Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Brumby]

Well, when stepping up to a fight - stop leading with your chin!

Who's looking for a fight? Not I.  All I did was make an informative post and for some reason the peanut gallery got all stirred up. 

My comment was meant to be an indirect reference to the fact you stated the blue streak in this thread.

BTW I don't mind the shade.   

[mnementh]

Personally I wouldn't mind if you folks would refrain from the political talk in this thread. I, and likely many others, are coming here to get away from precisely all of that and talk to others about a common hobby. There are many far more appropriate places to vent political disgust than here. Thank you.

Yeah, that is the flip side of the “casual conversation at the pub” format of this space; a certain level of tolerance for off-topic and subject matter some may find offensive.

YOU are the one who turned it political by mentioning politics; we were talking about social intolerance and how disturbing the crazy out there has become of late.

This is actually pretty on-topic as those of us who dabble in the amateur radio arts tend to want to think of ourselves as more sensible than that rabid mouth-breather and may feel a need to express disdain at the thought of such a cretin among our ranks, so were looking for that “support group” response from our mates at the pub.

It’s not that complicated, really.

mnem
Intolerance is the one thing I have no tolerance for.

[mnementh]

All those poor confused electrons, running around in a mobius loop to keep that relay closed; talk about ennui made manifest. Have you no mercy...? Or does that microcosm of the human condition somehow please you...?

mnem
“The celery stalks at midnight, but he is all alone in a city full of cabbages...”

I like to think of it as more of a self-serving purpose, the electrons knowing that they are being kept in current to be able to keep themselves in current. Sort of like the farmer, with their cyclical pastoral life. Of dirt, rain (or lack thereof) and grasshoppers.

/M

"If I was an electron in a self-hold, I'd be proud of being part of a state machine."

I like this conceit very much.

That is what’s so awesome about this space... we can have a discussion about some of the most abstract, meta concepts in the world, and not only is there someone out there who gets it... we can expect someone to join in that discussion in earnest without fear of ridicule. We’re like the antidote to the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. 

mnem
*Internal dialogue set to multi-user mode*

[mnementh]

Well, when stepping up to a fight - stop leading with your chin!

Who's looking for a fight? Not I.  All I did was make an informative post and for some reason the peanut gallery got all stirred up. 

And the head peanut just joined the fray. 

Psssst... I think he was agitatin’ in response to your agitatin’...

mnem

[0culus]

Personally I wouldn't mind if you folks would refrain from the political talk in this thread. I, and likely many others, are coming here to get away from precisely all of that and talk to others about a common hobby. There are many far more appropriate places to vent political disgust than here. Thank you.

Yeah, that is the flip side of the “casual conversation at the pub” format of this space; a certain level of tolerance for off-topic and subject matter some may find offensive.

YOU are the one who turned it political by mentioning politics; we were talking about social intolerance and how disturbing the crazy out there has become of late.

This is actually pretty on-topic as those of us who dabble in the amateur radio arts tend to want to think of ourselves as more sensible than that rabid mouth-breather and may feel a need to express disdain at the thought of such a cretin among our ranks, so were looking for that “support group” response from our mates at the pub.

It’s not that complicated, really.

mnem
Intolerance is the one thing I have no tolerance for.

I respectfully disagree. There's zero call in this thread (or even on this forum) to bring things up like that and call people names, no matter what. It's certainly not within the spirit of the forum rules [1] . In the context of posting this person's website apparently just to attack it, the subtext certainly is a political one. It's off topic, and I seriously doubt I'm the only one who doesn't want to read it here.

I'm done. Back to test equipment.

[1]: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/forum-rules-please-read/

[bd139]

The forum dips into politics all over the place. Simon and Dave actually tend to throw a few bricks in as well. Check out the gender politics thread or the snake oil threads if you don't believe me. The point is that the entire thread or forum is not consumed by it. It is totally unavoidable as all our actions are constrained by the results of it on a daily basis so conversation will drift. I know another forum where it is strictly forbidden and the sense of community died overnight. This is a strong community and the odd diversion helps keep things positive. But there is a balance, which is why I don't go to the local radio club. All they do is talk about their wives being horrible when they're really not and brexit. If they talked about radios all day and nothing else it'd be just as boring.

The original post which appears to have triggered this was from me. Apologies if I offended you personally, but I'm rather offended at the promotion of guns, racism and casual sexualisation from someone who operates an illegal broadcast operation on a general license in the USA and has the FCC on his ass already. None of that is political, just being a complete and utter dick of a human and violating the basic ethic of reciprocity. This attitude affect us all, negatively and I posted it mostly slightly relieved to know that a fellow thread member has now escaped from that environment.

But alas on to test gear. I have nothing to report today other than doing my monthly SLA battery maintenance! 

[Bud]

Love it. Can you tell which spray paint product you used?

[AVGresponding]

I had no interest in that website, as I *shock horror* am not interested in ham radio   

However, as soon as someone objects, I become interested, so I clicked the link and went for a look.

All I can say is, pretty much any comment I'd have on it would probably fan the embers into a flame, so I'm not gonna.


To the business at hand! Piccies!

The last day of the strip-out, and some neat (to me) scores:




The Kenwood PSU weighs a ton and with 7A @13.8V it's going to be a useful one for anything car related.

The dome camera is a good quality one with a proper IP67 housing, that's going to be used when I figure the pinouts   

I'm sure I'll find a use for the mercury switches too...   

Also got a nice rack mount  metalclad 6-way mains outlet, some kettle leads, DIN rail HRC fuseholders, all in all a good result!

[med6753]

Love it. Can you tell which spray paint product you used?

[bd139]

Not joking but I may actually buy some of that. It'll look good on die cast boxes 

[AVGresponding]

In some parallel universe, med is buying up blue test gear and painting it beige...

[tggzzz]

Not joking but I may actually buy some of that. It'll look good on die cast boxes 

Let us know where you get that this ride of the pond.

Failing that, Halfords Ford Nordic Blue car spray paint isn't too bad:

[bd139]

Not sure you can get Krylon here. Plastikote is the same stuff I think.

That Halfords stuff looks pretty good actually though 

[Bud]

@tggzzz
gee, looking ok on the test gear but a weird dull color for a car to my taste

[McBryce]

Paint cans usually have an RAL number on them, so you can find an exact equivalent from other manufacturers.

McBryce.

[med6753]

Looks like I've started a trend. 

In other news.....

RTFM

The new 8800A. Ohms function FUBAR. Or I thought it was. I had forgotten that for normal 2 wire measurements the red binding posts need to be shorted together as well as the black binding posts. And the blue guard should also be connected to one of the black. Those shorting tabs were missing on this unit. Wire jumpers installed and now 2 wire ohms works.



RTFM 

[tggzzz]

@tggzzz
gee, looking ok on the test gear but a weird dull color for a car to my taste

There are worse car colours, believe me there are worse.

The only sane reason for buying some of the colours I've seen would be that the dealer was offering a really good deal to shift them. But I suppose advantages might be finding them in a car park, and nobody wanting to steal them.

[bd139]

Ford Nordic Blue looked pretty cool on cars in the early 1980s. Not so much now.

[tggzzz]

Ford Nordic Blue looked pretty cool on cars in the early 1980s. Not so much now.

I've seen some colours that make "8yo My Little Pony" puce look positively restrained and tasteful.

There would be no point in taking a photo, since the colour would be outside the gamut of ordinary computer screens.

[tautech]

I had a metallic Kelly green Mk3 Cortina that looked magic polished up and in the sun. You don't see that color used much these days. 

[mansaxel]

Wire jumpers installed and now 2 wire ohms works.

And this is where I have me own new tempting rabbit hole, which is Kelvin clamps and all their uses.  I did an experiment on my resistance "standard" which is built with 4 binding posts, and was amazed at how good the results were; current source, ammeter, voltmeter and some simple Ω's Law = pretty good indication of resistance. If I can bodge that together, and get good results, proper equipment is going to be amazing.
So, have my eyes set on a 4-wire-capable RCL meter, a Philips 6303.

And, continue the Philips thread, am aiming at a PM6668 counter which of course does not do 4-wire, but is built very close to where I live.

Much like the RIFAs were. Or that was mostly the HQ; the factories were in Kalmar and Gränna. Kemet just (june 2019) moved the last capacitor manufacturing from Sweden to Portugal by closing the Gränna factory.

</detour>

[bd139]

I had a metallic Kelly green Mk3 Cortina that looked magic polished up and in the sun. You don't see that color used much these days. 

Ugh that caused a flashback. My mother had a bright metallic green Triumph Acclaim. Until she drove it into the bollards outside Tesco and totalled it  . She murdered three cars doing that, the last one a Peugeot 106 in Asda and a Nissan Almera in Aldi. She’s given up driving now thank fuck. It scares me parking in supermarkets because she wasn’t the worst person in them!

[VK5RC]

Looks like I've started a trend. 

In other news.....

RTFM

The new 8800A. Ohms function FUBAR. Or I thought it was. I had forgotten that for normal 2 wire measurements the red binding posts need to be shorted together as well as the black binding posts. And the blue guard should also be connected to one of the black. Those shorting tabs were missing on this unit. Wire jumpers installed and now 2 wire ohms works.

.
.
RTFM 

Been there - done that FFS! D'oh.

[URI]

Another TEA (Test Equipment Arrival  ):

My new dual input power meter arrived safe and sound!
As I wrote some weeks ago I just bought a HP 438A power meter "for parts" for less then $70 delivered.
Yesterday it was delivered and when I opened the double card board box I was really surprised because it was packed using those foam-filled plastic bags that fit around the packaged item as the foam expands. Very nice! The meter was very well padded on all sides and couldn't move a bit. I haven't seen any other ebay seller doing this so far. Not even the "professional" surplus sellers I came across so far. This surplus seller really did a professional job, even in packaging. 

The auction pictures of the HP 438A showed the error message "No Channel A/Error 31" which just says that there's no sensor detected -what is normal when none is connected.   

The front needs a bit of overall cleaning and a special treatment to get rid of some sticker residue:


As this is is a printed plastic sheet: what can I use for cleaning without damaging it?

The power supply section with the fan looks dirty with all the dust blown in by the fan, but basically no obvious failures:


The main processor board A3 isn't very exciting, it also needs cleaning and checking of the tantalum caps:


Oh, by the way: The battery cell on this board shows >3.2V and seems to be fairly "fresh".

The main input amplifier board A5 looks good so far:


But the input amplifier board A4 shows that it needs repair: several caps are bad, one is even corroded off the board on one side!


Interestingly this 438A basically works: Before I inspected the inside I did a quick test with an 8481 Sensor (-30dBm to +20dBm): Entering and saving of the cal factor as well as zeroing and calibrating worked fine.
I wonder how that is possible with that number of bad caps on the input amplifiers. 
Anyway, I am happy that nothing blew up when I powered it up. Should have inspected the inside first.   

Cleaning on either the outside and the inside and replacing the bad parts will give me a fully functioning dual port power meter, I think.   

[factory]

Anybody interested in some used Rifa capacitors ? Found a family of them hiding



Didn't know about the Wima though. One of them slightly exploded. Explain why the interior of the power supply was so thirty.

I'm not sure about those WIMA paper capacitors, last week I found a draw of 0.33uF type MP3 ones in my spares stock bought from work, I couldn't find much at all on the web for WIMA capacitors smoking compared with the RIFA smoke/stink bombs.
Of course now I know they are paper I won't be using them in any TE, maybe stick them in a Nov 5th draw with the RIFA PME capacitors.

Not all the transparent golden capacitors from RIFA are paper, they also made Polyester, Polystyrene and Polypropylene versions, I can't find the source the attached PDF came from.

David