Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Yeah, this is what I was talking about when I said "Tek was inventing their own bleeding-edge silicon for this stuff at the time." The entire concept of DSO was SO new... they were trailblazing in almost every aspect of the design.

mnem
Retrospectively, all I can say is better thee than me."

[med6753]

Unfortunately that bleeding edge sillycon was EXTREMELY sensitive to overheating unless you took precautions or else you would wind up with a hybrid chunk of sand.   

[AVGresponding]

I still reckon @med should let the few moths out of his wallet to buy it for our fun and entertainment 

Nah, that sort of entertainment I can do without.

Rego Park is on Long Island. Same area as the 8505A came from. Took USPS 6 days to go approx 120 miles. Probably this time take them 3 weeks. 

Clifford D Simak came up with an amusing spin on this in his short story "Leg Forst". I have it in the "So Bright The Vision" collection of his short stories, but I expect it's available elsewhere. It's well worth the read.

My 4503 boots a little differently to yours Specmaster. It would be nice to know what all the messages mean...
I wonder if RS232 or GPIB would help resolve the issue.

https://youtu.be/p5JnEC6-qvM

Yes it does indeed, I'm pretty sure that it should display all 8's to test the segments. Totally agree, it would be nice to know what the messages mean but the manuals, operating and service do not explain that at all, in fact they make no mention of them and I find that rather odd, as already mentioned, the manuals often leave more questions than answers I'm afraid.

Here are some videos I took of mine, one of them shows how it behaves when in resistance mode which is giving me a headache at the moment trying to fathom it out.

Unlike the video I sent you last night, I no longer get the totalerr = 0, instead it boots to what I think is the software version code and then to the GPIB address?.

As to if the the GPIB or the RS232 would help in resolving the issues, I don't have a scooby doo, I don't have either of the leads or any idea on the coding required anyway 

https://youtu.be/7Y-Zg7r40VE
https://youtu.be/b5g8OYQlmUY
https://youtu.be/vx2N1Jc4cqk
https://youtu.be/I_4o4QjaknM

It does display 8s, and dps, the reason you don't see it is an artifact of the display strobe interacting with the camera shutter speed.
I think it should work with any standard GPIB software, I need to re-read the manual it seems...   

I don't suppose you have a spare MAX 134 to try in it..?   

[mnementh]

Unfortunately that bleeding edge sillycon was EXTREMELY sensitive to overheating unless you took precautions or else you would wind up with a hybrid chunk of sand.   

Not really THAT sensitive; just high-performance ICs that REQUIRE active cooling, and it was designed to provide that WITH THE CASE ON set on a bench. It was designed by engineers who knew a lot more about what they were doing than the average shaved simian who bought their product used 3rd-hand expecting it to be as forgiving as their hollow-state stuff. 

You wouldn't fault a modern high-current cumputing device for horking up its chips when the fan dies; why so unforgiving of a 30-year-old Tek product? It's not THEIR fault you used it in a confined space without finding, reading and heeding all the documentation that told you in bright red letters not to operate it without adequate ventilation. 

You just got caught by the sharp edge of the Tek learning curve is all.

mnem
Why am I still here...?

[bd139]

Indeed. Similar issue I saw a couple of weeks ago. "why is my DL380g10 running like crap" (while missing all the throttling warnings because the can was open  )

[mnementh]

I still reckon @med should let the few moths out of his wallet to buy it for our fun and entertainment 

Nah, that sort of entertainment I can do without.

Rego Park is on Long Island. Same area as the 8505A came from. Took USPS 6 days to go approx 120 miles. Probably this time take them 3 weeks. 

Clifford D Simak came up with an amusing spin on this in his short story "Leg Forst". I have it in the "So Bright The Vision" collection of his short stories, but I expect it's available elsewhere. It's well worth the read.

https://archive.org/details/rog-CliffordDSimakLegForst

mnem
*IA-ily*

[AVGresponding]

Not really THAT sensitive; just high-performance ICs that REQUIRE active cooling, and it was designed to provide that WITH THE CASE ON set on a bench. It was designed by engineers who knew a lot more about what they were doing than the average shaved simian who bought their product used 3rd-hand expecting it to be as forgiving as their hollow-state stuff. 

You wouldn't fault a modern high-current cumputing device for horking up its chips when the fan dies; why so unforgiving of a 30-year-old Tek product? It's not THEIR fault you used it in a confined space without finding, reading and heeding all the documentation that told you in bright red letters not to operate it without adequate ventilation. 

You just got caught by the sharp edge of the Tek learning curve is all.

mnem
Why am I still here...?

Yes I would. I'd expect it to shut off to protect itself if it got too close to its SOAR limits.

[Cerebus]

Bears are great. Google "bad taste bears"

Had this fella for quite a while:

[med6753]

Unfortunately that bleeding edge sillycon was EXTREMELY sensitive to overheating unless you took precautions or else you would wind up with a hybrid chunk of sand.   

Not really THAT sensitive; just high-performance ICs that REQUIRE active cooling, and it was designed to provide that WITH THE CASE ON set on a bench. It was designed by engineers who knew a lot more about what they were doing than the average shaved simian who bought their product used 3rd-hand expecting it to be as forgiving as their hollow-state stuff. 

You wouldn't fault a modern high-current cumputing device for horking up its chips when the fan dies; why so unforgiving of a 30-year-old Tek product? It's not THEIR fault you used it in a confined space without finding, reading and heeding all the documentation that told you in bright red letters not to operate it without adequate ventilation. 

You just got caught by the sharp edge of the Tek learning curve is all.

mnem
Why am I still here...?

Holy shit....are you done beating me with the silly stick?? 

[Cubdriver]

Unfortunately that bleeding edge sillycon was EXTREMELY sensitive to overheating unless you took precautions or else you would wind up with a hybrid chunk of sand.   

Not really THAT sensitive; just high-performance ICs that REQUIRE active cooling, and it was designed to provide that WITH THE CASE ON set on a bench. It was designed by engineers who knew a lot more about what they were doing than the average shaved simian who bought their product used 3rd-hand expecting it to be as forgiving as their hollow-state stuff. 

You wouldn't fault a modern high-current cumputing device for horking up its chips when the fan dies; why so unforgiving of a 30-year-old Tek product? It's not THEIR fault you used it in a confined space without finding, reading and heeding all the documentation that told you in bright red letters not to operate it without adequate ventilation. 

You just got caught by the sharp edge of the Tek learning curve is all.

mnem
Why am I still here...?

Holy shit....are you done beating me with the silly stick?? 

<whack!>  Thank you sir, may I have another?

<whack!>  Thank you sir, may I have another?

<whack!>  Thank you sir, may I have another?

 

-Pat

[Neomys Sapiens]

Here's a term everyone will recognize. Bored.

Here's another term everyone will recognize. Ebay.


Someone come hide my wallet.   

Not far from you wonder if it is a Fluke inside a really ugly Case (Attachment Link) eBay auction: #133383957096

It's a Datsyn 

Edit buttons on the wrong side for a Fluke so 

My, that thing is positively triple-toad-ugly.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Odin, far og klokeste av alle guder, gi meg veiledning, visdom og seier i mine anstrengelser

now I hope that I got that right, my norse is somewhat rusty.

Nei! Frøken, det er ikke lov å kjøre på motorveien med disse kattene! Er de til og med forsikret? Papirene takk!

[Specmaster]

My 4503 boots a little differently to yours Specmaster. It would be nice to know what all the messages mean...
I wonder if RS232 or GPIB would help resolve the issue.

https://youtu.be/p5JnEC6-qvM

Yes it does indeed, I'm pretty sure that it should display all 8's to test the segments. Totally agree, it would be nice to know what the messages mean but the manuals, operating and service do not explain that at all, in fact they make no mention of them and I find that rather odd, as already mentioned, the manuals often leave more questions than answers I'm afraid.

Here are some videos I took of mine, one of them shows how it behaves when in resistance mode which is giving me a headache at the moment trying to fathom it out.

Unlike the video I sent you last night, I no longer get the totalerr = 0, instead it boots to what I think is the software version code and then to the GPIB address?.

As to if the the GPIB or the RS232 would help in resolving the issues, I don't have a scooby doo, I don't have either of the leads or any idea on the coding required anyway 

https://youtu.be/7Y-Zg7r40VE
https://youtu.be/b5g8OYQlmUY
https://youtu.be/vx2N1Jc4cqk
https://youtu.be/I_4o4QjaknM

It does display 8s, and dps, the reason you don't see it is an artifact of the display strobe interacting with the camera shutter speed.
I think it should work with any standard GPIB software, I need to re-read the manual it seems...   

I don't suppose you have a spare MAX 134 to try in it..?   

You suppose right sir  , I have found these suppliers though https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1pcs-MAX134CPL-LXT134NC-/174239614427 and https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Maxim-MAX134CPL-3-3-4-Digit-DMM-Circuit-ADC-PDIP40-x-1pc/152444600070

[Neomys Sapiens]

there is almost no problem that cannot easily be resolved by proper application of 50grams of CeeFour.

Almost true. Lets say two times 50 and we are done. As that was roughly the amount involved...
At an alliance-wide gathering of explosive experts a competition was held to open a safe of rather flush and sturdy construction with a small amount of C4. (Can't vouch for the exact amount, it was something deemed safe to play with in those circles around 30 years ago) The enterprising parties had managed nothing but to throw the thing around and maybe get the door jammed even harder. Until one guy came forward and asked for a piece of string, some flammable liquid (some liquor of 50%) and an empty wine bottle in addition to the plastic and caps. String soaked, wound around wine bottle and set alight. After that, the bottom part came off cleanly in one piece. Smeared half of the offered mass into the cone obtained that way - emplaced, fired and made a hole. The remainder did go inside by the way of this hole. On ignition, the door flung open. Awed audience.
That was really a Grandmaster of the (well measured) big bang!

[mansaxel]

That was really a Grandmaster of the (well measured) big bang!

Ében-Émael all over again: The concept of the shaped charge was a well understood but closely guarded secret in Germany in the 30s. On the eve of Fall Gelb (German invasion of France and Belgium, spring 1940) such devices, applied by glider-inserted troops, blinded and defeated the previously highly regarded belgian fortress Ében-Émael in no time.

[Neomys Sapiens]

That was really a Grandmaster of the (well measured) big bang!

Ében-Émael all over again: The concept of the shaped charge was a well understood but closely guarded secret in Germany in the 30s. On the eve of Fall Gelb (German invasion of France and Belgium, spring 1940) such devices, applied by glider-inserted troops, blinded and defeated the previously highly regarded belgian fortress Ében-Émael in no time.

Yes, but those were industrially produced charges.
Long known, and at that time almost everywhere used in the industrial production of anti-tank munitions. That would have been the answer of all those attending, I presume. But finding that cone, estimating that it would work in even that crude form etc. was a nice trick.

[mansaxel]

That was really a Grandmaster of the (well measured) big bang!

Ében-Émael all over again: The concept of the shaped charge was a well understood but closely guarded secret in Germany in the 30s. On the eve of Fall Gelb (German invasion of France and Belgium, spring 1940) such devices, applied by glider-inserted troops, blinded and defeated the previously highly regarded belgian fortress Ében-Émael in no time.

Yes, but those were industrially produced charges.
Long known, and at that time almost everywhere used in the industrial production of anti-tank munitions. That would have been the answer of all those attending, I presume. But finding that cone, estimating that it would work in even that crude form etc. was a nice trick.

Indeed. But, the parallel stands; S/He who knows more, wins.

[mnementh]

   
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/3d-printer-yet/msg3032618/#msg3032618

mnem
*toddling off to buy some guitars*

[bd139]

Mine's fine  . Actually my printer has been mostly trouble free

[Kosmic]

got one too and it's working fine.

[bd139]

Right today consisted of 13 fucking hours debugging one out of bounds write in a parser written in C by two drunken monkeys

R&R time now on ebay and I discovered this bad boy: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153907899851

Anyone want something with some grunt?


For the poor buggers who  have to deal with C programmers.... char buf[80] def in the tokenizer section's token reader.

Code: [Select]

19831              buf[i++] = c;
(gdb) p i
$1 = 80
(gdb) n
19832              buf[i] = '\0';
(gdb) p i
$2 = 81

 

Edit: also semi airgapped with a squid proxy between it and the internet and no valgrind!

[Specmaster]

I thought I'd go through all the capacitors from the 4503 that I recapped and it was just as I suspected at the start when I wasn't convinced that doing a full recap is not always necessary, but most of us here do it any way, not a single capacitor actually warranted being replaced, all had very good ESR and capacity wise, were well within the spec by a good margin, so that was my first full recap and may well be my last without testing some of the caps at random. 

[tggzzz]

R&R time now on ebay and I discovered this bad boy: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153907899851

I think it is quite impressive how that seller has use coronavirus as a reason to pivot from selling stamps and coins, to selling guitars, watches, test equipment - all starting at £12 and finishing at Monday, 13:47.

I reported a few earlier today, then got back to trying to find caps for my hp8562a spectrum analyser. The Rifa replacements were the easiest: just use the same part number.

[Cerebus]

Methinks our Chinese friends are upping their game. I grabbed a DAC8562 dual 16 bit DAC 'maker board'/'eval board' off ebay a couple of weeks back and it turned up today a little bit earlier than I expected it to. More 'maker board' than eval board evidenced by the dual DC to DC convertor onboard (+5V => ±12V) with analogue postregulation, but it looked like it would pass as an eval board for my purposes (as long as that SMPS isn't too noisy).

Rather than the usual tatty anti-static bubble wrap bag it turned up in its own little plastic case complete with die-cut foam:



The board itself looks well done too. Two layer (closer examination proves this to be 4 layer), component load on the top only, ground plane on the back, ground flood on the topside - lots of via stitching to the back. Very clean soldering, no flux residue and the edges of the board have been sanded/ground smooth. Complete with little nylon feet clipped into the mounting holes.



Fair play for £22 + postage.

[Cerebus]

R&R time now on ebay and I discovered this bad boy: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153907899851

I think it is quite impressive how that seller has use coronavirus as a reason to pivot from selling stamps and coins, to selling guitars, watches, test equipment - all starting at £12 and finishing at Monday, 13:47.

I reported a few earlier today, then got back to trying to find caps for my hp8562a spectrum analyser. The Rifa replacements were the easiest: just use the same part number.

There are some real muppets out there. This has been bid up to £165 at time of writing by people who: (1) didn't read the description and therefore (2) have no clue that this is a scam.