Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bitseeker]

And a foot donor!

[BravoV]

Who said one - what is that word?

B.U.S.T.E.D  D.M.M.    

[med6753]

I feel so inadequate. All I have is a lowly Heath VTVM. 

[xrunner]

I feel so inadequate. All I have is a lowly Heath VTVM. 

Heath - good on that first letter. Now we need to work on a P ...

In no time your inadequacies will vanish. We are here to help! 

[beanflying]

I feel so inadequate. All I have is a lowly Heath VTVM. 

Heath - good on that first letter. Now we need to work on a P ...

In no time your inadequacies will vanish. We are here to help! 

Nice manual here for @med that needs a Meter added to it  eBay auction: #273844955544

[bsfeechannel]

High voltages, no fuse, no ground wire. Way back when it was every man for himself.

I love it.

It separated the men from the little boys and gave Darwin a fighting chance. 

That was a good one. Speaking of Darwin, may I entertain you with the most cringe-worthy attempt at restoring a vintage scope ever? I stumbled upon this video while looking for information on the OL-1. It's a bit old and might have even been posted before on the forum, but here we go.



She's a big fan of Ave's, who is known as an attentive, careful and meticulous restorer.

SPOILER ALERT

Despite all the advice given by her viewers, she insisted on the same mistakes, blew another vintage tube and gave up, saying "[she doesn't] want to waste all [her] time restoring old junk" in the comments.



It was so emotional a drama that I cried uncontrollably in the end.

[mnementh]

I feel so inadequate. All I have is a lowly Heath VTVM. 

   Somewhere I have buried the good ol' Micronta 22-220 FET multimeter; it's the only analog meter I kept.

mnem
Okay, I still have some 5" panel meters in the "Electronics Labs" box. Smeesh.

[beanflying]

   Somewhere I have buried the good ol' Micronta 22-220 FET multimeter; it's the only analog meter I kept.

mnem
Okay, I still have some 5" panel meters in the "Electronics Labs" box. Smeesh.

Clearly you 'need' one of them new fangled Nixie ones then  eBay auction: #323786990496

[med6753]

High voltages, no fuse, no ground wire. Way back when it was every man for himself.

I love it.

It separated the men from the little boys and gave Darwin a fighting chance. 

That was a good one. Speaking of Darwin, may I entertain you with the most cringe-worthy attempt at restoring a vintage scope ever? I stumbled upon this video while looking for information on the OL-1. It's a bit old and might have even been posted before on the forum, but here we go.

.........snip

I don't even have to watch it to know what she did. The tube she's holding is the 6X4 B+ Rectifier. It blew out either because she didn't change the filter capacitors or there was a short somewhere else in the B+ string. I'll bet it was the former. All the filter caps in the OL-1 I'm repairing are indeed shorted and now UPS is saying they will be delivered Tuesday.

Not going to waste my time watching stupidity. 

[mnementh]

   Somewhere I have buried the good ol' Micronta 22-220 FET multimeter; it's the only analog meter I kept.

mnem
Okay, I still have some 5" panel meters in the "Electronics Labs" box. Smeesh.

   Clearly you 'need' one of them new fangled Nixie ones then  eBay auction: #323786990496

  Naaah, thanks... I'm trying to cut back.  I have a IM-1202 buried too; probably in the same box as the 22-220. 


mnem
Nixie gear is like tattoos: One is a statement; more than that becomes a lifestyle. Which I'm not prepared for.

[Brumby]

We are here to help! 

I know this help - first hand - and it looks like Bean is still giving.

[bitseeker]

Such a giving community, TEA is.

[beanflying]

As part of my Day job I push Drugs on the Caffeine deprived masses. Transitioning to being a TEA Pusher is a doddle 

[0culus]

Who said one - what is that word? You need a back up and a parts unit!

Truth. At the moment I am working on acquiring RF power meter sensors. I have a line on a 438A, but the guy only has one sensor for it.

[Kosmic]

Broke my wonderful Tek P6056 probe trying to adjust compensation . You need to rotate the body of the probe (screw / unscrew) and went probably a bit too hard.



The good news is that I broke the secondary resistor and cap not the main one in the tip. I should be able to fix that



Also for those Interested, I updated my previous post where I tested the frequency response of multiple probes. Added the Hantek T3100 and P4100 probes.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg2416473/#msg2416473

[xrunner]

Truth. At the moment I am working on acquiring RF power meter sensors. I have a line on a 438A, but the guy only has one sensor for it.

Good luck. I still want an hp power meter with a sensor. You can buy the meters easily but finding the sensor isn't quite so easy. I think the sensor is something that is easily ruined, if you know what I mean. 

[Kosmic]

Truth. At the moment I am working on acquiring RF power meter sensors. I have a line on a 438A, but the guy only has one sensor for it.

Good luck. I still want an hp power meter with a sensor. You can buy the meters easily but finding the sensor isn't quite so easy. I think the sensor is something that is easily ruined, if you know what I mean. 

Also watch out if you buy a random meter and separate sensor. Most of the time those need to be calibrated together. Depending on the equipment required for the calibration you might not be able to do it yourself.

[0culus]

Truth. At the moment I am working on acquiring RF power meter sensors. I have a line on a 438A, but the guy only has one sensor for it.

Good luck. I still want an hp power meter with a sensor. You can buy the meters easily but finding the sensor isn't quite so easy. I think the sensor is something that is easily ruined, if you know what I mean. 

Also watch out if you buy a random meter and separate sensor. Most of the time those need to be calibrated together. Depending on the equipment required for the calibration you might not be able to do it yourself.

My plan is to pay to have these done by a professional, including my 432A + 478A thermistor (Keysight still does the 478A) in order to have a reference I can trust. The idea is to collect the gear I need to calibrate other test equipment. 

[Kosmic]

On my side, my Boonton 4300 power meter came with the optional calibrator (-60 to +20 dBm, 0.1 dBm steps, accuracy 0.05dB). So I can do the AC calibration of the sensor myself.

[beanflying]

I promise there will be no more Gratuitous HP Logo shots for at least a day or two Daylight shot with the shack lights on behind as well and still plenty of power under it, light Raster engraved outline only. Think I like this more than the fully engraved logo.

[0culus]

On my side, my Boonton 4300 power meter came with the optional calibrator (-60 to +20 dBm, 0.1 dBm steps, accuracy 0.05dB). So I can do the AC calibration of the sensor myself.

As far as I can tell, having a trustworthy closed loop power meter is extremely useful just for that reason. This is why Keysight still works on 478A thermistor mounts, because they are still used as an absolute reference for open loop meters.

[bsfeechannel]

All the filter caps in the OL-1 I'm repairing are indeed shorted and now UPS is saying they will be delivered Tuesday.

Oh yeah. I'm following this thread because of your work on that scope. I simply love restoration of old electronics.

Not going to waste my time watching stupidity. 

I just posted it because I found it hilarious. I don't expect anyone to actually watch it (that's why the "SPOILER ALERT").

[VK5RC]

I promise there will be no more Gratuitous HP Logo shots for at least a day or two Daylight shot with the shack lights on behind as well and still plenty of power under it, light Raster engraved outline only. Think I like this more than the fully engraved logo.

Looks really cool!
Rob

[beanflying]

I promise there will be no more Gratuitous HP Logo shots for at least a day or two Daylight shot with the shack lights on behind as well and still plenty of power under it, light Raster engraved outline only. Think I like this more than the fully engraved logo.

Looks really cool!
Rob

I should have got into some Acrylic with the Laser ages ago instead of mainly Balsa and Ply work. Just finalising an order for the equivalent of three 8x4' sheets of assorted material instead of paying 4-6 times the price for very limited options locally. Just need to find some room to stash it flat then 

[Specmaster]

I feel so inadequate. All I have is a lowly Heath VTVM. 

And what is wrong with that? Back in the day that was all most people had and they managed perfectly OK.

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