Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Hi, I'm a TEA.

I just received the Fluke 8840A after some SAD.  Paid ~$50 total US.  I'm struggling not to buy more and already have items I need to pay for though almost DBA is helping to ease the struggle in purchasing more.  Going through the logical mind RRT is helping with the wise mind and emotional magnification as well.  Keeping the MIPS at bay... though I am craving bad.  I exported the list to an xls just to be safe as always.

I actually paid for manuals too for some other equipment that I am wanting bad and not sharing since I don't own yet so suffering from SECRET.  This is getting serious.

OK... deep breath... situational awareness... alternate thought...

The Fluke 8840A looked beat up like I'm not sure who didn't know how to use a philips head screwdriver and isn't a member of PETTE. 

I powered this puppy (or older dog that is still a puppy to me) On after opening up to find the Front Rear Inputs button floating around inside along with a foot from the rear bottom right side.  PETTE TEST moment.

Otherwise, everything looked right on the inside.  Feels good... especially after some photos... even bad ones to zoom in and see if I spot any corrosion.

Then I panic'ed.  I think I am inpatient... then not sure if patient enough... then forgot to read the manual to see if there is an auto self test calibration or something.  Then found I just need to hold the SRQ button down for 3 seconds.  Whew... no errors or is there some bs going on because the 200mV and 2V readings are not stable at all and keep going negative.  Just continually drifting negative.  Why negative?  What in the environment, boundary or internal system is causing negative!  Why negative?   

20V does similar slower if I go in this order.  If I go to 200V then down to 20V... no issues... spot on 0. 

So, why is the 2V and 200mV reading going negative and all the self calibration tests pass or looks like passes (can error reporting be hidden?)?

I don't have a tolerance like some of the real hard core.  I'm like off the wagon and back on thanks to a conservative administration that got lewd.  Smiley kiss but nice wasn't helping and was like the BUSTED image with most the females in my life... though more aggressive with tranquilizers and I can't remember.  One... it was really bad.

I'm back in a safer place with no support at least other than support that is considerably minding not my business as much.  So I can play again like I'm an adult and somewhat serious... at least technically... indoors.

Any ideas?  Am I premature expectationitis and need to slow down and wait for the test equipment to equillibriate or is my feeling that anxiety high is correct?

I need more practice... so I figured this is a safe environment even though public to ask.

First thing to do is to get short length of wire and create a short between the left hand pair of sockets marked HI and LO and then observe the readings and they should be greatly reduced, then press the OFFSET button and the reading should then zero and with the short in place (I used a length of wire about 90cms long) because of the length of the cable it will pick up some stray voltage from radio waves etc so the reading may alter by about .001 to .002mV and this is normal.

The following photos show my 8840A and 8842A, first photo shows both meters with no leads connected, 2nd shows 8840A with shorted terminals, third shows reading after OFFSET is pressed, 4th shows 8842A with shorted terminals, 5th shows 8842A after OFFSET has been pressed.

These readings are normal and its due to very high Z input which is about 1Gohm so it does not load down the circuit that your trying to get a voltage reading on. These meters are very good for electronics use because they introduce very little in the way of burden voltage and thus do not upset the circuit under test.



Where on earth did you get your meter from, its been terribly beaten up in its time?

[Brumby]

Where on earth did you get your meter from, its been terribly beaten up in its time?

Yeah.  Looks like someone used it as a wheel chock for their Humvee.

[mnementh]

   So Unicorn Poo a little Bondage for the day eclectic and just a little disturbing

Time to join @Inverted in getting back to TEA or more correctly TEA Support. Found the few minutes today to finish a little BNC-Scope probe adapter I started weeks ago. Suits  4.8-5mm barrel Probes so Hantek/Clones, Migsig and a bunch of others. I will most likely get around to a 'nice' version with a 3D printed sleeve to extend the probe support a bit more again.

BNC-SMA with the sma threads removed back to brass. 6mm Knurl Nut. A few inches of Nichrome (not worried about the tiny resistance in the scheme of things). Wind the spring to 4.5mm and solder one side. Unwind a few spots on the Knurl Nut so the probe takes a bit of a wiggle to insert and solder wire number 2 in that spot. Sweat the Knurl Nut onto the modded SMA section and use.

EDIT Rough as guts 3D printed cover for the prototype works a treat the bulges are caused by the dodgy lumps of solder

Quick test to 40 MHz looks good and even when bumped or wiggled still makes good contact. Waveform is full bandwidth no averaging so nice and noise free.

Unicorns and bondage... Hmmm... Don't knock it till you've tried it.

Nicely MacGyver-fied adapter there. I'm so proud!  And "butt-ugly butt it works 3DP" to round it out! 

Please excuse this rant - but I'm really pissed off at the moment....

About 6 months ago, I lent some computer gear to a charity on an indefinite loan.  They never used it.  They also stopped being a charity.

About 3 weeks ago, I had a need that this equipment could fill, so I politely asked for it back.  It took a couple of trips to get all the pieces, but just today I was in the process of putting this gear together and found the graphics card had been removed!  Never lending shit again.

*Sigh* I know this pain... all too well. My grandfather's advice still rings true, and it applies equally well to tools, money, time or anything else of value:

"Never lend anything you aren't prepared to make a gift of."

Even though I do my best to live this advice, it still isn't any less annoying each and every time it is reaffirmed.   

mnem
"If you loan a man $20 and never see him again... you made a good deal." ~grandmomma

[Housedad]

I was just watching the last Keysight Youtube broadcast.  Wave 2019 is now over. 


Daniel Bogdanoff, the announcer, mentioned something about the 200MHZ dsox1204g's they are giving away.  He mentioned that he thinks they have all options turned on. 

That would be incredible.  I've started learning about serial signals.  This is all just perfect timing.  I hope he's right.

[mnementh]

Made the mistake of following somebody's link to The Daily WTF?! on my way to bed... next thing I know, it's pushing midnight and my cynicism is at 110% overcharge. 

They have an RSS feed, thus making it easier to feel superior or "there but the grade of god go I", depending on your temperament.

For more serious and important points, there's nothing to beat comp.risks. It has been going since 1985, is well moderated, low volume, and the SNR is impressively high. Often the posts end with "What could possibly go wrong?".

I dunno that I could survive a daily dose of that... 

I'm no programmer, though I've dabbled enough that I got the "little Bobby Tables" gag from context even before reading it on XKCD, and I've been in IT long enough that most of Simon Travaglia's humor, even though it is decades old, still strikes a little too close to home. 

   Hi, I'm a TEA. I just received the Fluke 8840A after some SAD.  Paid ~$50 total US. (SNIP)

Where on earth did you get your meter from, its been terribly beaten up in its time?

Yeah.  Looks like someone used it as a wheel chock for their Humvee.

Looks like one of many uglier units I've seen listed by Express Auctions... I'd still pay $50 for that unit, provided the VFD is half-decent. If it is one of theirs, you can be assured it really is EXACTLY as they got it from whomever e-cycled it with them, NOT a "meter" made from duff parts taken off of repaired units. Also that it will come packed to survive the winged-monkey carriers who just chuck it over the fence. 

mnem

[URI]

Speaking of winged-monkey carriers we also have to mention poorly packing sellers who seem to not give a damn in what condition the sent item might arrive at the buyer.
Today my (second...) Agilent 34401A arrived. The box it was shipped in was nearly ok.
But it was only a bit higher than the instrument itself! 




It seems I'm lucky as it seems to work fine; I've tested DCV, DCI, Ohms and it's spot on -even though the seller wrote it might need calibration(?).
The Display is a bit dim so I might go for a NOS replacement from china.

[mnementh]

In Other Worlds... I need to Pick Somebody's Brain About Oculus and Steam:

I'm thinking about dusting off my old Oculus DK2 for use with Steam, but I've run into a bit of a catch-22... Steam says my system has plenty of power for their VR, but you have to have the Oculus runtime to play their video  through my DK2. I rebuilt this rig years ago expressly for the DK2 (I was one of the freaks who actually preordered when it was only $260 net), so I know it at one time ran the Oculus runtime without breaking a sweat, but the current runtime is part of a huge bloatware POS called "Oculus Home".

The current "Oculus Compatibility Check Tool" says my system is ready except for my old 1055T Phenom II, but ONLY because it doesn't support a specialized instruction set called SSE4.1 that clearly the amorph engine does not NEED, as the runtime used to work fine on this very CPU. 

Anyways... I know the Rift has a lot of new stuff over the DK2 (the Touch interface, IR-vector tracking vs accelerometer, built-in 3D Audio), but from what I'm seeing right now, we're on the verge of a major paradigm shift in VR... as in jumping to 5K-ish res and going from 100°-ish FOV to 160°-ish FOV, so not wanting to spend the $600-ish on current VR hardware, when I know my PC can't even think about doing the new stuff.

It looks like the Rift Touch system is available separately for ~$100, which I WOULD spend if it's hackable with the DK2.

Any ideas? Do I maybe need to ransack my archives for the old runtime..? Would it even run on Windoze10/64...?

I know there's a lot of discussion online about the newer stuff, but trying to find any discussion on updating the older stuff is pretty much lost in a sea of shit. So I'm hoping one of you guys might have actually trod this path and can give me some pointers.

Thanks guys,

mnem
POIT!!!

[mnementh]

Speaking of winged-monkey carriers we also have to mention poorly packing sellers who seem to not give a damn in what condition the sent item might arrive at the buyer. Today my (second...) Agilent 34401A arrived. The box it was shipped in was nearly ok.
But it was only a bit higher than the instrument itself!        

It seems I'm lucky as it seems to work fine; I've tested DCV, DCI, Ohms and it's spot on -even though the seller wrote it might need calibration(?). The Display is a bit dim so I might go for a NOS replacement from china.

I know I'm probably in the minority here, but in all honesty I don't think you can fault the seller here, unless they're a TE vendor with a long history of selling such gear. That packing job is definitely above-average for fleaBay; more than "reasonable care" was taken in the form of bubble-wrap and heavy-duty carton.
It sucks, but our beloved type of equipment requires "unreasonable care" when packing, and it's not reasonable to expect the average eBayer to know how to pack it the way we would prefer.

If your item is sold by an established test equipment vendor, then yes it is reasonable to expect them to "overpack" it as we would consider adequate. Otherwise, you should consider yourself lucky that bubble-wrap on all sides is part of the equation. 

mnem
 

[bd139]

Indeed. The 3478A I had a few months back came in a fucking jiffy bag 

Best one I had was a very thin and weak bottle of ferric chloride shipped in a jiffy bag.

[Neomys Sapiens]

I must admit to being pretty tight arsed when it comes to tools, my best mate is a real shocker when it comes to tools - his shed is just one big draw of semi-rusty stuff. No order, he never cleans a tool, everything is covered in paint splatters or grease. I remember driving into his farm property and finding several tools along the in road - he had left them on the back of the trailer - with the tail gate down, he has even left a chainsaw out overnight in rain!
But he would do anything to help you.

I know such a pig too! Fortunately he has left for YOUR place! Person in question will waste, soil, destroy and lose tools, test equipment and related stuff faster and uglier that even an only marginally trained great ape.

[0culus]

I made an antenna when I connected my 100 MHz clock from the FPGA to the logic analyzer. 

[bd139]

Now try and tune it with an FM radio. Silence on the air 

[0culus]

Hahaha, yep, my lab bench becomes a dead zone due to localized broadband interference... 

[bd139]

Nice productive Friday evening so far. Spent 20 minutes thinking about where to put stuff on my bench. Then spent an hour moving it. Then spent 10 minutes being pissed off by it. Then spent an hour putting it back how it was 

[mnementh]

   A nice productive Friday afternoon... spent it modding an old AV cart with a 3/16" plate top for a portable welding bench. Of course its steel-reinforced horizontal surface on top of a movable chassis immediately attracted all manner of shop equipment. 

mnem
*shop-ily*

[bitseeker]

What up T.E.A.! I shoot 30 mins of footage for the new channel and will be able to finish the filming, edit, and upload it to the new YT channel. Pretty stoked to see how warmly/ coldly its received. The 1st video will cover a bit of kit nowhere else has featured yet so at least I'll have that going for me.

Calibrator vids. Cool!

[bitseeker]

Hi, I'm a TEA.

I just received the Fluke 8840A after some SAD.  Paid ~$50 total US.  I'm struggling not to buy more and already have items I need to pay for though almost DBA is helping to ease the struggle in purchasing more. 

Welcome, PrecisionAnalytic! Looks like you're off to a good start there apart from that Fluke getting a pretty good kicking in the rear. It reminds me of gear from that vendor in the country whose name starts with the letter I.

As Specmaster covered, your meter is behaving normally. It's just due to its high input impedance on the lower ranges.

[worsthorse]

   So Unicorn Poo a little Bondage for the day eclectic and just a little disturbing

Time to join @Inverted in getting back to TEA or more correctly TEA Support. Found the few minutes today to finish a little BNC-Scope probe adapter I started weeks ago. Suits  4.8-5mm barrel Probes so Hantek/Clones, Migsig and a bunch of others. I will most likely get around to a 'nice' version with a 3D printed sleeve to extend the probe support a bit more again.

BNC-SMA with the sma threads removed back to brass. 6mm Knurl Nut. A few inches of Nichrome (not worried about the tiny resistance in the scheme of things). Wind the spring to 4.5mm and solder one side. Unwind a few spots on the Knurl Nut so the probe takes a bit of a wiggle to insert and solder wire number 2 in that spot. Sweat the Knurl Nut onto the modded SMA section and use.

EDIT Rough as guts 3D printed cover for the prototype works a treat the bulges are caused by the dodgy lumps of solder

Quick test to 40 MHz looks good and even when bumped or wiggled still makes good contact. Waveform is full bandwidth no averaging so nice and noise free.

Unicorns and bondage... Hmmm... Don't knock it till you've tried it.

Nicely MacGyver-fied adapter there. I'm so proud!  And "butt-ugly butt it works 3DP" to round it out! 

Please excuse this rant - but I'm really pissed off at the moment....

About 6 months ago, I lent some computer gear to a charity on an indefinite loan.  They never used it.  They also stopped being a charity.

About 3 weeks ago, I had a need that this equipment could fill, so I politely asked for it back.  It took a couple of trips to get all the pieces, but just today I was in the process of putting this gear together and found the graphics card had been removed!  Never lending shit again.

*Sigh* I know this pain... all too well. My grandfather's advice still rings true, and it applies equally well to tools, money, time or anything else of value:

"Never lend anything you aren't prepared to make a gift of."

Even though I do my best to live this advice, it still isn't any less annoying each and every time it is reaffirmed.   

mnem
"If you loan a man $20 and never see him again... you made a good deal." ~grandmomma

It took me a long time to learn this lesson: don't loan or share anything (in particular, money, tools, or whiskey) if doing so comes with a "resentment probability" of greater than zero. 

And on a TEA note... deeper into the rabbit hole I go. I had another visit with the guy who knows a guy who has a house full of equipment that he doesn't know what to do with because he is not one of us. By the time I left I found myself the owner of a rubidium oscillator, another GPSDO, a mysterious box with an sma antenna port and two DB9s, a 0-70dB HP attenuator,  a differential probe for the DA1855A, and yes, one of these:



A sparcbook 1, along with a complete set of the original manuals and a CD of software. Luckily he didn't find the power adapter while I was there or I'd still be at the bench, wandering through that particularly twisty maze of passages, all alike. The photo is from the web. I will post some of the real thing once I have the adapter and figure out whether I can get it going.

[bitseeker]

Rob's got a new vid up:



Tear-down, tear-down, tear-down...

[VK5RC]

I would love to, but I have promised the unit as a door prize for my radio club's buy and sell.
Rob

[VK5RC]

Not a great day yesterday, switched on the Noise Figure meter to be greeted by the e80, flat cal battery warning. Fortunately not too hard to find a new battery, and I have the noise source to be able to re-cal (FFS they are bloody expensive!)
Below is some real HP porn, in their day the 8970 was 10k! You can get them now for some hundreds.

[0culus]

I really like the era before large scale integration took over everything digital. 

[mnementh]

"Accept something that you cannot change, and you will feel much better."

   

So... as part of my productive afternoon's work, I discovered that the Kobalt drill I got with my Christmas present has an intermittent fault; sometimes it is non-responsive in reverse, and you have to hit the trigger several times to make it go. No problem, I thought; these have "5 Year Warranty" right on the tool and the box.  So I take the drill and a charger, figuring I'll probably need both for the exchange.

I get there, and customer service tells me to go to the tools section and find the right drill for the exchange. I find 2 drills on the shelf, but neither is the same exact unit; one is drill only, and one is a full kit with charger and bag. I take them both up to the service desk, and that is when things turn pear-shaped.

According to the customer service agent, the old drill was discontinued and I would need to buy a new warranty on the new drill to be able to exchange it over the counter, or exchange it direct with the manufacturer via phone and return shipment. I felt like I was being hustled, in all honesty... but figuring if I had to ship drill, battery & charger somewhere I'd probably spend pretty close to the $17 she was asking, as well as being without them for 2-3 weeks.

So I paid, took my receipt & new drill and left; on the way home I picked up some Chinese food for myself and my wife.

Later, picking at my potstickers and sesame chicken, I sat and stewed over the events at Lowes' customer service counter while I ate; it still annoyed me on general principle. Then I read my fortune cookie: "Accept something that you cannot change, and you will feel much better."

I considered that as I cut open the box of my new drill, and soon found myself pleasantly surprised; the replacement was a definite upgrade. It is the same model as the first Kobalt drill I'd gotten from them several years ago; with metal gearbox and higher torque rating I knew it was a good tool, as I'd abused that drill quite a few times, and it just chugged away heartily without complaint or fault. Not only that, but it came with a nice new canvas tote bag and a new 2.0AH battery, whereas my old drill went back (purely by accident) with one of the extra 1.5AH packs I'd bought because they were only $10 each. 

So... I guess I feel much better now. 

mnem
*toolish*

[PrecisionAnalytic]

Appears to be working fine and will fit in with the assaulted, battered, maimed and almost murdered... though still accurate, or at least precise, with the right standard support and inputs. 

 
(Amazing find... and reminds me of similar experience... like wow!  Works... what's some of the strange reading come from though.  Pulsed DC or Modulation differences in an envelope in my vicinity or what to do negative charge something?)


(Come on... it's an addiction and I was on a roll.  This one was a little scarier to bring home).

Then there's what started it all... I needed something better than a Microsoft Lifecam A/V line in, Lenovo X200 to process the signals and output  , RTL-SDR with cheap antenna with SDR#, Spectrum Lab and Audacity to make sure I wasn't hearing things coming out of nowhere like  ... the assault, battered and maimed though very functional TDS-520B and not functional TDS-520 though looks like a dandy (). 


We don't look and sound the best... we're getting older... though for Jesus Christ sake... we're truthful and about lively measurements for life and the living!  Even when corrupted... unless really cyber jacked or as I advocate Electromagnetic Crimes Enforcement Division in desperate need of.  Cyber Crimes can barely get a handle on the hardwired pipelines.  Now with more wireless insanity with imminent threat potential of grave concern... wow... undisclosed clearly and highly redacted until recently.   

Save the fiber!

Save the copper!  (gold and silver and many other metals are great too... especially if they're living things nutrients)

Save the Mu-Metal and Steel (I'm not sure if the kiddos even know what TEMPEST is and shielding... let alone quiet zones and static, noise, interference and jamming... like I guess there isn't thumpin bass and music used to jam like back in the... was that late 80's-90's?)

[VK5RC]

@mnem. Good to hear a good ending and warranty in the same topic.

Re other favorite sayings

1 Lord give me the patience to accept the things that I can't change and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those who really p####d me off.

2 If the possibilities are either conspiracy or cock-up, go for the cock-up every time.

Rob