Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

@tggzzz: totally agree. My life insurance policy won't pay out if I take this into my own hands. A fine example of how screwed up the world is.

I've never bought life insurance.

For the critical time I was covered by a company scheme. When I left that company I had sufficient assets (liquid and house) not to need insurance.

[beanflying]

I have the classic hardware store high/low power heat gun, a hot air station and a couple of small butane powered options.  Will that cover the requirements?

Yep. Everyone needs a new challenge 

[GreyWoolfe]

This morning we made the fateful trip to the vet for one little pup with a spirit that will outlive the universe, but with a body that has endured so much.  We all keep saying she is in a better place and free of the physical inflictions she faced every day ... but nobody feels convinced of this.


It is a crap day.

My heart goes out to you.  Remember all the good times and she will always be there with you in your heart.  She is in a better place, running and playing and rolling in the grass, waiting for you.  I dread the day my precious girl crosses over.

[mnementh]

This morning we made the fateful trip to the vet for one little pup with a spirit that will outlive the universe, but with a body that has endured so much.  We all keep saying she is in a better place and free of the physical inflictions she faced every day ... but nobody feels convinced of this.


It is a crap day.

It's the hardest decision to make; the one to end another's suffering. It is also the bravest, and the one she needed you to make. She crossed over in the company of those who love her, and there is no better way to go. You did the right thing.

mnem
"The right thing is almost never the easy thing." ~ mom

[Specmaster]

This morning we made the fateful trip to the vet for one little pup with a spirit that will outlive the universe, but with a body that has endured so much.  We all keep saying she is in a better place and free of the physical inflictions she faced every day ... but nobody feels convinced of this.


It is a crap day.

Feeling for you right now, I've had that to do that deed 4 times now, twice with dogs and twice with cats and it never gets any easier, they trust us to make the right decisions for them. You can only be guided by the vets, if they say it's for the best as they can nothing further for them to ease their suffering, then we have to take their advice.

I trust you have plenty of photos of her to remind you of her. My only regret is that I never had photos of the dogs (mums and mine many years ago) Now I have digital cameras and have been blessed with lots of photos of my cats and had the best 2 blown up and framed and hung on the wall so they are always in our thoughts. Dreading the day when I may have to repeat that trip again in the future with my current pair of cats.

[mansaxel]

Gevalia is shit.

That people from US think of it as drinkable just goes to show that the coffee "culture" of US is not.

I live 200km from the plant, and I'd rather not touch it. Regardless of roast, prep method or price.

For drip or French press, I prefer Zoegas, another swedish brand.

Or one can go to Italy and drink real coffee.

[med6753]

Gevalia is shit.

That people from US think of it as drinkable just goes to show that the coffee "culture" of US is not.

I live 200km from the plant, and I'd rather not touch it. Regardless of roast, prep method or price.

For drip or French press, I prefer Zoegas, another swedish brand.

Or one can go to Italy and drink real coffee.

I guess I must be "uncultured" then. That's a relief.  Never heard of Gevalia and I'm an avid coffee drinker.

Besides, Sweden is the last place I would think of to source my coffee. Volvo's and blondes, yes. Coffee, no. 

[mnementh]

Gevalia is shit.

That people from US think of it as drinkable just goes to show that the coffee "culture" of US is not.

I live 200km from the plant, and I'd rather not touch it. Regardless of roast, prep method or price.

For drip or French press, I prefer Zoegas, another swedish brand.

Or one can go to Italy and drink real coffee.

Or, how about this? if the best you've got to offer is "shit", then please keep it to yourself? It's one thing if you have something constructive to offer... but upon reviewing your whole 16 posts on eevblog, they range from a few neutral to mostly negative. 

There's a lot more to love about life than there is to hate; I think you can do better. 

Cheers,

mnem

[bd139]

New toy arrived... with both operating and construction manuals! Very happy. Going to eviscerate that nasty looking dual 20uF 350V cap and the mains lead. I have some 33uF 250V ones which should be fine as peak voltage is only 180v ish

[mnementh]

Have you got some magic up your sleeve to restore those well-loved keycaps? Or is the cure to just develop an appreciation for personal devices that have some "character"? (my usual solution) 

mnem
*p00t!*

[Wolfgang]

Gevalia is shit.

That people from US think of it as drinkable just goes to show that the coffee "culture" of US is not.

I live 200km from the plant, and I'd rather not touch it. Regardless of roast, prep method or price.

For drip or French press, I prefer Zoegas, another swedish brand.

Or one can go to Italy and drink real coffee.

I guess I must be "uncultured" then. That's a relief.  Never heard of Gevalia and I'm an avid coffee drinker.

Besides, Sweden is the last place I would think of to source my coffee. Volvo's and blondes, yes. Coffee, no. 

Heaven: Food is French, Coffee is Italian, Cars are German, Jokes are British:
Hell: Cars French, Coffee Britsh, Food German, No Jokes.

[bd139]

Have you got some magic up your sleeve to restore those well-loved keycaps? Or is the cure to just develop an appreciation for personal devices that have some "character"? (my usual solution) 

Well all is not great in the house of panaplex today unfortunately. 

Issues I found:

1. The caps were short. Sorted those and powered it up and mostly works. I can actually do calculations.
2. Mains lead had dissolved. Replaced this with a new three pin one, earthed the thing and made a lame as hell strain relief.
3. Middle display is fizzling out a bit. This was a contact issue. Solved.
4. Left hand display is totally dead. Swapped it with the middle one and it didn't work in the middle hole either.
5. Key mechaisms need refurb (looks easy enough - clean + lube)

Going to clean and test it thoroughly as the thing has socketed displays and lots of iffy looking pins on the panaplex displays so it might just need a good clean and the voltages checked and recalibrated as it has a ton of old carbon resistors in it.

Worst case I need a new Sperry SP-353. They turn up quite regularly BIN in the UK for bugger all, usually in things if you know what to look for, so it's just a case of putting this in the cupboard and lurking for a few months. It came with another calculator as well which is totally duff but might have something interesting in it. It has an early VFD in it by the looks.



As for the keycaps, they will be cleaned and repainted. The keytops have recessed lettering and I'm pretty handy with a can of enamel paint 

[tggzzz]

Worst case I need a new Sperry SP-353.

Worst case you need a driver for the Panaplex.

I thought I had a buggered digit in my Solartron 7075, then thought it was the unobtanium driver, finally realised it was the SN7404 driving the driver.

Fortunately I had a 7404 from when I designed my first computer in the late 70s, so confirming/rectifying the problem took 90s

[bd139]

Drivers are all discrete transistors in this one. Alas it's not the drivers because the display didn't work after I swapped it. I reckon it's dirty pins, display module duff or not enough HT juice to run three at the same time.

[mnementh]

Have you got some magic up your sleeve to restore those well-loved keycaps? Or is the cure to just develop an appreciation for personal devices that have some "character"? (my usual solution) 

Well all is not great in the house of panaplex today unfortunately.    (SNIP)

   As for the keycaps, they will be cleaned and repainted. The keytops have recessed lettering and I'm pretty handy with a can of enamel paint 

Good for you!

Even when I was young, my hands were never steady enough for that kind of work; guidelines or not, my results were pretty consistently horrible. 

Does the "known good" SP-353 work in the left hand bank?

mnem
*Puttering around the house and trying to avoid the cold*

[bd139]

It’ll take a bottle of Old Speckled Hen to get the hands steady enough 

Left bank works with a working display in it. 

[med6753]

I'm back from meeting my Brother by the Jersey border and I got the goods. Tek 2430 and 475A.

First, the 2430. Label on it says “screen issues”. I'll say. All you get on the screen is green blob. But the processor doesn't boot either. This is pointing towards a power supply issue. If that's the case this might be a somewhat easy fix. Might be hope for this guy after all. But I've already watched some u tube videos and getting the supply out is somewhat of a PITA. We'll see. Into the repair cue.

(Sorry for the shitty focus)


The 475A. This guy works! I was expecting a bastard tant to blow as soon as I hit power on. You can bet they will all be changed out. Of course the controls, including the attenuator switches, are dirty as hell. And the focus control is jammed. I've seen that before on the 465B. It's an easy fix. This guy has last calibration sticker of 1994. The 2430 had no cal sticker.



And lastly. My Brother wants me to fix this Sony Receiver. It goes into intermittent speaker protect. Sony receivers of this vintage are notorious for developing cracked solder joints on the output transistors and the power supply regulators. I'll bet if I flex the main output board the sucker goes nuts. We'll see.

[beanflying]

Or one can go to Italy and drink real coffee.

The Italians may have created the Espresso process but they certainly are not any better at it than others and a lot of the coffee produced is over roasted muck. As to real coffee I prefer to go to my Shacks workbench for 'real coffee' and to the other end to Roast it. 

https://youtu.be/12zGrkHceOM

[Specmaster]

And lastly. My Brother wants me to fix this Sony Receiver. It goes into intermittent speaker protect. Sony receivers of this vintage are notorious for developing cracked solder joints on the output transistors and the power supply regulators. I'll bet if I flex the main output board the sucker goes nuts. We'll see.

I'd say that you're spot here. I had a Kenwood AV receiver of the same era that was totally dead until poked and put the main pcb under pressure and then there would be the occasional splutter and crackle from the speakers. Taking the pcb out and flipping revealed 2 nice regimental lines of dry / cracked solder joints, reflowed them all and all was perfect again.

[PA0PBZ]

Well all is not great in the house of panaplex today unfortunately. 

As I can't imagine that you bought this piece of antique to do your tax calculations I guess you bought it for the displays and you still scored 2 out of 3.
I must be wrong but where?

[med6753]

Fire drill 3: This one is real touchy. Ebay ordered a Tek 7B70 plug-in Thursday. As of Saturday it still hadn't shipped. I send a friendly inquiry to seller asking him what's up. I get a response from the seller stating that he was sorry and his daughter is in the hospital with cancer. OK, I understand and am sensitive to this. Family first. But no indication as to when it WOULD ship. So as of right now I'm leaving this alone but I'm wondering how long SHOULD I wait before releasing the hounds such as having EBay asking him what's up or cancelling the order.     

I would say wait at least a week. Then send him a message and ask to cancel the order. I would open a case after 2 weeks. I know couples of seller on ebay that always ship after almost a week. They have usually good deals so i'm not complaining 

Yea, this one was a good deal too. $25 USD and sez it works fine. And free shipping. I guess I'll wait it out. It's all the other fire drills that have got my panties twisted in a knot. 

Update: Just got an e-mail from Ebay saying it was shipped. And the 2 Amazon orders that fell into a black hole. They finally arrived at my local PO this afternoon. Will be delivered tomorrow.

[bd139]

@med: nice one. That’s a load of extremely cool stuff 

Well all is not great in the house of panaplex today unfortunately. 

As I can't imagine that you bought this piece of antique to do your tax calculations I guess you bought it for the displays and you still scored 2 out of 3.
I must be wrong but where?

Not quite. It looked interesting, I like old displays and I like old heathkit and I like calculators so I figured it was worth a punt.

[PA0PBZ]

Not quite. It looked interesting, I like old displays and I like old heathkit and I like calculators so I figured it was worth a punt.

Fair enough, I do that too often myself. Then when it's all restored and looking nice it sits there on a shelf taking up space that I could use for something else I don't really need. Or it just sits there waiting to be restored… Oh well, that's the hoarders curse I guess.

[mnementh]

Well all is not great in the house of panaplex today unfortunately. 

As I can't imagine that you bought this piece of antique to do your tax calculations I guess you bought it for the displays and you still scored 2 out of 3.
I must be wrong but where?

Not quite. It looked interesting, I like old displays and I like old heathkit and I like calculators so I figured it was worth a punt.

Aye, but now 'eez figured out and fixed 90% of what's wrong with it, 'eez fooked. 'e HAS to try and make it 100%. 

mnem
Mechanics' Hell: All metric vehicles with no wrenches but standard, and nothing but used parts that have to be installed to see if they're any damned good...

[bd139]

Just scored an E3611A project for £20 delivered. Bit of a risk this one. Has clearly been dinked on the arse and there's a fin missing and it looks like it's unhealthy despite the seller saying recapped and refurbed. Will see how badly its guts are munted. Not a lot to go wrong inside them which is good. Outside and front looks good though. Worth it for the 10 turn pots worst case.

Place your bets now!

Edit: Aaaaaand seller cancelled sale. Should have been £99.99 instead of £9.99.  My scripts are better than humans now!