Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

How could you not though? 

(Attachment Link)

Even has three entire feet!

Of course. Look at how clean it is. Someone took great care of it.

[nixiefreqq]

meant this tag on the front.

the national stock number will be   xxxx-xx-xxx-xxxx

the other number will be the contract #.   usually starts with F if air force,  W if army, and N if navy.  usually.

[Specmaster]

The consistency is inconsistency 

Yup, how true, IIRC you said that you'd done with running when you fucked your knee last time, you just won't accept that you are not young any more will you and adjust your lifestyle to suit 

[bd139]

Yeah I agree. So I’ve gone and bought a 29lb scope 

[Specmaster]

Yeah I agree. So I’ve gone and bought a 29lb scope 

At least its a good one, but theres just one thing that has to be said, its a TEK

[tautech]

That’s a beast isn’t it.

On the subject of beasts guess who just bought a semi boat anchor. Now need to work out how to get it with a fucked arm 

Edit: tek 454 (yeah I know) and just won a PL320 as well. Back on the wagon

Back to flipping burgers. 

[med6753]

meant this tag on the front.

the national stock number will be   xxxx-xx-xxx-xxxx

the other number will be the contract #.   usually starts with F if air force,  W if army, and N if navy.  usually.

You are correct. Starts with an "F".

[tggzzz]

The consistency is inconsistency 

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines...." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

[mnementh]

A point I’m sure will be made about lab space but I’ll rent a local office for that and work. By the time I’ve finished working the kids will have buggered off so I’ll move the TE back into the house

I'm more concerned about the lack of space for a moat. And you can see other houses around, implying people. I was led to believe avoiding them was the core of the plan?

Yes indeed. However if I buy a moat it means I have to work for another decade. I figured there was a compromise somewhere 

There is; but laser-sharks in robot-walker-skinsuits are pretty high maintenance. When will you have time to work on your plans for world domination? 

mnem
"If you can see your neighbors, they're too gawddam close." ~grandma

[mnementh]

Making space for TE...   all these little drawer-racks go... little drawers i keep.       the little drawers go in here... More space for TE where those drawer-racks were 

Good plan. Makes it much easier for your widow to wheel it all to the dumpster with a hand-truck. 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

almost gave this one to med but decided against it.      would probably be better suited for the dragon since it fits with his "my little pony" hobby.

I would have that in my possession for all of ~1.3 seconds before the little grrl glommed onto it and squirreled it away in the bottom of her toy chest, never again to see the light of day... 

mnem
That was a optimistic guesstimate; odds are it would happen much quicker. 

[mansaxel]

I replace those HP inlets with the IEC 60320 C6 "mickey mouse" inlets This style
cpc.farnell.com/schurter/4300-0100/c6-iec-inlet-0724-screw-solder/dp/CN19989
can be fitted with minimal metal work change or none if you make an adaptor plate.

That is a very good idea! Thanks.

[tonyalbus]

This $10,- Noise Source .. thing adds a lot of value to a SA without TG .. i like it.

[mnementh]

Looks old and musty. Cloudy and rainy. Quaint. With sheep roaming the hills and perverted shepherds. 

So typical English. 

Actually there are alpacas in them thar hills, less than a kilometer away. Seriously. (Or at least there were a decade ago.) The wild wallabies are in the Derbyshire hills.

Peverted shepards are normally associated with Wales - where men are men and sheep are afraid.

The sheep in Wales are afraid of my nephew here:      

I thought it was Oz where "the men are men and the sheep are centerfolds"...?       


mnem

[tggzzz]

almost gave this one to med but decided against it.      would probably be better suited for the dragon since it fits with his "my little pony" hobby.

I would have that in my possession for all of ~1.3 seconds before the little grrl glommed onto it and squirreled it away in the bottom of her toy chest, never again to see the light of day... 

And you would probably both be happy about that.

[mnementh]

Until tax time rolled around... then you'd see me rooting around in the bottom of that toy chest like a desperate fool...   

mnem
If you can't admit the truth to yourself, whom can you...?

[mnementh]

The consistency is inconsistency 

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines...." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it may contradict everything you said today."

mnem
WhuuuWeTalkinabouttt...?

[Cubdriver]

the thing about old direct counters like the 524x series is that they take a direct count.  gate opens, events are counted, gate closes.  so there is no reciprocal math, no interpolation, no averaging, no nothin'.   this means there is always a plus or minus one uncertainty in the least significant digit.  but you can say your 5248 agrees with your ocxo standard to better than 1 part in 10^7.  how much better?  best not to ask or you will be down the rabbit hole of time nuttery.

have had lots of 524x counters pass thru my hands and have very rarely needed to replace a cap.  maybe cub has advice on recapping?  (if your obsessive compulsive tendency gets to you ok.....but probably not necessary).

never heard of a fan quieting fix for them either.  only suggestion from me is to purchase a snubbie .357 mag and put a couple of ammo bricks downrange without ear protection.  afterward the fan noise will be moot.

edit  my recollection is .....that particular counter is ex air force.  does that tmde tag on top say usaf?  don't remember.  you should be able to tell by the contract # on the tag stuck on the front.  zoomies are all deaf from hanging around the flight line and can't hear fans either.

In my experience, the caps in those counters and similar gear of that time period are rather digital, in that they used very good ones and designed conservatively around them - they're either working or stone dead.  Those that I've had to restuff were dead as doornails - either dried out or with one of the internal interconnects open.  Those instances have been unusual; most are still chugging away.

Sahara Desert dry:


Corroded connection - note the inboard end of the ribbon at 3:30 (manufacturing defect? contamination, perhaps?)


And I know I've posted this before - my 5248M might need a fan...


As far as the can caps go, though, I'd leave them be unless they're bad - bear in mind that these are solid state, and thus run a bit cooler than your usual Tek room heaters that happen to have oscilloscope controls and a display, Mike.  (Though if you decide to get OCD, you know what to do with the cans.    )  (And if they were truly OCD, shouldn't that be CDO?  It's not alphabetically ordered!)

-Pat

[bd139]

Yeah I’ve had ones that are 60 years old that were good 

Have gone a bit “tonyalbus” on eBay today  . More stuff arriving soon 

Edit: and another offer accepted. Decided “fuck it” was in order. Cupboard of doom will be recommissioned.

[factory]

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

Just keep buying more HP TE, you'll soon end up with lots of them, I do avoid or bid less if they have been bodged with those oversize IEC pieces of crap. The early IEC inlets on HP TE seem to be made of cheese.

David

[mnementh]

Yeah I’ve had ones that are 60 years old that were good 

Have gone a bit “tonyalbus” on eBay today  . More stuff arriving soon 

Edit: and another offer accepted. Decided “fuck it” was in order. Cupboard of doom will be recommissioned.

Okay... who had 7/17/2020 in the "bd139 Recidivism" pool...? Was that you cub, or was it Brumby...? 

mnem
Not me... I missed it by at least 3 weeks.

[bd139]

I blame the codeine 

[factory]

This 5248L is a monster. It won't fit on any of my benches unless I clear them off. So it sits on the kitchen counter. And I have no idea where I'm going to put it later. 

After running and stabilizing for a few hours there's 1Hz discrepancy with my reference. I can live with that. But there's something I can't live with. Normally cooling fans don't bother me. I thought the fan in the Type 535A was kinda loud but not annoying. Holy jumping shitballs the fan in this counter is over the top. It drives me nuts. Is there a mod for a quieter fan? 

Fan noise doesn't bother me either, the neighbours the other side of the workshop wall are way noisier, plus work now involves operating a very loud Schiess lathe.

David

[tggzzz]

This $10,- Noise Source .. thing adds a lot of value to a SA without TG .. i like it.

Some cautions are necessary when using such "poor man's tracking generators", especially with hiogh-end spectrum analysers.

Make sure there is no DC on the output.

Make sure the total power output across all bands is less than the spectrum analyser's max input power.

Be aware that if there are any non-linearities in the components in the UUT, then intermodulation products will be produced and will be visible as a raised noise floor.

The combination of internpud products plus the limited power in the bandwidth being measured by the spectrum analyser, means the dynamic range will be limited. It may be difficult to see a filter's stopband attenuation.

Nonetheless, such techniques can be useful. I've used them with an SDR dongle to measure filter characteristics and as a poor-man's TDR (resolution 3cm).

[factory]

There is a special place in my heart for /hp/ nixie counters. Nice!

Did not pay to much... now i read better, for the nixies and psu.... the deal is done... just asked now if he took out parts or its just broken..
lest see... would be nice if it can be fixed... and not to much is taken out...
Yes i saw it, i needed to have it...  now i need to sell even more redundant TE (except for the specials)

Very nice, one of the less common HP counters. Hopefully another less common HP counter should be on it's way from Germany back to the UK to join my collection.

David