Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[PA0PBZ]

Note that it is clearly indicating the risetime it is measuring, something that I miss in modern scopes.

I like the way it highlights what it is measuring, but I don't agree that modern scopes don't clearly indicate it:

[ch_scr]

Are we still doing "Calculators'n Hands" or am I late to the party?

Oh my you have one of those colour Casio 9850G calculators. I bought one of them in 1997 I think it was. Totally regretted it 

Was the calc choosen by the school I attended. I like the ui, but the display in that one is god awfull. The CFX-9860G with the non backlit display has one of the nicest monochrome lcd I have seen so far. The 9860GII on display (these have a optional backlight) lacks only in direct comparison, but is very well usable.

[bd139]

Are we still doing "Calculators'n Hands" or am I late to the party?

Oh my you have one of those colour Casio 9850G calculators. I bought one of them in 1997 I think it was. Totally regretted it 

Was the calc choosen by the school I attended. I like the ui, but the display in that one is god awfull. The CFX-9860G with the non backlit display has one of the nicest monochrome lcd I have seen so far. The 9860GII on display (these have a optional backlight) lacks only in direct comparison, but is very well usable.

Yeah my daughter uses a 9860Gii as well. That was school mandated.

[tggzzz]

Note that it is clearly indicating the risetime it is measuring, something that I miss in modern scopes.

I like the way it highlights what it is measuring, but I don't agree that modern scopes don't clearly indicate it:

Fair comment, but not all modern scopes are that pleasant and they don't show what they think are the 0% and 100% values.

[Specmaster]

Are we still doing "Calculators'n Hands" or am I late to the party?

Oh my you have one of those colour Casio 9850G calculators. I bought one of them in 1997 I think it was. Totally regretted it 

You know what, I think I have one of those here somewhere in my collection, still new in its box. If that was the only colour one they did then I definitely have one, will post photo when I find it  The colours and the display was horrible, very hard to read and hence why it is still in its box.

[ch_scr]

I can remember back in school I had set all three colors to blue most of the time.

[GreyWoolfe]

All I got is the hand hued beams in the sub flooring from when the house was originally built in the 1860's. But back then they tended to "overbuild" much higher to the plans. Or did they? We don't know but one day we just might find out. 

Not that I collect TEA like all of you but I don't have to worry about flooring.  No Basement, concrete slab for flooring.  Damned thick too.  When we remodeled the master bath, we went from a shower to a soaker tub so the drain had to be relocated.  Slab at that point was about 10 inches thick.  Nice to know that the slab is sufficient if we can ever afford the 300 gallon fish tank we want.

[Cerebus]

All I got is the hand hued beams in the sub flooring from when the house was originally built in the 1860's. But back then they tended to "overbuild" much higher to the plans. Or did they? We don't know but one day we just might find out. 

Hewn Med, hewn. 

No, no, he meant hand hued - pinkish and slightly hairy, like the curtains.

[mnementh]

BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

All I got is the hand hued beams in the sub flooring from when the house was originally built in the 1860's. But back then they tended to "overbuild" much higher to the plans. Or did they? We don't know but one day we just might find out. 

Hewn Med, hewn. 

You know I thought that's how it should have been spelled too but Google said no. 

Some decades ago a Canuck taught me how to use a broad axe to hew flat faces onto logs as part of the log building process. Twas a week long course and we learnt the BC scribed log and saddle notch method and it certainly was a lot of fun for us that were competent with a chainsaw and axe and a real eye opener after only having worked with sawn lumber.

Seems a lifetime ago, probably because it is ! 
This chap; Allan Mackie:
https://ballanmackie.com/about/
Passed in 2017 at 91.

Grand-dad was a muleskinner in Washington State as a yout'... he knew more aboot woodcraft (both aspects of the term) than nearly any man alive. He tried to teach me aboot such things while we were renovating the barn on the farm he moved us all to when I was young. In his 40s, he hand-hewed easily 20 replacement posts & beams for that building; the only thing he used power tools for was to drill holes and turn the pegs.

I thought it looked ghetto because not smooth & shiny. 

mnem

[med6753]

Oculus, you might be interested in this. From the 1961 Tek catalog. Feel free to download it form my ImageShack account if you want.

It really is amazing that they could pull this off in the late 1950's/early 1960's which is why I posted it here. And it cost $3800 USD in 1961 which is about $33K USD today. 

I have zero interest in such boatanchors, except perhaps maybe for one of these:


I saw one (owned by the PTB) working at he Hannover MakerFaire, and it is gorgeous.

The original risetime plugin was introduced in '62. The logic (e.g. counters) is discrete transistors, of course, with a 14 valves and tunnel diodes for other functions.

Its replacement (shown above) was produced from 65-72.

Note that it is clearly indicating the risetime it is measuring, something that I miss in modern scopes.

Oh yes. But good luck finding one. Good luck finding one that works. Good luck in not having to mortgage the farm paying for it. That is the unicorn of boat anchors. 

[med6753]

All I got is the hand hued beams in the sub flooring from when the house was originally built in the 1860's. But back then they tended to "overbuild" much higher to the plans. Or did they? We don't know but one day we just might find out. 

Not that I collect TEA like all of you but I don't have to worry about flooring.  No Basement, concrete slab for flooring.  Damned thick too.  When we remodeled the master bath, we went from a shower to a soaker tub so the drain had to be relocated.  Slab at that point was about 10 inches thick.  Nice to know that the slab is sufficient if we can ever afford the 300 gallon fish tank we want.

Yes but don't you live in Florida which is known for the sinkholes? 

[mnementh]

Sunday Morning Breakfast and the Holy Trinity at mnem's house.

I found some Canadian-produced "Dark & Heavy" Maple Syrup for my blueberry Eggos; it came in a can aboot the size of a can of pork & beans. I didn't have any idea what to expect, aside from the fact it felt pretty thick shaking the can.

Very pleasantly surprised; strong maple taste with a hint of molasses. Very much what I remember from my youth, poured from a 1 quart stoneware jug on my grandmomma's breakfast table. Not sure if that's normal for real maple syrpple, or because grand-dad added molasses to his when he made it; but it's the taste I remember. 

mnem
yummm.       

[Robert763]

Did something todaay that I havent done in years, tapped  long string of numbers into my phone to activate a copy of Windows XP. I was a bit concerned that I would not be able to activate it at all as the online service has closed. But having drilled down a few selection levels starting with "to activate Windows 10 press 1" it worked.
Thi is TEA related The machine in question is a oldish Amplicon 2U 19" rack PC that supports some older kit the needs "real" com ports and a 32 bit OS. The old motherboard (Intel D945G) was getting flakey and Win 2000 isn't ideal. So a NOS Gigabyte G31M, Core2 Duo (3.16 GHz), 4GB (yes I know it can't use it all) and 1TB of storage Works pretty well with a fresh XP install. None of your liquid cooled Ryzen stuff here
Also needed a new CD writer and I fitted a 3/5" floppy (have some kit that still uses them) to find the cable supplied the the MB was 10mm too short. 5 minutes in the garage and found a nice long cable, even has a 52/4" drive connector. Even I don't currently hav anything that need that but I do have a couple of drives and some disks stashed away.
Works fine for the task. Fans are a bit noisey though.

[Specmaster]

All I got is the hand hued beams in the sub flooring from when the house was originally built in the 1860's. But back then they tended to "overbuild" much higher to the plans. Or did they? We don't know but one day we just might find out. 

Not that I collect TEA like all of you but I don't have to worry about flooring.  No Basement, concrete slab for flooring.  Damned thick too.  When we remodeled the master bath, we went from a shower to a soaker tub so the drain had to be relocated.  Slab at that point was about 10 inches thick.  Nice to know that the slab is sufficient if we can ever afford the 300 gallon fish tank we want.

Yes but don't you live in Florida which is known for the sinkholes? 

That is a possible reason for the extra thick concrete floor slab, to try and maintain some rigidity to aid escape in the event of a sinkhole opening up under part of the house so escape is hopefully possible before it swallows the house or part of it maybe?

[tonyalbus]

Philips PM2534 6.5 Digits... DMM
Replaced the display, now its good...
beauty is in the eye of the beholder... i am not sure...
but it does work fine!.

[Specmaster]

Thats a nice meter, just needs some lighting on the screen now.

[mansaxel]

Philips PM2534 6.5 Digits... DMM
Replaced the display, now its good...

Do you, by any chance, have a lead on replacement displays for Philips gear? I've got a PM6665 that those Poles mangled in shipping. It works, but the display is broken. Not all digits are discernible.

[Robert763]

Been playing with the Agilent 34970A Logger/DMM and noticed it does not hold it's settings with mains off  .
A quick check showed that as expected the back-up battery is dead. It's a bit of an odd one, BR2477A. This is a fat, tagged coin cell 3.0V. These seem a bit rare with the correct tags an expensive in any form. So I had a 1/3A 3.6V Saft so a cable tie base, tie and some wire sorted that. You have to take the DMM module out to access the back-up batery and when I put it back together ther was no DMM function However it turns out there is a "Disable DMM" option in the utility menu that had defaulted back to disabled so easy fix 
The plan to hace a breakout box with 3 or 4 sets of sockets looks good. I've got a box with sockets already fitted but dammed if I can find it at the moment. As soon as I start drilling a new box the other one will appear.

[Robert763]

Thats a nice meter, just needs some lighting on the screen now.

Yeah, I had one but passed it on due to poor display readability. Did not look too hard but there did not seem to be an easy way to add inernal lighting.

[Specmaster]

Thats a nice meter, just needs some lighting on the screen now.

Yeah, I had one but passed it on due to poor display readability. Did not look too hard but there did not seem to be an easy way to add inernal lighting.

Thats a good point with my Solartron 7150 plus's, their great 6.5 meters with decent backlit displays.

[factory]

Oculus, you might be interested in this. From the 1961 Tek catalog. Feel free to download it form my ImageShack account if you want.

It really is amazing that they could pull this off in the late 1950's/early 1960's which is why I posted it here. And it cost $3800 USD in 1961 which is about $33K USD today. 

I have zero interest in such boatanchors, except perhaps maybe for one of these:


I saw one (owned by the PTB) working at he Hannover MakerFaire, and it is gorgeous.

The original risetime plugin was introduced in '62. The logic (e.g. counters) is discrete transistors, of course, with a 14 valves and tunnel diodes for other functions.

Its replacement (shown above) was produced from 65-72.

Note that it is clearly indicating the risetime it is measuring, something that I miss in modern scopes.

Oh yes. But good luck finding one. Good luck finding one that works. Good luck in not having to mortgage the farm paying for it. That is the unicorn of boat anchors. 

There were a pair of rack mount RM567 versions on ePay over a year ago, one made $355 & the other $306 (missing the input module), neither had any probes & were untested.

There is half a later version Tek 230 (for Tek 568) on ePay in Austria at the moment, not cheap either: eBay auction: #233732725565

David

[mnementh]

Philips PM2534 6.5 Digits... DMM   Replaced the display, now its good...   beauty is in the eye of the beholder... i am not sure...   but it does work fine!   https://youtu.be/Mmr6-NKht3c

Where did you get your replacement display? You found a parts source, or did you have to cannibalize?

      https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-9x-lcd-backlight-kit-blue-diy.html

Those LCDs with translucent reflector plastic backing respond well both to edge-lighting and to illumination from a BL diffuser; if it's the kind with actual aluminum foil on the back, obviously not. We used to use the above kit on our Turnigy 9X RC radios back in the day, they work well in other applications as long as there's 3-4mm space behind the LCD. I don't believe the Turnigy BL kit is wide enough for your display as-is; you'd have to make your own light panel out of Lexan and dismantle an old computer monitor for the diffuser sheets.

But the kit above does come with two very bright LEDs, and they are the correct type as they're made with an integral lens specifically for illuminating a light panel. They come premounted on a bit of PCB, so I still recommend spending the money on the kit to get all that part pre-made for you. It's only $5, after all. They used to come in all different colors; now unfortunately, only white & blue.

If you're feeling froggy, you could always try edge-lighting with a bit of RGB strip like I did for my Taranis. 



mnem
 

[tonyalbus]

Philips PM2534 6.5 Digits... DMM
Replaced the display, now its good...

Do you, by any chance, have a lead on replacement displays for Philips gear? I've got a PM6665 that those Poles mangled in shipping. It works, but the display is broken. Not all digits are discernible.

the displey was stupid luck... i bought those Delta psu’s from a guy.. he seemed to have a lot of TE..so i just asked...he would have a look... laterthepsu’s arrived with an extra bubble envelope..  i will ask if he has more..

yes the backlight would be a nice extra.

[AVGresponding]

Well, I didn't expect that...

Was watching this with an eye to throwing a bid, when inside the final minute two bidders who obviously have a pressing need for it decided £270 is a sensible price:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Agilent-HP-5005A-Programmable-Signature-Multimeter-Analyser-/324356903429

[bd139]

It's unicorn poo that is. I was going to put £100 on it. That is almost 100% essential for debugging HP test kit from the 80s and 90s. They rarely turn up with probes.