Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Ice-Tea]

   Ice-Tea - LeCroy WavePro 7000: 1 - 33689  But as I got in the last point, the game is still mine. Now please don't ask me to count the hours or I may cry a little.

Fine, fine, fine.... you broke me. I'll give you $75 for it, but you better pack it proper... 

mnem

For shipping? Deal! Now, as for the unit...

Not sure even that would be a good deal for you... considering where you are vs where I am, the value of the Canadian dollar, and who all is between us.

mnem
 

Don't worry. I'll just fleece you on the unit itself.

....

Wait, did I say that out loud? 

[tonyalbus]

Never seen one before in real life or on picture... its coming my way

You’ll enjoy it!
Those are great little meters!

Cool 

Thanks... mine is broken, but all parts are still there... seller said,  fingers crossed... its cleaning the switches, as i always say. 

Fingers crossed for sure.  If it's all there, it can probably be repaired and hopefully it's something simple like cleaning the switches like you said.  If it's more involved than that and it'll help if I take the cover off one of mine and check some measurements or scope waveforms for you, let me know.

Thank you!

[dl6lr]

Well, I see that misdescribed HP 428B DC current meter on ebay didn't shift. This one:

Well, I send a friend to collect it at Duxford Airfield after the offer was accepted. Now I am waiting for the instrument to arrive at home. Quotes from him:
"So, Bernd, the place your meter came from was an aircraft restoration workshop. It has the USAF Stores ticket with the meter, in August 2001 it had a written down value of $350, the original purchase price was $2097, was sold through DRMO at USAF Molesworth."

Happy to give the meter a warm home...

[mansaxel]

This is the IBM 1401 Assembly/Test floor in Endicott.

Imagine the noise level. *shudder*

Yeah, I like the idea of the 1401. And very prominently on my bucket list sits CHM in Mountain View, visit to be made on a day when they run the thing, at that. 

[mansaxel]

Happy to give the meter a warm home...

The home will be warm after the instrument has reached its operating condition, at least! I cherish mine. I trust you will, too.  Now, I also just got a 400H to sit at its side, and as soon as a 410B shows up reasonably cheap, I'll grab that too. Of course I need to get to reorganising my instrument shelves; 1950s era -hp- gear does claim some space.

[factory]

Well, I see that misdescribed HP 428B DC current meter on ebay didn't shift. This one:

Well, I send a friend to collect it at Duxford Airfield after the offer was accepted. Now I am waiting for the instrument to arrive at home. Quotes from him:
"So, Bernd, the place your meter came from was an aircraft restoration workshop. It has the USAF Stores ticket with the meter, in August 2001 it had a written down value of $350, the original purchase price was $2097, was sold through DRMO at USAF Molesworth."

Happy to give the meter a warm home...

Strange how it didn't show as sold to Cerebus, the phone app showed it sold a few days ago for £45.
When it arrives don't forget to change the voltage to to 230V, like some ex-mil HP stuff I've bought in the UK it's set to 115V currently.

David

P.S. I've got a few different warm HP meters, the 400, 410, 411, 412, 415, 425, 428, 430, but still haven't found a 413 over here, but they do appear in the US occasionally.

[factory]

Never seen one before in real life or on picture... its coming my way

You’ll enjoy it!
Those are great little meters!

Cool 

Thanks... mine is broken, but all parts are still there... seller said,  fingers crossed... its cleaning the switches, as i always say. 

Fingers crossed for sure.  If it's all there, it can probably be repaired and hopefully it's something simple like cleaning the switches like you said.  If it's more involved than that and it'll help if I take the cover off one of mine and check some measurements or scope waveforms for you, let me know.

Thank you!

Hopefully you'll get it going again, I have one here that was faulty, someone had inadvertently connected the HV from the display to some of the IC's in the counter section with a solder blob. Several replacement IC's and all was good, well apart from the missing handle.
The PM2423 manual should be on the web somewhere, it was made by Takeda Riken in Japan for Philips.

David

[Cerebus]

Strange how it didn't show as sold to Cerebus, the phone app showed it sold a few days ago for £45.

Looks like an ebay bug. In my watch list view it shows as finished with a price of £0, click through to the actual listing and it shows the actual selling price £39.99.

[med6753]

This is the IBM 1401 Assembly/Test floor in Endicott.

Imagine the noise level. *shudder*

Yeah, I like the idea of the 1401. And very prominently on my bucket list sits CHM in Mountain View, visit to be made on a day when they run the thing, at that.

No where near as noisy as the contemporary Z Series Systems Test in Poughkeepsie where hearing protection is mandatory.

[Brumby]

Looks like an ebay bug.

The word is "glitch".

EBay have just about taken full ownership of that term.

[Robert763]

Compare and contrast:
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cormet-DCPD-Reversed-current-direct-current-potential-drop-instrument/203184901779
with
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cormet-Testing-Systems-DCPC-Unit-/353254083183

Clearly the same item, but the current sellers feedback does not match winning bidders.
"Instrument came from a renowned laboratory, hardly used" 
I'd looked at the original item when it was for sale and noted the X by channel one on front panel.

What a chancer!

[factory]

Strange how it didn't show as sold to Cerebus, the phone app showed it sold a few days ago for £45.

Looks like an ebay bug. In my watch list view it shows as finished with a price of £0, click through to the actual listing and it shows the actual selling price £39.99.

It's been broken for a very long time, if an ePay item sells with a best offer for more than the start price the phone app sometimes gives the sold price, the web page doesn't. If something sells for less than the BIN price it never seems to give the actual sold price, this even effects things I've bought and some emails relating to them.    For example I got an offer for that Keithley 445, which I then had a email asking me to pay the full price while I was waiting for an invoice with shipping. 

David

[25 CPS]

I’m in furniture assembly hell right now but here’s a challenge for you guys:   From the clues scattered around the edge of the attached picture, what test equipment can you identify?

I need to get to the store before they close so I’m going to knock off for a bit but I’ll check for answers when I get home.

[med6753]

Off on the right either a 465 or 475 with a DM44. Next to it one of those funky HP counters with the weird displays.

[shakalnokturn]

I’m in furniture assembly hell right now but here’s a challenge for you guys:   From the clues scattered around the edge of the attached picture, what test equipment can you identify?

I need to get to the store before they close so I’m going to knock off for a bit but I’ll check for answers when I get home.

Tektronix 7633 rack
HP 1630D (or HP 54200D although I don't know why anyone sane would want one of those...)

[nixiefreqq]

Off on the right either a 465 or 475 with a DM44. Next to it one of those funky HP counters with the weird displays.

hey!  nothing weird about individual back light neon displays.  the weird thing is that the logic is all done with tubes.  tubes!  only mad men (or new yorkers) still mess with tubes.

[med6753]

Off on the right either a 465 or 475 with a DM44. Next to it one of those funky HP counters with the weird displays.

hey!  nothing weird about individual back light neon displays.  the weird thing is that the logic is all done with tubes.  tubes!  only mad men (or new yorkers) still mess with tubes.

My "laptop" 

[25 CPS]

Off on the right either a 465 or 475 with a DM44. Next to it one of those funky HP counters with the weird displays.

Close, it's actually a 468.

hey!  nothing weird about individual back light neon displays.  the weird thing is that the logic is all done with tubes.  tubes!  only mad men (or new yorkers) still mess with tubes.

That HP 423D counter's a neat piece of machinery!  From what I dug up when researched it, HP refers to those backlit neon readouts as columnar displays and in several old price sheets I found online, the 423C version with the Nixie display was something like an extra $50 option.  I shudder to think of what the cost of retubing this beast would be.  It's got 64 or 65 tubes in it and it's a throwback to the early days of electronic computing with all the clock and logic being implemented in tubes.

Tektronix 7633 rack
HP 1630D (or HP 54200D although I don't know why anyone sane would want one of those...)

Also close, it's a Tektronix 7613 rack.  But no, I can see why from the corner that's visible, but the machine in front of it is neither an HP1630D or 54200D.

[mnementh]

On the Bench: Today's Thrift Shop Scores

                  

First up is a bunch of modular charge connectors; there are about 5 that are actually useful today for making power packs. The rest are ancient Nokia, Moldy-rola, etc and will most likely be hacked for the phono plug. Oh, and a S-video to Composite adapter which will likely be similarly cannibalized.

After that is a volume pog for a Edifier "boutique brand" M3200 2.1 pc speaker system. I thought this was for one of my Logitech THX-certified subwoofer systems; but for the price I'm not even a little bit sorry I bought it. It is deliciously weighted, both the base and the knob, has fluid-damped rotation and a lovely Siamesed volume pot under everything with headphone out and aux input jacks and it is still listed on their site as a spare for $30. I'm certain I'll find a use for it. 

Next up is another baggie lot; a couple NIB 9-gram size Hitec servos and a roll of 3M fabric adhesive tape in black. The servos are decent; worth aboot $15 a pop. The tape... well, I got really excited thinking it was actual friction tape, but still not gonna complain as long as it gets used for something other than hockey equipment. There's always a good use for adhesive tape.

After that is an old Microsoft-Branded Pharos SiRF-III GPS puck; I figured fo the price, even if all I get out of it is a serial converter, good deal. It did install normally under Winblows10 as a MS GPS serial-USB adapter, and I can see it streaming data in puTTY; however Heather sees the Com port, but doesn't seem to recognize either NMEA or SiRF datastreams, so a bit stumped. I got tired of trying; I suspect it may be a baudrate issue or no lock as I just stuck it on a chair on the patio in the middle of a snowstorm.

And last, the reason I went to the Thrift today: I picked up these Sennheiser HDR160 headphones a few days ago, thinking they were BT. Turns out they're 3rd gen KLEER "uncompressed digital" wireless. I remember the ads for this tech; "Sennheiser sound set free." Supposedly, as good as their wired headphones. Of course, I wanted to try that out rather than just gutting them and hardwiring. 

I got lucky and found the transmitter, with the original power pack! There's a little bit of repair needs done on the headphones; I'll update here when I have them working and let y'all know what I think. 

Still, not bad for ~27 Canadian pesos all up. 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

   Ice-Tea - LeCroy WavePro 7000: 1 - 33689  But as I got in the last point, the game is still mine. Now please don't ask me to count the hours or I may cry a little.

Fine, fine, fine.... you broke me. I'll give you $75 for it, but you better pack it proper... 

mnem

For shipping? Deal! Now, as for the unit...

Not sure even that would be a good deal for you... considering where you are vs where I am, the value of the Canadian dollar, and who all is between us.

mnem
 

Don't worry. I'll just fleece you on the unit itself.

....

Wait, did I say that out loud? 

heh... heh... heh... fleece away.

mnem

[factory]

I’m in furniture assembly hell right now but here’s a challenge for you guys:   From the clues scattered around the edge of the attached picture, what test equipment can you identify?

I need to get to the store before they close so I’m going to knock off for a bit but I’ll check for answers when I get home.

On the left above the HP PSU there is what looks to be a rack mount 200CD oscillator. I can't quite tell what the one on the right below the the 523B counter is, maybe another earlier 200 series, something like a 200T or 200I?

David

[Ice-Tea]

And last, the reason I went to the Thrift today: I picked up these Sennheiser HDR160 headphones a few days ago, thinking they were BT. Turns out they're 3rd gen KLEER "uncompressed digital" wireless. I remember the ads for this tech; "Sennheiser sound set free." Supposedly, as good as their wired headphones. Of course, I wanted to try that out rather than just gutting them and hardwiring.  ;D

I've had Sennheiser wireless sets for years now. I simply can't stand BT headsets. Perhaps having had some cheap ones has soured the milk, but the driver issues, channels getting lost in space and all sorts of artifacts and limitations is a no-no for me.

heh... heh... heh... fleece away.

Can't figure out if you're inviting me to try to sell it to you for real or if it's more the Dragon inviting the sheep in to watch his collection of Pokemon cards.

[xrunner]

My "laptop" 

Oh I didn't realize you had upgraded. 

[mnementh]

And last, the reason I went to the Thrift today: I picked up these Sennheiser HDR160 headphones a few days ago, thinking they were BT. Turns out they're 3rd gen KLEER "uncompressed digital" wireless. I remember the ads for this tech; "Sennheiser sound set free." Supposedly, as good as their wired headphones. Of course, I wanted to try that out rather than just gutting them and hardwiring.  ;D

I've had Sennheiser wireless sets for years now. I simply can't stand BT headsets. Perhaps having had some cheap ones has soured the milk, but the driver issues, channels getting lost in space and all sorts of artifacts and limitations is a no-no for me.

1000x this. I was hoping someone in here would offer just this kind of feedback. Thanks!

heh... heh... heh... fleece away.

Can't figure out if you're inviting me to try to sell it to you for real or if it's more the Dragon inviting the sheep in to watch his collection of Pokemon cards.

More like inviting the sheep and the wolf in sheep's clothing in for TEA... 

You have the best toys. I'd love to buy half of what you show in here; however my lab is very small for many reasons, and my expenses very high right now vs income. in all honesty, the 54645A is more scope than I really need anyways. But it's nice to drool a little every once in a while. Thanks for providing that.

mnem
   Yesssshhh.... come in for ssshhome TEA...

[SilverSolder]

[...]  I simply can't stand BT headsets. Perhaps having had some cheap ones has soured the milk, but the driver issues, channels getting lost in space and all sorts of artifacts and limitations is a no-no for me. [...]

Bluetooth is a technology that got close to greatness, but fails in the end by simply being too fiddly and temperamental in daily use.  I stopped using Bluetooth completely (unless there is absolutely no other way - and I will go to the end of the earth to find another way) and feel a much happier and well balanced person as a result! 

If you incorporate BT in a product, you end up paying "Bluetooth tax" on top of having to deal with all the problems.  If you want your BT device to work with Apple products, there are more walls to climb.

Life's too short...