Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tautech]

Quite a bargain. I've managed to score Siglent SDG2082X Waveform Generator 80MHz 2 channels including TS-9900010 7 Piece Insulated Precision Screwdriver Set (Torx)
for £440.60
use promo code "mjlorton"

Nice, they are on a -10% promo off 589 Euro but you did a good bit better than that ! 

[Specmaster]

OK, then after another little shopping spree today to Asda to primarily get some washing powder, breakfast cereals and hand soap. Queued for an hour to be admitted, standing 2 metres apart, they were operating a system only allowing a certain number of people in and once that limit was reached, it was 1 out, 1 in. Limiting purchases to 3 of any one item per customer, I was able to get a small washing powder only (had about 6 left, so I only took 1) got some Weetos and a few other bits and bobs, again did not grab my full quota as I don't need them. Shelves were still bare when it came to TP, and they only had a limited range of products available so its going a long time to restore stocks.

Then I decided to investigate the Racal Dana 9082 RF generator I got off Gumtree. I already knew that it was not working, despite it having the appearance of actually working, display and meter all seemed to be working but zero output and some frequencies not being tunable.

Off comes the casing, this thing is well-built and heavy but when I opened it and examined it, I was horrified at what I found, this had 2 oscillators in it, 1 was the correct according to the SM, a 5MHz and some bleeding gorilla had bodged in another 10MHz one as well, co-ax's have been cut, some dodgy soldering and it possibly caused a short circuit, the whole thing is peppered with solder balls, broken connections and a blown resistor, even a couple of wires have soldered together and taped up.

It also turns out I'm reliably informed that this actually has many service manuals on it and I can only find the one, but the person who told me this, has furnished me with 2 layout drawings that do not appear in my manual so there must be some truth to his claim 

I attach some photos of the various visual faults discovered so far and already I have uneasy feeling about this and wondering if it is repairable economically if I can locate these other manuals and wondering if anyone here has any info on these at all, or any internal photos that might assist me? The test point mentioned on the photos is where I tested for shorts because of the bad soldering.

It looks as if someone has been trying to modify it as it was not meant to have 2 reference oscillators fitted.

Heres the photos.

[grizewald]

Such butchery. 

[Sam Spastic]

I'm trying to set up a search on eBay to give me a list of 7.5 or more digit multimeters, but all I get is crap based on my second numeric search term. I'm trying to use a string like this:

(HP, Agilent, Keysight, Keithley, Hioki, Advantest, Guildline, Datron, Prema) AND (34470, 3458, 7510, 2002, 2001, 2010, DM7276, DM7275, R6581, 7081, 7071, 9578, 9577, 1281, 1271, 8017, 5017, 6048, 6047, 6040S)  -manual

I was under the impression that words in parentheses were a logical or and maybe it is, but it does not seem to honour the AND condition. Can anyone tell me how to make the eBay search return what I actually want?

(Hewlett, Agilent, Keysight, Keithley, Hioki, Advantest, Guildline, Datron, Prema) (34470, 3458, 7510, 2002, 2001, 2010, DM7276, DM7275, R6581, 7081, 7071, 9578, 9577, 1281, 1271, 8017, 5017, 6048, 6047, 6040S)  -manual -dealer

That seems to work. 100-200 entries.

[cjuried]

After reviewing this thread I believe I might have caught TEA. Please review for eligibility.

Thank you,

Chris

[med6753]

Then I decided to investigate the Racal Dana 9082 RF generator I got off Gumtree. I already knew that it was not working, despite it having the appearance of actually working, display and meter all seemed to be working but zero output and some frequencies not being tunable.

Off comes the casing, this thing is well-built and heavy but when I opened it and examined it, I was horrified at what I found, this had 2 oscillators in it, 1 was the correct according to the SM, a 5MHz and some bleeding gorilla had bodged in another 10MHz one as well, co-ax's have been cut, some dodgy soldering and it possibly caused a short circuit, the whole thing is peppered with solder balls, broken connections and a blown resistor, even a couple of wires have soldered together and taped up.

It also turns out I'm reliably informed that this actually has many service manuals on it and I can only find the one, but the person who told me this, has furnished me with 2 layout drawings that do not appear in my manual so there must be some truth to his claim 

I attach some photos of the various visual faults discovered so far and already I have uneasy feeling about this and wondering if it is repairable economically if I can locate these other manuals and wondering if anyone here has any info on these at all, or any internal photos that might assist me? The test point mentioned on the photos is where I tested for shorts because of the bad soldering.

It looks as if someone has been trying to modify it as it was not meant to have 2 reference oscillators fitted.

A well placed hand grenade ought to fix that right up.  Holy crap, what a mess. 

[med6753]

After reviewing this thread I believe I might have caught TEA. Please review for eligibility.

Thank you,

Chris

Yep, I'd say you have.  Welcome to the nuthouse. 

[Specmaster]

You most certainly qualify for membership, welcome to you. How long have you had this affliction? Thats a mighty impressive stack you have on the shelves there, I'm a bit jelly of that lot   

[cjuried]

You most certainly qualify for membership, welcome to you. How long have you had this affliction? Thats a mighty impressive stack you have on the shelves there, I'm a bit jelly of that lot   

Yes, this has been a lifelong passion. I would say I have another 20 pieces, not shown, which I must make space for. I've always been one for quantification.

[xrunner]

After reviewing this thread I believe I might have caught TEA. Please review for eligibility.

Thank you,

Chris

I just checked with TEA management and they are waiving your first year's fees. 

[Brumby]

After reviewing this thread I believe I might have caught TEA. Please review for eligibility.

Thank you,

Chris

Ah .... yeah .... you are clearly eligible!

Yes, this has been a lifelong passion. I would say I have another 20 pieces, not shown, which I must make space for. I've always been one for quantification.

Also, a candidate for advanced standing, subject to a couple of criteria - the first one being: How many pieces of kit have you opened up to make repairs?


BTW - My eyes aren't normally this shade of green.

[beanflying]

OK, then after another little shopping spree today to Asda to primarily get some washing powder, breakfast cereals and hand soap. Queued for an hour to be admitted, standing 2 metres apart, they were operating a system only allowing a certain number of people in and once that limit was reached, it was 1 out, 1 in. Limiting purchases to 3 of any one item per customer, I was able to get a small washing powder only (had about 6 left, so I only took 1) got some Weetos and a few other bits and bobs, again did not grab my full quota as I don't need them. Shelves were still bare when it came to TP, and they only had a limited range of products available so its going a long time to restore stocks.

Then I decided to investigate the Racal Dana 9082 RF generator I got off Gumtree. I already knew that it was not working, despite it having the appearance of actually working, display and meter all seemed to be working but zero output and some frequencies not being tunable.

Off comes the casing, this thing is well-built and heavy but when I opened it and examined it, I was horrified at what I found, this had 2 oscillators in it, 1 was the correct according to the SM, a 5MHz and some bleeding gorilla had bodged in another 10MHz one as well, co-ax's have been cut, some dodgy soldering and it possibly caused a short circuit, the whole thing is peppered with solder balls, broken connections and a blown resistor, even a couple of wires have soldered together and taped up.

It also turns out I'm reliably informed that this actually has many service manuals on it and I can only find the one, but the person who told me this, has furnished me with 2 layout drawings that do not appear in my manual so there must be some truth to his claim 

I attach some photos of the various visual faults discovered so far and already I have uneasy feeling about this and wondering if it is repairable economically if I can locate these other manuals and wondering if anyone here has any info on these at all, or any internal photos that might assist me? The test point mentioned on the photos is where I tested for shorts because of the bad soldering.

It looks as if someone has been trying to modify it as it was not meant to have 2 reference oscillators fitted.

Heres the photos.

Butcher #1 went SK and then butcher #2 tried to 'fix' Butcher #1's work blindfolded

[Specmaster]

Then I decided to investigate the Racal Dana 9082 RF generator I got off Gumtree. I already knew that it was not working, despite it having the appearance of actually working, display and meter all seemed to be working but zero output and some frequencies not being tunable.

Off comes the casing, this thing is well-built and heavy but when I opened it and examined it, I was horrified at what I found, this had 2 oscillators in it, 1 was the correct according to the SM, a 5MHz and some bleeding gorilla had bodged in another 10MHz one as well, co-ax's have been cut, some dodgy soldering and it possibly caused a short circuit, the whole thing is peppered with solder balls, broken connections and a blown resistor, even a couple of wires have soldered together and taped up.

It also turns out I'm reliably informed that this actually has many service manuals on it and I can only find the one, but the person who told me this, has furnished me with 2 layout drawings that do not appear in my manual so there must be some truth to his claim 

I attach some photos of the various visual faults discovered so far and already I have uneasy feeling about this and wondering if it is repairable economically if I can locate these other manuals and wondering if anyone here has any info on these at all, or any internal photos that might assist me? The test point mentioned on the photos is where I tested for shorts because of the bad soldering.

It looks as if someone has been trying to modify it as it was not meant to have 2 reference oscillators fitted.

A well placed hand grenade ought to fix that right up.  Holy crap, what a mess. 

I think you are right. I think now I've had more time to think about it, the 2 wires joined, came of a switch on backplate that switched between internal and external references, The 10MHz oscillator is connected to the external input cable, the input BNC has been removed and with the internal standard out BNC socket. The 5MHz oscillator could be removed back to the original position on the backplate. The R24 is replaceable but not sure what other damage has been done when it blew. I think the output section has been blown by back feeding from a ham radio keying up while connected to it, the caps could be replaced, but there are shitloads of bastard tants in there as well 

On the whole, I'm beginning to think its just not worth the effort or the expense, its a bloody great rabbit hole I never bargained on falling into, I just wanted a better RF generator than the Advance SG63A  I'm so glad now that I did take the Advance J2B and the Avo 8 as well while I was there, otherwise it would have been a 200 mile round trip for nothing 

[cjuried]

After reviewing this thread I believe I might have caught TEA. Please review for eligibility.

Thank you,

Chris

Ah .... yeah .... you are clearly eligible!

Yes, this has been a lifelong passion. I would say I have another 20 pieces, not shown, which I must make space for. I've always been one for quantification.

Also, a candidate for advanced standing, subject to a couple of criteria - the first one being: How many pieces of kit have you opened up to make repairs?


BTW - My eyes aren't normally this shade of green.

I cant seem to keep my hands off pieces to repair.

[Brumby]

Yep!  You're good!!   

[Wolfgang]

After reviewing this thread I believe I might have caught TEA. Please review for eligibility.

Thank you,

Chris

An extraordinarily mild case, but we should give it a "thumbs up", IMHO 

[mnementh]

Such butchery. 

mnem
"You uhhh... gonna eat that...?"

[Specmaster]

I nearly forgot that I promised to post a photo of the Advance J2B in its case, sorry med, but this blue is the original colour and not fresh spray to match up with the Tek gear. Just need to address that carry handle now.

[bitseeker]

As promised. Tear down of the 8505A. In reality there isn't a lot to see.

I'm trying to add this to the POI, but getting database errors at the moment. Reported the error and will retry another time.

[med6753]

After reviewing this thread I believe I might have caught TEA. Please review for eligibility.

Thank you,

Chris

Ah .... yeah .... you are clearly eligible!

Yes, this has been a lifelong passion. I would say I have another 20 pieces, not shown, which I must make space for. I've always been one for quantification.

Also, a candidate for advanced standing, subject to a couple of criteria - the first one being: How many pieces of kit have you opened up to make repairs?


BTW - My eyes aren't normally this shade of green.

I cant seem to keep my hands off pieces to repair.

Good boy!  These clowns in here are not only jealous of my paint schemes but I get side snickers when I rip into a PSU an change out all the capacitors. 

[med6753]

I nearly forgot that I promised to post a photo of the Advance J2B in its case, sorry med, but this blue is the original colour and not fresh spray to match up with the Tek gear. Just need to address that carry handle now.

Just so there's no confusion.

The Flukes are painted with Krylon Fusion Satin Rolling Surf.

The Tek's are painted with Krylon Gloss Bahama Sea

 

[bitseeker]

Krylon Fusion Satin Rolling Surf.

Satin Rolling Surf, eh? Looks good. Is it the same tint as Gloss Bahama Sea, just a different finish?

[bitseeker]

I'm trying to set up a search on eBay to give me a list of 7.5 or more digit multimeters, but all I get is crap based on my second numeric search term. I'm trying to use a string like this:

(HP, Agilent, Keysight, Keithley, Hioki, Advantest, Guildline, Datron, Prema) AND (34470, 3458, 7510, 2002, 2001, 2010, DM7276, DM7275, R6581, 7081, 7071, 9578, 9577, 1281, 1271, 8017, 5017, 6048, 6047, 6040S)  -manual

I was under the impression that words in parentheses were a logical or and maybe it is, but it does not seem to honour the AND condition. Can anyone tell me how to make the eBay search return what I actually want?

(Hewlett, Agilent, Keysight, Keithley, Hioki, Advantest, Guildline, Datron, Prema) (34470, 3458, 7510, 2002, 2001, 2010, DM7276, DM7275, R6581, 7081, 7071, 9578, 9577, 1281, 1271, 8017, 5017, 6048, 6047, 6040S)  -manual -dealer

That seems to work. 100-200 entries.

Yep, no "AND" operator. Words separated by spaces are ANDed (more or less). eBay's search engine does funky things sometimes (it's buggy like the rest of the site), but mostly does as directed.

[bitseeker]

After reviewing this thread I believe I might have caught TEA. Please review for eligibility.

Thank you,

Chris

Instant TEA cred! Congratulations and welcome aboard.

[mnementh]

Urrk. I just slogged through about 45 minutes of tutorials; finally getting my hands dirty learning how to poke around in Marlin firmware as used on my 3DP. I think my mind just boggled. 

mnem
*crawls off to sleep in the analog world*