Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

... that are amusingly relevant to this thread.

   Rings a bell....  (All three characters, in fact.)

Am I the only one here who simply HAS TO KNOW what's in the "All for $20" box?!?
Worse yet; who has $20 in his pocket, and would happily fork it over immediately JUST TO FIND OUT WHAT'S AT THE BOTTOM?!?

   We are a lost cause lost and found support group with no hope and no real wish for redemption 

Not sure if I have shown the inside of the ratio box before. Decided to get a head start on tomorrow over a Beer in the shack. Bobbins are the Trim resistors for the Mica Cards. Most 1-3 

The main cards vary in number and wind and it seems that maybe one or two in the series may have an issue of suspect connections or shorts based on testing the resistances tonight so more investigation needed before I get angry with it at 1kV. Unlikely to be quality control type issues with the high resistances but 

Oh, fuck man... that thing is simply gorgeous; looks like it belongs in Doctor #12's TARDIS for sure. 

Just in time to be Miss February!!!      


mnem
And you found it in the bottom of the "All for $20" box, DIDN'T YOU?!? 

[med6753]

yippeeeh , the cold war comes back, let`s enjoy. 

Very nice Comrade Martin . 

[mnementh]

w00t! Un-fuckery No 373 just popped off the printbed. 

mnem
*No pop left... or right.*

[Martin.M]

by studying the russia scope:

1.) why a simply analog scope without readout or anything use soo many IC?   .. and
2.) why the most of them are the same type, identical?

1+2)    that are Transistor arrays. And if there is a small power transistor needed they use 2 or 3 transistors inside parallel.
the 3 refrigerators on the board are larger IC or hybrids.
The cheese in the PSU is a core choke, packed in wax paper.

[mnementh]

For Good or Evil... It's In There.

      

I keep telling myself I need to print up some sort of trim piece to fill in the space around the sides of the bay in the front area; my original single bay filled the space in a much more tidy manner. Then myself tells me to shut the hell up; that's a lot more calculations in 3D space than my brain can handle this soon after having the dentist make a hole in my head the size of a thumb. 

mnem
Sometimes, even the devil on my shoulder goes "What the fuck are you doing?!?"

[bd139]

by studying the russia scope:

1.) why a simply analog scope without readout or anything use soo many IC?   .. and
2.) why the most of them are the same type, identical?

1+2)    that are Transistor arrays. And if there is a small power transistor needed they use 2 or 3 transistors inside parallel.
the 3 refrigerators on the board are larger IC or hybrids.
The cheese in the PSU is a core choke, packed in wax paper.

Meant to post. Interesting bit of kit. I think this is an artefact of production values in former USSR than an engineering decision. Or is it? RCA transistor arrays can be found in stuff right up to HP54600 scopes. High fT, closely matched, don’t require gluing two together or binning (Philips did this)

[Specmaster]

For Good or Evil... It's In There.

      

I keep telling myself I need to print up some sort of trim piece to fill in the space around the sides of the bay in the front area; my original single bay filled the space in a much more tidy manner. Then myself tells me to shut the hell up; that's a lot more calculations in 3D space than my brain can handle this soon after having the dentist make a hole in my head the size of a thumb. 

mnem
Sometimes, even the devil on my shoulder goes "What the fuck are you doing?!?"

By hole, I take it that the dentist extracted a tooth, yes  Well, here's a perfect way to show off 3D your printer, print your self a replacement tooth to plug the hole with 

Tightening down the hatches in preparation for the soggy boots and anything else coming my way, honestly, anyone would think I said something to upset the dwagon 

[Inverted18650]

Amazingly the "new" Fluke 335D works and looks to be in good form. More pics after I clean it and check the rest of the features, Null Meter and Current limiter.

[bitseeker]

bitseeker...we need that rabbit hole incorporated into our TEA Glossary. 

Yes! So, I retouched the photo some to bring out the bunny's face more and make the horizontal log look more like a vertical hole in the ground.

Added him to the OP as the "TEA Mascot." He needs a name.

[Inverted18650]

AS I am testing this unit I am starting to think its better and even more stable than mine through all the ranges. Maybe the 'D' is the keeper and I'll let the 'A' go.

Any thoughts?

[bitseeker]

I prefer the 21st Century pocket watch:

That's quite a lot of uncertainty to be reporting your offset in single-digit milliseconds.

[med6753]

bitseeker...we need that rabbit hole incorporated into our TEA Glossary. 

Yes! So, I retouched the photo some to bring out the bunny's face more and make the horizontal log look more like a vertical hole in the ground.

Added him to the OP as the "TEA Mascot." He needs a name.

Perfect! Yes, needs a name. Fresh out of ideas at the moment. Brain fried from repairing a 7A16A plug-in.

[bitseeker]

AS I am testing this unit I am starting to think its better and even more stable than mine through all the ranges. Maybe the 'D' is the keeper and I'll let the 'A' go.

Any thoughts?

I'd surmise that some of the improvements in the D model would be stability. If you have or get a hold of the docs, the specs could help to confirm or deny it.

[bitseeker]

Yes! So, I retouched the photo some to bring out the bunny's face more and make the horizontal log look more like a vertical hole in the ground.

Added him to the OP as the "TEA Mascot." He needs a name.

Perfect! Yes, needs a name. Fresh out of ideas at the moment. Brain fried from repairing a 7A16A plug-in.

What about Barry Bunny? It's a nice alliteration and a pun on "bury," which is relevant for a hole in the ground.

[Inverted18650]

may I suggest "Bespoke Bunny": the hole made just for that particular TEA nut

[bitseeker]

I have buyed that in .fr
looks now much better

Those mini scopes are so neat. I must get one, one day.

[nixiefreqq]

mnem
Sometimes, even the devil on my shoulder goes "What the fuck are you doing?!?"


[/quote]
By hole, I take it that the dentist extracted a tooth, yes  Well, here's a perfect way to show off 3D your printer, print your self a replacement tooth to plug the hole with 

Tightening down the hatches in preparation for the soggy boots and anything else coming my way, honestly, anyone would think I said something to upset the dwagon 
[/quote]


damn you spec  ...…...  pictured mnem actually printing a tooth and almost pissed myself. 

[med6753]

Worked on the fubar 7A16A plug-in and while it was a battle it is now fixed. First up was to fix the switch deck noise and drop outs. I disassembled it further this time but just enough to expose the contacts and left the deck assembly in place. Decided to perform an experiment. Tek states very specifically in their manuals that the attenuator deck is to be cleaned with IPA only. I threw out the manual. I removed the attenuator blocks and set them aside. Then I sprayed all the contacts with Deoxit. Exercised the switch back and forth a few times and let it sit. Then I hosed the entire assembly down with a spray of 100% IPA to flush out the Deoxit. Then dry with a blow dryer. Result? Solid switching on all ranges. I'm going to adopt this procedure from now on. 

Onward to the compensation adjustments. As soon as I inserted a driver into the 20mV attenuator block the trace went ape shit. Turns out that 2X attenuator block is NFG. Luckily I have a spare. Then it took me a good hour to get the plug-in fully and correctly compensated. This one was real fussy on the settings of the attenuator blocks. But it's done! 

The defective 2X attenuator



All done

[Inverted18650]

Lookin' good. I am happy you had to fix one, lol, and I am more happy you were able to get it fixed...Ya know, I have another one of A16's...and many more..

Maybe we can work something out, I send them for testing and repair, you keep a few for your efforts, OR I can pay you. My upside is time and I get to save some brains cells?
Just a thought, as I probably have 60 plugins here, no shit, that I have not touched yet. (shameful I know).

[bitseeker]

Get this shit: I tried to send an offer to an Ebayer for an HP PSU and eBAY said,

" YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR BUYING LIMIT. WE PLACE LIMITS ON BUYERS WHO APPEAR TO HAVE PURCHASED TOO MANY ITEMS AS WE FEEL YOU MAY NEED A CHANCE TO REVIEW YOUR PURCHASES."

That my friends is T.E.A true story, just happened.

You simply can't make this sh!t up.   

We are not worthy! (At least I've never seen nor heard of that before.) 

[bitseeker]

Just spoke to my Seller friend and they said that a Seller can specify limits themselves - so if this offer of yours was on an item of a Seller from whom you've already bought from (or have offers submitted), you may have hit one of their safeguard limits.  Might be worth contacting the Seller to check.

Makes sense, I was sending the offer to the same person that had the PM6303 auction going that I was also bidding on. Thanks mate

Ah, yes. Now that limit I have heard of. Phew!

[med6753]

Lookin' good. I am happy you had to fix one, lol, and I am more happy you were able to get it fixed...Ya know, I have another one of A16's...and many more..

Maybe we can work something out, I send them for testing and repair, you keep a few for your efforts, OR I can pay you. My upside is time and I get to save some brains cells?
Just a thought, as I probably have 60 plugins here, no shit, that I have not touched yet. (shameful I know).

Doing the clean of the switch deck is dirt simple and I can easily explain to you how to do it. Chances are most of your plug-ins just need a cleaning.

Usually an attenuator block goes bad because some dimwit applied too much voltage to the input. But oddly this bad one showed no sign of burning or abuse. And it's the required compensation adjustments afterwards that ain't fun at all. It very tedious and exacting and I don't relish having to do it again any too soon. 

[Inverted18650]

@bit; I bought the Fluke PM6303 from that seller and it arrived today. They have poor/ if any comms, and do a horrible job packing, but the RCL was bang out after I "trmmied" out the leads and I cannot complain for  the money. They have a pretty sick inventory and everything is on the cheap'ish end of the spectrum. They have a few HP Spectrum Analyzers I am watching for Oculus, and a few other items I want to add to my bench (3) and (4).

[Inverted18650]

I collect Tek gear mate and have for about 12 years now. I got the basics and even some advances methods of repair and troubleshoot down pat, but I do not have the time. And like you said, its tedious and you dont want to do it again...I said that 5 years ago, yet I spend one Sunday a month trying anyway...Hard to put a dent in 60 plugins with just 1 a month on the bench, SO my offer was real, if you're interested.

[Brumby]

bitseeker...we need that rabbit hole incorporated into our TEA Glossary. 

Yes! So, I retouched the photo some to bring out the bunny's face more and make the horizontal log look more like a vertical hole in the ground.

Actually, I was thinking the foreground lighting should have a nice tinge of nixie orange - not white.

Added him to the OP as the "TEA Mascot." He needs a name.

My thought, (which came to me in about 1.3ms) - Harvey.