Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Neomys Sapiens]

I guess I have some kind of obsession with high resistance meter and electrometer. Found this little puppy on ebay, advertised as broken for parts. Since it was broken I tried negotiating a bit. Worked pretty well and ended up paying less than the Genrad 1644a.

Now I need to make / find the test leads and do calibration and adjustment.

Yes, with the aquisition of the Philips LCR the Hi-Ohm and Low-Ohm requirement moved up a bit in priority. Except that neither tubes nor manual bridges will be accepted. The only current offer that I have is for a HP Milliohm-Meter, but the condition is rather dubious. Still looking.

Digital high resistance meters are out of my league. I'm probably too cheap  .

It's completely analog but the resolution of the genrad 1644a is interesting. It will probably die as soon as one of the tube give up though. Not sure if it's still possible to find those.

Did I say digital? Did I somehow evoke the concept of 'digital' by talking of numbers on a display?
 
The exclusion of manual bridges referred to anything working on a compensation and zero indicator principle. That HP is solid state and I would be fine with one. It aimed at the GR.

[Kosmic]

I guess I have some kind of obsession with high resistance meter and electrometer. Found this little puppy on ebay, advertised as broken for parts. Since it was broken I tried negotiating a bit. Worked pretty well and ended up paying less than the Genrad 1644a.

Now I need to make / find the test leads and do calibration and adjustment.

Yes, with the aquisition of the Philips LCR the Hi-Ohm and Low-Ohm requirement moved up a bit in priority. Except that neither tubes nor manual bridges will be accepted. The only current offer that I have is for a HP Milliohm-Meter, but the condition is rather dubious. Still looking.

Digital high resistance meters are out of my league. I'm probably too cheap  .

It's completely analog but the resolution of the genrad 1644a is interesting. It will probably die as soon as one of the tube give up though. Not sure if it's still possible to find those.

Did I say digital? Did I somehow evoke the concept of 'digital' by talking of numbers on a display?
 
The exclusion of manual bridges referred to anything working on a compensation and zero indicator principle. That HP is solid state and I would be fine with one. It aimed at the GR.

Ok I misunderstood. Thought you were not interested in everything that has a analog display.

[kj7e]

jeebus!

you have sent me down the path of evil once again.  (you know who you are!)

ya' gave me power supply fever, and the result is an offer on an hp 6227b.  so my sorry ass is dual cursed if accepted.  my only hope is that the guy turns me down.

AMF!  (adios......my friends)

I absolutely love my 6227B, extremely clean DC supply.  However, I ended up completely recap'ing mine and changing out the the high power bleeder resistors.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/hp-6227b-dual-dc-power-supply-ripple-in-master-channel/msg2296266/#msg2296266

[nixiefreqq]

@freqq: did you really have nothing but the midget HP as a power supply? Sorry, but I think you are pulling our legs, aren't you?


ok.  in the spirit of full disclosure i will embarrass myself.

in addition to the tiny hp there is a box of assorted junk raped out of old pc's, and one ancient dinosaur (new jersey electronics?  who the hell were they?)

that is the sum total of my power supply resources.  shameful isn't it?

it may get me shunned,  but it feels good to be out of the closet.

[kj7e]

Added some rack space for the older mostly matching HP vintage gear, work in progress...

[beanflying]

@freqq: did you really have nothing but the midget HP as a power supply? Sorry, but I think you are pulling our legs, aren't you?


ok.  in the spirit of full disclosure i will embarrass myself.

in addition to the tiny hp there is a box of assorted junk raped out of old pc's, and one ancient dinosaur (new jersey electronics?  who the hell were they?)

that is the sum total of my power supply resources.  shameful isn't it?

it may get me shunned,  but it feels good to be out of the closet.

We know the actual truth you couldn't find one with Nixies you liked  Of all the test gear PS's seemed to just jump from Analog to LED to VFD's and skipped Nixies. 

[beanflying]

Added some rack space for the older mostly matching HP vintage gear, work in progress...

I have looked at that sort of shelving before but haven't brought any yet. How is it for side to side wobble when loaded?

And make it some nice shoes already 

[kj7e]

Added some rack space for the older mostly matching HP vintage gear, work in progress...

I have looked at that sort of shelving before but haven't brought any yet. How is it for side to side wobble when loaded?

And make it some nice shoes already 

Its very sold.  Its still a work in progress.

Older daughter is moving back home for a bit, so my wife is loosing her home office up stairs and will be moving her office downstairs with mine.  So had to consolidate to free up some space for her.

[med6753]

@freqq: did you really have nothing but the midget HP as a power supply? Sorry, but I think you are pulling our legs, aren't you?


ok.  in the spirit of full disclosure i will embarrass myself.

in addition to the tiny hp there is a box of assorted junk raped out of old pc's, and one ancient dinosaur (new jersey electronics?  who the hell were they?)

that is the sum total of my power supply resources.  shameful isn't it?

it may get me shunned,  but it feels good to be out of the closet.

No need to feel shunned. Other than the previously mentioned HP my power supply collection consists of a home brew 15V/2A linear variable, a home brew 15V/10A linear variable, and a home brew linear multi output supply.   

[Kosmic]

And that NJE one look like a proper linear power supply 

[mnementh]

@freqq: did you really have nothing but the midget HP as a power supply? Sorry, but I think you are pulling our legs, aren't you?

ok.  in the spirit of full disclosure i will embarrass myself. in addition to the tiny hp there is a box of assorted junk raped out of old pc's, and one ancient dinosaur (new jersey electronics?  who the hell were they?) that is the sum total of my power supply resources. shameful isn't it? it may get me shunned, but it feels good to be out of the closet.

THAT is my whole fukkin' bench. 

mnem
Some people don't know when they've got it good... 

[BravoV]

Added some rack space for the older mostly matching HP vintage gear, work in progress...

Moving coil envy ... 

Great collection. 

[Doom-the-Squirrel]

Some more stuff of mine.
Not technically test equipment, unless you count the two temperature probes and the non contact thermometer.

[ZhuraYuk]

Everything has started from 20$ LCR meter, and then I got the idea "how I can be sure that it is showing correct readings?" or how it is exactly measuring stuff. Then I got doubted in other equipment so I started checking each piece of gear I had, even the cables and adapters to know their characteristics.
More stuff in the way, so I can perform more measurements over the measurements. This is really satisfying to do.

I keep my mouth shut on the light-blue abomination, as no one should suffer that much.
But nice Generator and DMM above.
We can see clearly that the west-east relations have mostly equalized.
But for LCR you are still stuck with the original?
Anyway, welcome to the most peculiar thread on a already peculiar forum..

I have DER EE DE-5000 but that one has black colour and is kinda stands out from overall colur palette, so I did not put it there.
Also the abomination had fan replacement procedure so it is much friendly now.

[Brumby]

Just found myself a home for my HP 8656B - with room for some friends.   

eBay auction: #323991523569

[VK5RC]

Quote 'THAT is my whole fukkin' bench'

It's not what you have, its what you do with it!

Seriously about the only two things missing for a full bench, really are a freq gen and a scope.

The stuff I made with the crappiest of an  unregulated soldering iron!

[Sam Spastic]

Added some rack space for the older mostly matching HP vintage gear, work in progress...

I have looked at that sort of shelving before but haven't brought any yet. How is it for side to side wobble when loaded?

And make it some nice shoes already 

Its very sold.  Its still a work in progress.

Older daughter is moving back home for a bit, so my wife is loosing her home office up stairs and will be moving her office downstairs with mine.  So had to consolidate to free up some space for her.

I went with the Xtreme Garage shelving at Menards.  Almost "industrial" but probably would not stop a UFO but would slow it down.

PS. Thats factory slang for Unidentified Forking Object.

[McBryce]

car battery charging 

I have limited the Rohde+Schwarz to 20A so it will not boil the test cables.

(Attachment Link)

Just a tip Martin - Never put the battery on top of the supply when charging. If for any reason the battery starts leaking, the acid will be flowing into your supply.

McBryce.

[nixiefreqq]

@freqq: did you really have nothing but the midget HP as a power supply? Sorry, but I think you are pulling our legs, aren't you?

ok.  in the spirit of full disclosure i will embarrass myself. in addition to the tiny hp there is a box of assorted junk raped out of old pc's, and one ancient dinosaur (new jersey electronics?  who the hell were they?) that is the sum total of my power supply resources. shameful isn't it? it may get me shunned, but it feels good to be out of the closet.

THAT is my whole fukkin' bench. 

mnem
Some people don't know when they've got it good... 

i call horseshit.

we have seen the supplies you have in storage. 

they weigh more than the freqq did in high school, and there are places in the world where they could power an entire village.

(the pipe wrench still makes me smile)

[Specmaster]

Thats the whole point, its in storage awaiting delivery to Canada 

[Brumby]

Thats the whole point, its in storage awaiting delivery to Canada 

Exactly.  That makes the frustration doubly irritating.

[med6753]

Tautech, what's the status of this? It's been almost a month now. Are users going to have the ability to tweak the cal or not?    The source voltage is 9.99691V and as you can see the 40 year old fluke (in fact, both of the 8800A's) shows how it's done. 

[bd139]

That's probably still in cal based on the 1Y 0.015+ 0.004 perf.

Also why you buy an HP 34401A instead of a Siglent.... 1Y = 0.0035 + 0.0005 

Then again are you sure the voltage source hasn't aged the same direction as the Fluke? 

[med6753]

That's probably still in cal based on the 1Y 0.015+ 0.004 perf.

Also why you buy an HP 34401A instead of a Siglent.... 1Y = 0.0035 + 0.0005 

Then again are you sure the voltage source hasn't aged the same direction as the Fluke? 

Oh I agree it's in spec but I'm a hard ass. It should be better.

Nope, the source HASN'T aged in the same direction as the Fluke. I have the other AD584-M as a back up and unless that one has ALSO aged in the same direction (Unlikely) what you see there is a fail on the Siglent's part. 

[med6753]

This morning's winter scene. The total snow accumulation so far has been less than predicted. Overnight it keep changing back and forth between sleet and snow. So the snow has a crust on it. But today's prediction into tomorrow morning is all snow. So we'll have to see tomorrow what it adds up to.

As you can see the road and parking areas have been plowed. Compare that to what I saw last week in Colorado. They do an absolutely terrible job out there at snow removal. Which is very surprising but I saw it for myself. Luckily almost everyone out there has 4WD or they would never get around.