Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[AVGresponding]

Discord is live, you laggards!   

[mansaxel]

(Personal record: 405V system voltage,  315A fuse, very blown. I was not part of circuit.)

Not quite like that, there are lots of incidents where more than 1 phase can be found in proximity to each other, BUT it should never happen in domestic installations where it is possible that a non-skilled / qualified person could interact with the system behind the fascia. If you really need to use more than a single phase in a domestic installation because load balancing etc, then the phases should never be mixed within the same room. In a commercial or industrial installation, where it is not expected that unqualified persons should be accessing the electrics, then it is permissible provided there is clear signage of the danger.

Here, it's permitted to feed a stove with 3ph 405V, using a plug and outlet. Usually a Perilex. Every house and a lot of flats have three-phase. I had a 3-phase feeder to a connection box in my bathroom in one flat i lived in, so I could run a washer and a dryer.

[Robert763]

The HP 54615B from CDL arrived yesterday with no damage and no obvious signs of futzing, complete with horizontal rolling fault on the picture bulb. 


CAL switch wasn't in unprotected position on arrival, it's hard to tell from the listing picture or maybe they read here.


Some pictures of the insides which were cleaner than expected, mainboard with ST NVRAM module & Computer Products PSU module, I can only see one RIFA stinkbomb to replace. 



CRT monitor module is a Hitachi, but the picture bulb is Toshiba. 



I've replaced most of the larger capacitors on the CRT board, but as Shango006 often states it hasn't magically cured the fault yet. The horizontal hold control does work but it's impossible to get a stable display, currently looking at parts around the uPC1379C IC.


David

Check for a small electrolytic on pin 13

[Specmaster]

(Personal record: 405V system voltage,  315A fuse, very blown. I was not part of circuit.)

Not quite like that, there are lots of incidents where more than 1 phase can be found in proximity to each other, BUT it should never happen in domestic installations where it is possible that a non-skilled / qualified person could interact with the system behind the fascia. If you really need to use more than a single phase in a domestic installation because load balancing etc, then the phases should never be mixed within the same room. In a commercial or industrial installation, where it is not expected that unqualified persons should be accessing the electrics, then it is permissible provided there is clear signage of the danger.

Here, it's permitted to feed a stove with 3ph 405V, using a plug and outlet. Usually a Perilex. Every house and a lot of flats have three-phase. I had a 3-phase feeder to a connection box in my bathroom in one flat i lived in, so I could run a washer and a dryer.

My parents house also had 3 phase supply installed because they used to fed from a single phase which fed about 4 houses going from house to house on a catenary wire and when they storage heaters installed they caused a major volt drop problem for the 4 houses connected to that phase and the TV's (CRT type back then) would reduce the picture size as a result.

The supply company installed a 3 phase supply, and then I had to rewire the storage heaters across the other 2 phases and that cured the problem.

[mnementh]

   

Welp... after tinkering on that little Arduino Zero for a bit, I decided to clear that tore apart cal-kit-ulator off my bench and get it fixed up so that it had all matching button-head screws instead of this mish-mash, which was still better than the mixed black m3 and chrome m2 screws that came with.

   

First on the agenda was to print up some spacers & proper standoffs. 4mm tall spacers with shoulder to center m2 screws in 3.2mm diameter holes for the LCD, and 10.5mm tall spacers that incorporated the m2 threaded inserts.  m2 x 10mm screws reach all the way into the brass insert, making these proper standoffs.




Doing it this way, m2 x 10mm screws work everywhere except the 4 in the top of the keyboard; I had to cut 4 screws down to m2 x 4mm for that. A 50ct baggie was $5.40 Canuckistan shekels; of course, I spent $40 on those assorted duinos. 

   

Side & bottom views showing the standoffs in place & matched button head screws.



And the finished product... it may be a bit mentally defective, but at least it's built right. Time for a nip of vino to help me sleep...

mnem
 

[VK5RC]

Finally got all the bits for the Hackaday TritiLED low level night light project
https://hackaday.io/project/11864-tritiled/details
I have built a few before - found them very useful for a dark bathroom and stairwell. Great gifts for nerds.
For me the hardest part is programming the PIC - something I try to avoid - I dislike programming and the MPLAB IDE drives me nuts - mainly because I use it once every 5 yrs - it is all problems like - upgrades, how do you start a project, how do you load C, or pre built hex etc etc. I learn enough to just get the job done then run like hell. (makes chicken noises). Programming dunces like me get on quite well with Arduino (does most of what I need)
I built a test bed to check that the PICs were programmed, all ok. You can get several years of 'continuous' use out of a single cr2032 battery. Test bed drew 13uA at 3v.
The device uses persistence of vision, picking the optimal LED colour for human eye night time adapted state and the optimal driving current to get out light. The above linked article is pretty explanatory. A big thanks to Ted Yapo.

[Zoli]

Some(30+years) ago I've met a electrician, who made his usual demo of his everyday work routine for me:
Lick a finger, touch a fuse:"220V"
Lick two fingers, touch two fuses:"380V"
His skin was incredible dry and hard...
The guy(AFAIK) is still alive and well, according to my last news(6 Years ago).

[VEGETA]

Texio CS-4125A for 105$ is it good?

[beanflying]

Texio CS-4125A for 105$ is it good?

If that is locally to you I would think its good value. Locally (Australia) that sort of scope runs from $50-100 USD plus postage. In the USA less.

You should also be aware you are asking in the home of the TEA enablers if you should buy test equipment. The Answer is ALWAYS YES

[capt bullshot]

So...fast forward to today. There's only a select few cars in the American market that offer a manual transmission. The Civic still does. And if I happen to have someone in the passenger seat who never learned they are fascinated watching me row the gears but also remark that they want nothing to do with it. Can't drink coffee and eat a donut if you have to change gears. 

And....no one EVER asks to borrow your car.     

Here (in Europe / at least in Germany) it's quite the other way round. You can confuse or scare off a lot of drivers if you give them a car with automatic transmission. I remember one particular rented car (a Mercedes) that I wasn't able to move from the parking lot for some minutes until I found out the automatic gear-shift lever is mounted at the steering wheel

[VEGETA]

Texio CS-4125A for 105$ is it good?

If that is locally to you I would think its good value. Locally (Australia) that sort of scope runs from $50-100 USD plus postage. In the USA less.

You should also be aware you are asking in the home of the TEA enablers if you should buy test equipment. The Answer is ALWAYS YES

well, I am in Jordan and we don't have oscilloscopes here besides universities and so on. VERY RARELY someone posts it on opensooq (craigslist similar) and this time it is kinda reasonable price of 75 JDs (105$) and I can pick it up when I return home this Thursday.

If I want to get the Rigol DS1054Z new it would cost me near 650$ which includes shipping and customs. No way I can afford that now. I need a scope to finalize my product (power supply for dreamcast) and start selling it in order to upgrade my lab ...etc. getting USB scopes like Hantek seems good but not for me since I want a real bench scope, and they will cost me more since shipping and customs gonna be not so cheap.

I tried searching for analog scopes in ebay but no way near this price if you include shipping. shipping alone takes 130$ or so for a 30$ scope!

The sellers says this scope is perfect condition with 2 BNC probes and fully functional. Original price was about 141$ but I got it down to 105$.

I know you guys are enablers (nothing wrong with that actually) and you need a spark, but still I hoped that someone tried such a scope or brand to insight me more.

[Zucca]

They moved the 3D Printing topics to a corner "Off Topic Hobbies" 
Off Topic 3D Printing? Electronics is the core of those machines....

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/supporters-lounge/off-topic-hobbies/new/#new

 I do not understand.

[Zucca]

TEA movie suggestion



Based on the true story of Ing. Giorgio Rosa.

PS: Don't you love italian eng?

PSS: An alternative for the Saskia island dream?

[McBryce]

Texio CS-4125A for 105$ is it good?

If that is locally to you I would think its good value. Locally (Australia) that sort of scope runs from $50-100 USD plus postage. In the USA less.

You should also be aware you are asking in the home of the TEA enablers if you should buy test equipment. The Answer is ALWAYS YES

well, I am in Jordan and we don't have oscilloscopes here besides universities and so on. VERY RARELY someone posts it on opensooq (craigslist similar) and this time it is kinda reasonable price of 75 JDs (105$) and I can pick it up when I return home this Thursday.

If I want to get the Rigol DS1054Z new it would cost me near 650$ which includes shipping and customs. No way I can afford that now. I need a scope to finalize my product (power supply for dreamcast) and start selling it in order to upgrade my lab ...etc. getting USB scopes like Hantek seems good but not for me since I want a real bench scope, and they will cost me more since shipping and customs gonna be not so cheap.

I tried searching for analog scopes in ebay but no way near this price if you include shipping. shipping alone takes 130$ or so for a 30$ scope!

The sellers says this scope is perfect condition with 2 BNC probes and fully functional. Original price was about 141$ but I got it down to 105$.

I know you guys are enablers (nothing wrong with that actually) and you need a spark, but still I hoped that someone tried such a scope or brand to insight me more.

The Texio CS-4125A uses custom Hybrid IC's as far as I know, so if it fails, it may be a difficult scope to repair. I would recommend trying to get a secondhand HAMEG as they were mostly made from off the shelf parts and can be found for relatively low prices.

McBryce.

[Robert763]

Texio CS-4125A for 105$ is it good?

If that is locally to you I would think its good value. Locally (Australia) that sort of scope runs from $50-100 USD plus postage. In the USA less.

You should also be aware you are asking in the home of the TEA enablers if you should buy test equipment. The Answer is ALWAYS YES

well, I am in Jordan and we don't have oscilloscopes here besides universities and so on. VERY RARELY someone posts it on opensooq (craigslist similar) and this time it is kinda reasonable price of 75 JDs (105$) and I can pick it up when I return home this Thursday.

If I want to get the Rigol DS1054Z new it would cost me near 650$ which includes shipping and customs. No way I can afford that now. I need a scope to finalize my product (power supply for dreamcast) and start selling it in order to upgrade my lab ...etc. getting USB scopes like Hantek seems good but not for me since I want a real bench scope, and they will cost me more since shipping and customs gonna be not so cheap.

I tried searching for analog scopes in ebay but no way near this price if you include shipping. shipping alone takes 130$ or so for a 30$ scope!

The sellers says this scope is perfect condition with 2 BNC probes and fully functional. Original price was about 141$ but I got it down to 105$.

I know you guys are enablers (nothing wrong with that actually) and you need a spark, but still I hoped that someone tried such a scope or brand to insight me more.

Hi,
That is a good  quality, medium complexity 20MHz 'scope of fairly late design for a CRT type. It will be fine for power supply work, also audio and lowerspeed micrcontroller work. I would take it over a Hantek "20MHz" USB any day. It was sold under the Kenwood name in NA ad UK.  $105 is a fair price, they were $700 new not that long ago.
Where in Jordan are you? I spent some time there in '96 & '97

[Robert763]

well, I am in Jordan and we don't have oscilloscopes here besides universities and so on. VERY RARELY someone posts it on opensooq (craigslist similar) and this time it is kinda reasonable price of 75 JDs (105$) and I can pick it up when I return home this Thursday.

If I want to get the Rigol DS1054Z new it would cost me near 650$ which includes shipping and customs. No way I can afford that now. I need a scope to finalize my product (power supply for dreamcast) and start selling it in order to upgrade my lab ...etc. getting USB scopes like Hantek seems good but not for me since I want a real bench scope, and they will cost me more since shipping and customs gonna be not so cheap.

I tried searching for analog scopes in ebay but no way near this price if you include shipping. shipping alone takes 130$ or so for a 30$ scope!

The sellers says this scope is perfect condition with 2 BNC probes and fully functional. Original price was about 141$ but I got it down to 105$.

I know you guys are enablers (nothing wrong with that actually) and you need a spark, but still I hoped that someone tried such a scope or brand to insight me more.

The Texio CS-4125A uses custom Hybrid IC's as far as I know, so if it fails, it may be a difficult scope to repair. I would recommend trying to get a secondhand HAMEG as they were mostly made from off the shelf parts and can be found for relatively low prices.

McBryce.
[/quote]

VEGTA is in Jordan so a lot less choice than most of us. Thr Hybrids are only a problem if they fail.

[beanflying]

They moved the 3D Printing topics to a corner "Off Topic Hobbies" 
Off Topic 3D Printing? Electronics is the core of those machines....

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/supporters-lounge/off-topic-hobbies/new/#new

 I do not understand.

Dave set up that section yesterday but it was my idea I guess the mega thread be moved. The mob are after me

[Zucca]

I am worried about this place now....

[VEGETA]

The Texio CS-4125A uses custom Hybrid IC's as far as I know, so if it fails, it may be a difficult scope to repair. I would recommend trying to get a secondhand HAMEG as they were mostly made from off the shelf parts and can be found for relatively low prices.

McBryce.

I am in Jordan, no Hameg or any other brand available. Check opensooq jordan and see for yourself. If I was in USA, I would have searched through ebay to get the Hameg and other brands for sure.

Hi,
That is a good  quality, medium complexity 20MHz 'scope of fairly late design for a CRT type. It will be fine for power supply work, also audio and lowerspeed micrcontroller work. I would take it over a Hantek "20MHz" USB any day. It was sold under the Kenwood name in NA ad UK.  $105 is a fair price, they were $700 new not that long ago.
Where in Jordan are you? I spent some time there in '96 & '97

I told the seller that I will take it. Actually, even if it is a bad scope... still the ONLY option available for now. Good to hear that it was a good one. Condition is perfect too.

I live in Irbid and work in Ghor Al-Safi in south, near Karak. You used to work here? good to hear someone knows we exist 

[bd139]

The HP 54615B from CDL arrived yesterday with no damage and no obvious signs of futzing, complete with horizontal rolling fault on the picture bulb. 


CAL switch wasn't in unprotected position on arrival, it's hard to tell from the listing picture or maybe they read here.


Some pictures of the insides which were cleaner than expected, mainboard with ST NVRAM module & Computer Products PSU module, I can only see one RIFA stinkbomb to replace. 



CRT monitor module is a Hitachi, but the picture bulb is Toshiba. 



I've replaced most of the larger capacitors on the CRT board, but as Shango006 often states it hasn't magically cured the fault yet. The horizontal hold control does work but it's impossible to get a stable display, currently looking at parts around the uPC1379C IC.


David

That’s looking hopeful. Do you have schematics for the monitor assembly? If not I think I’ve got them somewhere.

[capt bullshot]

For a one-off circuit I'd need a variable resistor (roughly 100R ... 2k ... open range) that is controlled by an PWM output.
So I threw together a few components that were available in my stockpile:



Looking at the result:



The curve tracer is set to 0.1V/div, 50uA/div and 0.1mA per step with some offset.

Not too linear, but I believe it'll do the job as it will be part of a closed loop. Still waiting for a parcel from Reichelt to continue that work.

[Specmaster]

Texio CS-4125A for 105$ is it good?

If that is locally to you I would think its good value. Locally (Australia) that sort of scope runs from $50-100 USD plus postage. In the USA less.

You should also be aware you are asking in the home of the TEA enablers if you should buy test equipment. The Answer is ALWAYS YES

well, I am in Jordan and we don't have oscilloscopes here besides universities and so on. VERY RARELY someone posts it on opensooq (craigslist similar) and this time it is kinda reasonable price of 75 JDs (105$) and I can pick it up when I return home this Thursday.

If I want to get the Rigol DS1054Z new it would cost me near 650$ which includes shipping and customs. No way I can afford that now. I need a scope to finalize my product (power supply for dreamcast) and start selling it in order to upgrade my lab ...etc. getting USB scopes like Hantek seems good but not for me since I want a real bench scope, and they will cost me more since shipping and customs gonna be not so cheap.

I tried searching for analog scopes in ebay but no way near this price if you include shipping. shipping alone takes 130$ or so for a 30$ scope!

The sellers says this scope is perfect condition with 2 BNC probes and fully functional. Original price was about 141$ but I got it down to 105$.

I know you guys are enablers (nothing wrong with that actually) and you need a spark, but still I hoped that someone tried such a scope or brand to insight me more.

Hi,
That is a good  quality, medium complexity 20MHz 'scope of fairly late design for a CRT type. It will be fine for power supply work, also audio and lowerspeed micrcontroller work. I would take it over a Hantek "20MHz" USB any day. It was sold under the Kenwood name in NA ad UK.  $105 is a fair price, they were $700 new not that long ago.
Where in Jordan are you? I spent some time there in '96 & '97

You beat me to it, I was going to suggest that the OP might better to ask about it under its other names of Trio or Kenwood  CS-4125A, which although are still rare brand names, are better known over here, and coming from that background must be a reasonable scope.

[Robert763]

The Texio CS-4125A uses custom Hybrid IC's as far as I know, so if it fails, it may be a difficult scope to repair. I would recommend trying to get a secondhand HAMEG as they were mostly made from off the shelf parts and can be found for relatively low prices.

McBryce.

I am in Jordan, no Hameg or any other brand available. Check opensooq jordan and see for yourself. If I was in USA, I would have searched through ebay to get the Hameg and other brands for sure.

Hi,
That is a good  quality, medium complexity 20MHz 'scope of fairly late design for a CRT type. It will be fine for power supply work, also audio and lowerspeed micrcontroller work. I would take it over a Hantek "20MHz" USB any day. It was sold under the Kenwood name in NA ad UK.  $105 is a fair price, they were $700 new not that long ago.
Where in Jordan are you? I spent some time there in '96 & '97

I told the seller that I will take it. Actually, even if it is a bad scope... still the ONLY option available for now. Good to hear that it was a good one. Condition is perfect too.

I live in Irbid and work in Ghor Al-Safi in south, near Karak. You used to work here? good to hear someone knows we exist 

Hi,
I was further south. We were running the Thrust SSC car on the Al-Jafra desert. Nearest town was Ma'an. We stayed at the King Feisal bin Abdul Aziz Air Base.  Visited Amman a few times but never got as far north as Irbid. I had a short stay at the Queen Alia hospital following an accident with a pneumatic antenna mast  . The treatment I received there was first class.

[AVGresponding]

HP 6633B teardown pics:

Taking its clothes off:


As you can see, the trafo makes up a substantial portion of the internals, and of course the weight. Interestingly (to me at least), it only weighs about 50% more than the 66311B which is a half-width unit. Part of this weight saving is due to the steel of the 6633B lid being only around 1mm thick, as opposed to the 66311B being 1.5mm.
There was a very slight kink in one of the front corners of the lid, which I was able to bend back by hand (I do have very strong hands).


The transformer has plenty of windings for sure:


I expect it's considerably under-run, to keep winding losses low and the secondary in the linear zone.


Here's the digital board, very dusty:


I gave it a careful vaccing to clean the dust and remains of the packing; the seller had used bits of foamed polystyrene and it had shed quite a lot of the "balls".

Here we can see a factory bodge. Annoyingly the service manual doesn't cover the digital (interface) board, so no idea what the IC is, but it looks like afterthought pull-up/down resistors:



Here's the power board:


I spy a 4-wire resistor, and what's that up at the back?


Some kind of fancy-pants capacitor it seems, let's look it up.


HOW FOOKING MUCH? Yer 'aving a larf, incha?


This resistor looks like its been pushed quite hard, might have to look at replacing it:


Looking at the schematic its purpose seems to be as part of a voltage divider for the pre-regulated DC rails, I'll have to look deeper when I have more time and less of a hangover...


Ye olde big-assed output transistors:


Relatively cheap parts if I manage to blow them up.


The display board is hidden behind the chassis, presumably to shield it from the transformer:


There's a hole in the corner so I can mount front jacks, good:



Oh, oh no, is that, omg yes it is   



I'll do a review post at some point, after that suicide cap has been replaced and I have a free long weekend.

[factory]

The HP 54615B from CDL arrived yesterday with no damage and no obvious signs of futzing, complete with horizontal rolling fault on the picture bulb. 


CAL switch wasn't in unprotected position on arrival, it's hard to tell from the listing picture or maybe they read here.


Some pictures of the insides which were cleaner than expected, mainboard with ST NVRAM module & Computer Products PSU module, I can only see one RIFA stinkbomb to replace. 


CRT monitor module is a Hitachi, but the picture bulb is Toshiba. 


I've replaced most of the larger capacitors on the CRT board, but as Shango006 often states it hasn't magically cured the fault yet. The horizontal hold control does work but it's impossible to get a stable display, currently looking at parts around the uPC1379C IC.


David

Check for a small electrolytic on pin 13

I've pulled the 1uF 50V in the horizontal hold circuit, it tests OK as does another nearby, I've fitted a couple of new ones, but had run out of time last night to try it, also wanted to check the other passive components in that circuit before refitting the board.

That’s looking hopeful. Do you have schematics for the monitor assembly? If not I think I’ve got them somewhere.

No I haven't, I did search but could only find the diagram for an earlier Hitachi monitor board. This is the one fitted to the 54615B.


David