Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[beanflying]

Welp... The lady at the border crossing looked at us and the kids exactly twice, then waved us through. We're on the QEX about 45 minutes from Toronto.

Kosmic, think you should lock up the women & hide the fried chicken, eh...? Hoser-Dwagon is officially in da Great White North!!!

I just hope everything goes as smoothly with the rental property...

Ho sh*&t, you crossed the border already!

Welcome to Canada, I hope you're going to like it! we can cope 

[worsthorse]

I buttoned up the 106 and filed the manual, put all the tools away, and figured I would take a week off from fixing borked TE, so of course three hours later I bought a "parts only" 184 time marker generator on ebay because the last three calibration manuals said I should have one and, well, I don't, and besides the case matches the 191, 106, and 114.

You know, it was a collect the whole set! moment 



Even in the photographs the one I bought looks like it was stored in the corner of the garage under a ten year deep stack of Playboy magazines from the 70s. And yes, of course I paid too much for it, and I should have made an offer, etc. And that's why I shouldn't TE shop in the evening, generally. 

[med6753]

Welp... The lady at the border crossing looked at us and the kids exactly twice, then waved us through. We're on the QEX about 45 minutes from Toronto.

Kosmic, think you should lock up the women & hide the fried chicken, eh...? Hoser-Dwagon is officially in da Great White North!!!

I just hope everything goes as smoothly with the rental property...

Ho sh*&t, you crossed the border already!

Welcome to Canada, I hope you're going to like it!

Yep, really shows how lame your border protection is and you'll let anyone cross. 

[med6753]

I buttoned up the 106 and filed the manual, put all the tools away, and figured I would take a week off from fixing borked TE, so of course three hours later I bought a "parts only" 184 time marker generator on ebay because the last three calibration manuals said I should have one and, well, I don't, and besides the case matches the 191, 106, and 114.

You know, it was a collect the whole set! moment 

(Attachment Link)

Even in the photographs the one I bought looks like it was stored in the corner of the garage under a ten year deep stack of Playboy magazines from the 70s. And yes, of course I paid too much for it, and I should have made an offer, etc. And that's why I shouldn't TE shop in the evening, generally. 

I need to stay off Ebay too. Yep, I bought something. 

[mnementh]

I just got done building a bed.  Now I'm going to beg my wife to make the bed, so I can fall into it... 

mnem
"Time flies when you're flat on your face..."

[tggzzz]

I buttoned up the 106 and filed the manual, put all the tools away, and figured I would take a week off from fixing borked TE, so of course three hours later I bought a "parts only" 184 time marker generator on ebay because the last three calibration manuals said I should have one and, well, I don't, and besides the case matches the 191, 106, and 114.

You know, it was a collect the whole set! moment 

(Attachment Link)

Even in the photographs the one I bought looks like it was stored in the corner of the garage under a ten year deep stack of Playboy magazines from the 70s. And yes, of course I paid too much for it, and I should have made an offer, etc. And that's why I shouldn't TE shop in the evening, generally. 

Fortunately it is possible to bend metal hoops to change transformer coupling ratios, and NOS nuvistors are available at a reasonable price

Before presuming a fault in part of the circuit, be aware that not all outputs are available simultaneously: some rob energy from others. Also some of the outputs don't appear instantaneously since valves are used :0

[bd139]

Some more HP pr0n for you all...

HP 3312A arrived. Fully functional. No damage just crud and some wear to the frequency dial. Cal is pretty excellent as well. Can't complain.

Insides:





Kicking out some AM quickly as a test case:



This one goes all the way up to 14.3MHz 

One of these, a 6236B and 400E, all of which I own, are a nice little powerful analogue bench combo.

When everyone is next out I'm going to dig all my HP stuff out at once. Collection is growing rapidly! Many have another entry later as well.

[med6753]

@med, great thats good news, I just couldn't that it was out of cal, Flukes are normally bob on. But, now lets be realistic shall we, do you normally switch your gear and leave for 12 hours before using it? I expect the answer is no, you switch it on when need to use it, use and when you're done, switch it off again, so if thats the case aren't you going to back to the real likelhood of it reading 10.001V again when your connect your AD584-M?? If so you have just wasted 12 hours of power to lose just 2mV in which case its back to my original position of it being good enough 

Normally if I'm working on something I try to anticipate what equipment I need and get it powered up for at least a half hour to one hour before using it.

So let's do this little experiment. Tomorrow morning I'll power up the 8600A and within a half hour I'll connect it to the AD584-M and post the results. I promise I won't cheat. 

As promised. Upon immediate power up the 8600A was flashing between 9.999V and 10.000V. Within 10 minutes had settled consistently to this:



Proof that it stabilizes quickly and is accurate.   

[beanflying]

No TEA for me over the last week I have been really into WEA  after my tripping to the big smoke last week.

Pseudo modular Table Saw/ Router/ Jigsaw table in the designing. Poor mans limited usage gear. Track ordered and picking up the timber tomorrow.

[bd139]

More pr0n. Decided to make a quick bandpass filter to play with. Peak frequency indicated

[Specmaster]

@med, great thats good news, I just couldn't that it was out of cal, Flukes are normally bob on. But, now lets be realistic shall we, do you normally switch your gear and leave for 12 hours before using it? I expect the answer is no, you switch it on when need to use it, use and when you're done, switch it off again, so if thats the case aren't you going to back to the real likelhood of it reading 10.001V again when your connect your AD584-M?? If so you have just wasted 12 hours of power to lose just 2mV in which case its back to my original position of it being good enough 

Normally if I'm working on something I try to anticipate what equipment I need and get it powered up for at least a half hour to one hour before using it.

So let's do this little experiment. Tomorrow morning I'll power up the 8600A and within a half hour I'll connect it to the AD584-M and post the results. I promise I won't cheat. 

As promised. Upon immediate power up the 8600A was flashing between 9.999V and 10.000V. Within 10 minutes had settled consistently to this:



Proof that it stabilizes quickly and is accurate.   

Excellent news, but I still argue that its perfectly acceptable, given that the error when "cold" was so small, that it is perfectly acceptable to switch it on when needed without waiting for it reach optimal operating temperature. We don't do that with our vehicles or anything else do we? Even a steel rule, a micrometer has a reference temperature where they are most accurate but nobody takes any notice of that, they just pick them up and take the measurment. 

[Specmaster]

More pr0n. Decided to make a quick bandpass filter to play with. Peak frequency indicated

Thats a nice collection coming along there. 

[mnementh]

Mmmmmmmm... bagels toasting and a right proper pot of right proper coffee brewing. If only I could be arsed to grind it fresh...

mnem
"Oh yeah... that's the stuff... put it *thwap-thwap-thwap* RIGHT THERE..." *slightly pornographic sigh out loud*

[mansaxel]

The -- hp -- 428b verification process continues. I'm at the stage when I need AC current to interfere with the measurement. The manual specifies a 35mA AC current, and suggests a device I've not got (yet, this is TEA, right?) so time to go scrounging. Found a modem PSU wall-wart whose weight and size indicated it was linear. Once I'd gotten rid of the advanced regulation circuit, all 4 diodes and one capacitor  , and calculated a resistor (390Ω) it was time for a verification measurement:



I'd tacked some lamp cord on for AC mains, using a wonderfully practical madness, known as a "Safeblock". Quite dangerous and very handy.

Satisfied with the measurement and assembled with a loop (broken up by two unshielded PL259 plugs  ):



First adjustment done, more to follow.

[med6753]

Mmmmmmmm... bagels toasting and a right proper pot of right proper coffee brewing. If only I could be arsed to grind it fresh...

mnem
"Oh yeah... that's the stuff... put it *thwap-thwap-thwap* RIGHT THERE..." *slightly pornographic sigh out loud*

I didn't know you could buy Tim Horton's coffee for home brewing.  Next time I'm in Staten Island I'll have to check that out. Unfortunately that's the closest one to me at nearly 100 miles. Next one is at least 150 miles away.

[med6753]

Excellent news, but I still argue that its perfectly acceptable, given that the error when "cold" was so small, that it is perfectly acceptable to switch it on when needed without waiting for it reach optimal operating temperature. We don't do that with our vehicles or anything else do we? Even a steel rule, a micrometer has a reference temperature where they are most accurate but nobody takes any notice of that, they just pick them up and take the measurment. 

True, but in those situations where you suddenly need to make a quick measurement the tool of choice is your hand held, such as the 87. Grab it, measure, turn it off. That's what it's made for. 

[Specmaster]

Many bench meters are nothing more than handhelds rejigged to fit into a bench layout rather than small form factor of a handheld. Gone are the days of the valve or tube meters that did need to warm up before peak accuracy was achieved. Any meter that cannot give me a reliable reading within a few seconds is junked by me. My kind of reliable means a reading that is within a few mV as nothing I do requres precsion at that 10v and above range anyway, it is most usual to be concerned about accuracy when working in the uV or mV ranges but a half a dozen or so mV out when working on a volts range is neither here nor there really.

[bd139]

Talking of bench meters, I just saw this steaming pile of WTF on eBay 



Appears to be having multiple identity crisis's at once

[xrunner]

and a speaker to boot ... 

[bd139]

Indeed. Much confusion!

[worsthorse]

Talking of bench meters, I just saw this steaming pile of WTF on eBay 



Appears to be having multiple identity crisis's at once

well, that's um, creative?  i am sure it made sense while it was happening. over and over and over again. 

edit: i am sure there's a extendable antenna attached to it out of sight...

[med6753]

Talking of bench meters, I just saw this steaming pile of WTF on eBay 



Appears to be having multiple identity crisis's at once

well, that's um, creative?  i am sure it made sense while it was happening. over and over and over again. 

edit: i am sure there's a extendable antenna attached to it out of sight...

What the hell is it exactly supposed to be? 

Even my warped mind couldn't come up with something like that. 

(Maybe mnem.  )

[bd139]

“Back end of a 2465” job? 

[xrunner]

Paint it Tek blue it'll seem better then. 

[Jwalling]

Talking of bench meters, I just saw this steaming pile of WTF on eBay 

Appears to be having multiple identity crisis's at once

Looks like someone gutted it and converted to a variable power supply. What's the confusion?