Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Oh yeah; def worth stopping and picking it up. Just not anything really exciting is all.

mnem
Ferengi-fodder fer sherr.

[Specmaster]

Oh yeah; def worth stopping and picking it up. Just not anything really exciting is all.

mnem
Ferengi-fodder fer sherr.

I just flipped that old Sharetree AM/FM signal generator that I got way back in 2017 for £20 but then couldn't find any manuals for it, it fetched £90 on auction with a bidding war on it, so that doesnt owe me anything. Likewise, the Racal Dana 9082, got it £15, supposed to be working but wasn't so I got full refund, just sold it for £46, like the other one, not working, spares/repair only and no returns. So not a bad day, all helps towards my car repair / tax / insurance bills 

[bd139]

Congratulations. As mentioned elsewhere I did actually consider that Racal myself 

Some RF hacking here. Didn't have any 10dB attenuators around and I need one to insert in NanoVNA chain so I don't blow it up with an amplifier stage.

So Pi attenuator. Series element = 82 || 560. Parallel elements = 100 || 2.7k. Didn't have right SMD resistors and this is NOT a transmission line - just cut board with a stanley knife.



Pretty good result this. I didn't push it up too far as only req is HF but the flatness is fairly good and the return loss is under 24dB right up to 900MHz which was a surprise.

[med6753]

I think I'll move to Canada. The freaking Canuks seem to enjoy throwing away perfectly good equipment. 

Yep, I think I might be joining you as well. Never find anything like that over here.

Ehhh... not exactly perfectly good. 10 or more years old; a SLB5M Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz with 4GB Crucial DDR2/800 RAM and 1GB Sapphire ATi Radeon HD5450 GPU on a MSI MS-7529 G45 Chipset MB with only a few bloaty caps.  Oh, and a Toshiba SSH-223 DVD-RW drive.

While in principle I could get Ubuntu or even Win10 to install on it, what would I have by the time it finished sometime in the middle of next week...?

Certainly not worth the time/assache of recapping the board or even a cheap bulk Win10 license.

I think I'm much better off just getting it lit up long enough to take pics and flip the naughty bits on fleaBay for a few dollars towards something useful.

Or toss the RAM & GPU in the back of the parts bin for testing/diag porpoises... there they might actually make me some money.

mnem

Well boo-hooo.  It's still a tad better than the dead skunks, possums, and raccoons I find along side the road here. 

[mnementh]

That's all on the menu in Jersey. 

mnem
 

[bd139]

plumbing done. 15dB preamplifier for this HF telemetry receiver. Worked out that if I don't want to talk to other people with the radio I can talk to myself and send data over it 





Now to wait 3 months for my ADE-1 mixers to arrive  . I'll work on the decoder PLL over next couple of weeks.

[Wolfgang]

Congratulations. As mentioned elsewhere I did actually consider that Racal myself 

Some RF hacking here. Didn't have any 10dB attenuators around and I need one to insert in NanoVNA chain so I don't blow it up with an amplifier stage.

So Pi attenuator. Series element = 82 || 560. Parallel elements = 100 || 2.7k. Didn't have right SMD resistors and this is NOT a transmission line - just cut board with a stanley knife.



Pretty good result this. I didn't push it up too far as only req is HF but the flatness is fairly good and the return loss is under 24dB right up to 900MHz which was a surprise.

... up to VHF, this technique is fully OK: I made handbodged circuits with striplines (i.e. 2mm wide strips of 1.6mm FR4) up to 23cm, and they work.
And with a few cap trimmers and a VNA you can squeeze out some more MHz in flatness. Art brut at its finest !

[Neomys Sapiens]

Found on EBay Kleinanzeigen. I waited through several subsequent relistings until the price was down to 40.- from 75.-, at which point I first bothered to look at the picture with the original price. After checking that this is real, I did go for it.
(For those that don't know what it is: it is a Noga/Shaviv Deburring Tool with a number of blades, which do even include some not-so-common ones)

[bd139]

... up to VHF, this technique is fully OK: I made handbodged circuits with striplines (i.e. 2mm wide strips of 1.6mm FR4) up to 23cm, and they work.
And with a few cap trimmers and a VNA you can squeeze out some more MHz in flatness. Art brut at its finest !

Yeah it's pretty amazing really what you can screw out of this construction. I'm slowly collecting SMD capacitors and resistors at the moment and will go in that direction in the future. It's actually easier working with it.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Pretty good result this. I didn't push it up too far as only req is HF but the flatness is fairly good and the return loss is under 24dB right up to 900MHz which was a surprise.

Though at 1 MHz past your tested coverage it will, at least on odd numbered days or if the moon is full, become very hairy in S21 and jump suddenly and bite your rear in S11.

[bd139]

Fully expect that. That's where luck and debugging comes in 

(i did sweep it to 900MHz. It still has gain to 200MHz. Not bad for 2n3904's)

[Wolfgang]

plumbing done. 15dB preamplifier for this HF telemetry receiver. Worked out that if I don't want to talk to other people with the radio I can talk to myself and send data over it 





Now to wait 3 months for my ADE-1 mixers to arrive  . I'll work on the decoder PLL over next couple of weeks.

One comment though: The wire loop at the bottom of the right PCB is a breach of style. Straight out and a short squirt of coax would be perfect.
so you get an A mark on the aesthetics as well. If you cannot get an ADE-1, an old-style TUF-1 would probably work as well. They have some on the bay.

[bd139]

Yeah they are tacked on for testing only. The sub modules will be soldered to a larger chunk of FR4 and hard wired. I didn’t want to end up cabling the whole thing with SMA as it’s expensive and unnecessary.

Got 5x ADE-1’s arriving from China for £7. Wonder if they’ll work  . TUF-1 is a good idea. They have some UK sources. I may get bored and just make a mixer.

[AVGresponding]

Well, here's an update on the Keithley 2000.

Seller messaged me:

I don't know why but the payment email is wrong. I got one email for my Ebay account and another for my PayPal. fro some reason the listing made you pay the money at my Ebay email instead of my PayPal account email.
Please cancel the payment that is already made to *******@yahoo.com and pay it at ( *******@yahoo.co.uk ).
I will see why this happened after the transaction finish .. can't do anything as long there's an active transaction.
Sorry again for this delay ...but I realy had no idea that this was happening.

This looks a bit like someone either, (a) trying to cancel the transaction on the basis I cancelled the payment, or (b) circumvent eBay payment system to avoid seller fees/buyer protections.

Or ofc it could be just (c) me being paranoid.

[mansaxel]

(For those that don't know what it is: it is a Noga/Shaviv Deburring Tool

Ahhh, the Noga. ("noga" means "thorouhly" in swedish, which is hilarious to this easily amused tool fetishist...) The proper way to de-burr. I love mine, even if it is just the basic kit.

[factory]

Well, here's an update on the Keithley 2000.

Seller messaged me:

I don't know why but the payment email is wrong. I got one email for my Ebay account and another for my PayPal. fro some reason the listing made you pay the money at my Ebay email instead of my PayPal account email.
Please cancel the payment that is already made to *******@yahoo.com and pay it at ( *******@yahoo.co.uk ).
I will see why this happened after the transaction finish .. can't do anything as long there's an active transaction.
Sorry again for this delay ...but I realy had no idea that this was happening.

This looks a bit like someone either, (a) trying to cancel the transaction on the basis I cancelled the payment, or (b) circumvent eBay payment system to avoid seller fees/buyer protections.

Or ofc it could be just (c) me being paranoid.

They can add the other email to their paypal account if this is the issue.
Do they sell a lot on ebay or is this their first sale? If they are new to selling payments can get held by ePay.

David

[Robert763]

I Think that is enough for you to request ebay cancel the purchase becuase you are unhappy with paying to a different account. I assume you are still having a bit of bidders remorse.

[AVGresponding]

They can add the other email to their paypal account if this is the issue.
Do they sell a lot on ebay or is this their first sale? If they are new to selling payments can get held by ePay.

David

All their feedback for the last 12 months is as a buyer, so could be.

I Think that is enough for you to request ebay cancel the purchase becuase you are unhappy with paying to a different account. I assume you are still having a bit of bidders remorse.

No, it just means I need to do some overtime to pay for it.   

I'd be lucky to find another one at that price, with what's probably a relatively easy fix, even if it isn't the front/rear switch.

[tggzzz]

Well, here's an update on the Keithley 2000.

Seller messaged me:

I don't know why but the payment email is wrong. I got one email for my Ebay account and another for my PayPal. fro some reason the listing made you pay the money at my Ebay email instead of my PayPal account email.
Please cancel the payment that is already made to *******@yahoo.com and pay it at ( *******@yahoo.co.uk ).
I will see why this happened after the transaction finish .. can't do anything as long there's an active transaction.
Sorry again for this delay ...but I realy had no idea that this was happening.

This looks a bit like someone either, (a) trying to cancel the transaction on the basis I cancelled the payment, or (b) circumvent eBay payment system to avoid seller fees/buyer protections.

Or ofc it could be just (c) me being paranoid.

I have a different fleabay and PayPal email address, and have never had any problems buying or selling.

In your circumstances I would want to ensure I didn't have two payments in flight simultaneously

[AVGresponding]

I have a different fleabay and PayPal email address, and have never had any problems buying or selling.

In your circumstances I would want to ensure I didn't have two payments in flight simultaneously

Yep.

I've sent him the eBay help page link for it and asked him to check if his payment is being held.

[Specmaster]

Well, here's an update on the Keithley 2000.

Seller messaged me:

I don't know why but the payment email is wrong. I got one email for my Ebay account and another for my PayPal. fro some reason the listing made you pay the money at my Ebay email instead of my PayPal account email.
Please cancel the payment that is already made to *******@yahoo.com and pay it at ( *******@yahoo.co.uk ).
I will see why this happened after the transaction finish .. can't do anything as long there's an active transaction.
Sorry again for this delay ...but I realy had no idea that this was happening.

This looks a bit like someone either, (a) trying to cancel the transaction on the basis I cancelled the payment, or (b) circumvent eBay payment system to avoid seller fees/buyer protections.

Or ofc it could be just (c) me being paranoid.

Personally, I'd report this to eBay and walk away, it sounds like a scam to me. Once you pay via his other address, he gets the money, closes his PayPal account and walks away with the money and the meter. Ebay won't help you once you pay because it is outside of their system.

Yes you will lose the meter but that to me is a risk worth taking and know that I did the right thing and protect myself and tried to prevent him from scamming others as well.

Edit.
Actually I don't think that PayPal will allow a payment to be made to an email address that they do not recognise anyway, so if that is true, than it is a scam because the address that eBay gave you would be the address registered as the PayPal address for that account. Tread very carefully my friend.

[Specmaster]

Meantime, on a different topic, I have just a fantastic 2 part thriller called "Air Force One is Down" on Virgin Prime but I think it is available on other platforms as it was a TV show once.

[Neomys Sapiens]

(For those that don't know what it is: it is a Noga/Shaviv Deburring Tool

Ahhh, the Noga. ("noga" means "thorouhly" in swedish, which is hilarious to this easily amused tool fetishist...) The proper way to de-burr. I love mine, even if it is just the basic kit.

I already have a telescopic one and two pocket variants, so this kit will provide even more additional capabilities. They are a very useful type of tool for anyone working with metals, plastics and composites.

[Neomys Sapiens]

WARNING about seller on Ebay.de- Although I previously bought various articles in multiple batches, I have encountered a degree of incorrect behaviour fron the seller Charly****** that I see it as necessary to warn everyone from entering in business relations with this person.
My direct message via Ebay to group the articles in order to conclude the sale went without answer. My first 'request for total sum' also did not elicit any response. Two days after, the seller opened a complaint with Ebay about a unpaid article. Even then, a third request for total sum was not answered.
I will not buy again from C*****funken and can only warn anyone from doing so!

[tautech]

Name and shame thread here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/consumer-alert-2nd-no-3rd-pass-through-the-spam-bot-filter/