Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

I just missed two working HP 3456’s for £50 and £65 each elsewhere 

That HP 740B was a bargain at £40, I hope it has gone to someone that will repair it & use it.
Someday I hope to find one too, so far I only have the a manual and the input/output boxes, can't say I've seen one on ePay in the UK for a very long time.

David

Yes fingers crossed it went somewhere good. They tend to on there though. The seller I know reasonably well having had a rumble around in his garage a few years back and coming out with a philips scope that nearly burned my house down

I need to be on the ball. I did consider the 5334A. If it was a B I would have bought it to be honest.

[factory]

I just missed two working HP 3456’s for £50 and £65 each elsewhere 

That HP 740B was a bargain at £40, I hope it has gone to someone that will repair it & use it.
Someday I hope to find one too, so far I only have the a manual and the input/output boxes, can't say I've seen one on ePay in the UK for a very long time.

David

Yes fingers crossed it went somewhere good. They tend to on there though. The seller I know reasonably well having had a rumble around in his garage a few years back and coming out with a philips scope that nearly burned my house down

I need to be on the ball. I did consider the 5334A. If it was a B I would have bought it to be honest.

It does worry me the amount of comments on there that old test gear is only any use for parts, or is worthless old junk that no one wants.    Some members need to do some research before they post.

David

[bd139]

Don't knock it. That attitude scored me a Marconi 2019A for £5 once 

Picture:



Thoroughly regret selling that one 

[Specmaster]

It has UL written on it anyway. It's probably got aluminium melty wire in it.

Yep.
Had a customer/fishing buddy send back a MCH K305D recently with the complaint it didn't work....dead as a doornail !   

Plugged an IEC cable into it and the thing worked fine.
Luckily he had sent the mains cable he'd been using and it was one of those gawd awful alloy conductor POS with broken wires near the IEC plug. Not the one the PSU was supplied with though. 
Promptly chopped it up and filed it in the bin !

Ugh. My first experience with one of them was one that got rather hot. I though it had just worn out but nope the conductor was completely broken about an inch from the IEC plug and it was arcing 

IIRC I seem to think that Dave had an experience with one of those in a video 

[Specmaster]

The underside of the chassis.  Those heavy porcelain insulators are beautiful as is the looming job on the wiring.  Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the standard Wein bridge oscillator and Hewlett-Packard (and companies that cloned the HP circuit) used a single lightbulb but MEL's circuit uses two of them so it may not be an exact clone.

This signal generator's been sitting on the shelf in my boat anchor collection since I got it but since having coffee with Mnemnth and showing pictures, I've started to get an itch to pull this off the shelf and do an electronic restoration on it to get it running in a couple of weeks once the autumn yard work is out of the way and it starts getting crappier outside.  Is there any interest in seeing pictures of the restoration process?

Your 1939 date is probably correct. The four tubes on the upper part of chassis are 8 pin octal which were introduced in the late 1930's. The big boy on the bottom is probably the rectifier tube and most likely a Type 80 four pin tube.

Correction....looking at the underside picture the rectifier is also an octal so it's most likely a 5U4.

Look at the neat cabling and lacing job on that, someone took pride in that.

[25 CPS]

Your 1939 date is probably correct. The four tubes on the upper part of chassis are 8 pin octal which were introduced in the late 1930's. The big boy on the bottom is probably the rectifier tube and most likely a Type 80 four pin tube.

Correction....looking at the underside picture the rectifier is also an octal so it's most likely a 5U4.

That's what I recall it being, a 5U4.  I'm really strongly leaning towards 1939 on it too, so I'm really not sure I understand the newspaper article talking about how the company loved being in Arnprior as if their move there was recent in the fifties when they clearly had been there for a while by then.  Maybe it was just a local boosterism piece featuring one of the area companies?

Look at the neat cabling and lacing job on that, someone took pride in that.

It really is nicely built.  They don't build them like that anymore and the don't build them here anymore.

[Robert763]

Bunch of dodgy TE listings on ebay. All blackpool
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RACAL-DANA-9085-Signal-Generator-calibrated/174476209478?
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-TDS3054B-4-CH-Digital-Phosphor-Oscilloscope-500-MHz/174476209480?
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MEGGER-MIT30-MIN-HIGH-VOLTAGE-INSULATION-TESTER/274530983407?
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MEGGER-MIT30-MIN-HV-INSULATION-TESTER/174476209514?

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lecroy-Waverunner-LT584-1GHz-4-channel-oscilloscope/224191359054?

[bd139]

I wish there was a "never show me shit by that idiot again" button on ebay. That'd clear up those items nicely

[BU508A]

Fair enough. I just love everything that comes with the DE-5000; it's like the MS8911 in that respect. Just such a juicy "The Whole Package" deal. When you're counting every dollar, obviously you need to go with what does the job you need; not buy for what you want.

mnem
 

The alligator clips are crap. Short-leaded, slippery, hard to open, not easy to connect to capacitors with M4 connectors etc.

[Robert763]

I wish there was a "never show me shit by that idiot again" button on ebay. That'd clear up those items nicely

When you have done a search, under "show only", See more", "seller" there is an option to exclude a list of sellers.
Also available under advanced search.

[Zucca]

It's "Columbus Day" here and schools are closed as well as some other places. This is the day we supposedly celebrate Christopher Columbus "discovering" America. Despite the fact that people were already here, what we call "Native Americans". Over the last few years there have been calls to rip down all the statues dedicated to Columbus which has got the people of Italian descent all up in arms because he was Italian working for Spain.   

That's pretty funny actually. Human race is a complete shit show.

Well I didn't get my day off. Turns out someone fudged something so been called out

Edit: fire out. Thinking about snagging one of these. This is mostly to hold boards while I'm working on them because the infernal things keep disappearing due to the weight of test leads etc.

   Anyone got any better solutions because it's the best part of 100 quid? 

https://www.amazon.ca/Aven-17010-Adjustable-Circuit-Holder/dp/B00Q2TTQEE/

This one works well for MOST PCB work, but it has a few limitations. It is mostly plastic, so it will weaken and embrittle with age. Mine hasn't YET, but I know it will. The base parts are steel tube, so it is more rigid than it looks and bottom-weighted JUST enough to be stable for most PCB/assembly work. The rotation clamps work well as long as you use BOTH; use one and the work will spin pretty easily. You just have to be careful every time when tightening them down, especially if you have big ol' hamhands like mine. This my expected point of failure: the plastic cracking out from overtightening the thumbscrews, or just plain repetitive stress fatigue.



That said... I also have that PanaVise... and for the quality, it's a fucking bargain. It's a tool you'll use the rest of your life and never find it wanting, plus the No 303 mini-vise that fits in the same base is just handy as a pocket on a shirt for only $40-ish.

Compared to the above plastic fantastic, it had better bottom-weighting, holds the board much more solidly, and the big thing... you can set the PCB ANY compound angle, so you can get EXACTLY the right angle of attack at a hard-to-reach component or solder pad on densely populated boards.



https://www.amazon.ca/Helping-Soldering-Workshop-Non-Slip-Weighted/dp/B07TTZCZPR

Add to that these little gems, and you have a lab-grade soldering workstation with wiring holders and iron management in a closet-stuffable portable package.



https://www.amazon.ca/PanaVise-324-Electronic-Work-Center/dp/B000SSPNBU

This is the Panavise station made for production assembly work... I've used one, but don't own it. It's all about quick turnover of repetitive assembly work, and worth every penny for that application.

Trust me... you will NEVER regret the money spent on PanaVise... what you'll regret once you have it is not having done it decades ago.

mnem
 

i have that blue..thing...its about 7 euro's  and its great!!!

My turn,


it is sexy and a joy forever, like Elisabetta Canalis.

[med6753]

My turn,


it is sexy and a joy forever, like Elisabetta Canalis.

I had to look up Elisabetta Canalis. 

[Specmaster]

had a look through Daves huge backlog of videos for the one where I thought he had one of those bench power supplies but was unable to find it so maybe I was wrong. However I did come across video of the Fluke 27 which bd139 might find of interest.

[bd139]

Have watched that one 

[mansaxel]

Ugh. My first experience with one of them was one that got rather hot. I though it had just worn out but nope the conductor was completely broken about an inch from the IEC plug and it was arcing 

Speaking of arcing; I rewired some outlets in the kids rooms last weekend (adding ground wires which weren't required in 1970 when the house was built) and as I was poking a wire in one junction box  I could hear arcing in a junction box 2m up the wall -- the neutral wire in the conduit was intermittent. Promptly opened up the other junction box too, and found a loose wire nut. Replaced all wire nuts in all affected junction boxes with Wago 221s. (One must use 221 series lever snap action Wago clamps in Sweden, since we're fond of a 7-strand wire in conduit, that won't make good contact in any other Wago or any other more traditional push-fit junction block.)

I hate wire nuts. Bloody crap they are.

6206b update:

• Fitted new mains cable.
• Fitted new mains switch.
• Fitted suitable new fuse.
• Poked away two PCB traces and fitted wire link to make it suitable for grown-up mains^(tm).
• Expended significant amounts of Q-tips and lots of IPA on the gunkiest PCB I've seen in a long time
• Powering up does not let out magic smoke, but pegs the meter. Some post-rectifier voltages are wrong, too low mostly.
• Now time for bed.

[bd139]

Fair enough. I just love everything that comes with the DE-5000; it's like the MS8911 in that respect. Just such a juicy "The Whole Package" deal. When you're counting every dollar, obviously you need to go with what does the job you need; not buy for what you want.

mnem
 

The alligator clips are crap. Short-leaded, slippery, hard to open, not easy to connect to capacitors with M4 connectors etc.

https://www.peakelec.co.uk/acatalog/lcr45-lcr-impedance-meter.html

I rather like mine

[Cerebus]

I wish there was a "never show me shit by that idiot again" button on ebay. That'd clear up those items nicely

When you have done a search, under "show only", See more", "seller" there is an option to exclude a list of sellers.
Also available under advanced search.

Yeah but you have to explicitly use it every time. We have before bemoaned the fact that you can't blacklist sellers (from your private point of view) on a permanent basis.

[BU508A]

There are some mods around for those clips.
Since today my 3D-printer arrived from the CReality Kickstarter campaign earlier this year, I could print the case for the mod as well.

Reference: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/de-5000-lcr-tl-21-mod/

[mnementh]

My turn,



it is sexy and a joy forever, like Elisabetta Canalis.

Oklay... where do you get one, and how much? Everyplace I go says they're NLA. 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Fair enough. I just love everything that comes with the DE-5000; it's like the MS8911 in that respect. Just such a juicy "The Whole Package" deal. When you're counting every dollar, obviously you need to go with what does the job you need; not buy for what you want.

mnem
 

The alligator clips are crap. Short-leaded, slippery, hard to open, not easy to connect to capacitors with M4 connectors etc.

Okay... so replace the 50c alligators with $2 alligators...?  Hardly a reason to hate the whole meter. 

The leads are short on purpose; if you need longer ones get an extra tweezer and mod Kelvin clips to the leads on that. Cost an extra $15 for the tweezer and $5 for the clips to have your cake & eat it too.

mnem
 

[BU508A]

Fair enough. I just love everything that comes with the DE-5000; it's like the MS8911 in that respect. Just such a juicy "The Whole Package" deal. When you're counting every dollar, obviously you need to go with what does the job you need; not buy for what you want.

mnem
 

The alligator clips are crap. Short-leaded, slippery, hard to open, not easy to connect to capacitors with M4 connectors etc.

Okay... so replace the 50c alligators with $2 alligators...?  Hardly a reason to hate the whole meter. 

The leads are short on purpose; if you need longer ones get an extra tweezer and mod Kelvin clips to the leads on that. Cost an extra $15 for the tweezer and $5 for the clips to have your cake & eat it too.

mnem
 

I haven't written that. 
The meter is good, no question but those clips are annoying and I will replace them for sure with proper Kelvin clips.
And I know that they are short on purpose. 

Edit:
Btw, have you received your 3D-printer?   

[mnementh]

no.

mnem

[AVGresponding]

had a look through Daves huge backlog of videos for the one where I thought he had one of those bench power supplies but was unable to find it so maybe I was wrong.

Big Clive did one on a very similar unit, dual o/p, but near identical architecture by the looks.

I have one myself, and can confirm it has a horribly noisy o/p, and the build quality is dire. Early on I determined that an annoying buzzing was caused by the power semis not being screwed back to the heatsinks properly.

The earthing arrangement was also loosey-goosey, and there is a bizarre fault whereby the voltage LED display keeps burning out (faulty driver IC most likely, same segments go each time, haven't replaced the driver because it's on the shelf of invisibility since I have plenty of decent psus nowadays).

[Zucca]

Oklay... where do you get one, and how much? Everyplace I go says they're NLA. 

I can only assume the company went busted after the Kickstarter. This makes my unit even more "gold plated".

[Specmaster]

had a look through Daves huge backlog of videos for the one where I thought he had one of those bench power supplies but was unable to find it so maybe I was wrong.

Big Clive did one on a very similar unit, dual o/p, but near identical architecture by the looks.

I have one myself, and can confirm it has a horribly noisy o/p, and the build quality is dire. Early on I determined that an annoying buzzing was caused by the power semis not being screwed back to the heatsinks properly.

The earthing arrangement was also loosey-goosey, and there is a bizarre fault whereby the voltage LED display keeps burning out (faulty driver IC most likely, same segments go each time, haven't replaced the driver because it's on the shelf of invisibility since I have plenty of decent psus nowadays).

Then I'm guessing thats where I saw it then, I'm not a big fan of SMPS, way too noisy.