Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Inverted18650's house is going to look like this for a bit 



(from Resident Evil)

Ero-Shan all over again then 

[Specmaster]

It's too bad you are not closer to me. I would love to borrow that 5200A just once. Of all the references I have here AC function is almost totally lacking. I have 1 reference, 1VAC/60Hz. And it's not all that accurate. According to consensus with my DMM tribe it measures 1.005VAC to 1.008VAC.

Coldest day of the Winter so far. -12 C outside. Brrrr. 

Maybe we can work it out, I do NOT plan to sell the 5200 unless I am in a pinch, and even then, Id go do a real job for a little to get to money to keep it. As such, once I get it up and running, and warm for a few days, I'll record and send you the data, then if you do end up using it, you can cross-reference...Its not out of the realm of possibility.

Sounds good!  Taken 5 minutes ago. This is how my new Siglent resolves the 1VAC reference.

I see nothing wrong with that result, perfectly acceptable, in fact more than acceptable in everyday life, so I don't think that you're becoming a volt nut, you are a volt nut already. Be honest now, if you had a 3.5 digit meter reading 1.00 you would be very happy with the result 

[Kosmic]

A quick sneak peek/ preview. About 3/4's unpacked now.

One of the coolest things about the seller was he gave me this pen and said his grandfather would be happy knowing the lot is going to get some good use. I told him I was honored and will make him proud! The 'Cal stickers' are from his former lab out in California; maybe someone here knew him?

Congrats 

Lots of good stuff in there. Never seen so many Fluke Stardards all together like that 

[Kosmic]

[Ero-Shan all over again then 

Well in Ero-Shan case it was actually free 

And he had a 3458a in there

[mnementh]

   Holy shit!  OK, I apologize....you delivered......big time! 

There, fixed that for ya.   
(Okay, okay... I made it a while ago on a random "Old Skool" urge and have just been waiting for an excuse to use it)

   Hidden treasures...

SCHWANNNGGGGG!!! 

*Says a prayer under his breath for your soul when SWMBO gets home and this shit is still scattered from Hell to Breakfast all over the LR...*

You're turning into a voltnut 

(nothing wrong with that. I'm turning into a time nut)

"Time always gets more precious... when there's less of it to waste..."

[Ero-Shan all over again then 

Well in Ero-Shan's case it was actually free     And he had a 3458a in there

That reminds me... it may be time to pass on the      to a new player. Do you dare tell us how much you paid?

I get the feeling this was one of those "I scraped together everything I could beg, borrow or steal, and they took it!" deals...

mnem

[med6753]

The TEA gods are shining on me today. I fell asleep and I forgot all about the Ebay bid I had. Auction ended 45 minutes ago. I won! 

The fact that I was the only bidder helped too. 

[med6753]

I see nothing wrong with that result, perfectly acceptable, in fact more than acceptable in everyday life, so I don't think that you're becoming a volt nut, you are a volt nut already. Be honest now, if you had a 3.5 digit meter reading 1.00 you would be very happy with the result 

Ya think?? 

[mnementh]

I see nothing wrong with that result, perfectly acceptable, in fact more than acceptable in everyday life, so I don't think that you're becoming a volt nut, you are a volt nut already. Be honest now, if you had a 3.5 digit meter reading 1.00 you would be very happy with the result 

Ya think?? 

Yes, but we both know that isn't how it works... no matter how many digits you have, the only thing you ever see is the last one flipping (if Murphy is feeling really perverse, always when it's just out of the corner of your eye) whenever you have it on anything resembling a standard. 

mnem
*Twitch... twitch... twitcha-twitch...*

[Kosmic]

The TEA gods are shining on me today. I fell asleep and I forgot all about the Ebay bid I had. Auction ended 45 minutes ago. I won! 

The fact that I was the only bidder helped too. 

Look pretty clean at a nice price. Good Job ! 

[mnementh]

In Other News...

So... out of sheer annoyance, I went over my Tornado and tightened the belts again... this time to what I consider "excessive". I also went over the model again, generating neoBracket RevC with all the characters debossed to only 0.40mm depth; looks a lot better in layer view. Printing now at 0.1mm LH, 60mm/s speed with supports.

I'll drop some pics on y'all in the AM.

Cheers,

mnem
*OLAL*

I got up this morning at the sparrow's fart, excitedly hoping to see a world of difference in the ghosting... and promptly turned around and went back to bed. 

Request for KP push denied. Use a heat gun to warm the bed adequately and as long as its clean, you wont need anything else. I used painters tape for  along time, then saw the heat gun trick in a YT video. Next jump will be LALO so pack light and bring your fins, extraction will be 2.5k up the beach head.

After thinking about your comment, it dawned on me that every time I've had issues with liftup and the related deformation, it has been at the edges of the bed. So I spent some time over my morning cuppa observing my bed during an extended PREHEAT.

One of the things that sold me on this printer over the CR10 was the 120VAC bed heater; as the people who actually bothered to use it before they reviewed it said, it comes up to temp "HOLY FUCKING ASSCRACKERS!" fast. Like 90-120 SECONDS fast. 

Temp with mirror surface however, appears to be a whole different animal. After 5 min or so, it measures ~10°C less than setpoint, so I usually set temp to 70° for PLA. That's how I did it for all my little shelf legs with stellar results. 

Now comes the interesting part... I realized this morning that I'd always just given it a quick measure right in the middle of the bed, because that's where the PTC sensor is underneath. Occasionally I'd measure while it was printing... and that was usually right around the same as my prior measurements until around 30-60 minutes into a print; where it slowly creeped up towards set temp of 70°. But while it was printing, I NEVER measured in the middle, because the print was in the way. DUH. 

So today I clean the surface to make sure hairspray residue doesn't affect accuracy, and measured an approximate 16 x 16 grid repeatedly across the entire mirror bed, watching it heat up. Difference between outer edges and center was as much as 10°. This took more than 30 min to start to equalize. Well, hell. After an hour it was 65-70° across the bed.

So why? Lots of possible causes... First and most obvious, the fact I'm using the mirror glass. Added mass, plus dry contact means thermal transfer is less than optimal. Also unknown is how the mirror affects thermal transfer and measurement; though performance indicates that when my IR gun says the surface measures between 60-70°, my work sticks, so I'm thinking that's pretty damn close to right. (And THAT makes this TOTALLY TEA-related...  ) Also, there's the clone "Build-Tak" print surface that comes on these; I never removed it because I preferred the added layer of protection for the cooktop-style ceramic glass underneath. So a third layer to compound things.

Great... now I have shedloads of stuff to think about. But I want to print. So I swallow my pride, take your advice and dig out my big 1800W heat gun... and heat the outer edges of the bed for a few minutes. It comes up to a nice even 65° across the glass with very little work, and I start the print.

Now printing another copy with all the same settings as the first "successful" iteration #2... only rotated so main body is in Y axis. An hour later there's zero curling, and the entire bed measures 63-65°. 



Now to see if rotating it did any good with the ghosting...

[EDIT] meh. Maybe slightly better. Not enough to finish it. Now printing Rev8 at 30mm/sec.  [/EDIT]


mnem

[Inverted18650]

I have received a few questions about, sorry to the late replies, tried to nap a little & failed. The sets are great but I have no idea what they would sell for guys and gals. (I have not tested any of this yet- havent made it that far, but wanted to get the pics up for you all).

Cheers

[mnementh]

Wow... those look just like the Bird Model 43s we had in my High School AV lab for troubleshooting their business band radio system. Even used the same kind of load modules. *Quick Google later* Damn... they still make the 43!!! And it STILL looks just like that!

mnem
*Being totally house-dad-ily right now*

[Specmaster]

I see nothing wrong with that result, perfectly acceptable, in fact more than acceptable in everyday life, so I don't think that you're becoming a volt nut, you are a volt nut already. Be honest now, if you had a 3.5 digit meter reading 1.00 you would be very happy with the result 

Ya think?? 

Yes, but we both know that isn't how it works... no matter how many digits you have, the only thing you ever see is the last one flipping (if Murphy is feeling really perverse, always when it's just out of the corner of your eye) whenever you have it on anything resembling a standard. 

mnem
*Twitch... twitch... twitcha-twitch...*

That's precisely my point, if the 3.5digit meter read 1.00V and no twitching last digit, med6753 would be very pleased, the more digits you have, then as you rightly said, the last digits play on your mind, BUT if you want to stay solvent then you have to draw the line somewhere otherwise every time a gnat farts near the meter the readings will twitch again and then you're off again further down that blasted rabbit hole 

[med6753]

I see nothing wrong with that result, perfectly acceptable, in fact more than acceptable in everyday life, so I don't think that you're becoming a volt nut, you are a volt nut already. Be honest now, if you had a 3.5 digit meter reading 1.00 you would be very happy with the result 

Ya think?? 

Yes, but we both know that isn't how it works... no matter how many digits you have, the only thing you ever see is the last one flipping (if Murphy is feeling really perverse, always when it's just out of the corner of your eye) whenever you have it on anything resembling a standard. 

mnem
*Twitch... twitch... twitcha-twitch...*

That's precisely my point, if the 3.5digit meter read 1.00V and no twitching last digit, med6753 would be very pleased, the more digits you have, then as you rightly said, the last digits play on your mind, BUT if you want to stay solvent then you have to draw the line somewhere otherwise every time a gnat farts near the meter the readings will twitch again and then you're off again further down that blasted rabbit hole 

Actually, the 3.5 digit DMM's read out to 3 decimal places on that scale so the gnat farts definitely come into play so I'm already in the rabbit hole and there's no coming out. 

[bd139]

I have received a few questions about, sorry to the late replies, tried to nap a little & failed. The sets are great but I have no idea what they would sell for guys and gals. (I have not tested any of this yet- havent made it that far, but wanted to get the pics up for you all).

Cheers

There's about $1000 there if it works 

[Specmaster]

Holy Shitballs, eBays picked up a bit for me at least  A quick trip in London N1 today netted me this lovely piece of gear for less than £10, shown here just before I ripped the guts out to perform on it. I know have 4 of these puppies, 3 fully working and this one needing some TLC, bonus points to anyone can tell what it is?


There's more to this than you can see here, there's a further 8 boards below these 

[Specmaster]

I see nothing wrong with that result, perfectly acceptable, in fact more than acceptable in everyday life, so I don't think that you're becoming a volt nut, you are a volt nut already. Be honest now, if you had a 3.5 digit meter reading 1.00 you would be very happy with the result 

Ya think?? 

Yes, but we both know that isn't how it works... no matter how many digits you have, the only thing you ever see is the last one flipping (if Murphy is feeling really perverse, always when it's just out of the corner of your eye) whenever you have it on anything resembling a standard. 

mnem
*Twitch... twitch... twitcha-twitch...*

That's precisely my point, if the 3.5digit meter read 1.00V and no twitching last digit, med6753 would be very pleased, the more digits you have, then as you rightly said, the last digits play on your mind, BUT if you want to stay solvent then you have to draw the line somewhere otherwise every time a gnat farts near the meter the readings will twitch again and then you're off again further down that blasted rabbit hole 

Actually, the 3.5 digit DMM's read out to 3 decimal places on that scale so the gnat farts definitely come into play so I'm already in the rabbit hole and there's no coming out. 

Doh, foiled 

[med6753]

Holy Shitballs, eBays picked up a bit for me at least  A quick trip in London N1 today netted me this lovely piece of gear for less than £10, shown here just before I ripped the guts out to perform on it. I know have 4 of these puppies, 3 fully working and this one needing some TLC, bonus points to anyone can tell what it is?


There's more to this than you can see here, there's a further 8 boards below these 

Based upon the RCA jacks on the far right and the heat sink on the bottom it has to be some sort of receiver/amp.

What's my prize? 

[bd139]

Looks like some receiver.

Here I actually did something with my pretties for a change rather than just collect them. Got a NOS 2014 sealed boxed ThinkPad battery off ebay for my T440 and it arrived dead as a dodo. 0V out. Levered the side open and the cells are all balanced at 2.73V which is where the BMS decided to just chop the whole show off. So bypass that wanker.

Seller said he'll send another (tested!) one out FOC and to recycle this one. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. So lets try and charge it.

BM867S is pretty good here. The 500k count allows me to watch it charge up very slowly.



So place your bets: will the BMS be kind enough to work again once it has been jumped?

Edit: also XR camera is bloody amazing compared to the old one. Incoming super good quality TEA pr0n photos if I ever get anything on ebay!

[PA0PBZ]

So place your bets: will the BMS be kind enough to work again once it has been jumped?

Some BMS are kind enough to blow a fuse if they think it's a lost cause so without fixing that… No.

[bd139]

Yes I think you hit the nail on the head there. It got to 10V and then did SFA.

Edit: on a positive note the 18650s are basically free so it's getting turned into a 3s2p pack for my FT818. Just need a BMS board and some heatshrink.

[mnementh]

   Holy Shitballs, eBays picked up a bit for me at least  A quick trip in London N1 today netted me this lovely piece of gear for less than £10, shown here just before I ripped the guts out to perform on it. I know have 4 of these puppies, 3 fully working and this one needing some TLC, bonus points to anyone can tell what it is?

There's more to this than you can see here, there's a further 8 boards below these 

Looks like another Aiwa bookshelf stereo.

mnem
*~ You're welcome! ~*

[mnementh]

I see nothing wrong with that result, perfectly acceptable, in fact more than acceptable in everyday life, so I don't think that you're becoming a volt nut, you are a volt nut already. Be honest now, if you had a 3.5 digit meter reading 1.00 you would be very happy with the result 

Ya think?? 

Yes, but we both know that isn't how it works... no matter how many digits you have, the only thing you ever see is the last one flipping (if Murphy is feeling really perverse, always when it's just out of the corner of your eye) whenever you have it on anything resembling a standard. 

mnem
*Twitch... twitch... twitcha-twitch...*

That's precisely my point, if the 3.5digit meter read 1.00V and no twitching last digit, med6753 would be very pleased, the more digits you have, then as you rightly said, the last digits play on your mind, BUT if you want to stay solvent then you have to draw the line somewhere otherwise every time a gnat farts near the meter the readings will twitch again and then you're off again further down that blasted rabbit hole 

No, that's the exact opposite of my point...

What I was saying is that no matter how many digits you have on a meter, be it 3.5 or  or 13.5, Law of Irony says that ANY time you put that meter on ANYTHING that might be mistaken for a standard, the last digit will flip back & forth, and the more you paid for the meter, the more of those other digits will join in. Not ANYTHING to do with the accuracy of the meter or the standard... but just because "Murphy's a bitch, and she has puppies."

mnem
"The perversity of the Universe tends to the maximum." ~me

[nfmax]

This morning the Keysight van called at Nfmax Towers. Taking advantage of the end-of-year promotion, I've sent my 34401A DVM, 53131A counter/timer (with high stability OXCO option) and 4263B LCR meter off for calibration. Now I will have traceable values for the nfVolt, nfOhm, nfAmpere, nfFarad, nfHenry & nfSecond!

Clearly my TEA is getting worse - I think I'm becoming a calcoholic

All three instruments returned today.

The 4263B LCR meter has a year 2000 serial number, with the final revision of firmware. It was last calibrated 4th February 2011, and since it came into my TEA-stained hands it has had the option 002 20kHz test frequency enabled  . It passed on all ranges except for the 100pF, 20kHz tests. Presumably the 20kHz calibration factors were still as set at the manufacturing calibration. Calibration factors were updated, and now it passes on all ranges. They didn't offer expanded uncertainty interval with this instrument, I suspect because the original calibration software didn't allow it, and nobody is willing or able to update it.

The 53131A counter/timer has a 1997 serial number. It was last calibrated on 9th April 2011 (or possibly 4th September). Since that time I got sufficiently annoyed with the failing VFD to replace it with an eBay special Chinese clone, so it has been taken apart. It fully met specification, and the expanded uncertainty intervals were also within specification - no adjustments made.

My 34401A meter dates from 1991 and was last calibrated (by Keysight, for me) on 8th June 2017. At that time, it failed some or all tests on all AC voltage ranges, at most 2 & 4 wire resistance ranges, and on DC current. It was then adjusted, after which it met all specifications, and the expanded uncertainty intervals were also within specification. This time, as received it fully met specification, and the expanded uncertainty intervals were also within specification - no adjustments made.

They do make good stuff, these HPAK guys!

[rrinker]

The TEA gods are shining on me today. I fell asleep and I forgot all about the Ebay bid I had. Auction ended 45 minutes ago. I won! 

The fact that I was the only bidder helped too. 

 I SO need one of those. It's the only style DMM I don't have. And those switches - I just love the look of that style of switch.