Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

Storage scopes were available well before the 24xx series. I used one in the 70s, and they weren't a new concept then.

Of course they were a pain to use, but it took a surprisingly long time for analogue storage scopes to be completely supplanted by digitising storage scopes.

Let me guess - Nicolet?

Not especially; I was aware of but never touched Nicolet. ISTR they didn't have reputation for allowing you to do your job.

But all analogue storage scopes[1] were a pain in the backside; if your application could tolerate the slow digitisation rates, digitising scopes had an obvious and immediate attraction.

[1] I used Tek 7000 series in the late 70s, and played with a working Tek 464 before selling it at a hamfest for much more than I paid for it.

[bd139]

Yeah the analogue storage ones were marginally worse than the early digital storage ones. I don’t think DSOs got usable decent until the 54600 and early TDS machines came out either. I have been told the old tek tube based storage ones are nice but I suspect that’s selection bias.

Attempted to sort my transistor stock out this evening and failed miserably resulting in millions of little bags all over everything. Going to bed 

[beanflying]

Like the Knobs and Feet thread I started to help keep the old gear going what would you think about creating a 'List your Parts Mule' thread?

Listing it wouldn't have to mean it was 'all' available for sale or exchange but it might help get an odd part transferred from member to member with or with $ but deals to be done VIA PM's. Keep an index page as post 1 to posts within the thread and members to advise if the unit is off the list?

[Specmaster]

I guess I have no ethics and my morals are questionable. I have 5 parts mules here. A Tek 465, Tek 2430, Tek DM44, Tek 7A15, and a Fluke 8800A. I have absolutely no intention of fixing any of them and they've all been scavenged for parts. My conscience is completely clear and with no lingering guilt. I am judge and jury in determining if something can be fixed and no one going to tell me different. If it goes into "no fix" it's parts.

And I'm not done sinning. If I can find a beat to crap 465B real cheap it's gonna give up it's channel 2 attenuator switch deck and go in the parts mule closet.     

I'm kind of in the same quandary when comes to collecting 8566/68 spectrum analyzers. Would I hate to dismantle an RF unit to get parts? Yes. But, if it means another instrument can live on, I'm all for it. Probably going to have to happen to get my other 8568 running.

I'm right there with you on this, I'd rather have 1 working one than 2 dead ones. I'm just pondering what to do with my parts mules now that I no longer have the working that the mules were for (sold on to make way for better newer models).

[worsthorse]

I pulled the trigger on the "as-is" 8640B, which I will use to fix up my existing sig gen. My first parts mule purchase. I am clearly hopeless. 

[beanflying]

I pulled the trigger on the "as-is" 8640B, which I will use to fix up my existing sig gen. My first parts mule purchase. I am clearly hopeless.  in my Happy Place

[0culus]

I guess I have no ethics and my morals are questionable. I have 5 parts mules here. A Tek 465, Tek 2430, Tek DM44, Tek 7A15, and a Fluke 8800A. I have absolutely no intention of fixing any of them and they've all been scavenged for parts. My conscience is completely clear and with no lingering guilt. I am judge and jury in determining if something can be fixed and no one going to tell me different. If it goes into "no fix" it's parts.

And I'm not done sinning. If I can find a beat to crap 465B real cheap it's gonna give up it's channel 2 attenuator switch deck and go in the parts mule closet.     

I'm kind of in the same quandary when comes to collecting 8566/68 spectrum analyzers. Would I hate to dismantle an RF unit to get parts? Yes. But, if it means another instrument can live on, I'm all for it. Probably going to have to happen to get my other 8568 running.

I'm right there with you on this, I'd rather have 1 working one than 2 dead ones. I'm just pondering what to do with my parts mules now that I no longer have the working that the mules were for (sold on to make way for better newer models).

I'd help you out if you were on this side of the pond. I shudder to think the international freight charges for sending one of these things would be...

Guy I bought mine from did some math from his experience with the 8566/68 series and based on the serial numbers, HP made more of these than you'd think given how expensive they were to buy new. I forget the number, but I think it was about 20,000 in total between 8566 and 8568 systems.

[med6753]

Like the Knobs and Feet thread I started to help keep the old gear going what would you think about creating a 'List your Parts Mule' thread?

Listing it wouldn't have to mean it was 'all' available for sale or exchange but it might help get an odd part transferred from member to member with or with $ but deals to be done VIA PM's. Keep an index page as post 1 to posts within the thread and members to advise if the unit is off the list?

I'm in favor of that. 

[med6753]

I pulled the trigger on the "as-is" 8640B, which I will use to fix up my existing sig gen. My first parts mule purchase. I am clearly hopeless. 

Sometimes the "as-is" stuff winds up in better condition than the unit you have. That was case with the 2430 currently sitting on the bench. It was in BETTER condition than mine so my unit became the parts mule.

[0culus]

Here's a fun video, complete with good old 1980s production values. 

[mnementh]

Quick ethical question here. Is it morally acceptable to eviscerate a piece of HP gear which is entirely not useful for the knob caps for my 6236B, guts and the extremely nice case it comes in which will be reused for a project? HP 3551A is the device in question.

In a word YES

Is that one of those huge honkin' battery-op twisted-pair signal quality testers? Abso-fucking-lutely. And you can have it tell Unit #722 "mnem sez 'Hi, BITCH!' " when they meet up in Hell. 

I guess I have no ethics and my morals are questionable. I have 5 parts mules here. A Tek 465, Tek 2430, Tek DM44, Tek 7A15, and a Fluke 8800A. I have absolutely no intention of fixing any of them and they've all been scavenged for parts. My conscience is completely clear and with no lingering guilt. I am judge and jury in determining if something can be fixed and no one going to tell me different. If it goes into "no fix" it's parts.

And I'm not done sinning. If I can find a beat to crap 465B real cheap it's gonna give up it's channel 2 attenuator switch deck and go in the parts mule closet.     

My stance too. If i say it's dead then it's pretty damn dead and way past the point of no return.

On that basis, the ones in my cupboard may be parts mules and I haven't got the good ones yet

Is one of them a 465B? If yes...I want the channel 2 attenuator deck.

See, I told you I have no morals. 

See you in Hell, bitch!!! Along with Unit #722!!!

I pulled the trigger on the "as-is" 8640B, which I will use to fix up my existing sig gen. My first parts mule purchase. I am clearly hopeless.    in my Happy Place

Fine then... see you ALL in Hell!!!   I'll be the one riding a white elephant!!!

mnem
First round's on bd though; he started it.

[bitseeker]

Been playing with 10MHz OCXO's and wanted another dedicated power supply I could run for some long term testing.  Found what looked to be a clean, late version HP 6227B (0-25v, 0-2A, dual channel) on eBay not to far from me.  This was the only test equipment item in the sellers store, so I made an offer for $75 from the $135 asking and they accepted.  Shipped fast, and very well packaged which was a pleasant surprise.  Its in better shape than I had hoped for, appears 100% original and no signs of any work.  I am seeing some ripple at max load, more so from the main channel.  The main filter bank caps do appear week, and C10 on the master regulator board needs to be replaced, but this is to be expected.  The hunt is on for some caps, but well worth it for such a nice piece of gear, they don't make things like they use to.

Wow, great deal you made there. I've been wanting to get one of those, but they tend to either be in bad shape, missing parts (feet, badge, etc.), much too expensive, or some combination. Well done! Added to the POI index.

[bitseeker]

Quick ethical question here. Is it morally acceptable to eviscerate a piece of HP gear which is entirely not useful for the knob caps for my 6236B, guts and the extremely nice case it comes in which will be reused for a project? HP 3551A is the device in question.

When I first started reading your ethical conundrum, I was thinking you were talking about something cool. I've run into that moment of pause, too. Some of the stuff I have was destined to become a parts mule until I found one in even worse shape that could be used to restore the former mule back to life, and so on down the line (TEA!).

Then, I saw that it was just an old transmission test set. What?!? You're fretting over that?

Not only is it a nice source for knobs, it's got binding posts that match a wide range of HP gear, too! (And the enclosures are often worth more than a lot of the old, useless gear that sits around on eBay for months.)

[bitseeker]

I pulled the trigger on the "as-is" 8640B, which I will use to fix up my existing sig gen. My first parts mule purchase. I am clearly hopeless. 

Sometimes the "as-is" stuff winds up in better condition than the unit you have. That was case with the 2430 currently sitting on the bench. It was in BETTER condition than mine so my unit became the parts mule.

Been there. Done that. Ended up with extra as a result. TEA!

Added to the glossary:

BOGUS: Better Old Gear Upgrade Syndrome - Buying another of the same piece of used test equipment because it's in better condition than your current one.

[beanflying]

Why 3D Printing is great  Started the drawing after lunch and into and off the printer and partially fitted 5 hours later in time for 6pm Beers 

Rear Left and Right fan screws fix into the Rose standoffs, just needed to tap them to M4.

[bitseeker]

Why 3D Printing is great

Because it makes bean's projects look even better!

[beanflying]

Why 3D Printing is great

Because it makes bean's projects look even better!

And also gave me 3 hours of printing time to match, bend and solder up the lower decade (10-100) on the other box and lap the heatsinks and power resistors and bolt in. Just a little straight copper wire work needed now on this one. 0.05% or better for the 6 decades apart from the bottom one but I can tweak that in easily.

[PrecisionAnalytic]

Storage scopes were available well before the 24xx series. I used one in the 70s, and they weren't a new concept then.

Of course they were a pain to use, but it took a surprisingly long time for analogue storage scopes to be completely supplanted by digitising storage scopes.

Let me guess - Nicolet?

I was aware of but never touched Nicolet. ISTR they didn't have reputation for allowing you to do your job.

I thought Nicolet made great Mid-IR Spectrometers.  Of course... in later years I got the ABB Bomem NIR and Mid-IR tanks to work with and of course NIR almost entirely.   I still have withdrawals from spectrometers, programming, standards, statistical analysis and chemometrics.   

The electronics and RF engineering studies (mainly only reading, watching videos and asking questions for now... with a few problems) with the new RF modules (AD603, AD8307, AD8362, AD8317, HMC189, AD831, BFG135, AD9850, Si5351A, a range of attenuators, various NARDA directional couplers and two other brands, an RF bridge, a SET duplexer mixer and even a generic dual balanced mixer RFin=1.5-4.5GHz RFout=DC-1.5GHz) especially just looking and touching the Pacific Measurements 1038 kit really feels good.  The RG316 pigtails came in the mail yesterday so I can prototype with those before I solder some RG402 cables tuned with SMA connectors for the final designs.  Feels good.   

I even picked up some free items I found online and had an easy Eureka cyclonic vacuum cleaner model AS1104 repair that I was planning to part out and put some of the pieces into a trash container or bucket shop vac design with a gamma seal lid... and the thing only needed cleaning thoroughly and I think other than added weight and less maneuverability... performs better than the Dyson DC25 which is more a pain with the cord and switching to use the hose. 

I'm ready to tear apart an HP free printer or two I picked up also and stare down some components to see if I can get motivated to make a CNC Arduino controlled multi machine... router, laser, printer, etc.  Thinking the router/laser will be handy to make stripline, microstrip and PCB components with.  I was thinking the scanner glass might not be a bad donor for a solar panel build too for a weather station I need to update from my previous skill set design capabilities.   

[bd139]

Boredom struck today so I went ebay shopping. Managed to land an ancient piece of test gear. A Heathkit GDO. Without coils. Gives me something to make then 

TBH at £20 including postage, it's not a bad deal. You get a decent variable capacitor, HT / filament transformer, tag strips, mains switch pot, a panel meter for that money. I've got some 12AU7's floating around and some tube sockets so it may end up being a DIY VTVM.

Edit: also if you're really "lucky" you get the smell of burning selenium!

[med6753]

Edit: also if you're really "lucky" you get the smell of burning selenium!

 

[Specmaster]

You are bored as well then, bloody ebay is dead and there's literally nothing going on at the moment that is remotely interesting in terms of desirability and realistically priced, I think the uncertainty over Brexit has taken everyone over at the moment.

[bd139]

Yeah could be right there. It's a right fucking mess in that department for sure.

It's £1 listing weekend so I'm going to see if I can palm off some high value shit before April 14th deadline I think. May be much more difficult to shift it after.

[Specmaster]

Now thats a thought, the deadline is April 12th though. I doubt that I'm going to be able to get my keyboard ready in time for that due to the ongoing situation here in the specmaster towers 

[bd139]

Ah crap you're right 12th. 14th is Kempton 

[nixiefreqq]

Quick ethical question here. Is it morally acceptable to eviscerate a piece of HP gear which is entirely not useful for the knob caps for my 6236B, guts and the extremely nice case it comes in which will be reused for a project? HP 3551A is the device in question.

When I first started reading your ethical conundrum, I was thinking you were talking about something cool. I've run into that moment of pause, too. Some of the stuff I have was destined to become a parts mule until I found one in even worse shape that could be used to restore the former mule back to life, and so on down the line (TEA!).

Then, I saw that it was just an old transmission test set. What?!? You're fretting over that?

Not only is it a nice source for knobs, it's got binding posts that match a wide range of HP gear, too! (And the enclosures are often worth more than a lot of the old, useless gear that sits around on eBay for months.)

"just an old transmission test set"

as a former telephone bum, the freqq is shocked, appalled , and yes...….a little hurt by your harsh uncaring comment.

you can take my tims when you pry them from my cold dead hands.