Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bitseeker]

Perfect!

[worsthorse]

I figured out a way to repair the damaged HP45 charger plug on the HP45. Someone had gouged the back of it open , exposing the connector ends and hacked off the strain relief. (why? you ask? I have no freakin' idea but I imagine it was the same person who repaired a cable break with scotch tape) I didn't take photos.  Here's the repaired plug next to an undamaged plug:



Plastiweld epoxy compound and a shrink tube strain relief.  Plastiweld can be worked for about twenty minutes after mixing, bonds to plastic and can be sanded and painted.  It will make an squarish edge, too, which wasn't a priority for this repair. I will sand it a bit flatter, paint it and call it done.

Soooo....  bodge or brilliance?   

This closes the HP45 repair saga. The charger, cable and plug have been repaired and the calculator is clean, the switch is fixed and it has a rebuilt battery pack. All of it ready to provide endless hours of RPN joy.   

[Neomys Sapiens]

And now for something completely different...

This morning I heard a subtle ticking sound coming from my bench. I don't have anything on the bench that intentionally ticks, but there's a lot of junk piled up on it lately, so who knows what might've gotten dumped there when I wasn't looking.

After a bit of binaural scanning and a little excavating, I found the source. Everyone's favorite: a Duracell AA alkaline battery. It had leaked — no surprise there — and it was ticking. I couldn't see anything like sparks, even when placed in the dark, but it sounded like it was sparking. Weird.

Here I thought I had finally banished all the Destroy-a-cell batteries. Maybe this is the last of them.

Yep. I had a couple of 9V blocks standing around in a corner of the cadio cart behind my desk. Those were too good to discard, as I had used them only slightly in functional testing or in instruments that are rarely needed. When I wanted to use one of them, I noticed that one was leaning over like a certain building in Italia. The reactions going on in there had pushed the blue plastic baseplate out on one side for about 4mm.

[VK5RC]

I love the HP 'bodge' - once sanded and painted will be hard to pick.
Interesting re the 9v battery - I have never had one leak before. From my experience seems to occur very much less often.
Not TEA but I am dragging myself into the 21st century and have updated the household to Spotify music streaming - so had to purchase some wifi to line level / speakers adaptors. I was dreading loading my songs into a new-to-me car. Overall the whole process has gone better than I thought. 'Big Google' is watching though.

[nixiefreqq]

I figured out a way to repair the damaged HP45 charger plug on the HP45. Someone had gouged the back of it open , exposing the connector ends and hacked off the strain relief. (why? you ask? I have no freakin' idea but I imagine it was the same person who repaired a cable break with scotch tape) I didn't take photos.  Here's the repaired plug next to an undamaged plug:



Plastiweld epoxy compound and a shrink tube strain relief.  Plastiweld can be worked for about twenty minutes after mixing, bonds to plastic and can be sanded and painted.  It will make an squarish edge, too, which wasn't a priority for this repair. I will sand it a bit flatter, paint it and call it done.

Soooo....  bodge or brilliance?   

This closes the HP45 repair saga. The charger, cable and plug have been repaired and the calculator is clean, the switch is fixed and it has a rebuilt battery pack. All of it ready to provide endless hours of RPN joy.

the connector repair looks great!

why did the previous owner go batshit crazy and ruin it?

maybe he was sticken with RPN madness?  (crazy people do crazy shit sometimes)

[0culus]

Nah, you're confusing it with algebraic calculator fugue state.   

[Kosmic]

I had a PP3 / 9v jobby explode once. I assume that's what happens after the ticking! 

Weird that everybody is talking about battery suddenly. Just found that on my bench. I have no idea when it happens just noticed it.

Ho and I have no idea where are the missing parts 

[bitseeker]

I've had 9V fail like that, too. The worst one had cells protruding almost a centimeter out the bottom. Fortunately, the device it was in had lots of extra space in the battery compartment.

Weird that everybody is talking about battery suddenly.

It's the now-customary TEAngent of the day, where the thread takes a sudden turn, and then returns to our regularly scheduled TEA talk.

[VK5RC]

RPN
OK
USE
IS

[Kosmic]

Continuing on the battery topic but getting closer to TEA, I decided to open up the nice Triplett Model 800 I got recently with the rest of the stuff from the IBM Engineer. I was expecting a mess with most parts corroded by the acid of an old battery.



First thing first I did a quick test and it appear to work fine (picture show my 10V reference).



After opening the meter, I was surprise that everything was in order. I checked the big Duracell and the strange square battery and they were almost at full capacity (1.5v / 27v). First time I'm seeing a 30v battery 

[Kosmic]

2 big 24M resistor lower the voltage for the 6Kv dedicated input. Can't wait to try it out 



I got a new respect for Eveready batteries. Not sure how old this one is but it’s holding on.

[mnementh]

DAMN YOU!!! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!!   



I decided to fix my favorite EDC flashlight (it's the little stainless 14500-powered UltraFire C3 on the bottom left) this afternoon; it died a couple weeks ago, and after finding it didn't respond to my usual "swap batteries, scrape the contacts, etc" treatment, I go dig out my "flashlight odds/ends" shoebox from the closet. What do I find RIGHT ON TOP?!?

CRUSTY COPPERTOPS CONTAMINATING TWO NEVER-USED MINI-MAGLIGHTS!!!   

You bastards jinxed me. Contaminated me with your gawdawful rotten batteries right through the computer screen! 

mnem
I'll get you, my pretties. And your little Yoda-speaking calculator too. 

[BravoV]

Speaking of evil alkaline cells ...

Yet Another Rotten Alkalines Part 1 -> Similar to mnem, rot while in blister pack.

Yet Another Rotten Alkalines Part 2 -> My Fluke 87V was raped ... 

Rotten Energizer Alkaline cells in 2013 Another raped Fluke 287 of mine

[mnementh]

PFFFFTTT!!!   



'tis barely a scuff compared to my 189... the one being used in the above pic while resurrecting my flashlight. 


mnem
"It's all shit. Pick a pile and dive in." ~me

[bitseeker]

DAMN YOU!!! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!!   



I decided to fix my favorite EDC flashlight (it's the little stainless 14500-powered UltraFire C3 on the bottom left) this afternoon; it died a couple weeks ago, and after finding it didn't respond to my usual "swap batteries, scrape the contacts, etc" treatment, I go dig out my "flashlight odds/ends" shoebox from the closet. What do I find RIGHT ON TOP?!?

CRUSTY COPPERTOPS CONTAMINATING TWO NEVER-USED MINI-MAGLIGHTS!!!   

That's not too bad. Be glad they weren't in the flashlights. Many years ago, I had to throw away several mini-Mags (had a collection of different colored ones) and one full-size flashlight (torch) because the batteries had leaked inside, bonding the cells to the inner wall or welding the cap on so you couldn't get inside. That's when I began my crusade to eliminate alkalines from my life.

Oh, believe it or not, from that fiasco, one of the triple D-cell Maglights that suffered leakage was still running bright, so I just kept using it with its leaking cells. It just became one big aluminum-wrapped battery with a bulb on the end.

[BravoV]

PFFFFTTT!!!   



'tis barely a scuff compared to my 189... the one being used in the above pic while resurrecting my flashlight. 


mnem
"It's all shit. Pick a pile and dive in." ~me

Ouuch ... 

All my T&M stuffs are free from alkalines now, no more.

For 9V , after what my 87V experienced, its on Lithium primary cell now.

Feel sorry for your 189  , mine was on Eneloop since the 1st time I acquired it.

[mnementh]

I don't feel sorry for it. I got it for less than $100 thanks to that rotten battery compartment; I rebuilt the compartment with contacts scavenged from old toys and whatnot. But that reminds me... I do need to get rid of those Duracells I bought for it.



FUCK. ME. 

I bought these less than a fucking year ago.

mnem
*Waiting for the third shoe to drop*

[beanflying]

Continuing on the battery topic but getting closer to TEA, I decided to open up the nice Triplett Model 800 I got recently with the rest of the stuff from the IBM Engineer. I was expecting a mess with most parts corroded by the acid of an old battery.
.......
After opening the meter, I was surprise that everything was in order. I checked the big Duracell and the strange square battery and they were almost at full capacity (1.5v / 27v). First time I'm seeing a 30v battery 
......

Very Clean

Treat that 30V battery with love and respect. The cost of those based on my search for a battery for my 427A was way to many $ and yours may even be unobtainium.

[beanflying]

PFFFFTTT!!!   



'tis barely a scuff compared to my 189... the one being used in the above pic while resurrecting my flashlight. 


mnem
"It's all shit. Pick a pile and dive in." ~me

Just went through all of mine after seeing the horror, the Uni-T escaped on arrival bit I think all of my gear is now on NiMh or Lithiums. Even my cheapy Laser pointer collection got fitted with salvaged cordless phone AAA's quick charge before playing and they are fine for that job.

Minor word of warning for those of you in cold climates or those moving to one  Enerloops in particular and some of the NiMh's are crap in the cold.

[mnementh]

My old work truck back when I was a welder and volunteer firefighter... bolted right to the dash I made a holder out of PVC pipe for a 3-D Maglight with Xenon bulb, powered by 3 10AH NiCds. Those were kept on a constant trickle charge through a little 80mA light bulb and contacts in the base of the flashlight made from stainless washers and a stainless screw ground flat & smooth.

Cost me close to $100 to make it; but the Police Chief wanted it bad, because unlike his Predator, mine actually WORKED and it was brighter.  Almost lost it to him in a poker game... but drew to an inside straight and got wey lucky. 

mnem
*Lit AF*

[mnementh]

PFFFFTTT!!!       'tis barely a scuff compared to my 189... the one being used in the above pic while resurrecting my flashlight. 

mnem
"It's all shit. Pick a pile and dive in." ~me

Just went through all of mine after seeing the horror, the Uni-T escaped on arrival bit I think all of my gear is now on NiMh or Lithiums. Even my cheapy Laser pointer collection got fitted with salvaged cordless phone AAA's quick charge before playing and they are fine for that job.

Minor word of warning for those of you in cold climates or those moving to one  Enerloops in particular and some of the NiMh's are crap in the cold.

I'm currently vacillating between buying LSD NiMHs or just bypassing 3 of the cells and running it with a single 14500 LiPo cylindrical cell. I have oodles; they're what I run in my lightsabers and my EDC flashlight. There's always a few fully charged.

[EDIT]

Well, that was easy. Amazon has a 16-pack of LSD NiMHs for $26 with delivery tomorrow. Enough I can rebuild the boy's XBOX Controller power packs and still have a few sets to keep charged. I'm not even tempted to put other batteries back in my 189 until they get here.

[/EDIT]

mnem
*juicy*

[bd139]

Cor this thread is just depressing accounts of death and acid attacks this morning. Sounds like BBC News 

I'm tempted to grab some of those Ikea NiMh cells after reading the above. They are apparently pretty good.

@Kosmic: that's what happened to the one I had that exploded.


Elecraft still haven't sent my toy yet. There is nothing worse than waiting for stuff to be sent. Apart from possibly waiting for stuff to be delivered 

[Brumby]

PFFFFTTT!!! 

This reminded me of an event which happened last week.  I was sitting at my computer one evening after the rest of the household had gone to bed and I heard that exact sound coming from my right.  It was over in no more than a second and I didn't get a chance to pinpoint the location.  My first though was an electrolytic cap letting go, so I went sniffing - but smelled nothing around any of the dozen devices in that area.  I then suspected the battery of the mobile phone on charge - but, again, no smell and no abnormal heating.  Just to be cautious, I put the phone inside a coffee tin.

Next morning, nothing bad had happened and everything was working fine.  I braced myself for a surprise failure somewhere down the track.

However, today at lunch time I was sitting across the table from that same phone - and I heard that same sound.  I asked the phone's owner what the sound was ... and they told me: "Oh, I just got a message" - and that was the notification sound.   

[bd139]

Well seeing as I now officially have no money at all and after all I am a TEA drop in, I thought I better finish a test gear project off so did some enclosure bashing early this morning...



Working on innards this evening. Have all the parts lying around for this: https://sites.google.com/site/vk3bhr/home/index2-html

(and yes I know the stickers aren't straight. It was before 8am when I did this  )

[med6753]

I got a new respect for Eveready batteries. Not sure how old this one is but it’s holding on.

That battery, which is carbon-zinc, predates 1986. That's the year Union Carbide lost the "Energizer" brand and the battery division to Ralston Purina in a hostile takeover.   

I had a Fluke 77 get destroyed by a leaking 9V battery. Don't recall the brand. That's why I run a Lithium in my 87.

Edit, just did a quick check. You can get that 413 battery but in Alkaline via Amazon for $27.