Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Those things are shit. I’ve seen one go over. You don’t want to go there 

[Ice-Tea]

But... I really do?

[tggzzz]

Those things are shit. I’ve seen one go over. You don’t want to go there 

They have their place; in particular if there is a bench in a corner then they can make effective use of that "inaccessible" corner space.

Overfilling drawers is a no-no, though!

[Specmaster]

Those things are shit. I’ve seen one go over. You don’t want to go there 

I was just thinking the same thing 

[mnementh]

Those things are shit. I’ve seen one go over. You don’t want to go there 

But... I really do?   

FTFY.     

In all honesty, me too... as long as it's somebody else's problem. Just like watching a train wreck, only you can do it from the comfort of a spinny chair...

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Someone please enlighten me why the repair of the 2XXX series Tek CRT scopes makes sense at all. They are:

- a nightmare to access parts
- full of dried electrolytics and RIFA time bombs
- built to overheat (at least the faster models), with special unobtainium ICs needed to repair
- in no ways better than any 1K€ 2020 scope with more channels, better frequency response, digital memory, ...

The old 7XXX modular types had some class and were a pleasure to fix in comparison.

So, is TEA related to masochistic practices or occult religions ? Cargo cult ? The church of TEK ? 

Because they are the most evolved "portable" analog CRO ever made. The engineering is a thing of beauty; and a completely different design ethos from the 7xxx family. All the problems you recite in your "shit litany" (what my mother used to call it when I'd be working at my bench and something makes me go "shit... shit... shit...! SHIT!!!") revolve around it being literally too advanced a design for the tube-lickers (you know who you are ) to service safely.

The "overheating" problem is not a problem if you USE IT AS DIRECTED in the manual, FFS. They do WARN YOU not to block the air vents, but they don't bludgeon you with a mallet. 

And if you're going to SERVICE the thing and can't be arsed to acquire/read the SERVICE MANUAL which tells you in big red letters DON'T RUN THE DUCKING THING WITHOUT THE TRUCKING COVER ON IT!!! , you deserve what you plucking get.

NOT IDIOT-PROOF ≠ BAD DESIGN.

mnem
 

Holy shit, I agree. One of us is de-volving....not sure which. 

Ehhh, the sun even shines on a dwagon's arse from time to time... 

mnem
I'll survive the shock. Probably.

[bd139]

That's one sunrise I'm going to sleep through 

Edit: On Tek 24xx series. I have a 2445 I am trying to get rid of because it scares the shit out of me owning it. Yeah it's pretty damn excellent but at this point I am done with things that punch you in the dick right in the middle of something 

[med6753]

That's one sunrise I'm going to sleep through 

Edit: On Tek 24xx series. I have a 2445 I am trying to get rid of because it scares the shit out of me owning it. Yeah it's pretty damn excellent but at this point I am done with things that punch you in the dick right in the middle of something 

It won't let you down if you do 2 things: re-cap the PSU and service the fan.

If I can do it, you can do it.   

Edit, besides....I have it all documented and idiot proof. 

[tautech]

No progress, I just know that blowing fuse is on the -15 unreg
Now I have to study the documentation to understand for what is the -15unreg rail used for.

With no beam, my strong suspicion is to the EHT oscillator.

[Cubdriver]

That's one sunrise I'm going to sleep through 

Edit: On Tek 24xx series. I have a 2445 I am trying to get rid of because it scares the shit out of me owning it. Yeah it's pretty damn excellent but at this point I am done with things that punch you in the dick right in the middle of something 

It won't let you down if you do 2 things: re-cap the PSU and service the fan.

If I can do it, you can do it.   

Edit, besides....I have it all documented and idiot proof. 

Idiot RESISTANT.  There is no such thing as idiot proof - there is none so creative as a thwarted idiot.

-Pat

[psykok]

No progress, I just know that blowing fuse is on the -15 unreg
Now I have to study the documentation to understand for what is the -15unreg rail used for.

With no beam, my strong suspicion is to the EHT oscillator.

I managed to reduced the fault tot the HT board.
Know I have to find a way to debug this board. I hate playing with HT.

I just hope that the HT Module is not faulty.

Alex

[tautech]

No progress, I just know that blowing fuse is on the -15 unreg
Now I have to study the documentation to understand for what is the -15unreg rail used for.

With no beam, my strong suspicion is to the EHT oscillator.

I managed to reduced the fault tot the HT board.
Know I have to find a way to debug this board. I hate playing with HT.

I just hope that the HT Module is not faulty.

Alex

With another scope you can just hold a probe near the oscillator (Colpits probably) to check it's running but if it's blowing fuses disconnect some loads from the secondary side and see if it starts first.
Usually guys break the connection to the PDA multiplier as their first check.
RTFM 

Oh and find the Trouble shooting Tek scopes pdf.......you have a bit of reading to do. 
Don't overthink it just break it all down into functional blocks and fix them one at a time.

[Wolfgang]

That's one sunrise I'm going to sleep through 

Edit: On Tek 24xx series. I have a 2445 I am trying to get rid of because it scares the shit out of me owning it. Yeah it's pretty damn excellent but at this point I am done with things that punch you in the dick right in the middle of something 

It won't let you down if you do 2 things: re-cap the PSU and service the fan.

If I can do it, you can do it.   

Edit, besides....I have it all documented and idiot proof. 

Idiot RESISTANT.  There is no such thing as idiot proof - there is none so creative as a thwarted idiot.

-Pat

Murphys laws must be *designed* into a product. Nobody reads manuals (before it happens).
Products that need benevolence and/or intelligence from the users - bound to fail.
If it can go wrong, it will. Resist Tek 2XXX scopes. 

[Cubdriver]

That's one sunrise I'm going to sleep through 

Edit: On Tek 24xx series. I have a 2445 I am trying to get rid of because it scares the shit out of me owning it. Yeah it's pretty damn excellent but at this point I am done with things that punch you in the dick right in the middle of something 

It won't let you down if you do 2 things: re-cap the PSU and service the fan.

If I can do it, you can do it.   

Edit, besides....I have it all documented and idiot proof. 

Idiot RESISTANT.  There is no such thing as idiot proof - there is none so creative as a thwarted idiot.

-Pat

Murphys laws must be *designed* into a product. Nobody reads manuals (before it happens).
Products that need benevolence and/or intelligence from the users - bound to fail.
If it can go wrong, it will. Resist Tek 2XXX scopes. 

Nahh..  I like pretty much ALL Tek scopes.  Have a 2246 and a 2465A upstairs here, and several other 2XXXs downstairs. (Along with 3XXs, 5XX and 5XXXs, 7XXXs and 2XXs.)  All are welcome!  (The idiots I try to keep out, though must admit to occasionally falling into their ranks myself despite my best efforts not to.)

-Pat

[Cubdriver]

Oh, and some TDSs, too.

-Pat

[BU508A]

I have only three scopes. But two of them are Tektronix. 

- THS 720A which I'm using for my Reparier-Bar thing where I'm volunteering as a repair guy
- 2465B, because I wanted a real nice analog scope
- Rohde & Schwarz RTB2004 (100MHz)

Don't know, if I'd buy another one ....   
Maybe, if you can recommend one?   

[Wolfgang]

I have only three scopes. But two of them are Tektronix. 

- THS 720A which I'm using for my Reparier-Bar thing where I'm volunteering as a repair guy
- 2465B, because I wanted a real nice analog scope
- Rohde & Schwarz RTB2004 (100MHz)

Don't know, if I'd buy another one ....   
Maybe, if you can recommend one?   

How I use scopes:
- Tek MSO2000 and MSO4000 in the "hardware lab". 10 years old but OK, reliable.
- Rigols DS1000Z as "monitors" running permanently with long term experiments. Cheap as dirt, never failed, good enough if
you dont need superprecise stuff, but just a go/nogo. Good SCPI quality.
- Keysight S 6Ghz for tricky low noise and fast work. Best scope in (my) town. Not cheap.

Recommendation depends on the task. Whats the main project for your new scope ?

-

[alextwin007]

So my latest addition just arrived.  It's a Lafayette Lab tester, once I saw the chain driven selection switch I added it to my watch list.
(Attachment Link)

That's neat, Alex. Added to the POI. Do you have a model number or any other info on it?

Yeah unfortunately it seem like it's a bit hard to find info on this meter, saw a picture of the internals about a year ago and have been looking for one since.  In that time this is only the second that I've seen pop up on ebay.  Now that I finally have one I can say that it is a Lafayette Lab-Tester 99-5065, that and an inspection sticker from 1873 is all the info I have on it.

[med6753]

That's one sunrise I'm going to sleep through 

Edit: On Tek 24xx series. I have a 2445 I am trying to get rid of because it scares the shit out of me owning it. Yeah it's pretty damn excellent but at this point I am done with things that punch you in the dick right in the middle of something 

It won't let you down if you do 2 things: re-cap the PSU and service the fan.

If I can do it, you can do it.   

Edit, besides....I have it all documented and idiot proof. 

Idiot RESISTANT.  There is no such thing as idiot proof - there is none so creative as a thwarted idiot.

-Pat

Did you just call bd139 an idiot? 

[nixiefreqq]

That's one sunrise I'm going to sleep through 

Edit: On Tek 24xx series. I have a 2445 I am trying to get rid of because it scares the shit out of me owning it. Yeah it's pretty damn excellent but at this point I am done with things that punch you in the dick right in the middle of something 

It won't let you down if you do 2 things: re-cap the PSU and service the fan.

If I can do it, you can do it.   

Edit, besides....I have it all documented and idiot proof. 

Idiot RESISTANT.  There is no such thing as idiot proof - there is none so creative as a thwarted idiot.

-Pat

Did you just call bd139 an idiot? 

what have you guys started now?

it is likely to end like this ya' know.

[Mr. Scram]

Idiot RESISTANT.  There is no such thing as idiot proof - there is none so creative as a thwarted idiot.

-Pat

Sure there is idiot proof. I'm reading it right now. 

[Cubdriver]

That's one sunrise I'm going to sleep through 

Edit: On Tek 24xx series. I have a 2445 I am trying to get rid of because it scares the shit out of me owning it. Yeah it's pretty damn excellent but at this point I am done with things that punch you in the dick right in the middle of something 

It won't let you down if you do 2 things: re-cap the PSU and service the fan.

If I can do it, you can do it.   

Edit, besides....I have it all documented and idiot proof. 

Idiot RESISTANT.  There is no such thing as idiot proof - there is none so creative as a thwarted idiot.

-Pat

Did you just call bd139 an idiot? 

LOL - no, actually that though never even occurred to me.  I was simply going by the truism that as soon as someone makes something they think is idiot proof, along come a bigger idiot, and in light of that fact that idiot resistant is the best we can hope for.

-Pat

[Neomys Sapiens]

That's one sunrise I'm going to sleep through 

Edit: On Tek 24xx series. I have a 2445 I am trying to get rid of because it scares the shit out of me owning it. Yeah it's pretty damn excellent but at this point I am done with things that punch you in the dick right in the middle of something 

It won't let you down if you do 2 things: re-cap the PSU and service the fan.

If I can do it, you can do it.   

Edit, besides....I have it all documented and idiot proof. 

Be careful what you ask for, please!

[Ero-Shan]

Have you considered buying a Raaco Drehturm?



Reichelt has them for example:

https://www.reichelt.de/empty-raaco-revolving-tower-for-12-drawer-cabinets-raaco-1200-p54482.html?&nbc=1

Those 12 cabinets just came from a Drehturm! I could have had it also, of course. But I don't have a place to put it. The first floor (where my lab is) has sloping ceilings which would allow that monster only in the center line of the room. I couldn't breathe anymore, let alone move TE around.

[Brumby]

Holy stuff that's a lot of crap 

FTFY. 

mnem

That was my first reaction as well.


(Hmmm.... thinking along the same lines as Mnem - should I be worried?)