Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

The shelving unit is done and installed in the area previously occupied by a computer desk. Finally all equipment is out from under the benches. Now have easy access. The reason for the wide distance between the shelves is now apparent. The portable scopes can be stored vertically with access to the carry handle. This unit is built stout. I knew it was going to have to carry a lot of weight. I can even toss the Type 535A on that 2nd shelf if I felt so inclined and it would support it no sweat.   

BTW, the computer desk was put out by the road for anyone who wanted it. Within 10 minutes and before I could put a "FREE" sign next to it....it was gone. 


     

[mnementh]

Looking good med.  And I see you made the wise choice; placing the unit right at the intersection of two load-bearing walls. 

That there is some choice enheavyment.  And I see two refugees from the dwagon's demesne made it to this new place of honor. 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

@bd139 sorry he sent back the 5900x. He got 2 by mistake. Plus a GTX 3090 because he was somewhat pissed that big navi was not faster than the 3090 ...

Ouchies. I was watching the stupidity surrounding the 3080 release. Fuckwidgets all over the intardnet running around with their hair on fire and blowing chunks cuz gougers with bots beat out real flesh & blood purchasers. All this rage and anger over the bots, when NVidia deliberately limits quantities of their own card production because they make more money selling the chipsets to other makers, and has been abusing their near-monopoly position in the industry this way for decades. 

I'd buy Big Navi just to take that money out of NVidia's pocket; if I had it to spare.

mnem

[med6753]

Looking good med.  And I see you made the wise choice; placing the unit right at the intersection of two load-bearing walls. 

That there is some choice enheavyment. 

mnem
 

That corner is facing North West. So when the Winter winds blow the weight will help anchor the house in place. 

[tggzzz]

[1]as a "Father of the 90s", which is unlikely to mean much to those overseas, even though the ALSPAC results will have changed overseas behaviour

So, you're one of those radical separatist Avonites are you? 

From birth to 6 weeks old, then later by choice.

There are many things to recommend it, including excellent food/restauarants (currently moot), contours, trees, etc.

Not sure about "radical separatist", unless you mean the continuing tradition of rioting once a decade or so.

Well, the ALSPAC study is unlikely to be known outside the Avon area by anyone except specialists interested in the field. So, lumping all the ignorant together as 'overseas' sounds like a more radical agenda than, say, Cornish separatists, who at least acknowledge the land border with England.   So, us non-avonite English aren't merely "foreigners" but have been deemed so removed that we've been virtually floated off onto a different island. 

Most parents will have heard of ALSPAC, probably under its media-friendly name, "Children of the 90s". The simple key result that all new parents are taught is how infants should sleep in order to reduce the chance of "cot death".

[tggzzz]

Could you please enlighten us poor sods on the wrong side of the pond...?

Gurrrgling "Avonite" only returns a million hits advertising some competitor of Corian countertop schlock over here. 

mnem
"Avon" is a 4-letter word.

Avon = [now traditional] county of England.

Except for PayPal and similar, who required me to enter that pre-1996 now-false address when verifying my account (qv)

[bd139]

@bd139 sorry he sent back the 5900x. He got 2 by mistake. Plus a GTX 3090 because he was somewhat pissed that big navi was not faster than the 3090 ...

No worries 

I'm just going to wait in the queue until the scalping bastards are done 

[bd139]

@bd139 sorry he sent back the 5900x. He got 2 by mistake. Plus a GTX 3090 because he was somewhat pissed that big navi was not faster than the 3090 ...

Ouchies. I was watching the stupidity surrounding the 3080 release. Fuckwidgets all over the intardnet running around with their hair on fire and blowing chunks cuz gougers with bots beat out real flesh & blood purchasers. All this rage and anger over the bots, when NVidia deliberately limits quantities of their own card production because they make more money selling the chipsets to other makers, and has been abusing their near-monopoly position in the industry this way for decades. 

I'd buy Big Navi just to take that money out of NVidia's pocket; if I had it to spare.

mnem

Yeah it's a complete shit show. Typical NVidia all over it 

Also they just shafted everything by leaking that there's a 3060 in the works so anyone budget conscious is going to hold off.

[tggzzz]

And I see you made the wise choice; placing the unit right at the intersection of two load-bearing walls. 

Wouldn't make much difference in my house: wood planks on wood joists, so one of those walls would see zero load.

All I can do is make sure I choose shorter joists rather than longer ones, and that they aren't supported by wood lintels over windows/doors.

[BU508A]

This hanging plant ... reminds me somehow to this one:



 

[bd139]

Ah Leon. Good film 

[Saskia]

Why do I have to think of Wasabi right now ...

[mnementh]

Looking good med.  And I see you made the wise choice; placing the unit right at the intersection of two load-bearing walls. 

That there is some choice enheavyment. 

mnem
 

That corner is facing North West. So when the Winter winds blow the weight will help anchor the house in place. 

News flash: They're here.    We're expecting 5-10cm today. 



This is the scene from my back door. We spent all afternoon down in that yard blowing/bagging the last of the leaves yesterday. Just in time is the word of the day!

mnem
nice pants.

[Calambres]

My last cup of TEA

Having a VTVM is sort of a gateway drug into TEA.

Oh, boy, you don't know who you're dealing with. I am a TEA addict! 

[med6753]

This hanging plant ... reminds me somehow to this one:



 

What movie is that? 

[0culus]

Looks like The Professional: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on:_The_Professional

I think it was Natalie Portman's first film role.

[mnementh]

Perfect time for some home cookin'. 4KG pork shoulder roast; my usual Holy Trinity spice rub. Onions, carrots, celery and lots of 'shrooms. Asparagus spears and broccoli florets for da dwagon; kidzz and wife won't touch 'em. 

Doin' it raw this time instead of searing it first as I usually prefer; been feeling a bit congested since yesterday so the flame's gone quite anemic, and our new gas range (hooray gas cooktop!) is a cheap IKEA POS with a worthless broiler and no browning element. 



Gas-ceramic radiant heaters have been around for a century; why the fuck aren't those elements the standard broiler in all gas ovens...?   

mnem
*back to the kitchen*

[25 CPS]

News flash: They're here.    We're expecting 5-10cm today. 



This is the scene from my back door. We spent all afternoon down in that yard blowing/bagging the last of the leaves yesterday. Just in time is the word of the day!

mnem
nice pants.

Ouch!  They were forecasting 10-15 cm of snow here too but along with above zero temperatures, if that makes any sense.  The end result's been rain all day which would be great for working downstairs in the shop except I'm on midnights and I know not to try to fight with any projects when I'm on midnights because it never goes well for myself or the project involved.  Worse, one of the window regulators on my truck malfunctioned and one of the windows is stuck down.  It's got a garbage bag taped over it to keep the rain out until I can get that and another thing that broke fixed once midnights are over.  Poof.  There goes the lab budget for the next while.

[mansaxel]

The RM33 I had my eyes on and tried to snipe was missed. Somebody else had a higher max bid. Hopefully they're not a valve vulture.

[factory]

snip...
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.

Thank you for your offer, but I should have been clearer in my post about finding the paper manual I have.
Whilst digging out the manual for the 5248M that I haven't looked at for two years, I found the dead tree edition 5325A manual, it even has some change sheets covering the first batch of the upgraded 5325B. 

David

[factory]

I haven't looked at my rather poor condition 5248M for a few years, last time I had repaired the high frequency decimal counter board (A17) that drives the first display board, which had a dead tunnel diode.

The remaining faults were a suspected fault with the function control board (A21) and a problem with the regulated +20V supply for the crystal oven.

I've started on the crystal oven supply fault today, in my notes I had found the +20V supply was down to around +16V, so time to have a look at the A25 oscillator power supply board and hope it's not a problem within the oven itself.
Here is the A25 board with a heck of a lot of cobwebs & dangling spider carcass, the previous owner managed to clean nearly everything apart from this corner.  The chassis side frame is bent in this corner too.




Here is the A25 board layout & circuit diagram (only used in the 524xM counters).




So far I've disconnected all the output wires and added a temporary 470uF 35V capacitor in place of the external one, this was quickly replaced with a 50V one after finding it had 36V across it with no load.
Measuring the two zeners (CR5A/B matched pair) as the manual suggests revealed the 'B' zener has around 20V & the  'A' zener had 0V. I unplugged the mains and checked for shorts, sure enough there is one in the area of the zener, this was pulled along with the capacitor C3 but all was OK with them, I have run out of time tonight but will be checking Q3 & Q4 tomorrow.

David

[mnementh]

News flash: They're here.    We're expecting 5-10cm today. 

   This is the scene from my back door. We spent all afternoon down in that yard blowing/bagging the last of the leaves yesterday. Just in time is the word of the day!

mnem
nice pants.

Ouch!  They were forecasting 10-15 cm of snow here too but along with above zero temperatures, if that makes any sense.  The end result's been rain all day which would be great for working downstairs in the shop except I'm on midnights and I know not to try to fight with any projects when I'm on midnights because it never goes well for myself or the project involved.  Worse, one of the window regulators on my truck malfunctioned and one of the windows is stuck down.  It's got a garbage bag taped over it to keep the rain out until I can get that and another thing that broke fixed once midnights are over.  Poof.  There goes the lab budget for the next while.

It's now aboot twice that deep, and they've revised the estimate to 10-15cm here as well. Temps around 1, dropping to -2 overnight. Warming in the AM, high of 5.

As we have no need to go anywhere, plan is to hide out in our little cave overnight and see how bad things still are tomorrow during the "heat of the day".

If need be, I'll drag the snowblower out... but really not ready for that particular "change of seasons" waypoint to be here YET. 

mnem

[Robert763]

<SNIP>

Perfect time for some home cookin'. 4KG pork shoulder roast; my usual Holy Trinity spice rub. Onions, carrots, celery and lots of 'shrooms. Asparagus spears and broccoli florets for da dwagon; kidzz and wife won't touch 'em. 

Doin' it raw this time instead of searing it first as I usually prefer; been feeling a bit congested since yesterday so the flame's gone quite anemic, and our new gas range (hooray gas cooktop!) is a cheap IKEA POS with a worthless broiler and no browning element. 



Gas-ceramic radiant heaters have been around for a century; why the fuck aren't those elements the standard broiler in all gas ovens...?   

mnem
*back to the kitchen*

Probably because they are too susceptible to contamination by oils and fats from cooking in the oven when the grill is not on. They are used for commercial grills and kebab rotissaries but that is different.

[med6753]

Ouch!  They were forecasting 10-15 cm of snow here too but along with above zero temperatures, if that makes any sense.  The end result's been rain all day which would be great for working downstairs in the shop except I'm on midnights and I know not to try to fight with any projects when I'm on midnights because it never goes well for myself or the project involved.  Worse, one of the window regulators on my truck malfunctioned and one of the windows is stuck down.  It's got a garbage bag taped over it to keep the rain out until I can get that and another thing that broke fixed once midnights are over.  Poof.  There goes the lab budget for the next while.

I worked overnight shift (8 PM to 4:30 AM) for 10 years until I retired. If you live alone like I did it's OK. Sleep when you want. Work on stuff when you want (except outdoor if it's dark). But if you have a live in significant other or a family it mucho sucko. I thought you mentioned you lived with your parents, right? Doesn't that give you a certain amount of freedom to do what you want, when you want...as long as you don't disturb them?

Now if you are on a rotating shift schedule then all bets are off. You'll never adjust properly to one set schedule. I'm glad I never did it.

[med6753]

News flash: They're here.    We're expecting 5-10cm today. 

   This is the scene from my back door. We spent all afternoon down in that yard blowing/bagging the last of the leaves yesterday. Just in time is the word of the day!

mnem
nice pants.

Ouch!  They were forecasting 10-15 cm of snow here too but along with above zero temperatures, if that makes any sense.  The end result's been rain all day which would be great for working downstairs in the shop except I'm on midnights and I know not to try to fight with any projects when I'm on midnights because it never goes well for myself or the project involved.  Worse, one of the window regulators on my truck malfunctioned and one of the windows is stuck down.  It's got a garbage bag taped over it to keep the rain out until I can get that and another thing that broke fixed once midnights are over.  Poof.  There goes the lab budget for the next while.

It's now aboot twice that deep, and they've revised the estimate to 10-15cm here as well. Temps around 1, dropping to -2 overnight. Warming in the AM, high of 5.

As we have no need to go anywhere, plan is to hide out in our little cave overnight and see how bad things still are tomorrow during the "heat of the day".

If need be, I'll drag the snowblower out... but really not ready for that particular "change of seasons" waypoint to be here YET. 

mnem

Hoser, it's C-A-N-A-D-A not T-A-H-I-T-I, WTF do you expect? 

Suck it up. Be glad you have a snowBLOWER rather than just a snowSHOVEL.