Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[PA0PBZ]

waiting SAQ, 17,2kHz     Telefunken E104Kw4, glowing heavy metal

Nothing at home (SDR, ARA 30) but Q5 on a nearby WEBSDR, you can just make out "de SAQ" in the marked spot.
Sounded a lot better than it looks.



Sorry, no glowing metal involved

[Saskia]

@VK5RC

since you ask: I would reflow everything using amtech NC559. Doing so should take care of any corrosion. Then I would stuff the board into an ultrasonic. Oscillators may not like that kind of treatment, but anyway, I never had a problem with that so far.

[worsthorse]

OK not true TE but definitely boat anchor material, my Yaesu ft 101 has serious gremlins, while trying to measure voltage rails, my hand brushed across the HV line - fortunately depowered and probably around the 100v mark by the feel, (as some bugger has lost the cover to the HV home) - so I thought I would do other stuff until some perforated metal arrived and I could make another cover. I thought I would pull some of the PCBs.
Look at the pre wash picture - who would ever leave an RF board like that! Makes me cringe as to what else is going on.
As an aside, for boards like this, I often scratch the big chunks of flux off with a fine metal tip probe, dry brush then do the full/repeated IPA scrub. Do you guys have any better techniques?

Wow, that's a lot of flux! I am not quite sure what I would do there... I normally use a flux remover, toothbrush, and then IPA...

[0culus]

Because I'm a man of my word, here are some pics of the very special delivery Santa brought me a few hours early today (funnily enough, he looked a *lot* like a UPS guy). It's an 8566B, but not just any 8566B. It's an honest to God new old stock 8566B. You read that right, NOS. Sealed in factory packaging. Needless to say nothing is missing, and it's in perfect condition. Serial number prefixes are 31, and the firmware is dated 1989, which would make it possibly the final revision known to exist.

Merry Christmas, everyone. 

[med6753]

Oculus....Merry Christmas to you too! 

Blog FINALLY back up. If it were down much longer I was gonna have to slit my wrists. 

[beanflying]

Discord provided a minor distraction over coffees and croissants

Merry Christmas all as I move on to the main family event what could go wrong

[xrunner]

Man I was having the shakes! 

[nixiefreqq]

hey oculus

that is sweeeeeeet!

you have given me SA envy.  (did the delivery guy have a fork lift?)

[xrunner]

Because I'm a man of my word, here are some pics of the very special delivery Santa brought me a few hours early today (funnily enough, he looked a *lot* like a UPS guy). It's an 8566B, but not just any 8566B. It's an honest to God new old stock 8566B. You read that right, NOS. Sealed in factory packaging. Needless to say nothing is missing, and it's in perfect condition. Serial number prefixes are 31, and the firmware is dated 1989, which would make it possibly the final revision known to exist.

Merry Christmas, everyone. 

Absolutely amazing! You are one lucky dog! 

[0culus]

One last pic, the documentation:

[Cerebus]

Reply #45778 on: Yesterday at 10:21:51
Reply #45779 on: Today at 00:48:19

Those two consecutive messages 14 hours 26 minutes and 28 seconds apart. That was a non-trivial outage!

A very merry Christmas to you all from all here chez Cerebus and may Santa bring you all what you were hoping for. OK, he won't -  you'll get socks rather than that 4 channel, > 1 GHz, > 4 Gs/s scope that you really wanted, but hopefully they are nice socks.

[0culus]

I must say that I wasn't expecting such a deal to fall into my lap, but I couldn't resist when it did. I purchased it from a seller I've done a lot of business and work with already, so 100% trusted. I couldn't be happier. Such a massive massive upgrade functionality wise vs a 66A. Faster, more responsive, and GPIB operation is a lot less bug ridden.

Because I'm a man of my word, here are some pics of the very special delivery Santa brought me a few hours early today (funnily enough, he looked a *lot* like a UPS guy). It's an 8566B, but not just any 8566B. It's an honest to God new old stock 8566B. You read that right, NOS. Sealed in factory packaging. Needless to say nothing is missing, and it's in perfect condition. Serial number prefixes are 31, and the firmware is dated 1989, which would make it possibly the final revision known to exist.

Merry Christmas, everyone. 

Absolutely amazing! You are one lucky dog! 

Thanks!

hey oculus

that is sweeeeeeet!

you have given me SA envy.  (did the delivery guy have a fork lift?)

He did not, but he did have a second guy with him. 3 packages, total weight about 150 lbs.

[Specmaster]

Wow, what a day with no bleeding forum to calm my nerves, phew, don't know how I got through the day without some light entertainment from my favourite TEA members and their bantering, winding each other up. 

Still no further news on the K7105 apart from I opened a dispute with PayPal before I run out of time and in doing so, they managed to flush more info from the seller who has said that DPD told him that it take 14 days before they will have any further news., Wonder why he never told me that before 

Found another TT1 power supply unit, local to me and collection only so a lowish offer has been submitted, fingers crossed. Anyway, to cut the boredom I went out got myself a Fitbit as I doubt anybody will have got me one for Christmas, so I now have something to play with and get familiar with it before I start my New Years resolution to get fitter this year before the summer gets here, I can't sweating so I thought a little weight loss might be a good thing to do. 

[beanflying]

Another Google device to ewatch over you and your every movement

[Specmaster]

Another Google device to ewatch over you and your every movement

Its nice knowing that I'm not alone with that eye watching all time, keeps me secure 

[Brumby]

Because I'm a man of my word, here are some pics of the very special delivery Santa brought me a few hours early today (funnily enough, he looked a *lot* like a UPS guy). It's an 8566B, but not just any 8566B. It's an honest to God new old stock 8566B. You read that right, NOS. Sealed in factory packaging. Needless to say nothing is missing, and it's in perfect condition. Serial number prefixes are 31, and the firmware is dated 1989, which would make it possibly the final revision known to exist.

Merry Christmas, everyone. 

Christmas plus!!!  Very nice score.   

Well done.

[Brumby]

On a less joyous note - I had the Grinch give me the finger....

The HP1740A I scored from Dave had been sitting patiently waiting for me to find it a home.  When reshuffling, I put it on the floor - thinking all the controls were out of harms way, but my foot grazed the front panel and I heard a click.  My heart was in my mouth, but a quick check didn't see any damage, so I thought I'd just brushed a button inwards that had popped back out, making the click.

After securing space for and installing my 12RU rack and fitting a shelf, I lifted it up into place, and powered it up.  As I ran through the controls, I stopped dead in my tracks and my blood ran cold......



I have spent an hour searching for the snapped off piece - but no joy.  The switch still works fine, it's just a little less easy to operate.... but it is no longer "whole".   

I might have to start looking in places where you would never expect - but it it's gone up the vacuum bag, then it's gone forever as the old bag was changed out for the Christmas clean.

[xrunner]

I think there is a CAD model for that button I've seen it somewhere, so it could be 3D printed in green ...

[Brumby]

... and I have recently acquired a 3D printer.

[xrunner]

... and I have recently acquired a 3D printer.

I'll see if I can locate the file. It's fairly small but I think it will come out OK.

[worsthorse]

Because I'm a man of my word, here are some pics of the very special delivery Santa brought me a few hours early today (funnily enough, he looked a *lot* like a UPS guy). It's an 8566B, but not just any 8566B. It's an honest to God new old stock 8566B. You read that right, NOS. Sealed in factory packaging. Needless to say nothing is missing, and it's in perfect condition. Serial number prefixes are 31, and the firmware is dated 1989, which would make it possibly the final revision known to exist.

Merry Christmas, everyone. 

Man that is awesome! I am glad it came through. Merry Christmas to you and everyone else here!

[Brumby]

... and I have recently acquired a 3D printer.

I'll see if I can locate the file. It's fairly small but I think it will come out OK.

That would be great if you could.  Thank you for the offer.

I have yet to dive into printing anything yet - partly because I need an enclosure to contain any potential fume issues (there is an asthmatic in the house) ... and partly because I wasn't sure what to print first.

Unfortunately, the only green filament I have on hand is fluoro.  (I do have two shades of blue - but I don't want to give Med any ideas.)



Time to go.  Have to head out for Christmas with family and spoil the grandkids.   

[mnementh]

OK not true TE but definitely boat anchor material, my Yaesu ft 101 has serious gremlins, while trying to measure voltage rails, my hand brushed across the HV line - fortunately depowered and probably around the 100v mark by the feel, (as some bugger has lost the cover to the HV home) - so I thought I would do other stuff until some perforated metal arrived and I could make another cover. I thought I would pull some of the PCBs.
Look at the pre wash picture - who would ever leave an RF board like that! Makes me cringe as to what else is going on.
As an aside, for boards like this, I often scratch the big chunks of flux off with a fine metal tip probe, dry brush then do the full/repeated IPA scrub. Do you guys have any better techniques?

Wow, that's a lot of flux! I am not quite sure what I would do there... I normally use a flux remover, toothbrush, and then IPA...

But it's a FT-101... not exactly HF there. Obviously the thing worked fine all its life with that on there; but hey. I get having it bug you.

For that kind of rosin loading, I'll lay a towel flat in the bottom of a pan/tray/tupperware of close to the same footprint as the board, then soak the towel with alcohol and lay the board on that for a couple hours. Then scrub clean with alcohol and a toothbrush as usual.

I stopped using metal probes long ago for scraping flux; plastic prybars and spudgers commonly available for phone repair are available cheaply enough to be treated as disposable, and are made of glas-reinforced nylon and composites which do much less damage to the shellac.

mnem

[beanflying]

... and I have recently acquired a 3D printer.

I'll see if I can locate the file. It's fairly small but I think it will come out OK.

That would be great if you could.  Thank you for the offer.

I have yet to dive into printing anything yet - partly because I need an enclosure to contain any potential fume issues (there is an asthmatic in the house) ... and partly because I wasn't sure what to print first.

Unfortunately, the only green filament I have on hand is fluoro.  (I do have two shades of blue - but I don't want to give Med any ideas.)



Time to go.  Have to head out for Christmas with family and spoil the grandkids.   

PLA should be fine without an enclosure and the fumes are near nil. ABS is a different matter better vented to outside or better yet run it past a carbon filter. Even put it outside and fire it up out of the wind should work for a test.

[VK5RC]

Merry Christmas to all and your family and thanks for the comments re flux cleaning.
I am so jealous of that NOS HP - it's gorgeous!
Well done.
Rob