Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Yeah that Brymen was free and is relegated to car duty now. I think it earned its retirement after spending the equivalent of a tour in "electronic 'nam".

The ones in my 453 were knackered. Took me ages to find replacements. Then after I'd got the HT up I found the previous cretinous scum who had meddled with it had buggered the triggering entirely. I didn't notice the 2x 1n4148's soldered in where the tunnel diodes were supposed to be at first 

Edit: has anyone had dealings with "technowomble" on ebay in Bristol? Thinking about spending something 

[Ice-Tea]

Yeh I know I said that it would be awhile before I get the PL310 on the bench and I'd some photos, and I still will do, when my bench is a bit more photogenic  , but I just couldn't wait any longer to see how it fared at the hands of DPD, it was perfect, well wrapped by Iced Tea,                                                                                                 

Recurring theme: "yeah, dude, Looking forward to it, but keep in mind I don't have the time atm to get right on it, so, you know, it will be some time before I get results"

**a few hours pass**

"So, yeah, I opened it up, cleaned it, replaced all the caps, ordered new parts and calibrated the device".

[ch_scr]

Using my new toy to log communication from my other new toy to the pc. Can't say I got further then feeling like an 80's hacker

[Specmaster]

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.

Oh well, never mind, just watch this film/documentary and it will appear to be bloody marvellous when you learn the alternative.

[Robert763]

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. 

As long as the DMM is battery operated and on an insulated surface and you don't touch it it won't mind floating at a couple of thousand volts. The input differential will only be the filment voltage. At 25 kHz you will need a Fluke 8060A or similar that works at high frequency. 

[25 CPS]

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. 

As long as the DMM is battery operated and on an insulated surface and you don't touch it it won't mind floating at a couple of thousand volts. The input differential will only be the filment voltage. At 25 kHz you will need a Fluke 8060A or similar that works at high frequency.

One of my old bosses had a great story about an Avo meter, a wooden table, and a 33 KV power supply inside of an RCA television transmitter; that's one of the reasons I wanted to get an Avo of my own.  Not to actually recreate the measurement he and his partner were required to take one night but to first and see what kind of meter got sacrificed to the cause.

[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.

Oh well, never mind, just watch this film/documentary and it will appear to be bloody marvellous when you learn the alternative.

And on that note I'm hitting the vodka 

Think I actually buggered up my wrist drilling holes without the right equipment at the weekend  . Going to take a few days off TE to let it heal 

[med6753]

Wow, a trip down Memory Lane. I was the supervisor of the maintenance team that kept all the equipment in the BAT (Bond, Assembly, Test) line running that took the raw substrate, installed the chips/decoupling caps, reflow, test, and encapsulation of these TCM (Thermal Conduction Modules) at IBM Poughkeepsie. Internally they were called "H2" and "H5" modules. Time frame about 1990 - 1991

The substrate and chips came from IBM Fishkill. The TCM external hardware from various outside contractors.

I think Dave came in his shorts about 5 times taking it apart. 

[capt bullshot]

Stuffed random scrapped picks  - Erm, not quite
Randomized stuffed pigs from scrap - Erm, not quite
Scrapped random picks from stuff - Erm, not quite

Ah - Picked random stuff from scrap  - Oh no, I did it again.



Technically, these are oscilloscopes, aren't they?
When I saw them, I felt an urge to save them from their way to E-waste. They're suffering the usual Hameg diseases : scratchy pots and switches.

[mnementh]

...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.     

You want to make sure the ones you order are both CV AND CC. Many of them on the bay of Evil are not. Set your CC limit to 6-8A (8A is more than these SHOULD be able to draw at 28V) depending on your primary power source. My intent was to add a IEC modular cord and a XT-60 plug for portable operation; one of these days I'll get around to it.

Good luck!

mnem
 

[ch_scr]

Stuffed random scrapped picks  - Erm, not quite
Randomized stuffed pigs from scrap - Erm, not quite
Scrapped random picks from stuff - Erm, not quite

Ah - Picked random stuff from scrap  - Oh no, I did it again.



Technically, these are oscilloscopes, aren't they?
When I saw them, I felt an urge to save them from their way to E-waste. They're suffering the usual Hameg diseases : scratchy pots and switches.

The Hameg with the Component Tester is quite usefull for repairing circuits! Get a random SMPS pcb from the pile, plug in test leads and get probing to get a feel for it. Had the pleasure to watch a greybeard find SMPS faults that way a few times, very instructive. Indicates dead caps, shorts & opens, tests diodes & zeners. All in circuit. Can indicate blown pins on uC as well. Diode test indicates transistors as is well known, but this thing shows how sharp the diode knee is, so it will indicate treacherous half-dead diodes...
Edit: Also on dual-channel stuff or when you have a spare: play "find the difference" to get close to the culprit
Edit2: It's strength is that it does all that without switching leads or modes on the device, so you can comb the circuit unimpeded

[tonyalbus]

FeelTech FY6900 Powerswitch mod.... not my best, but it bothered me so i had to do it.

[capt bullshot]

The Hameg with the Component Tester is quite usefull for repairing circuits! Get a random SMPS pcb from the pile, plug in test leads and get probing to get a feel for it. Had the pleasure to watch a greybeard find SMPS faults that way a few times, very instructive. Indicates dead caps, shorts & opens, tests diodes & zeners. All in circuit. Can indicate blown pins on uC as well.

I remember my very first scope (an Hameg 5MHz, single channel, can't recall the model no.) had that Component Tester, too.
To my knowledge It's a very simple version of this (or similar):

[capt bullshot]

Gives quite similar results, indeed.

[bd139]

Snap!

[capt bullshot]

Snap!

Well done! What's your DUT?

[bd139]

6.2v zener.

[ch_scr]

6.2v zener.

Cathode is connected to the black lead

[tggzzz]

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.

Oh, you lucky person - not having to deal with VirginMedia, Xafinity (whose post is slower than walking), and others that sanity pushes from my mind at the moment.

My local post office and the postie's are delightful. The post office even won a community engagement award.

So, when are you coming to live in a civilised part of the country?

[bd139]

Well screw that then I'm staying in London where they don't talk to me 

[tggzzz]

Well screw that then I'm staying in London where they don't talk to me 

What goes around, comes around.

What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Alternatively we now know how little the PO really bothers you

[bd139]

The PO bothers me when I have to do something other than throwing prepaid post at the counter. Plus I've had a very long history spanning at least 5 counties of ripping the person on the counter a new arsehole after they have tried to purposely mischarge a customer profitably.

[tggzzz]

The PO bothers me when I have to do something other than throwing prepaid post at the counter. Plus I've had a very long history spanning at least 5 counties of ripping the person on the counter a new arsehole after they have tried to purposely mischarge a customer profitably.

What goes around comes around.

Live somewhere more civilised (and be more civil(ised))

[med6753]

The PO bothers me when I have to do something other than throwing prepaid post at the counter. Plus I've had a very long history spanning at least 5 counties of ripping the person on the counter a new arsehole after they have tried to purposely mischarge a customer profitably.

What goes around comes around.

Live somewhere more civilised (and be more civil(ised))

I'm with bd on this one. Leave me the fuck alone and I can be perfectly civilized. 

[mnementh]

Well... to certain definitions of civilized. 

mnem
*uncivilized-dwagon*