Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

Just a note. Windows licensing has changed. Download a windows image from their web site and boot it and just say “I don’t have a product key”. That’ll give you 30 days in the VM to apply the keyboard update.  No need to buy a key or anything.

I've tried that, put it on a USB flash, started the installation process, chosen UK English, and then the installation aborts with "A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a DVD,USB or hard disk driver. If you have CD, DVD or USB flash drive on it, please insert it now." WTF?!

I've tried all the BIOS combinations of compatibility mode enabled/disabled, windows/other OS, and all other options fail to get that far.

The best suggestions appear to be "I put the USB in another drive and it worked!!" (possibly only works in USB2?!), and to create the USB stick using the recommended Windows program. Hello? Bootstrapping problems are so 1950-70s, but I'm in the 21st century.

Why does Microsoft have to make everything so effin difficult. Previously they've prevented me putting XP onto a replacement disk (and had the cheek to blame Samsung). Now this. They deserve to fail.

[Specmaster]

Just a note. Windows licensing has changed. Download a windows image from their web site and boot it and just say “I don’t have a product key”. That’ll give you 30 days in the VM to apply the keyboard update.  No need to buy a key or anything.

I've tried that, put it on a USB flash, started the installation process, chosen UK English, and then the installation aborts with "A media driver your computer needs is missing. This could be a DVD,USB or hard disk driver. If you have CD, DVD or USB flash drive on it, please insert it now." WTF?!

I've tried all the BIOS combinations of compatibility mode enabled/disabled, windows/other OS, and all other options fail to get that far.

The best suggestions appear to be "I put the USB in another drive and it worked!!" (possibly only works in USB2?!), and to create the USB stick using the recommended Windows program. Hello? Bootstrapping problems are so 1950-70s, but I'm in the 21st century.

Why does Microsoft have to make everything so effin difficult. Previously they've prevented me putting XP onto a replacement disk (and had the cheek to blame Samsung). Now this. They deserve to fail.

Just a thought, might be that at the time the routine was made to extract it to a USB stick that USB2 was the most common format? If you're trying to do it from a USB3 system that might be why it fails?

[Specmaster]

If you think that's bad buy one of these pieces of shit 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32801038540.html

There are no instructions usually, half the resistors and capacitors are off, you have to decipher the IF can colours and when you do find some shonky instructions on the internet the transistors all get rather toasty and smoke comes out because the thing is poorly biased

LMAO, still can't get my head around why you even wanted to make an AM radio in the first place?

[bd139]

@tggzzz:

I've never had this myself but I have seen it. Always just works for me. Which chipset and vendor is the board out of interest?

Shoving it in another hole is probably the correct answer. You can blame the USB standard for this not necessarily the PC or Windows. Check which ports your motherboard has and don't stick it in one of the USB3/3.1 holes and it'll be fine. If the cable to the front panel ports was a thick dual one that terminated on a pin header then it's probably USB 3. The back of mine has two clearly marked USB 2.0 ports (ASRock B450M Pro4 board)

If you think this is a pain in the arse, try connecting an old MS natural keyboard, a USB 1 device to a modern PC and installing an OS then. You get USB 1 transfer speeds on the entire hub.

USB = fucking shit.

Edit: I rarely have hardware problems TBH. Most computers are scared of me and spring into action the moment they are presented to me. Apart from a Sony AIO PC which I beat the shit out of with a chair leg in my back garden and then left in a bin full of water for 6 months just to make sure the pile of shit was dead. Picture:

[Specmaster]

@tggzzz:

I've never had this myself but I have seen it. Always just works for me. Which chipset and vendor is the board out of interest?

Shoving it in another hole is probably the correct answer. You can blame the USB standard for this not necessarily the PC or Windows. Check which ports your motherboard has and don't stick it in one of the USB3/3.1 holes and it'll be fine. If the cable to the front panel ports was a thick dual one that terminated on a pin header then it's probably USB 3. The back of mine has two clearly marked USB 2.0 ports (ASRock B450M Pro4 board)

If you think this is a pain in the arse, try connecting an old MS natural keyboard, a USB 1 device to a modern PC and installing an OS then. You get USB 1 transfer speeds on the entire hub.

USB = fucking shit.

Edit: I rarely have hardware problems TBH. Most computers are scared of me and spring into action the moment they are presented to me. Apart from a Sony AIO PC which I beat the shit out of with a chair leg in my back garden and then left in a bin full of water for 6 months just to make sure the pile of shit was dead. Picture:

I Think we will have to give you a nickname...I got it, Basil

[mnementh]

If you think that's bad buy one of these pieces of shit 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32801038540.html

There are no instructions usually, half the resistors and capacitors are off, you have to decipher the IF can colours and when you do find some shonky instructions on the internet the transistors all get rather toasty and smoke comes out because the thing is poorly biased

LMAO, still can't get my head around why you even wanted to make an AM radio in the first place?

Yeah; the last time I tried to tune anything in on AM, I could get ONE station: Some televangelist screaming alternately in English and Tejano Spanish about how everybody who could hear his voice was damned to the pit unless they said 67 Hail Marys and sent them $50 per child in the household. I am NOT KIDDING!!!

mnem
"Say 67 'Fuck dat noize!' and drink a pitcher of Pina Coladas with your best friend. Go with doG, my son."

[0culus]

My local market is fairly healthy AM-wise. We have one 50 kW station that does syndicated talk shows, one that's just sportzball broadcasts, and others with lower power.

[Cerebus]

No, she is a court usher and normally does the murder trails. (sic)

Is that where you hunt down backpackers and slaughter them with a machete? BD had better watch out...

[Cerebus]

... including airport fire truck (Räddningsterrängbil 4112) ...

That's an almost German level of "throwing words together with random diacritical marks just to confuse foreigners".

... and airfield snow clearing vehicle (Snöslunga 77) ...

OK, now you're just taking the Mick. You're just getting these names randomly out of the Ikea catalogue aren't you? 

[tggzzz]

@tggzzz:

I've never had this myself but I have seen it. Always just works for me. Which chipset and vendor is the board out of interest?

Asus TUF Gaming x570 with a Ryzen 3700x.

Shoving it in another hole is probably the correct answer. You can blame the USB standard for this not necessarily the PC or Windows. Check which ports your motherboard has and don't stick it in one of the USB3/3.1 holes and it'll be fine. If the cable to the front panel ports was a thick dual one that terminated on a pin header then it's probably USB 3. The back of mine has two clearly marked USB 2.0 ports (ASRock B450M Pro4 board)

Back panel:

• 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (2 x Type-A ports; 1 x Type C port)
• 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports

Connectors for flying leads on motherboard:

• 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 connector supports additional 2 USB ports - I left these unconnected
• 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 connectors support additional 4 USB ports - I've connected these to the front panel

Yes, I've tried using the front panel USB 2.0 ports, with the same end result.

Edit: I rarely have hardware problems TBH. Most computers are scared of me and spring into action the moment they are presented to me. Apart from a Sony AIO PC which I beat the shit out of with a chair leg in my back garden and then left in a bin full of water for 6 months just to make sure the pile of shit was dead. Picture:

I've just put my last-but-one homebrew in the recycling bin. It was a dual processor (not core) Athlon server motherboard from ~2005. Worked beautifully as an XP/ubuntu dual boot.
I'm typing this on my current machine, an intel core 2 duo from ~2011. Works beautifully as an XP/ubuntu dual boot. Went to buy Win7 when XP support ended, Microsoft said "shan't sell you that".
My fallback machine is my daughter's round-Oz Asus eeePC from 2010. Worked beautifully until a disk died, tried to reinstall XP, Microsoft said "shan't, Samsung's fault", stuck ubuntu on it and it still works beautifully.
Now Microsoft says "shan't let you instally Win10, and you're on your own".

Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, third time is enemy action.

[Specmaster]

Right, the Xtal tester and cheap arse frequency counter is finished and has finally passed testing. I say finally because it was apparently working fine but the only crystal that I had to test it with, although it being a new one, was dead 

Anyway the kit was well thought out apart on area, the tester socket was mounted flat on the PCB, which is fine if you didn't to put it into some form of a case. I purchased it with an acrylic case which means that unless the crystal under test has long leads, then your out of luck. I'll look at ways of bringing this upwards so it finishes pretty flush with the case. The supplied instructions are pretty crap to be honest. Apparently, when used as a frequency counter, the decimal point serves a dual function, firstly as as decimal point and secondly according to other online video I came across, if it steady, it denotes the display is in MHz but if it flashes then it means the display is in kHz, none of this is explained in the instructions.

Anyway here are some photos of the unit in test and finshed in its case (less the future modification with its test socket).


The completed board.


The solder side.


The board has passed the post test, 4th digit showing a zero means it has passed power on test.


Testing with a 2.4MHz duff crystal 


Testing with a 54MHz crystal (max is 50MHz) this shows the third overtone (thanks bd139)


Testing a 20MHz crystal


And in its case with the duff crystal

All in, its not a bad piece of TE given the low cost £8.86 plus shipping, while not a precision device it is a very handy thing to have to provide a quick no nonsense test of a crystal.

[Neomys Sapiens]

... including airport fire truck (Räddningsterrängbil 4112) ...

That's an almost German level of "throwing words together with random diacritical marks just to confuse foreigners".

... and airfield snow clearing vehicle (Snöslunga 77) ...

OK, now you're just taking the Mick. You're just getting these names randomly out of the Ikea catalogue aren't you? 

just wait for the Smörrebrödpåfyllningterrängbil.

[Kosmic]

I fixed my microscope problem. To replace the cheap one I got couple years ago (Mustool G600), I ordered another cheap microscope (Andonstar AD206)  This time, it's actually working though.



I have no idea why I bought the Mustool G600 in the first place. When I received it, I remember it was barely acceptable and almost returned it. You can find bunch of people on youtube recommending that microscope. I guess they were all paid by banggood to endorse really cheap products. I definitely felt like I had been bang really good by someone when I received mine.

Comparison between the G600 and AD206:

G600:





AD206:





Just for size reference the connector on the left is a SMA.



Overall, the AD206 is working fine. Resolution is OK (1920x1080), price is great (90$US) and the movable light are doing a good job to light your subject correctly. The firmware is always a bit weird on those cheap microscopes though. It’s like they are reusing exactly the same software for a bunch of products. For example, on the AD206 there’s a small battery icon flashing on the lower right of the screen. But the unit is not equipped with a battery. Another nuisance is all the functions on the remote do not work when the scope is in photo mode. They only work in video mode 

P.S: I gave the G600 to the kids, they are super happy with it 

[mnementh]

So which of those little roach turds in the picture is the burnt out one...? 

mnem
 

[Kosmic]

So which of those little roach turds in the picture is the burnt out one...? 

mnem
 

 

Always amazing looking at those old gold plated RF circuits.

Edit: This one is a RF limiter.

[0culus]

TEA battery gurus, here's one for you. I am working on an HP 208A test oscillator. This is a cute little battery powered sine oscillator mainly for audio frequencies (but covers up to about 560 kHz) that is a bit of a unicorn. Pat (Cubdriver) was able to track down a manual for it, and it's now on the usual manual sites. Basically, the only function of the mains power in this instrument is to trickle charge the batteries when plugged in (charging current is adjustable with a pot on the power supply board). The instrument does not function without batteries, and mine has had the batteries removed. It calls for 4 6.5 volt NiCads. What would be a suitable modern replacement?

[mansaxel]

... including airport fire truck (Räddningsterrängbil 4112) ...

That's an almost German level of "throwing words together with random diacritical marks just to confuse foreigners".

... and airfield snow clearing vehicle (Snöslunga 77) ...

OK, now you're just taking the Mick. You're just getting these names randomly out of the Ikea catalogue aren't you? 

Nopes. Those are the actual words. I worked in the military, close to the supply people who are those that come up with the names. They sound like this. A favourite is the shaped charge tracer ammunition to the Carl Gustav "bazooka", its called Spårljuspansarspränggranat.

[AVGresponding]

TEA battery gurus, here's one for you. I am working on an HP 208A test oscillator. This is a cute little battery powered sine oscillator mainly for audio frequencies (but covers up to about 560 kHz) that is a bit of a unicorn. Pat (Cubdriver) was able to track down a manual for it, and it's now on the usual manual sites. Basically, the only function of the mains power in this instrument is to trickle charge the batteries when plugged in (charging current is adjustable with a pot on the power supply board). The instrument does not function without batteries, and mine has had the batteries removed. It calls for 4 6.5 volt NiCads. What would be a suitable modern replacement?

In series, series parallel, or parallel?

I'd look at using SLA batteries, if there's space. If you do, don't use cheap fleabay cells, buy them from a reputable seller or you'll end up with rubbish cells that fail within weeks, and/or a tiny fraction of the advertised capacity.

SLAs generally can be made to work as a substitute for NiCd on a 3:4 cell ratio, provided care is taken with understanding boost/float charge rates (SLAs are slightly less tolerant of higher V) as though they can handle the current, some NiCd chargers will output a bit too much V looking for a dv/dt EOC slope.
My guess is an old charger like that will not be so complex, so I'd just measure the o/c V and see it's not above about 2.3V/cell.

[bitseeker]

After 2 months i'm still waiting for my USB connectors. Look like I will have to change my plan for my Jim Williams pulse generator.

Ha got my connectors in the mail today. Took 103 days to get here from China. Used to take 30 days at most.

Speaking of connectors, I ordered from China a set of allegedly genuine HPAK binding posts for an E3631A back in March. The seller, whose rating history shows positive feedback from sales of the same item earlier in the year, messaged me in April about long shipping delays. Still waiting... Maybe June?

[bitseeker]

The Gorillas certainly had fun with that Heath. 

mnem

LOL. I remember that commercial. It also reminds me of a trip to the zoo when an orangutan tossed a stick to me. So, I tossed it back. He did the same. And we continued this came of catch until he finally missed the stick and it fell out of reach of us both. Was fun while it lasted.

[bitseeker]

On the negative side, I heard last night that my Aunt passed away Monday morning at her nursing home in Eastbourne, aged 103 of natural causes. Looking like I may be the only person at her funeral whenever that is going to be granted, apart from one or two staff members from her home. She does have a Sister, 96 in a home Isle of White and 2 Nieces, neither of whom had ever met her so won't be attending. Not much off a sent off for her I'm afraid.

Sorry to hear, Spec. 103 and 96+ are amazing!

[bitseeker]

... If you want a British designed and built car, try the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera, £300,007 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Martin_DBS_Superleggera

Hehe. Clever pricing, Aston: £300,007

[bitseeker]

TEA battery gurus, here's one for you. I am working on an HP 208A test oscillator. This is a cute little battery powered sine oscillator mainly for audio frequencies (but covers up to about 560 kHz) that is a bit of a unicorn. Pat (Cubdriver) was able to track down a manual for it, and it's now on the usual manual sites. Basically, the only function of the mains power in this instrument is to trickle charge the batteries when plugged in (charging current is adjustable with a pot on the power supply board). The instrument does not function without batteries, and mine has had the batteries removed. It calls for 4 6.5 volt NiCads. What would be a suitable modern replacement?

In series, series parallel, or parallel?

I'd look at using SLA batteries, if there's space. If you do, don't use cheap fleabay cells, buy them from a reputable seller or you'll end up with rubbish cells that fail within weeks, and/or a tiny fraction of the advertised capacity.

SLAs generally can be made to work as a substitute for NiCd on a 3:4 cell ratio, provided care is taken with understanding boost/float charge rates (SLAs are slightly less tolerant of higher V) as though they can handle the current, some NiCd chargers will output a bit too much V looking for a dv/dt EOC slope.
My guess is an old charger like that will not be so complex, so I'd just measure the o/c V and see it's not above about 2.3V/cell.

Since you can adjust the trickle charging current, you can probably substitute NiMH batteries. Usually, NiMH aren't a direct replacement for NiCd because NiMH require a lower trickle current.

[bd139]

@tggzzz:

I've never had this myself but I have seen it. Always just works for me. Which chipset and vendor is the board out of interest?

Asus TUF Gaming x570 with a Ryzen 3700x.

Shoving it in another hole is probably the correct answer. You can blame the USB standard for this not necessarily the PC or Windows. Check which ports your motherboard has and don't stick it in one of the USB3/3.1 holes and it'll be fine. If the cable to the front panel ports was a thick dual one that terminated on a pin header then it's probably USB 3. The back of mine has two clearly marked USB 2.0 ports (ASRock B450M Pro4 board)

Back panel:

• 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (2 x Type-A ports; 1 x Type C port)
• 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports

Connectors for flying leads on motherboard:

• 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 connector supports additional 2 USB ports - I left these unconnected
• 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 connectors support additional 4 USB ports - I've connected these to the front panel

Yes, I've tried using the front panel USB 2.0 ports, with the same end result.

Edit: I rarely have hardware problems TBH. Most computers are scared of me and spring into action the moment they are presented to me. Apart from a Sony AIO PC which I beat the shit out of with a chair leg in my back garden and then left in a bin full of water for 6 months just to make sure the pile of shit was dead. Picture:

I've just put my last-but-one homebrew in the recycling bin. It was a dual processor (not core) Athlon server motherboard from ~2005. Worked beautifully as an XP/ubuntu dual boot.
I'm typing this on my current machine, an intel core 2 duo from ~2011. Works beautifully as an XP/ubuntu dual boot. Went to buy Win7 when XP support ended, Microsoft said "shan't sell you that".
My fallback machine is my daughter's round-Oz Asus eeePC from 2010. Worked beautifully until a disk died, tried to reinstall XP, Microsoft said "shan't, Samsung's fault", stuck ubuntu on it and it still works beautifully.
Now Microsoft says "shan't let you instally Win10, and you're on your own".

Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, third time is enemy action.

Ok did some research. This is probably disparity between a UEFI and BIOS boot. Make sure you have written it using a UEFI capable tool. Instructions here: https://www.linuxbabe.com/ubuntu/easily-create-windows-10-bootable-usb-ubuntu

Make sure the board is set to true UEFI boot. Basically it expects to load the drivers from a known location during the boot process but it can’t see that because it’s in legacy BIOS mode. Just do a full config reset in the BIOS first before you do this. It should be set up right by default.

Mine probably works because I usually use a windows machine to write the stick using the MSFT image creation tool.

[Cubdriver]

TEA battery gurus, here's one for you. I am working on an HP 208A test oscillator. This is a cute little battery powered sine oscillator mainly for audio frequencies (but covers up to about 560 kHz) that is a bit of a unicorn. Pat (Cubdriver) was able to track down a manual for it, and it's now on the usual manual sites. Basically, the only function of the mains power in this instrument is to trickle charge the batteries when plugged in (charging current is adjustable with a pot on the power supply board). The instrument does not function without batteries, and mine has had the batteries removed. It calls for 4 6.5 volt NiCads. What would be a suitable modern replacement?

Yummy!!!!


Sean - I started a thread on it:  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hp-208a-test-oscillator/

Links to an Eveready battery datebook and some info on the batteries used, along with some photos, are contained therein.  I'd look for replacements now, but at 0400 it's past even my normally insane bedtime.

-Pat