Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BravoV]

Just got a private message recently thru Whatsapp from my local industrial complex recyler/salvager company, as I'm their regular addict buying customer. 

Them : Dude, got a new toy here, from our latest recyling from a factory, for you since you're regular, its cheeeepp 
Me : Huh ? Whats that ?
Them : You do like zapping stuffs with high voltage right ? (last time they gave me a NOS 15KV neon sign transformer, as a gift (free) as part of the deal I made)
Me : Hmm .. well .. sort of and depends, but again whats that ?
Them : Its made in Korea, its quite heavy too, about 9kg (20lbs), and you do like heavy electronic stuffs right ?
Me : ... (Oh no, damn it  ... they know my weak heart on these kinda things) ..
Them : It does output 0-5kV, and inside it has a big transformer "AND" a variac, want it ?
Me : ... (reading the words big transformer "AND" variac inside really ignited my interest) ...

... and later on ... after many chats exchanges, photos and bargaining ... for about $27 ... here I am with this thing. 

As usual, don't need it, but at least I've done my obligatory TEA ritual properly, that hopefully made TEA's GOD happy, and getting closer to the promised TEA heaven gate, am I ?   

Tear down photos coming next.

[mnementh]

Mmmm.... tasty. Sortof like a AC voltage source for a Megger, built out in its own box, eh...?

Plus... the film still over the display. You get to do the peel... 

mnem
Linus peels a Quadro GPU (you wanna turn up the volume on the embedded vid a bit to hear the glee  ):   

https://twitter.com/linustech/status/1234629981839314945?lang=en

[mnementh]

I suggest using it to keep the house warm post brexit.

MSDN library from that era is probably worth a few quid however.

Edit: I sold some MSDOS 6.22 media untested on floppy a couple of years back for £40 so there may be a market for such stuff.

I had to dig out a DOS 6.22 installation disk earlier this year to repair a R&S CRTU / CMU200. The software installer, specifically the boot manager, will only run if the disk boots to Dos 6.22 first. That also needed a PC with a 3.5" floppy and a PATA/IDE HDD intterface.

It goes back further than windows. Industries like aerospace have product life cycles many times longer than a operating system or even computer hardware platforms. There are still test rigs running PDP 11 / Q-Bus based interface cards and software. The cost of re-writing  and more importantly validating this software on modern computers, assuming suitable interface cards are available, is prohibitive even for aerospace. As a result there are companines selling replacement machines e.g. Logical https://logical-co.com/nupdpq/ . I know for sure that the A320 series fuel system rig is still running on Q-Bus interface cards and a VT-220 terminal.

A couple of years ago there were job ads for people to work on pdp11s in nuclear plants. Expected withdrawal date 2038,  which is either the Unix time rollover or the plants lifetime.

One of the tek 1502s (b?) was specified in aircraft repair manuals. Somebody has built something new which duplicates the functionality and interface, and is apparently regarded as a dropin in substitute.

I hope fervently that nobody discovers my familiarity with the Siemens M-series. Those are strange machines.

In present company, you're ashamed of being too familiar with this...? 

It also appears you aren't the only one who has a unnatural relationship with their espresso machine... 

https://www.nabto.com/the-coffeepi-part-1-of-2/

mnem
Dang.... now I'm missing bean again...

[tonyalbus]

Not a counter. 

8600A was cheap..status unknown, but display works..
8200A was not cheap i actualy bidded up-to my max i almost stepped out...Then the seller said he watched my movies and he stopped the bidding and sold it to me :-)
But the NIXIES are still bright and teh meter seems to work fine,,,

[Kosmic]

Hahahahaha thank you 

One down, 20 million to go 

Those squirrel problems are spreading over here. My s.o. was bombarded by one with acorns just a few days ago.

I saw a Buse chasing squirrels in the backyard recently. First time I'm seeing one of those around, since I'm in a big urban area. That might fix the squirrels problem for a while.

[mnementh]

The quality wound plastic film capacitors only real faiure is when they have been subjected to excessive voltage, dV/dt or current. These are unlikely in a crossover.

...Given the volume levels Saskia likely drives them at, I wouldn't count on it!   

Actually, given that these are used speakers which have passed through many hands before our resident audiophreak got hold of them... and we know they've been rode hard & put away wet more than a few times, just from her description... this is not even close to a reasonable assumption.

We have no idea who may have hooked what amplifier to these; given the utterly vapid nature of 90% of the wannabe audiophiles whose skeevy little mitts may have gotten hold of them, they could have been connected to anything from a Soundstream Tarantula to a BOGEN PA amp set-up in line-voltage mode without a transformer to any of oodles of tube amps with Ifni knows how much DC voltage leaking across the outputs.

Speaking as a veteran survivor of a thousand stereo repairs... 
There is no limit to the damage an idiot with a little electronics knowledge can do.   

mnem

[Kosmic]

Found this little guy on Ebay. Wiltron sweeper, 2-12.4Ghz. Asking price was 90$. I figured that worst case if it was impossible to fix, I would have a lot of cool microwave components. Overall the unit was really thirty but in good shape.



Of course the bumpers the back were destroyed during shipping. I would have to print a new set.



First time I'm seeing the inside of one of those, but I'm impressed, really well made. Everything is easily accessible and you can easily remove all the modules / cards for closer inspection.



Got an old Schaffner filter from 1990. Now should I replace it or not ?



Everything looked good inside so I powered the instrument, and of course 2 Tantalum caps were definitely not happy about that and decided to commit suicide.



After replacing the caps, all self-tests are green and .... we have a signal !



Phase noise is not that bad.



Sweeping a (not so great) 5.8Ghz High pass filter.



Sweeping a (pretty good) 3.9Ghz band pass filter.



Overall I really like Wiltron instruments. Good construction and really good service manual.

[Fungus]

While the capacitors still look ok, I cannot tell if they indeed are.

From the 1980s? It's safe to assume they aren't.

Why?

If they're tantalums, well ... it was a bad era for tantalums.

If they're electrolytics, they're likely to be drying up and/or ready to leak.

There is no real wear-out mechanisim for plastic film capacitors of this era.

Plastics are probably OK... but if you mentioned they were plastic, I missed it.

[tonyalbus]

Super cool...

[Ice-Tea]

Replace the Schaeffner. Like, now.

[AVGresponding]

Not a counter. 

8600A was cheap..status unknown, but display works..
8200A was not cheap i actualy bidded up-to my max i almost stepped out...Then the seller said he watched my movies and he stopped the bidding and sold it to me :-)
But the NIXIES are still bright and teh meter seems to work fine,,,

Probably still meets its specs too, my 8300A is spot on! Another nixie meter saved from the steampunk clock wankers!

Just been reading the manual for my latest toy TE, looks like I got a really nice precision PSU for the money, though the 15V max is a bit low, it's fine for most of what I'll need it for.
The fan is a bit noisy, and the big knob is missing (fnarr fnarr), but a light clean will see it good as new.
I don't suppose anyone has a spare knob? The shaft is a standard 1/4"/6.3mm jobby with flat.

[Kosmic]

Replace the Schaeffner. Like, now.

Wait what ? can't see your message with all the smoke!

[bd139]

Not a counter. 

8600A was cheap..status unknown, but display works..
8200A was not cheap i actualy bidded up-to my max i almost stepped out...Then the seller said he watched my movies and he stopped the bidding and sold it to me :-)
But the NIXIES are still bright and teh meter seems to work fine,,,

Probably still meets its specs too, my 8300A is spot on! Another nixie meter saved from the steampunk clock wankers!

Just been reading the manual for my latest toy TE, looks like I got a really nice precision PSU for the money, though the 15V max is a bit low, it's fine for most of what I'll need it for.
The fan is a bit noisy, and the big knob is missing (fnarr fnarr), but a light clean will see it good as new.
I don't suppose anyone has a spare knob? The shaft is a standard 1/4"/6.3mm jobby with flat.

Good good. Keysight still sell the knobs for those - part is 33120-87401. They're £2.60 + VAT a pop. Delivery is free. Phone up Keysight UK sales and they will sort you one out. Usually get some random from Spain phone you back for card details and it'll arrive in about 3-4 days.

https://www.keysight.com/my/partDetail/33120-87401

It's quite scary how much old HP stuff you can get new parts for.

Edit: buy a few if you're going to because you can bounce the fuckers on ebay for £15 a go 

[Cubdriver]

Not a counter. 

8600A was cheap..status unknown, but display works..
8200A was not cheap i actualy bidded up-to my max i almost stepped out...Then the seller said he watched my movies and he stopped the bidding and sold it to me :-)
But the NIXIES are still bright and teh meter seems to work fine,,,

Damn, Tony - that 8200A looks brand new!!  Beautiful!   

-Pat

[Robert763]

While the capacitors still look ok, I cannot tell if they indeed are.

From the 1980s? It's safe to assume they aren't.

Why?

If they're tantalums, well ... it was a bad era for tantalums.

If they're electrolytics, they're likely to be drying up and/or ready to leak.

There is no real wear-out mechanisim for plastic film capacitors of this era.

Plastics are probably OK... but if you mentioned they were plastic, I missed it.

They are not mine, but Saskia says they are MKTs which are plastic. The point is why would you suggest components will have failed when you haven't even read th po to find what type they are or what the application is. 

[Cerebus]

It's quite scary how much old HP stuff you can get new parts for.

Don't say that out loud or some fuckwit management type at Keysight is gonna hear you and figure out a way to reduce costs by cutting inventory.

It's the commitment to doing things like keep decent stock of spares for a decent period of time that is what made choosing HP a no-brainer back in the day. With all the mergers, takeovers, demergers and other f'ing about in recent years I don't have the confidence in anything that was once part of HP in the way I used to have confidence in HP back before the f'ing about started.

[Neomys Sapiens]

I suggest using it to keep the house warm post brexit.

MSDN library from that era is probably worth a few quid however.

Edit: I sold some MSDOS 6.22 media untested on floppy a couple of years back for £40 so there may be a market for such stuff.

I had to dig out a DOS 6.22 installation disk earlier this year to repair a R&S CRTU / CMU200. The software installer, specifically the boot manager, will only run if the disk boots to Dos 6.22 first. That also needed a PC with a 3.5" floppy and a PATA/IDE HDD intterface.

It goes back further than windows. Industries like aerospace have product life cycles many times longer than a operating system or even computer hardware platforms. There are still test rigs running PDP 11 / Q-Bus based interface cards and software. The cost of re-writing  and more importantly validating this software on modern computers, assuming suitable interface cards are available, is prohibitive even for aerospace. As a result there are companines selling replacement machines e.g. Logical https://logical-co.com/nupdpq/ . I know for sure that the A320 series fuel system rig is still running on Q-Bus interface cards and a VT-220 terminal.

A couple of years ago there were job ads for people to work on pdp11s in nuclear plants. Expected withdrawal date 2038,  which is either the Unix time rollover or the plants lifetime.

One of the tek 1502s (b?) was specified in aircraft repair manuals. Somebody has built something new which duplicates the functionality and interface, and is apparently regarded as a dropin in substitute.

I hope fervently that nobody discovers my familiarity with the Siemens M-series. Those are strange machines.

In present company, you're ashamed of being too familiar with this...? 

It also appears you aren't the only one who has a unnatural relationship with their espresso machine... 

https://www.nabto.com/the-coffeepi-part-1-of-2/

mnem
Dang.... now I'm missing bean again...

Not exactly. And no, not the mobile phones either.

The process control computer series which was finally named Siemens Sicomp-M and which is behind anything nuclear build/supplied by Siemens in the special safety modified versions. Process control computers with votong logic in the HW.

[med6753]

Replace the Schaeffner. Like, now.

Wait what ? can't see your message with all the smoke!

If his mains were 240V I agree, change it now. But it seems those filters rarely blow with mains of 120V which is what he has.

[factory]

Just got a private message recently thru Whatsapp from my local industrial complex recyler/salvager company, as I'm their regular addict buying customer. 

Them : Dude, got a new toy here, from our latest recyling from a factory, for you since you're regular, its cheeeepp 
Me : Huh ? Whats that ?
Them : You do like zapping stuffs with high voltage right ? (last time they gave me a NOS 15KV neon sign transformer, as a gift (free) as part of the deal I made)
Me : Hmm .. well .. sort of and depends, but again whats that ?
Them : Its made in Korea, its quite heavy too, about 9kg (20lbs), and you do like heavy electronic stuffs right ?
Me : ... (Oh no, damn it  ... they know my weak heart on these kinda things) ..
Them : It does output 0-5kV, and inside it has a big transformer "AND" a variac, want it ?
Me : ... (reading the words big transformer "AND" variac inside really ignited my interest) ...

... and later on ... after many chats exchanges, photos and bargaining ... for about $27 ... here I am with this thing. 

As usual, don't need it, but at least I've done my obligatory TEA ritual properly, that hopefully made TEA's GOD happy, and getting closer to the promised TEA heaven gate, am I ?   

Tear down photos coming next.

That looks like a flash tester, or AC insulation breakdown tester, I got a 5kV Clare one in the big pile of test gear I acquired last month, question is did you get the test leads with it?

David

[med6753]

Now it looks like my next project will arrive Saturday rather than Monday. Coming from Ohio via FedEx. I'll reveal when it shows up.

Not sure if I'll be on Discord tomorrow. Lady Copper arriving today for the weekend. But we have no plans other than to just hang out here. If I do log in I'll have to be on my best behavior.   

Of course, you'll have to be on your best behaviour or else the lady cop might just put her own cuffs on you, the not fancy but purely functional ones 

Well it turns out she called me after I posted this morning. She did not feel well last night with some sort of stomach bug and was hoping she'd feel better this morning. Not the case. She called out of work today and won't be coming up this weekend. She'll come up next weekend. So.....I can resume my bad boy activities and the first thing I did was go back to bed and nap for a few hours. Such a rebel I am.   

[factory]

Just been reading the manual for my latest toy TE, looks like I got a really nice precision PSU for the money, though the 15V max is a bit low, it's fine for most of what I'll need it for.
The fan is a bit noisy, and the big knob is missing (fnarr fnarr), but a light clean will see it good as new.
I don't suppose anyone has a spare knob? The shaft is a standard 1/4"/6.3mm jobby with flat.

Good good. Keysight still sell the knobs for those - part is 33120-87401. They're £2.60 + VAT a pop. Delivery is free. Phone up Keysight UK sales and they will sort you one out. Usually get some random from Spain phone you back for card details and it'll arrive in about 3-4 days.

https://www.keysight.com/my/partDetail/33120-87401

It's quite scary how much old HP stuff you can get new parts for.

Edit: buy a few if you're going to because you can bounce the fuckers on ebay for £15 a go 

Not really surprised they still sell that part as the 66311B is still available too;
https://www.keysight.com/en/pd-1000001614%3Aepsg%3Apro-pn-66311B/mobile-communications-dc-source-15v-3a?cc=US&lc=eng

David

[mansaxel]

Replace the Schaeffner. Like, now.

Wait what ? can't see your message with all the smoke!

If his mains were 240V I agree, change it now. But it seems those filters rarely blow with mains of 120V which is what he has.

Who are you and what have you done with the grump-smurf?  The real med would NEVER recommend against "symphony-of-blunderbusses" style changing out anything with capacitance.

[med6753]

Replace the Schaeffner. Like, now.

Wait what ? can't see your message with all the smoke!

If his mains were 240V I agree, change it now. But it seems those filters rarely blow with mains of 120V which is what he has.

Who are you and what have you done with the grump-smurf?  The real med would NEVER recommend against "symphony-of-blunderbusses" style changing out anything with capacitance.

We all have a mellow side I guess.  Notice I did NOT say you need to change it yesterday or risk airing out the house. With 120V you can do it whenever. Hell, both my 2465's still have their factory "whenevers" in them.   

[bd139]

Attempt 5 of toner transfer. Kill me. With a spoon.!

[med6753]

Attempt 5 of toner transfer. Kill me. With a spoon.!

Remove all flame producing items out of the house before you do something stupid.