Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Ero-Shan]

Remember that in all this, if they don't dispose of it before they move then: (1) it all goes in a skip, (2) they have to pay someone to take it away. Bottom line for them is that someone taking it away for free is still financially better than not having someone who wants to take it away.

Not necessarily. While this is how most of my TE ended up here, there are companies who do all the cleanup and sell the stuff that looks like it is still worth something. This lowers their price considerably. Like those antiques dealers that clear out the houses of deceased "for free".
But what's gone is gone. 

[med6753]

Today's WTF   

AVG.....the package I sent you over a week ago has been returned to me by US (Not UK) Customs.  They rejected it for export "as the content description was not sufficient to determine if it meets US export requirements".

Apparently description "Electronic Parts" set off red flags or something.  I'll go to the PO again tomorrow and make out a new form and see what better description I can use to get these parts to you. This really sucks and I'm sorry. This import/export stuff is total BS.

Bd...what did you use to get that meter sent to me hassle free?

[Ero-Shan]

For you Solartron 7150 lovers.

Looks like its working nicely, and still at a reasonable price (but we all know how they soar in the last minute):

https://www.ebay.de/itm/324112457770

[bd139]

Today's WTF   

AVG.....the package I sent you over a week ago has been returned to me by US (Not UK) Customs.  They rejected it for export "as the content description was not sufficient to determine if it meets US export requirements".

Apparently description "Electronic Parts" set off red flags or something.  I'll go to the PO again tomorrow and make out a new form and see what better description I can use to get these parts to you. This really sucks and I'm sorry. This import/export stuff is total BS.

Bd...what did you use to get that meter sent to me hassle free?

I think it was Amateur Radio Parts as they don't solicit duty here and usually fly straight through. HS code 85256013.

Edit: sounds like you just hit an asshole at customs. Not unusual. If you copy a description from an HS code exactly they just type it in and it goes straight through.

[Saskia]

Haha, waking the dwagon up is real easy to do, just take or hide his beloved yellow Fluke 189 

Or let med near it with his can of blue Krylon

Wash your mouth out with hand sanitiser!!!

Is acetone a hand sanitisier? 

I once washed my mouth out with (a small amount of) acetone in a school chemistry experiment. I was sucking it out of a beaker using a pipette, and there wasn't quite enough in the beaker - so air was entrained.

This is something you should NEVER do.

[bd139]

Indeed. There was a kid in my science class at school who drank methanol. He ended up in prison a few years later. I've always wondered if it was related or he was just an all round twat.

[Saskia]

drinking methanol will either blind you or get you the Darwin award.

Acetone will be absorbed through the skin. It will have detrimental effects on your central nervous system, can cause issues with your blood, kidneys, will target anything that contains lipids, etc.

Also it eats through various protective gloves in about no time while not being a disinfectant.

Acetone is not a toy. Treat it with caution.

[med6753]

Today's WTF   

AVG.....the package I sent you over a week ago has been returned to me by US (Not UK) Customs.  They rejected it for export "as the content description was not sufficient to determine if it meets US export requirements".

Apparently description "Electronic Parts" set off red flags or something.  I'll go to the PO again tomorrow and make out a new form and see what better description I can use to get these parts to you. This really sucks and I'm sorry. This import/export stuff is total BS.

Bd...what did you use to get that meter sent to me hassle free?

I think it was Amateur Radio Parts as they don't solicit duty here and usually fly straight through. HS code 85256013.

Edit: sounds like you just hit an asshole at customs. Not unusual. If you copy a description from an HS code exactly they just type it in and it goes straight through.

Thanks. I'll go back to PO tomorrow and see what I need to do to get it sent. I'll even tape a picture of the parts to the box if necessary.

Unfortunately I'll have to pay the postage all over again but that's my problem. 

[Cerebus]

Today's WTF   

AVG.....the package I sent you over a week ago has been returned to me by US (Not UK) Customs.  They rejected it for export "as the content description was not sufficient to determine if it meets US export requirements".

Apparently description "Electronic Parts" set off red flags or something.  I'll go to the PO again tomorrow and make out a new form and see what better description I can use to get these parts to you. This really sucks and I'm sorry. This import/export stuff is total BS.

Bd...what did you use to get that meter sent to me hassle free?

It always gives me a little wry chuckle that "the land of the free" and enthusiasts of "small government" seem to get a lot more "government", hassle and red tape than most other places. But, if you ask them, most Americans seem to genuinely believe think that other countries are the places where all the bureaucracy happens and that the inhabitants of other countries ought to be more like Americans and have less bureaucracy. Sit down with one however, and go through lists of basics things one might do or need to do and it turns out that residents of the US have to have more licenses, more official permissions to do things, do more paperwork and spend longer in more official queues than I ever have had to in Britain. I say this as a resident of the country that invented red tape and the immediate neighbour of the country (France) that really knows how to do bureaucracy^*.


*The average French small business like any of us might run spends about 1 man day per week purely on keeping the bureaucrats happy.

[Cerebus]

Indeed. There was a kid in my science class at school who drank methanol. He ended up in prison a few years later. I've always wondered if it was related or he was just an all round twat.

Ob fact - the official first line active medical treatment for methanol poisoning is to administer treatment with oral ethanol. Unless you've really overdone it on the methanol - so much so that you're unconscious - then you'll get intravenous ethanol.

[Specmaster]

For you Solartron 7150 lovers.

Looks like its working nicely, and still at a reasonable price (but we all know how they soar in the last minute):

https://www.ebay.de/itm/324112457770

On the con side, it needs brighter LEDS and a handle, it has a manual in German, on the plus side it is working and has a manual, if you read German 

Seriously, they are good meters, lets see how this progresses towards the end, I think it will shoot up at the end of the auction.

[med6753]

Today's WTF   

AVG.....the package I sent you over a week ago has been returned to me by US (Not UK) Customs.  They rejected it for export "as the content description was not sufficient to determine if it meets US export requirements".

Apparently description "Electronic Parts" set off red flags or something.  I'll go to the PO again tomorrow and make out a new form and see what better description I can use to get these parts to you. This really sucks and I'm sorry. This import/export stuff is total BS.

Bd...what did you use to get that meter sent to me hassle free?

It always gives me a little wry chuckle that "the land of the free" and enthusiasts of "small government" seem to get a lot more "government", hassle and red tape than most other places. But, if you ask them, most Americans seem to genuinely believe think that other countries are the places where all the bureaucracy happens and that the inhabitants of other countries ought to be more like Americans and have less bureaucracy. Sit down with one however, and go through lists of basics things one might do or need to do and it turns out that residents of the US have to have more licenses, more official permissions to do things, do more paperwork and spend longer in more official queues than I ever have had to in Britain. I say this as a resident of the country that invented red tape and the immediate neighbour of the country (France) that really knows how to do bureaucracy^*.


*The average French small business like any of us might run spends about 1 man day per week purely on keeping the bureaucrats happy.

I make no claims as to who has less/more bureaucracy. They all suck as far as I'm concerned. But I should be glad it involves just USPS and the Fed's and NOT New York State. Talk about fee's (taxes) and red tape? I swear if they could figure out a way to tax you every time you took a shit they would. 

[med6753]

Well now that my day....to use the quaint English term "Knackered" with this customs BS I did receive the capacitors for the 8505A. Mouser is open and apparently operating normally and so is UPS with deliveries.

[bd139]

Quaint English description of the situation:

Fucking customs popos mugging me off fam. Gonna shank the cunts and get me some chonkin.

Edit: Chonkin is a new one on me this week. I have been informed it’s basically the word “chicken” said by someone who’s parents never told them to brush their teeth as a kid and they fell out.

[Specmaster]

For you Solartron 7150 lovers.

Looks like its working nicely, and still at a reasonable price (but we all know how they soar in the last minute):

https://www.ebay.de/itm/324112457770

It finished at 116 Euros, not a bad price.

[bd139]

If it had a handle I might have bid on that

[worsthorse]

Does anyone here have a HP3400A that they are willing to crack open and check something for me?

When I opened the meter to replace the power socket, I discovered that several of the wires in the power harness had broken free.  I also found an apparent difference between the schematic and the wiring. Here are my two questions:

1. There are two black wires in the harness. One is connected to the 115/230 VAC switch. Is the other connected to the center post of the power socket?

2. There is a sprague ceramic capacitor (three leads, two capacitors with a common lead in one package) across the power socket. Is the center lead connected to the center post of the power socket?

1). Just opened up a UK made 1969 vintage one and it only has a black wire to the ground of the power socket, NO black wire on the voltage switch. 

2). Yes the middle lead of the dual Sprague capacitor also goes to the ground of the power connector.

Will add some pictures later, got a second one to look at as well, which needs the power connector changing anyway (I have a NOS replacement).

David

OK here are pictures of the power connector wiring from two of my 3400A meters.

1969 UK made 3400A;


Older 1965/666 German made 3400A;

For reference both units have the Switchcraft AC3G power socket, this version has the ground pin connected to the outer shell, used with the PH-163 power cord.

Some sellers are wrongly claiming LAC3GD is the same, that version does not have the ground pin connected to the shell, it's used in some instruments with an inductor or resistor to connect this pin to ground, whether this was a good idea or not is your decision.

David

David, Mahalo!   

Those photos are exactly what I needed.  My 3400A is an early model, the ground pin is connected to the shell, and it looks like the wiring harness matches your 3400A.  I appreciate the help. Now I can finish putting it back together this afternoon and see if it actually works.

[Ero-Shan]

For you Solartron 7150 lovers.

Looks like its working nicely, and still at a reasonable price (but we all know how they soar in the last minute):

https://www.ebay.de/itm/324112457770

It finished at 116 Euros, not a bad price.

Certainly not. There's a strange mix on eBay currently - some equipment at very reasonable prices, and some ask preposterous sums for crap, like an old "not working, for parts" 5 MHz no-name CRO with missing knobs with a 195 € price tag. Not everything is a valuable antique. Some old trash is just that: Old trash.

[worsthorse]

For you Solartron 7150 lovers.

Looks like its working nicely, and still at a reasonable price (but we all know how they soar in the last minute):

https://www.ebay.de/itm/324112457770

It finished at 116 Euros, not a bad price.

Certainly not. There's a strange mix on eBay currently - some equipment at very reasonable prices, and some ask preposterous sums for crap, like an old "not working, for parts" 5 MHz no-name CRO with missing knobs with a 195 € price tag. Not everything is a valuable antique. Some old trash is just that: Old trash.

Yup. I put a low but reasonable offer in on a 2005A power supply (yes, I am a sucker for a power supply with lots of knobs and such) yesterday, which was accepted this morning.  I am still looking at a 53310A but I don't really have room for it nor a compelling need, so it is easier to resist.

Unfortunately, I think there is going to be an awful lot of equipment hitting auction sites in the fourth quarter this year. 

[mnementh]

Haha, waking the dwagon up is real easy to do, just take or hide his beloved yellow Fluke 189 

Or let med near it with his can of blue Krylon

Wash your mouth out with hand sanitiser!!!

y'all are fukkin' loud.   

mnem
*slaps tail against floor of cave and snorts in disgust*

[mnementh]

Don't forget the mysterious gender bender bender who ensures you never have the right gender bender for the job by changing what ones you thought you had on the fly 

That's Andrew Logan channelling the spirit of Derek Jarman come to fuck with your straight mind by climbing through your window, wearing a pink tutu and a nun's veil, and out again while you're out of the room. You'll know if it's him if you're lucky enough to find one of his hand sculpted 26 pin D connectors in purple and gold lamé.

Just for you, C. 

mnem
*bent, not broken*

[mnementh]

Number of DB9 gender changers thrown out in the last few years - several more than one.
Number of DB9 Gender changers found today when needed - NIL 

I never throw such things. Yes, hoarding. The first 2 years we lived in our house I did not buy any electrical equipment, like cables, conduit, connection boxes etc. I just picked from storage.

Yes... however, these things can and must be quantized; preferably in units of 53L or less.    

mnem

[AVGresponding]

Today's WTF   

AVG.....the package I sent you over a week ago has been returned to me by US (Not UK) Customs.  They rejected it for export "as the content description was not sufficient to determine if it meets US export requirements".

Apparently description "Electronic Parts" set off red flags or something.  I'll go to the PO again tomorrow and make out a new form and see what better description I can use to get these parts to you. This really sucks and I'm sorry. This import/export stuff is total BS.

Bd...what did you use to get that meter sent to me hassle free?

I think it was Amateur Radio Parts as they don't solicit duty here and usually fly straight through. HS code 85256013.

Edit: sounds like you just hit an asshole at customs. Not unusual. If you copy a description from an HS code exactly they just type it in and it goes straight through.

Thanks. I'll go back to PO tomorrow and see what I need to do to get it sent. I'll even tape a picture of the parts to the box if necessary.

Unfortunately I'll have to pay the postage all over again but that's my problem. 

Ouch, sorry to hear this   

I guess the one I posted will win the race by default...   

[Specmaster]

If it had a handle I might have bid on that

Yeh, you could do worse. One of mine has a handle missing and TBH it bugs the shit out of me, its the only one of my bench meters without a handle/stand. The other slightly annoying thing with them is that resistance is measured in K, volts is always V and current is always in mA. It would be nice to uA, mA ,A, uV, mV, u ,  and of course M shown on the display, but thats really nit-picking considering what it is.

[Saskia]

Number of DB9 gender changers thrown out in the last few years - several more than one.
Number of DB9 Gender changers found today when needed - NIL 

whazzat ?? Change the gender of a DB9 driver ?

First off, why would you want to do that ?
Second, don't you need a fucking scalpel for that ? 

jokes aside, I have been looking for a DB25 m2f cable to test that willem gizmo that I found in one of those boxes. unbelievable. I don't have any. hrmpf.