Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[worsthorse]

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   

Booted my unit this morning, it's new old stock. Was produced in 2018 and has firmware 1.08.00.01 installed. It should be no problems upgrading to a DG992 

Excellent. Mine is still in the shipping box. Will get it out later today and check for firmware version. If it's like yours (and I suspect it is, as Arrow seems to be clearing some corner of the warehouse) I will dig through the forums here for upgrading guidance.

@worsthorse && @bitseeker

2 posts you need to read 

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-rigol-16-bit-function-generators-dg800900-series/msg2420391/#msg2420391

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-rigol-16-bit-function-generators-dg800900-series/msg2537358/?topicseen#msg2537358

Got a DG992 now 

Mahalo!

At the bench, I habitually use the tools I have like I learned to use them in 1978. That partially explains my fascination with TE of a certain age; I already know what it does and doesn't do well. But it is also a big limitation because this new shit has capabilities that I only dreamed of way back when. (I am running the original firmware on the Rigol and Siglent stuff, still) 

One of my aspirations this year is to learn how to do things with the ethernet/usb interfaces on my newer gear and to work through the more interesting features on it, too. And... based on the few posts I've skimmed here and on hackaday, it looks like a mighty well decorated rabbit hole. 

 

[Kosmic]

Mahalo!

At the bench, I habitually use the tools I have like I learned to use them in 1978. That partially explains my fascination with TE of a certain age; I already know what it does and doesn't do well. But it is also a big limitation because this new shit has capabilities that I only dreamed of way back when. (I am running the original firmware on the Rigol and Siglent stuff, still) 

One of my aspirations this year is to learn how to do things with the ethernet/usb interfaces on my newer gear and to work through the more interesting features on it, too. And... based on the few posts I've skimmed here and on hackaday, it looks like a mighty well decorated rabbit hole. 

 

If you need assistance to upgrade your DG831 let me know. You just need a usb key, a pc and couple softwares.

[BU508A]

Merry Christmas to all of you.

Please help yourself with the cookies:

Thanks for the cookies BU508A, they have a nice touch

Thanks, 13 different sorts of cookies. The one with the stripes took the most time to make.

These are the sorts of cookies I made:
- Kissinger Brötchen
- Grenobler Walnußbissen
- Espressokugeln
- Vanillekipferl
- Spitzbuben
- Zitronenmonde
- Apfelsinenstangen
- Amarenaküßchen
- Dattelmakronen
- Ingwertaler
- Zebrakekse
- Basler Brunsli
- Pistazienkekse

Now you can guess which is which

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

Whoah! The Art of Electronics! Already on my Amazon list. Together with "Analog circuit design" Vol. 1 to 3 from Bob Dobkin.

And this nice bunch of Triax cables! Congrats to this very nice Christmas gifts.  

[tautech]

But it is also a big limitation because this new shit has capabilities that I only dreamed of way back when. (I am running the original firmware on the Rigol and Siglent stuff, still) 

One of my aspirations this year is to learn how to do things with the ethernet/usb interfaces on my newer gear and to work through the more interesting features on it, too. And... based on the few posts I've skimmed here and on hackaday, it looks like a mighty well decorated rabbit hole. 

 

Gimme a list of what you have and I'll point you to the improvement threads. 

[Martin.M]

Is that the one you were looking for a +15V/-15V linear regulated supply for? Looks like your mod fits better than OEM... 

mnem
(Attachment Link)

that use normally 4 pcs of 6,75V mercury batteries, to get ±13,5V.
the selfmade AC Option deliver that also. L7808 with a 5,6V Zener in the ground pin, pass 

[Zucca]

thanks Martin.M I really enjoy your stuff!

[Zucca]

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.

Tentatively yes. It's dinner time in Europe :-)

[tautech]

Tentatively yes. It's dinner time in Europe :-)

8:00 am here in NZ and 6am in eastern OZ, 3am in WA !   

[kj7e]

Finished the HP 3410A calibration, had to increase the value of C10 on the A1 pre-amp board from 200pF to 680pF to compensate the high freq response.  It was within HP's spec, now its within mine 

Sitting next to its sibling, the 3400A which is just silly accurate;


On the vintage gear shelf;


Need to find a 419A null meter.

[med6753]

I knew there was a 500 series out there with my name on it. I just had to be patient. So after a 4 hour drive here it is. A true boat anchor 535A. It's filthy but all there. I powered it up at the seller and it came up with a nice, sharp trace but obviously noisy controls. So it was a done deal. As you can see it fits on my custom cart (trolley). I powered it up and it ran for about 5 minutes and then a loud “snap”....no more trace but no smoke and no smell.  So something bought the farm. Oh well. I wanted a project and now I got one. 

More pix tomorrow after I start the tear down and clean up. No sure If I'll have to paint the covers. Looks like they may be decent after cleaning. 

[mnementh]

May you gain much much valuable enheavyment from your new acquisition, my friend. 

mnem

[Brumby]

As you may recall, Brumby accidentally broke one of the small green buttons on an hp 1740A. I was investigating the same type button (not green) on an hp 3457a. I wanted to compare it to a CAD file I found here on Thingiverse -

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3057821

Thank you!   

But simply pulling it off with my fingers collapsed it. The plastic on these older parts is becoming very brittle.
... ... ...
Or, like on yours, you could make the printed button the "Sweep After Delay" button because it is sort of by itself. But then you risk busting other buttons mucking with them.

Yeah .... that's a worry - but I like the idea.

Good Luck Brumby, now you have a project (as if you needed more). Look forward to the pics! 

My project list is getting longer - and reorganising my work area is one task that's getting more challenging every time I look at it.  It is often frustrating to mentally assess new ideas and try to come up with a final layout where everything I need (a non-trivial discussion in itself) is convenient, but not crowding AND which all fits in the space available.  My recent 24cm space acquisition marks the end of any further such negotiations for the long term foreseeable future, especially when I indicated was after only 20cm.  (Those extra 4cm required shifting a couple of hundred kilos of other furnishings - which I only got away with** by doing when there were no witnesses in the household.  )
** The jury's still out on that.  I think they sense something is a little "off" but can't put their finger on it.  After another couple of weeks, I think that feeling will fade and the current arrangement will become the new norm.

Then, once I have settled on a design choice for a particular feature, I have to do the construction.  I have that next step already defined - but it involves modifying an existing piece of shelving that is an integral part of my current setup.  Getting it out to work on will involve removal of a few dozen items (not a huge issue) and wrangling more than a dozen cables (a major pain).

Then there's the list of other workspace mods... 

[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 @ 11:00 UTC

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

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=20200111T11&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=20200111T11&msg=TEA%20Time%20on%20Discord%20%3a%20Episode%201

Somehow, the time zone defect apparently affected the forum's quoting function. It should be 19:00 UTC.

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=TEA+Time+on+Discord+%3A+Episode+1&iso=20200111T19&p1=1440

Ummm.... no... You changed your schedule based on feedback from med literally while I was posting. So I scurried back and adjusted the event to coincide with this post of yours:

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.

I thought you had already adjusted that post, so adjusted mine (and the event on www.timeanddate.com ) to the new date/time.

Yes, the date changed, but the time is still 19:00 UTC. I think you may have interpreted the 11a PST as UTC, but that's still 19:00 UTC.

Sorry for causing any confusion. I'll just post in UTC going forward to minimize time zone defects.

[bitseeker]

Finished the HP 3410A calibration, had to increase the value of C10 on the A1 pre-amp board from 200pF to 680pF to compensate the high freq response.  It was within HP's spec, now its within mine 

Sitting next to its sibling, the 3400A which is just silly accurate;
(Attachment Link)

On the vintage gear shelf;
(Attachment Link)

Need to find a 419A null meter.

Now that is a great looking shelf of gear.

[bd139]

It is indeed. It reminds me I need more shelves and more kit to put on them. Oh and a bigger house to keep the shelves in. 

Finished QCX kit and it’s on air. Did RBN tests this afternoon. Finally after two hours of calling CQ on and off I got a QSO with a dude in Germany 3 mins ago. Win. 50W amp kit coming soon...

[bitseeker]

Tentatively yes. It's dinner time in Europe :-)

8:00 am here in NZ and 6am in eastern OZ, 3am in WA !   

Yeah, I tried to find a time that was reasonable for many. There will still be some areas (WA, HK, etc.) that are in the middle of the night. Working in an international company, we run into that often when trying to schedule meetings.

[med6753]

May you gain much valuable enheavyment from your new acquisition, my friend. 

mnem
(Attachment Link)

Thanks. It was a real chore getting 65 pounds of dead weight up a flight of stairs. And to top it off the handles are broken. 

[beanflying]

Tentatively yes. It's dinner time in Europe :-)

8:00 am here in NZ and 6am in eastern OZ, 3am in WA !   

Yeah, I tried to find a time that was reasonable for many. There will still be some areas (WA, HK, etc.) that are in the middle of the night. Working in an international company, we run into that often when trying to schedule meetings.

Lucky it is voice only planned so here is the visual imagery . Adjust coffee machines timer to 5am to allow for warm up, human alarm to 5.55am Dressing Gown and Moccasins to the shack and make coffee as the mayhem begins. Fall back position is stay in bed and listen because 6am is not my current end of the day

[beanflying]

May you gain much valuable enheavyment from your new acquisition, my friend. 

mnem
(Attachment Link)

Thanks. It was a real chore getting 65 pounds of dead weight up a flight of stairs. And to top it off the handles are broken. 

See you do NEED a 3D printer for making handles Enjoy your project 

[Specmaster]

@med Glad you finally got your hands on a 535A, but what rotten luck having it pop on you like that and I just hope and prayer that it's not an omen for me tomorrow when go and collect my long awaited PL302 bench supply. Been waiting for flipping ages to replace my switcher power supply with a better linear one to compliment my other linear but far less accurate psu 

[beanflying]

Day after Boxing day and First parcel in the mail from NZ. Vintage metal well machined and just works vs modern sloppily machined that for the sake of a bit of care 'should work' but fails without modding you can actually see the slop between the pins and holes 

Cheers @ Tautech 

[worsthorse]

Mahalo!

At the bench, I habitually use the tools I have like I learned to use them in 1978. That partially explains my fascination with TE of a certain age; I already know what it does and doesn't do well. But it is also a big limitation because this new shit has capabilities that I only dreamed of way back when. (I am running the original firmware on the Rigol and Siglent stuff, still) 

One of my aspirations this year is to learn how to do things with the ethernet/usb interfaces on my newer gear and to work through the more interesting features on it, too. And... based on the few posts I've skimmed here and on hackaday, it looks like a mighty well decorated rabbit hole. 

 

If you need assistance to upgrade your DG831 let me know. You just need a usb key, a pc and couple softwares.

thank you! I will PM if/when I get stuck. I am going to clear the 184 from the bench first. I am making good progress and hope to finish it up tonight.

I am even considering downloading the user manual and reading it before I unbox the sig gen.  Can you imagine that?   

[worsthorse]

But it is also a big limitation because this new shit has capabilities that I only dreamed of way back when. (I am running the original firmware on the Rigol and Siglent stuff, still) 

One of my aspirations this year is to learn how to do things with the ethernet/usb interfaces on my newer gear and to work through the more interesting features on it, too. And... based on the few posts I've skimmed here and on hackaday, it looks like a mighty well decorated rabbit hole. 

 

Gimme a list of what you have and I'll point you to the improvement threads. 

Mahalo! I will do that... I have the siglent SA thread in hand but the others, not so much.

[tautech]

Day after Boxing day and First parcel in the mail from NZ. Vintage metal well machined and just works vs modern sloppily machined that for the sake of a bit of care 'should work' but fails without modding you can actually see the slop between the pins and holes 

Cheers @ Tautech 

Merry Christmas Bean and I hope it serves you well. 

[Brumby]

It is indeed. It reminds me I need more shelves and more kit to put on them. Oh and a bigger house to keep the shelves in. 

That's my Plan B.