Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Kosmic]

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.

A bit expensive for a battery. Will probably keep this one and simply use another meter to measure  resistances when it die (the d battery is used for the other modes).

[bitseeker]

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  )

Nice HPAK binding posts. 

[Neomys Sapiens]

PFFFFTTT!!! 

Good one.
But I found a message notification sound that I'm not going to miss and that make some people's hair stand on end.
I have two nice ovoid CoNd magnets which make a really peculiar sound when coming together with prolongued bouncing, rich in harmonics and shifting in pitch itself. I had a co-worker with good audio gear record that and use it for the abovementioned purpose. One visitor, to whom I demonstrated the original sound claimed to have gotten toothache from it.

[bitseeker]

Been on the lookout for some rack mounting.  Found some:


Think I overshot the target, though.....
 

Holy smokes, Brumby. Is that your new lab-in-a-lab? Those are huge!

[mnementh]

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.

A bit expensive for a battery. Will probably keep this one and simply use another meter to measure  resistances when it die (the d battery is user for the other modes).

   Could probably make a replacement with 6 or 7 LiPo cells. 100mAH ones commonly used for toy helis & headphones can be bought for $2 each; they usually measure somewhere around 15mm x 15mm x 6-7mm thick. Balance charging would be a pain on the 7S version though; you'd have to get an 8S-capable balancer and use it while charging. Most affordable LiPo chargers only go up to 6S.

You should understand something... they're not the same company as they were then. Not only are they no longer Union-Carbide; they aren't even the same company as when Ralston took them over. They are now, under several layers of corporate shell companies, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chinese battery manufacturer that used to manufacture for them. 

So respect for Union-Carbide (aside from being descended from a railroad robber-barony) I can understand; but not for NeveReady as they are now. They're pretty much shit in a blister-pack.

mnem
Mmmm... lithium!

[bitseeker]

"FOUR...! Fourrrr voorrkeeng Ah-nahh-log scopes! Ahhh-ahhh-ahhhh!"

mnem
What....?

Ah-ah-ahhh! I do enjoy when the Count visits the TEA house.

[Neomys Sapiens]

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.

I lost a beautiful vintage USAF inspection light with interchangeable perspex light guides and 2 different mirrors to a pair of those evil bunnies that way. I was not able to get the front one out, even using a drift punch. At one place, they have eaten through the tube.

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.

You left out the fire. Nowadays, it is common part of a safety and facility indoctrination that workers are told where to put used batteries. That always something I am waiting for. When I ask for details, I am regularely shown a cardboard box with a hole in the top, where people should insert their discarded batteries until the box is full.
That is when I ask what they assume is happening IN that box and if they ever hat a look into it. As opposed to the spider-in-the-vacuum-scare, taking that look can reveal oxidative horrors.
It is a fact that in multiple instances those battery recycling boxes have started fires, with just non-combustive contamination in certainly even more cases. In one case a test lab or electronics workshop was affected. It is by the mechanism of leakage and also by the danger of a closed circuit spontaleously forming over a number of those  galvanic monsters by shifting or dropping the missing one in.

[Neomys Sapiens]

On the topic of the HP6825A - not the repair, but the manual. I did scan it in sections at 600dpi and fortunately my company has a scanner that can handle 'overlong' formats for the drawings. Then I assembled everything into a PDF using PDFcreator+. I kept that at 300dpi and enabled compression, but nevertheless it is a file of 57MB.
Where should I put it and how? My Firefox does not support KO4BB's upload via FTP. I can try IE from work.

I used the site's "upload applet", which is actually just a dynamic page, from Firefox on Linux without problems.

HP6825A operation and service manual (INCLUDING circuit diagrams) uploaded to KO4BB successfully via applet.

[bitseeker]

I saw a Tek 7904 locally for $300. It was quite tempting! But, for a little over twice that (delivered), I ended up getting an Advantest R3465 spec an. It will be my first "real" spectrum analyzer and the biggest boat anchor yet.

I just hope the plastic bits don't get destroyed on the way over here. So many of these things have shredded front bezels.

[Kosmic]

Congrats, excellent deal for a 8Ghz spectrum analyzer. 

[Kosmic]

   Could probably make a replacement with 6 or 7 LiPo cells. 100mAH ones commonly used for toy helis & headphones can be bought for $2 each; they usually measure somewhere around 15mm x 15mm x 6-7mm thick. Balance charging would be a pain on the 7S version though; you'd have to get an 8S-capable balancer and use it while charging. Most affordable LiPo chargers only go up to 6S.

You should understand something... they're not the same company as they were then. Not only are they no longer Union-Carbide; they aren't even the same company as when Ralston took them over. They are now, under several layers of corporate shell companies, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chinese battery manufacturer that used to manufacture for them. 

So respect for Union-Carbide (aside from being descended from a railroad robber-barony) I can understand; but not for NeveReady as they are now. They're pretty much shit in a blister-pack.

mnem
Mmmm... lithium!

The lipo is a good idea but the only charger I have around here can only do 4s. A 9v battery with a boost converter might work.

[0culus]

I saw a Tek 7904 locally for $300. It was quite tempting! But, for a little over twice that (delivered), I ended up getting an Advantest R3465 spec an. It will be my first "real" spectrum analyzer and the biggest boat anchor yet.

I just hope the plastic bits don't get destroyed on the way over here. So many of these things have shredded front bezels.

Awesome! I used to wonder why I needed something so heavy as a spectrum analyzer. Now I have 3.5 spectrum analyzers (if you could the duff 8568B RF section I need to get around to repairing). 

[xrunner]

I saw a Tek 7904 locally for $300. It was quite tempting! But, for a little over twice that (delivered), I ended up getting an Advantest R3465 spec an. It will be my first "real" spectrum analyzer and the biggest boat anchor yet.

Congrats. It seems to have some sort of "memory card" drive. Can you get the memory cards anywhere?

[BravoV]

I saw a Tek 7904 locally for $300. It was quite tempting! But, for a little over twice that (delivered), I ended up getting an Advantest R3465 spec an. It will be my first "real" spectrum analyzer and the biggest boat anchor yet.

I just hope the plastic bits don't get destroyed on the way over here. So many of these things have shredded front bezels.

Congratulation, wish it safe travel. 

[Brumby]

Got some other freebies while I was picking them up...

Those power conditioners are worth more than the whole rest of the lot put together. 

Quite possibly.  They'll probably make an appearance on eBay at some time.

...However, it's not HP (a direction in which I seem to have found myself heading) and it's definitely not in the budget.  Looks cool, though.

Compaq most definitely IS HP. Has been for decades.

I was referring to Bean's eBay offering, not the cabinets.

Additional Interior design ideas because I like to 'assist'

Your generosity knows no bounds.  (Maybe you can work on that.  )

Been on the lookout for some rack mounting.  Found some:


Think I overshot the target, though.....
 

Holy smokes, Brumby. Is that your new lab-in-a-lab? Those are huge!

If I'd known exactly how big they were before I made the commitment, I would have backed away - but the guy wasn't too good at reading his Gumtree messages.  When I got there and saw them, I was having second thoughts and when I saw the longish flight of tiled stairs they had to get carried down (by just the two of us), I was wondering how sane I was - but I felt obligated to take them.  Getting them down to street level is a story in itself, but once there, wrangling them wasn't all that bad.

The cabinets are way too big for anywhere in the house and they will end up as either garage storage or get sold (if anyone will buy them).  That is, if Bean doesn't have them filled up for me....

[mnementh]

   Could probably make a replacement with 6 or 7 LiPo cells. 100mAH ones commonly used for toy helis & headphones can be bought for $2 each; they usually measure somewhere around 15mm x 15mm x 6-7mm thick. Balance charging would be a pain on the 7S version though; you'd have to get an 8S-capable balancer and use it while charging. Most affordable LiPo chargers only go up to 6S.

You should understand something... they're not the same company as they were then. Not only are they no longer Union-Carbide; they aren't even the same company as when Ralston took them over. They are now, under several layers of corporate shell companies, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chinese battery manufacturer that used to manufacture for them. 

So respect for Union-Carbide (aside from being descended from a railroad robber-barony) I can understand; but not for NeveReady as they are now. They're pretty much shit in a blister-pack.

mnem
Mmmm... lithium!

The lipo is a good idea but the only charger I have around here can only do 4s. A 9v battery with a boost converter might work.

Lots of 1S boost converters on fleaBay; should be something that can do 24V, maybe even as high as 36V for LED lighting. That would be EASY. Not so easy would be making it so you don't either have to hardwire it internally or open it up to flip a switch.

I was trying to think of something that could be passive; so you could literally build the stack, then shrink-wrap it or 3DP a shell and plug it into the original battery slot.

Yes; this is the kind of problem solving I engage in for the fun of it.

mnem
Bent, not broken. 

[Housedad]

I saw a Tek 7904 locally for $300. It was quite tempting! But, for a little over twice that (delivered), I ended up getting an Advantest R3465 spec an. It will be my first "real" spectrum analyzer and the biggest boat anchor yet.

Congrats. It seems to have some sort of "memory card" drive. Can you get the memory cards anywhere?

It uses standard PCMCIA 2.1 memory cards.   An old, fairly outmoded standard from the early to mid 90's, but still being made and readily available refurb or new. I remember I had a laptop that used a Pcmcia modem years ago.

[bitseeker]

Congrats, excellent deal for a 8Ghz spectrum analyzer. 

Thanks! From the pic, it looks like it needs a new RTC battery. I don't know if any calibration data relies on it. Hopefully, it's just the clock and maybe user config (the screen looks like default startup).

Last week, I missed out on a local auction for an Agilent E4411B with tracking gen that sold for less than $1k! Such a bummer.

[mnementh]

   

Oh, futch. I'm a complete 1D10T... This thing probably needs µA at most in that mode; no need for anything that complicated.

CR2032/2025/2016 (whatever's needed to make 10 of 'em fit) cells and a 3DP shell. Easy as 3.1415926... 

mnem
*Toddles off to take his daily fistful of vitamins so his brain might work*

[bitseeker]

Congrats. It seems to have some sort of "memory card" drive. Can you get the memory cards anywhere?

It uses standard PCMCIA 2.1 memory cards.   An old, fairly outmoded standard from the early to mid 90's, but still being made and readily available refurb or new. I remember I had a laptop that used a Pcmcia modem years ago.

Thanks, guys. I wonder if I could use a PCMCIA-to-SD card adapter like this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-4-in-1-PC-Card-Adapter-SD-SM-MMC-MS-Card-PCMCIA-Card-Adapter-Reader/153378892766

[bitseeker]

Oh, futch. I'm a complete 1D10T... This thing probably needs µA at most in that mode; no need for anything that complicated.

CR2032/2025/2016 (whatever's needed to make 10 of 'em fit) cells and a 3DP shell. Easy as 3.1415926... 

That sounds like a much better plan.

[xrunner]

Thanks, guys. I wonder if I could use a PCMCIA-to-SD card adapter like this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-4-in-1-PC-Card-Adapter-SD-SM-MMC-MS-Card-PCMCIA-Card-Adapter-Reader/153378892766

Yea I was just looking at those. It's worth a try I'd say. 

[bitseeker]

For half the price of the used PCMCIA-to-SD, you can get both a new PCMCIA-to-CF adapter and a new CF-to-SD adapter.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CF-TO-PC-Adapter-Card-PCMCIA-Converter-Memory-Card-Reader-USB-2-0-to-68-pin-CYC/233205105005
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SD-SDHC-SDXC-To-CF-Compact-Flash-Memory-Card-Adapter-Reader-Converter-to-ZEL/163616224440

[xrunner]

For half the price of the used PCMCIA-to-SD, you can get both a new PCMCIA-to-CF adapter and a new CF-to-SD adapter.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CF-TO-PC-Adapter-Card-PCMCIA-Converter-Memory-Card-Reader-USB-2-0-to-68-pin-CYC/233205105005
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SD-SDHC-SDXC-To-CF-Compact-Flash-Memory-Card-Adapter-Reader-Converter-to-ZEL/163616224440

Buy before the new tariffs kick in LOL. 

[0culus]

Welcome to dongle hell 

Welp, I just closed a deal on a 3 pack of TEA items. A Lucent RTFG GPSDO + failover rubidium standard in one chassis. This one is a piece of telco equipment and it outputs 15 MHz by default, but there's an easy mod to bypass all that and bring 10 MHz out from the frequency standards themselves. It's designed to failover to the rubidium standard if GPS lock is lost. Also an HP 8405A vector voltmeter in excellent shape with working probes, and a similarly excellent 8640B.