Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Damn I’d be opening a self storage unit super quick if I saw that going past.

Just spent three hours here sorting components out. Trying to cut down and simplify a bit as I’m swamped with stuff. I don’t want to become that guy 

Ditto here in spades. Now that summer is almost here and "The move" is upon us, reality has set in and I realize that if I really intend to fit it all into one UHaul, even the stuff I thought I'd already sorted needs to be cut by half. And then some. 

mnem
"Reality's a bitch. And she has puppies."
"I thought that was Murphy..."
"Who do you think the daddy is...?" 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

FORREST MIMS.PDF

It Been MacGyverfied.mp3

Special Level of Hell: https://youtu.be/WI39ZkreFLE

[DC1MC]

It needs 5V with 0.65A at startup and around 0.25A during operation, a small box, an old USB charger (that is not exceedingly crappy regarding the voltage quality) and 2-3 passives (a pair of decoupling caps and trimmer for adjustment), a piece of perforated testboard and a nice BNC/SMA connector, as well as a small plastic box, the whole Chinesium datasheet is here:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hp5385a-ocxo-timebase/msg2044633/#msg2044633

And I have to tell you that if you want even moderate accuracy, you have to "forget" the whole assembly ON, same as with all the others OCXO, actually most f-meters keep the OCXO powered  when the device is off.

The thing is ready for calibration after a day or two of working running without interruption.

Also I have strong doubts that the HP power supply doesn't deliver the needed power or the OCXO can't be bodge there with good results. Those things were massive by today standards.

 Now going to crash for tomorrow early wake-up.

 Cheers,
 DC1MC

[mnementh]

https://monster6502.com/

Just tripped over this while looking for something else, and knew there would be a few in here who'd get a chuckle from it.

mnem
Can you Apple II c what I did there?

[Neomys Sapiens]

@MNEM: You did AIM65 too high with your pun!

[tautech]

Is this a better TEA drool than our current TEA one ?
Picked from another thread:



How do we make it bigger ? 

[scl]

@Neomys Sapiens

Here are a few hints as to how the 10811 fits in the 5334A, I'll be back with details on component values tomorrow, if you want them.

[worsthorse]

https://monster6502.com/

Just tripped over this while looking for something else, and knew there would be a few in here who'd get a chuckle from it.

mnem
Can you Apple II c what I did there?

What a hoot. From the details...

The MOnSter 6502 is relatively slow compared to the original, thanks to the much larger capacitance of the design. The maximum reliable clock rate is around 60 kHz. The primary limit to the clock speed is the gate capacitance of the MOSFETs that we are using, which is much larger than the capacitance of the MOSFETs on an original 6502 die.

 

   

[Neomys Sapiens]

@Neomys Sapiens

Here are a few hints as to how the 10811 fits in the 5334A, I'll be back with details on component values tomorrow, if you want them.

Thank you very much - at least the thing that is missing has a name now!
I need a 10811-60111 and a 05334-60003 to do this.
Then of course, I need to figure out the electrical mod, but that seems to have worked for someone.

[beanflying]

So the cheap and cheerful evilbay fans arrived and were fitted to my Ohm Decade box. Running in pushmepullyou style to avoid Swiss cheesing the case lest their be whining from the peanut gallery  edit also note the use of only 2 screws on the fans to stop @mnementh having another dig 

Ran it up without heatsink paste for interest and it ran over 20C hotter without it.

Testing was done with 1,2,3,4  resistors in parallel for a measured 0.484 off my milliohm meter with 4W. (runs 1A test current)

Ran it up to 10A and the peak Temp was 35C against an ambient of 22C for 0.486

Increased to theoretical maximum of 50W across the 1 ohm at and still got a reading of 0.486 and a max temp of 48C. (100W+) after 10+ minutes of use.

Nice flat Tempco it seems and the fans and heatsinks are overkill but I guess if I needed to it would certainly handle a chunk more before the smoke came out 

[bitseeker]

https://monster6502.com/

Just tripped over this while looking for something else, and knew there would be a few in here who'd get a chuckle from it.

I remember seeing a video from Maker Faire about that monster. Even with surface-mount transistors, it's pretty big. Amazing that an Apple A8X CPU at the same scale would cover over 20 acres.

[bitseeker]

Not one I have seen before but USA/Canada TEA I think it needs a loving home  $120USD for freight to Oz  eBay auction: #173849639115

So, who bought it for a $1 (plus heavily profit-padded domestic shipping of $83.40)?

[Carl_Smith]

For me the shipping shows as $46.05.  Must be one of those auto calculated shipping rates based on the viewer's location.  I'm only two states away.

[Housedad]

Where to put all the boat anchors?

Test Equipment storage Location Anguish (TESLA)

[Brumby]

Test Equipment storage Location Anguish (TESLA)

GLOSSARY!

[bitseeker]

Added! Let me know if you want any adjustment to the definition I added.

[beanflying]

So, who bought it for a $1 (plus heavily profit-padded domestic shipping of $83.40)?

We can only hope greedy bugga got a pickup for his deserved $1 instead of making postage sensible. 

[grizewald]

Is this a better TEA drool than our current TEA one ?
Picked from another thread:



How do we make it bigger ? 

You don't!

All the Koloboks (which is the original designer's name for these animated emoticons) are hand drawn by the pixel. Just scaling them up makes them look horrible.

I'd also ask that if anyone likes these, please download the .gif and put it on your own image hosting. Linking to my image storage will rapidly result in me overrunning my bandwidth limits.

[Housedad]

I am so f*****. And I'm really short of packing anything HPAK together and put it into a crusher.

It is about my HP5334A.
After obtaining a working 10811-60111 (and the necessary screws - thanks, Oculus) I put the thing on my desk and wanted to fit that oscillator into it. Except, there is no connector J204 on the left side of the main board (when viewed from the rear). There is a outline labeled with OCXO at the RIGHT of the mainboard (viewed from the rear). And it is a totally different connector.

So I found out that I had been working from a mis-labeled service manual for a HP5334B (which came on a CD with the counter). And that a service manual for the 5334A is NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. I can't even say which OCXO would fit into it. I found an old discussion where someone tries to work around that.
I was already sending a PM to DC1MC in my mind, to tell him that we can finally calibrate that thing.
As it stands now, it is a useless piece of crap. Who needs a reciprocal universal counter with a totally crappy timebase? I don't. I do not have the space to collect useless stuff - I can and must have ONE fully capable counter that can do what my DC503s can't.
HPAK sucks. Severely. Someone wants to come by now and pick it up? Bring something that is guaranteed to make me forget this episode and be gone with it.

I found this one:

http://www.ko4bb.com/getsimple/index.php?id=manuals&dir=HP_Agilent/HP_5334_Universal_Counter

[tautech]

Is this a better TEA drool than our current TEA one ?
Picked from another thread:



How do we make it bigger ? 

You don't!

All the Koloboks (which is the original designer's name for these animated emoticons) are hand drawn by the pixel. Just scaling them up makes them look horrible.

I'd also ask that if anyone likes these, please download the .gif and put it on your own image hosting. Linking to my image storage will rapidly result in me overrunning my bandwidth limits.

We do have the option to upload .gif files onto Dave's server and if you're prepared to do that in a post I'll edit my previous post and link your .gif upload URL to it instead.

[beanflying]

If there is any that are noteworthy they can easily be added to the site in the smiley's section in the backroom by Dave if it seems like a good idea.

Drool

Poop

what else?

[tautech]

If there is any that are noteworthy they can easily be added to the site in the smiley's section in the backroom by Dave if it seems like a good idea.

Drool

Poop

what else?

The Spew one when used appropriately gives a good laugh like when mnem used it for Meds Tek fan hack. 
This was the second one I can't yet find the other:



Here it tis : 



Dunno how many of these less PC ones we can convince Dave to add though. 

[beanflying]

We have  so a little non PC is already here.

I have used a few of these below in the past. I think a Hammer Smash one too might be appropriate?

[grizewald]

A few of my favourites

                
           

[beanflying]

Shrunken mnementh's vomit  15-28PX maximum height is SMF's 'normal' without really upsetting the line formatting.

[scl]

Thank you very much - at least the thing that is missing has a name now!
I need a 10811-60111 and a 05334-60003 to do this.
Then of course, I need to figure out the electrical mod, but that seems to have worked for someone.

You're welcome.
Mine seem to auto-detect the 10811 being installed. But mine also have the little TO-5 XO in sockets (individual pins in the PCB, almost invisible) so you could also pull that out.


Edited to add:
After more research (I cheated and bought the service manual) we find that to install the 10811 one should remove C8 and Y1, then install C100. But the one I took the pictures of has all installed, so either someone stuck in the 10811 (and marked the "option 010" label) without knowing that, or at some point HP decided to not bother disabling the cheap XO.