Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[TERRA Operative]

Today my EPROM Eraser showed up which I've bought here (NAWTS).
I've ordered it in France, because I didn't want to wait for the nine-Euro-version from China.

.......

I've tested it with some 27C1001 EPROMs and it is doing its job. That's all I wanted. But I'm convinced, it will for sure not meet the VDE safety standards or the CE standards (EMI).

Thanks for watching.

Line the rest of the box with foil and tie it to earth, EMC (kind of) solved.

[Mr. Scram]

I participated once. Didn't really knew about those threads at the time. I had a useless exchange about peek detect mode and memory size. Never again.

That's the problem. Sensible people run away and newcomers are left with the vultures.

[Wolfgang]

Hirez pictures can be found here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjGAejk8r_C1kal4yyA4VkCAooa7Mw?e=xGoDhc

Thanks for those. I'm not familiar with that kind of designing. What do the isolated pads function as? Are they some sort of RF load, or a capacitive-coupled path or ... ? 

I'm wondering the same thing. I think they reuse the same boards and wire bound the pad they need base on the amplifier they are building. So if it's not wire bounded I would guess it's not really participating to the circuit.

When you look closely the whole circuit is full of capacitive "islands" that can be bonded or left out, or parallel circuit paths that are bonded into the circuit, and so on. These are
the microwave equivalent of C and L trimming in classical circuits. The sheer number of these tunable elements is astonishing; Making this part is certainly a low-automation job with a lot of bond/measure/repeat cycles until everything is in spec. Today a MMIC probably does everything with no adjustments needed.

[mnementh]

Thanks for taking the time, K... I've been hoping you would ever since I saw them in the trunk of your car. 

mnem
 

[0culus]

The seller of those P6008 probes is trying to tell me that the Type 82 plugin with it's 15 pf inputs won't work with them and yada yada vacuum tube scopes something or other and he needs it back to twiddle with it.  Uhhhh, the Type 82 plugin came with two of them when it was new. I asked for a partial refund or another unit. We'll see. 

[Ero-Shan]

@BU508A: from here, I would look for the Belzer variant. They are sometimes to be had rather cheap on Ebay, as most people don't seem to understand what they are. They are 100% compatible with the blades from Ideal. Its the 3418 in this case.

With "Ideal" you are meaning the guys from Ideal-Tek in Switzerland?

Checked their website but I didn't find the blades for the Belzer wire stripper.
Currently, there are some Belzer wire strippers offered in the bay of evil. Some of them are used ones from the Bundewswehr but I'm a bit hesitating about them. The 3418-C is looking interesting.

I've just ordered one of those, AWG16..26 (from the picture), just hoping it's still usable.

[mansaxel]

Today my EPROM Eraser showed up which I've bought

<snip>

But I'm convinced, it will for sure not meet the VDE safety standards or the CE standards (EMI).

After or before you've enhanced it? 

Seriously, the major problem with self-certification along the CE marking model is that it lacks "nuke'm from orbit, land, plow the land and spread salt over the fields" termination clauses in the legislation. It is largely painless and cheap to get caught peddling broken stuff, so people take their chances, especially if they're only one step in the value chain. There is always someone else to blame.

The old SEMKO / DEMKO / VDE / UL / CSA model was hampering innovation and was a market blocker; we do not want that again. What we need is a way for manufacturers and vendors to feel the pain.

[psykok]

hi,

yesterday I got another  really interesting piece of equipment : Panasonic Vp7722A


Unfortunately this one is faulty and need a repair .
Apparently it get suck at the boot/init procedure, all the leds are on and no keys are responding.

[tonyalbus]

hi,

yesterday I got another  really interesting piece of equipment : Panasonic Vp7722A
(Attachment Link)

Unfortunately this one is faulty and need a repair .
Apparently it get suck at the boot/init procedure, all the leds are on and no keys are responding.

looks cool!    allmost as Anritsu did that design...

[BU508A]

hi,

yesterday I got another  really interesting piece of equipment : Panasonic Vp7722A
(Attachment Link)

Unfortunately this one is faulty and need a repair .
Apparently it get suck at the boot/init procedure, all the leds are on and no keys are responding.

looks cool!    allmost as Anritsu did that design...

I've thought the very same thing.

[psykok]

These Panasonic  Matsushita instrument can often  be found under other brand in Japan.

[tonyalbus]

i hope you get it running again!

[bd139]

Yea, every few days another newb asks for advice as to what scope to buy and the usual suspects jump in and it quickly becomes a bitch-fest and a circle jerk. I never participate in those threads, waste of time.

That's the first thing many newcomers encounter, shit advice and bad attitudes. I don't think it's a good look for the forum and I don't think it's fair to the people asking for help. If these idiots just kept each other busy it'd be fine but people are spending real money on the FUD spouted in those threads. It's just a handful of regulars running amok so getting them in line or giving them the boot should be doable.

That’s about right. I had another account on here and was put off contributing a few years back by such folk. I came back with a “fuck you” attitude in the end.

My favourite is the: ”What scope should I buy to help trace problems in audio amps. My budget is $50”

The solution is clearly: “Oh you need a DS1054Z. No can’t buy Chinese crap you need a Keysight. No Lecroy only. Ooh to check that signal integrity you need a Keysight UXA.”

Now I spent a good few years of my life with a 5 MHz single trace analogue from a car boot sale and that’s and a brain is enough for that task. So I throw in the “any old 20mhz shit box analogue that is sold working”. Unfortunately the next thing I get is a lecture on signal integrity which is irrelevant for the purposes of ”visual signal tracing” which is what the original poster really needs to do.

Occasionally I like to throw in a comment to piss the sensitive people off now which is that I rewired my house with a UT61. Also owning and liking a TDS210 seems to inflame some 

[BU508A]

Sad, but true. 

[tonyalbus]

i am only in this endless thread, no problem here

[tonyalbus]

300!! just wanted to say that 

[BU508A]

That's the charme of this thread. Whenever you are visiting it, one can watch

- med painting something blue, except it is his bedroom
- Saskia playing with 50g of ceefour
- bd139 is buying / selling something
- tony is buying a counter.
- nixiefreqq is ranting about RPN calulators
- the Dwagon is lamenting on <insert topic of your choice here>
- tautech is playing with Siglent stuff
- BU508A is trying to find strange R&S gear
- Zucca has this ongoing marriage-project
- bitseeker is trying to catch-up
- 0culus buying another RPN calculator ¹
- cubdriver is frolicing around with his cats ¹
- not sure what Cerebus is doing but I think it has something to do with magic smoke and syringes ²
- Neomys Sapiens explaining the MIL-Standards of cables and connectors and showing us toolsets for assembling them ³
- ...

please feel free to add any thoughts to this list.   

¹ Edit 1
² Edit 2
³ Edit 3

[psykok]

i hope you get it running again!

I hope so but I'm not so sure I will be successful.
The SM is not that great and you cannot found a lot of information about this unit anyway.


I just hope I do not have some corrupt ROM or something like that because it will hard to solve.

[Saskia]

look what I found in the mail.

Guess what it is.

[tonyalbus]

[tonyalbus]

looks like its missing some parts, but thats my unprofessional opinion... (un asked) 

[Saskia]

yarp. I will need to slaughter a couple of donor boards

[bd139]

look what I found in the mail.

Guess what it is.

Ugh it's a VIC20 

[Saskia]

 

[Robert763]

Today my EPROM Eraser showed up which I've bought

<snip>

But I'm convinced, it will for sure not meet the VDE safety standards or the CE standards (EMI).

After or before you've enhanced it? 

Seriously, the major problem with self-certification along the CE marking model is that it lacks "nuke'm from orbit, land, plow the land and spread salt over the fields" termination clauses in the legislation. It is largely painless and cheap to get caught peddling broken stuff, so people take their chances, especially if they're only one step in the value chain. There is always someone else to blame.

The old SEMKO / DEMKO / VDE / UL / CSA model was hampering innovation and was a market blocker; we do not want that again. What we need is a way for manufacturers and vendors to feel the pain.

I think the C-tick model is good. similar to CE in that you self certify, but you have to register that you did it online. This at least means the authorities have some idea of what is being produced / imported and can identify "certifiers" and products for targeted or random compliance checks. CE relies on n accident or complaint (and some customs inspection) before the authorites even know the item exists.