Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread (Read 16731171 times)

bd139 · « **Reply #81775 on:** February 06, 2021, 06:47:26 pm »

Quote from: Specmaster on February 06, 2021, 06:35:38 pm

Quote from: Saskia on February 06, 2021, 05:38:02 pm
Neither was I, I was just a contractor with a company that got bought out by Sybase which then contracted me out to IBM. Which was fine, I was very well respected by my colleagues in Mayence, and I utterly miss the time.

They also paid me by the "industrial minute"; back in those days 1.25€ per minute was quite a lot of moolah.
That today is still quite a lot of moolah as well, I'd be happy to earn that much a minute, thats at todays exchange rate £65.78 an hour.

Yeah not bad money that. That’s about 4 Freddos a minute

Saskia · « **Reply #81776 on:** February 06, 2021, 08:03:23 pm »

to "save my marriage" I went into permanent employment which cut my moolah by 70%. Divorce took another 60 (paying alimony and stuff).
Took me about 25 years to get back to about 50% of what I had, and with that I have to subsidize Hubby.

Well, such is life. It's only moolah
But I am way better off than one of my former colleages at IBM. He opted for early retirement like 3 years or so ago, and just after a couple of months suffered from a massive ruptured aneurism.
I do not know if he survived it or not. If he did I would expect him to have suffered severe brain damage and be comatose.

AVGresponding · « **Reply #81777 on:** February 06, 2021, 08:46:02 pm »

Discord is live!*

*Term used advisedly. No level of excitement is implied, promised, or warranted

Ice-Tea · « **Reply #81778 on:** February 06, 2021, 09:46:37 pm »

I have now passed the "pissed" stage and am exploring what lies beyond.

Little while ago:

Car: "Engine Problem! Emission Control Compromised! Head to the nearest garage! Oh, yeah, you have 1100 km to comply"
Garage: "Ah, yes, AdBlue pump. That will be 1400€, thank you."
Me: "Uh, for a pump?
Garage: "Well, yeah, we have to replace the entire assembly, you see... So, shall I order it"?
Me: "Eh, wait a bit..."

*Does research*

Me: "So, uhm, turns out this is well known problem due to a design flaw in the cap".
Garage: "Ah, well, yes, you're not alone..."
Me: "Also turns out there's an arangement in place where you guys carry the cost and I pay nothing"
Garage: "True that, I saw that too! Only too bad that arangement is only valid up till 150k km, yours has 155k. Bummer, eh?
Me: " ...."
Garage: "Oh, by the way, 155k? Yeah, at your next maintenance, we'll be replacing the belt, water pump and probably particle filter. That will probably be another 2k€. Funny how things go, right?"
Me: "..."
Garage: "So. Shall I order the AdBlue stuff"?
Me: "Eh, no, don't think so"

A few days go by, I head to the nearest chiptuner and pay 200€ to have the entire AdBlue story "go away".

Tuner: "So, well, that's that. Uhm..."
Me: "?"
Tuner: "Did you know there's another error logged in the ECU?"
Me: "Do tell..."
Tuner: "Flywheel's giving up. A few hundred km more and the ECU will decide to call it a day. Probably be something like 1600€.

WHAT. THE. FUCK!!

ch_scr · « **Reply #81779 on:** February 06, 2021, 09:53:51 pm »

Ice-Tea: VW?

AVGresponding · « **Reply #81780 on:** February 06, 2021, 09:54:25 pm »

One of the members on the Autoshite forum has the sig "Fuck new cars".

Now you know why.

I'm leaning towards buying something steam powered, myself...

tggzzz · « **Reply #81781 on:** February 06, 2021, 10:02:20 pm »

Your homework assignment is "compare and contrast new vs old test equipment and cars".

Ice-Tea · « **Reply #81782 on:** February 06, 2021, 10:02:33 pm »

Citroen.

Last citroen ran 230k without a hitch before I retired her. This one...1

bd139 · « **Reply #81783 on:** February 06, 2021, 10:19:41 pm »

Citroen here. 23k miles. Fingers crossed

factory · « **Reply #81784 on:** February 06, 2021, 10:22:02 pm »

Quote from: bd139 on January 31, 2021, 02:05:38 pm

Ok I only have the older hitachi one was well annoyingly.

Yours uses a uPC13789C which has the hsync stuff inside the IC rather than outside it. Datasheet here https://www.silicon-ark.co.uk/datasheets/UPC1379C%20datasheet%20-%20NEC.pdf

Looks not too horrible to debug so agree with your assertions about the components around it being likely. Let us know how you get on. I'm so absolutely bored at the moment I'd love to have something like that on the bench to debug

Quote from: wolfy007 on January 31, 2021, 03:05:58 pm

I have repaired a couple of HP 546XXX with this CRT board (in fact a 54602B same CRT boards just last week), both cases was bad electros. For both repairs I replaced all of the 1uf 50v and a 47uf 16v, one also had a bad 220uf 16v on the other a bad 330uf 16v. After verifying it operated correctly (and waiting for more ordered caps) I replaced them all just to be safe. This recent once had such bad caps it was pulling down the power supply and had the scope in a perpetual startup cycle with front end relays clicking away but the screen didnt even come up till the bad caps were replaced including a couple that might even be considered not to bad.

PS: Photo shows the board during testing, the black coloured electros are bad, the red dot ones I wanted to pull out to verify if ok.

A quick update on the HP 54615B with the horizontal hold problem, well I have replaced all the capacitors I had, the remaining three test OK, the passives around the H-hold circuit are all fine. Once reassembled the fault remains, I've ordered a couple of replacement UPC1379C IC's as they aren't too expensive & will report back after replacing it. The B+ was checked & adjusted to +14V before and the main PSU voltages are all within spec.

I've replaced the paper crap RIFA in the main PSU with a 630V rated NIS branded one salvaged from a scrap CRT computer monitor board (same brand is used on the Hitachi monitor board).
I'm a bit pissed off as I managed to break the clip for the power switch, instructions were to use a screwdriver to gently unhook, should really read gently snap off switch latch with screwdriver.
It now has a temporary ty-wrap fitted.

David

factory · « **Reply #81785 on:** February 06, 2021, 10:51:57 pm »

As the HP 54615B is waiting parts I decided to find out why the HP 5245L counter has been taking a while to work after switching on, well it turned out to be the usual suspect, the crystal oven & the output is failing intermittently, I've fitted a spare 10544A I had.
The old one is a 10544-60036, no idea if it's the original or a refurbished replacement, the PSU board has been completely resoldered by a previous owner.

David

EE4all · « **Reply #81786 on:** February 06, 2021, 11:33:13 pm »

Just joined the forum, but I needed to join this thread already. I have half a dozen projects hanging around, and so what do I do? Of course, I "accidentally" bought a HP 8663A on a good deal, and a broken Marconi to fix. You know...just to make sure the project list is fat and healthy.

And I will need to carry the 8663a up to the second floor.

mnementh · « **Reply #81787 on:** February 06, 2021, 11:51:54 pm »

On the Bench Tonight: PAMD21 Dev boards getting a SPI longterm-memory transplant so we can have room for Mini-Python scripts. Got 16Mb and 32Mb chips; gonna see if the pre-cooked CircuitPython image works with the larger SPI ROM as well.

mnem

Specmaster · « **Reply #81788 on:** February 07, 2021, 01:23:46 am »

Quote from: EE4all on February 06, 2021, 11:33:13 pm

Just joined the forum, but I needed to join this thread already. I have half a dozen projects hanging around, and so what do I do? Of course, I "accidentally" bought a HP 8663A on a good deal, and a broken Marconi to fix. You know...just to make sure the project list is fat and healthy.

And I will need to carry the 8663a up to the second floor.

Welcome to the forum, don't worry about your project list, there are plenty of people to help you along in that dept, they are good enablers. I'm sure that you'll fit in here nicely

Kosmic · « **Reply #81789 on:** February 07, 2021, 01:25:24 am »

Quote from: EE4all on February 06, 2021, 11:33:13 pm

Just joined the forum, but I needed to join this thread already. I have half a dozen projects hanging around, and so what do I do? Of course, I "accidentally" bought a HP 8663A on a good deal, and a broken Marconi to fix. You know...just to make sure the project list is fat and healthy.

And I will need to carry the 8663a up to the second floor.

Welcome, I'm sure you will fit right in!

Watch out, the more you buy stuff for repair the less time you have for your own project. I think my repair queue is multiple years long already

Specmaster · « **Reply #81790 on:** February 07, 2021, 01:26:00 am »

That Datron 1271 reminded me about this chap who finds things in rivers, tips, muddy fields etc and tries to restore them, not all are electronics though.

Kosmic · « **Reply #81791 on:** February 07, 2021, 01:27:48 am »

Anybody built one of those short finding tool ?

I'm seeing different design pop up from different sources. Are they really useful ? i'm already doing something like that with my Agilent 34401a. Maybe the audio feedback make it easier to find the short ?

Specmaster · « **Reply #81792 on:** February 07, 2021, 01:32:18 am »

That looks like a useful bit of kit, might have to investigate that a bit more.

Kosmic · « **Reply #81793 on:** February 07, 2021, 01:39:49 am »

Another variant that output only 1mv/1ma max.

http://bidouilleur.ca/Bidouilleur_depot/fichiers_videos/EB_Projet_Sonde_Court-Circuit_D%C3%A9licate.zip

https://youtu.be/YwE6waDcIFI?t=51

P.S: Video is in French, CC is available

mnementh · « **Reply #81794 on:** February 07, 2021, 05:48:43 am »

Looks like a variant of the ShortSqweek; a project from (I think) Nuts & Volts back in the day. They fell out of disfavor because it was difficult to make an effective circuit that was safe to use with CMOS electronics.

Frenchy's version definitely does look to be worth pursuing, tho.

Should be tits for locating shorted tants.

mnem
Did he really say tits for tants...?

cyclin_al · « **Reply #81795 on:** February 07, 2021, 05:57:52 am »

Quote from: beanflying on February 06, 2021, 10:15:38 am

Finished dinner and still have a few hours to get the horrors of the 'fan' photo out of my mind

I so did NOT need to see that AGAIN

I'm a big boy, I can handle it .... I can handle it ... I can handle it ... Mommmyyyy help!

beanflying · « **Reply #81796 on:** February 07, 2021, 06:05:47 am »

Quote from: cyclin_al on February 07, 2021, 05:57:52 am

Quote from: beanflying on February 06, 2021, 10:15:38 am
Finished dinner and still have a few hours to get the horrors of the 'fan' photo out of my mind

I so did NOT need to see that AGAIN

I'm a big boy, I can handle it .... I can handle it ... I can handle it ... Mommmyyyy help!

There There soothing picture of Engineered fan mounts follow

tautech · « **Reply #81797 on:** February 07, 2021, 07:01:49 am »

What you building bean ?

beanflying · « **Reply #81798 on:** February 07, 2021, 07:13:23 am »

It's my high power decade Resistor box. Sure I posted it a while back but again right side up. 50W 1, 2, 3 and 4 $\$\Omega\$$ Resistors with the fan cooling the heatsinks.

I need to find a better housekeeper seems some grot has settled during my bench absence

tautech · « **Reply #81799 on:** February 07, 2021, 07:47:36 am »

Quote from: beanflying on February 07, 2021, 07:13:23 am

It's my high power decade Resistor box. Sure I posted it a while back but again right side up. 50W 1, 2, 3 and 4 $\$\Omega\$$ Resistors with the fan cooling the heatsinks.

I need to find a better housekeeper seems some grot has settled during my bench absence

Yep, remember now.
Looking good.


EEVblog Main Site	EEVblog on Youtube	EEVblog on Twitter	EEVblog on Facebook	EEVblog on Odysee

Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread (Read 16731171 times)

Share me