Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

Just had a good ebay win. Got the 160m + 2nd RX antenna option kit for the K2 off ebay unbuilt for less than half the retail price . That gives it AM broadcast band RX as well which is handy. Also more importantly something to build / do / fettle with

Well, you are not alone.    I scored a few minutes ago three very nice units:

- a Fluke 732A voltage reference - 330 Euro
- a Keithley 155 Null Detector - 300 Euro
- a Fluke 750A reference divider - 255 Euro

                              

Here are some generic pictures of the devices:

Fluke 732A

you are the one I was fighting  against 

 

Yes, seems so.
And if I haven't slept @ the Fluke 731B it would be mine as well.   

Those devices are in a very nice shape, aren't they?

Aren't you worried because of the missing jacks on the Fluke 732A? I always suspect, that this could mean further missing parts behind....

Ähm, which missing jacks? 
The picture above is a generic one, not mine.

This is a picture of mine (picture is from the seller):


For comparison, this is a picture from TiN's website xdevs.com:

[Neomys Sapiens]

thanks everyone for the get well soon wishes.
.
.
.
That plus the disinfecting regimen (that's where the 80l of alcohol are coming in handy ...) should protect me at least a little bit.

In other news, the HP power supply arrived. The amp meter is somewhere in the case, the accompanying screw somewhere else, and the packaging was a mother of a fuckup using shoe boxes thrown into a large shipping box, then the power supply on top, plus another couple of shoeboxes to bolster it.

 

I'm suddenly having ideas of of Rube-Goldberg-esque closed circuit personal desinfection schemes..

That HP did look decent when you bought it, or did I miss something? Triple blasted primates!
That packing sure is bad. It seems to me that the care taken is reciprocal to the value of the goods sometimes, as the absolutely worst package that I ever recieved was my Analogic 800Ms/s polynomial waveform generator, where they filled the space with debris from a renovation obviously. Wallpaper with plaster clinging to it, parts of painted wood etc.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Just had a good ebay win. Got the 160m + 2nd RX antenna option kit for the K2 off ebay unbuilt for less than half the retail price . That gives it AM broadcast band RX as well which is handy. Also more importantly something to build / do / fettle with

Well, you are not alone.    I scored a few minutes ago three very nice units:

- a Fluke 732A voltage reference - 330 Euro
- a Keithley 155 Null Detector - 300 Euro
- a Fluke 750A reference divider - 255 Euro

                              

Here are some generic pictures of the devices:

Fluke 732A

you are the one I was fighting  against 

 

Yes, seems so.
And if I haven't slept @ the Fluke 731B it would be mine as well.   

Those devices are in a very nice shape, aren't they?

Aren't you worried because of the missing jacks on the Fluke 732A? I always suspect, that this could mean further missing parts behind....

Ähm, which missing jacks? 
The picture above is a generic one, not mine.

This is a picture of mine (picture is from the seller):


For comparison, this is a picture from TiN's website xdevs.com:

Ah, ok. Now I read the complete panel labels and all seems to be ok. I mistook the adjustment access ports for missing jacks.

[BU508A]

Ah, ok. Now I read the complete panel labels and all seems to be ok. I mistook the adjustment access ports for missing jacks.

Please, don't do this again, I have a weak heart. 

[Neomys Sapiens]

Ah, ok. Now I read the complete panel labels and all seems to be ok. I mistook the adjustment access ports for missing jacks.

Please, don't do this again, I have a weak heart. 

We will gladly assist the mourning bereaved with the disposal of their inheritance!

[Cubdriver]

thanks everyone for the get well soon wishes.
.
.
.
That plus the disinfecting regimen (that's where the 80l of alcohol are coming in handy ...) should protect me at least a little bit.

In other news, the HP power supply arrived. The amp meter is somewhere in the case, the accompanying screw somewhere else, and the packaging was a mother of a fuckup using shoe boxes thrown into a large shipping box, then the power supply on top, plus another couple of shoeboxes to bolster it.

 

I'm suddenly having ideas of of Rube-Goldberg-esque closed circuit personal desinfection schemes..

That HP did look decent when you bought it, or did I miss something? Triple blasted primates!
That packing sure is bad. It seems to me that the care taken is reciprocal to the value of the goods sometimes, as the absolutely worst package that I ever recieved was my Analogic 800Ms/s polynomial waveform generator, where they filled the space with debris from a renovation obviously. Wallpaper with plaster clinging to it, parts of painted wood etc.

What some people apparently classify as adequate packing is completely unfathomable to me.  How you can put a valuable, relatively heavy instrument into a box stuffed with shoeboxes, or in a box barely larger than it and stuffed with a thin layer of peanuts*, or wrapped in crumbled butcher paper than literally wrapped on one axis with cardboard with the open ends stuffed with more crumpled butcher paper and taped shut (the latter two being personal experiences in the past month)   

Do the shippers that do this sort of thing just not give a crap, are they really that naive to how packages are handled during shipment, or are they just dumb as a sack of hammers?     (I kind of lean towards the latter, as to me such piss poor packaging shows a lack of any sort of sense.)

-Pat

* edit to add - to be 'fair', the HP 8643A described here also had a layer or two of small bubble wrap around it, too. Almost forgot that little detail.  It still lost two of its rear bumpers - threaded bosses broken and screws pulled out.

[BU508A]

Ah, ok. Now I read the complete panel labels and all seems to be ok. I mistook the adjustment access ports for missing jacks.

Please, don't do this again, I have a weak heart. 

We will gladly assist the mourning bereaved with the disposal of their inheritance!

 

[psykok]

Not as interesting as a Schlumberger or other crazy DDM but it was too cheap to resist.

[Cubdriver]

And on a different aggravating shipping note, the USPS is certainly being impacted by the bug.  In my experience, they're usually pretty good, but I am currently waiting on a package coming from New York (literally 110 miles by road from me).  It shipped on Monday, April 27th and now, a week and a day later, is "in transit to next facility".  'Expected Delivery' was originally Thursday the 30th.  In the meantime, FedEx Home got a package shipped from Florida on the 30th to me on Sunday the third.  Four days to go 1100+ miles vs 8 days so far to go a tenth of that.   

-Pat

[Specmaster]

Not as interesting as a Schlumberger or other crazy DDM but it was too cheap to resist.

Hmm, thats pretty good really, comes with a good spec and from a well known maker, whats not to like about it?

[psykok]

Nothing to dislike!
Works great and the calibration is super easy.
I just need to find or build myself a new top cover.

It will probably find a place near my 1991 counter.

[SilverSolder]

And on a different aggravating shipping note, the USPS is certainly being impacted by the bug.  In my experience, they're usually pretty good, but I am currently waiting on a package coming from New York (literally 110 miles by road from me).  It shipped on Monday, April 27th and now, a week and a day later, is "in transit to next facility".  'Expected Delivery' was originally Thursday the 30th.  In the meantime, FedEx Home got a package shipped from Florida on the 30th to me on Sunday the third.  Four days to go 1100+ miles vs 8 days so far to go a tenth of that.   

-Pat

I've been seeing crazy stuff too,  like packages arriving from China in 8 days, while randomly something from the next state takes much longer than that...  The service is unpredictable at the moment, basically.

[Mp3]

And on a different aggravating shipping note, the USPS is certainly being impacted by the bug.  In my experience, they're usually pretty good, but I am currently waiting on a package coming from New York (literally 110 miles by road from me).  It shipped on Monday, April 27th and now, a week and a day later, is "in transit to next facility".  'Expected Delivery' was originally Thursday the 30th.  In the meantime, FedEx Home got a package shipped from Florida on the 30th to me on Sunday the third.  Four days to go 1100+ miles vs 8 days so far to go a tenth of that.   

-Pat

I've been seeing crazy stuff too,  like packages arriving from China in 8 days, while randomly something from the next state takes much longer than that...  The service is unpredictable at the moment, basically.

Same here,
Recently had an item from west coast to east coast USA by USPS take 2 days to get here whereas several items that were shipped from the east coast took over a week to get here.
China mail feels very fast all of a sudden - except everything i ordered early March is still MIA...!! (Everything from april on made it here fairly fast though?)

[Saskia]

I have a couple of missing china parcels as well.-

In other news I am currently setting up a small mainboard to run an ethereum miner using a cuda cpu.
Next step will be to try do do a reference implementation on an fpga to familiarize myself with that stuff.
(I don't think mining is profitable, but it's easy to verify if your implementation is working or not and how fast it is.

[bd139]

Talking of China packages my PLC was DOA  . Case raised with Aliexpress. 

[mnementh]

Yeah, eBay & Canada Post seem to be trying to perfect the shipping suckage as well; I have a package bought on april 17th, took 5 days to get through eBay Global Shipping; showed CLEARED CUSTOMS on the 23rd, and is JUST NOW, 12 days later, showing "En Route With Destination Carrier". 

mnem
 

[Ice-Tea]

Just wondering... where would you guys get a 10V calibrated reference? Recently got one of eBay, actually I think from a guy that also roams the EEVBLOG, but it seems of by about 200uV or so. Actually makes sense, he gave the DMM he used for calibration and the math works out, but still. I'd like something better. Suggestions?

[psykok]

did someone tried this kit:
https://www.ebay.fr/itm/LM399H-10V-Precision-voltage-Reference-Calibrated-LM399/254402062436?hash=item3b3b8b6864:g:RtsAAOSwPA1cOaqw

[Ice-Tea]

Yeah, that's the one 

[psykok]

Yeah, that's the one 

OMG that the one I was interested  in to replace my chines one .   


otherwise you have to go this path:
https://xdevs.com/article/kx-ref/

[Ice-Tea]

Nothing wrong with it, I imagine but:

Simple LM399H based Open source 10V Reference board, Measured Using recently calibrated 6.5 Digit 34465A
34465A has these specifcation for 10V range
24Hour :  0.0010% + 0.0003
90Days :  0.0020% + 0.0004
1Year    :  0.0030% + 0.0004

Means 400uV uncertainty on the DMM he used to calibrate. I think. So if its 200uV out (as I think) that makes sense.

[mnementh]

In More Serious News: COVID-19 has evolved; successor SARS-CoV-2 has become dominant form of Coronaviris pathogen in current pandemic, carrying increased viral loading, possibly even able to infect COVID-19 survivors.

https://a.msn.com/r/2/BB13CHNP?m=en-us

And as if we weren't already knee-deep on the hoopla, more study indicate that it has a GI component as well; carrying the likelihood of another infection vector. 

https://scitechdaily.com/coronavirus-sars-cov-2-infects-cells-of-the-intestine-and-multiplies-there/

It's gonna get a lot worse before it gets better.

mnem
 

[tautech]

In other news:

A man with one GPSDO knows the 10MHz reference, a man with two is never sure...      

Roughly twelve ours of persistence, channel one is a Samsung UCCM-LPK module, channel two (also trigger-source) is a Trimble Thunderbolt:

Do I interpret the persistence correctly that the frequency drift never exceeds one cycle ?

[Saskia]

 
RTX2070 rest in pieces
 

[mansaxel]

mnem
 

I'm being PAID to time-nut. I was shopping for groceries this afternoon when work phone rang, and it was one of the architects who wanted to talk IEEE1588 nuances in our new house master clock setup.  For some of us, this is what we do all day.

No, it's not helping to decelerate the TEA. Rather the opposite.