Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[kj7e]

Well, that project didn't take nearly as long as I was expecting, guess Ill have to find another one.  The HP 3410A AC Microvolt meter is repaired and calibrated, just needed one cap and I made an LED replacement for the 1869D bulb.

[bitseeker]

Cool LED injection there, kj7e. Thanks for the bonus video demo. Added a link to it to your entry in the POI.

[bitseeker]

AC Option for HP204B (christmas edition, homebrew)

Required is ±13V for the oscillator.
I used 2 miniature transformers, some diode from the junk box, 2x 78L08 with a Zener 5,6V in the ground wire.

I will put it in the apparatus and test 

Very cool, Martin. Added to POI.

[bitseeker]

Merry Whatever to one and all!

Only one TEA related gift here... a very teeny tiny clip-on-your-glasses LED lamp that my wife gave me to assist my peering into the innards of crufty, hopefully soon-to-be-working test equipment.

Oh wait, I forgot the Rigol signal generator I bought while it was on sale at Arrow, which arrived last night. That counts, right?   

Happy holidays one and all!

Yes, the DG831 counts. At least I'm counting it. Mine arrived yesterday, too, but I was too busy to pick it up. So, probably tomorrow. In addition, I got on the way a reportedly broken Fluke 81, 50 MHz function/pulse generator (how many function generators does one need?) and a Micsig HV probe for my scope(s).

[bitseeker]

I've been pondering my bench related activities for the coming months and I think I am going to shift out of repairing test equipment to just using it for a while.

I resemble that remark, but have not succeeded, yet.

[mnementh]

And now for Something Completely... ON TOPIC!!!



So, while I was waiting for the software to D/L (like FOREVER, for whatever reason) from the Hantek site, I decided to pop the top and peek inside...



A fairly Spartan BOM here; not much aside from the Cypress SOC and frontend ICs. I see cheap Chinese versions of the better machined-not-cast through-hole BNCs, and a tiny glued-on heat-sink on the 'scope section ADC. Rev. 1.01 dated 2013; doesn't appear much has changed from the original 2012 release version reviewed here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hantek-6022be-20mhz-usb-dso/



Even less to see on the bottom, aside from some pretty substantial redundant springs to ensure good grounding of the extruded case; I think the complaints I've read about the missing shield around the frontend are probably slightly paranoid.



One surprise is the LA probes: Cheapest possible version, but still proper dual-pincer "grabbit" style instead of cheapo J-hooks.  You get 9 each in yellow & blue, plus a couple in black. Cables are pretty short, and the usual cheap/stiff vinyl sheathed multicolor ribbon with individual 0.100"-header-style Amphenol FCI clone connectors.



Also a surprise is the internal construction of the LA grabbits; instead of a folded bit of cheap stamped tin they have a properly-sized square pin soldered to a bronze rivet holding the leaves of the grabbit fingers together. Huh. 

Overall first impression: Excellent build quality for the money. If the software were as well-realized as this hardware, they'd never have attracted all the "whiny whiners whingeing" that seem to still haunt the brand's reputation.

I'll followup with whatever basic tests I can manage considering I don't have any kind of a generator available short of the sound card in the laptop the 'scope will be connected to. I do think it might be very interesting to characterize the signal before & after something like my PAM8403 digital amplifier boards... 

Cheers, and Merry Christmas!

mnem

[tggzzz]

Re Oculus' great find, I would guess a Uni or other Gubbermint funded department as the true reason behind the mystery. In the ~1970s it was common in Australia (and I suspect more widely) for many departments to get an annual budget and if you didn't spend it, next year they cut your funding!
That is my guess! I think HP did quite well out of this system - you didn't have to receive the gear just pay the money.

That phenomenon is not limited to gubbermint funded departments.

I've seen it inside HP, and reaching the end of year slightly underbudget was as bad as being slightly overbudget. The rationale was that being underbudget prevented another part of HP from making good use of the money.

[bitseeker]

TEA Time (A nice way to spend my post #8000)

Now that the forum is back, just wanted to update the TEA Time sub-thread.

Proposed date/time: Saturday, 2020-01-11 @ 19:00 UTC

Who all plan to be active in the discussion, as in using a mic and talking? I'd like to get an idea how many speakers we'll have. Having lots of listeners should not be an issue — the more, the merrier.

I also don't have experience with recording Discord. I took a brief look and it seems doable with Audacity, but I have to do some testing.

Everyone's still welcome to suggest topics for discussion. We can always use them in the future.

Here's a potential agenda. Some of these, such as 4, 5, and 6, could be regular segments. A suggestion was to keep it to one hour. I don't know how long each of these would last. So, it may be good to have some extra topics on hand. Then again, there's always the "TEAngent of the Day".

TEA Time — Episode 1
1. Intro
2. Retrospective: Best/worst of 2019 (auction, acquisition, repair, explosion, vendor, shipper, forum post/thread, etc.)
3. Most/least excited about TE in 2020 (announced, released, in search of, etc.)
4. Recent acquisitions & scores (gear, tools, snipes, gifts)
5. Jammy Git award: Best recent score (from #4 or seen on the forum)
6. GAS station: Deals you just can't resist (this is TEA, after all)
7. Suggestions on TEA Time (how was episode 1, when is episode 2)

If we survive this, we might dare to attempt episode 2.

[bitseeker]

And now for Something Completely... ON TOPIC!!!



So, while I was waiting for the software to D/L (like FOREVER, for whatever reason) from the Hantek site, I decided to pop the top and peek inside...

Thanks, mnem. Added to POI.

[med6753]

TEA Time (A nice way to spend my post #8000)

Now that the forum is back, just wanted to update the TEA Time sub-thread.

Proposed date/time: Saturday, 2020-01-04 @ 19:00 UTC

Who all plan to be active in the discussion, as in using a mic and talking? I'd like to get an idea how many speakers we'll have. Having lots of listeners should not be an issue — the more, the merrier.

I also don't have experience with recording Discord. I took a brief look and it seems doable with Audacity, but I have to do some testing.

Everyone's still welcome to suggest topics for discussion. We can always use them in the future.

Here's a potential agenda. Some of these, such as 4, 5, and 6, could be regular segments. A suggestion was to keep it to one hour. I don't know how long each of these would last. So, it may be good to have some extra topics on hand. Then again, there's always the "TEAngent of the Day".

TEA Time — Episode 1
1. Intro
2. Retrospective: Best/worst of 2019 (auction, acquisition, repair, explosion, vendor, shipper, forum post/thread, etc.)
3. Most/least excited about TE in 2020 (announced, released, in search of, etc.)
4. Recent acquisitions & scores (gear, tools, snipes, gifts)
5. Jammy Git award: Best recent score (from #4 or seen on the forum)
6. GAS station: Deals you just can't resist (this is TEA, after all)
7. Suggestions on TEA Time (how was episode 1, when is episode 2)

If we survive this, we might dare to attempt episode 2.

As of right now I won't be available on Jan 4th but if that changes I'll let you know.

[bitseeker]

What about the 11th? I initially proposed both dates, so still open to that.

[med6753]

The 11th is good for me. 

[kj7e]

One last photo, I'm supper impressed with the sensitivity and selectivity of the 3410A, my DMM7510 gets swamped by noise and I can only read down to about 50uV.  Here I am feeding 1mV to a T voltage divider, 25K in series with a 50 Ohm load, math says I should see 2uV.

[bitseeker]

The 11th is good for me. 

Excellent. Adjusted my previous post. My hope is that episode 1 will include as many early-afflicted and frequently posting TEAddicts as possible.

Plus, having ep. 1 on 1/11 at 11a PST seems a nice alliteration of digits.

[mnementh]

TEA Time (A nice way to spend my post #8000)

Now that the forum is back, just wanted to update the TEA Time sub-thread.

Proposed date/time: Saturday, 2020-01-11 @ 11:00 UTC

As an aid for those like me who are Time-Zone-Defective; I've created an event on www.timeanddate.com.   (ADJUSTED)   

Event and list of event local time in cities worldwide is here: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=TEA+Time+on+Discord+%3A+Episode+1&iso=20200111T19&p1=1440

The dialog to the right of the event will automatically guess at your time zone based on IP address. Obviously, YMMV, etc.

Countdown timer is here: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?p0=1440&iso=20200111T19&msg=TEA%20Time%20on%20Discord%20%3a%20Episode%201

Cheers,

mnem

[xrunner]

Who all plan to be active in the discussion, as in using a mic and talking? I'd like to get an idea how many speakers we'll have. Having lots of listeners should not be an issue — the more, the merrier.

I have a MIC but I don't have a native Texas accent. I can fake it though if that's what people want me to sound like. 

[bd139]

I’m getting a Tool Time vibe off TEA Time and I like it 

[Cerebus]

"And so I upgraded it..."

[bd139]

And now for Something Completely... ON TOPIC!!!



So, while I was waiting for the software to D/L (like FOREVER, for whatever reason) from the Hantek site, I decided to pop the top and peek inside...



A fairly Spartan BOM here; not much aside from the Cypress SOC and frontend ICs. I see cheap Chinese versions of the better machined-not-cast through-hole BNCs, and a tiny glued-on heat-sink on the 'scope section ADC. Rev. 1.01 dated 2013; doesn't appear much has changed from the original 2012 release version reviewed here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hantek-6022be-20mhz-usb-dso/



Even less to see on the bottom, aside from some pretty substantial redundant springs to ensure good grounding of the extruded case; I think the complaints I've read about the missing shield around the frontend are probably slightly paranoid.



One surprise is the LA probes: Cheapest possible version, but still proper dual-pincer "grabbit" style instead of cheapo J-hooks.  You get 9 each in yellow & blue, plus a couple in black. Cables are pretty short, and the usual cheap/stiff vinyl sheathed multicolor ribbon with individual 0.100"-header-style Amphenol FCI clone connectors.



Also a surprise is the internal construction of the LA grabbits; instead of a folded bit of cheap stamped tin they have a properly-sized square pin soldered to a bronze rivet holding the leaves of the grabbit fingers together. Huh. 

Overall first impression: Excellent build quality for the money. If the software were as well-realized as this hardware, they'd never have attracted all the "whiny whiners whingeing" that seem to still haunt the brand's reputation.

I'll followup with whatever basic tests I can manage considering I don't have any kind of a generator available short of the sound card in the laptop the 'scope will be connected to. I do think it might be very interesting to characterize the signal before & after something like my PAM8403 digital amplifier boards... 

Cheers, and Merry Christmas!

mnem

Thanks for this one. Much appreciated.

I’m tempted. Mostly because it doesn’t take a fuck load of room and is fine for baseband work. I don’t really poke anything higher than a few hundred KHz with anything but counters and power meters.

https://groups.io/g/QRPLabs/message/41534 <— Going to build this bad boy

"And so I upgraded it..."

More power!

[MiDi]

Merry Christmas to all of you.

Please help yourself with the cookies:

Thanks for the cookies BU508A, they have a nice touch

What could be better than TEA with delicious cookies and enjoying the glowing Christmas tree?



Merry Christmas!

[mansaxel]

I also got a pretty good condition Avo 8 MK4 complete with leads with the scope like pincher clips, and these leads on their own go around £30-40 a set and I'm only paying £15 for the complete set. I think I'll sniff around a bit more and see what I can find while I'm on a roll.

One needs an Avometer, or a Simpson, or an Elavi. Depends on which country you grew up in, apparently; so I suppose in France it is the Metrix, and in the Netherlands probably a Philips one. I've got an Avo 8, and a H&B Elavi, but am missing the Simpson, but I've got some in the crosshairs, together with a Mark 7 Avometer.

In Sweden, we did not have a multimeter manufacturer that left such a mark; though Ericsson did build a lot of movements, some of which found their way into casings with binding posts and some range resistors or shunts, and I've seen some special models for the Navy that apparently were made locally.  But nothing like the iconic state of the three large brands. 

The metrology people in (mostly the air force but also other parts of ) the armed forces made a nice catalogue of everything TE that had a stock number, and it is a treasure trove when you want to put an instrument in perspective.   It also follows that since those instruments are a fairly significant load on the DUT, the kind of instrument becomes important in prescribing procedure ("If you measure at X in the circuit with an Avo 8, the value shown shall be 134 Volts DC, coil load and all"). Thus we got a large stash of Avos with the Bloodhound missiles we bought in the 60s, for instance.

[Specmaster]

This will be my second Avo Model 8 Mk4, I don't really need it but at that price it be rude not buy it really  It will be joining my other analogue meters, giving me 6 of them, and 18 DMM's ranging from 3.5 to 6.5 digits, meters are my weak spot, I just love good meters. 

[Kosmic]

I'm a bit late but mary christmas everybody! 

I'm finally done visiting all the relatives in 3 different cities 

[Kosmic]

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. 

Really nice. Can't get better that this 

[Kosmic]

Merry Whatever to one and all!

Only one TEA related gift here... a very teeny tiny clip-on-your-glasses LED lamp that my wife gave me to assist my peering into the innards of crufty, hopefully soon-to-be-working test equipment.

Oh wait, I forgot the Rigol signal generator I bought while it was on sale at Arrow, which arrived last night. That counts, right?   

Happy holidays one and all!

Yes, the DG831 counts. At least I'm counting it. Mine arrived yesterday, too, but I was too busy to pick it up. So, probably tomorrow. In addition, I got on the way a reportedly broken Fluke 81, 50 MHz function/pulse generator (how many function generators does one need?) and a Micsig HV probe for my scope(s).

Also got my DG831 yesterday while I was away. The FedEx guy decided It was a good idea to hide the box under the carpet