Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

And I remain firm at 5.5 digits so I'll stand in the corner with you. 

Edit...piss up a rope. LMAO

[Kosmic]

I have these 4mm plugs for low thermal EMF leads, but haven't worked out a good way to crimp wires to them.



I'm sure the correct tool will probably cost as much as another 7061 meter, so if anyone has worked out a good way of not having to use solder on these, please speak up!

Normally I use a drill press to make a small hole, mechanically secure the wire and then solder the wire in place.

[Brumby]

And I remain firm at 5.5 digits so I'll stand in the corner with you. 

That corner is going to get crowded.   

I'm limiting my aspirations to 5.5 digit as well, with a budgetary constraint (since I don't really have much of a need for that level of precision).  HOWEVER, if something with 6.5, 7.5 or 8.5 digits drops from the sky at a price I can justify, then I'll be jumping down that rabbit hole with both feet (and outstretched arms).   

[grizewald]

It's a very deep rabbit hole.



Just the connectors, cable and other parts I needed to make measurement leads for my Solartron 7075 cost more than I paid for the meter!

[kj7e]

I have these 4mm plugs for low thermal EMF leads, but haven't worked out a good way to crimp wires to them.



I'm sure the correct tool will probably cost as much as another 7061 meter, so if anyone has worked out a good way of not having to use solder on these, please speak up!

I use these on my low thermal leads as well.  Others who have 8.5 digit meters report no ill effects if you just solder the wire to the plug, so I did the same.

[Specmaster]

And I remain firm at 5.5 digits so I'll stand in the corner with you. 

That corner is going to get crowded.   

I'm limiting my aspirations to 5.5 digit as well, with a budgetary constraint (since I don't really have much of a need for that level of precision).  HOWEVER, if something with 6.5, 7.5 or 8.5 digits drops from the sky at a price I can justify, then I'll be jumping down that rabbit hole with both feet (and outstretched arms).   

Well I'm also firmly in self same corner with you all, despite others misconstruing my comments, even though I own some 6.5 digit meters, and thats only really because the allure of all those digits glowing / flickering on the display looks impressive, much the same as a car with 200MPH on the speedo when compared to another with only 120MPH on its speedo, it does not mean that I intend to use all the power. 

As mentioned, I'm a very happy bunny knowing that all of my meters, when I go to use them (without leaving on for hours), all agree within 1mV of each other when I connect them to my AD584, and that all 8 bench and around 8 or 9 hand held's do that without them having been calibrated recently. With the exception of the HP3478A which I accidentally lost its ram held data when replacing the battery, and then after RS saying that after many attempts they were unable to calibrate it, so, I did it myself using what limited equipment I have and yet the readings agree with the others now across all ranges.

The extra digits on the low ranges on the 6.5 and higher meters, in my usage are only useful for trend spotting, i.e., are you getting closer to or further away from a short circuit, or is a circuit charging up or discharging because the extra resolution enables that to be determined far quicker as the increments are smaller and so, are faster to spot.

[Specmaster]

It's a very deep rabbit hole.



Just the connectors, cable and other parts I needed to make measurement leads for my Solartron 7075 cost more than I paid for the meter!

That is I expect because they are as rare as hens teeth, if every meter used them, like 4mm banana plugs, then the cost would come tumbling down. Would I be right surmising that connector is peculiar only to Solartron high end meters? 

[Cerebus]

That sort of problem is why I’m limiting myself to 4.5 digits 

Go and stand in the corner, facing the wall.

I'm afraid the old schoolteacher punishments may not be effective here. Where do you escalate, he's already taken himself on a cross-country run?

[Cerebus]

Thing of scary and random from local evilbay. I worry about some sellers 

I blame extreme boredom and a total lack of TEA worth buying for the search 45C, 42C then followed up with 40mm of rain ..... Climate gone wild.

WTF?!?!

Barbecue multi-tool with auto-suicide feature? Reaches for sausage with tongs, catches edge of hand on hot grill, reflexively snatches hand back, gurgles, bleeds out.

Divination tool for haruspicy? Something for the hipster on a paleo-diet, combination beard groomer and hunting knife? Dag trimmer?

[med6753]

More work on the 485. Fixed 2 outstanding issues.

First, the more burn-in cycles performed the more wonky the trigger became. Finally to the point where getting a steady trigger was impossible. Fix was a defective U780. Luckily I have spares. The parts mules 465 and 465B use the same IC as well as the (obviously) 485 parts mule.



Next was the lack on gain on both channels. An applied signal of 0.5V p-p yielded only approx 0.45V p-p. Now fixed. The gain pot for both channels (U250 and U350) were incorrectly set. Someone in the past did a lousy calibration. It's OK now.



Here's channel 1 and 2 superimposed on each other. Volts/div is 0.1V. 5 divisions high as it should be.



Left to do: I have the tants for the PSU. But going to let the scope burn-in for a while again to make certain there are no more trigger issues. Once the tants are replaced then I'll check the compensation on both 1M inputs and 50 ohm inputs. After that this one should be done.

[mansaxel]

Just hooked up my new hub unit and the speeds that I'm now getting are 552/41, I have to do some serious downloading later to see how long to download a film etc. Analysing my network, I'm the only one who can access that speed, the rest of the family are connected and a max speed of 100/10 due to the hardware. I have a 16 way 1Gb switch which feeds out to a series of 100/10 local hubs because of the various internet connected devices at each location, so I  may have to  invest in smaller gigabit switches.

I'm holding off the 10GE switch upgrade until I can swap over the 7200 router and the 4948 switch for a 4500-X that'll do both. Ought to save a bit energy as well. I'm otherwise constrained by house conduit. I repurposed all conduit for telephone by pulling cat5e or single-mode fibre through it instead, plus a separate install of 12 strands between house and garage. This leaves a few small switches around the house that all are connected with GE, and in all cases except one also serve GE downstream. The 10G update will see me upgrade speeds to my servers and storage, and to the backbone into the house, where I've got a 2960 with 10G uplink waiting.  Then, I'll reconsider the 1G upgrade for the WAN link.

[grizewald]

That is I expect because they are as rare as hens teeth, if every meter used them, like 4mm banana plugs, then the cost would come tumbling down. Would I be right surmising that connector is peculiar only to Solartron high end meters?

Yes, the Fischer connectors are only used on the high end meters. I couldn't even get hold of Fischer connectors, so I ended up replacing the socket with a similar Lemo version and buying two matching Lemo plugs at the same time. Even though Mouser have keen prices, the Lemo stuff was far from cheap.

[Kosmic]

I got a lot of yellowed plastic parts around so I decided to experiment a bit with retrobright (https://www.retr0bright.com/). I bought some cheap 40W UV lights and mounted them in a box covered with aluminium foil.





So, I'm still trying different mix but one thing is clear, my UV light bulbs are crap. Need to find something better. Everybody seem to have their own secret recipes but the important ingredients are, Ozone (produced by the peroxide), UV and heat.

** I don't recommend those light!


Here's my initial results on some Lecroy knobs and buttons

Before:


After: Still a bit of yellowing but it's a lot better.

[grizewald]

The results might not be perfect, but it's like night and day!

The only question is how long they will stay that way.

[Kosmic]

The results might not be perfect, but it's like night and day!

The only question is how long they will stay that way.

Apparently, depending of the UV exposition, it might take multiple years to get to the state they were before the whitening process.

[Specmaster]

That sort of problem is why I’m limiting myself to 4.5 digits 

Go and stand in the corner, facing the wall.

I'm afraid the old schoolteacher punishments may not be effective here. Where do you escalate, he's already taken himself on a cross-country run?

Yep, he's doing his Pink Floyd tribute to their "Another Brick in the Wall", he is a massive fan after all. 

[BravoV]

After: Still a bit of yellowing but it's a lot better.

Nice  , I've been wanting to do it my self for years.

Questions :

- How long you left them exposed under the UV light ?
- The peroxide solution, how many percents concentrate did you use ?
- Did you need to flip them once in a while to get even exposure to the UV ?

[med6753]

Yep, he's doing his Pink Floyd tribute to their "Another Brick in the Wall", he is a massive fan after all. 

Ditto. 

[mnementh]

Back in the day, (while I was working in the AV Lab at my high school) I used to host a late night filler segment on the sister campus' college radio station and my handle was Cap'n Crunk as a nerdy nod to Draper. I was left pretty much to my own devices; allowed to play anything not r-rated and a few things that were, and we talked about anything as long as there wasn't any dead air and we kept the language clean. Mostly I'd spin prog peppered with a little alt; occasionally I'd throw in some ELO and Eagles just to mess with the stoners' heads.

I'd guess my biggest adventure was "discovering" Flaming Lips during a road trip out west with my mom and introducing them to the Pittsburgh area; had some pushback from admin but eventually it all blew over.

mnem
yo Crunk.

"The Wizard of Oz" and "Dark Side of the Moon" don't seem to mesh very well. I fail to see the connection. 

Cap'n Crunch is my absolute favorite forbidden cereal.  About 99% sugar. 

you're not a stoner.    It's not something I made up; it's a pretty well-established mashup, part of the counterculture shared gestalt. Enough so that Flaming Lips did a tribute "Companion piece" called Flaming Side of the Moon intended to be similarly mashed up a few years back.

Cap'n Crunch with a sliced banana used to be my favorite too... not that my sugar addiction isn't pretty obvious. 

Thing of scary and random from local evilbay. I worry about some sellers        I blame extreme boredom and a total lack of TEA worth buying for the search 45C, 42C then followed up with 40mm of rain ..... Climate gone wild.

Prison shower defence multi-tool  . 11 whole degrees here so I buggered off out for a run. Managed 6.8km but am nearly dead now  . Will work on my RF PA project this afternoon.

Good on ya getting a good run in... *sigh* I remember when I could run...    I do need to come up with some real workout that I can actually do that doesn't involve loading up my lower back... maybe some free weights on a bench and leg presses. But I MISS being able to run.

WTF?!?!   Barbecue multi-tool with auto-suicide feature? Reaches for sausage with tongs, catches edge of hand on hot grill, reflexively snatches hand back, gurgles, bleeds out.   Divination tool for haruspicy? Something for the hipster on a paleo-diet, combination beard groomer and hunting knife? Dag trimmer?

The exaggerated finger-hook and shape of the blade suggest to me that it's a mollusk-shucking knife of some sort, but the pincer...? Maybe to facilitate harvesting the mass of muscle tissue that is the primary food value of many mollosks?

mnem

[beanflying]

Thing of scary and random from local evilbay. I worry about some sellers        I blame extreme boredom and a total lack of TEA worth buying for the search 45C, 42C then followed up with 40mm of rain ..... Climate gone wild.

Prison shower defence multi-tool  . 11 whole degrees here so I buggered off out for a run. Managed 6.8km but am nearly dead now  . Will work on my RF PA project this afternoon.

Good on ya getting a good run in... *sigh* I remember when I could run...    I do need to come up with some real workout that I can actually do that doesn't involve loading up my lower back... maybe some free weights on a bench and leg presses. But I MISS being able to run.

WTF?!?!   Barbecue multi-tool with auto-suicide feature? Reaches for sausage with tongs, catches edge of hand on hot grill, reflexively snatches hand back, gurgles, bleeds out.   Divination tool for haruspicy? Something for the hipster on a paleo-diet, combination beard groomer and hunting knife? Dag trimmer?

The exaggerated finger-hook and shape of the blade suggest to me that it's a mollusk-shucking knife of some sort, but the pincer...? Maybe to facilitate harvesting the mass of muscle tissue that is the primary food value of many mollosks?

mnem

The seller listed them as 'collectible' and knowing that seller I would have suspicions on who she may have used or threatened to use them on 

Used in the preparation and sourcing of Mountan Oysters so you are all a bit right and all very wrong in the head 

[mnementh]

The results might not be perfect, but it's like night and day!

The only question is how long they will stay that way.

Apparently, depending of the UV exposition, it might take multiple years to get to the state they were before the whitening process.

I've read anecdotal reports that a spray of satin-finish clear acrylic helps increase longevity. Not sure why.  @Cerebus, any good chemistry you can lay on us that might explain...?

I have these 4mm plugs for low thermal EMF leads, but haven't worked out a good way to crimp wires to them.   I'm sure the correct tool will probably cost as much as another 7061 meter, so if anyone has worked out a good way of not having to use solder on these, please speak up!

   I use these on my low thermal leads as well.  Others who have 8.5 digit meters report no ill effects if you just solder the wire to the plug, so I did the same.   

AMASS 4mm Connectors

mnem
*dumping my jar of scorpions in your lifeboat since nineteen-mumblety-mumble*

[Mr. Scram]

These scorpions don't look very tasty. Why would I eat these instead of my own?

[bitseeker]

@bitseeker re the wrong trigger input - I recall spending the better part of two days 'fault' tracing a HP 3467 meter - I had unknowingly put in into 'test mode' - it then generates codes for HPs signal analyzer probes, man I was so peeved when it dawned on my little brain that I had been chasing nothing.

Yes, good to know one is not alone. 

[Kosmic]

- How long you left them exposed under the UV light ?

I suspect my UV lights not being strong enough. To get those results, I had to leave the parts under the light for something like 5 days.

- The peroxide solution, how many percents concentrate did you use ?

I tried different things. Still unclear for me what work the best. In the end it was simple 3% peroxide with a little bit of oxiclean. Everything was sealed in a bag to keep the Ozone in.

- Did you need to flip them once in a while to get even exposure to the UV ?

I flipped them once in a while but I don't think it matter.

[bitseeker]

I'll be damned. I found it! My suspicion was correct. Fried R2021 (10 ohm) due to shorted C2021 (47uf) bastard tant. This provides +15VDC DCPL to the 50 ohm relay.

Amazing! We must now call you Dr. Tek.