Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

I am using some airpods at the moment (claimed on expenses as a headset  ). Zero issues

[factory]

Anyway here is the TE, the HP doesn't count, the AVO only displays zeros, can't check the Airmec as I don't have the correct power lead handy (audiophool grade one).


And the less said about the power lead on the HP the better, now cut off & thrown in the bin. 



David

ahhhhhh.    you always remember your first.


my first piece of nixie gear was a 5325b.   still have one somewhere down in the fortress of solitude.  (might be an A)

if you want it to count you have to spray those feckin' push button switches with contact cleaner and then exercise them vigorously.  same for the internal/external slide switch in the back.

repeat again in two weeks.  and again in two weeks. and again in two weeks.........forever.

but it was still my proudest possession until 5245 mania struck.

A quick update on the HP 5325B, I managed to unsolder & clean up the mains connector, someone had bodged on a lead they had cut off something else. 

The front & back of the unit were also cleaned up, along with the covers (the plastic finish had gone sticky, seems to be a common problem with HP stuff).

Thanks for the suggestion about cleaning the switches, unfortunately despite cleaning them all it still doesn't work properly. I have since discovered the timebase is faulty, as the gate lamp stops flashing shorty after power up. Feeding in an external oscillator at the back restores gating operation, but I still can't get it to count or the self check to work.



I either need to locate the manual or use the working 5325A (in storage) to carry on with the diagnosis & repair, at least I have confirmed all the displays are working  , this is always a worry when the equipment has been stored badly (damp environment) in the past, I've got rather fed up of finding display readout tubes that have cracked due to pin corrosion. 


David

[SilverSolder]

I am using some airpods at the moment (claimed on expenses as a headset  ). Zero issues

I am prepared to believe that Apple products play well with each other.

My aversion to Bluetooth is based on years of attempting to get it to work on numerous phones, pads, laptops, players, car radios, stereos, etc....   and if it had all gone smoothly, we wouldn't be having this threadlet, LOL! 

[Cerebus]

My experience has been that Apple products play well with Bluetooth, period. Last year I was having horrible problems with Business Skype, bluetooth headsets (both expensive Plantronics and el-cheapo chinesium) and a corporate Windows 10 Thinkpad laptop. Switched the whole setup over to one of the Macs and all the problems went away.

[Ice-Tea]

Was working from the home bench a bit (don't do that too often anymore) and I booted the Rigol DS1102E (which had been gathering dust previously). Only thing is...

it didn't boot.

Chinese junk.

[Ice-Tea]

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

Wolf in sheep's clothing? Surely I have no idea what you are talking about...

[med6753]

Remember this? 25kHz HV oscillator noise on the trace. It goes away completely if the covers are installed properly and grounded to the chassis. And I realized I had seen this before, although at a much lower amplitude.




This guy. My problem child. The one with the gorilla destroyed channel 2 attenuator deck requiring replacement. Excess ripple from the PSU resulting in a total re-cap of the PSU. Change out of ALL the tants on the Vertical board. And now, intermittent and very low amplitude 25kHz HV Oscillator noise on the trace.   



I suspect the reason is basically the same. Bad bonding of the case to chassis. The 465B HV area is shielded and that spring tab is supposed to make contact with the cabinet. But before checking that decided for giggles to check the HV. Supposed to be -2450V. Measured -2439V. Can't ask for better than that. So cleaned the spring tab and gave it a tweak at a greater angle to insure contact with the cabinet. That cabinet had been painted by me and noticed some over spray in the area where the spring tab should make contact. Fixed that down to shiny metal. The scuffed up area across the top of the HV shield I believe occurs when you install the cabinet. I don't think there is any contact once the cabinet is in place. 



Result? Upon first power up you see the noise on the trace. But within 10 seconds it's gone and it appears right now doesn't come back. That is a definite change from before. I put the scope on the torture rack and will monitor it.

[mansaxel]

I am using some airpods at the moment (claimed on expenses as a headset  ). Zero issues

I am prepared to believe that Apple products play well with each other.

My aversion to Bluetooth is based on years of attempting to get it to work on numerous phones, pads, laptops, players, car radios, stereos, etc....   and if it had all gone smoothly, we wouldn't be having this threadlet, LOL! 

I have a Jabra headset that previous employer gave me. It joins with two phones (Samsung & Sony Android)  in tandem, and just works.

[AVGresponding]

Out of countless BT devices I've used, the only one I ever had a problem with was a radio in a VW 3.5t pickup. Just wouldn't connect to the phone.

Granted for headphones, there are limitations; range, movement causing signal breakup etc, but on the whole I like them.

[bd139]

My experience has been that Apple products play well with Bluetooth, period. Last year I was having horrible problems with Business Skype, bluetooth headsets (both expensive Plantronics and el-cheapo chinesium) and a corporate Windows 10 Thinkpad laptop. Switched the whole setup over to one of the Macs and all the problems went away.

I dunno about that. Apple's keyboards take forever to wake up which is annoying as fuck and don't even get me started on THIS shitty piece of design:



My windows stuff is all wired. Wired keyboard, wired mouse, wired headset, wired ethernet. This is bliss even compared to the Apple gubbins. It just works.

Bluetooth in my Citroen just works with iphone. You get in and it always auto connects, music, calls, siri everything just works.

[nixiefreqq]

Anyway here is the TE, the HP doesn't count, the AVO only displays zeros, can't check the Airmec as I don't have the correct power lead handy (audiophool grade one).


And the less said about the power lead on the HP the better, now cut off & thrown in the bin. 



David

I either need to locate the manual or use the working 5325A (in storage) to carry on with the diagnosis & repair, at least I have confirmed all the displays are working  , this is always a worry when the equipment has been stored badly (damp environment) in the past, I've got rather fed up of finding display readout tubes that have cracked due to pin corrosion. 


David

nice!

you probably already have this pdf version of the manual.   parts of it are very readable.  but some of the diagrams in the A version section are not very good quality.

  https://nscainc.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/A_5325B.pdf

fortunately i have a hard copy that is A version only.

if you need any specific  pages let me know and i can try to scan them.

[capt bullshot]

I dunno about that. Apple's keyboards take forever to wake up which is annoying as fuck and don't even get me started on THIS shitty piece of design:

What's that?

My windows stuff is all wired. Wired keyboard, wired mouse, wired headset, wired ethernet. This is bliss even compared to the Apple gubbins. It just works.

Agree on everything wired is better in terms of works more reliable and predictable and faster and ...
But I like beeing wireless with a headset, too. So ATM I'm using the (wired) headset from work with an Android smartphone to get wireless, but I've asked my employer to order a wireless headset, since carrying that smartphone around while avoiding to touch it to get wireless with a wired headset is kind of annoying. Another royal pita with that configuration is the mute button as it isn't a button but an icon on the touchscreen that disappears just when you need it.

[Ice-Tea]

My windows stuff is all wired. Wired keyboard, wired mouse, wired headset, wired ethernet. This is bliss even compared to the Apple gubbins. It just works.

Keyboard and mouse are Logitec here, through their 'unified receiver'. 100% troublefree.

[tonyalbus]

That old HP 8616A seems to work fine
but its a heater

[mnementh]

My windows stuff is all wired. Wired keyboard, wired mouse, wired headset, wired ethernet. This is bliss even compared to the Apple gubbins. It just works.

Keyboard and mouse are Logitec here, through their 'unified receiver'. 100% troublefree.

I have had pretty much every name-brand wireless peripheral you can imagine. Bottom line is sooner or later, one or all of them will fuck with your head due to congestion in the 2.4GHz RF space. 800-900MHz is not far behind now.

Gamrrz still don't put up with the wireless BS; I don't for the same reasons. If nothing else, even when it all works right, having to wake up your fucking mouse before it'll wake up Winbloze is an annoyance I can do without 'til the end of time.

As for wireless headsets... IME, as long as you actually install the software to control them, Plantronics just works. Most of the time, it just works from Windoze integrated driver set... but some features you NEED the Plantronics control panel for. There is no other brand I've ever been able to come close to saying that aboot.

mnem
*currently slogging through ~6TB of family photos & movies*

[Cerebus]

My experience has been that Apple products play well with Bluetooth, period. Last year I was having horrible problems with Business Skype, bluetooth headsets (both expensive Plantronics and el-cheapo chinesium) and a corporate Windows 10 Thinkpad laptop. Switched the whole setup over to one of the Macs and all the problems went away.

I dunno about that. Apple's keyboards take forever to wake up which is annoying as fuck and don't even get me started on THIS shitty piece of design:

Much as I prefer wired for keyboards and the like, some bits of where and how I work have for a while dictated using a wireless keyboard. I have a stash of these:

which seems to be the point at which Apple "got it right" and, as they always do, then decided to change something to make it more betterer and fucked it up in the process. These wake up instantly, and have worked with every non-Apple product I've ever tried them with.

[artag]

I was fascinated by these when they came out. No good reason to get $employer to buy me one. But they've been getting some love here recently and it's reminded me I want to know more .. and then one came up here (and .. bonus .. it had a fault to fix

[mnementh]

Uggh.

It's really sad... that I can tell they've started buying produce and meat from the US just by the drop in quality since the COVID lockdown. Eggs used to be better; now we have the same eggs from sick hens with shells that shatter into a million splinters instead of cracking normally. Produce with chunks of soil still caked on. Canned vegetables that have several large chunks of stem or hull in every can. Meats injected with as much water as they can physically carry, so that you can't even cook it in a pan because it steams and boils rather than frying.

I don't even need to look at the packaging to know... just noticing the quality is the same as I used to get in Texas. And yes, the quality is that much worse... that you do notice it. And when you check the packaging, yup... "May contain xyz from the US."

mnem
Get the fuck out.

[mnementh]

That old HP 8616A seems to work fine    but its a heater

Yeah, whipping those angry pixies to that much of a frenzy the old-school way does dissipate a fair number of watts. 

mnem
 

[bd139]

My experience has been that Apple products play well with Bluetooth, period. Last year I was having horrible problems with Business Skype, bluetooth headsets (both expensive Plantronics and el-cheapo chinesium) and a corporate Windows 10 Thinkpad laptop. Switched the whole setup over to one of the Macs and all the problems went away.

I dunno about that. Apple's keyboards take forever to wake up which is annoying as fuck and don't even get me started on THIS shitty piece of design:

Much as I prefer wired for keyboards and the like, some bits of where and how I work have for a while dictated using a wireless keyboard. I have a stash of these:

which seems to be the point at which Apple "got it right" and, as they always do, then decided to change something to make it more betterer and fucked it up in the process. These wake up instantly, and have worked with every non-Apple product I've ever tried them with.

The old white/clear full size ones with real keys that shipped with the early intel “plastic slab” iMacs were the best IMHO. I miss that. And 10.4

[bd139]

Uggh.

It's really sad... that I can tell they've started buying produce and meat from the US just by the drop in quality since the COVID lockdown. Eggs used to be better; now we have the same eggs from sick hens with shells that shatter into a million splinters instead of cracking normally. Produce with chunks of soil still caked on. Canned vegetables that have several large chunks of stem or hull in every can. Meats injected with as much water as they can physically carry, so that you can't even cook it in a pan because it steams and boils rather than frying.

I don't even need to look at the packaging to know... just noticing the quality is the same as I used to get in Texas. And yes, the quality is that much worse... that you do notice it. And when you check the packaging, yup... "May contain xyz from the US."

mnem
Get the fuck out.

That’s shit is what we’re kicking up a fuss about here 

[Saskia]

don't complain, yer getting the best of both worlds : a no deal Brexit and no trade agreement with the US ...

Honestly, pretty shit show. What you eat does affect your health. Even though I think Brexit may still be a very positive thing for you. Anyway.

[med6753]

It's been on for several hours now and no observed HV oscillator modulation of the trace which was the issue. So improving the bonding of HV cover to case to chassis has fixed it. 

[tggzzz]

I was fascinated by these when they came out. No good reason to get $employer to buy me one. But they've been getting some love here recently and it's reminded me I want to know more .. and then one came up here (and .. bonus .. it had a fault to fix

They are fun, but I suspect that they are being replaced by modern fast-reading frequency counters.

I presume you have seen this thread: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hpagilent-53310a-modulation-domain-analyser-frequency-time-interval-analyser/msg3194292/#msg3194292

[bd139]

don't complain, yer getting the best of both worlds : a no deal Brexit and no trade agreement with the US ...

Honestly, pretty shit show. What you eat does affect your health. Even though I think Brexit may still be a very positive thing for you. Anyway.

It's not positive. We're fucked. Completely. Inside and out.