Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

IT LIVES!!! HP/Agilent 54645A From AllTest: Refurb & Photo Gallery

            

   

Ohhhh yeah... take it off... take it ALL off...   

mnem
If anybody call for me, please take a message. I'll be ummmm... indisposed for the rest of the afternoon.

           
SQWEEEEEE!!! and a HALF...   

In the spirit of eevBlog, I have NOT turned it on; I am instead taking it apart. This is, of course, MUCH more bearable to do as I've already seen pics of it lit up displaying a graph before I bought it.




First peek inside, the only obvious thing wrong is that the chassis doesn't sit level. This WAS expected, as the damage seen at the end of my last post was the reason this scope came in under my budget, even with eBay Global Shipping on top.




What was NOT expected is how clean this thing is inside. When was the last time you saw ANYTHING with A) fan cooling and 2) CRT display THIS CLEAN around the HV? This thing must have like 12 hours on it.  Suh-weeet! 




EEEEEK! A RIFA!!! It will be evicted with extreme prejudice.




Mainboard appears intact so far. *knocks on wood*





I finally found something visibly wrong; the softkey PCB is broken loose from the bezel. I was actually expecting something like this as they were noted as "non-responsive" in the listing.

This is why I still recommend All-Test. Yes, you pay top dollar for shipping. But you get thermonuclear protection on your busted TE; it arrives EXACTLY as you bid/bought from their store. 

mnem
*toddles off to find a service manual*

Closeup of front control panel where bd139 warned me to check things out carefully. Looking promising.




Ironing out corner of front panel bezel/fascia with cheap hot air gun. It has already paid me back the $12 it cost, as far as I'm concerned. 




The PCB flexes badly when pressing the ERASE button in this corner due to broken finger-tab.




Other side of front panel PCB & keypads. Looking good.




While I'm in here, I may as well clean the keypads & contacts.




This is the shot bd139 wants to see. Looks like the CH1/CH2 BNCs on this one ARE separate from the PCB; they should NOT kill the mainboard if mechanically damaged. EXT TRIG, ehhh.  Ignore the fuzz down by the 10x/100x probe sense wires; I cleaned some grindy-powder from the case in there with Q-tips and didn't see it until after the pics were taken. All blown out.




Here you can see me ironing out the main housing with hot air & a stainless steel prybar as a bodywork spoon. Remarkably effective.




Here I've fixed the flexity PCB with a little 10mm² wedge I knocked together real quick on my 3DP. Yes, I used hot-glue  ; I was out of epoxy. We'll see how it holds. More worrisome to me is the cracked corner of the TIME/DIV encoder. 




And the panel now assembled. Yeah, it's butt-ugly in there. Pretty is as pretty does, says I. Still nowhere NEAR taking the booty-fab trophy someone else in here holds.    You can see where I added a few layers of Kapton tape under the metal chassis bracket as insurance for that PCB. 




Here it is going back together; the shell fit right the first time. I could spend a lot of time filling and sanding these last few blemishes... but duck that. I'm never gonna notice it looking at the front of the scope.




IT'S ALI-I-I-I-I-IVE!!! The money shot. From here, this feels like a brand new scope. Every softkey & encoder is smooth with perfect response; detents are firm but not crunchy. I'm still figuring out the controls, so don't have the scaling set right for the cheap 1x/10x probes off my 6022BE. 13 puff inputs did comp out perfectly with them tho. 




This display is SO crisp. These pics look fabulous, but they still don't do it justice. Seriously. Yumm!




However I DID note that the handle on this scope has several dings and scuffs, but not on the same side as the rest of the damage. I suspect, as it is Agilent-branded, they may have glommed the one off this scope to prettify a more profitable unit. I can SO live with that. 

 


54645A Listing. With import fees, US$139. I can SO live with that too.

A'aight. Tomorrow I'll start putting together a shopping list to get a replacement for that RIFA on the way... and if I can find a factory service menu with total power cycles and runtime, I'll update with a pic of that too. Keep yer stick on the ice!

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

[coromonadalix]

 

[TorinoFermic]

Hurrah, I have managed to recap these pesky rifa caps with these news ones for my HP 3478A. But when I power it up, readings can be crazy until the device warms up, but at some ranges these values are waaaaay out of calibrated limits thus it needs to get recalibrated.

[0culus]

                                        
IT LIVES!!!   

12- Closeup of front control panel where bd139 warned me to check things out carefully. Looking promising.

13- Ironing out corner of front panel bezel/fascia with cheap hot air gun. It has already paid me back the $12 it cost, as far as I'm concerned. 

14- The PCB flexes badly when pressing the ERASE button in this corner due to broken finger-tab.

15- Other side of front panel PCB & keypads. Looking good.

16- While I'm in here, I may as well clean the keypads & contacts.

17- This space for rent. (D'OH!)

18- This is the shot bd139 wants to see. Looks like the CH1/CH2 BNCs on this one ARE separate from the PCB; they should NOT kill the mainboard if mechanically damaged. EXT TRIG, ehhh.  Ignore the fuzz down by the 10x/100x probe sense wires; I cleaned some grindy-powder from the case in there with Q-tips and didn't see it until after the pics were taken. All blown out.

19- Here you can see me ironing out the main housing with hot air & a stainless steel prybar as a bodywork spoon. Remarkably effective.

20- Here I've fixed the flexity PCB with a little 10mm² wedge I knocked together real quick on my 3DP. Yes, I used hot-glue  ; I was out of epoxy. We'll see how it holds. More worrisome to me is the cracked corner of the TIME/DIV encoder. 

21- And the panel now assembled. Yeah, it's butt-ugly in there. Pretty is as pretty does, says I. Still nowhere NEAR taking the booty-fab trophy someone else in here holds.    You can see where I added a few layers of Kapton tape under the metal chassis bracket as insurance for that PCB. 

22- Here it is going back together; the shell fit right the first time. I could spend a lot of time filling and sanding these last few blemishes... but duck that. I'm never gonna notice it looking at the front of the scope.

23- IT'S ALI-I-I-I-I-IVE!!! The money shot. From here, this feels like a brand new scope. Every softkey & encoder is smooth with perfect response; detents are firm but not crunchy. I'm still figuring out the controls, so don't have the scaling set right for the cheap 1x/10x probes off my 6022BE. 13 puff inputs did comp out perfectly with them tho. 

24- This display is SO crisp. These pics look fabulous, but they still don't do it justice. Seriously. Yumm!

25- However I DID note that the handle on this scope has several dings and scuffs, but not on the same side as the rest of the damage. I suspect, as it is Agilent-branded, they may have glommed the one off this scope to prettify a more profitable unit. I can SO live with that. 

26- 54645A Listing. With import fees, US$139. I can SO live with that too.

A'aight. Tomorrow I'll start putting together a shopping list to get a replacement for that RIFA on the way... and if I can find a factory service menu with total power cycles and runtime, I'll update with a pic of that too. Keep yer stick on the ice!

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

Nice! Looking very good and you finally have a real scope again! 

[med6753]

Good job!  Now take the time to RTFM and have fun. 

[bd139]

Hurrah, I have managed to recap these pesky rifa caps with these news ones for my HP 3478A. But when I power it up, readings can be crazy until the device warms up, but at some ranges these values are waaaaay out of calibrated limits thus it needs to get recalibrated.

Short the input terminals out and see if it still does it. The inputs are high-Z in the lowest two DC ranges so drift all over the place.

[bd139]

                                        
IT LIVES!!!   

12- Closeup of front control panel where bd139 warned me to check things out carefully. Looking promising.

13- Ironing out corner of front panel bezel/fascia with cheap hot air gun. It has already paid me back the $12 it cost, as far as I'm concerned. 

14- The PCB flexes badly when pressing the ERASE button in this corner due to broken finger-tab.

15- Other side of front panel PCB & keypads. Looking good.

16- While I'm in here, I may as well clean the keypads & contacts.

17- This space for rent. (D'OH!)

18- This is the shot bd139 wants to see. Looks like the CH1/CH2 BNCs on this one ARE separate from the PCB; they should NOT kill the mainboard if mechanically damaged. EXT TRIG, ehhh.  Ignore the fuzz down by the 10x/100x probe sense wires; I cleaned some grindy-powder from the case in there with Q-tips and didn't see it until after the pics were taken. All blown out.

19- Here you can see me ironing out the main housing with hot air & a stainless steel prybar as a bodywork spoon. Remarkably effective.

20- Here I've fixed the flexity PCB with a little 10mm² wedge I knocked together real quick on my 3DP. Yes, I used hot-glue  ; I was out of epoxy. We'll see how it holds. More worrisome to me is the cracked corner of the TIME/DIV encoder. 

21- And the panel now assembled. Yeah, it's butt-ugly in there. Pretty is as pretty does, says I. Still nowhere NEAR taking the booty-fab trophy someone else in here holds.    You can see where I added a few layers of Kapton tape under the metal chassis bracket as insurance for that PCB. 

22- Here it is going back together; the shell fit right the first time. I could spend a lot of time filling and sanding these last few blemishes... but duck that. I'm never gonna notice it looking at the front of the scope.

23- IT'S ALI-I-I-I-I-IVE!!! The money shot. From here, this feels like a brand new scope. Every softkey & encoder is smooth with perfect response; detents are firm but not crunchy. I'm still figuring out the controls, so don't have the scaling set right for the cheap 1x/10x probes off my 6022BE. 13 puff inputs did comp out perfectly with them tho. 

24- This display is SO crisp. These pics look fabulous, but they still don't do it justice. Seriously. Yumm!

25- However I DID note that the handle on this scope has several dings and scuffs, but not on the same side as the rest of the damage. I suspect, as it is Agilent-branded, they may have glommed the one off this scope to prettify a more profitable unit. I can SO live with that. 

26- 54645A Listing. With import fees, US$139. I can SO live with that too.

A'aight. Tomorrow I'll start putting together a shopping list to get a replacement for that RIFA on the way... and if I can find a factory service menu with total power cycles and runtime, I'll update with a pic of that too. Keep yer stick on the ice!

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

Nice one. That was a winner. Good job 

[Robert763]

Very nice!
The 456xx MegaZoom 'scopes are my favorite midrange 'scopes. Not too big, certainly not deep, nice CRT display, drives like an analog but has reasonable storage features.
For a 2000s build I wouldn't bother changing the Rifa capacitors unless they are visibly cracked. The more recent production ones seem to be OK.

[Specmaster]

Ooohhh... it's getting interesting now. Have the front panel off, doing repairs... will involve 3DP. 

mnem
Come on... RENDER, damn you!!!

Ouch, that board is badly flexed and has the appearance, although from this view point, can't be 100% sure, but it looks like it may be fracturing just behind that 2nd encoder?

Nope; that fracture is on the encoder itself. The PCB was flexing because I was pressing on the ERASE button right there to demonstrate the board flex because of one of these little fingers broken off along the edge of the board. My fix was to print a replacement; a little 10mm² wedge to hold the corner down. Normally I'd use epoxy for something like this, but I'm all out, so we're going to see if hot snot will hold. I use a Hi-Temp gun & sticks; in this case, the flexible nature of the glue may actually be a boon.

I know... what kind of tinkerer runs out of epoxy...  I guess the kind who uses it all the time...?

I still have a little more ironing out to do on the shell and chassis; after that, I'll do a live-fire trial of the beast and see if that cracked encoder still works. I figure even if it IS borked, I still got a good deal.

mnem
sudo get me a sandwich.

I doubt that the broken bit of the encoder will stop it, the bit I thought was a crack in the main board, is the light green marks just to the right of the 12345 on the printed label. In the first photo it looks like the board has fractured right there. Glad to know it hadn't.

[Specmaster]

@mnementh, well done, thats another winner from All Test, good result 

[Specmaster]

Hurrah, I have managed to recap these pesky rifa caps with these news ones for my HP 3478A. But when I power it up, readings can be crazy until the device warms up, but at some ranges these values are waaaaay out of calibrated limits thus it needs to get recalibrated.

Surely it must have been doing the same before you replaced the Rifa's? Are you getting any error codes flash up?

[med6753]

So the Type 3A6 project on hold today because I need to get back into the bedroom and finish the back wall. Need to move a shit ton of furniture then clean the years of dust and dirt that collected under them. Then the masking off the trim. Tomorrow the actual painting. And of course it will need minimum 2 coats. I don't consider myself anywhere near an expert painter but I have been doing it for many years and I have NEVER come across a paint that covers adequately in one coat. Despite all the claims that "covers in one coat". I use good quality brushes/rollers but somehow one coat has always alluded me.

I want to wait on the 3A6 anyway until those nuvistors show up. Channel 1 drifts like a drunken sailor and the DC balance needs to be constantly reset. Pull the two in Channel 1 and see what happens.

Over the next few days I will try my best to blow my carbon footprint limits to hell.  This week temps +30 C with high humidity until at least Thursday.       

[bd139]

Got this in my head now



(Johnny the Homicidal Maniac)

[nixiefreqq]

 
IT LIVES!!!   

12- Closeup of front control panel where bd139 warned me to check things out carefully. Looking promising.

13- Ironing out corner of front panel bezel/fascia with cheap hot air gun. It has already paid me back the $12 it cost, as far as I'm concerned. 

14- The PCB flexes badly when pressing the ERASE button in this corner due to broken finger-tab.

15- Other side of front panel PCB & keypads. Looking good.

16- While I'm in here, I may as well clean the keypads & contacts.

17- This space for rent. (D'OH!)

18- This is the shot bd139 wants to see. Looks like the CH1/CH2 BNCs on this one ARE separate from the PCB; they should NOT kill the mainboard if mechanically damaged. EXT TRIG, ehhh.  Ignore the fuzz down by the 10x/100x probe sense wires; I cleaned some grindy-powder from the case in there with Q-tips and didn't see it until after the pics were taken. All blown out.

19- Here you can see me ironing out the main housing with hot air & a stainless steel prybar as a bodywork spoon. Remarkably effective.

20- Here I've fixed the flexity PCB with a little 10mm² wedge I knocked together real quick on my 3DP. Yes, I used hot-glue  ; I was out of epoxy. We'll see how it holds. More worrisome to me is the cracked corner of the TIME/DIV encoder. 

21- And the panel now assembled. Yeah, it's butt-ugly in there. Pretty is as pretty does, says I. Still nowhere NEAR taking the booty-fab trophy someone else in here holds.    You can see where I added a few layers of Kapton tape under the metal chassis bracket as insurance for that PCB. 

22- Here it is going back together; the shell fit right the first time. I could spend a lot of time filling and sanding these last few blemishes... but duck that. I'm never gonna notice it looking at the front of the scope.

23- IT'S ALI-I-I-I-I-IVE!!! The money shot. From here, this feels like a brand new scope. Every softkey & encoder is smooth with perfect response; detents are firm but not crunchy. I'm still figuring out the controls, so don't have the scaling set right for the cheap 1x/10x probes off my 6022BE. 13 puff inputs did comp out perfectly with them tho. 

24- This display is SO crisp. These pics look fabulous, but they still don't do it justice. Seriously. Yumm!

25- However I DID note that the handle on this scope has several dings and scuffs, but not on the same side as the rest of the damage. I suspect, as it is Agilent-branded, they may have glommed the one off this scope to prettify a more profitable unit. I can SO live with that. 

26- 54645A Listing. With import fees, US$139. I can SO live with that too.

A'aight. Tomorrow I'll start putting together a shopping list to get a replacement for that RIFA on the way... and if I can find a factory service menu with total power cycles and runtime, I'll update with a pic of that too. Keep yer stick on the ice!

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

nice job hoser!

[VK5RC]

@mnem - top find and good repair 👍

[tggzzz]

Hurrah, I have managed to recap these pesky rifa caps with these news ones for my HP 3478A. But when I power it up, readings can be crazy until the device warms up, but at some ranges these values are waaaaay out of calibrated limits thus it needs to get recalibrated.

What does the self test say?

[tonyalbus]

                                        
IT LIVES!!!   

12- Closeup of front control panel where bd139 warned me to check things out carefully. Looking promising.

13- Ironing out corner of front panel bezel/fascia with cheap hot air gun. It has already paid me back the $12 it cost, as far as I'm concerned. 

14- The PCB flexes badly when pressing the ERASE button in this corner due to broken finger-tab.

15- Other side of front panel PCB & keypads. Looking good.

16- While I'm in here, I may as well clean the keypads & contacts.

17- This space for rent. (D'OH!)

18- This is the shot bd139 wants to see. Looks like the CH1/CH2 BNCs on this one ARE separate from the PCB; they should NOT kill the mainboard if mechanically damaged. EXT TRIG, ehhh.  Ignore the fuzz down by the 10x/100x probe sense wires; I cleaned some grindy-powder from the case in there with Q-tips and didn't see it until after the pics were taken. All blown out.

19- Here you can see me ironing out the main housing with hot air & a stainless steel prybar as a bodywork spoon. Remarkably effective.

20- Here I've fixed the flexity PCB with a little 10mm² wedge I knocked together real quick on my 3DP. Yes, I used hot-glue  ; I was out of epoxy. We'll see how it holds. More worrisome to me is the cracked corner of the TIME/DIV encoder. 

21- And the panel now assembled. Yeah, it's butt-ugly in there. Pretty is as pretty does, says I. Still nowhere NEAR taking the booty-fab trophy someone else in here holds.    You can see where I added a few layers of Kapton tape under the metal chassis bracket as insurance for that PCB. 

22- Here it is going back together; the shell fit right the first time. I could spend a lot of time filling and sanding these last few blemishes... but duck that. I'm never gonna notice it looking at the front of the scope.

23- IT'S ALI-I-I-I-I-IVE!!! The money shot. From here, this feels like a brand new scope. Every softkey & encoder is smooth with perfect response; detents are firm but not crunchy. I'm still figuring out the controls, so don't have the scaling set right for the cheap 1x/10x probes off my 6022BE. 13 puff inputs did comp out perfectly with them tho. 

24- This display is SO crisp. These pics look fabulous, but they still don't do it justice. Seriously. Yumm!

25- However I DID note that the handle on this scope has several dings and scuffs, but not on the same side as the rest of the damage. I suspect, as it is Agilent-branded, they may have glommed the one off this scope to prettify a more profitable unit. I can SO live with that. 

26- 54645A Listing. With import fees, US$139. I can SO live with that too.

A'aight. Tomorrow I'll start putting together a shopping list to get a replacement for that RIFA on the way... and if I can find a factory service menu with total power cycles and runtime, I'll update with a pic of that too. Keep yer stick on the ice!

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

Yeah! well done.... nice one

[Saskia]

Chores.

Espresso machine cleaning session.

[drussell]

IT LIVES!!!   

Nice! Looking very good and you finally have a real scope again! 

Nice one. That was a winner. Good job 

Very nice!
The 456xx MegaZoom 'scopes are my favorite midrange 'scopes. Not too big, certainly not deep, nice CRT display, drives like an analog but has reasonable storage features.

@mnementh, well done, thats another winner from All Test, good result 

nice job hoser!

@mnem - top find and good repair

Yeah! well done.... nice one

Indeed!

I almost bought one of the older non-MegaZoom 4-channel (what is that, a 54601A? I think) a year or two ago locally, wanted $200, and I figured the digital specs were a bit lacking so decided to pass...  You did well. 

I don't know who the current holder is, but I figure that's a serious contender for the...

[Neomys Sapiens]

And another part of the Toolpr0n series (MilCrimp and Alingment tools):

This kit was originally intended to handle Mil-C-26482 Series II connectors, but I stuffed it to the brim with positioners and turrets, so that it does now series I and Mil-C-38999 SI...IV too.


And the remainder, which include the full size crimp tool with the adjustable positioner mounted, the mid-range M22520/7-01 and the non-standardized Daniels 'ultra-precision' version of the M22520/2-01.

Where I still have a void is with the tools needed to crimp the contacts larger that size 12 and some coaxial and triaxial inserts.


A large Belzer alignment tool kit, which is rare especially in the version containing the 'miniature' tools (right side, clear plastic). I contains, among others, a so called RF spion alingment aid in both sizes, which is a plastic stick with a piece of brass at one end and a piece of hyperm on the other, so that the magnetic permeability can be varied up and down.


A set of dental probes, scrapers and other tools useful for PCB rework and other fine manipulation tasks.

The next part will be the completion of the alingment kits.

[Specmaster]

IT LIVES!!!   

Nice! Looking very good and you finally have a real scope again! 

Nice one. That was a winner. Good job 

Very nice!
The 456xx MegaZoom 'scopes are my favorite midrange 'scopes. Not too big, certainly not deep, nice CRT display, drives like an analog but has reasonable storage features.

@mnementh, well done, thats another winner from All Test, good result 

nice job hoser!

@mnem - top find and good repair

Yeah! well done.... nice one

Indeed!

I almost bought one of the older non-MegaZoom 4-channel (what is that, a 54601A? I think) a year or two ago locally, wanted $200, and I figured the digital specs were a bit lacking so decided to pass...  You did well. 

I don't know who the current holder is, but I figure that's a serious contender for the...

I think in reality to be awarded the gong of Jammy Git, the price has to a real bargain and I don't think it was in this case, unfortunately 

[drussell]

I think in reality to be awarded the gong of Jammy Git, the price has to a real bargain and I don't think it was in this case, unfortunately 

How low would it have to be?  He paid $65 USD.

[Specmaster]

I think in reality to be awarded the gong of Jammy Git, the price has to a real bargain and I don't think it was in this case, unfortunately 

How low would it have to be?  He paid $65 USD.

Shipping was that much as well, its the total package that counts.

[drussell]

I think in reality to be awarded the gong of Jammy Git, the price has to a real bargain and I don't think it was in this case, unfortunately 

How low would it have to be?  He paid $65 USD.

Shipping was that much as well, its the total package that counts.

No, it wasn't....
Including shipping and import fees it was under $100 USD...  (He said he ended up paying less than $135 CAD all-in.)
I think that's an incredible bargain. 

I'd take that in a heatbeat!!

[TorinoFermic]

Quote from: TorinoFermic on Today at 00:18:18

Hurrah, I have managed to recap these pesky rifa caps with these news ones for my HP 3478A. But when I power it up, readings can be crazy until the device warms up, but at some ranges these values are waaaaay out of calibrated limits thus it needs to get recalibrated.

Short the input terminals out and see if it still does it. The inputs are high-Z in the lowest two DC ranges so drift all over the place.

Got nice zero there.

Quote from: TorinoFermic on Today at 00:18:18

Hurrah, I have managed to recap these pesky rifa caps with these news ones for my HP 3478A. But when I power it up, readings can be crazy until the device warms up, but at some ranges these values are waaaaay out of calibrated limits thus it needs to get recalibrated.

Surely it must have been doing the same before you replaced the Rifa's? Are you getting any error codes flash up?

No error codes

Quote from: TorinoFermic on Today at 00:18:18

Hurrah, I have managed to recap these pesky rifa caps with these news ones for my HP 3478A. But when I power it up, readings can be crazy until the device warms up, but at some ranges these values are waaaaay out of calibrated limits thus it needs to get recalibrated.

What does the self test say?

It says ok