Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

So blue PLA arrived  . Printing NanoVNA case!

1905A has arrived, it really is in mint condtion externally apart from a little light scratching on the rear panel near the power power socket so I suspect it has been on the top of a stck and someone tried to find the socket by feeling for it. Powered and all works so far, quick dirty test of the calibration seems to bob on as well, will open it up later and take some photos inside and out so you can see the condition its in, like I just took it out of the box 

The 6.5 digit mode works a real treat to, I'll do some testing of the programming part and the datalogging later too, meanwhile back to the bloody damp patch in the toilet ceiling that I'm trying decorate. Just run the paint roller over the ceiling and it pulled a large chumk of artexing down  so that fucked up now, off to get some special treatment for it and then do the weekly shopping, bah humbug 

[bd139]

Sounds good 

Apart from the bog and the shopping!  . I get all my shopping delivered because I can't be arsed with traipsing around the shops. Plus don't miss any deliveries

[med6753]

Time to discovering EEVblog to dropping $3k on test equipment - almost a month. I'm proud of myself for resisting that long.

Resistance is futile. Welcome....



Post up what you bought.

[bd139]

Half a NanoVNA case, in "med blue" 

This printer is pretty much plug and play. I am surprised.

[med6753]

Both 8800A's checked out and complete. Some very minor discrepancies between them but nothing to get excited about. My volt-nut has taken a giant leap forward. 

[bd139]

Looking good 

[xrunner]

Yea that looks really good. Med Blue ... Hmmm sounds like a Martha Stewart brand color. 

Half a NanoVNA case, in "med blue" 

This printer is pretty much plug and play. I am surprised.

[med6753]

Yea that looks really good. Med Blue ... Hmmm sounds like a Martha Stewart brand color. 

Half a NanoVNA case, in "med blue" 

This printer is pretty much plug and play. I am surprised.

The color may appeal to her but my decor would make her wish she were still in prison. 

[xrunner]

This printer is pretty much plug and play. I am surprised.

Well sure if you leave it alone it works fine. Otherwise you'd have played with it for a week trying to make it work "better" like I did when I could have been enjoying the printouts. 

[bd139]

Hahaha I have basically left this alone

Printing other half now. Not helped by my youngest throwing an inflatable ball in the middle of the printer and fecking the bed alignment and print 

[xrunner]

Not helped by my youngest throwing an inflatable ball in the middle of the printer and fecking the bed alignment and print 

Aha now we're talking. Something bizarre and wonky is bound to muck it up for a few days ... 

[tautech]

Hahaha I have basically left this alone

Printing other half now. Not helped by my youngest throwing an inflatable ball in the middle of the printer and fecking the bed alignment and print 

Interpreted as : Dad we don't like that thing buzzing and clunking away in our house ! 

Time to print some more stuff for them.

[bd139]

They've all got earphones in all the time so they can bugger off  . Second bit done. Going to do the first bit again as I didn't do it with supports and there's some dangling bits of filament I can't live with being an OCD individual.

Just saw a nice and broken HP 3438A on ebay. But it's 2000 count and they want £40 for it. Not a chance, even if it has a good pair of shoes!

[AVGresponding]

Both 8800A's checked out and complete. Some very minor discrepancies between them but nothing to get excited about. My volt-nut has taken a giant leap forward. 

Symmetrical sweetness!
LEDs... mmmmmmmmm *dribbles a bit*

Dammit, now I want identical-twin meters too   


Been building some shelves to give myself back a couple of square metres (that's 2 1/5 square yards for you old folks) of floor space.
Building it to last:


Aaaand boom!

[worsthorse]

I know. I said, no TE until Monday because I am teaching this weekend.  But I finished prepping faster than I thought I would and the other stuff on my to do list looks completely uninteresting so I put the newly acquired tektronix type 184 time mark generator on the bench to have a look.



As I said, it looked crufty in the ebay photos and real life did not disappoint...



So I gave it a good look over and not finding any obvious badness or potential FCOs^*, plugged it in and...



Both the power and oven light came on and the oven light started cycling as it should. This beast has a two hour warm up time.   

First check... the 10MHz oscillator:



That's after ten minutes of warm up. Not bad! I also checked the 100MHz output and it is nuts on, too.

Of course, I somehow feel slightly disappointed, as I do when I find "parts only" TE that actually just works.   

I still can't declare a win here, as I have to clean it up and calibrate it. But it looks good so far.

^*FCO - Flame Creating Objects.

[0culus]

So people who have been following along probably already know that I have a weakness for rare and/or interesting vacuum tubes. Well, I couldn't talk the local surplus dude down on this, but it's a nifty ring oscillator tube, possibly related to UHF and higher band transmitting. He wants $1100 for it.  Grabbed a pic though!

[AVGresponding]

Holy poopies...

Is it even practically possible to test such a thing before buying?

It surely is beautiful though, and that's from a guy who's completely uninterested in all things RF   

[Neomys Sapiens]

While both the HP34401 and the 34410/1 have been subject of many posts, even comparing them, has anyone here had experience of working with the 34465A? There are tempting offers, albeit from far away places out there!

I am slightly annoyed by the fact that you can only find overviews within a generation of instruments. I would really like to see HPAK gear getting such a complete, reliable and useful treatment as the Tektronix products are getting on TekWiki.

Btw, there is another one of the Thurlby DMMs upcoming.

After my front panel issue was sorted on the 34461A easy to use flexible and accurate. It has become my daily driver while the 34401A has become the backup or meter I put on more static jobs.

Depending on what you need from it the price jump to the 65A is a bit hard to justify. https://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/5991-1983EN.pdf?id=2318052&cc=AU&lc=eng The thing mine lacks the 65A would have given me is Thermocouple readings but I already have a bunch of meters that do that and also now the Fluke Process Calibrator. Extra or faster readings are dubious value as you can always log to a PC.

Thanks for the pointer. As I see it, the 5ppm are no justification, nor are the thermocouples and the sampling speed would only be in my focus if there were no other things that digitize around. Leaves the limited resistance range of the 461. But knowing myself, it would not keep me from aquiring a Teraohmmeter, so I will not think about it further.

[0culus]

Holy poopies...

Is it even practically possible to test such a thing before buying?

It surely is beautiful though, and that's from a guy who's completely uninterested in all things RF   

Yeah, I don't think normal tube testers will cut it for that. That's why I politely declined. If I'm going to spend a kilobuck on a tube it damn well better be a working tube. 

[mnementh]

Grabbed a pic though!   

*in best Rain Man voice*   "Pnuder valve... definitely... definitely Pnuder valve... definitely, definitely..." 

mnem
*buggering off to build a table from Amazon.ca Prime*

[mnementh]

^*FCO - Flame Creating Objects.

You calling bd out widdat remark...? Cuz I'm pretty sure he still makes housecalls... 

mnem

[med6753]

Holy poopies...

Is it even practically possible to test such a thing before buying?

It surely is beautiful though, and that's from a guy who's completely uninterested in all things RF   

Yeah, I don't think normal tube testers will cut it for that. That's why I politely declined. If I'm going to spend a kilobuck on a tube it damn well better be a working tube. 

I just went thru the Eimac product listings and it includes pictures of all the tubes they make. That one doesn't show. I also checked out "53B" printed on the tube. Nothing. The only thing I can assume is that it's an obsolete type.

[0culus]

Holy poopies...

Is it even practically possible to test such a thing before buying?

It surely is beautiful though, and that's from a guy who's completely uninterested in all things RF   

Yeah, I don't think normal tube testers will cut it for that. That's why I politely declined. If I'm going to spend a kilobuck on a tube it damn well better be a working tube. 

I just went thru the Eimac product listings and it includes pictures of all the tubes they make. That one doesn't show. I also checked out "53B" printed on the tube. Nothing. The only thing I can assume is that it's an obsolete type.

Yeah, I found plenty of references to 53A ring oscillator tubes online, but no 53B. Could be a unicorn. Either way it's not worth 1.1 kilobucks to me.

[med6753]

Holy poopies...

Is it even practically possible to test such a thing before buying?

It surely is beautiful though, and that's from a guy who's completely uninterested in all things RF   

Yeah, I don't think normal tube testers will cut it for that. That's why I politely declined. If I'm going to spend a kilobuck on a tube it damn well better be a working tube. 

I just went thru the Eimac product listings and it includes pictures of all the tubes they make. That one doesn't show. I also checked out "53B" printed on the tube. Nothing. The only thing I can assume is that it's an obsolete type.

Yeah, I found plenty of references to 53A ring oscillator tubes online, but no 53B. Could be a unicorn. Either way it's not worth 1.1 kilobucks to me.

Chances are it's not worth 10 cents either. 

[mnementh]

Rub it, see if a genie pops out. 

mnem
"Okay; it did. NOW what...?"