Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Kosmic]

till holding out at $400? That's quite stoic.

Actually, I went there to see the unit today (I'm so weak). The display unit is busted (really dim screen, no character). The seller had another display unit but also dim. With the second display I was able to test the spectrum analyzer a little bit. Seem really jittery in the 0-2G range and 2-22 range was not working since the yig oscillator was unlock.

Overall in really bad shape. Came back home empty handed 

Incredible place though. The guy is pilling up electronics in an old commercial building. There is mountain of stuff everywhere with just enough place to circulate. I should have taken some pictures.

[0culus]

That's a shame. HP provided a pair of shift key operations (shift g - beam off and shift h - beam on) to save the CRT life by providing the ability to turn the beam off when the instrument is unattended or under automatic control, but it seems in many cases the CRT was just allowed to burn for years till it got dim. 

[edit] The YIG unlock can be dealt with, I believe that is most commonly caused by a particular capacitor going bad IIRC. But, it sounds like the whole system was pretty worn.

[Kosmic]

Well if those LCD conversion kits from newscope were affordable that would be an option.



Look really cool though.

[0culus]

Yes, that is definitely an option. I think you unfortunately need the more expensive one to match the fidelity of the CRT though. I have an extra display/IF unit that, if the CRT turns out to be bad after I repair whatever blew the fuse, I may get the kit for. It also eliminates the HV circuits, which is a plus for safety.

[0culus]

Shahriar playing with more gear I can't afford. 

And he's the very best in his field too.
Just getting product onto Shahriar's bench is a marketing win.

He definitely knows his stuff, very professional. It's nice that people like him are willing to share their knowledge openly. 

[mnementh]

Shahriar playing with more gear I can't afford. 

I was afraid to look but I am guessing that scope cost more than my truck. New. And he took it apart?   

   
I guess you missed out on his teardown of a Keysight UXR scope. The 110GHz 4-channel model has an MSRP of US$1.3 million (note: he didn't tear down the top-end model, but it's pretty close).

Yeah, but we don't SEE him tearing it apart, so I expect the case is as others have suggested; that they sent a working unit AND whatever internal components they felt like allowing him to fondle onscreen. I can't see them allowing any third party to tear apart a working unit, especially one of such  stratospheric value. IIRC, the boards he's messing with are 4-Channel, however the working scope is clearly 2-Channel.

And they certainly don't want anyone having access to internal ports, headers, etc on a working unit such that a working copy of proprietary FW could conceivably be extracted by someone of his obvious skill.

mnem
*Time to feed the kiddles*

[Mr. Scram]

I was afraid to look but I am guessing that scope cost more than my truck. New. And he took it apart?   

And in TEA related news, I made an offer on a TG501 for the TM500 rack that I did not expect to be accepted. So of course it was. 

"A truck" is a rather modest estimate. If we take a Limted model Ford F150, it's about 20 trucks. Using the base price it's about 46 brand new trucks. If we take a used 2007 model for $3500 it's nearing 400 trucks. In short, it's a lot of trucks.

[mnementh]

Not QUITE that bad. The MSO58 we were talking about there is $34,500 right now at Newark. The 4-Ch UXR, NOT the 2-Ch one shown in Shahriar's video, is 1.3 mil.

   You can stand down; that's plenty of freakout for one day. 

mnem
glerp.

[bd139]

GDO done and working. Photos coming soon.

Standard dial calibration is shit as expected so I’ll make a new one up.

I’ve used it with a 1% 900pf capacitor to measure a 5.6uH axial inductor (10% tol) and it comes out at a respectable 5.22uH. Not bad for an instrument of the age.

[Specmaster]

Shahriar playing with more gear I can't afford. 

I was afraid to look but I am guessing that scope cost more than my truck. New. And he took it apart?   

   
I guess you missed out on his teardown of a Keysight UXR scope. The 110GHz 4-channel model has an MSRP of US$1.3 million (note: he didn't tear down the top-end model, but it's pretty close).

Yeah, but we don't SEE him tearing it apart, so I expect the case is as others have suggested; that they sent a working unit AND whatever internal components they felt like allowing him to fondle onscreen. I can't see them allowing any third party to tear apart a working unit, especially one of such  stratospheric value. IIRC, the boards he's messing with are 4-Channel, however the working scope is clearly 2-Channel.

And they certainly don't want anyone having access to internal ports, headers, etc on a working unit such that a working copy of proprietary FW could conceivably be extracted by someone of his obvious skill.

mnem
*Time to feed the kiddles*

Yes that is exactly what he said at the start of his video, he was supplied with the extra parts to enable him talk about them. He did not take it apart.

[med6753]

Meh, when I worked in mainframe test I handled (and sometimes tore down) assemblies worth $500K USD and up. Yes, at first it was scary but you get used to it. Was just part of the job.

But if you screwed one up you faced at least decertification and all sorts of other unwanted attention.  No screw ups here. 

[bd139]

Oh here it is. Image heavy. Sorry. One pile of old crap Heathkit GD-1U as advertised:



Don't turn it on, take it apart. Basically it's a EF92 (6AB4) based LC oscillator with a peak detecting meter attached to it. The L bit sticks out so you can couple energy to other stuff. Some criminal wiring in here, an old selenium hand grenade and a nasty nasty nasty old dual capacitor.



Unit was disassembled and front panel removed. All the nasty bits were removed. The mains cable was snipped out, the entire power supply section was removed and disposed of and all the components were tested in circuit. Fortunately all was well. The EF92 was inspected for getting poisoning and then the heater checked on a bench power supply to make sure it was still ok. Good news again. Some early victims - ick:



A new power supply section was built on a new tag strip installed in the hole the original selenium rectifier was in. I forgot to take a photo of the installed new power supply  but it was from the HT a 1n4007 series -> 22uF parallel (250v) -> 2.2k 1W series -> 22uF parallel (250v) -> out. The resistor was selected as a finger in the air estimate to give around 110 - 150V of DC for it. Came out at 141 which I was happy with. During build



Next thing the unit was scrubbed down with washing up liquid and kitchen towel and dried with a hair dryer. All crud removed. The original dial legend was knackered so I scanned it at 1200dpi, cleaned it up in gimp on Linux and printed a new one out. Trial fit:



Unit was given a quick test and reassembled. Job done. Well not quite. I identified at this point the oscillator stopped at below about 20% of the dial. A hunch pointed to the variable capacitor, confirmed by a quick continuity test. Plates were carefully bent until they didn't touch again. Damn things. Job actually done now...



So what do you use it for. Well let's check an inductance! I dug around and found a decent, stable reference capacitor, a 900pF 1% silver mica one and soldered a supposedly 5.6uH inductor across it so it is a parallel resonant LC circuit:



This was then loosely coupled to the GDO coil sticking out the of top (band A as this should fall in the 1.5-2.5MHz range ish). The flux need to cross through the main GDO coil and the inductor under test so this was the most sensible arrangement here. If you have a toroid, you can stick a couple of turns through it and then wrap them around the and of the coil a couple of times to make a coupled L circuit but I had an axial one at hand here:



You then tweak the sensitivity to about the middle and turn the frequency dial until the meter dips (hence grid dip meter). This is the LC circuit reaching resonance. Usually you'd then read the approx frequency off the dial and dig out your slide rule or nomograph and work out what the inductance is from that but (a) the dial calibration is shit and (b) it's 2019. So in a moment of anachronistic glory, lets measure it with a scope. Just wind up a few turns of hookup wire and ram it into your counter or scope and read the frequency off.



You then have L, C and F so just plug the numbers in f=1/(2*pi*sqrt(l*c)) and solve for L. Or write a program if you know how to use a calculator without an equals button    (or just do what i did and google a calculator for it)

Here we have L=?, C=900pF, F=2.276MHz ... L=5.43uH

Now it's a 5.6uH inductor so that's pretty good.

Edit: now I'm annoyed I sold my old Heathkit IB-1100 counter. That would have gone nicely with it:

[PrecisionAnalytic]

Well if those LCD conversion kits from newscope were affordable that would be an option.

Look really cool though.

I recently came across this method that seems impressive with enhancing capabilities also with math functions and views.


He references his Github files in the description too.   I've seen these going for as low as $50 brand new.

[mnementh]

Yeah, but we don't SEE him tearing it apart, so I expect the case is as others have suggested; that they sent a working unit AND whatever internal components they felt like allowing him to fondle onscreen. I can't see them allowing any third party to tear apart a working unit, especially one of such  stratospheric value. IIRC, the boards he's messing with are 4-Channel, however the working scope is clearly 2-Channel.

And they certainly don't want anyone having access to internal ports, headers, etc on a working unit such that a working copy of proprietary FW could conceivably be extracted by someone of his obvious skill.

mnem
*Time to feed the kiddles*

Yes that is exactly what he said at the start of his video, he was supplied with the extra parts to enable him talk about them. He did not take it apart.

So he does.    LOL... I've watched that vid at least 6 times as pure TEA pr0n; never noticed that, nor once could I think of a usage case where I could even scratch the surface of its capabilities. He might as well be demo-ing a fucking medical tricorder. 

mnem
Fortunately I keep my scales numbered, for just such an occasion...

[0culus]

Yeah, but we don't SEE him tearing it apart, so I expect the case is as others have suggested; that they sent a working unit AND whatever internal components they felt like allowing him to fondle onscreen. I can't see them allowing any third party to tear apart a working unit, especially one of such  stratospheric value. IIRC, the boards he's messing with are 4-Channel, however the working scope is clearly 2-Channel.

And they certainly don't want anyone having access to internal ports, headers, etc on a working unit such that a working copy of proprietary FW could conceivably be extracted by someone of his obvious skill.

mnem
*Time to feed the kiddles*

Yes that is exactly what he said at the start of his video, he was supplied with the extra parts to enable him talk about them. He did not take it apart.

So he does.    LOL... I've watched that vid at least 6 times as pure TEA pr0n; never noticed that, nor once could I think of a usage case where I could even scratch the surface of its capabilities. He might as well be demo-ing a fucking medical tricorder. 

mnem
Fortunately I keep my scales numbered, for just such an occasion...

One area is fiber optics. Cue another signal path video...this time with a 100 GHz Teledyne-Lecroy scope:

[Neomys Sapiens]

Hello TEA community - I have made a post under the wider 'Test Equipment' category, just to reach those too that do not dare come in here. Nevertheless, I would like to bring this to your attention, as I am suspecting that the answer might come from one of you - if any..
See here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/info-on-gouldsiemens-dso-demonstration-device-sought/msg2301666/#msg2301666

[mnementh]

(SNIP)  LOL... I've watched that vid at least 6 times as pure TEA pr0n; never noticed that, nor once could I think of a usage case where I could even scratch the surface of its capabilities. He might as well be demo-ing a fucking medical tricorder. 

mnem
Fortunately I keep my scales numbered, for just such an occasion...

One area is fiber optics. Cue another signal path video...this time with a 100 GHz Teledyne-Lecroy scope:

Well, yeah... that's great to know about, just like it's great to know we're actually out there in the ISS FINALLY TAKING the first real steps towards living in a "Rocket Man" world. 

But neither of these things serve any useful purpose to me or my work; when I need to troubleshoot fiber, I either use application-specific gear already onsite or they send it to me and I send it back when I'm done. The guy/gal in my ear is expecting readings in a certain range from a specific piece of equipment; that is what the deployment was validated on and this is what s/he knows how to walk me through on the script s/he is working from in the system engineer's notes.

In short... that's just too shiny a shovel for the hoopla I'm usually knee-deep in. 

mnem
"That sounds like a management question... way above my pay grade." 

[0culus]

(SNIP)  LOL... I've watched that vid at least 6 times as pure TEA pr0n; never noticed that, nor once could I think of a usage case where I could even scratch the surface of its capabilities. He might as well be demo-ing a fucking medical tricorder. 

mnem
Fortunately I keep my scales numbered, for just such an occasion...

One area is fiber optics. Cue another signal path video...this time with a 100 GHz Teledyne-Lecroy scope:

Well, yeah... that's great to know about, just like it's great to know we're actually out there in the ISS FINALLY TAKING the first real steps towards living in a "Rocket Man" world. 

But neither of these things serve any useful purpose to me or my work; when I need to troubleshoot fiber, I either use application-specific gear already onsite or they send it to me and I send it back when I'm done. The guy/gal in my ear is expecting readings in a certain range from a specific piece of equipment; that is what the deployment was validated on and this is what s/he knows how to walk me through on the script s/he is working from in the system engineer's notes.

In short... that's just too shiny a shovel for the hoopla I'm usually knee-deep in. 

mnem
"That sounds like a management question... way above my pay grade." 

Oh no, I meant in an R&D lab environment. I'm sure there's no way you would use gear this expensive for "on the job site" type of work.

[xrunner]

Hello TEA community - I have made a post under the wider 'Test Equipment' category, just to reach those too that do not dare come in here.

Hmmm. Perhaps we should work on being more welcoming?

[beanflying]

Hello TEA community - I have made a post under the wider 'Test Equipment' category, just to reach those too that do not dare come in here.

Hmmm. Perhaps we should work on being more welcoming?

I thought the entry requirement to this thread was owning or contemplating the ownership of one more piece of Test gear greater than the number Zero 

[kj7e]

This question seems appropriate here.  Okay all, what is the one piece of TE that really got you started, the one piece that amazed you and made you want more.

For me, I was 10 years old and met a local HAM (Peter Griesbaum, WA7IFZ) who I would chat with on 10m SSB.  He heard me complain about the Heathkit 0-12 scope that I could not get to work and offered me an HP 175A scope.  The HP had the same 2 channel 40MHz vertical plug-ins and sweep delay shown in this photo (not my old scope).  I was not able to carry it by myself, had my mom drive me by a strangers house after school to pick up this beast and put in the back of her 1982 Toyota corolla.  We became very good friends and he was the one who taught me electronics.

[0culus]

Ooo...that is a nice bit of kit. And that's an awesome story to go with it!

For me, I got a later start on test equipment, but my gateway drug was also an oscilloscope, my beautiful Tektronix 2465B.

[beanflying]

After a long absence from quality Lab grade gear at Uni a 34401A then just out of Cal was were it all went wrong Right. It made me realise just how sub average the 4 Multimeter's I had were. From there it has been 18 months of mainly painless free fall into the Rabbit Hole that requires regular doses of TEA to know I am far from alone 

[mnementh]

I'm Back, Baybee!!!



 

Got my new Octa-core FX8350 installed... these figures are immediately after running Unigine Superposition at a modest 5% Auto-OC, in which it managed average 125 FPS in VR Readiness mode. 

Looks promising, though not sure if the uneven core loading is application or Windows related. I'll need to try some other stress-testing/benchmarking; there's several in AMD Overdrive, but I'm late for bed.

mnem
w00t!

[mnementh]

Hello TEA community - I have made a post under the wider 'Test Equipment' category, just to reach those too that do not dare come in here.

Hmmm. Perhaps we should work on being more welcoming?

I thought the entry requirement to this thread was owning or contemplating the ownership of one more piece of Test gear than the number Zero 

Yeah... I sortof liken this place to Key West... where "Half the people walk funny, and the other half don't care." 

I mean, pretty much the only thing we don't tolerate is intolerance. 

mnem
And I think that's effing AWESOME!