Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

I have posted my story of the Braun Visacoustic projector in the Repair section because of this:

"Ask for repair help or describe how to repair equipment"

This is an example of any and all tree-like hierarchical catalogue systems, from filing cabinets to the Dewey Decimal system, and fleabay. They can't unambiguously guide you to where things are; the best they can hope to acheive is to guide you away from where they aren't.

My report has been found by a guy from Italy, I think because of google. That's why I've placed some keywords in my text, hoping, that a search engine will indexing it. Not the best solution I admit but I have no better idea how to organize those things.

There is not and cannot be a single right way!

I didn't say that. 

I tend to... now hold on to your hats, I say... I tend to agree with tggzzz on this one; after spending the morning literally drowning in useless results for something that should be EASY to find... the internet tries TOO HARD to "be helpful" too much of the time.

Part of me misses the bad old days... when you got a dozen results and Alta Vista was your search engine, and if you didn't like it, you could go suck a lemon.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Spent the morning being repeatedly kicked in the balls by the internet... you'd think "sewing machine oil" would be a pretty UN-ambiguous search term; but I keep getting page after page of everything but that. (iPwn cases...? SERIOUSLY...?) Or something that could work, only ridiculously priced or an eyedropperful of product when I need a pint.

I think I'm just going to say "fuck it" and go with some light hydraulic oil; viscosity will be a bit high, but at least I can get a quart at Princess Auto without killing myself. 

mnem

Do you have this brand?

on amazon btw i get a lot of matches on that term
https://www.techniekwebshop.nl/kroon-oil-smo-1830-02217-1-l-flacon-bus.html

Yeah, Amazon.ca was like... the WORST off-topic offender this time.  They have really weird holes in their catalog... WHOLE CLASSES of product they "just don't carry" for WTF-ever reason... and when you hit one of those items, they give you the most idiotic alternatives imaginable, rather than just admit "We don't have that".

The illogical nature of how the COVID lockdown is applied by local government has really made it a clusterflop to find things locally. The only sewing supply stores in any way open are IN Toronto proper; a 2+ hour drive away. Online, anything I can order seems to have to come from the US... which instantly adds $30-40 to the cost. Ridiculous, when all I need is a pint of ISO10 mineral oil that I SHOULD be able to get for about $7.

So now that my testicles have been ground into a fine paste by the Internet; I think I'll suck it up and just get a quart of ISO32 Hydraulic Oil for $9 at Princess Auto.

mnem

[Kosmic]

Have you got a tracking number yet? This then also proves that the listing was extremely misleading and also proves that had more than 1 unit to sell, which was never mentioned in the listing. As other have said, keep track of the dates to make sure that you do not miss the deadline, beyond which you are on you're own. Some sellers will keep you on a string until the deadline has passed.

Thanks again, i felt really bad about it, first time i have a bad experiance on ebay. i am usualy lucky...
also only one problem with bangyougood, but now almost only shopping at aliexpress.
Wish never arrives now in covid and untracked...so stoped there too.

yes have a code from TNT directly and from seller, it should arrive around 1/7 ..

Make sure you understand what such a code doesn't mean.

Once I had such a code but the shipment never moved; I even allowed an extra week for delivery to occur. Eventually I cancelled the order via ebay, since it was clear the sender (an Israeli company) had not given the part to the shipping company. A week or so later the company said they could send it to me. Suspicion: if not an outright fraud, they were advertising something they didn't have but thought they could get after somebody had ordered it.

As others have said, don't let the clock tick down past a threshold.

Yep if you close the case it's not possible to re-open it later.

[mnementh]

Repair re the Dremel slotting, I am happy to put it in the summary of the vintage restoration etc thread if you think it is appropriate.
Recently I came across a set of 'nut' extractors, like a socket set with left hand course threads that help remove rounded off nuts. I had to buy it of course!

Yup... those work well, and I have a huge assortment of various extractors in my big toolbox. Those are one of the things I've been reluctant to buy again since getting to the Great White North; one of these days I'll have my toolbox again...

mnem
*sigh*

[psykok]

Hi,

Just received this nice EIP 454 counter.
It's working, only the band 3 (1-18GHz) is apparently not working correctly from what the vendor was saying. It doesn't matter for me ,I'm not very interested in this band and do not have instrument playing in this range.

Alex

Most likely a blown input from some Gorilla applying too much voltage. Should not be all that difficult to find the damaged components. But what might be difficult is getting replacement components.

I don't know I will have to open go digging in to the band 3 section.
The Converter assembly just behind the 1-18Ghz input is making some ticking noise (like a bad relay) when the counter is working is band 3 (like after each turn on, seems  to be the default mode)


I'm also looking to add the power meter option:
http://www.simonsdialogs.com/2014/09/eip-545a-microwave-counter-power-meter-upgrade/
Even if my instrument looks older and a little bit different from the A version, this upgrade should be doable.
I noticed that mine has 2526 EPROMs in place of 2532.

[cyclin_al]

Spent the morning being repeatedly kicked in the balls by the internet... you'd think "sewing machine oil" would be a pretty UN-ambiguous search term; but I keep getting page after page of everything but that. (iPwn cases...? SERIOUSLY...?) Or something that could work, only ridiculously priced or an eyedropperful of product when I need a pint.

I think I'm just going to say "fuck it" and go with some light hydraulic oil; viscosity will be a bit high, but at least I can get a quart at Princess Auto without killing myself. 

mnem

Do you have this brand?

on amazon btw i get a lot of matches on that term
https://www.techniekwebshop.nl/kroon-oil-smo-1830-02217-1-l-flacon-bus.html

Yeah, Amazon.ca was like... the WORST off-topic offender this time.  They have really weird holes in their catalog... WHOLE CLASSES of product they "just don't carry" for WTF-ever reason... and when you hit one of those items, they give you the most idiotic alternatives imaginable, rather than just admit "We don't have that".

The illogical nature of how the COVID lockdown is applied by local government has really made it a clusterflop to find things locally. The only sewing supply stores in any way open are IN Toronto proper; a 2+ hour drive away. Online, anything I can order seems to have to come from the US... which instantly adds $30-40 to the cost. Ridiculous, when all I need is a pint of ISO10 mineral oil that I SHOULD be able to get for about $7.

So now that my testicles have been ground into a fine paste by the Internet; I think I'll suck it up and just get a quart of ISO32 Hydraulic Oil for $9 at Princess Auto.

mnem

I was going to jump in here to tell you that sewing machine oil is just mineral oil.  In the time I got back from walking the dog, it is clear you already know that bit.
There are lots of other names for mineral oil, so it should be really easy to get, once you find the product name.
For example, baby oil is mineral oil, but you do NOT want the scents and other crap that is added in; pass on that one.
The best one I know of is some types of bicycle hydraulic brake fluid are straight-up mineral oil.  Where you live in Ontario, bike repair shops are an essential service for transportation.  You should be able to pop into your local bike shop and pick some up with no problem.  It may be a bit more expensive than something actually labelled as mineral oil, but I assume for the amount you need that it will be far cheaper than ordering from the US or driving into T.O.  Make sure to ask a couple of questions at the shop; you do not want to end up with another type of bicycle hydraulic brake fluid that is DOT-3 or something else corrosive like that.

*my screen name finally contributes to electronics* 

[Mr. Scram]

Hope you don't have to do what I had to for a clogged sewer. That's in one of my bedrooms circa 2007 (that's not me it's the plumber). Not fun.

Sure, plumber and totally not a body you buried under your floor. 

[BU508A]

Spent the morning being repeatedly kicked in the balls by the internet... you'd think "sewing machine oil" would be a pretty UN-ambiguous search term; but I keep getting page after page of everything but that. (iPwn cases...? SERIOUSLY...?) Or something that could work, only ridiculously priced or an eyedropperful of product when I need a pint.

I think I'm just going to say "fuck it" and go with some light hydraulic oil; viscosity will be a bit high, but at least I can get a quart at Princess Auto without killing myself. 

mnem

5 seconds on amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/Singer-2131E-All-Purpose-Machine/dp/B000YZ1Y06/

[Mr. Scram]

Ahh I suffer from that problem as well. Good luck. Dyno-rod time.

I think I got it. As chemical warfare and mechanical removal weren't panning out I improvised a bit. I figured I was dealing with a fatty mass so I filled the drain with a handful of kettles worth of boiling water and dishwashing liquid. Once the surrounding floor area was nice and hot I used a plunger to try to move the mass and it pushed through almost immediately. I know I moved it around before so maybe I was already almost there, but that seems to have done the trick. I didn't even blast scalding hot water in my face. 

Drain tea, anyone?

[tggzzz]

Ahh I suffer from that problem as well. Good luck. Dyno-rod time.

I think I got it. As chemical warfare and mechanical removal weren't panning out I improvised a bit. I figured I was dealing with a fatty mass so I filled the drain with a handful of kettles worth of boiling water and dishwashing liquid. Once the surrounding floor area was nice and hot I used a plunger to try to move the mass and it pushed through almost immediately. I know I moved it around before so maybe I was already almost there, but that seems to have done the trick. I didn't even blast scalding hot water in my face. 

I have to do something similar with my mother's 1840 drains (the ones Dynorod failed and MAD succeeded in clearing).

The bugger in that case is the kitchen sink, somewhere before the small pipe joins a (not the!) big ceramic drain. The warning sign is a glugging sound after the sink empties but as the small pipe empties.

My technique is to run hot water down the drain to heat up the pipe. Then I fill up both sinks with hot water, and let them out simultaneously. After that the glugging has nromally gone.

My fear is that there might be a blockage between the last manhole cover and the municipal drain in the street. There's certainly some form of cavern there, but nobody has gone spelunking in living memory

[drussell]

I have two choices for shipping from some unknown warehouse in the US to here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada...
I need these parts before the weekend, Thursday would be nice but by Friday is imperative.
Canada Day is Wednesday, which might screw things up and of course Saturday is July 4th so many will be gearing up for the weekend. 

Anyone been having particularly good luck or bad luck with either of these?

DHL International Express supposedly Thursday July 2 $38.25
FedEx Economy supposedly Friday July 3 $21.85

I haven't shipped anything express from the US for ages.... 
DHL was usually spotty, FedEX is normally good to me but they are only offering the Economy rate not full express from this place right now......  sooo...

Which do I chose?   

[mnementh]

Repair re the Dremel slotting, I am happy to put it in the summary of the vintage restoration etc thread if you think it is appropriate.
Recently I came across a set of 'nut' extractors, like a socket set with left hand course threads that help remove rounded off nuts. I had to buy it of course!

Yup... those work well, and I have a huge assortment of various extractors in my big toolbox. Those are one of the things I've been reluctant to buy again since getting to the Great White North; one of these days I'll have my toolbox again...

mnem
*sigh*

Done: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/tinkering-101-borked-bolt-extraction-by-slotting-with-a-dremel/msg3111222/#msg3111222  and submitted in thread, along with a few others.

Thanks!

mnem

[mnementh]

Spent the morning being repeatedly kicked in the balls by the internet... you'd think "sewing machine oil" would be a pretty UN-ambiguous search term; but I keep getting page after page of everything but that. (iPwn cases...? SERIOUSLY...?) Or something that could work, only ridiculously priced or an eyedropperful of product when I need a pint.

I think I'm just going to say "fuck it" and go with some light hydraulic oil; viscosity will be a bit high, but at least I can get a quart at Princess Auto without killing myself. 

mnem

   
  5 seconds on amazon.com:  https://www.amazon.com/Singer-2131E-All-Purpose-Machine/dp/B000YZ1Y06/

Yes, the above-mentioned "eyedropperful when I need a pint"; I'd need 4 or 5 of that little bottle as this is a wet-sump machine with oil pump. Also, Singer oil is full of some damned thing that reeks to high heaven; it's worse than transmission fluid.  Light mineral oil is odorless.

mnem
moo. or don't.

[SilverSolder]

Spent the morning being repeatedly kicked in the balls by the internet... you'd think "sewing machine oil" would be a pretty UN-ambiguous search term; but I keep getting page after page of everything but that. (iPwn cases...? SERIOUSLY...?) Or something that could work, only ridiculously priced or an eyedropperful of product when I need a pint.

I think I'm just going to say "fuck it" and go with some light hydraulic oil; viscosity will be a bit high, but at least I can get a quart at Princess Auto without killing myself. 

mnem

   
  5 seconds on amazon.com:  https://www.amazon.com/Singer-2131E-All-Purpose-Machine/dp/B000YZ1Y06/

Yes, the above-mentioned "eyedropperful when I need a pint"; I'd need 4 or 5 of that little bottle as this is a wet-sump machine with oil pump. Also, Singer oil is full of some damned thing that reeks to high heaven; it's worse than transmission fluid.  Light mineral oil is odorless.

mnem
moo. or don't.

Google has a super useful option (that should really be default):   Tools / All Results <-> Verbatim

When in "Verbatim" mode, Google works the way you would expect a search engine to work...  i.e. it searches for terms that you actually typed in the box!

[SilverSolder]

I have two choices for shipping from some unknown warehouse in the US to here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada...
I need these parts before the weekend, Thursday would be nice but by Friday is imperative.
Canada Day is Wednesday, which might screw things up and of course Saturday is July 4th so many will be gearing up for the weekend. 

Anyone been having particularly good luck or bad luck with either of these?

DHL International Express supposedly Thursday July 2 $38.25
FedEx Economy supposedly Friday July 3 $21.85

I haven't shipped anything express from the US for ages.... 
DHL was usually spotty, FedEX is normally good to me but they are only offering the Economy rate not full express from this place right now......  sooo...

Which do I chose?   

I've noticed, in the last week or so, that shipping times have become dramatically faster - this is true with both USPS and UPS which I have received shipments via recently.

Looks like they might be getting the shipping situation back to normal / under control.

You might be OK...

[med6753]

For the past 5 or so years that I've owned this 2465 DMS I have been unable to fix this boot up issue. The fail is defined as “Buffer Board EAROM Checksum Error”. You can bypass the fail and the scope then proceeds to boot up and appears to operate normally. The Buffer Board is the interface board between the options, such as the DMM and Counter, and the mainframe. It also has a unique EAROM that stores the cal data for those options. The mainframe has it's own EAROM for it's cal data and is unaffected by this fail.



The way this fail manifests itself is very subtle. The Counter operates normally and I've been able to successfully calibrate it. The DMM also operates normally on DCV and Ohms and I've been able to successfully calibrate those functions too. It's on ACV where the corrupt EAROM reveals itself. When you select ACV you get the function but also get these dots across the top of the screen. It's not well documented in the manual but I have found out that those dots are a warning that the cal data for this function might be suspect.



The only fix for this checksum error is a new EAROM. Absolutely unobtanium unless you harvest it from a parts unit. The problem is that these DMS units are not all that common and when they do appear on Ebay they demand a high price. Functional units typically start at $350 USD on up. If you have a certified and traceable cal unit you can get as much as $1000 USD. Even parts units aren't cheap. $250 USD on up. Until now. A few weeks ago I found one that powered up but had no trace. And it also appeared that it had some sort of boot error but since it had no trace you couldn't see it. It had the exact same options as mine. Best of all, dirt cheap. I got it.

The no trace is a fubar'ed HV board. The PSU itself is good along with original RIFA's. It does have some sort of boot error but hopefully it's not the Buffer EAROM. The mission? Swap that Buffer EAROM in to mine and see what happens. Hopeful I'll get a clean boot for the first time and perhaps the worst I'll have to do is recal the Counter and DMM. Doable.

So today I went through the totally PITA process of pulling the Buffer Board and swapping the EAROM. Long story short, it didn't work. I get a CT 87 Fail 21 which is some sort trigger mode fail that I quickly looked up in the manual but decided not to try to troubleshoot it. I suspect there's a compatibility issue or this replacement EAROM is no good. The date code on my EAROM is 86-04 and the replacement is 85-14. I can almost guarantee knowing Tek there were code or hardware updates between those dates. Oh well. I pulled it out and re-installed mine. And of course the checksum error came back but I can live with it.

But it's not a total loss. This unit will be spare parts. It has a good PSU, that could stand a re-cap, and I assume a good CRT. And I also assume the unobtanium Tek U800 chip along with some of the other hybrids too. And a real bonus. A DMS front cover! These covers are hard enough to find for a non-optioned 2465's. I've never seen the oversized cover for the DMS. Cool.   

[med6753]

And for tggzzz....the counter function on the 2465 DMS is accurate if properly calibrated.

[AVGresponding]

But it's not a total loss. This unit will be spare parts. It has a good PSU, that could stand a re-cap, and I assume a good CRT. And I also assume the unobtanium Tek U800 chip along with some of the other hybrids too. And a real bonus. A DMS front cover! These covers are hard enough to find for a non-optioned 2465's. I've never seen the oversized cover for the DMS. Cool.   

A qualified success then.


Just finished fitting new discs and pads to the front of my car, what a tedious job and always annoying when you have parts left over. Fortunately they are not immediately important. More important is I suspect a seized piston on the drivers side, no time today but I guess I can try to free it this weekend. Then look for a new one when I can't fix it...   


The Metcal SP200 arrived today, appears functional, 40-odd VAC on the output socket. No cartridge to test it, the one I thought was for this is for the low power handset on a PS900, so have had to order one. Why so many different kinds?   

No sign of the FX951 yet.

[Martin.M]

https://www.wellenkino.de/video/vid-dvm.mp4

 

[0culus]

https://www.wellenkino.de/video/vid-dvm.mp4

 

He lives!! How's it going Martin? 

[med6753]

https://www.wellenkino.de/video/vid-dvm.mp4

 

He lives!! How's it going Martin? 

Cool. Hey Martin. What is that? 

[Kosmic]

A mechanical voltmeter ?

[SilverSolder]

But it's not a total loss. This unit will be spare parts. It has a good PSU, that could stand a re-cap, and I assume a good CRT. And I also assume the unobtanium Tek U800 chip along with some of the other hybrids too. And a real bonus. A DMS front cover! These covers are hard enough to find for a non-optioned 2465's. I've never seen the oversized cover for the DMS. Cool.   

A qualified success then.


Just finished fitting new discs and pads to the front of my car, what a tedious job and always annoying when you have parts left over. Fortunately they are not immediately important. More important is I suspect a seized piston on the drivers side, no time today but I guess I can try to free it this weekend. Then look for a new one when I can't fix it...   


The Metcal SP200 arrived today, appears functional, 40-odd VAC on the output socket. No cartridge to test it, the one I thought was for this is for the low power handset on a PS900, so have had to order one. Why so many different kinds?   

No sign of the FX951 yet.

Brake calipers are cheap enough that they are better replaced than fixed, so you have something reliable for several more years.  Once they seize, they can be a b!tch to clean up...  and they will be more prone to seizing a second time.

[cyclin_al]

I know there are a few here who are much more knowledgable about things like pi-hole, and I need help to solve a problem without going too far down a rabbit hole.  I do have other things (TEA) I would rather be doing.

I noticed some strange things happening this week, including the return of ads.  Pi-hole takes care of that, right?
Not when it is being bypassed.
I discovered my ISP had reset the modem/router unit in my home back to defaults.
As a result, the router was doing DHCP and the ISP was providing DNS.  This is absolutely NOT what I wanted and was changed without my permission  .
So I spent the morning fettling around with things and thought I had fixed it.
DHCP is once again turned OFF on the router, just the way it was when I set it up.
The Primary DNS once again points to my Pi-hole.
However, in my previous setup, the secondary DNS pointed to 0.0.0.0.
This time, I had to point the secondary DNS to my Pi-hole as well, in order for the router to accept the change in settings.

After that, I was happy.  I could return to browsing eevblog.com  and things like google (sans ads) worked.
However, SWMBO was the first to discover that all is not well in the world.
It turns out quite a number of things do not work, while others do.  For example, Yahoo and Keysight could not be accessed.

The Query Log in Pi-hole is giving me some clues.
For the sites that are not working, the Status is Unknown(0), whereas sites that are working have a status OK(...)

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?  It almost looks like there is something wrong with a DNS cache or an upstream DNS server.
Of course, I am starting to get out of my league at this point.

Google is a bit of a useless tease since I can get search results, but mostly cannot access the website that returned in the search result!

Any ideas?

[tggzzz]

The only fix for this checksum error is a new EAROM. Absolutely unobtanium unless you harvest it from a parts unit.

If I had a 2465 (not A nor B) earom failure, I would try to replace it with an atmega328 or similar. I would ignore the 42V circuits and tap the 5V signals. Bitbanging ought to be possible for a fast processor and slow serial earom.

Of course that doesn't change the invalidity of the current earom contents.