Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mansaxel]

Citroen here. 23k miles. Fingers crossed 

2001 Volvo V70. 238K miles. Has minor operational issues, and I could probably sink about 2K€ into it in parts (not counting labour which I'm thinking of DIY). But starts and runs every day.

[med6753]

Citroen here. 23k miles. Fingers crossed 

Citroen did not last long over here. Reason?

It was French.
Back then they were shaped like giant dildos.
It was French.

Peugeot lasted a little longer. Renault was last French car over here. They partnered with AMC but still didn't do very well. One of the cars they had was a little cracker box called "Le Car". But it's better name was "Le Crap". When Chrysler bought AMC the partnership ended and Renault in typical French fashion surrendered.   

[Cubdriver]

I've looked but never again been able to find a single panel cartoon I saw in Road and Track back in the early 80s.  It was a Renault LeCar, parked behind a roadside billboard and done up as a black and white, with the light bar on the top and police sitting inside running radar.  The lettering on the bottom of the door had been changed to read 'LeCop'.  I remember getting a kick out of it because a LeCar as a cruiser seemed like such a contradiction.

-Pat

[Specmaster]

2013 Skoda here with 63,000 miles, had it from new and so far 1 new battery, 1 heater blower, 1 set of brake pads, 2 sets of tyres, 1 new window winder and 1 x timing belt and water pump which had not failed but had reached the time limit for safe operation as defined in manual. Water pump gets changed by default at that time as half the engine has to be stripped down to gain access to both parts and the biggest cost on them is labour, so they are done at the same time. Still looks and drives as if it has just come out of the showroom.

[Robert763]

So ebay has been C*&P recently, but last night I put a lowball offer on an already low price (£5 BIN +£5 P&P) bit of TE. Surprisingly it was accepted and for once it's for a bit of kit I've never had before.
Its a Permeameter. No not for measuring permanent amps, it mesures the Permeability (ur) of metals. It cn be used to identify some stainless steels and check for correct heat treatment of steel.
Even if it is no use it has a couple of Lemo plugs and sockets and a nice Sifam meter.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/A-M-L-Portable-Permeameter-Mk-11-Used-Untested/313138621462
Current model digital ones cost about $1-2k

[bd139]

That was a good one. Agree about it being crap though. Even the broken shit is mostly extortion.

[Mortymore]

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 Resistors with the fan cooling the heatsinks.

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

I've built some power resistors boxes, also using old CPU coolers, inside old PSU cases and keeping the fan usable if needed.
But my intervention is just to point my personal opinion about the binding posts spacing.
I like to have them spaced in order to be able to fit dual banana plugs. At times, I like to plug a banana-BNC adapter to see waveforms on scope, without the need to plug the scope probes, or plug a multimeter that way, so it lowers the cable mess, by using a single coax, instead of the regular multimeter leads. But that's just me... 



A side note: The unusual binding posts spacing is the only thing that bothers me on my Siglent PSU

[beanflying]

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 Resistors with the fan cooling the heatsinks.

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

I've built some power resistors boxes, also using old CPU coolers, inside old PSU cases and keeping the fan usable if needed.
But my intervention is just to point my personal opinion about the binding posts spacing.
I like to have them spaced in order to be able to fit dual banana plugs. At times, it like to plug a banana-BNC adapter to see waveforms on scope, without the need to plug the scope probes, or plug a multimeter that way, it lowers the cable messing, by using a single coax, instead of the regular multimeter leads. But that's just me... 

A side note: The unusual bind posts spacing is the only thing that bothers me on my Siglent PSU

The spacing with the gold plated straps is standard 19 or 3/4" so you can go across some points with that sort of adapter.  If I made a long bridge like the short one below then spanning any single resistor would be cleaner I guess or in combination with the straps any two or three. Primary use is more of a passive load rather than decade use as I already have a much more accurate one (lower power).

[Mortymore]

I was lazy and just grabbed a picture from my flickr page.
But now I moved my ass and took a picture of the box.

Edit: This was made in order to be able to plug a dual banana, to take the reading on a single 8 resistor, or if they are paralleled for 4 , or in series for 16 , to be a dummy load resistor for audio amps

[URI]

Hi back again after fighting through ### of pages catching up..      

I sold my HP 4260A universal bridge ten days ago. Made a little money with it. 

Even better: The buyer will be using it in his company for production purposes!
It's a little business that also uses several other classic HP TE like 3457A, 3488A, 3467A, 3314A, 3581A, 8510C, 8350B, 3435A, 5315A, 8560A..
The 4260A will be in good company...what makes it easier for me to cope with having it sold.      

The buyer wrote me he likes classic HP TE stuff because it's mostly rock stable, still possible to repair and over all good bang for buck. 

Would fit in here possibly.

[McBryce]

Hi back again after fighting through ### of pages catching up..      

I sold my HP 4260A universal bridge ten days ago. Made a little money with it. 

Even better: The buyer will be using it in his company for production purposes!
It's a little business that also uses several other classic HP TE like 3457A, 3488A, 3467A, 3314A, 3581A, 8510C, 8350B, 3435A, 5315A, 8560A..
The 4260A will be in good company...what makes it easier for me to cope with having it sold.      

The buyer wrote me he likes classic HP TE stuff because it's mostly rock stable, still possible to repair and over all good bang for buck. 

Would fit in here possibly.

I'm not sure he'd fit in. Unlike many here, it sounds like he only buys stuff that he actually needs.

McBryce.

[DC1MC]

If someone has some love for Datrons AND could carry 30Kg+, the good man has something:
- DATRON 1071 - goes for 120
- DATRON 4000 - asks for 1200

Also if you get the calibrator and live around Mannheim, let me know, I have some Datrons to calibrate, and maybe a 3456A#

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/datron-1071-7-5-digit-multimeter/1656718121-168-4892

[factory]

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.

Someone needs to report him for fly-tipping e-waste, but at least he does go back and remove it eventually.  Nice to see he didn't waste any good quality capacitors in the rebuild.

David

[Tomorokoshi]

Hi back again after fighting through ### of pages catching up..      

I sold my HP 4260A universal bridge ten days ago. Made a little money with it. 

Even better: The buyer will be using it in his company for production purposes!
It's a little business that also uses several other classic HP TE like 3457A, 3488A, 3467A, 3314A, 3581A, 8510C, 8350B, 3435A, 5315A, 8560A..
The 4260A will be in good company...what makes it easier for me to cope with having it sold.      

The buyer wrote me he likes classic HP TE stuff because it's mostly rock stable, still possible to repair and over all good bang for buck. 

Would fit in here possibly.

I'm not sure he'd fit in. Unlike many here, it sounds like he only buys stuff that he actually needs.

McBryce.

I need it.

I need it.

I. Need. It. I need it... I need it? I need it!

I need it.

[Zucca]

For the Germans: I am selling my F11 BMW 525xd touring, EZ Feb 2017, 24K€, 83K Km. PM me if interested.

[Saskia]

For Zucca: some audiophile porn
(the PCB is gold plated)

[Saskia]

yesterday I finally got around to setting up my turntable ...

Improvisation (as with the rack) is the most stable of kludges. As long as it works, you will most likely not fix it.

This is my nice vintage stereo set which also includes an internet radio / CD / flac / what have you media streamer (the black case between cd player and preamp).

All in all I must say that I am quite happy with the stereo set. I do not see too many ways to improve it without throwing loads of money into it (which is something I am currently not inclined to do).

Turntable works perfectly. I just had to open the Preamp to set the capacity for the phono section.

[URI]

Hi back again after fighting through ### of pages catching up..      

I sold my HP 4260A universal bridge ten days ago. Made a little money with it. 

Even better: The buyer will be using it in his company for production purposes!
It's a little business that also uses several other classic HP TE like 3457A, 3488A, 3467A, 3314A, 3581A, 8510C, 8350B, 3435A, 5315A, 8560A..
The 4260A will be in good company...what makes it easier for me to cope with having it sold.      

The buyer wrote me he likes classic HP TE stuff because it's mostly rock stable, still possible to repair and over all good bang for buck. 

Would fit in here possibly.

I'm not sure he'd fit in. Unlike many here, it sounds like he only buys stuff that he actually needs.

Hmm. Second thought...you're probably right.   

[mnementh]

   

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
 

      


Soldering went well. You can see here my 2nd attempt (with the 16Mb FLASH ROM) working as advertised; coming up in File Explorer as a ~2MB USB disk to which my little Python scripts can be dragged and run. This is a large improvement over the ~38KB which is left over after installing the MiniPython image on a SPI-less build.

I used my HD7/G1200 microscope (NOT the DM3) in standalone mode (well, except for a minute to take these pics after the work was done), as the footprint used on my little QT-PY Dev boards was wrong and didn't match the DIP-8 package SPI FLASH they recommended, so it took some work to make sure I got decent fillets to the pads on the BACK of the pins.

Being able to tilt the scope to an angle made that work dead-easy, and the scale of the 7" screen was perfect for the work. While I usually still do this kind of work with the naked eye, the scope definitely did make this particularly PITA job easier. 

I did find that enabling HDR mode makes the onscreen view a little brighter; IMO, the auto-exposure is a bit over-aggressive even with exposure cranked all the way up to maximum. But the tradeoff is much grainier appearance. 

Unfortunately, the 32Mb SPI FLASH didn't want to play nicely; I'll get in on their forums and see if there's any intent to pursue support for the larger FLASH in either CircuitPython or Ardu configuration. I have 2 other ones (and maybe all my Seeeduinos if I can mod them to accept the SPI Flash the same way) to work with for now; I don't feel a need to fix my test mule yet.

Cheers,

mnem
 

[med6753]

Larry is alive!  All those hours of work have paid off. The fixed intensity issue was indeed caused by a Gorilla destroying the switch assembly on the Timing Switch board. Now have normal intensity control and PSU has ceased intermittently shutting down. I would have bet the issue was the Z axis circuit or the CRT itself. Apparently not.

There is still much to do. As you can see the compensation sucks. The channel selection switch directly under the CRT needs cleaning and the light for the channel 1 50ohm/1MEG input switch is not working. I have to figure out how to get to them. I also still have to figure out the Sweep A/B knob switch sync. I only have A sweep currently. The main board in Curly has the linear side of the PSU totally re-capped so I'm going to swap that board over.

But the goodness so far is both vertical channels do work and it has strong Trigger. I do NOT want to mess with 485 triggering ever again. 

I'm going to let Larry cook for a while just to make sure all is kosher. 

     

[mnementh]

   yesterday I finally got around to setting up my turntable ...

Improvisation (as with the rack) is the most stable of kludges. As long as it works, you will most likely not fix it. This is my nice vintage stereo set which also includes an internet radio / CD / flac / what have you media streamer (the black case between cd player and preamp).

All in all I must say that I am quite happy with the stereo set. I do not see too many ways to improve it without throwing loads of money into it (which is something I am currently not inclined to do). Turntable works perfectly. I just had to open the Preamp to set the capacity for the phono section.

Lack table FTW, just like with everybody's 3DP... 

mnem
 

[Ice-Tea]

Hi back again after fighting through ### of pages catching up..      

I sold my HP 4260A universal bridge ten days ago. Made a little money with it. 

Even better: The buyer will be using it in his company for production purposes!
It's a little business that also uses several other classic HP TE like 3457A, 3488A, 3467A, 3314A, 3581A, 8510C, 8350B, 3435A, 5315A, 8560A..
The 4260A will be in good company...what makes it easier for me to cope with having it sold.      

The buyer wrote me he likes classic HP TE stuff because it's mostly rock stable, still possible to repair and over all good bang for buck. 

Would fit in here possibly.

I'm not sure he'd fit in. Unlike many here, it sounds like he only buys stuff that he actually needs.

Hmm. Second thought...you're probably right.   

I on the other hand may have found my new best friend 

[Saskia]

   yesterday I finally got around to setting up my turntable ...

Improvisation (as with the rack) is the most stable of kludges. As long as it works, you will most likely not fix it. This is my nice vintage stereo set which also includes an internet radio / CD / flac / what have you media streamer (the black case between cd player and preamp).

All in all I must say that I am quite happy with the stereo set. I do not see too many ways to improve it without throwing loads of money into it (which is something I am currently not inclined to do). Turntable works perfectly. I just had to open the Preamp to set the capacity for the phono section.

Lack table FTW, just like with everybody's 3DP... 

mnem
 

yarp, had to give that undersized power amp some air to breathe (it's a 2x 100W Class A monster)

[Neomys Sapiens]

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...

Well, you have some interesting choices there - Doble, Stanley, Harris, Pedersen, Homebuilt - not to mention their heavier road-going bethren. But I would not recommend a Cugnot.

I just hope that you won't develop antics similar to a certain Mr. Taft (former President of the US).

//Phhoooot!//

P.S.: Don't place too much trust in the ability of gas stations to provide your KESSELSPEISEWASSER!

[Neomys Sapiens]

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...?

The problem is that most of those devices stopped to work properly with the introduction of massive ground planes.