Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

That’s a neat trick. Will try that. Thanks 

[Mr. Scram]

To remove permanent marker, write over it with a dry marker and it will normally lift the permanent pen writing straight off, wipe over with IPA and a terry towel 

A word of warning. I tried that with my 34401A and much to my displeasure, the dry marker only added to the marks already there. The material and texture of the cases of this generation of HP or Agilent equipment doesn't seem to lend itself very well to that trick. Maybe I had some bad luck with a particularly resilient kind of permanent marker or a shoddy dry erase one, but it pays to be conservative when writing over the existing marks. Be sure not to colour outside what's there already too much as not to exasperate the problem.

I ended up using ever more aggressive traditional solvents until I felt I had reached the point where I started doing more damage than good.

[bd139]

On that basis I might just leave it

[Specmaster]

It has always worked for me, might not have always removed it 100% but it does certainly reduce it, maybe with successive applications and a scrubbing brush or similar it might remove even more and in your case the writing is on the bottom so what have you got to lose, only the writing. I have done that trick on many oscilloscopes and also on Fluke 8840A case which has a textured finish. As as always YMMV but personally I'd give it a shot as it will be hidden if it doesn't work     

[bd139]

I just attacked it to see if isopropyl alcohol would work on its own and it's gone! Literally just wiped it lightly. Miracle. I'm not going to clean up the rear until the weekend as I have a new fan arriving tomorrow so don't want to dismantle it twice.

Incidentally, hamfest on Sunday for me. Wonder what I'll snag. Slightly hoping that guy with the Fluke 45's is going. Fancy myself one of them 

[Specmaster]

Yep, I've been as I said earlier using  isopropyl alcohol on a lot more things besides cleaning PCB's and flux residue with some pretty good results.

When you desticker it WD40 is pretty good at removing adhesive residue as well.

[GregDunn]

Biiiiig hamfest this weekend here as well.  Hoping for lots of Fluke, Keithley and HP gear, but will probably have tons of old hand-made matching coils, knitted tea cozies and broken 2 meter HTs.   

[bd139]

Yeah I think the last one I went to was mostly boxes of rotten old crap to be honest. There was a guy who had a box of rain damaged air variable capacitors. Rusted solid with green bits and furry aluminium oxide coating, no chance in hell of ever working again. £2 each.

Also inevitable van dude with crates of random stuff, like old UHF connectors with ants in them.

There were a couple of respectable outfits though. 1 in 10 hit ratio.

Managed to sell my old MacBook Pro today so got some cash now as well 

[GregDunn]

I think a lot of hams go to fests because the SWMBO has given them an ulltimatum to get rid of stuff, not because they have anything worthwhile to sell.  If I have stuff which doesn't work and isn't worth repairing, I'll send it to recycle.  Most of that doesn't have any usable parts to be stripped anyway.

Nonetheless, that 1 in 10 is often worth the trip; some of my most useful gear was someone else's castaway.  Better yet, this fest is known for gear surplused from a couple of local tech companies, so there could be jewels lurking on a few tables.

[bd139]

Yeah could be right there. It has been quite difficult to extract some things off people who were selling them 

Fingers crossed for you. Make sure you post photos of any cool stuff you managed to get your hands on

[Johnny10]

Where is the Hamfest?

[Specmaster]

How cheap can you go for Chinese parts? Are they any good? Check out this video from Dave, it says it all. 

[GregDunn]

Fort Wayne - and it's a 2-day affair, rather than the 1/2 day mini-fests I've been seeing all year.  Hopefully there'll be something exciting - and rest assured, if I get anything that brightens my day, y'all will have to suffer through the pictures.   

[mnementh]

OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMM...

mnem
AliEx strikes again! 

[bd139]

No Pornoma though 

I am starting to sound like a fanboy.

How cheap can you go for Chinese parts? Are they any good? Check out this video from Dave, it says it all. 

I've been doing exactly that as well. And qualifying the parts.

£0.80 a go from TI or  .... £0.03 cent no brand Chinese 5V regulator.

That'll be the £0.03 one then! Works perfectly. I can't make it oscillate, lose regulation, blow it up or go out of any specification of the expensive versions...



Funny one is the 560 ohm resistor there I though "hey LDO's like a big output cap" so I decided to do something funny and stuffed the cap on the end of two bits of wire a foot long. Still stable. Put a resistor on the end of the wires instead of the cap. Still stable.

Did the same with my TI part and it oscillated in the first case.

Edit: also liking this method of SMD prototyping. That took a whole 5 minutes to knock up. Cut board with a metal ruler and X-Acto knife, solder shit on. Job done. That entire board including the substrate and components cost about £0.10.

[Specmaster]

Maybe China is about to lose that reputation for shit gear, in the same way as Japan did years ago? If so then it comes at possibly the wrong time for us Brits who are about to jump off a fecking cliff real sson and enter into the economic wilderness for a few years while we try and strike up trade agreements again outside of the EU

[Specmaster]

OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMM...

mnem
AliEx strikes again! 

I already have a couple of sets of those leads, not had the need to use them yet but you can bet your life that if I didn't have them, I'd need them for something or other. Their no ill store and cost nothing to store them until you do and then their worth their weight in gold as my Mum used to say. 

[tggzzz]

Yeah I think the last one I went to was mostly boxes of rotten old crap to be honest. There was a guy who had a box of rain damaged air variable capacitors. Rusted solid with green bits and furry aluminium oxide coating, no chance in hell of ever working again. £2 each.

Also inevitable van dude with crates of random stuff, like old UHF connectors with ants in them.

There were a couple of respectable outfits though. 1 in 10 hit ratio.

Managed to sell my old MacBook Pro today so got some cash now as well 

What do you expect at a geek car boot sale?

You can find some gems, e.g. DekaStats and  plugins for Tek curve tracers, or Tek 475a.

It isn't as if everything on fleabay or in Currys is worth buying!

[bd139]

I expect someone to throw that 10Kg box of "assorted water damaged chargers" in the damn bin where it belongs. It has it's own cloud of polution following it around where it has been lugged thousands of miles hoping someone will need a charger for a 15 year old blackberry or alarm clock from argos.

Some stuff just needs to go in the bin. ebay and currys are the same.

Edit: Really stuff is worthless unless it has utility. And a lot of stuff is way past utility there. Utimately the best thing that could be done with it is shredding and recycling. That I include the "internet company listening devices used to order too much cat food because it misunderstood you" and other class of junk in that.

[0culus]

My local hamfest was actually pretty good. I scored a really nice transceiver for a good price. I missed out, however, on a pristine Tek 485 with a P6201 probe included for all of $200. Someone else had already bought it. 

[bd139]

Dang that was a good price for one of them as well.

[tggzzz]

I expect someone to throw that 10Kg box of "assorted water damaged chargers" in the damn bin where it belongs. It has it's own cloud of polution following it around where it has been lugged thousands of miles hoping someone will need a charger for a 15 year old blackberry or alarm clock from argos.

Some stuff just needs to go in the bin. ebay and currys are the same.

Edit: Really stuff is worthless unless it has utility. And a lot of stuff is way past utility there. Utimately the best thing that could be done with it is shredding and recycling. That I include the "internet company listening devices used to order too much cat food because it misunderstood you" and other class of junk in that.

Ah. Someone that hasn't been to a car boot sale recently.

[bitseeker]

You wrote bitmaster (i.e., bitseeker + specmaster) as if to address us both at the same time. Hilarity ensued.

Ok, thanks bit*, I didn't catch up on spec* there.      

*-short form to avoid any further Frankensteining.

Just don't get mixed up and write **.

[bitseeker]

My GPSDO finally came in today.  Seems to be working fine.  Heather sees it and seems happy.

I bought this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/GPSDO-Symmetricom-Inside-GPS-10MHz-1PPS-GPS-Send-GPS-antenna/263458624856?hash=item3d575b9558:g:bk8AAOSw9vlaael4:rk:1:pf:0

I was pleasantly surprised. It came with a RS232 to USB 1 meter long adapter ( a real one)  a 1.5 meter RS232 extension cable, the antennae, the bnc adapters in the pic, and software / manual on a mini cd.  Even had a 'inspected by #2" card with the date of manufacture on it.  It was packed so well I think it could have been used as a football by the NFL and not gotten damaged.

That's a very nice package, Housedad. Thanks for sharing the listing info.

[0culus]

Dang that was a good price for one of them as well.

Yeah. Apparently the guy who bought it would be right at home here at TEA, too. He had 6 or 7 485s already before buying that one, I heard.