Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Damn you all, this talking of food is making me hungry, I'll have to go and grab myself something to eat now 

[med6753]

It is sometimes more important to appear to be making progress than to actually do so.

Only when you have a boss , or a boss keeping an eye on you.

I'm the boss of my own house...come and go as I please. And I work 3rd shift (grave yard). All the bosses are home sleeping dreaming up stupid shit that 1st shift has to implement. 

[mnementh]

  "SOLD AS-IS / UNTESTED, Unit Is In Good Cosmetic Condition, Minor Wear and Tear - UNIT POWERS ON AND DISPLAY IS FUNCTIONING. NO FURTHER TESTING DONE."

The display was showing a voltage reading with no leads attached to the inputs but that is a known feature with this kind of meter and is due to the very high input impedance, the rest of the description seemed to be in keeping with the photos and the feedback was impeccable.

Yep I've gotten some good gear taking a chance like that. They just don't have the time or knowledge to test it, and if it looks OK and it powers on it's worth a chance, but they don't have to worry about returns because they honestly told you that you are buying with the condition unknown.

Yep, but by being diligent you minimise the risk to a very low level indeed.

Yup. Those are the same folks I got my amazingly well-packed and salvageable Fluke 189    from. But that one... it cleaned up literally like new. When I saw it, at first I thought you'd gotten a NOS shell for it from Keysight like you guys were talking about a couple months ago.

Think it's time to give this back to ya...     

mnem
mmmm.... shortbread cookies...

[bd139]

I didn't know you guys had Jammy Dodgers. The world is a better place now I know that.

Edit: on the subject of control freak bosses, I am starting at a new outfit on Monday (slightly delayed from previous prediction) which has one. My job is infiltration and removal of some of the costs of loads of stuff they built in house but could have bought in. Someone always get reamed when I do these jobs. "Oh your dude forced the dev team to build something which had a 5y cost of £250k you could have got for £300 a month COTS and burned 1/4 of your dev time over that period leading to the last 3 major projects being delayed by months? He's a dumbass!"

[Specmaster]

I didn't know you guys had Jammy Dodgers. The world is a better place now I know that.

Edit: on the subject of control freak bosses, I am starting at a new outfit on Monday (slightly delayed from previous prediction) which has one. My job is infiltration and removal of some of the costs of loads of stuff they built in house but could have bought in. Someone always get reamed when I do these jobs. "Oh your dude forced the dev team to build something which had a 5y cost of £250k you could have got for £300 a month COTS and burned 1/4 of your dev time over that period leading to the last 3 major projects being delayed by months? He's a dumbass!"

With that job you're going to be as popular as a rattlesnake in a lucky dip, they would have to pay me pretty handsomely to do that job 

[bd139]

Indeed. I never aim to be popular, just do things correctly. If that offends people, or makes me unpopular, so be it! Once the contract is up, it's not my funeral.

[mnementh]

Indeed. I never aim to be popular, just do things correctly. If that offends people, or makes me unpopular, so be it! Once the contract is up, it's not my funeral.

You mercenary bitch, you. 

mnem
*Says the guy they pay to parachute in and do the sh**y jobs nobody on a salary would even take a sniff of*

[bd139]

Indeed I am 

https://youtu.be/VRfoIyx8KfU

[mnementh]

Fucker... you beat me to it. One of the best bits Gilliam ever dreamt up. 

mnem
"Brazil - Gilliam's flawed yet astonishing masterpiece." ~ mom

[Specmaster]

Have you got a 27B-6 to post that clip....... we'll back, ...we'll back 

[Specmaster]

Indeed. I never aim to be popular, just do things correctly. If that offends people, or makes me unpopular, so be it! Once the contract is up, it's not my funeral.

You mercenary bitch, you. 

mnem
*Says the guy they pay to parachute in and do the sh**y jobs nobody on a salary would even take a sniff of*

Like a time and motions man, its happening all over again....

[mnementh]

And so it begins...



mnem
Fuck 3DP. With a shovel. Sideways.

[med6753]

OK, give me a clue. What's that? 

[PA0PBZ]

OK, give me a clue. What's that? 

See the name of the .jpg  And no I have no idea either

29 5k315 resistors… 

[neo]

Pics later, teaser now. If it wasn't my birthday the wallet would kill me. 

[med6753]

Everyone is speaking in code today...or else I'm just an idiot. 

[neo]

Allow me to try to be clearer then. I  bought something expensive and if it wasn't my birthday the wallet would kill me. Pics later, as I'm going home now.

[tautech]

Pics later, teaser now. If it wasn't my birthday the wallet would kill me. 

Happy B'day Neo.
Hope you got yourself a nice TEA treat !

[mnementh]

And so it continues...



Precision Resistor Array

This kind of simple, repetitive skilled labor can be quite therapeutic in small doses... it was always one of my favorite  parts of R&D/prototyping.

OK, give me a clue. What's that? 

See the name of the .jpg  And no I have no idea either

29 5k315 resistors… 

Just can't imagine none of y'all remembering; after all, it WAS 3 weeks ago...   

    Just wanted to pass on a smaller fleaBay find... this is apparently a fellow tinkerer who has hooked up with some local equipment scrappers to make some TEA money.

This fellow, member n2cbu has high ratings, lots of interesting stuff, and is not only willing to combine shipping, he has his storefront set up to automatically do so.  This parts list has $24.49 worth of shipping by individual part; essentially a very reasonable $3.50-ish/item minimum. That all combined down to a Net shipping cost of $4.24.

His store motto is "From my basement to yours: If you don't need it, I HAVE IT!!!" I wanna support him just for THAT! 

I bought 2 of the 100ohm 0.1% resistors and one 25-ct strip of the 5315ohm 0.1% resistors. I intend to put them all on a breadboard and make a ladder strip with double rows of 0.100" pins & jumpers so by putting in series or parallel I can make a very good, very cheap scalar resistance array that should have values pretty much in the middle of every range up to 500000 ohms.

Actually got 29 pieces...  What the hey; I got room, use 'em all. Total cost less than $19 and I have have some extra breadboards & pin headers out of the deal.

mnem


Happy Birthday, neo! I think we're ready for your discoveries now... 

[Specmaster]

Allow me to try to be clearer then. I  bought something expensive and if it wasn't my birthday the wallet would kill me. Pics later, as I'm going home now.

So either enlightenment happened today or sheer madness happened but I guess we are going to have to wait until you decide what, when and how to reveal it to us so we can decide which event it was 

[nixiefreqq]

Indeed. I never aim to be popular, just do things correctly. If that offends people, or makes me unpopular, so be it! Once the contract is up, it's not my funeral.

I feel your pain.  spent a couple of years going into data centers, moving their processing to central locations with excess capacity, and shutting the site down.  typically there were 50-100 folks working in the building when you arrived, and 10 caretakers still had jobs when you left 6-8 months later.  used to park on the other side of the base when not driving a government vehicle or a rental.  the big wheels who made up the hatchet list never had the balls to show up at the losing site,  but they would go to the gaining location and then call us grunts at the soon to be dead site to complain that we were moving too slowly.  they always suggested that we somehow motivate the locals to be quicker about cutting their own throats.   not many happy memories from those years.....but somebody had to do it.  glad those days are behind me.

on the brighter side........never let it be said the freq does not embrace diversity.

acquired a FLUKE!   found a dried out 50ufd 50V filter cap in the +18 power supply.  only had an 82ufd 100V to stick in its place.  badda bing.  working 5 1/2 digit meter.  stuck it beside its 4 1/2 and 6 1/2 digit hp brothers.  got the 8810a because unlike the 8800a it does not contain an internal battery.  it did come with the true rms volt and the ohm converters.   all appear to work.


OK.....THATS IT.....NO MORE FREAKIN' SEVEN SEGMENT LED METERS.

[Mr. Scram]

Indeed. I never aim to be popular, just do things correctly. If that offends people, or makes me unpopular, so be it! Once the contract is up, it's not my funeral.

Considering your sparkling optimistic nature, I gather you tend to be rather popular on those jobs. 

[nixiefreqq]

I understand that some UK members are a little nervous about buying anything from USA on Ebay because of the shipping and import fees along with the uncertainty of the sellers and also because of the cost of returning anything for a refund should it turn to be a pile of dog poo when you get it. I was one of those people myself once but after honing my skills in detecting a diamond in the rough, careful examination of the photos, description, sellers feedbacks, etc I think I've good it sorted, as this latest stateside purchase will demonstrate that it is possible to pick up some real gems if you're careful.

I purchased from this seller http://www.ebaystores.co.uk/Express-Equipment-Auctions a HP3468A meter that was advertised as
"SOLD AS-IS / UNTESTED, Unit Is In Good Cosmetic Condition, Minor Wear and Tear
UNIT POWERS ON AND DISPLAY IS FUNCTIONING.
NO FURTHER TESTING DONE."

The display was showing a voltage reading with no leads attached to the inputs but that is a known feature with this kind of meter and is due to the very high input impedance, the rest of the description seemed to be in keeping with the photos and the feedback was impeccable. It should be noted that this was not my first purchase from this seller either, I had a couple of weeks prior bagged a Fluke 8840A that was not quite in as good a condition as the 3468 was because the metal casing had some dents, but the front and rear plastic parts were perfect and so was the meter when I changed the voltage selector to 240v it spring to life and a perfectly usable meter and passed the calibration tests easily.

I was hoping that I was going have myself another great meter that was in calibration (I can calibrate this type with ease if it wasn't) so I took it out of the packing (which is excellent with this seller), opened it up and changed the voltage tappings, gave it a once over for damage or anything wrong, looked OK so powered it up and bingo, it worked and I ran some calibration tests on it and it passed them again, like the Fluke, with ease.

So in the end I got myself an excellent piece of TE for £133.86 shipped and all duty paid that would cost here in the UK far more and when you see the photos, it looks (after I cleaned off all the users ID marks etc) as if it has just been taken out of its box as a brand new meter for the first time, it certainly does not look like a 30 year old meter which it is.

I'm extremely pleased with this meter it sits proudly alongside my other great purchases from both sides of the pond using the same techniques of thoroughly researching the product before looking for suitable rough diamond. My bench is looking great now with gear that looks as if it was purchased new recently, before it was decidedly a mix of rough looking and just about working gear that for years got me by.

Its a great feeling buying something that is either new like my Brymen 867s or something with a little effort can be made to look like new and as an added bonus, needs no repair work being done, thumbs upto that. 

that thing looks fantastic!

you and cubdriver must have time machines.  how else could you guys acquire brand spankin' new antiques?

[med6753]

acquired a FLUKE!   found a dried out 50ufd 50V filter cap in the +18 power supply.  only had an 82ufd 100V to stick in its place.  badda bing.  working 5 1/2 digit meter.  stuck it beside its 4 1/2 and 6 1/2 digit hp brothers.  got the 8810a because unlike the 8800a it does not contain an internal battery.  it did come with the true rms volt and the ohm converters.   all appear to work.


OK.....THATS IT.....NO MORE FREAKIN' SEVEN SEGMENT LED METERS.

Welcome to the Fluke club. I have an 8800A. It doesn't have an internal battery. That was an option.

[nixiefreqq]

acquired a FLUKE!   found a dried out 50ufd 50V filter cap in the +18 power supply.  only had an 82ufd 100V to stick in its place.  badda bing.  working 5 1/2 digit meter.  stuck it beside its 4 1/2 and 6 1/2 digit hp brothers.  got the 8810a because unlike the 8800a it does not contain an internal battery.  it did come with the true rms volt and the ohm converters.   all appear to work.


OK.....THATS IT.....NO MORE FREAKIN' SEVEN SEGMENT LED METERS.

Welcome to the Fluke club. I have an 8800A. It doesn't have an internal battery. That was an option.

oh ok.  what was the battery for?  the ohm converter?


was afraid those switches would be clunky......but they actually feel pretty good.