Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Robert763]

<SNIP>

<SNIP>

I think the mode of operation is different in the USA, to UK. In the UK the helicopter is used as a fast response critical care service carrying skilled doctors and advanced parmedics. They often perform advanced treatments, even up to opening the chest to carry out direct heart massage, at the scene. The helicoptor carries advanced equipment. Thus it is important to get them on scene ASAP. Pre-arranging a landing site would cause too much delay resulting in loss of life. 
Many medical flights in the USA are just patient transfers with a nurse or paramedic.
Oh and in the UK they are free, so they can't sort out a landing site while waiting for the insurance company to authorise payment.

Sorry, but that is incorrect....at least in these parts. The medivac is used for the same purposes as you indicated. A safe landing zone as close the incident as possible is set up prior to take off from base or while the helicopter is in the air. And the patient brought to the landing zone as quick as possible via ambulance if a significant distance away. Which can happen because we have large forested areas where a landing isn't possible. And the EMT's on the scene determine the need for a medivac, not the insurance companies.     

Please read what I said. The UK medical helicoptor flights are NOT medevac, they are to transport high level medical treatment to the scene. No disrespect to American EMT's but they are not the skilled trauma doctors that the UK flights transport. We generally have shorter distances too. The most serious cases are not even transported in the helicoptor if they are stabised on scene they will generlly go by land. I've had the misfortune of having to be transported by helicoptor due to traumatic injury and a close friend of mines life was saved by UK trauma doctors transported onto te traffic accident scene by helicoptor. He was too ill to fly.
I work in aviation and some of my work has included medevac and air ambulance installations.

[capt bullshot]

At least they brought wine
Our new Austrian owners brought Holacracy over the company. 

You mean this Decentralized Bureaucracy shitshow of liability-management through cellular nodes of ignorance & incompetence...? 

mnem

"The only thing better than a team of incompetents is two teams of incompetents pitted against each other!"

Yep. Exactly that.

[med6753]

A quick look on the inside of the Continental Specialists 5001 Counter before it goes into the TEA closet never to see the light of day again, except for parts. It powers up but depending upon the setting of the trigger control it will read several hundred hz high or low or right on the mark. That's Channel A. Channel B is even worse. I don't think it's worth my time to try to fix.

No disrespect to Mary who apparently built/tested it but it's toast. (And nixiefreqq did mention that he didn't think it worked)

[mansaxel]

I've got myself a Solartron;



It's got a small circular 3-pin mains inlet, looking like so:



My googling and other research gives this connector as possibly fitting:



Do you think I'm right?

If not, what do I put there?

Thanks,

[BU508A]

A quick look on the inside of the Continental Specialists 5001 Counter before it goes into the TEA closet never to see the light of day again, except for parts. It powers up but depending upon the setting of the trigger control it will read several hundred hz high or low or right on the mark. That's Channel A. Channel B is even worse. I don't think it's worth my time to try to fix.

No disrespect to Mary who apparently built/tested it but it's toast. (And nixiefreqq did mention that he didn't think it worked)

Who is Mary? 

[bd139]

I've got myself a Solartron;



It's got a small circular 3-pin mains inlet, looking like so:



My googling and other research gives this connector as possibly fitting:



Do you think I'm right?

If not, what do I put there?

Thanks,

Fucking Bulgin ick. That’s the ones.  I’d swap it for an IEC. Much less hassle.

[0culus]

@med: 585A is one step closer to fixed. I installed one of the new trimmer caps in place of the broken C348 and I've run through the time base cal procedure twice. Everything looks pretty good. Still a little bit of nagging nonlinearity on time base A in the .5, .2, and .1ms/cm settings. R160Z (which is used to adjust the 1ms/cm setting) is out of range to lengthen the sweep any further. These sweep speeds are technically in spec (the manual quotes +/-2.4mm when using the 1cm and 9cm graticules as measuring points), but I think it should be better. I did replace V161 with a NOS 6CL6 which improved the situation here compared to the tube that was in there.

[mansaxel]

My googling and other research gives this connector as possibly fitting

Fucking Bulgin ick. That’s the ones.  I’d swap it for an IEC. Much less hassle.

Thanks! At least it is obtainable new which is a lot better than the crap connector =hp= used; you know the one that's gone except it's available from some crazy guy who bought a giant stockpile NOS and now tries to make them his pension fund.. 

[Cubdriver]

A quick look on the inside of the Continental Specialists 5001 Counter before it goes into the TEA closet never to see the light of day again, except for parts. It powers up but depending upon the setting of the trigger control it will read several hundred hz high or low or right on the mark. That's Channel A. Channel B is even worse. I don't think it's worth my time to try to fix.

No disrespect to Mary who apparently built/tested it but it's toast. (And nixiefreqq did mention that he didn't think it worked)

Who is Mary? 

Look closely at the signed inspection sticker centered above the two innermost ribbon cables...  Likely either the assembler or the QC/cal person at the factory from when it was made.

-Pat

[Specmaster]

<SNIP>

<SNIP>

I think the mode of operation is different in the USA, to UK. In the UK the helicopter is used as a fast response critical care service carrying skilled doctors and advanced parmedics. They often perform advanced treatments, even up to opening the chest to carry out direct heart massage, at the scene. The helicoptor carries advanced equipment. Thus it is important to get them on scene ASAP. Pre-arranging a landing site would cause too much delay resulting in loss of life. 
Many medical flights in the USA are just patient transfers with a nurse or paramedic.
Oh and in the UK they are free, so they can't sort out a landing site while waiting for the insurance company to authorise payment.

Sorry, but that is incorrect....at least in these parts. The medivac is used for the same purposes as you indicated. A safe landing zone as close the incident as possible is set up prior to take off from base or while the helicopter is in the air. And the patient brought to the landing zone as quick as possible via ambulance if a significant distance away. Which can happen because we have large forested areas where a landing isn't possible. And the EMT's on the scene determine the need for a medivac, not the insurance companies.     

Please read what I said. The UK medical helicoptor flights are NOT medevac, they are to transport high level medical treatment to the scene. No disrespect to American EMT's but they are not the skilled trauma doctors that the UK flights transport. We generally have shorter distances too. The most serious cases are not even transported in the helicoptor if they are stabised on scene they will generlly go by land. I've had the misfortune of having to be transported by helicoptor due to traumatic injury and a close friend of mines life was saved by UK trauma doctors transported onto te traffic accident scene by helicoptor. He was too ill to fly.
I work in aviation and some of my work has included medevac and air ambulance installations.

Yes, I'd agree, the UK air ambulance is not purely a mode of transporting a patient from an emergency scene to the local hospital for emergency treatment, although they can and will do that if first responders on the scene deem that to be the fastest method to save the patient's life. I'm fortunate to have the Essex Air Ambulance operate from North Weald Airfield, just a few miles away from me and those helicopters do fly with a full complement of emergency teams on board with a doctor in the team, not a paramedic. It seems to me that often the decision to call on the services of the air ambulance service is often taken by the ambulance emergency control room teams in response to a 999 call they receive and base the judgement on the time of day, location of the incident and location of the nearest available road emergency ambulance to the incident. I can tell you that many times I have stood close to the air ambulance station when they get a scramble call, and they dive into the copter and fire it up. While the engine is warming up, they are on the radio to the tower and I can hear the conversation on my scanner radio which is tuned to the only radio frequency for that airfield and so can hear both sides of the conversation. There are given clearance to depart from the station and thus the airfield only to often hear a few seconds after lift off that they are requesting permission to return to base as they have been stood down because a road team have managed to get to the scene and assessed that they do not need the services of the helicopter after all. 

[BU508A]

Thanks! At least it is obtainable new which is a lot better than the crap connector =hp= used; you know the one that's gone except it's available from some crazy guy who bought a giant stockpile NOS and now tries to make them his pension fund..

You mean this one (it is the type PH-163)?



Some time ago I stumbled over an offer in ebay: 10 Euro / piece. I bought two of them, one of them was so brittle, that I had to shorten the cable to a length of ca. 30cm (this one in the picture above).

Edit:
Here is a current offer in the bay (offered in the US for nearly 30 USD per piece plus shipping):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/184355185764

[bd139]

Ugh yeah those things are cancer. Also the instruments and the hole tends not to be designed to support the deeper IEC sockets either. I have considered just making a plate with a strain relief and adding a captive mains cable to any HP stuff that comes in like that but that’s just as horrid.

What’s particularly horrible I find though is the early IEC sockets in early fluke bench meters. They are really crappy and moulded into the enclosure.

On that subject my 8050a is on the way via Hermes today. Slightly excited. Haven’t bought any TE for months 

[med6753]

@med: 585A is one step closer to fixed. I installed one of the new trimmer caps in place of the broken C348 and I've run through the time base cal procedure twice. Everything looks pretty good. Still a little bit of nagging nonlinearity on time base A in the .5, .2, and .1ms/cm settings. R160Z (which is used to adjust the 1ms/cm setting) is out of range to lengthen the sweep any further. These sweep speeds are technically in spec (the manual quotes +/-2.4mm when using the 1cm and 9cm graticules as measuring points), but I think it should be better. I did replace V161 with a NOS 6CL6 which improved the situation here compared to the tube that was in there.

You are probably going to wind up beating your head against the wall getting it any better. Typical specs for linearity are +/- 3 %.

BTW....does your friend want the 560 extender?

[0culus]

@med: 585A is one step closer to fixed. I installed one of the new trimmer caps in place of the broken C348 and I've run through the time base cal procedure twice. Everything looks pretty good. Still a little bit of nagging nonlinearity on time base A in the .5, .2, and .1ms/cm settings. R160Z (which is used to adjust the 1ms/cm setting) is out of range to lengthen the sweep any further. These sweep speeds are technically in spec (the manual quotes +/-2.4mm when using the 1cm and 9cm graticules as measuring points), but I think it should be better. I did replace V161 with a NOS 6CL6 which improved the situation here compared to the tube that was in there.

You are probably going to wind up beating your head against the wall getting it any better. Typical specs for linearity are +/- 3 %.

BTW....does your friend what the 560 extender?

I don't think it's worth nitpicking either...it's now damn near spot on everywhere else. Don't want to mess that up with interacting adjustments.

I haven't heard from him...I'll ping him again.

[med6753]

@med: 585A is one step closer to fixed. I installed one of the new trimmer caps in place of the broken C348 and I've run through the time base cal procedure twice. Everything looks pretty good. Still a little bit of nagging nonlinearity on time base A in the .5, .2, and .1ms/cm settings. R160Z (which is used to adjust the 1ms/cm setting) is out of range to lengthen the sweep any further. These sweep speeds are technically in spec (the manual quotes +/-2.4mm when using the 1cm and 9cm graticules as measuring points), but I think it should be better. I did replace V161 with a NOS 6CL6 which improved the situation here compared to the tube that was in there.

You are probably going to wind up beating your head against the wall getting it any better. Typical specs for linearity are +/- 3 %.

BTW....does your friend what the 560 extender?

I don't think it's worth nitpicking either...it's now damn near spot on everywhere else. Don't want to mess that up with interacting adjustments.

I haven't heard from him...I'll ping him again.

After you burn it in for several cycles check it again and you might be able to tweak it closer.

[0culus]

@med: 585A is one step closer to fixed. I installed one of the new trimmer caps in place of the broken C348 and I've run through the time base cal procedure twice. Everything looks pretty good. Still a little bit of nagging nonlinearity on time base A in the .5, .2, and .1ms/cm settings. R160Z (which is used to adjust the 1ms/cm setting) is out of range to lengthen the sweep any further. These sweep speeds are technically in spec (the manual quotes +/-2.4mm when using the 1cm and 9cm graticules as measuring points), but I think it should be better. I did replace V161 with a NOS 6CL6 which improved the situation here compared to the tube that was in there.

You are probably going to wind up beating your head against the wall getting it any better. Typical specs for linearity are +/- 3 %.

BTW....does your friend what the 560 extender?

I don't think it's worth nitpicking either...it's now damn near spot on everywhere else. Don't want to mess that up with interacting adjustments.

I haven't heard from him...I'll ping him again.

After you burn it in for several cycles check it again and you might be able to tweak it closer.

You burn your stuff in overnight right? I think I should do that at this point, and let the thing display Lissajous patterns at low brightness in X-Y mode or something.

Oh I might have forgotten to mention...the post office did find the package containing the trimmer caps I bought and deliver it properly, which is why I could do this repair!

[0culus]

And because gratuitous scope pr0n...and man I forgot to get @nixiefreqq's favorite calculator in this shot. Silly me.   

[Cubdriver]

@med: 585A is one step closer to fixed. I installed one of the new trimmer caps in place of the broken C348 and I've run through the time base cal procedure twice. Everything looks pretty good. Still a little bit of nagging nonlinearity on time base A in the .5, .2, and .1ms/cm settings. R160Z (which is used to adjust the 1ms/cm setting) is out of range to lengthen the sweep any further. These sweep speeds are technically in spec (the manual quotes +/-2.4mm when using the 1cm and 9cm graticules as measuring points), but I think it should be better. I did replace V161 with a NOS 6CL6 which improved the situation here compared to the tube that was in there.

You are probably going to wind up beating your head against the wall getting it any better. Typical specs for linearity are +/- 3 %.

BTW....does your friend what the 560 extender?

I don't think it's worth nitpicking either...it's now damn near spot on everywhere else. Don't want to mess that up with interacting adjustments.

I haven't heard from him...I'll ping him again.

And if he doesn't want it, I'll take it - I have some 560 scopes here, too.

-Pat

[med6753]

@med: 585A is one step closer to fixed. I installed one of the new trimmer caps in place of the broken C348 and I've run through the time base cal procedure twice. Everything looks pretty good. Still a little bit of nagging nonlinearity on time base A in the .5, .2, and .1ms/cm settings. R160Z (which is used to adjust the 1ms/cm setting) is out of range to lengthen the sweep any further. These sweep speeds are technically in spec (the manual quotes +/-2.4mm when using the 1cm and 9cm graticules as measuring points), but I think it should be better. I did replace V161 with a NOS 6CL6 which improved the situation here compared to the tube that was in there.

You are probably going to wind up beating your head against the wall getting it any better. Typical specs for linearity are +/- 3 %.

BTW....does your friend what the 560 extender?

I don't think it's worth nitpicking either...it's now damn near spot on everywhere else. Don't want to mess that up with interacting adjustments.

I haven't heard from him...I'll ping him again.

After you burn it in for several cycles check it again and you might be able to tweak it closer.

You burn your stuff in overnight right? I think I should do that at this point, and let the thing display Lissajous patterns at low brightness in X-Y mode or something.

Oh I might have forgotten to mention...the post office did find the package containing the trimmer caps I bought and deliver it properly, which is why I could do this repair!

When it comes to scopes I never let them burn-in overnight. Especially tube equipped. Just in case it decides to go south when I'm sleeping. Only during the day when I'm here. DMM's are the exception. I sometimes leave them up for days.

I consider several 6 hour burn-in's with a power off/power on cycle a sufficient test for reliability.   

[Cubdriver]

@med: 585A is one step closer to fixed. I installed one of the new trimmer caps in place of the broken C348 and I've run through the time base cal procedure twice. Everything looks pretty good. Still a little bit of nagging nonlinearity on time base A in the .5, .2, and .1ms/cm settings. R160Z (which is used to adjust the 1ms/cm setting) is out of range to lengthen the sweep any further. These sweep speeds are technically in spec (the manual quotes +/-2.4mm when using the 1cm and 9cm graticules as measuring points), but I think it should be better. I did replace V161 with a NOS 6CL6 which improved the situation here compared to the tube that was in there.

You are probably going to wind up beating your head against the wall getting it any better. Typical specs for linearity are +/- 3 %.

BTW....does your friend what the 560 extender?

I don't think it's worth nitpicking either...it's now damn near spot on everywhere else. Don't want to mess that up with interacting adjustments.

I haven't heard from him...I'll ping him again.

After you burn it in for several cycles check it again and you might be able to tweak it closer.

You burn your stuff in overnight right? I think I should do that at this point, and let the thing display Lissajous patterns at low brightness in X-Y mode or something.

Oh I might have forgotten to mention...the post office did find the package containing the trimmer caps I bought and deliver it properly, which is why I could do this repair!

Glad to hear that the caps turned up!

And on that note, I need to go help a friend work on some lawn mowers.  Fun, fun!!

-Pat

[med6753]

@med: 585A is one step closer to fixed. I installed one of the new trimmer caps in place of the broken C348 and I've run through the time base cal procedure twice. Everything looks pretty good. Still a little bit of nagging nonlinearity on time base A in the .5, .2, and .1ms/cm settings. R160Z (which is used to adjust the 1ms/cm setting) is out of range to lengthen the sweep any further. These sweep speeds are technically in spec (the manual quotes +/-2.4mm when using the 1cm and 9cm graticules as measuring points), but I think it should be better. I did replace V161 with a NOS 6CL6 which improved the situation here compared to the tube that was in there.

You are probably going to wind up beating your head against the wall getting it any better. Typical specs for linearity are +/- 3 %.

BTW....does your friend what the 560 extender?

I don't think it's worth nitpicking either...it's now damn near spot on everywhere else. Don't want to mess that up with interacting adjustments.

I haven't heard from him...I'll ping him again.

And if he doesn't want it, I'll take it - I have some 560 scopes here, too.

-Pat

I know, that's why I asked again. If he doesn't want it...it's yours.

[0culus]

It sometimes can take a day or two for him to get back to me...if that passes we'll just assume he doesn't want it and Pat should get it. 

[0culus]

@med: 585A is one step closer to fixed. I installed one of the new trimmer caps in place of the broken C348 and I've run through the time base cal procedure twice. Everything looks pretty good. Still a little bit of nagging nonlinearity on time base A in the .5, .2, and .1ms/cm settings. R160Z (which is used to adjust the 1ms/cm setting) is out of range to lengthen the sweep any further. These sweep speeds are technically in spec (the manual quotes +/-2.4mm when using the 1cm and 9cm graticules as measuring points), but I think it should be better. I did replace V161 with a NOS 6CL6 which improved the situation here compared to the tube that was in there.

You are probably going to wind up beating your head against the wall getting it any better. Typical specs for linearity are +/- 3 %.

BTW....does your friend what the 560 extender?

I don't think it's worth nitpicking either...it's now damn near spot on everywhere else. Don't want to mess that up with interacting adjustments.

I haven't heard from him...I'll ping him again.

After you burn it in for several cycles check it again and you might be able to tweak it closer.

You burn your stuff in overnight right? I think I should do that at this point, and let the thing display Lissajous patterns at low brightness in X-Y mode or something.

Oh I might have forgotten to mention...the post office did find the package containing the trimmer caps I bought and deliver it properly, which is why I could do this repair!

When it comes to scopes I never let them burn-in overnight. Especially tube equipped. Just in case it decides to go south when I'm sleeping. Only during the day when I'm here. DMM's are the exception. I sometimes leave them up for days.

I consider several 6 hour burn-in's with a power off/power on cycle a sufficient test for reliability.

That sounds like a good plan. I really only like to leave stuff running when I'm going to be in the lab all day (which is every day these days thanks to 'rona telecommuting). I'm going to let the 585A run till I go to bed and I'll repeat tomorrow.

[med6753]

Nixiefreqq marking his territory. I found this in the box of spare parts he gave me. 

[0culus]

Let's send it to that hydraulic press channel guy on youtube.