Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Brumby]

They've had hundreds of years and thousands of people to come up with that stuff .... yet you managed it on your own in just a handful of years.

Any wonder why we might be uncomfortably anxious (and perhaps slightly intrigued) by such an achievement?

[mnementh]

I’ll take that as a compliment. 

I used to tell them in school... ”You laugh at me because I’m different; I laugh at you because you’re all the same.”

mnem
Yeah, I got in a lot of fights. 

[cyclin_al]

   So... it would appear I have a new assistant. 

Went Thrifting today since the boi wanted to; who found and decided that "I needed Emmet"... he was only a few dollars, and I always had a soft spot for the daft little nebbish, m'self... so I agreed.  Also found a right proper Scholastic-type globe for the education/office area; it's exactly the same as the ones I remember in every classroom when I was in school. Could be that old too; It has the Post-Soviet States/CIS still labeled as the USSR/Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic; so definitely pre-1991.

Don't care; it'll still be useful in general. If there's discrepancies, that'll give the boi a reason to use Google and do... gasp.... research. 

mnem
*toddles off to ded* 

Awesome 

Everything. Is. AWESOME...!

mnem
when you're living in a dream...

Everything Is AWESEOME...!

When You're Part of a Team ...



Unfortunately in my living room, that team was not able to stand up against 7 Ninjago figurines. 

Yes, Emmett lost his hair, and Yes, that is a dragon on the right side of the back row!

TEA related, the pickings are either slim or unafordable.  I did manage to pick up this for $3CAD:



It is described as a No. 10 Double Scale Voltmeter for testing the "A" and "B" batteries of vacuum tube hearing aid apparatus.
The seller did show me the original sales receipt; I thought I kept it as that would indicate when it was made.
Now, I am curious about what a hearing aid with vacumm tubes looks like.

In other news, I have no choice but to borrow Saskia's words  "Bloody Hell!!!"
There was nothing wrong with my Pi-hole after all.
When my network went wonky, I tried updating the Pi-hole.  After that, decided to re-install Pi-hole.
I removed the Pi-hole and things got really bad with IP address conflicts and other weirdness.
Not only that, but when I tried to put the microSD card into my computer to do a clean install, the card went in between the front panel and the IO pcb instead of in the card reader slot.  I had to disassemble the computer case, remove the drive bays and front, top and side panels in order to recover the microSD card.
Mental note:  Do not do that again, ever!
Further investigations eventually revealed that the ISP attempted to update the modem & router firmware while I was working.
The firmware introduced a f'd up initial support for IPv6, so any device that could support IPv6 went nuts. 
The silver lining is the guy who took my support call was a techie who is normally out in the field with a truck.  He did not make me run through all the usual hoops and simply said a new modem was in the mail and would arrive in two days.
Not only was that three days of no work done, but three days with no new videos to occupy the garcon!
But now, everything is back to awesome!
Next up is bath time:

[worsthorse]

Second plea to the precision resistor, ah, aficionados...

Trying to repair the bad sections of a mil-spec step attenuator.  I need what turn out to be odd values: 5.76, 17.6, 291, and 866 ohms, with the first and second being 1% and the latter two 0.1% tolerance (though I am pretty sure I should be able to get the 17.6 ohm in 0.1%). Vishay makes two series that should work, CMF50 and CMF55, but I haven't been able to find these values anywhere (they are E192). 

So... am I looking the wrong way? are these unobtainium values? any other precision resistor product lines I might also check out?

I am starting to think that I am   

[Brumby]

I’ll take that as a compliment. 

As you should.

I used to tell them in school... ”You laugh at me because I’m different; I laugh at you because you’re all the same.”

I like your moxy.   

[cyclin_al]

EDIT: for some reason, shipping to Canada is twice the price as shipping to the US. Never quite got that.

The explanation given is that the Canadian market is so much smaller than the US and the pricing reflects economy of scale.  That, and shipping in winter conditions all year round is expensive    I don't see any snow outside at the moment (29 deg C here).

The same excuses are given for the cost of goods in Canada, so it becomes a double-hit on the bank account.

The trouble is most of us are too polite to complain.  Those who understand simply travel to the US or find a friend who is travelling to the US and items are brought back as personal luggage.

So, buying in Canada is the most expensive option in many cases.
Buying from the US and expensive shipping to Canada is usually less expensive overall.
However, buying from the US in the US is far less expensive.

For example, I have done a 4 hour voyage to spend 15 minutes in the US, paid my taxes and duties at the border and saved almost a $1000CAD.

As many people do similar, the shipping companies keep the prices high since they still have a large enough captive market with those that are desperate (need it today!) or simply unaware.

[Ice-Tea]

R&S multi unit?

EDIT: for some reason, shipping to Canada is twice the price as shipping to the US. Never quite got that.

Sorry; I confused myself. I was thinking of the R&S CRTU that Robert763 described a while back. THAT sounds like a nice bit of kit.

It is. Same as the CMU, mostly. Can be had real cheap every now and then because  people go '3G tester - worthless' even though it has an SA, RF gen, sometimes audio analyzer, power meter and some other options. Sold quite a few over the years, still have a few more to restore

Hmm, they are both 19" x 4U so not sure why the data sheet says the CRTU is taller and wier, maybe they count the feet and handles. 8922 is about 30lbs heavier depending on options in the CRTU.

Probably indeed because of the handles ;-)

[tonyalbus]

R&S multi unit?

EDIT: for some reason, shipping to Canada is twice the price as shipping to the US. Never quite got that.

Sorry; I confused myself. I was thinking of the R&S CRTU that Robert763 described a while back. THAT sounds like a nice bit of kit.

It is. Same as the CMU, mostly. Can be had real cheap every now and then because  people go '3G tester - worthless' even though it has an SA, RF gen, sometimes audio analyzer, power meter and some other options. Sold quite a few over the years, still have a few more to restore

Hmm, they are both 19" x 4U so not sure why the data sheet says the CRTU is taller and wier, maybe they count the feet and handles. 8922 is about 30lbs heavier depending on options in the CRTU.

Probably indeed because of the handles ;-)

[ Attachment Invalid Or Does Not Exist ]

cool stuff....

[bd139]

And I slept through a fluke 8800a. If anyone got it, well done.

[Brumby]

I have been sitting on this until fruition ... but Bean has been successful as an enabler, yet again - where I got to meet another member face to face.

First photo is admittedly a tease....   



I first brought in the tube and the little black box and informed SWMBO "There's more".  She asked "Do I want to know" to which I replied "Electronics stuff".  Her response was "the look".   

[med6753]

And I slept through a fluke 8800a. If anyone got it, well done.

Wasn't me, already have 2 of them plus a parts unit in the closet.

The 560 plug-in extension made it cross country overnight. At my local distribution center this morning. That's a surprise. I just might get it today.

We are going to get hit with a tropical storm today. That's a notch below a hurricane. Should be fun. 

[tggzzz]

was curious about a place in the uk called "bromley", and somehow the googles came back with this very strange and incomprehensible video.

if such a thing is possible......could one of you limeys please explain it? 

No. Partly because I don't know and partly on principle. It looks like a variant of Morris dancing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_dance

Ob quote: you should try everything once except incest and morris dancing.

If you like strange occupations, you might like to look for "bog snorkelling", "dwile flonking", "cheese rolling".

[FransW]

And this is the ovenized 10MHz crystal oscillator for improved stabilty

Why a CTS OCXO?
Any particular reason (except price)?

[Specmaster]

was curious about a place in the uk called "bromley", and somehow the googles came back with this very strange and incomprehensible video.

if such a thing is possible......could one of you limeys please explain it? 

No. Partly because I don't know and partly on principle. It looks like a variant of Morris dancing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_dance

Ob quote: you should try everything once except incest and morris dancing.

If you like strange occupations, you might like to look for "bog snorkelling", "dwile flonking", "cheese rolling".

Surprised that it was even allowed to happen, when you stop and think that the black and white minstrel show was stopped because it was deemed to be racist.

[med6753]

could be over there in about 50 minutes in light traffic......but.....

my basement is a tek free zone.

not opposed to their stuff......just never floated my boat.

Here's a thought. I could certainly use that as possible spare parts. How about this.....you go pick it up. Sometime next week I'll make a day trip to Gettysburg and not only pick it up but I'd like to go through the battlefield. I was there once before almost 40 years ago.

What do you think?

[wolfy007]

I have been sitting on this until fruition ... but Bean has been successful as an enabler, yet again - where I got to meet another member face to face.

First photo is admittedly a tease....   



I first brought in the tube and the little black box and informed SWMBO "There's more".  She asked "Do I want to know" to which I replied "Electronics stuff".  Her response was "the look".   

Well dont mention my name, I dont want to get in trouble, we will just blame Bean...   

[tonyalbus]

 



got 2 for 1 
Seems i have the LAG26 from yesterday for sale ;-)

[tautech]

Well dont mention my name, I dont want to get in trouble, we will just blame Bean...   

Speaking of him, anyone spotted him lately ?
Bean's part of Oz has had a covid outbreak and back in lock down. 

Hope he, mum and mutt are alright. 

[Brumby]

Well dont mention my name, I dont want to get in trouble, we will just blame Bean...   

Well, since you hadn't been identified, I wasn't sure if I should - but since you've outed yourself ... 

... but we'll blame Bean anyway because he did enable!

[bd139]

was curious about a place in the uk called "bromley", and somehow the googles came back with this very strange and incomprehensible video.

if such a thing is possible......could one of you limeys please explain it? 

No. Partly because I don't know and partly on principle. It looks like a variant of Morris dancing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_dance

Ob quote: you should try everything once except incest and morris dancing.

If you like strange occupations, you might like to look for "bog snorkelling", "dwile flonking", "cheese rolling".

Surprised that it was even allowed to happen, when you stop and think that the black and white minstrel show was stopped because it was deemed to be racist.

It’s all about context. Morris dancers blacking up predates knowing black people existed in the UK. Black and white minstrels, probably not 

Edit to clarify: Catherine of Aragon was the first employer and the Morris dancers were around in the 1300’s and actually being paid in the 1400’s. I wonder if people will look back at street dance in half a millennium in the same way.

[BU508A]

And this is the ovenized 10MHz crystal oscillator for improved stabilty

Why a CTS OCXO?
Any particular reason (except price)?

Yes. These are the reasons:

- Teardown, repair  and discussion about a Fluke PM6680B - The Signal Path #72

- Upgrade of the Fluke PM6680B - The signal Path #79

- The Module used for this kind of counters

And I liked the purple PCB   
I have two left, if you want one, let me know.

[Brumby]

Well dont mention my name, I dont want to get in trouble, we will just blame Bean...   

Speaking of him, anyone spotted him lately ?
Bean's part of Oz has had a covid outbreak and back in lock down. 

Hope he, mum and mutt are alright. 

Bean has popped in a couple of times, but hasn't posted for a week and a half.  He hasn't messaged me either.
There has been a recent spike in Covid in Victoria (where Bean is located) which has resulted in a major crack down in some areas - including several large unit complexes that have been put into enforced lockdown (many of the residents are not impressed).  The border between Victoria and NSW has been closed - which has caused a lot of hassle.  Bean isn't in a hot zone (as far as I know) but things are no doubt tougher of late.

[tonyalbus]

Parcel from DE to NL got lost...

HP 3478A Labormultimeter 5-stellig

Seller offers to send an other..

[FransW]

BU508A,

I will PM you.

Thanks for the offer.

Frans

[TorinoFermic]

Parcel from DE to NL got lost...

HP 3478A Labormultimeter 5-stellig

Seller offers to send an other..

Curious, how much you paid this, I bought mine for $140 CAD from a local seller. And it needs recapping and installing a DIY adapter thanks to some EEVBlog people at https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/project-extending-hp3478a-functionality/ and that is what I am getting from : https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/project-extending-hp3478a-functionality/