Shopping today too hot. Spent the evening soldering up another QCX kit. Still have no idea. Need more test gear though that is for certain.

This happens every time. And I end up going back to the workhouse within a month

[Specmaster]

That’s what I’m doing now 

It started with cider and a scotch egg yesterday. That revealed nothing useful. Shopping today too hot. Spent the evening soldering up another QCX kit. Still have no idea. Need more test gear though that is for certain.

This happens every time. And I end up going back to the workhouse within a month

To hot to solder in my lab it's 28C today in there so all I keep doing is dozing in the chair. As a consequence I missed out on a Tek 2235 not that I really wanted it but it was cheap[emoji83]

[bd139]

It’s a cool 19 degrees inside and out here now. Down from 32 earlier. Thank feck.

Was that the “pile of scopes” that went for 66? There was a return there but I didn’t fancy their chances in shipping.

[bitseeker]

Hi all,

I'm happily back from vacation and stressy weeks at work before that.. 

Huh, catching up from June 11th was quite a piece of work, took me five days.     

Welcome back. That's quite a feat, catching up in this thread.

You guys are crazy -over 550 pages already! 

Yeah, that (and other things) are why we need therapy.

Repair of my HP 6114A was stalled because of my work eating up all my free time and is still stalled because the soldering iron stays cold with these temperatures.

Oh, what was the deal with it? I had forgotten you were working on one. I have one good one (bought it already fixed up) that stays on the bench and a mysterious one that I haven't checked out yet (no longer remember what its story was).

[bitseeker]

I'm guessing '80-90s era, as I see a lot of ECG transistors sorted by ECG number in pairs and Sharp, Toshiba & Fujitsu audio & power amp chips as were commonly used in stereo amps and as motor drivers in VCRs.

Oh, hmmm. I've got a burned out Yamaha receiver in my queue. Haven't yet looked at what transistors it uses or if they're even the parts in question (just a guess that they are).

[GreyWoolfe]

Yeah, not so great for me; no matter how magical that boat anchor is... when you have size 13 feet, it just can't miss 'em. 

mnem
*THUMMMPTHUDDD-OWW! OWWDAMMITOWWWWW!!!*

Amen to that, I can vouch here as a fellow sized 13 foot and very wide member of the awkward foot brigade 

Pissed off by the almost total lack of footwear on offer to those afflicted with big syndrome. 

*THUMMMPTHUDDD-OWW! OWWDAMMITOWWWWW!!!* precisely, bloody painful stubbing your toes on boat anchors 

Size 13 EEE here.  I feel everyone's pain.  Thankfully, I have discovered Samuel Hubbard shoes.  The absolute most comfortable shoe I have ever worn.  However, at $215 USD, you can be sure that I choked a bit at the price.  I am glad that SWMBO made me buy them.  As a diabetic, foot care is very important and proper fitting shoes is paramount.

I don't kick boat anchors.  I have, however, dropped numerous heavy items on bare feet including a Dell poweredge server and an APC smartUPS 1500 with batteries of course.  I went a stretch of just over a year without toenails on both big toes.  As soon as one grew completely in, dropped more heavy crap to lose the nail again. "Holy F**k, that hurts!" was fairly common.

[tautech]

I'm guessing '80-90s era, as I see a lot of ECG transistors sorted by ECG number in pairs and Sharp, Toshiba & Fujitsu audio & power amp chips as were commonly used in stereo amps and as motor drivers in VCRs.

Oh, hmmm. I've got a burned out Yamaha receiver in my queue. Haven't yet looked at what transistors it uses or if they're even the parts in question (just a guess that they are).

Normally big grunty 2SC****'s.
The originals are often updated to a better part and after a bit of a hunt they're quite easy to find.
IIRC for one I did a seller listed some as better replacements for *** in **** amp/receiver.
Anyways, follow your nose on the 'net and you'll find the bits you need.
SM's are easily found for most of this stuff now. 

[Cerebus]

I can't yet decide whether 'the mountains of JENGA' remind me more of E.R.Burroughs or Lovecraft. But not a place to visit for the sane-minded, that's quite sure.

The cyclopean shelves of ancient databooks, the unnatural angles displaying on the curve tracer nestling among the tentacle-like test leads, the blinking LEDs on the data-link to the Arkham University Computer Centre...

Yup, it's got to be Lovecraft.

[Specmaster]

Yeah, not so great for me; no matter how magical that boat anchor is... when you have size 13 feet, it just can't miss 'em. 

mnem
*THUMMMPTHUDDD-OWW! OWWDAMMITOWWWWW!!!*

Amen to that, I can vouch here as a fellow sized 13 foot and very wide member of the awkward foot brigade 

Pissed off by the almost total lack of footwear on offer to those afflicted with big syndrome. 

*THUMMMPTHUDDD-OWW! OWWDAMMITOWWWWW!!!* precisely, bloody painful stubbing your toes on boat anchors 

Size 13 EEE here.  I feel everyone's pain.  Thankfully, I have discovered Samuel Hubbard shoes.  The absolute most comfortable shoe I have ever worn.  However, at $215 USD, you can be sure that I choked a bit at the price.  I am glad that SWMBO made me buy them.  As a diabetic, foot care is very important and proper fitting shoes is paramount.

I don't kick boat anchors.  I have, however, dropped numerous heavy items on bare feet including a Dell poweredge server and an APC smartUPS 1500 with batteries of course.  I went a stretch of just over a year without toenails on both big toes.  As soon as one grew completely in, dropped more heavy crap to lose the nail again. "Holy F**k, that hurts!" was fairly common.

Yep, been there as well, when I was an apprentice with our local bus company all those years ago, I used to have to lend a hand with the lifting of rear bus leaf springs on and off from a van or the open rear platform of a bus which we would use to collect the springs from the main depot about a mile and a half away.

These things weighed in at about 300+ lbs and would take at least 2 people to lift one a few inches from the ground, well 1 of them springs dropped right across both my big toes and ever since then I've had problems with my feet and big toe nails grow very thick and will often come right off and new ones grow, very sore. most of the time.

[Specmaster]

It’s a cool 19 degrees inside and out here now. Down from 32 earlier. Thank feck.

Was that the “pile of scopes” that went for 66? There was a return there but I didn’t fancy their chances in shipping.

No it was on its own, only had a few hours to and was sitting with a single bid £25 on it. It was supposed to be working when the person brought it off Ebay years ago and since then it has sitting a shed, he never used it and I fell asleep 

[mnementh]

In Other News...

My archaeological dig through the mountains of JENGA has yielded an interesting find; aside from having to follow my own advice to "Triage mercilessly" and dumping out an entire unit of drawers full of assorted electrolytics that I know are at least 20 years old (yes, I'm crying a little inside), I also unearthed a couple drawer units full of vintage semis. IIRC, these came from one of my first repair-shop gigs; I bought out the guy whose bench I took over and all of these were in his personal stores.

I did that with some old caps that I never liked. It was only later that I realised how much audiophools pay for Mullard  mustard caps.

Yeah, nothing tasty like that. Just a proper boring old assortment of polarized radial electrolytics as one would stock to fix the average VCR, stereo receiver and CD player back in the day. Mostly Rubys, Nichis and a few Pannys mixed in for flavor; that's where the tears came from. I know how much it'll cost me to restock that assortment with similar quality today.

I'm guessing '80-90s era, as I see a lot of ECG transistors sorted by ECG number in pairs and Sharp, Toshiba & Fujitsu audio & power amp chips as were commonly used in stereo amps and as motor drivers in VCRs.

Oh, hmmm. I've got a burned out Yamaha receiver in my queue. Haven't yet looked at what transistors it uses or if they're even the parts in question (just a guess that they are).

PM me with some part numbers. I'll take a quick sort and if I've got 'em, I'll drop 'em in an envelope. Pay It Forward, etc don'cha know. 

I can't yet decide whether 'the mountains of JENGA' remind me more of E.R.Burroughs or Lovecraft. But not a place to visit for the sane-minded, that's quite sure.

The cyclopean shelves of ancient databooks, the unnatural angles displaying on the curve tracer nestling among the tentacle-like test leads, the blinking LEDs on the data-link to the Arkham University Computer Centre...

Yup, it's got to be Lovecraft.

Not far from the truth; I know for a fact in there somewhere are my QUEs and TCP/IP textbooks, and at least two issues of the ECG cross-reference. I almost knocked a motorcycle down on my head today while wrestling loose a box overflowing with dusty tomes full of eldritch lore... not even a slight exaggeration, I swear on my momma's scales! 


mnem

This message approved by the Bureau of PreCambrian Defense.

[bitseeker]

I'm guessing '80-90s era, as I see a lot of ECG transistors sorted by ECG number in pairs and Sharp, Toshiba & Fujitsu audio & power amp chips as were commonly used in stereo amps and as motor drivers in VCRs.

Oh, hmmm. I've got a burned out Yamaha receiver in my queue. Haven't yet looked at what transistors it uses or if they're even the parts in question (just a guess that they are).

PM me with some part numbers. I'll take a quick sort and if I've got 'em, I'll drop 'em in an envelope. Pay It Forward, etc don'cha know. 

OK, I'll go dig it out of the garage tomorrow to verify.

My order of miscellaneous components arrived today. So, I might even get an old HP oscilloscope up and running this weekend. That'll be a treat.