Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Excellent choice. Wish I was around when that first came out (and not in America and not drafted  )

I was around when it came out if I recall in '67.

I turned 18 in '71 and yes, I had to go to the Selective Service Office and register for the draft. But they had gone to a lottery system by that time. For that particular year when 18 yr old's were born (1953) all the dates of the year were tossed into big jar. Each day was then picked out and put on a big board labelled 1 thru 365. If your b day fell approx 150 or less pack your bags because Uncle Sam want's you. 150 and above you were pretty safe and not get drafted. What was my number? 330 (June 27) out of 365. Whew.     

Lucky that! I'd have missed draft on that as well  .

I would have instantly converted to a Seventh Day Adventist if I didn't miss it

[Ice-Tea]

it's on the playlist. along with lots of CCR

Just fire up Tour of Duty and be done with it

[med6753]

Excellent choice. Wish I was around when that first came out (and not in America and not drafted  )

I was around when it came out if I recall in '67.

I turned 18 in '71 and yes, I had to go to the Selective Service Office and register for the draft. But they had gone to a lottery system by that time. For that particular year when 18 yr old's were born (1953) all the dates of the year were tossed into big jar. Each day was then picked out and put on a big board labelled 1 thru 365. If your b day fell approx 150 or less pack your bags because Uncle Sam want's you. 150 and above you were pretty safe and not get drafted. What was my number? 330 (June 27) out of 365. Whew.     

Lucky that! I'd have missed draft on that as well  .

I would have instantly converted to a Seventh Day Adventist if I didn't miss it

I think the following year my b day came up under 20.  But it went by the year you turned 18 so you were locked in and still safe.

I do know someone who pulled a 100 and yep, they got called up. But he was lucky but then again unlucky. After basic the furthest east he went was Guam. He would wave at the B-52's taking off to bomb North Vietnam. But how was he unlucky? Guam had nukes. He got nuke training and had to handle them.    He wore a nuke badge. Don't recall if it changed color or had an alarm. But BFD. If it did go off you just might as well bend over and kiss your ass goodbye. 

[tonyalbus]

Finished the Counter mods...now its as good as it gets...



Dynatek DFC1000 Hung Chang 9100 Long Wei TFC1000L Maplin MF1000 Elenco F1000

Looks pretty much like this one (pls note the interesting / somewhat misplaced German a-Umlaut):
(Attachment Link)

omg how many names does this thing have......

but to be honest, i was suppriced about the x-tal oven... when it is stable after 15-20 min...it actualy is....

[Wolfgang]

Rabbithole, here I come.

In order to fix the effing RockPi board I have to solder in a SOP 8 EEPROM, then set up a PXEboot environment, then bring the board into masking mode, hook it up to an Ubuntu server (not yet installed), OTA flash the SPI rom with an SPI bootloader, and flash that critter with M.2 boot firmware. Then PXEboot into the installer and install the OS on an M.2 disk I have floating around.

And all of this ONLY because the bloody uSD card slot is not available.
Bloody hell.

Thats not a rabbit hole, its a *dungeon*. Famous TEA problem: In order to solve a (completely futile, of course) problem A, you *have* to buy/repair/construct a device B, for which you need either a new tool C or a fix of half-hacked unfinished project D.
Before you can even look, the rest of life is over. Bon voyage, the appropriate music is Highway to (hardware) hell. 

[Saskia]

Helvegen comes to mind. Even though I would prefer Walhalla.

Anyway, the RockPi is worth saving. I do not want my husband to constantly nag me about his favorite internet access gizmo, and he will not be getting anything Windows based. Last time he had something like that I had to remove 13 trojans.

[Specmaster]

I left the 4503 alone for a day and tonight I thought I'd fire it up and test it again, its gone bleeding nuts again, back in the innards i shall have to dive yet again, it was working fine Wednesday 

[med6753]

I left the 4503 alone for a day and tonight I thought I'd fire it up and test it again, its gone bleeding nuts again, back in the innards i shall have to dive yet again, it was working fine Wednesday 

It's not doing anything the usual British electrics do. Work one minute and not the next. I.E. : Lucas. 

[bd139]

Hahaha. Cursed at birth our electronics are.

[Specmaster]

It might find itself back on flea bay at this rate, its a crying shame because the overall condition of the thing cosmetically is perfect. Come to think of it, maybe thats why, it was always playing up since it was new and so it got left alone on a shelf somewhere?

[SilverSolder]

Intermittent faults are always the most entertaining...

[Saskia]

slightly corrected:
intermittent faults in the parachute ejection system of my rockets are the most entertaining.

Incoming !!!

[Specmaster]

Intermittent faults are always the most entertaining...

True, but this is a PITA to get out of the case.

[Cerebus]

I would just like to go on the public record and say that

I fscking hate hand soldering 0603 parts!

On a different note, this is the first time that I've actually used some relatively cheap Polish solder from Cynel (0.25mm 60/40 flux cored) and it's rather good.

[mnementh]

Intermittent faults are always the most entertaining...

Yeah, yeahhh... that's the word... 

mnem
 

[Brumby]

It's not doing anything the usual British electrics do. Work one minute and not the next.

As I was reading this, a word came to mind...

I.E. : Lucas. 

Yep.  That was the word.

[0culus]

I toed a little bit further into voltnut territory.  I couldn't resist a good deal on a 3456A voltmeter.  It works perfectly and is in great shape except for front panel damage where some gorilla went at a label. 

Bonus Tek 184 pr0n.

[URI]

I toed a little bit further into voltnut territory.  I couldn't resist a good deal on a 3456A voltmeter.  It works perfectly and is in great shape except for front panel damage where some gorilla went at a label. 

You won't regret it!   
In fact, they are very nice voltmeters, lower noise than 34401A and easier to repair as long as now special part goes to heaven -and the special parts count is also lower than the of the 34401A..

Watch out for the electrolytic caps in the power supply -all my three 3456A of different ages (serial # beginning with 25*, 28* -the newer ones) had dead caps there resulting in one or another fault sooner or later. They all came working fine without (selftest) errors though.

Also check for the right quartz for 60Hz.
-One of my 3456As -that must have been in service in a Germany based company- had the wrong (matching 60Hz instead of 50Hz) quartz built in throwing away noticeable amounts of noise ratio against power grid hum (50Hz in Europe). 

[tggzzz]

Bonus Tek 184 pr0n.


(Attachment Link)
(Attachment Link)

Yes, I had to bend that wire until it was almost that close modify that transformer to increase the coupling.

BTW, what mechanism do you use to insert pictures like that?

[URI]

...anyone in need for a Agilent DSO-X 3034A 350MHz 4 Channel oscilloscope?   
cons: It's not booting, seller states because of corrupt firmware and only one probe.
pros: If it is the firmware Keysight repairs this for free and afterwards you have a like new DSO-X 3034A.. (like me  )



No affiliation to the seller.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133436798057

[tautech]

BTW, what mechanism do you use to insert pictures like that?

The drop down selection to the right of the File box in Attachments.
A few options there and you can have a play with them each in Preview.

[AVGresponding]

I left the 4503 alone for a day and tonight I thought I'd fire it up and test it again, its gone bleeding nuts again, back in the innards i shall have to dive yet again, it was working fine Wednesday 

It's not doing anything the usual British electrics do. Work one minute and not the next. I.E. : Lucas. 

Oi! Bloomin' cheek!

I've no doubt there are plenty of US equivalents, I expect the dragon can name a few as it seems to be one of his favourite things to pick holes. Reminds me of someone, give me a moment... umm...
What immediately springs to mind is old US valve radios with 2 pin plugs so you can make the chassis live wrt earth!

Auto electrics from all manufacturers are still a significant reliability problem here, due to the environmental conditions they are subjected to. Even golden era Toyotas are not immune.

Specmaster has just gotten very unlucky/lucky (depending on your POV wrt chasing down intermittent faults), as mine has never missed a beat.

[bd139]

That’ll be from that loom which caught fire in my Land Rover. Also the indicator bulbs which had to be replaced every time you went round a corner. There was a running joke at the time that they put camera flash bulbs in them 

[Specmaster]

I left the 4503 alone for a day and tonight I thought I'd fire it up and test it again, its gone bleeding nuts again, back in the innards i shall have to dive yet again, it was working fine Wednesday 

It's not doing anything the usual British electrics do. Work one minute and not the next. I.E. : Lucas. 

Oi! Bloomin' cheek!

I've no doubt there are plenty of US equivalents, I expect the dragon can name a few as it seems to be one of his favourite things to pick holes. Reminds me of someone, give me a moment... umm...
What immediately springs to mind is old US valve radios with 2 pin plugs so you can make the chassis live wrt earth!

Auto electrics from all manufacturers are still a significant reliability problem here, due to the environmental conditions they are subjected to. Even golden era Toyotas are not immune.

Specmaster has just gotten very unlucky/lucky (depending on your POV wrt chasing down intermittent faults), as mine has never missed a beat.

Quite right, it will be back unless my fingers turn into penis's overnight and do the penis thing. It's my intention to keep this meter, once resolved it is a good and capable meter and in excellent condition.

Talking about Lucas, I have never experienced any problems with any of their equipment and a few years I was responsible for the electrics on a fleet of around 160 buses and coaches and never had any issues with those either so I'm sure where this Lucas notion that they were rubbish springs from. 

[med6753]

The Lucas rubbish? Well over here regardless if it was an MG, Triumph, or Rover the owners would bitch about electrical issues, constantly. Maybe it was a revolt due to having to put the steering wheel on the "correct" side. 


And hey, the "All American 5" which would shock you and knock you on your arse at least did one thing. It worked, all the time.