Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Brumby]

What; doesn't everybody mail felines...? They make this flat-rate box that's the perfect size...

mnem
"...like trying to stuff a cat into a sack..."

... and the magic part is that they will pack themselves!  Just leave the box in a corner somewhere and watch the cat climb in and snuggle down!  A quick flip of the lid and the deft application of some tape and you're all set.   

[TorinoFermic]

.... and stop showing me 6.5 digit DMMs at prices that look good!

I've been very good at staying happy with my 5.5 digit 3478A ... and your sharing is starting to make me twitch......

That's not my fault when the price of this DMM is so appealing for me, plus I could experiment with 34401A data logging features on it and their excellent linear stability with the time. 

[tautech]

What; doesn't everybody mail felines...? They make this flat-rate box that's the perfect size...

mnem
"...like trying to stuff a cat into a sack..."

... and the magic part is that they will pack themselves!  Just leave the box in a corner somewhere and watch the cat climb in and snuggle down!  A quick flip of the lid and the deft application of some tape and you're all set.   

Exactly.
If I start carrying a shipment inside the cat is the first on the scene just waiting for an open box.
And if you leave one around she's in like Flynn !

[Cubdriver]

Raining like hell and wind is picking up. And a tornado watch has been issued until 2100 hours tonight. 

Tie yourself to a boat anchor quick 

Don't worry about him what about all the Tektronix stuff! 

Just had 3 power dips enough to shut everything down but luckily it came back up. According to scanner trees are starting to come down due to soaked ground and wind.

You lucked out - looks like you made this post at about the same time I lost power 50 miles or so east of you.  It went out at about 2:30 PM on Tuesday the 4th, and came back on Thursday evening around six PM.  Cable and internet finally came back some time this afternoon/evening.  I lost a few trees, and have to get some damaged ones taken down now, but miraculously none of them hit anything on the way down. 





Can we get a do-over on 2020?  I don't like it so far...

-Pat

[Cubdriver]

Many thanks for all the advice on wire strippers, I have discounted all the ones that require 2 hands to used, pulling in opposite directions because they are fine if working with new cables and have the space and length of cable to be able to grip it correctly and safely. In my case, that is not applicable, one slip and the other items on the PCB or even the meter could be damaged by the reaction to slipping.

So I have selected this pair to try out, where any slippage is not putting other at risk of potential damage and includes, my knuckles   

I'm REALLY late to the wire stripper party, but after using a thermal stripper at work about six years ago, I broke down and bought one.  They turn up on the bay for reasonable $$, but I was of course in a rush and bought it new.  I think it's great for chassis work as you just stick the end in, grip and pull.  Love it for wiring tube amps and the like.






I used it when wiring the ST-70 clone and it made it very easy to get things dressed in very neatly - route the wire to where you want it to go, trim to length right in place with enough left to make the connection, bend it so it peeks up enough to get the stripper nose on it and zip, stripped wire end down inside the chassis.  Connect and solder, done.



Something to consider.

-Pat

[Saskia]

this is in fact a good idea.

[AVGresponding]

Right hand drive once, on a vacation in Scotland. I put about 300 miles on a rental. It was a Vauxhall sedan saloon. Didn't make any stupid mistakes but it was exhausting because you had to be constantly aware, especially at roundabouts. And even though I'm a southpaw I found shifting the 5 speed gearbox with the left hand a little perplexing. 

FTFY

Hum, I appear to be winning the bid : eBay auction: #174379420503 but I have contacted the seller like 2 days ago inquiring the shipping to Canada since there wasn't an estimate of it.

That will take off in the final minutes and seconds (no it won't be me, it'll go past my limit).

If it sells for less than £200 I'll be astonished. If it sells for less than £300 I'll be moderately surprised.

Bunch of pussies. Try driving in London, as in the city bit, in gridlocked traffic, in a manual for 20 years. My left arm and leg are bigger than the right one.

Complaining about Scotland and roundabouts 

At least in gridlocked traffic (oxymoron alert) you don't get people driving like they're playing GTA V. The worst you usually get is some entitled arsehole trying to jump a queue by using the oncoming lane as a filter lane, as per many CyclingMikey:

I won't bother mentioning drivers on their phones as that's endemic everywhere (yes I know).

[Zucca]

I used it when wiring the ST-70 clone and it made it very easy to get things dressed in very neatly - route the wire to where you want it to go, trim to length right in place with enough left to make the connection, bend it so it peeks up enough to get the stripper nose on it and zip, stripped wire end down inside the chassis.  Connect and solder, done.

-Pat

Thanks for sharing, what it the max AWG it can do?

[tonyalbus]

Bunch of pussies. Try driving in London, as in the city bit, in gridlocked traffic, in a manual for 20 years. My left arm and leg are bigger than the right one.

Complaining about Scotland and roundabouts 

Try driving in Peru Lima... does not matter left or right hand drive.... bigger man first 
accoring to wife i feld i little bit to comfartable... on the road in her country 

[tonyalbus]

Hum, I appear to be winning the bid : eBay auction: #174379420503 but I have contacted the seller like 2 days ago inquiring the shipping to Canada since there wasn't an estimate of it.

nice catch!

[tonyalbus]

Can we get a do-over on 2020?  I don't like it so far...

-Pat

for some of us it is a even worse year than others....
Sorry man.

[Robert763]

This little BASTARD cap...      So I’m putting together my parts list for the 54645A, and I can’t find a schizzmatic or component level parts list to save my life.

Of COURSE, this is the side jammed up tight against the heat sink so I can’t tell what voltage, and parametric search on DigiKey returns bupkis for this value in the current P561 product line.

So I bite the bullet and remove the little stinkbomb; it’s a bit of a PITA due to silicone spooge entanglement, but not too bad. I keep telling myself.

I get my numbers, and I look for anything close available locally, but no. Gonna have to order. *sigh*

I go about cleaning up the pads on this and another bastard cap that was completely obfuscated with a heat-shrink wetsuit, and the ground pad is just a complete dicksore to get clear. Tried solder-wick multiple times, even dipped in flux, tried solder-sucker several times and finally got it by propping up the board on edge so I could get sucker on one side and big chisel iron on BOOST contacting the other side. That GND fill was just sucking away the heat like a vortex.

So now I want to put it all back together until parts arrive... and I realize I do NOT want to do that desoldering job ever again for fear of cooking the PCB to death.

Fuck me. With a shovel. Sideways.^* 

mnem
^*in the room. I may be a perv, but I’m not suicidal.

Okay... looking to find a sub for this little bastard; I was thinking of going to Y2 poly, and I've found a EPCOS MKP B3202 series that should just fit while having a lot more headroom. The manufacturer recommends this line for SMPS DC conversion applications, which is good, as this one is right across the gate/source of a big ol' IRFPC50 MOSFET in the first DC converter.

The only problem I see right now is that from experience these tend to have pretty low ESR, often similar to ceramic, so even for a 47nF I'd still expect ESR of 1Ω or less. The one I just took out measures 40Ω ESR. Can't tell from the datasheet if that's in the normal range or not. I know these can be used as drop-in replacements for the dread RIFAs in AC line applications; I've seen it oodles of times. But here I'm concerned about low ESR affecting the stability of the SMPS at these higher frequencies.

Opinions?

mnem
 

Sounds like it might be a sunbber with built in resistance of intentionally high ESR. I'd be  very wary of replacing with anther type if you don't have full data. I've seen epoxy aed snubbers were you could see the resistor through the resin.
How about a pictue of the markings on the original?

EDIT
E.G. https://content.kemet.com/datasheets/KEM_F3024_PMR205.pdf

[bd139]

It’s not a specialist snubber. It’s PME261. https://kr.mouser.com/pdfdocs/KEM_F3294_PME261.pdf

Replace like with like lest you pick a fight with the SMPS gods. The only issue is it’s an old capacitor. New ones of the same type are fine.

47nF with a test frequency of around 100KHz turns up around 40 ohms reactance.

[Cubdriver]

I used it when wiring the ST-70 clone and it made it very easy to get things dressed in very neatly - route the wire to where you want it to go, trim to length right in place with enough left to make the connection, bend it so it peeks up enough to get the stripper nose on it and zip, stripped wire end down inside the chassis.  Connect and solder, done.

-Pat

Thanks for sharing, what it the max AWG it can do?

It's good for wire sizes between #10 AWG to #38 AWG (5.26mm^2 to 0.00797mm^2).  It will strip pretty much any insulation - Teflon, rubber, PVC, neoprene, Kapton, PE, etc.  We got the one at work to do some thin (might have been #28) Teflon insulated wire that was being difficult to strip without damaging the conductor.  It worked a treat and I added it to my 'want' list on the spot.

-Pat

[Cerebus]

Just looking up more 6 1/2D bench meters, and I see ones like the Keithley 2700, that must be pretty modern to have Ethernet. I see it just has the basic functions of a DMM, but no capacitance (and neither does the 34465A???) Then there's the whole scanner capability.

So I guess they're fine as a basic DMM, and can scan if you have the extra's and/or software for it.


What do people think of these 1990/2000's 6.5D scanner's ? What about vs the common ones like HP34401A / F8445 / K2000 ? ?

All the HPAK "TrueVolt" range have capacitance measurement (it's not particularly good). If it's not made its way on to the datasheet it's probably an oversight, it was introduced as a firmware upgrade.

[tggzzz]

Who do you think sent the cat...? 

mnem
All cats are solar-charged.

You may be the expert at everything but claiming to command cats is overplaying your hand.

If you read the statement properly, the claim was sending the cat. Commanding cats is a journey into fantasy.

What; doesn't everybody mail felines...? They make this flat-rate box that's the perfect size...

mnem
"...like trying to stuff a cat into a sack..."

I misread that as "... this flat box...", which reminded me there are uses for a dead cat, as Simon Bond documented 40 years ago.

Those of nervous disposition should not expand the images, and please send flames to /dev/null (because I certainly will ).




and, of course, there's the immortal Orville

[tggzzz]

Can we get a do-over on 2020?  I don't like it so far...

Unfortunately we will do it over again

[BU508A]

Anybody in need of a Keysight 34470A or a Picoammeter Keithley 6485/E?  NAWTS

34470A (calibration date March 2020, warranty til 1st of June 2023, 2475 Euro + VAT):
https://www.instrumex.de/en/8773


Illustration picture



6485/E (comes with a new cailbration certificate and 12 months warranty, 1990 Euro plus VAT):
https://www.instrumex.de/en/2894


Illustration picture

[Mr. Scram]

Hum, I appear to be winning the bid : eBay auction: #174379420503 but I have contacted the seller like 2 days ago inquiring the shipping to Canada since there wasn't an estimate of it.

That's a good price. I hope it's not so good the seller is having regrets. I suspect it'll clean up nicely and a working 34401A at that price should always be a good deal.

I overlooked it's not done yet. 

[BU508A]

Regarding these thermal wire strippers:

I've found this one in the bay and bought it for 5 Euro plus 4 for shipping:



It is called a "Mentor-Strip", no idea if it is any good.

[Zucca]

Regarding these thermal wire strippers:

I've found this one in the bay and bought it for 5 Euro plus 4 for shipping:



It is called a "Mentor-Strip", no idea if it is any good.

Looks like an italian dentist tool.

[tonyalbus]

Regarding these thermal wire strippers:

I've found this one in the bay and bought it for 5 Euro plus 4 for shipping:



It is called a "Mentor-Strip", no idea if it is any good.

Looks like an italian dentist tool.

mob dentist...  blody scary thing..it is.

[bd139]

Neeeeeeeeeeeed: https://tinysa.org/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.HomePage

[tonyalbus]

Talking about service.... remember i was emailing around to get a manual for the Anritsu MF1603A
i received a phone call today from Anritsu Germany
from a very friendly older guy, saying its out of support but he went to his files, and it realy is not available. he was in de development team before.
he gave me some.. very nice conversation... he even asked if the 1603 was still works and was happy for me..
no manual, but a very nice call..
also prob means it will be very hard to find...
if it was there this guy would prob had found it..
he could have emailed, but decided to personaly tell me...

[BU508A]

Neeeeeeeeeeeed: https://tinysa.org/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.HomePage

+1 here as well