Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

https://maker.pro/arduino/tutorial/how-to-program-the-stm32-blue-pill-with-arduino-ide

*Sits back to watch the fireworks*

mnem
 

[Martin.M]

you can sold that thing in my scope then I have also "digital readout" at top of the beam. 

[mnementh]

Surprised @bd is having crashing problems with the IDE, not an issue with me even if I am playing on a cruddy Intel Atom on my bedroom toy.  Arduino is getting low on power compared to some of the new toys but it still suits me for simple stuff.

I love the guy... but I do have to suggest the possibility of a PEBKAC issue here. I suspect more likely some issue with how he's tried to make his OS behave civilly than a problem with the IDE itself.

When it comes to coding, I am the monkey widda handgun... and even I can muddle through with both Ardu and ST-Link interfaces. Of course blasphemous miscegenations like the STM-duino "Blue Pill" above are literally MADE FOR no-Kung-Fu motherfuckers like me, so while I do feel the "purist burn" a little... it's still not enough to make me stop using the abomination. 

One great advantage of the "Blue Pill" is the fact that all STMFxxx processors have a built-in USB-Serial converter, so no "FTDI Fuxxored us again!!!" BS , and the bootloader is fully sandboxed, so unless you deliberately burn some fuses (which, IIRC, you can ONLY do through the JTAG/ST-LINK interface) to make a custom bootloader, you CANNOT BRICK THE DAMNED THING.

Plus, it still has the ST-LINK interface fully broken out, in case you feel ready to take the deep dive and start fucking around with one of the dozens of STM32/ARM IDEs out there.

mnem

[med6753]

 

[bd139]

I just hit Ctrl+S and it disappears! Windows build is bog standard.

Cheapduino here - CH340 chipset. China's finest 

I usually use a USBasp programmer, bare AVR and AVR-gcc / AVR-libc / avrdude / make because that's closest to home (C + linux toolchain) for me.

And fuck STM32. I can't even work out where to start. I look into it and the "can't be arsed" switch goes off.

[bd139]

you can sold that thing in my scope then I have also "digital readout" at top of the beam. 

(Attachment Link)

(Attachment Link)

That's a rather cute looking scope! 

[med6753]

 

[worsthorse]

I set the 3400A aside until I find a donor unit that won't make me feel like I am spending $50 for a plug socket.

I make no promises, but give me a day or three to dig through my piles-o-stuff. I may have one of those chassis mount PH-163 connectors lurking about somewhere around here.

-Pat

That would be great. No rush. I am working on another box right now and I think I have a fallback plan, too.

[mnementh]

Ok so after much research, I just ordered a Peak LCR45 and not a 3d printer. Well not yet anyway!

Why not a DER EE-5000? https://www.ebay.com/itm/151970240054 Price is nearly the same. https://www.ebay.com/itm/282767402279

I have no arguments with PEAK; they make a damn fine piece of kit. And that appears to be true across their product line.  I own an ESR70+, which I literally waited for over a month to order because it was brand-spanking new at the time, and you'll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers to get it away from me.

The difference is mostly the intended purpose... the ESR70+ is meant to be robust & fast for quick & dirty in-circuit diag work, while the DE-5000 is more of a pseudo-lab-quality instrument. I expect the LCR45 to be more like the ESR70+ in that respect.

mnem
*back to the salt mines*

[bd139]

Ok so after much research, I just ordered a Peak LCR45 and not a 3d printer. Well not yet anyway!

Why not a DER EE-5000? https://www.ebay.com/itm/151970240054 Price is nearly the same. https://www.ebay.com/itm/282767402279

I have no arguments with PEAK; they make a damn fine piece of kit. And that appears to be true across their product line.  I own an ESR70+, which I literally waited for over a month to order, and you'll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers to get it away from me.

The difference is mostly the intended purpose... the ESR70+ is meant to be robust & fast for quick & dirty in-circuit diag work, while the DE-5000 is more of a pseudo-lab-quality instrument. I expect the same from the LCR45.

I think they're all somewhere between lab and tech which is just about the right compromise, at least for me.

Next on the list is a DCA55 as I've got about 200 power transistors to test and sort 1000 or so small interesting metal canned ones and basic diode test isn't necessarily conclusive. I hooked out all the non iffy looking 2n3055's and some other nice PNP ones and some high voltage switching ones and am turd polishing and bouncing the rest. The large bag of can ones is going to take a few days to get through but there are tons of decent ones in it!



Edit: meant to say that I bough the power transistor lot just to steal the 2n3055's out of it. An ST one costs £5 now and the other option is fake ones on ebay 

[Kosmic]

I am a horrible programmer and try to avoid it as possible. But, on the other side,
I can see the advantages of these nice and powerful µC. Grabbing some sensors,
connect them to an Arduino nano or so, process the inputs and control something else,
this IS really nice. And can be done easily, even by a lousy programmer like me.
As long as it isn't used for something important, e.g. live saving systems or nuclear power plants. 

I guess they end up simplifying the whole process by removing options and features. I see how it could be useful to some peoples.

[mnementh]

I just hit Ctrl+S and it disappears! Windows build is bog standard.

Cheapduino here - CH340 chipset. China's finest 

I usually use a USBasp programmer, bare AVR and AVR-gcc / AVR-libc / avrdude / make because that's closest to home (C + linux toolchain) for me.

And fuck STM32. I can't even work out where to start. I look into it and the "can't be arsed" switch goes off.

Then I think you need to take The Blue Pill.  It's made for guys like us.

mnem

[worsthorse]

I set the 3400A aside until I find a donor unit that won't make me feel like I am spending $50 for a plug socket. Wandered into the storeroom and pulled the next thing out of the pile. Guess what it is from this photograph:

Yes that is a 0.009975mfd, 400V electrolytic capacitor. One of two in this unit.  The big capacitor above it has the negative lead removed and the entire case is soldered, along its length, directly to the printed circuit board.

It powers up and generates and appropriate signal (more or less), too, which was a surprise as it came out of the last "here take this stuff I need to get it out of my garage" trip.

Med or one of the other tek-addicts will probably recognize it.

Yep, it's a special timing capacitor. I think the Type 114 I have coming uses one if not the same or similar value. Also many of the older Tek scopes use very specialized, and unobtanium, tight tolerance timing capacitors. 

Edit....luckily they rarely go bad.

Yup... it is a 114.  I've been collecting the "calibration" boxes for the last year, like the 114 and the 191. I was going to finish going through all the various meters before I started but I clearly prefer working on things that generate signals rather than measure them right now.  So, some 114 *pron* ...



It worked on power up, though the switches are flaky and it has a few issues:



When I opened it up, I discovered what looked like a series of ECO mods... a diode removed, a couple of RC networks added, a heatsink added to the PA transistors



Dig that crazy heatsink!   

There was also an electrolytic added, on the back of the board, which has leaked and disconnected itself in the process...



I am going to remove the bad cap and clean up the board around it. Then I am going to document the modifications, (which aren't on the schematics I have).  I am going to assume that the mods are there for a reason and leave them in place, though I am wondering about the electrolytic...

Sidenote: This 114 was built with Ge transistors almost exclusively. The good news? I have a crate full of Ge parts in my storage room and the user manual includes commercial subs for the tektronix part numbers.

[worsthorse]

may i join you?

 

[Kosmic]

I just hit Ctrl+S and it disappears! Windows build is bog standard.

Cheapduino here - CH340 chipset. China's finest 

I usually use a USBasp programmer, bare AVR and AVR-gcc / AVR-libc / avrdude / make because that's closest to home (C + linux toolchain) for me.

And fuck STM32. I can't even work out where to start. I look into it and the "can't be arsed" switch goes off.

I don't really see the fun of working with a old 8bits AVR mcu. As soon as you want to compute something you need to take care and optimize everything. Same reason why I don't play with PIC mcu anymore. I'm probably just lazy 

[med6753]

may i join you?

 

Sure....I have plenty......

[bd139]

I don't really see the fun of working with a old 8bits AVR mcu. As soon as you want to compute something you need to take care and optimize everything. Same reason why I don't play with PIC mcu anymore. I'm probably just lazy 

As a rule I don't compute on device. I use the AVRs for noddy stuff or an IO port for something with some grunt that does the compute bit.

In the case of something I am developing it uses a very cheap bottom end AVR as the controller which supports an SCPI like command set to control and query three I2C slave devices (si5351A and 2x PCF8574). It's currently working over a USB-serial adapter but I'm going to move it to USB hub + HID/audio device for production. There's a simple RPC proxy service that sits on the machine and talks to that and exposes it as http. Then there's a fat smelly Electron app I'm really not happy with that handles the UI. That's the laziest way, especially as you can just hook shit to the I2C bus and use it straight from Electron without even changing what's in the AVR

[BU508A]

There is a nice thing on it's way to me.
And it contains some of them:



And one of them:



  

[xrunner]

And one of them:



  

Hoping for the middle one to be the ONE. 

[med6753]

I set the 3400A aside until I find a donor unit that won't make me feel like I am spending $50 for a plug socket. Wandered into the storeroom and pulled the next thing out of the pile. Guess what it is from this photograph:

Yes that is a 0.009975mfd, 400V electrolytic capacitor. One of two in this unit.  The big capacitor above it has the negative lead removed and the entire case is soldered, along its length, directly to the printed circuit board.

It powers up and generates and appropriate signal (more or less), too, which was a surprise as it came out of the last "here take this stuff I need to get it out of my garage" trip.

Med or one of the other tek-addicts will probably recognize it.

Yep, it's a special timing capacitor. I think the Type 114 I have coming uses one if not the same or similar value. Also many of the older Tek scopes use very specialized, and unobtanium, tight tolerance timing capacitors. 

Edit....luckily they rarely go bad.

Yup... it is a 114.  I've been collecting the "calibration" boxes for the last year, like the 114 and the 191. I was going to finish going through all the various meters before I started but I clearly prefer working on things that generate signals rather than measure them right now.  So, some 114 *pron* ...



It worked on power up, though the switches are flaky and it has a few issues:



When I opened it up, I discovered what looked like a series of ECO mods... a diode removed, a couple of RC networks added, a heatsink added to the PA transistors



Dig that crazy heatsink!   

There was also an electrolytic added, on the back of the board, which has leaked and disconnected itself in the process...



I am going to remove the bad cap and clean up the board around it. Then I am going to document the modifications, (which aren't on the schematics I have).  I am going to assume that the mods are there for a reason and leave them in place, though I am wondering about the electrolytic...

Sidenote: This 114 was built with Ge transistors almost exclusively. The good news? I have a crate full of Ge parts in my storage room and the user manual includes commercial subs for the tektronix part numbers.

I'll crack open the 114 as soon as I get it and we'll compare. Supposedly it's fully functional but if I need some GE transistors I'll be PM'ing you.   

[BU508A]

And one of them:



  

Hoping for the middle one to be the ONE. 

This is one Nixie tube, a Z567M, made by RFT in the German Democratic Republic.
Some additional information about them:
http://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nixie/data/z567m.htm

[med6753]

And one of them:



  

Hoping for the middle one to be the ONE. 

This is one Nixie tube, a Z567M, made by RFT in the German Democratic Republic.
Some additional information about them:
http://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nixie/data/z567m.htm

That is way cool! 

[Martin.M]

BU508 you are restorating a R+S DVM there?

[med6753]

I just hit Ctrl+S and it disappears! Windows build is bog standard.

Cheapduino here - CH340 chipset. China's finest 

I usually use a USBasp programmer, bare AVR and AVR-gcc / AVR-libc / avrdude / make because that's closest to home (C + linux toolchain) for me.

And fuck STM32. I can't even work out where to start. I look into it and the "can't be arsed" switch goes off.

Then I think you need to take The Blue Pill.  It's made for guys like us.

mnem

Combined IQ of all involved of about 150. With the chimp scoring 70. What a bunch of morons. 

[Kosmic]

I don't really see the fun of working with a old 8bits AVR mcu. As soon as you want to compute something you need to take care and optimize everything. Same reason why I don't play with PIC mcu anymore. I'm probably just lazy 

As a rule I don't compute on device. I use the AVRs for noddy stuff or an IO port for something with some grunt that does the compute bit.

In the case of something I am developing it uses a very cheap bottom end AVR as the controller which supports an SCPI like command set to control and query three I2C slave devices (si5351A and 2x PCF8574). It's currently working over a USB-serial adapter but I'm going to move it to USB hub + HID/audio device for production. There's a simple RPC proxy service that sits on the machine and talks to that and exposes it as http. Then there's a fat smelly Electron app I'm really not happy with that handles the UI. That's the laziest way, especially as you can just hook shit to the I2C bus and use it straight from Electron without even changing what's in the AVR

Also my approach. Get raw data out, process on the PC.

I started looking at USB/HID and how to interface. Crazy complex for what it is really. I'm also using USB-serial for my home made stuff.