Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

The Tek is next to go now?

[bd139]

Philips next. That's about 21kg of junk gone then 

I'm going to thoroughly review the Siglent before anything departs after the Philips scope.

[tggzzz]

One in, one or more out is the rule. HP 1740A departed this evening. The cupboard breathed a sigh of relief when I hauled it out earlier

But it didn't help your wallet very much!

[BU508A]

One in, one or more out is the rule. HP 1740A departed this evening. The cupboard breathed a sigh of relief when I hauled it out earlier

With this rule you'll never achieve a level like Mr. Carlson. 

[Specmaster]

Philips next. That's about 21kg of junk gone then 

I'm going to thoroughly review the Siglent before anything departs after the Philips scope.

You surprise me, thought that the Philips was the more reliable, oh, hang though, the Tek has all the cursors and shit, thats it?

[Specmaster]

One in, one or more out is the rule. HP 1740A departed this evening. The cupboard breathed a sigh of relief when I hauled it out earlier

With this rule you'll never achieve a level like Mr. Carlson. 

Yeh, but I think Mr Carlson is in one room of his basement.

[bd139]

But it didn't help your wallet very much!

Yes but the gain in space and reduction in mass is somewhat welcome at the moment and possibly more valuable. Really need to spend some time being creative and forward engineering things rather than collecting and repairing.

With this rule you'll never achieve a level like Mr. Carlson. 

I shall probably not be killed by falling equipment then

You surprise me, thought that the Philips was the more reliable, oh, hang though, the Tek has all the cursors and shit, thats it?

They all scare the shit out of me to be honest  . The Philips one is probably the most reliable yes but the cursors are super super super good on the 2245.

[med6753]

Philips next. That's about 21kg of junk gone then 

I'm going to thoroughly review the Siglent before anything departs after the Philips scope.

You change equipment like I change underwear. 

[mnementh]

What... only when he sees a skid mark...? 

mnem
*agitating-ily*

[edavid]

Does anyone remember what these crappy old connectors were called?

I usually see them called a Switchcraft 2501, although I think Amphenol did make them as well.

http://www.switchcraft.com/productsummary.aspx?Parent=810

[Specmaster]

Don't you just hate it when you're working on some battery powered equipment which has a power jack but you don't have the right power pack to suit it, and using crock clips connected to a bench PSU don't really seem to be a wonderful solution? Well today I have had a number of items delivered from Amazon and I already had a Universal Mains Adaptor by Uniross (Uni 1200R), offering output voltages of 1.5, 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9 and 12v @1200mA and a lead with a 2 pin socket to accept a number of adaptors and depending on which way you connected the pins, you could reverse the polarity, and these adaptors are never the best fitting of things and often come disconnected.

I decided to remove the that stupid socket and fit a DC Barrel plug, 5.5 x 2.5mm to plug into a kit of adaptors from Amazon (38 of them) which have a 5.5 x 2.1mm socket in their base which means that the polarity cannot be changed. To over come this I ordered some CCTV connectors, which are designed to take 2 core cable and terminate in screw terminals. On the other end of these adaptors is either a plug or socket of the same type, 5.5 x 2.1mm DC power. These now enable me to make up some short polarity changers to enable the odd ball items that need a centre pin negative supply to be accommodated, regardless of its type of connector. An example of this is Hacker radios which use negative centre pins, some Casio desk calculators and maybe some Roberts radios as well?

Because the CCTV power connectors accept cable to terminals on one side, I have made some leads with 4mm banana plugs and these can then be plugged into the bench power supplies which can be adjusted to suit voltages beyond the scope of the Uniross unit, such as 19V for laptops etc.

The polarity changer could dispense with the wire and just have 2 short component legs as the interconnection, back to back.

[WastelandTek]

Does anyone remember what these crappy old connectors were called?

I usually see them called a Switchcraft 2501, although I think Amphenol did make them as well.

http://www.switchcraft.com/productsummary.aspx?Parent=810

thanks, updated my listing to add that nomenclature

I hate them and I want them gone...

[VK5RC]

A bloke was talking to an Aboriginal out in the bush about the corona virus run on toilet paper and the Aboriginal said 'we just use a gum leaf', a nearby koala says 'f**k!'

[Cerebus]

On the nomenclature of these little bastards:



If memory serves the earliest name that I've heard for them was "a Telefunken microphone connector". If I'm correct then that's who's to blame for these. They should be burned, burned with fire, crushed, ground up and then burned again just to be sure.

[mnementh]

   Don't you just hate it when you're working on some battery powered equipment which has a power jack but you don't have the right power pack to suit it, and using crock clips connected to a bench PSU don't really seem to be a wonderful solution? Well today I have had a number of items delivered from Amazon...

I have a similar collection in the trailer that use the DELL 7.4 x 5.0mm connector; they came with a LiIon laptop power brick kit I once used with a employer-provided Macbook. I already have several such cords made up for my PSUs with XT60s and/or 4mm bananas, including a couple with the right 5.5/2.1 coaxial barrel connector. This kit is CAD$14 up here; I now have it in my "To get" list for next time I need to make a minimum order. 

mnem
*snurch*

[beanflying]

snippity snip snip

The polarity changer could dispense with the wire and just have 2 short component legs as the interconnection, back to back.

Those CCTV type connectors are great for turning into adapters and I have used them with heavier cables for permanent jobs rather than trying not to melt the soldered types then just heatshrink over the body and cable.

M-M (same polarity) with 1.5mm heatshrunk copper wire between these two.

[mnementh]

Does anyone remember what these crappy old connectors were called?   

I usually see them called a Switchcraft 2501, although I think Amphenol did make them as well.   http://www.switchcraft.com/productsummary.aspx?Parent=810

thanks, updated my listing to add that nomenclature..   I hate them and I want them gone...

You DO realize that the moment you get rid of the last one, you're going to get some piece of EICO scopery or a vintage amplifier that you could test in a jiffy if you only had ONE of that connector, right?

Of course, that's how I wound up with a 57Liter bin full of nothing but "1 or two of an oddball connector" and weird adapters... 

mnem
It won't matter. No matter how carefully you collect them... and sort them... You will not find the one you need.

[WastelandTek]

yeah mnem, I know

but I am in a space making frenzy right now...Worsthorse's Tek 500 pile is a genuine hazard to navigation and I have to purge to tuck it in

[0culus]

the only connector that can truly go to hell and never come back is those damn UHF connectors that every single piece of ham radio gear seems to have. I bought a bunch of adapters to turn the few examples I can't avoid into type N. Otherwise it is banned from my lab. I would only make further exception for a glowy Tek scope. 

[bitseeker]

    

To be fair, they seem to have learned the lesson (this time)



Of course, no guarantee someone won't get clever with "design" next time.

[bd139]

@mnem: Even testing temporarily violates the commandments.

1. Thou shall eviscerate thy connector
2. Thou shall basheth to smitherines thy connector with thy lump hammer.
3. Thou shall repent and installeth a flange mount BNC
4. Thou shall feel blessed that good hath been done.

Failure to comply will cause the souls of several avometers to be stolen by the upcycling demon hipsters and turned into impractical corner lamps for the tasteless peons that roam such places.

[bitseeker]

K2 now calibrated properly. You can slice through the noise with this thing like nothing. Best filters on a radio ever. No horrible muddy ringing DSPs - variable bandwidth crystal filter and two stage LC active audio filter and fully analogue noise blanker FTW 

Ah, so is it time to shift the DG822 ("like new") to subsidize the on-the-way SDS1202X-E?

[med6753]

@mnem: Even testing temporarily violates the commandments.

1. Thou shall eviscerate thy connector
2. Thou shall basheth to smitherines thy connector with thy lump hammer.
3. Thou shall repent and installeth a flange mount BNC
4. Thou shall feel blessed that good hath been done.

Failure to comply will cause the souls of several avometers to be stolen by the upcycling demon hipsters and turned into impractical corner lamps for the tasteless peons that roam such places.

Not an easy thing to do on vintage Tek plug-ins. I looked at changing over the UHF connectors on the CA plug-in to BNC and the entire front end assembly would have to come apart. UHF to BNC adapters were a much simpler solution.

[WastelandTek]

the only connector that can truly go to hell and never come back is those damn UHF connectors that every single piece of ham radio gear seems to have. I bought a bunch of adapters to turn the few examples I can't avoid into type N. Otherwise it is banned from my lab. I would only make further exception for a glowy Tek scope. 

My understanding is that we inherited the PL-259/SO-239 from WWII.  I guess the one thing I can see they have going for them is that some poor signal corps GI could probably fish the end of a cable out of a mud hole where it had been run over by a jeep, smack it a few times on his boot to get most of the mud out and it would probably work about as well as it ever did.

[bd139]

the only connector that can truly go to hell and never come back is those damn UHF connectors that every single piece of ham radio gear seems to have. I bought a bunch of adapters to turn the few examples I can't avoid into type N. Otherwise it is banned from my lab. I would only make further exception for a glowy Tek scope. 

I actually have no ham gear with UHF connectors. BNC everywhere. This was prompted by some no brand piece of shit PL259 getting stuck in the butt of my FT450D. When I pulled it out the centre pin and the coax centre stayed in the back of the damn radio. Fuuuuuu. Took me ages to get it out without buggering the radio.