Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

I am weak. I am ashamed of myself. I should have a stronger constitution. I bought it. 


Bullshit  Can't wait to get it delivered. 

[med6753]

I have the upmost respect for him and he is sorely missed but if my bench looked like that I'd be rolling on the floor with seizures and foaming at the mouth.   

They do say that an untidy bench is the sign of a genius and that he most certainly was so maybe there was something in the saying after all 

I guess that makes me a blithering idiot.      (Can't stand clutter)

[Specmaster]

Yep. AFAIK he suffered a heart attack or stroke and crashed off the road. He suffered badly from diabetes as well which at the age of 70 tends to screw you right up.

Edit: Even if it was a passing thing, a 1969 VW beetle crash is not something you walk away from. I remember passing once in the 80's on a family holiday down the A303. There were bits of car and person all over the road. I will never forget that sight  . One reason I drive a Euro NCAP 5 star vehicle with all the safety gubbins and drive it sensibly and defensively.

I think a classic car is a nice thing to have but for driving everyday on the public roads, give me a good modern car, like you say with Euro NCAP 5 star car and drive it sensibly makes perfect sense, I'm glad I have mine. A few years ago I had VW Passat which my car is based on and I had some clown in a low slung sports car pull out in front of me when I doing 30mph. I had nowhere to go but up and over his bonnet. Both cars where a right off. Luckily though I was very close to our local police station and the whole event was witnessed by 3 policemen who ran to assist in the aftermath and they told me that had I been in a lessor car, even at that low speed impact that it would have been doubtful that I'd have walked away from it. They threw the book at the other driver, how that ended up for him, I have no idea, I was only interested in myself of course.

[Specmaster]

I have the upmost respect for him and he is sorely missed but if my bench looked like that I'd be rolling on the floor with seizures and foaming at the mouth.   

They do say that an untidy bench is the sign of a genius and that he most certainly was so maybe there was something in the saying after all 

I guess that makes me a blithering idiot.      (Can't stand clutter)

I have just seen the other post about Bob Pease, I rest my case.

Sorry to read about your lady friends, friend and partner, please pass on my condolences to her. 

[Brumby]

My 2465 fan bodge is apparently world infamous, isn't it? 

FTFY

When reading this post, I got a chill when I got to this line:

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First I take care of the fan.
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... I had to go back to the start to check who the author was.

[Brumby]

Only $30 USD shipping to Oz @ Brumby  I don't 'need it' and don't have the $ to buy it so it could be yours.....

Not really high on my priority list - but might be worth a look.....

I might have to....it looks great and it will look great sitting next to my 432A power meter and 427A voltmeter. 

Resistance is futile.

Yep. I just bought it. 

Never Mind.

[beanflying]

To Slow  There is about zero anythings in Oz at present for anything approaching a sensible price.

I think these were about $200'ish when new eBay auction: #274018435025 

[mnementh]

There’s a bucket in the bottom of the unit to collect the electrons that came off the road.

mnem
 

I wonder why early (1950's) B/W TV CRT's required an Ion trap but later TV CRT's did not?  And it was important that the Ion trap be properly placed or it would damage the CRT.   Edit....got an answer. The introduction of "aluminized" CRT faces in 1958 eliminated the need for an ion trap.

I thought it was the development of the aperture grille... or maybe that was color CRT technology. Can't be arsed to Guurgle it right now...

mnem
*off to Sunday Brunch widda in-laws*

[med6753]

There’s a bucket in the bottom of the unit to collect the electrons that came off the road.

mnem
 

I wonder why early (1950's) B/W TV CRT's required an Ion trap but later TV CRT's did not?  And it was important that the Ion trap be properly placed or it would damage the CRT.   Edit....got an answer. The introduction of "aluminized" CRT faces in 1958 eliminated the need for an ion trap.

I thought it was the development of the aperture grille... or maybe that was color CRT technology. Can't be arsed to Guurgle it right now...

mnem
*off to Sunday Brunch widda in-laws*

I suspect you are referring to what were called "purity magnets" on early color TV CRT's to insure proper beam placement through the shadow mask and then to the screen.

[Addicted2AnalogTek]

Yeah please do that. I've seen the outcomes before and it's not pretty. 99% of the bad cases of diabetes are because people just didn't bother to do anything about it. Bear in mind they shovel you full of metformin and look after you nicely here, for £0, a lot of people see that as a license to "metformin away" the large bottle of coke they just necked  .

I'm on metformin.....2000mg/day and it's working, as long as you adhere to a low carb diet. Since I retired my weight did creep up a bit as well as the A1C but not drastically. I attribute that to less exercise but I am considering going for daily walks which should help.

The LAST thing I want to do is go on the insulin needle. 

The father of one of the tenants here was telling me how he used to weigh upwards of 300lbs, was an alcoholic, and ended up with diabetes, decided to change his lifestyle.  He stopped drinking and went strict on a keto diet and within 6 months he was no longer a diabetic.  Also, within one year, he had lost over 100lbs.  I was stunned when he showed me a picture of his former self!  He's still strict on the keto diet to this day. He's about 6 feet tall and I'd guess 130 lbs.   I don't know much about diabetes, but it would seem to me that embarking on the path of a low carb or full keto diet would be the first thing I'd try!

Only $30 USD shipping to Oz @ Brumby  I don't 'need it' and don't have the $ to buy it so it could be yours.....

Not really high on my priority list - but might be worth a look.....

I might have to....it looks great and it will look great sitting next to my 432A power meter and 427A voltmeter. 

Resistance is futile.

Yep. I just bought it. 

Never Mind.

Hold up.... lemme feed the TEA monster....
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-2-HP-Keysight-3400A-Analog-RMS-Voltmeter-1mV-300V-full-scale/312735678162]
[url]https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-2-HP-Keysight-3400A-Analog-RMS-Voltmeter-1mV-300V-full-scale/312735678162[/url]
Unknown condition... but two units for 50 US blood-oil backed promissory notes?

[bd139]

Yep. AFAIK he suffered a heart attack or stroke and crashed off the road. He suffered badly from diabetes as well which at the age of 70 tends to screw you right up.

Edit: Even if it was a passing thing, a 1969 VW beetle crash is not something you walk away from. I remember passing once in the 80's on a family holiday down the A303. There were bits of car and person all over the road. I will never forget that sight  . One reason I drive a Euro NCAP 5 star vehicle with all the safety gubbins and drive it sensibly and defensively.

I think a classic car is a nice thing to have but for driving everyday on the public roads, give me a good modern car, like you say with Euro NCAP 5 star car and drive it sensibly makes perfect sense, I'm glad I have mine. A few years ago I had VW Passat which my car is based on and I had some clown in a low slung sports car pull out in front of me when I doing 30mph. I had nowhere to go but up and over his bonnet. Both cars where a right off. Luckily though I was very close to our local police station and the whole event was witnessed by 3 policemen who ran to assist in the aftermath and they told me that had I been in a lessor car, even at that low speed impact that it would have been doubtful that I'd have walked away from it. They threw the book at the other driver, how that ended up for him, I have no idea, I was only interested in myself of course.

Yeah any crash you walk away from is a good one. Lucky there!

TEA related. Forgot to bid on that damn HP current source. I’m in the middle of the infernal trampoline park in Slough again. Apparently it’s the “in place” to go. 

[xrunner]

I fixed up your link a bit -

Hold up.... lemme feed the TEA monster....
eBay auction: #312735678162

Yea gotta be able to get one working out of two sets of mules. Probably just a fuse blown. 

[bd139]

Distinctly lacking in footwear 

[mnementh]

There’s a bucket in the bottom of the unit to collect the electrons that came off the road.

mnem
 

I wonder why early (1950's) B/W TV CRT's required an Ion trap but later TV CRT's did not?  And it was important that the Ion trap be properly placed or it would damage the CRT.   Edit....got an answer. The introduction of "aluminized" CRT faces in 1958 eliminated the need for an ion trap.

I thought it was the development of the aperture grille... or maybe that was color CRT technology. Can't be arsed to Guurgle it right now...

mnem
*off to Sunday Brunch widda in-laws*

I suspect you are referring to what were called "purity magnets" on early color TV CRT's to insure proper beam placement through the shadow mask and then to the screen.

No, those were a different thing altogether from either ion trap or aperture grille technology. They were rubber-ferrite rings right in the emission path used to mechanically align the individual electron guns in a tri-gun color CRT. Trinitron technology did away with that.

Shadow mask vs aperture grille seen above; similar technology, difference is that the aperture grille was specific to Trinitron CRTs. This makes sense, as no need for 3D alignment/masking with Trinitron's single-gun design.

mnem
*runs away & hides*

[tggzzz]

TEA related. Forgot to bid on that damn HP current source. I’m in the middle of the infernal trampoline park in Slough again. Apparently it’s the “in place” to go. 

Slough the in place to go? Shurely shome mishtake. Or, a trampoline is a novel way to leave  that desert.

TEA related: local hamfest had a Keithley 195A for £8. Seller said it lit up yesterday. Will test it when I get home.

[bd139]

There’s a large magnet under Slough that attracts scum I think.

Good luck with the Keithley that lights up. That’s what the seller said about mine  . Some sellers out there would be fine with that description if fire came out.

[mnementh]

mnem
All things are relative.

[Cubdriver]

There’s a large magnet under Slough that attracts scum I think.

Good luck with the Keithley that lights up. That’s what the seller said about mine  . Some sellers out there would be fine with that description if fire came out.

Well, it's not a lie, is it?  Fire was one of the original artifice light sources...   

-Pat

[Martin.M]

mnem
All things are relative.

i made a calibrator unit for  350.000 scovilles.

[med6753]

Yikes!  No thanks! 

[factory]

Nice find, that wasn't easy to find for some reason, I just had a look for it but had to use a third party site to find it on ePay, no idea why. 

Strange. It appeared with my regular search term (which also shows me 95 % shite I'm not interested in).

It looks early too with the two clamps for the plug-in, shame you had to fit that awful IEC connector, some original leads are badly listed in the Handys catagory;
https://www.ebay.de/itm/HP-Netzkabel/222745856688?hash=item33dcb00ab0:g:FvIAAOSwHNxaKANp

25 €, that's half the price of the counter. For a while I was thinking of asking a colleague with a 3D printer to print me one; I have matching contacts. But then I thought 'how hard can it be?'
I don't consider the IEC connector as awful. The original and my lousy replacement job are awful. 

Must be the ePay random search engine showing everyone different things. 

Re: The power leads, the second HP item I bought, a 175A scope didn't come with the PH-163 power lead, it wasn't long before I found one with an older 3400A voltmeter. This worked out cheaper than buying a lead on it's own, of course I now have many of them & lots of TE that use them. 
Another option could have been one of the smaller IEC connectors, i.e. the cloverleaf one (C5).

Here are some bonus pictures of the crumbly isolation foam in my 3400A as received years ago and the replacement. 40 or 50 year old foam goes this way is lots of things not just HP TE, also HP used it a lot on the inside of the covers of some instruments to keep the boards from moving.

David

[factory]

You should now notice that all the plug-ins have two matching holes for those latches, you will probably be looking for a 5243L or 5245L from 1962 to 1964.

Earlier in the week some unicorn poop arrived, a HP 5240A frequency meter, I'm still a little pissed off at the moment that one of the handles got busted off, will try and get some pictures on here tomorrow.

David

actually had noticed that the plug in's had a latch slot on both sides.  used to have an hp 5345 with a 10590 adapter and noticed at the time that its locking latch knob was on the right side.  always figured that was just because the lever latch for the adapter was on the left. 

a 5240?  wow.  have never seen one.

It's the first 5240A I've ever seen, inside it's mostly the contents of the 5260A frequency divider with an 8 digit 12.5MHz counter stuck to the top (probably based on the circuitry from similar counters such as the 5321 & 5216A).

It was packed in a large enough box, but unfortunately it was filled with the thousands of tiniest polystyrene balls I've ever seen, most of which had escaped out of the box (not enough tape used to close it), the useless balls allowed the heavy meter to move about during transit & were a PITA to contain after opening the box, there were holes created by both the front handles and the BNC adaptor/termination on the back.




A quick test to see if it still worked (after changing switch to 240V), picture is a bit crap, one more tube lit than in the sellers pictures, the half zeros were showing in the sellers pictures too.


More to follow with some inside pictures.

David

[Martin.M]

hello David,
I am pretty shure the Nixies are healthy, all.
To me that looks as a undervoltage in the HV ( the 250V Elko there... )

Martin

[factory]

hello David,
I am pretty shure the Nixies are healthy, all.
To me that looks as a undervoltage in the HV ( the 250V Elko there... )

Martin

Hi Martin,
I thought they would be too, the supply voltage is the first thing I intend to check when I get time, I get more worried if they don't light at all, had a few cracked Burroughs tubes in HP TE.
Also forgot to mention I bought the only dead tree format 5240A manual I could find.

David

[factory]

TEA related. Forgot to bid on that damn HP current source. I’m in the middle of the infernal trampoline park in Slough again. Apparently it’s the “in place” to go. 

This is getting quite a bad habit, you've missed a few things recently, have you not got the mobile ebay set up or some reminders? That's what I do, then go hide somewhere to bid. 

David