Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[GregDunn]

I dare not upset my wife; she is an experienced veteran fencer and has placed top-3 in the world in her category more than once.  She also keeps her sabres within reach at all times.  I have no desire to get skewered over a rules infraction.

Luckily her acquisition of fencing gear easily outpaces my TEA in both cost and space, so she really has nothing to complain about yet.

[mnementh]

[..]
PPS: SWMBO has several german counterparts, e.g. "die Beste" (the best) or "die beste Ehefrau von allen" (the best spouse of all) but also "die Regierung" (the government). I have to say: My wife is not like e.g. SWMBO like in "Rumpole of the Bailey". I want to confess she's the woman I love and I love her (amongst others) for her patience and tolerance for/of my TEA.

Hear, hear my friend.

My wife doesn't ask why I have 4 RC transmitters (Hey! Thinned out the herd by half of my own accord!) when I can only fly one at at time... no, she listens patiently while I explain why I want need the newest model, and there's even a better than fair chance I'll find it under the tree this year.

I am still horns over tail in love with this woman, and not just because she puts up with my assorted shit; but rather, because she GETS me and still didn't run away screaming into the night! 

mnem

Still The One...

You are a very lucky man!   
I feel lucky even though my wife won't put my next TEA-related item under the tree.    -in fact even I don't know yet what it will be..   

Oh, I know I'm lucky. But she knows I'd brave Kilimanjaro for her, cook Thanksgiving dinner for the whole brood, and even take on 10 years of dirty diapers (between the two), so it's not like I haven't proven myself.

Lucky you, my SWMBO would never do that for me.

But yours clearly understands that a Dwagon has a warm heart (and everything else) with all that fire breathing [emoji91][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] good on ya.

Yeah... we "Have an understanding" that seems to work well; mostly, that whatever comes up, we WILL "come to an understanding" and stick by it.

Somehow, that works.   

Mine is expert with scissors. I sleep with one eye open.

*SNEERRRRK-SNORTLE-SNICKER-SNORRRT*   

You bastard...    I literally had to go change my shirt after snorting iced tea all over it. 

I dare not upset my wife; she is an experienced veteran fencer and has placed top-3 in the world in her category more than once.  She also keeps her sabres within reach at all times.  I have no desire to get skewered over a rules infraction.  Luckily her acquisition of fencing gear easily outpaces my TEA in both cost and space, so she really has nothing to complain about yet.

"One-two, one-two and through and through; the vorpal blade went snicker-snack...!"   Snip-snip, both of you.

mnem

[mnementh]

Hey guys... I have a really weird request... or maybe not weird, I hope.

I'm trying to file a trademark with the USPTO, and I've hit a snag; it wasn't the simple straight-forward app it should've been. It looks like I'm going to need an attorney, and I have absolutely NO IDEA where even to start looking for someone I can trust and who won't fuck me every which way from Sunday. Anybody here in the States, I could really use some suggestions if you have any first-hand experience.

mnem
 

[GreyWoolfe]

I am still horns over tail in love with this woman, and not just because she puts up with my assorted shit; but rather, because she GETS me and still didn't run away screaming into the night! 

mnem

I am still horns  fangs over tail in love with this my woman, and not just because she puts up with my assorted shit; but rather, because she DOESN'T always get me and still hasn't run away screaming into the night!  Even though she knows where the gun is. 

EDIT: By the way, the statue below with just the wolf heads is what is tattooed on my chest with the word Devotion below it.

[xrunner]

Here's a nice little circuit that the man who originally owned this box of "stuff" I was given built. As I could tell before I opened it, it was probably a low pass filter. I know you all know most of this but we have a lot of readers here on the TEA thread.

After opening I saw a 15 uH inductor, two 4 nF caps, and two older style inductors, which looked like a butterworth filter. It was made using good construction methods. I looked on the internets but wasn't sure I found the proper color codes for the two inductors on the input/output, can anyone check on the values? The color codes are gold-red-gray-silver (or vice/versa). I'd like to verify the actual factory values. (Yea I could measure it but I want to know the factory-stated value).

I went to a butterworth filter design tool -

http://www.calculatoredge.com/electronics/bw%20tee%20low%20pass.htm

and plugged in the value for the cutoff the man had labelled on the top plate - 1.3 MHz (-3 dB). I got  these values -

L1: 3.8 uH (unverified)
L2: 12.2 uH (15 uH installed)
L3: 3.8 uH (unverified)
C1: 4 nF (same as installed)
C2: 4 nF (same as installed)

I also did a sweep of it and it matches up to it's specs pretty well. What would it be used for? Well it passes most of the AM band and VLF. Most of the time I've been concerned with blocking strong AM stations, but I suppose if you are interested in low band DXing you might want this? Any other ideas?

[GregDunn]

I dare not upset my wife; she is an experienced veteran fencer and has placed top-3 in the world in her category more than once.  She also keeps her sabres within reach at all times.  I have no desire to get skewered over a rules infraction.  Luckily her acquisition of fencing gear easily outpaces my TEA in both cost and space, so she really has nothing to complain about yet.

"One-two, one-two and through and through; the vorpal blade went snicker-snack...!"   Snip-snip, both of you.

mnem

Her fencing blades all have blunt tips because they really do hit each other hard (I won't talk about the time one of the competitors broke a blade and it went through the other fencer's neck...) - on the other hand, there is at least one edged blade in the room, a 'display' sword, which would be VERY unpleasant to get tagged with...

[beanflying]

Hi my name is Beanflying and it has been exactly 6 months today since I purchased any test equipment 

Mmmm www.ebay.com www.ebay.com.au www.ebay.de www.ebay.co.uk .......... 

[Cubdriver]

Hi my name is Beanflying and it has been exactly 6 months today since I purchased any test equipment 

Mmmm www.ebay.com www.ebay.com.au www.ebay.de www.ebay.co.uk .......... 

Get down off that damned wagon this instant!!!   

-Pat

[bd139]

Here's a nice little circuit that the man who originally owned this box of "stuff" I was given built. As I could tell before I opened it, it was probably a low pass filter. I know you all know most of this but we have a lot of readers here on the TEA thread.

After opening I saw a 15 uH inductor, two 4 nF caps, and two older style inductors, which looked like a butterworth filter. It was made using good construction methods. I looked on the internets but wasn't sure I found the proper color codes for the two inductors on the input/output, can anyone check on the values? The color codes are gold-red-gray-silver (or vice/versa). I'd like to verify the actual factory values. (Yea I could measure it but I want to know the factory-stated value).

I went to a butterworth filter design tool -

http://www.calculatoredge.com/electronics/bw%20tee%20low%20pass.htm

and plugged in the value for the cutoff the man had labelled on the top plate - 1.3 MHz (-3 dB). I got  these values -

L1: 3.8 uH (unverified)
L2: 12.2 uH (15 uH installed)
L3: 3.8 uH (unverified)
C1: 4 nF (same as installed)
C2: 4 nF (same as installed)

I also did a sweep of it and it matches up to it's specs pretty well. What would it be used for? Well it passes most of the AM band and VLF. Most of the time I've been concerned with blocking strong AM stations, but I suppose if you are interested in low band DXing you might want this? Any other ideas?

Interesting stuff.  I can't think of a single application there. The 3dB point is slap bang in the middle of the AM broadcast band. Doesn't make much sense for anything below it at ~500KHz and the roll off is too low for 160m. Must be IF or something.


Some quick porn seeing as this thread appears to be a bit slow (for once!). Tektronix 7B53A plugin. I feel slightly sad stealing bits out of this but it will bring a 465 back to life. I'll keep it around and if I get my hands on another 7k then I'll have parts handy.





These are high res images so open in new tab for fully glory.

[Specmaster]

You are right it does seem a shame to rob parts from the plugins, they look beautiful as they are, but, it does hopefully as you state, get another 465 working again and as long as you retain the plugins, there is always the chance that a BER 465 could in the future could in fact become donors back to them again in readiness for securing another 7000 series at some point in the future?

[bd139]

True. You never know what Tektronix kit may fly past. I've actually got my eye on a 7603 at the moment 

Looking at houses again to put them in. This place is too small. Even if the kids move out I need a min 5x8m ground floor (so the stuff doesn't disappear through a hole) workspace for all my crap.

It has a couple of CA3046 ICs in it though which are really neat and I will probably steal. They were relatively early "make your own IC" type devices i.e. a matched differential transistor pair and some spare transistors. You can build really nice diff amps or your own little opamp or IF amp / mixer out of that IC. Which is fun. So versatile.

Edit: I keep meaning to try a challenge with some "scrap" boards which is nick just parts off one board to build a ~500mW HF CW transmitter and see if I can get a spot on RBN with it. Tubular ceramics and FETs on it are good for a VFO, 2N3904 as a buffer amp and some stacked 2N3904s as a PA (or any other interesting transistor that is floating around on it).

[Specmaster]

These CA3046 ICs, are they the ones with the star heatsinks around by any chance, they look rather attractive and at the moment are even seasonal 

[mnementh]

Hi my name is Beanflying and it has been exactly 6 months today since I purchased any test equipment 

Mmmm www.ebay.com www.ebay.com.au www.ebay.de www.ebay.co.uk .......... 

Get down off that damned wagon this instant!!!   

-Pat

Welcome home, bean!!!   We missed ya!   

mnem

[mnementh]

True. You never know what Tektronix kit may fly past. I've actually got my eye on a 7603 at the moment  (SNIP)

Sounds to me like you're looking for an excuse NOT to cannibalize that plugin.

mnem

[Specmaster]

Solved your coffee problem, perhaps we ought to have a coffeeoholic section as well now then 

[bd139]

These CA3046 ICs, are they the ones with the star heatsinks around by any chance, they look rather attractive and at the moment are even seasonal 

No they’re the boring looking DIP packages unfortunately. The ICs under the nice thermalloy heatsinks are the timebase integrators (Miller integrators) which are Tek ASICs. Perhaps I could recycle the heatsinks as some nice earrings for SWMBO for Christmas. Could use the gold plated pins as decoration. Nice and cheap 

After surveying it there are some seriously nice bits on these boards. They might get pillaged and live on as something else anyway.

True. You never know what Tektronix kit may fly past. I've actually got my eye on a 7603 at the moment  (SNIP)

Sounds to me like you're looking for an excuse NOT to cannibalize that plugin.

mnem

Too late. Sweep IC is in the 465 and it works now. Phew. This doesn’t mean I’m not going to buy the 7603 though 

[mnementh]

So what's your LIVE Teks:DEAD Teks ratio now?   

mnem
Bill Murray is a comedy GOD. And an all-around nice guy.

[Specmaster]

Nice to know that the 465 is resplendent and working OK, just hope that the 7603 doesn't need that plugin  if you get it.

EDIT
At least they were socketed, I assume the 465 also uses sockets? if so you could swap them back and forth as required 

[bd139]

So what's your LIVE Teks:DEAD Teks ratio now?   

I've only lost two so far. A 465B that ended up a parts mule and a 453 which that twat near Brentwood got his dirty mits in and pretty much ruined. That was BER so I hate to say it went in a skip after the tunnel diodes were stolen. I couldn't face it if I'm honest. That was a few years ago mind. I am more stubborn now.

Nice to know that the 465 is resplendent and working OK, just hope that the 7603 doesn't need that plugin  if you get it.

EDIT
At least they were socketed, I assume the 465 also uses sockets? if so you could swap them back and forth as required 

465 isn't out of the woods yet. Still has attenuator problems. I reckon I can fix that though with some time. Good point with sockets and swapping around. However it'll probably knacker those shitty TI sockets they put in it

Anyway, watch this space I just made something unholy with some bits out of that 7B53A as I had some minutes left at lunch... I set myself a 15 minute challenge and failed miserably. "You have 15 minutes to make something with that 7B53A to bring life where there was death"... Rules are "you can only use parts from that plugin" which I broke on one component!

[bd139]

Here we go. Much unholiness. One tiny little HF CW transmitter. Only 7B53 parts apart from one 7030KHz crystal! Excuse my crappy CW, using a paddle as straight key here 

https://youtu.be/d_xTJ27WYYM





The oscillator was running permanently so I'm keying the power supply just past the main filter cap here across the regulator zener with a bench supply set up for 10mA constant current which isn't ideal but it works. I will add another keying stage and a PA if I can be bothered

Circuit is 6.2V zener regulator driving a simple colpitts VXO circuit. base divider is 2x 10k. Emitter resistor is 1k. 2x 100pf tubular ceramics as the feedback caps and 2n3904 as the main oscillator. And that's it.

[mnementh]

So what's your LIVE Teks:DEAD Teks ratio now?   

I've only lost two so far. A 465B that ended up a parts mule and a 453 which that twat near Brentwood got his dirty mits in and pretty much ruined. That was BER so I hate to say it went in a skip after the tunnel diodes were stolen. I couldn't face it if I'm honest. That was a few years ago mind. I am more stubborn now.

Wasn't it you a few days ago bemoaning the number of dead analog vs live analog Teks you had on hand? 

mnem

*Having a biscuit with my morning coffee...*

[bd139]

They're getting less dead by the minute 

[Mr. Scram]

Here we go. Much unholiness. One tiny little HF CW transmitter. Only 7B53 parts apart from one 7030KHz crystal! Excuse my crappy CW, using a paddle as straight key here 

https://youtu.be/d_xTJ27WYYM





The oscillator was running permanently so I'm keying the power supply just past the main filter cap here across the regulator zener with a bench supply set up for 10mA constant current which isn't ideal but it works. I will add another keying stage and a PA if I can be bothered

Circuit is 6.2V zener regulator driving a simple colpitts VXO circuit. base divider is 2x 10k. Emitter resistor is 1k. 2x 100pf tubular ceramics as the feedback caps and 2n3904 as the main oscillator. And that's it.

I have one of those too!

[bd139]

Yours is neater

[Specmaster]

So what's your LIVE Teks:DEAD Teks ratio now?   

I've only lost two so far. A 465B that ended up a parts mule and a 453 which that twat near Brentwood got his dirty mits in and pretty much ruined. That was BER so I hate to say it went in a skip after the tunnel diodes were stolen. I couldn't face it if I'm honest. That was a few years ago mind. I am more stubborn now.

Wasn't it you a few days ago bemoaning the number of dead analog vs live analog Teks you had on hand? 

mnem

*Having a biscuit with my morning coffee...*

Holy shit balls, if thats your biscuit, I'd hate to see or eat your pizza