Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

SNIP

I’ve got 7 total outputs across 5 power supplies so I’m not short. Just getting fed up of fixing shit when I want to do something new 

Whats the problem then with sticking it in the cupboard of doom for now and bringing it out later on?

[Saskia]

Reichelt tomorrow. Anyone with any specific orders ? Stuff to look for ? Meanwells for half price ?

[Cerebus]

Sadly he came back of his own volition, I think he enjoys making us suffer. We can always send him back to you. Trust me, once you've got Piers Morgan, you're stuck with him, we're not having him back again.

Not scared yet? We'll throw in Simon Cowell and a free Boris Johnson. Behave yourself and we'll keep 'em here.

Sending the bad folks to the colonies, eh? Could've sworn I heard that one before.

Shhhuussshhhh. Before they cotton on that we never stopped. 

Sarcasm on Yes, you British did consider the Irish in occupied Ireland expendable and lower than dogs so gladly send them overseas so the fat Earls and Dukes can gain more land. Sarcasm off

I don't think you've quite got the hang of this sarcasm thing, generally one says the opposite of what one means when being sarcastic. 

And if you're going to rail against anyone, don't rail against the British, for that at the time included the Irish^*, I think you mean English.

^*One of my grandfathers was born in Ireland well before the partition of Eire in 1937 and so as a British Subject^** was free to move to England in the early 1900s and lived there until his death in the 1960s.

^**None of this 'citizen' rubbish, we were all proper subjects of (then) His Majesty and were grateful for it. [Fx: Tugs forelock. ]

[bd139]

What’s the fan noise like?

Yes.

You will definitely know it's on but it's bearable in my book. It's loud but not stupendously annoying.

Thanks. Will file that in the “I’ll think about it” box

SNIP

I’ve got 7 total outputs across 5 power supplies so I’m not short. Just getting fed up of fixing shit when I want to do something new 

Whats the problem then with sticking it in the cupboard of doom for now and bringing it out later on?

Well it’s a ridiculously convenient little power supply to be honest. Doesn’t take up a lot of space, doesn’t make a lot of noise and will kick out anything from 80v @ 300mA to 20v at 1.6A.

[tggzzz]

One of my grandfathers was born in Ireland well before the partition of Eire in 1937 and so as a British Subject was free to move to England in the early 1900s and lived there until his death in the 1960s.

Since 2016 some of my relatives have been rather glad that their grandmother was Irish. My daughter has asked if I have any foreign ancestry, but unfortunately I don't.

[Cerebus]

Meantime in the kitchen:

Fresh croissant dough ready for it's 3rd fold.



So, unless you're in France with a local Viennoiserie to visit in the morning I'm going to have a better breakfast than any of the rest of you.

Edit: typo - I'm having one of those days.

[Cerebus]

One of my grandfathers was born in Ireland well before the partition of Eire in 1937 and so as a British Subject was free to move to England in the early 1900s and lived there until his death in the 1960s.

Since 2016 some of my relatives have been rather glad that their grandmother was Irish. My daughter has asked if I have any foreign ancestry, but unfortunately I don't.

Many years ago I did consider getting an Irish passport. As much to acknowledge part of my heritage as anything else, but with a minor eye on the possibility of travel to places where a British passport wasn't necessarily a good idea, or as a 2nd passport for those places that react badly if you've got stamps from certain other countries in your passport. The British passport office will actually issue you a 2nd passport to cover the latter, but a 2nd country's passport has so much more of a 007 feel to it: "The name's Raffety, Paddy Raffety".

[Specmaster]

One of my grandfathers was born in Ireland well before the partition of Eire in 1937 and so as a British Subject was free to move to England in the early 1900s and lived there until his death in the 1960s.

Since 2016 some of my relatives have been rather glad that their grandmother was Irish. My daughter has asked if I have any foreign ancestry, but unfortunately I don't.

Many years ago I did consider getting an Irish passport. As much to acknowledge part of my heritage as anything else, but with a minor eye on the possibility of travel to places where a British passport wasn't necessarily a good idea, or as a 2nd passport for those places that react badly if you've got stamps from certain other countries in your passport. The British passport office will actually issue you a 2nd passport to cover the latter, but a 2nd country's passport has so much more of a 007 feel to it: "The name's Raffety, Paddy Raffety".

Why not be honest and say thats your solution to continuing your freedom of movement in Europe 

[mansaxel]

So, unless you're in France with a local Viennoiserie to visit in the morning I'm boing to have a better breakfast than any of the rest of you.

No, there won't be croissants tomorrow morning. The plumber arrives at 07:30 to fix the main cutoff, which has to be synchronised with the water authority (because plumbers aren't allowed to shut off the valve in the driveway.) and then they're also fitting a new single lever mixer tap in one of the bathrooms because that is what my wife asked for her birthday.

I have been considering baking rolls / Brötchen for the occasion. Let's see if I can manage that, once I'm done fitting the isolation transformer to the wall in the workshop, and have ordered the grommets and other paraphenalia required to feed it from the main contactor for the workshop. (The electronics workshop has two kinds if mains feeds, one permanent, for chargers et al, and one switched, which also obeys the emergency off buttons. (AKA Big Red Switches in IBMish)

[Cerebus]

One of my grandfathers was born in Ireland well before the partition of Eire in 1937 and so as a British Subject was free to move to England in the early 1900s and lived there until his death in the 1960s.

Since 2016 some of my relatives have been rather glad that their grandmother was Irish. My daughter has asked if I have any foreign ancestry, but unfortunately I don't.

Many years ago I did consider getting an Irish passport. As much to acknowledge part of my heritage as anything else, but with a minor eye on the possibility of travel to places where a British passport wasn't necessarily a good idea, or as a 2nd passport for those places that react badly if you've got stamps from certain other countries in your passport. The British passport office will actually issue you a 2nd passport to cover the latter, but a 2nd country's passport has so much more of a 007 feel to it: "The name's Raffety, Paddy Raffety".

Why not be honest and say thats your solution to continuing your freedom of movement in Europe 

No it's not, this was back in the 90s when I was considering it. If movement around Europe ever becomes a problem then, yeah, I could take advantage of it, but I have no plans to yet.

[Cerebus]

No, there won't be croissants tomorrow morning. The plumber arrives at 07:30 to fix the main cutoff, which has to be synchronised with the water authority (because plumbers aren't allowed to shut off the valve in the driveway.) and then they're also fitting a new single lever mixer tap in one of the bathrooms because that is what my wife asked for her birthday.

What? That's crazy. I presume if your house is flooding you have to wait for a little man with a clipboard and peaked cap and a chitty to show up before you can turn the water off. Officialdom, can't live with it, can't live with it.

[mnementh]

WTFE. Unless they put a padlock on it, I'm gonna manage my water main myself. I don't trust what we have (well, all the while we lived in Dumbfukistan) that passes for a plumber to not fuck up a very expensive valve. 

mnem
"Oh, look... your union card is showing..."

*indecipherable grunt*

"Crack kills, man... and that much could take out the whole neighborhood. Please, think of the chiddlers..."

[Saskia]

Update: 2nd speaker reassembled, it works. Apparently one tweeter had deteriorated too much so it will need refurbishing.
It's currently sitting in the Altan which have a very good chance of being brought back to live as well.

[mansaxel]

No, there won't be croissants tomorrow morning. The plumber arrives at 07:30 to fix the main cutoff, which has to be synchronised with the water authority (because plumbers aren't allowed to shut off the valve in the driveway.) and then they're also fitting a new single lever mixer tap in one of the bathrooms because that is what my wife asked for her birthday.

What? That's crazy. I presume if your house is flooding you have to wait for a little man with a clipboard and peaked cap and a chitty to show up before you can turn the water off. Officialdom, can't live with it, can't live with it.

There are three valves.

• is the one in the street. It sits 25cm before the start of my water pipe, and is water company property.
• is the first one indoors. It sits just before the meter.
• is the second one indoors, and sits just after the meter.

If the water installation in-house breaks, chances are it will be after No. 3. Because that is where people are.
Nos. 2 and 3 are going to be swapped tomorrow. Probably to ball valves, from being very broken gate valves now.

In an emergency, they'll cut off the one in the street anyway, I suspect. I would, and then deal with the "not allowed to" problems afterwards. The meter between 2 & 3 is going to be changed, so we  anyway need someone trusted with the sealing of a new one.

[shakalnokturn]

This one is around 60.- Euros but you can make an offer.
It claims as "for parts not working"

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HAMEG-HM-605-Oszilloskop/283555696791

But what confuses me: it comes with a yellow screen. Never saw a Hameg before with a yellow screen. 

I think they're optimised for slow scan stuff. I've seen a few around like that. Same with Telequipment. It was a phosphor option. Edit: P12 I think.

Sorry, just a year late joining in...
Found a HM605 with a yellow CRT filter and "slow decay" phosphor.

[tautech]

SNIP

I’ve got 7 total outputs across 5 power supplies so I’m not short. Just getting fed up of fixing shit when I want to do something new 

Whats the problem then with sticking it in the cupboard of doom for now and bringing it out later on?

Well it’s a ridiculously convenient little power supply to be honest. Doesn’t take up a lot of space, doesn’t make a lot of noise and will kick out anything from 80v @ 300mA to 20v at 1.6A.

FWIW we're having a real run on the triple output SPD3303X-E linear PSU's ATM if you're over the old stuff.
Series and parallel modes to double voltages or current to 60V or 6A and really quiet until you push them hard and easily hacked to the X model with 1mA/mV resolution.

[bd139]

Ok 6205B partial repair complete. Decided it was best that I isolated the switch entirely as when it drops out, the power supply inverts to -2.5 volts which as you can imagine is a big problem for fragile little semiconductors. So I removed the switch from the circuit by desoldering all the switch contacts, jumping the 40v mode entirely (remove 27/28/38 then short 27/38) and disabling the 600mA current range (remove B8/B11)



I moved all the trailing wires up outside of the switch body and taped them up and tied to the chassis cross bar so it can be reinstated at some point in the future if a switch or a parts mule turns up.



And the inevitable label on the front to explain the situation:



I will keep an eye out for a wreck / parts mule.

This is one year younger than me this supply and it's had its first operation. Not bad 

[bd139]

SNIP

I’ve got 7 total outputs across 5 power supplies so I’m not short. Just getting fed up of fixing shit when I want to do something new 

Whats the problem then with sticking it in the cupboard of doom for now and bringing it out later on?

Well it’s a ridiculously convenient little power supply to be honest. Doesn’t take up a lot of space, doesn’t make a lot of noise and will kick out anything from 80v @ 300mA to 20v at 1.6A.

FWIW we're having a real run on the triple output SPD3303X-E linear PSU's ATM if you're over the old stuff.
Series and parallel modes to double voltages or current to 60V or 6A and really quiet until you push them hard and easily hacked to the X model with 1mA/mV resolution.

I'm going to be honest here but most of the modern power supplies don't cut it for me. I don't know why the hell anyone buys them to be honest. They really are inferior to the old ones, even the fancy ones right up to keysight level. And I include the Siglent ones.

Why?

1. They're usually an inconvenient form factor.
2. Almost all have noisy active cooling.
3. Due to the large amount of digital crap going on inside them they piss out noise galore. Even the PL320's LED displays turn up on a receiver.
4. Encoder driven. It's really difficult to voltage sweep smoothly.
5. The UI is almost entirely dog shit.
6. I would be seriously worried about leaving them in a 100% duty situation with the construction quality of half of them.
7. Almost all have stupid ass or completely missing remote sense options

I'm reluctant to buy one unless it's pretty cheap to start with. Even the marginal older mastech designs and the Korads are better than some of the higher end stuff these days.

[tautech]

SNIP

I’ve got 7 total outputs across 5 power supplies so I’m not short. Just getting fed up of fixing shit when I want to do something new 

Whats the problem then with sticking it in the cupboard of doom for now and bringing it out later on?

Well it’s a ridiculously convenient little power supply to be honest. Doesn’t take up a lot of space, doesn’t make a lot of noise and will kick out anything from 80v @ 300mA to 20v at 1.6A.

FWIW we're having a real run on the triple output SPD3303X-E linear PSU's ATM if you're over the old stuff.
Series and parallel modes to double voltages or current to 60V or 6A and really quiet until you push them hard and easily hacked to the X model with 1mA/mV resolution.

I'm going to be honest here but most of the modern power supplies don't cut it for me. I don't know why the hell anyone buys them to be honest. They really are inferior to the old ones, even the fancy ones right up to keysight level. And I include the Siglent ones.

Why?

1. They're usually an inconvenient form factor.
2. Almost all have noisy active cooling.
3. Due to the large amount of digital crap going on inside them they piss out noise galore. Even the PL320's LED displays turn up on a receiver.
4. Encoder driven. It's really difficult to voltage sweep smoothly.
5. The UI is almost entirely dog shit.
6. I would be seriously worried about leaving them in a 100% duty situation with the construction quality of half of them.
7. Almost all have stupid ass or completely missing remote sense options

I'm reluctant to buy one unless it's pretty cheap to start with. Even the marginal older mastech designs and the Korads are better than some of the higher end stuff these days.

Struck a few things out. ^^
Will check on noise and come back after dispatch deliveries as I have a EMI setup already on the bench.
Encoder increments are successive to the next decimal place and so on and you can select which decimal place you wish to start in.

Plusses you may not have considered
Set and Load measurements displayed.
Sequential channel ON capability.

Some chaps in the US seem to sometimes find the SPD's cheap when previous owners have not set the mains voltage to 110VAC. 

[bd139]

Struck a few things out. ^^
Will check on noise and come back after dispatch deliveries as I have a EMI setup already on the bench.
Encoder increments are successive to the next decimal place and so on and you can select which decimal place you wish to start in.

Plusses you may not have considered
Set and Load measurements displayed.
Sequential channel ON capability.

Some chaps in the US seem to sometimes find the SPD's cheap when previous owners have not set the mains voltage to 110VAC. 

Hmm... unstriking them out. Sorry but I think they are crap for the price point.

1. Inconvenient form factor -> Not a rack size multiple. So basically you have to piss 4U up the wall in a test fixture which is ridiculous. https://siglent.co.uk/product/siglent-spd3000x-x-e-d-s-c-rack-mount-kit/ . If you look at the E36100B series from Keysight it's all 2U units 1/4 rack. Same with the larger units - 1/2 rack etc. That's 8 supplies (!!!!) in the same frikking space. C'mon siglent  . Plus as always inconvenient handle on the top and too shallow to support other kit.

2. noisy active cooling. Look at the fan grille. That's going to produce noise under load.

3. 100% duty. Yeah I mean 24/7/365 for at least 5 years. Not going to happen.

4. Encoder -> step in, step out. Doesn't matter about the resolution. I'm not wanting a step function here

Also lets not forget the unforgivable standard of 0.75" pitch banana jacks which didn't happen on the SPD3303X.

As for .... Set and Load measurements displayed...

- Agree with this as a convenience but 90% of the time this is done up front and then the supply is cycled on and off. Changing that regularly past setting the DUT's supply voltage and CC limit is rare. Even when doing circuit development from scratch this is a fire and forget once operation. Output on/off is about all that is required. Usually if you want to look at transient voltages or change something, you sweep it up and down and leave it back at the set point while the power is applied. You also have the problem with non-analogue non-static (i.e. not like the PL series etc) set/run things where the state of the supply is present in volatile memory thus when you power cycle it, what happens? That depends on configuration. As

I've seen before running Cisco stuff before, what is currently the set state isn't necessarily the power up state which can cause all sorts of hell to break loose.

As for ... Sequential channel ON capability.

- I think that's mostly a marketing null. Sequential power application is one thing you're supposed to avoid in failure tolerant systems.

I'm not buying it. It's got too much shiny and not enough engineering in it.

Edit: on EMC, build a 3 stage 100dB or so common base gain stage and I guarantee you that power supply will be one noisy fucker. HP isn’t!

[bd139]

Hmmmmmmm.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164423512290

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363137619061

[Specmaster]

I also noticed that the meter was the same serial number, has the smell of a con to me.

[bd139]

Yeah exactly.

[factory]

Ok 6205B partial repair complete. Decided it was best that I isolated the switch entirely as when it drops out, the power supply inverts to -2.5 volts which as you can imagine is a big problem for fragile little semiconductors. So I removed the switch from the circuit by desoldering all the switch contacts, jumping the 40v mode entirely (remove 27/28/38 then short 27/38) and disabling the 600mA current range (remove B8/B11)



I moved all the trailing wires up outside of the switch body and taped them up and tied to the chassis cross bar so it can be reinstated at some point in the future if a switch or a parts mule turns up.



And the inevitable label on the front to explain the situation:



I will keep an eye out for a wreck / parts mule.

This is one year younger than me this supply and it's had its first operation. Not bad 

It's older brother seems to have screws holding the switch together, but yours looks riveted together, I have seen that type of switch fail, with the plastic rotor that holds the moving contacts falling apart.


David

[factory]

Hmmmmmmm.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164423512290

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363137619061

I also noticed that the meter was the same serial number, has the smell of a con to me.

Either it's a con, or were back to lazy sellers that can't be bothered to take their own pictures. 

David