Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Zucca]

Metcal PS800 any good ?

Not filet mignon, but still a good steak. Some planets better than chinesium alibaba crap. You can convert it to PS900 if you change the coil. AFAIK tips for the 800 are not compatible with the one of 900.
I have a PS800 that I want to convert to be battery powered, so I can solder in the woods if I need to. Another line in my immense to do list.

[Specmaster]

Well, I'm gobsmacked this morning  The doorbell rang and when I opened the door, there on the doormat was a parcel for me from Mouser and it contained all the parts required for the repair of the Thurlby PL310, except for the Pass transistor 2N3055.

Why am I so gobsmacked, well, I ordered everything on Oct 4th, the Mouser parts were dispatched on the 5th Oct and here with me 2 days later, and they have travelled all the way from Mansfield in Texas, to less time than the pass transistor has taken so far from Yorkshire, to me, 180miles compared to 5,000 

Whats more, the Mouser item have probably been flown into Stansted airport (14 miles from me) as we get many FedEx flights daily from the USA and even as this message is being written there is a FedEx plane on-route from Indianapolis to Stanstead that has just flown over downtown Detroit. Come on Royal Mail sort yourselves out, by comparison your not doing so well. 

[Zucca]

I need to get a small CNC job done on a 4mm aluminium plate. XY stuff nothing Z aparts from holes.
Do you guys knows where to get good and cheap CNC prototype samples?

[bd139]

Well, I'm gobsmacked this morning  The doorbell rang and when I opened the door, there on the doormat was a parcel for me from Mouser and it contained all the parts required for the repair of the Thurlby PL310, except for the Pass transistor 2N3055.

Why am I so gobsmacked, well, I ordered everything on Oct 4th, the Mouser parts were dispatched on the 5th Oct and here with me 2 days later, and they have travelled all the way from Mansfield in Texas, to less time than the pass transistor has taken so far from Yorkshire, to me, 180miles compared to 5,000 

Whats more, the Mouser item have probably been flown into Stansted airport (14 miles from me) as we get many FedEx flights daily from the USA and even as this message is being written there is a FedEx plane on-route from Indianapolis to Stanstead that has just flown over downtown Detroit. Come on Royal Mail sort yourselves out, by comparison your not doing so well. 

Yeah RM are shit 

This week:

Turkey to UK next day
USA East coast to UK next day
Royal Mail - 3 fucking days for special delivery next day before 9am 

[mansaxel]

It’s a combination of breaking up our telecoms monopoly and incremental changes to law caused by the larger privatised providers abusing their customers since.

This is the default state that everything evolved into in the human race thus we are doomed.

One can trust such industry changes to default into "most gain for the big boys" all the time.  The optical market in Sweden is governed by passive infrastructure owners (mostly regional but with some country-wide actors) whose business model is to scale the OSI model to where they light the fibre and offer L2 services with a number of L3 providers on top. Sort of like OpenRetch in the UK, but on fibre.

These infrastructure owners aren't ISP's and as such are clueless and impervious to the technological development push coming from hiring the clued  people that you need to have if you're supposed to talk BGP to the rest of the world.  As a consequence of that, they're not interested in driving development of service, but instead want things to be as static as possible. Alas, their definition of "static" does not include IPv6, and while "hey, it's L2" would suggest that IPv6 would not be a problem, there is this little problem of "provisioning systems" which is shite-ware designed on the assumption that v6 is not a thing to consider.

Thus, stagnation.

[bd139]

Ugh that's a nightmare.

I've got IPv6 here public and internal. No NAT party

Virtually nothing resolves to an AAAA though 

[mansaxel]

Ugh that's a nightmare.

I've got IPv6 here public and internal. No NAT party

Virtually nothing resolves to an AAAA though 

I've got a v6 tunnel to Hurricane Electric. It means that all of Facebook,  Google, and Youtube use v6. When my slightly more complicated BGP-over-tunnels setup for v4 breaks (or NAT is overloaded, which is slightly more common), no ordinary users notice anything, because Youtube works.

Looking at v6 vs v4 in terms of bandwidth it's more than you might think.

Of course, it helps that I've got my own resolvers and on v6 too, so they can get the full view of the Internet, and that the sneaky devices FAANG employ as name servers interpret us as v6 users, giving us other service nodes than the poor buggers on v4-only.

[med6753]

Well, I'm gobsmacked this morning  The doorbell rang and when I opened the door, there on the doormat was a parcel for me from Mouser and it contained all the parts required for the repair of the Thurlby PL310, except for the Pass transistor 2N3055.

Why am I so gobsmacked, well, I ordered everything on Oct 4th, the Mouser parts were dispatched on the 5th Oct and here with me 2 days later, and they have travelled all the way from Mansfield in Texas, to less time than the pass transistor has taken so far from Yorkshire, to me, 180miles compared to 5,000 

Whats more, the Mouser item have probably been flown into Stansted airport (14 miles from me) as we get many FedEx flights daily from the USA and even as this message is being written there is a FedEx plane on-route from Indianapolis to Stanstead that has just flown over downtown Detroit. Come on Royal Mail sort yourselves out, by comparison your not doing so well. 

I ordered the HV capacitors from Mouser on Sunday. As of this morning it's on the UPS truck for delivery. 

[Zucca]

I've got a v6 tunnel to Hurricane Electric. It means that all of Facebook,  Google, and Youtube use v6. When my slightly more complicated BGP-over-tunnels setup for v4 breaks (or NAT is overloaded, which is slightly more common), no ordinary users notice anything, because Youtube works.

Looking at v6 vs v4 in terms of bandwidth it's more than you might think.

Of course, it helps that I've got my own resolvers and on v6 too, so they can get the full view of the Internet, and that the sneaky devices FAANG employ as name servers interpret us as v6 users, giving us other service nodes than the poor buggers on v4-only.

Respect as always to you. I tried something on v6 and failed with tunnels and resolving, it was 2013. I wanted to try it a gain but my ISP gave my just v4.
I then decided until the ISP will give me my slice of v6, I will keep v6 in my head.

[BU508A]

screenshot from my Fritz!Box 7490

[Zucca]

In my ISP bridge mode not always provide v6. Ask Kabel Deutschland or Vodafone why.

[capt bullshot]

screenshot from my Fritz!Box 7490

Pretty standard for a native Telekom (Germany) DSL access, they do public IPv4 and v6 Addresses since quite a while. Same @home, just faster.
With most other providers (Germany) you most probably get crippled shit (e.g. CG-NAT for v4, no v6, ...). Mobile isn't any better.

[Cerebus]

Well, I'm gobsmacked this morning  The doorbell rang and when I opened the door, there on the doormat was a parcel for me from Mouser and it contained all the parts required for the repair of the Thurlby PL310, except for the Pass transistor 2N3055.

Why am I so gobsmacked, well, I ordered everything on Oct 4th, the Mouser parts were dispatched on the 5th Oct and here with me 2 days later, and they have travelled all the way from Mansfield in Texas, to less time than the pass transistor has taken so far from Yorkshire, to me, 180miles compared to 5,000 

Whats more, the Mouser item have probably been flown into Stansted airport (14 miles from me) as we get many FedEx flights daily from the USA and even as this message is being written there is a FedEx plane on-route from Indianapolis to Stanstead that has just flown over downtown Detroit. Come on Royal Mail sort yourselves out, by comparison your not doing so well. 

Whereas Anders sent me that microwave sensor on the 2nd, and it's taken until today (7th) for it to wend its way a few hundred miles inside the UK.

[Cerebus]

Ugh that's a nightmare.

I've got IPv6 here public and internal. No NAT party

Virtually nothing resolves to an AAAA though 

I've got a v6 tunnel to Hurricane Electric. It means that all of Facebook,  Google, and Youtube use v6. When my slightly more complicated BGP-over-tunnels setup for v4 breaks (or NAT is overloaded, which is slightly more common), no ordinary users notice anything, because Youtube works.

Looking at v6 vs v4 in terms of bandwidth it's more than you might think.

Of course, it helps that I've got my own resolvers and on v6 too, so they can get the full view of the Internet, and that the sneaky devices FAANG employ as name servers interpret us as v6 users, giving us other service nodes than the poor buggers on v4-only.

I've had native v6 here at home since my ISP was one that I also ran (not the last one, but the one before that, so 20 freaking years), but the huge telco I was contracting for last year were just starting an effort to plan to implement v6 on their internal networks (not even customer facing). The result of being IPv4 only means that their internal natworks (a typo that is so apposite I'm leaving it) had to run on private use address space, and sometimes even had to NAT private use space between countries and operating companies. To say it was a mess is an understatement of huge proportions.

[bd139]

That's the class of shit show I'm trying to migrate to AWS at the moment. There are several overlapping class-B networks from buy-outs and generally short sighted administrative ideas.

[Robert763]

I need to get a small CNC job done on a 4mm aluminium plate. XY stuff nothing Z aparts from holes.
Do you guys knows where to get good and cheap CNC prototype samples?

Don't know about Italy but I'd look at laser cutting for that type of job. There are suppliers (even on ebay) who will quote from a DXF or even a sketch. I've had some 60mm disks with 2 "D" shaped holes suppled for less than I could buy the sheet of material I'd need to make them for.

[Specmaster]

Well, I'm gobsmacked this morning  The doorbell rang and when I opened the door, there on the doormat was a parcel for me from Mouser and it contained all the parts required for the repair of the Thurlby PL310, except for the Pass transistor 2N3055.

Why am I so gobsmacked, well, I ordered everything on Oct 4th, the Mouser parts were dispatched on the 5th Oct and here with me 2 days later, and they have travelled all the way from Mansfield in Texas, to less time than the pass transistor has taken so far from Yorkshire, to me, 180miles compared to 5,000 

Whats more, the Mouser item have probably been flown into Stansted airport (14 miles from me) as we get many FedEx flights daily from the USA and even as this message is being written there is a FedEx plane on-route from Indianapolis to Stanstead that has just flown over downtown Detroit. Come on Royal Mail sort yourselves out, by comparison your not doing so well. 

Whereas Anders sent me that microwave sensor on the 2nd, and it's taken until today (7th) for it to wend its way a few hundred miles inside the UK.

Exactly, RM is rapidly becoming a joke, maximising profits over a public service, since it became privatised. I remember when the postal service used to be at least twice a day with the first post of the by 9.30AM and companies could rely on it happening. Nowadays they have to produce a profit for their shareholders to get paid 

[bd139]

To be fair it was even more shit when it was nationalised and there was no route to complain effectively, much like British rail.

The issue is that it’s a free market and other competitors did a better job of it. Which is how it’s supposed to work.

Hopefully the post office will go down the toilet next. It’s the second most unpleasant place to have to deal with in the UK just behind Wetherspoons.

[mnementh]

      From the "SUCCESS!!!" Comes in Many Flavors Dept...


               

1)   So... after some small amount of misery and self-mutilation, I finally got a semi-successful print after pretty much completely rebuilding the hotend and performing open-heart molestation surgery on my 3DP. Looks a little fuzzy around the edges, but it did at least complete the print.

2)   For a change, removing the supports did not fight me at all; they pulled out easily and in one piece. I was quite surprised by this, given how deep inside the piece they extend.

C)   Print quality is "Ehhhh..." at best; calling it a successful print is probably pushing it. Most of the fuzzies will go away with a little fire tho...

4)   Okay... make that a lot of fire. And a zip-tie.  But still... good enough for Proof-of-Concept on my muffler tailpiece.

5)   Money shot...? Taking measurements. Qa-plahh!  Okay...

6)   Side By Side with stock unit. Well, it did work as intended; I was able to fit the tailpiece on the PSU, and overall appearance is as intended. A successful print would tidy up the look of the PSU without adding appreciable length with a stock IEC cord; however 90° cords are right out. And left out. They're just... OUT.

The data: (SMH made a complete dog's breakfast of the "Tables" function, so just a quick screencap from an online generator )

   

Installed, the tailpiece does make a noticeable reduction in the perceived noise level with it sitting on the desktop. The higher-pitched elements are reduced quite a bit; but it is still somewhat distracting in a quiet workspace.

It took several runs to get any meaningful data; I was starting just as the city was waking up and even with the kids sent back upstairs for half an hour, ambient noise varied 5-7dB as the noise of traffic and devices running in the house varied. Eventually I got a good run with muffler both on and off; measured at back of unit, front of unit, and 1 meter level with unit; then out of curiosity, again at 1 meter with a cloth dropped over the front of the PSU to muffle the inlet area.

And the takeaway...

While my tailpiece does tidy up the look of the unit (and I do have plans to make a similar front piece) and makes a 3-5dB difference in noise measured at the back of the unit, the single most effective noise abatement attack was to throw the thing under my desk. 

We'll see what difference, if any, adding the frontpiece makes; as muffling the inlet area did make a noticeable and measurable difference with the unit on the desktop.

mnem
*back into the suck*

[URI]

...and now on to something completely different...   

mnem, you inspired me by hinting me to those ridiculous cheap chinesium DC Stepup/down buck converter you used for your variant of an isolated T12 soldering station.
I just ordered three different types of them from 200W to 300W (!) nominal power.

I'm curious to investigate their properties (esp. under load/pwm-switching load) and to compare them to the isolated MeanWell DC/DC-converter I used that costs more than all those cheap DC Buck Booster all together.      

The MeanWell converter has 120W rated power and its housing is stuffed full of components -unlike the cheap non-isolated Buck Booster with 200W to 300W rated power. Obviously the cheap, non-isolated Buck Booster only have a coil as part of the switcher in them and have no transformer for isolation purposes in them.
The power rating sounds like a PMPO-rating, though.     

[med6753]

The HV capacitors for the Type 310A showed up right on time. But things have gone from bad to worse in trying to fix the HV. I decided to change out the two 5642 HV Rectifiers before doing the capacitors. Done and now I have no HV at all and obviously no trace. 

I noticed that only 1 filament of the pair was glowing. So I checked the filament of the other and it's OK. On a hunch I lifted the tube that was glowing and wouldn't you know it the other tube now has a glowing filament. Unless I'm stupid this is telling me I have insufficient drive from the HV Oscillator OR I have a FUBAR HV transformer. Is my assumption correct?

When out on Ebay to see if that transformer (Tek P/N 120-121) is available but no joy. I'll do some additional searching but I doubt I'll find one. In the meantime going to do more troubleshooting of the HV Oscillator and maybe get lucky.

This project is THAT close to being put in the closet to re-visit some other time. 

   

[bd139]

I'd get a DVM (in AC volts) across the filament on each tube and see what the deal is first. Not sure what frequency is but you only need a relative measurement. Would expect them to be the same approx. My be a bad 5642. I had one in my first 453 that caused HT trouble

[med6753]

I'd get a DVM (in AC volts) across the filament on each tube and see what the deal is first. Not sure what frequency is but you only need a relative measurement. Would expect them to be the same approx.

I'm reluctant to do that. Those filaments are elevated to HV potential which would put the DMM elevated too.

Edit...frequency of the oscillator is about 25Khz.

[bd139]

That's what they invented long sticks for 

Other option is pull both the tubes out and check them on a DC supply.

Don't try this at home kids 



Made some interesting noises at 2kv but survived it fine and still works to this day.

Edit: getting a hankering for another multimeter now. But what one? 

[med6753]

I do have a third 5642 tube plus I'm now not convinced that the two old ones are bad. I may put them back in.

I remember when you did that. But I don't have a DMM that I'm willing to sacrifice.