Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

You’ll be ponying up the money for NIST-traceable calibration (or scouring fleaBay for a suitable meter already done with seals) in a year. Less if bean gets to you. 

mnem
*highway dwagon*

Latest purchase. Unable to resist (ho ho)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tinsley-Type-1659-DC-AC-Standard-Resistance-10-0-ohms-1-amp-/153675945967

...everyone every TE Addict should have his own standard resistance..      

I also have a couple of rather nice Guildline 9330s (10k, 100k) and a less nice HW Sullivan (100ohms). Plus three well defined capacitors

[mnementh]

You’ll be ponying up the money for NIST-traceable calibration (or scouring fleaBay for a suitable meter already done with seals) in a year. Less if bean gets to you. 

mnem
*highway dwagon*

   His resistance to my Enabling power remains strong - so far 

i did suggest privately he NEEDED this tasty tidy and possibly affordable Tek FET probe in his life eBay auction: #113925336104 and offered to assist in it's procurement. I reckon by Christmas (not sure which year) with the combined TEA power we can have him 3D printing with a 6 1/2 digit meter 

  That’s because you haven’t infected tempted him with Vegemite. Once that universal solvent hits his blood stream, his resistance will decrease tenfold. Just hope he doesn’t encounter any flu virus while under its influence... 

mnem

[Brumby]

Now I need to make myself a couple of pieces of Vegemite toast.

[beanflying]

Speaking of the enabled 

The week of concluding the unconcluded jobs is here. Now which one first  Time for a Coffee and procrastinate some more .......

[med6753]

Now I need to make myself a couple of pieces of Vegemite toast.

That shit sounds nasty.

[Brumby]

It is not in my nature to publish photos of my every activity in the world - but I'm tempted to make an exception ... just for you.

[0culus]

You’ll be ponying up the money for NIST-traceable calibration (or scouring fleaBay for a suitable meter already done with seals) in a year. Less if bean gets to you. 

mnem
*highway dwagon*

His resistance to my Enabling power remains strong - so far 

i did suggest privately he NEEDED this tasty tidy and possibly affordable Tek FET probe in his life eBay auction: #113925336104 and offered to assist in it's procurement. I reckon by Christmas (not sure which year) with the combined TEA power we can have him 3D printing with a 6 1/2 digit meter 

Yes, Bean tried and I greatly appreciate his offer but I have other priorities at the moment. And I'd rarely use it. But I'm sure Oculus or Addictedtoanalogtek would be interested. 

Ah man that's a nice one. I'd definitely be interested if I had not just gotten another one from a fellow on TekScopes. 

[Brumby]

However, seeing that I only have one mouthful left, I will just refer you to this:



Yes ... a lot of Australians have grown up on Vegemite.  Don't be afraid ... even little kids enjoy it.

You MUST try some!   

[0culus]

On another happy note, I got a nice haul of power supplies for radios at another hamfest. I got an Astron RS35A that needs work (broken rocker switch seems to be the problem), an Astron RS12A, and one of those "ham power in an ammo can builds" that someone was selling. The RS12A finally gives me a power supply that will work with the Icom IC7000 on 2m and 70cm. Working HF would require the 35. But, no more shutdown on keyup!

[Kosmic]

Sometimes ago, decided to try my luck on Equipnet auction and won a nice thermal camera­. Having the item packaged and shipped was an ordeal, but it made it in one piece in the end. As soon as I got the camera I tried to install the software, but the unlock code from the previous owner was not working. The company that made the camera was nowhere to be found (web site is gone). So, a bit frustrated, I decided to just put everything back in the box and forgot about it for a while.



Recently decided to try again. With the help of someone from the forum (Fraser), I was able to track down Compix and obtain a new unlock code from them. The camera is now working but I don't remember exactly why I wanted one in the first place. Probably to track down short and avoid burning down my house with alcohol 

In any case, the Compix 320 is a really nice camera. It was sold for something like 20 kilobuck in 2013. Got a resolution of 320x240 (interpolated to 640x480). Came with 2 lenses and one extender.

[Kosmic]

The inside:

[Kosmic]

Playing with the thermal camera



Zooming on the little hot chip in the lower left (ignore the temperature, the camera is not calibrated with this lens)


Zooming on one of the pad of the same chip (using the microscope lens).

[mnementh]

 

And now they make units with higher res that fit in a cellphone shell for 1/20 the cost. Such is the march of progress...

mnem
 

[Kosmic]

And now they make units with higher res that fit in a cellphone shell for 1/20 the cost. Such is the march of progress...

mnem
 

I don't know. Similar product , like the Fluke RSE300 still sell for 13k$

https://www.fluke-direct.com/product/fluke-rse300-infrared-camera-60hz-320-x-240

Sure there is some new product from China like thermal expert, but I'm not sure how they compare.

[worsthorse]

I survived Rickreall. Actually sold a small pile of stuff, though none of the Tektronix gear or the bandscope. Had a couple of good finds, including several pounds of N and GR adapters of various sorts. Too tired to start digging through crates tonight, will post photos tomorrow.

Next hamfest isn't until March, up in Washington state. I think that will be a better opportunity to sell test gear and, unfortunately, to buy some, too!   

[Mr. Scram]

And now they make units with higher res that fit in a cellphone shell for 1/20 the cost. Such is the march of progress...

mnem
 

The build and image quality of those isn't quite the same though.

[Kosmic]

Haa and when I told my daughter I had a new camera she absolutely wanted to pose for a picture 

Edit: Deleted my post by accident  , re-uploading.

[FransW]

@med, kosmic
Total price I was offered for 2 probes was around $120.=.
Inclusive shipping & customs.

Pretty prohibitive.

[Kosmic]

@med, kosmic
Total price I was offered for 2 probes was around $120.=.
Inclusive shipping & customs.

Pretty prohibitive.

Shipping is killing the deal 

Was something like 12$ for me.

Edit: 60$ per probe shipped is still cheap. They normally goes for >100$ just the probe.

[nixiefreqq]

gonna break my promise not to post again about the hp 8569b.

was noodling with it this morning and connected up my prologix gpib to usb adapter.

installed "spectrum surveillance monitor" from ke5fx and after dicking with it for an hour it works.

like the display on the crt better.....but it is good to know that a laptop display is an option.

oh......why did it take an hour of dicking around?  the 8569 is a big mother.  so you have to lean waaaaaaay over to see the gpib address switches.

and when the switches are viewed upside down it is real easy to set them backwards.  DOH!



(decimal 18 is 010010 NOT 101101) 

[mansaxel]

Last weeks hoarding on the in-country auction site resulted in a couple of used connectors. Rosenberger solder/clamp TNC for RG213.  Now, in classic rabbit hole fashion, all I need is a radio (I'm thinking of a Niros/Ericsson UHF) to plug them in and an open-jaw 16mm torque wrench that will do 4Nm to properly tighten the clamp screw.  The tooling rabbit hole is as tantalizing as the TE one. Believe me. For I have gone there.

I've already desoldered them. One needs to loosen all of the clamping, then open the little manhole, heat the joint for the centre conductor, and carefully wiggle the cable stub out. Then clean out the excess solder.

All the silicone seals are somewhat squeezed to bits, so am thinking about getting a bag of suitable neoprene O-rings instead.

[med6753]

More volt-nuttery. Today's mission is to certify the Siglent SDM 3055 as my “Bench 2 Standard”. I've had this Siglent for almost a year now and while I like it overall there are a few items that annoy me. First, it doesn't match up exactly with either AD584-M references. It's always measured consistently low as seen as the chart. It's close but no cigar. Sloppy factory calibration or are BOTH references off?  Who knows but to me 5.5 digits is overkill anyway.  Second, I found that there is no difference in warm up times from either a cold start (power completely off) or power up from standby. Takes at least 12 hours for both for best accuracy. That tells me that standby does not keep the internal voltage reference hot which makes it totally useless and just consumes power. Perhaps Tautech can confirm this.

For this exercise the Siglent was powered up for 48 hours. It has confirmed via cross checking that the Fluke 8050A is a valid bench 1 standard. And it further convinced me that for my needs 4.5 digits is more than enough. 5.5 digits is overkill and I'll never venture into 6.5 digit territory. Especially when I see these 6.5 digit and greater DMM's all stacked up and connected to the same source and all reading differently.  That would drive me to drink.   

[Martin.M]

my modificated BFO don`t work.
Its the classic experience of solding: All is oscillating except the oscillator 
I will find that.. the replacement variable C is pass.

[Specmaster]

Can confirm. I can blow anything up 

After years of secret tests conducted at Mum and Dads house, he is well qualified in the art of blowing things, even down to humble power supplies 

[tautech]

Second, I found that there is no difference in warm up times from either a cold start (power completely off) or power up from standby. Takes at least 12 hours for both for best accuracy. That tells me that standby does not keep the internal voltage reference hot which makes it totally useless and just consumes power. Perhaps Tautech can confirm this.

None of the SDM's have an ovenized reference and IIRC there's an ON time accuracy spec in the datasheet.
I don't remember what the Vref is in the 3045X and 3055 but it's the TO-92 above the 3 black relays in the pic in this post.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-new-bench-dmm-sdm3055/msg637615/#msg637615

FYI, Siglent are working on a manual Cal procedure so that owners can tweak measurements once their SDM's have aged. Not all measurement types will be tweakable AFAIK, just those for which you budding volt/ohm/amp nuts carry the typical standard references.
Actually, must check how things are progressing with this manual Cal ..................