Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Martin, what is that slider under the Nixie display?

[Cerebus]

@BravoV. Nice pictures. Japanese used 3D space like this. I feel sorry for size of their land, wish they could have like 10% more or something. Too tight. Even holes are square, and no fan.

They're not really that packed in, it's just that they have concentrated their people more in urban areas than many other countries have chosen to do so. They're actually slightly less packed in than the people of Puerto Rico.

If the Japanese faculty with densely packing electronics was a natural consequence of their population then the Dutch (pop. density 521 people/km², 155% that of Japan) or Taiwanese (195% versus Japan) or Bangladeshis (349%) would be the natural masters of miniaturisation rather than the Japanese.

I actually really like Kikusui gear, but sadly very little shows up in the UK at TEA prices.

[Cubdriver]

In my semi-serious quest to acquire a piece of gear with nixies

look for a cute frequeny counter, they are always in the dangerous situation to be buyed from any tubes vulture who want only the display tubes for resale, or to build one of this stupid clocks from it

Martin

(Attachment Link)

Yep.  'Saving' an HP 5245L is what initially sent me down this collecting rabbit hole seven or eight years ago.

Gateway drug to TEA:


-Pat

[Specmaster]

Obligations of nobility 

TBH I’m spending most of the day upgrading a PC from windows 7 to 10 

Done my sons PC's over the weekend, working just fine.

Quick edit:
That pocket oscilloscope that DPD managed to lose for me, PayPal have today agreed to refund me for in full, don't just have to love PayPal, they've always been there for me when things don't go well.

[URI]

I have two of them and they are really universal in their function set and are spec'ed like the HP 53132A and better in some regards.
The user interface is much more handy with more dedicated buttons and less sub-sub-menu magic.
That's why they are my go-to's on everyday use.   

Ok, the display is "only" 10bits but you can use the math function to subtract the expected value to get only the difference as a trick to extend the 10 bits.   
The PM6681 has an internal 100MHz clock to improve the resolution over the PM6680 and PM668B by a factor of 10.

Do you know this: do they generate this 100MHz clock by a PLL frequency multiplier or something?

The 100MHz clock is derived from the 10Mhz reference by multiplying it and then filtering it (two stage Xtal filter).

One question left: What's that grey plasticky looking part covering the bay for the channel C option?

I have no idea. I'll get the counter next week , then I will have a look and take some pictures.
I'll post here a teardown of the counter, then.

I'm seeing forward to you tearing it down before powering it up.   

[mnementh]

TBH I’m spending most of the day upgrading a PC from windows 7 to 10 

Have fun. I have to do that too....in the work cue. But mine will be a complete wipe and fresh install.

   

Same scenario here... I picked up a HP p7-1243 at the thrift for US$8 yesterday... Think maybe I can get my money's worth out of it as a HTPC. Or at least use it as a test bed for these video cards, which I picked up before Christmas for another US$8... combined.    I've been dreading the thought of putting them in my new PC... I finally have the Radeon Adrenaline settings tweaked halfway decent noise vs OC-wise.

mnem
*tinker-tinker... putter-putter...*

[Martin.M]

Pat I have a offer for 524L:

200 the unit and 100 each plugin. A lot of coffee
When I bring that home the wife will beat me

[Martin.M]

Martin, what is that slider under the Nixie display?

That is the resolution knob, all Nixies  right from the knob are always Zero.
The Oldie counts a full second his 100MHz to display it @1Hz ..
There is a dream of crystal oven inside, with devar isolation and mu metal case.
I have to work in the unit, not finished.

[med6753]

Pat I have a offer for 524L:

200 the unit and 100 each plugin. A lot of coffee
When I bring that home the wife will beat me

 

[Cerebus]

Martin, what is that slider under the Nixie display?

That is the resolution knob, all Nixies right side from the knob are always Zero.

Ooh, I like that - a proper 'intuitive' user interface.

Intuitive in quotes because when most people call a UI 'intuitive' they mean "just the the ones I've learned before" rather than "follows from innate knowledge".

[BU508A]

Pat I have a offer for 524L:

200 the unit and 100 each plugin. A lot of coffee
When I bring that home the wife will beat me

Send pix then. 

[Martin.M]

would you giv fünfhundert Euro for a 5245L + 3 Plugins  BU?

[BU508A]

would you giv fünfhundert Euro for a 5245L + 3 Plugins  BU?

I am tempted but with buying the PM6681 I'm just over my budget right now. Perhaps later this year, if it is availabe then.

But thanks for the offer, that's very kind.   

[Martin.M]

the offer is not from me.
If you want to catch that look in my wellenkino.
To me that is at the moment also a overload bec. I will buy the W+G counter there,
this hardcore mashine is perfect for the makerfaire table from the wellenkino
(there is a electro mechanical display system)

[Martin.M]

TEA for women 

https://www.wellenkino.de/557/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=165

[mnementh]

Pat I have a offer for 524L:

200 the unit and 100 each plugin. A lot of coffee
When I bring that home the wife will beat me

You're not showing me a down side here. 

mnem
"A little pleasure... a little pain... it's ALL goood..." *shiverrr* ~me

[MiDi]

A few small and mainly contained fires 30km away from here but the smell of burnt Aussie Forrest is in the air. Very mild day and little wind so the crews should get it sorted. 

New Toy unboxing too 

Nice one.    In 2016 I've bought the same drill press, too.
Never regretted it to buy one.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/what-did-you-buy-today-post-your-latest-purchase!/msg940871/#msg940871

Not TEA and from a few days ago but would you have any thoughts on these mods for the Bosch? Because I know better than their designers and Engineers after a week 

The modded/optional base is so I can drill holes in larger sheets as the 100mm throat is fairly limiting (sort of the wood version of a magnetic base drill) and remove the wheel because it kind of sucks.

Idle Bean and Fusion 360 while the varnish dried and G&T's were consumed .....

I have that nice drill press for more than 5 years and I really like it 
Especially the wheel has the advantage that you can operate it by only one hand within full working area - but that needs a bit of practice - this is something I hate with these "three knob wheels" - you never have a good operating point.

I had only once the problem that the depth of working area did not suffice, but as the base has a through hole you simply can put the base on top of your workpiece - a bit fiddly to get the exact point to drill, but works.
If you have this need more often than this is not the right tool for the job 



There is only one thing that is sub optimal: the pivotable fixture sits too low.
It scratches on the surface of base when pivoting and if it is released and hits the base it can be rather difficult to elevate it from base again - it is stuck.
But there is an easy fix for this:

[bitseeker]

Test Equipment Anonymous could realistically be renamed to Test Equipment Enablers... as you/we seem to spend a great deal of time tee-ing people up to buy more stuff...

I like it. Some (most? all?) would say TEE is the sign of a true TEA member. There are two other senses for TEE in the glossary. I'll add this one, too.

Quite a lot of VFD stuff seems to be listed as nixie.

Yeah, could be ignorance or keyword stuffing (a.k.a., search result manipulation). I'd vote for mostly the latter.

[beanflying]

A few small and mainly contained fires 30km away from here but the smell of burnt Aussie Forrest is in the air. Very mild day and little wind so the crews should get it sorted. 

New Toy unboxing too 

Nice one.    In 2016 I've bought the same drill press, too.
Never regretted it to buy one.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/what-did-you-buy-today-post-your-latest-purchase!/msg940871/#msg940871

Not TEA and from a few days ago but would you have any thoughts on these mods for the Bosch? Because I know better than their designers and Engineers after a week 

The modded/optional base is so I can drill holes in larger sheets as the 100mm throat is fairly limiting (sort of the wood version of a magnetic base drill) and remove the wheel because it kind of sucks.

Idle Bean and Fusion 360 while the varnish dried and G&T's were consumed .....

I have that nice drill press for more than 5 years and I really like it 
Especially the wheel has the advantage that you can operate it by only one hand within full working area - but that needs a bit of practice - this is something I hate with these "three knob wheels" - you never have a good operating point.

I had only once the problem that the depth of working area did not suffice, but as the base has a through hole you simply can put the base on top of your workpiece - a bit fiddly to get the exact point to drill, but works.
If you have this need more often than this is not the right tool for the job 

(Attachment Link)

There is only one thing that is sub optimal: the pivotable fixture sits too low.
It scratches on the surface of base when pivoting and if it is released and hits the base it can be rather difficult to elevate it from base again - it is stuck.
But there is an easy fix for this:

(Attachment Link)

If you are only drilling small diameter holes then you could but the Drill press on top of the job but today I was drilling some 20mm holes in a MDF panel so the Forstner bit was to large for the centre hole in the base. I did drill the 3mm pilot holes through the base but then had to use my cordless drill for the actual holes.

I have some 80 and 100mm holes to drill in the next few weeks in large panels so I need the different base. The base I have drawn up will use the same mounting screws as the stock one so it will be easy to swap them back if I want.

The wheel/handle is the same it is only held on by one grub screw and the plastic bits will be 3D printed and the 8mm arms are some leftover shafts from a job so it won't cost much to make.

Still very happy with the drill it works well

[bitseeker]

In my semi-serious quest to acquire a piece of gear with nixies

look for a cute frequeny counter, they are always in the dangerous situation to be buyed from any tubes vulture who want only the display tubes for resale, or to build one of this stupid clocks from it

Yes, save the poor old frequency counters. If you don't need to measure frequency, you can still use the device by making a converter for the quantity you want to measure (e.g., temperature, wind speed, voltage, current) to output a proportional frequency for the counter to display. Some companies, such as HP, did a related thing to included basic voltmeter functionality in some counters.

[bitseeker]

In my semi-serious quest to acquire a piece of gear with nixies

look for a cute frequeny counter, they are always in the dangerous situation to be buyed from any tubes vulture who want only the display tubes for resale, or to build one of this stupid clocks from it

Yep.  'Saving' an HP 5245L is what initially sent me down this collecting rabbit hole seven or eight years ago.

Gateway drug to TEA:

Yep. I've "saved" four Nixie counters thus far despite being extremely picky. Some get listed for crazy money, though.

[Cerebus]

In my semi-serious quest to acquire a piece of gear with nixies

look for a cute frequeny counter, they are always in the dangerous situation to be buyed from any tubes vulture who want only the display tubes for resale, or to build one of this stupid clocks from it

Yes, save the poor old frequency counters. If you don't need to measure frequency, you can still use the device by making a converter for the quantity you want to measure (e.g., temperature, wind speed, voltage, current) to output a proportional frequency for the counter to display. Some companies, such as HP, did a related thing to included basic voltmeter functionality in some counters.

Jim William's collected lab notes and app notes have dozens of 'X to frequency' converter circuits, probably one for every quantity you could think of measuring.

[Ero-Shan]

would you giv fünfhundert Euro for a 5245L + 3 Plugins  BU?

Do you really talk about 500 €? Boy, that makes mine really look like a bargain at 50 €, even though it had just one plug-in!

I certainly wouldn't pay 500 for it. But your mileage may vary.

[VK5RC]

Aren't all voltmeters today still counters/timers really - waiting for the capacitor to charge up😁

[bitseeker]

Yep, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrating_ADC

Mr. ModemHead also wrote an intro to it: http://mrmodemhead.com/blog/dmm-basics-dual-slope-adc/