Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cubdriver]

Panaplex, baby!!

Damn. Beat me to it

Eventually I'll get my mitts on one with nixies, but they tend to go for more than I'm willing to spend on a calculator...

-Pat

[beanflying]

My close friend, runs a small farm, swears by Milwaukee, they are heavy, tough but I find they are clumsy to use. Too heavy /industrial. He totally neglects his tools, I have not seen one that isn't grimey, covered in paint and plaster. His assortment of drills is an old drawer with them all lying randomly.
I have had a good run with Makita LXT 18V but see they are coming out with a GXT 40V.

Warning general ramble on Power tool purchasing follows 

The issue is when you start down a path with cordless tools you are more or less locked into a brand so it is a leap of faith for the future of sorts.

Very happy with my Makita 18V Drill, Driver, Grinder and fairly recent Router and the 5Ah batteries I got. I wanted at the time sensibly priced better than home handyman quality. The Sander isn't a consideration here as the run time won't cut it I suspect.

Ryobi and their low priced Ilk are just crud when it comes to Battery powered so never considered.

AEG, Hitachi, Bosch and some of thew other Brands are not widely available at least locally so I didn't look to hard but the first cordless drill I owned for a very long time was AEG/National followed by a Hitachi both did stellar service over decades of use.

In OZ Milwakee, Dewalt are only fairly recent arrivals and were heavily pushed into the tradie market and I considered them OTT on price for my needs at the time. Festerool cordless is overpriced to hell and no better than others.

Corded tools I am far less concerned about brand, function for $ with a decent warranty are the important bits.

The Bosch PDB40 drill is at least locally unique and ticked all the boxes for me, my old double reduction belt drive drill was at junk strict grotty metalwork level. The Digital functionality seems to be getting around elsewhere in the world on the heavier bigger ones but not here yet.

Looking at the current sander replacement the selective gear drive random orbital ones make a lot of sense but the $ are very high (Festertool, Makita, Bosch). So at this stage I will give them a pass I think so Puke Coloured Ryobi variable speed it is unless it feels rubbish in the hand when I go look tomorrow with Makita and Bosch as more expensive fallbacks.

Time for more coffee after 3am and 5am possums....

[Larryc001]

Not sure if I should join or not. Will post my link. What do you think. Do I have this, or is it just Lyme Disease?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rv7WNBPM61PsdLpj7

Thanks for your input.

[beanflying]

Not sure if I should join or not. Will post my link. What do you think. Do I have this, or is it just Lyme Disease?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rv7WNBPM61PsdLpj7

Thanks for your input.

@med will approve at least. It's so very very smurftastic. 

Lyme disease has a cure as yet TEA has not and I am not really aware of sufferers wanting one 

[Specmaster]

Not sure if I should join or not. Will post my link. What do you think. Do I have this, or is it just Lyme Disease?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rv7WNBPM61PsdLpj7

Thanks for your input.

Wow, with a collection like that you certainly belong here and you definitely have it alright, you be at home here I assure you   

[nixiefreqq]

Panaplex, baby!!

Damn. Beat me to it

Eventually I'll get my mitts on one with nixies, but they tend to go for more than I'm willing to spend on a calculator...

-Pat

hey.....that panaplex is pretty damn cool.   did they make any of those desktop units with an EE button and trig functions?

would be willing to give up some bench space if they did. 

(am not gonna' go to ebay to look.  am not gonna' go to ebay to look.  am NOT gonna')

see you later guys.......have to go.......but not to ebay.......honest.

[med6753]

Not sure if I should join or not. Will post my link. What do you think. Do I have this, or is it just Lyme Disease?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rv7WNBPM61PsdLpj7

Thanks for your input.

You belong here. 

And you put my collection of Tek scopes to shame. 

Edit...I just restored my first 535A. Read back a few pages or go to the POI at the beginning of the thread.

[Larryc001]

Very nice 531. I would take that off your hands in a NYC minute.

[med6753]

I waited patiently for years finding a 500 series that was reasonably priced and within driving distance. You would have to claw it out of my cold, dead hands. 

[Larryc001]

Sorry called it a 531. Different thread. Yes it is sweet. Have you used it much since you finished it? Those big boxes are really what drew me to Tektronix, although I first fell in love with a 504.

[med6753]

Sorry called it a 531. Different thread. Yes it is sweet. Have you used it much since you finished it? Those big boxes are really what drew me to Tektronix, although I first fell in love with a 504.

I've put it thru several burn-in cycles to ring out any possible issues. The only issue so far is the CA plug-in is drifty on both channels. Damn DC balance is real touchy. I have a spare CA plug-in coming. But it's going in the wrong direction. It originated in Portland, Oregon and went to Seattle. That's even further West. Perhaps to catch a plane to JFK? Hope so (I'm in NYS).

[Larryc001]

The ca is unstable as far as dc balance goes. I think it is caused by aging in the 12AU6 tubes. Tek aged these tubes for many hours before using them, so replacing them with unaged tubes doesn’t help. They switched to the 8426 at around serial number 60,000 but doesn’t really seem much better.

[med6753]

The ca is unstable as far as dc balance goes. I think it is caused by aging in the 12AU6 tubes. Tek aged these tubes for many hours before using them, so replacing them with unaged tubes doesn’t help. They switched to the 8426 at around serial number 60,000 but doesn’t really seem much better.

Yea, I agree. What I hope to do with the spare CA plug-in is match up the best set of 12AU6's for the least amount of drift. But what doesn't help is the DC balance control itself is sealed and can't get Deoxit in there. And both are a little noisy. I may wind up prying them open to get them cleaned.

[worsthorse]

Not sure if I should join or not. Will post my link. What do you think. Do I have this, or is it just Lyme Disease?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rv7WNBPM61PsdLpj7

Thanks for your input.

dude you are obviously completely insane.

so, yeah, you belong here. welcome.     

[Larryc001]

[quote author=med6753
Yea, I agree. What I hope to do with the spare CA plug-in is match up the best set of 12AU6's for the least amount of drift. But what doesn't help is the DC balance control itself is sealed and can't get Deoxit in there. And both are a little noisy. I may wind up prying them open to get them cleaned.
[/quote]

I have has success with drilling a tiny hole in the case of the A-B pot. Dip the drill in grease or Vaseline to hold the cuttings.

[bitseeker]

His is only 202 units after mine! Nifty.

In the past, I saw a 53310A with option 031. Didn't realize it had the downconverter and increased sampling rate, too. Thanks for the doc.

LOL - just saw this post - looks like yours is even older.  You may have the 347th one off the line.  They're siblings!   

Yep, an extended family of test gear.

[bitseeker]

Well that truce didn't last long. 

Calculators Wars......round 3. 

Panaplex, baby!!





(This is, of course, another e-bay special in my repair queue - note that the LSD is out.  Hoping it's a driver transistor, but haven't opened it up to look yet.)

We must shop at the same places. I've got one, too, but mine has a non-functional '4' key. I got it primarily for the display, but if it can function again, even better.

[med6753]

[quote author=med6753
Yea, I agree. What I hope to do with the spare CA plug-in is match up the best set of 12AU6's for the least amount of drift. But what doesn't help is the DC balance control itself is sealed and can't get Deoxit in there. And both are a little noisy. I may wind up prying them open to get them cleaned.

I have has success with drilling a tiny hole in the case of the A-B pot. Dip the drill in grease or Vaseline to hold the cuttings.
[/quote]

That's an excellent idea. I may try that. 

And here's a tip for you. It's not a perfect match to Tek blue but you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference when stand alone.

[bitseeker]

Not sure if I should join or not. Will post my link. What do you think. Do I have this, or is it just Lyme Disease?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rv7WNBPM61PsdLpj7

Thanks for your input.

Larry! Glad you came over. I already knew you belonged here when I saw the post of your collection in the other thread.

[Cerebus]

You would have to claw it out of my cold, blue stained, dead hands. 

There, FTFY.

[Cubdriver]

I see on the main page that this thread has just broken 2.2 million views!   

 

-Pat

[Cubdriver]

Well that truce didn't last long. 

Calculators Wars......round 3. 

Panaplex, baby!!





(This is, of course, another e-bay special in my repair queue - note that the LSD is out.  Hoping it's a driver transistor, but haven't opened it up to look yet.)

We must shop at the same places. I've got one, too, but mine has a non-functional '4' key. I got it primarily for the display, but if it can function again, even better.

On the off chance you don't already have it, a PDF of the service manual can be downloaded from

http://www.datamath.org/Desktop/ti-4000.htm

The link is at the bottom right corner of the table at the top of the page.  Posting in this thread got me looking at it again earlier tonight.  It has schematics and waveforms for troubleshooting and looks to be pretty thorough (though obviously not what we're used to with HP and Tek, of course...)

-Pat

[bitseeker]

Yep, I did grab it from there, I believe. Thanks!

In case you didn't see it, there's a nice TI-450 at the e-inlet-of-the-sea accepting offers.

[mnementh]

Well that truce didn't last long. 

Calculators Wars......round 3. 

Panaplex, baby!!      (This is, of course, another e-bay special in my repair queue - note that the LSD is out.  Hoping it's a driver transistor, but haven't opened it up to look yet.)

-Pat

CFL Baybeee!!! And it runs on a 9V battery!!! 

There is something special about this and the TI-25; they were my very first calculator which I got in the student kit along with the Great International Math on Keys Book, which taught me more about Math than 6 years of my public education.

There's an oddball thing about these calculators: the VFD has a hair-thin exciter wire that runs across the center of the entire tube; with a fresh battery it ever-so-faintly glows a dull red which you can really only see in a dark room. Of course, you can't much use it that way, so most people never notice I'm sure.

But I noticed. And late at night, all alone upstairs in a cold, dark house with the winter wind howling through the trees outside, I would pick it up from the bedside table and thumb the soft-power switch (a tiny but fabulous invention that boggled my adolescent mind) by feel... Gazing into the screen I'd press buttons randomly to light the segments... taking comfort in the juxtaposition of its futuristic blue symbols against the familiar red glow of incandescent wire.

mnem
*4-banger dwagon*

[mansaxel]

Not sure if I should join or not. Will post my link. What do you think. Do I have this, or is it just Lyme Disease?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rv7WNBPM61PsdLpj7

Thanks for your input.

A web album that requires javascript from another site. (I do not allow that, by default, so am hyper-sensitized) And, by magic, my browser logged me in. To look at pictures.

What has the world come to?

Yes, this qualifies.