Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Kosmic]

Marconi 2023a. As if I need more projects...or yet another generator. 

Time to start replacing old caps.

I have a 2025 that was built in 2006. All caps were fine. Check them before changing everything.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/aeroflex-ifr2025-without-acdc-power-supply/msg2894284/#msg2894284

I will. Haven't even cracked it open for a first visual inspection. Output frequency is very unstable, sometimes above, and other times below the set frequency and always fluctuating. I might open it up this weekend, but currently have a radio repair ongoing on the main bench.

Check the output of the OCXO.

[EE4all]

I only plugged it in last night, and haven't done anything with it other than enabling the external reference and plugging in 10mhz. It didn't change anything. I will report back what I find once I get it open.

[Kosmic]

I only plugged it in last night, and haven't done anything with it other than enabling the external reference and plugging in 10mhz. It didn't change anything. I will report back what I find once I get it open.

ok, make sure your external reference is stable then 

I thought it had a OCXO inside.

[EE4all]

I only plugged it in last night, and haven't done anything with it other than enabling the external reference and plugging in 10mhz. It didn't change anything. I will report back what I find once I get it open.

ok, make sure your external reference is stable then 

I thought it had a OCXO inside.

It is! It also has an internal reference. The only other test I might do before opening it is to enable the internal reference output to the rear and see what that is doing as another bit of information.

[mnementh]

I don't think they would class buying stuff on ePay as family or business dealings, or essential either.

Depends on how you spin it. Don't forget the second form of lying: tell the truth but not all of it.

Have an "invoice", tell them you will ring and step back, have stuff deposited on doorstep, then go and pick it up.

Yeah, I'm sorry... that's bunk. There's a lot of people whose entire livelihood is made on fleaBay, Craigslist, Kijiji, etc. More and more every day, with the pandemic. To think that some beat cop should be allowed to decide whether that commerce is essential, especially based on nothing more than geofencing data from a computer, is frankly ludicrous. 

Yeah, I get that you should be prepared to get pulled over... but not that you should have anything to fear as long as you are on legitimate business. The concept of Civis Romanus was a double-edged sword; those charged with policing the populace were held to a higher standard. Well, were supposed to be... now we don't even bother to pay lip service to that concept anymore. 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Yes, I should be on Discord Saturday. When I reminded her that Sunday was Valentine's Day I got a completely unexpected response. She said "That's OK, everyday is Valentine's Day when I'm with you".    Ever see a smurf blush? 

So is poor Larry is in for a molesting instead ? 


Won't make Discord (Sunday 9am in NZ) as it's a last minute mad panic to get ready for 3 days at EMEX showing off our wares to the unsuspecting public. 
A sea of Siglents maybe a dozen I haven't quite decided however it will all come together on setup Sunday.

Will drop a pic of it all here when I get a chance.


Gunna do like menm....off to ded. 

One arb to rule them all...?

mnem
 

[mnementh]

"Some Cosmetic wear"      https://www.ebay.com/itm/FLUKE-8840A-DIGITAL-MULTIMETER/363011933893

   At least the calibration sticker is intact

If the seller used eGS I'd totes buy it; at that price a good gamble. Shipping would be half the $88 I'm seeing AND would include correctly calculated duty. As he does "what-da-fuck-evah" shipping up here, he can suck it.

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

I don't think they would class buying stuff on ePay as family or business dealings, or essential either.

Depends on how you spin it. Don't forget the second form of lying: tell the truth but not all of it.

Have an "invoice", tell them you will ring and step back, have stuff deposited on doorstep, then go and pick it up.

Yeah, I'm sorry... that's bunk. There's a lot of people whose entire livelihood is made on fleaBay, Craigslist, Kijiji, etc. More and more every day, with the pandemic. To think that some beat cop should be allowed to decide whether that commerce is essential, especially based on nothing more than geofencing data from a computer, is frankly ludicrous.

Yeah, I get that you should be prepared to get pulled over... but not that you should have anything to fear as long as you are on legitimate business. The concept of Civis Romanus was a double-edged sword; those charged with policing the populace were held to a higher standard. Well, were supposed to be... now we don't even bother to pay lip service to that concept anymore. 

mnem
 

We had a publicised case here in Essex a couple of weeks ago where someone from Chelmsford was stopped for some reason in Southend-on-Sea (21 miles away) and were turned back when they discovered that they were going to collect something brought on Gumtree and they were told that was not an essential journey and I think that they had to get a courier to collect it for them. Not sure if they got fined or not, but I think the logic was that the couriers were deemed as an essential service, same as Royal Mail (postal service) but collecting it yourself was not and therefore increased the chances of spreading the virus because there was more people out and about then would be the case if people obeyed the rules.

[tggzzz]

I don't think they would class buying stuff on ePay as family or business dealings, or essential either.

Depends on how you spin it. Don't forget the second form of lying: tell the truth but not all of it.

Have an "invoice", tell them you will ring and step back, have stuff deposited on doorstep, then go and pick it up.

Yeah, I'm sorry... that's bunk. There's a lot of people whose entire livelihood is made on fleaBay, Craigslist, Kijiji, etc. More and more every day, with the pandemic. To think that some beat cop should be allowed to decide whether that commerce is essential, especially based on nothing more than geofencing data from a computer, is frankly ludicrous.

Yeah, I get that you should be prepared to get pulled over... but not that you should have anything to fear as long as you are on legitimate business. The concept of Civis Romanus was a double-edged sword; those charged with policing the populace were held to a higher standard. Well, were supposed to be... now we don't even bother to pay lip service to that concept anymore. 

mnem
 

We had a publicised case here in Essex a couple of weeks ago where someone from Chelmsford was stopped for some reason in Southend-on-Sea (21 miles away) and were turned back when they discovered that they were going to collect something brought on Gumtree and they were told that was not an essential journey and I think that they had to get a courier to collect it for them. Not sure if they got fined or not, but I think the logic was that the couriers were deemed as an essential service, same as Royal Mail (postal service) but collecting it yourself was not and therefore increased the chances of spreading the virus because there was more people out and about then would be the case if people obeyed the rules.

That doesn't surprise me. The police regularly exceed their authority, e.g. notoriously stopping people taking photographs in public places.

Personally I wouldn't have ebay or gumtree on such an invoice, but a "company" name.

[mnementh]

Again... ludicrous. Too many transactions that simply aren't possible to courier, or the seller can't offer that service. To the seller, that trip may very well mean the only income they've had in weeks, and cannot pay for shipping... it certainly is essential to them. As long as a traveler has a invoice, then the travel is legitimate.

mnem
*smh*

[tautech]

Yes, I should be on Discord Saturday. When I reminded her that Sunday was Valentine's Day I got a completely unexpected response. She said "That's OK, everyday is Valentine's Day when I'm with you".    Ever see a smurf blush? 

So is poor Larry is in for a molesting instead ? 


Won't make Discord (Sunday 9am in NZ) as it's a last minute mad panic to get ready for 3 days at EMEX showing off our wares to the unsuspecting public. 
A sea of Siglents maybe a dozen I haven't quite decided however it will all come together on setup Sunday.

Will drop a pic of it all here when I get a chance.


Gunna do like menm....off to ded. 

One arb to rule them all...?

mnem
 

3 signal sources.....~30 different channels available up to 3.2 GHz. 

[Specmaster]

Ever wondered just why stuff gets broken in transit by these couriers, I can now reveal its because of the way that they are trained to drive their vans as this footage shows 

[Robert763]

Again... ludicrous. Too many transactions that simply aren't possible to courier, or the seller can't offer that service. To the seller, that trip may very well mean the only income they've had in weeks, and cannot pay for shipping... it certainly is essential to them. As long as a traveler has a invoice, then the travel is legitimate.

mnem
*smh*

No, "essential" items and stores are defined for full lockdown in the UK e.g. food is "electronics" are not. Unless it is business it would be illegal to travel to pick up test equipment for example. And rightly so. Even for a business you could be asked to justify a trip. I had to travel (in UK) for work during the last lock down. It had to be authorised at executive level and the company has a letter from the government stating our business is essential. The whole point of lockdown is to stop the spread of Covid 19 and save lives. No amount of TE is worth a single life. Travelling to pick up TE is adding to the risk you don't know for sure that you or the seller is clear. You have to get fuel, possibly stop for food. A breakdown or accident is possible. The attitudes "it's just one trip" or "it's my right" are selfish and dangerous. 

[tautech]

LOL
3rd day of NZ lockdown Mar 2020 ....quick run to the shipping company to collect a newly arrived order of TE as they were still open as an essential business ....loaded up and home again in record time as traffic was nonexistent. 

We needed it too as we ended up selling heaps over the lockdown while everyone was at home playing with their hobbies. 

[Wolfgang]

Oh he’s completely nuts. Look for the Furby organ 

No way... that was this guy too...? Fukkin' awesome!!!

mnem

All of those make my blasted steaks look perfectly reasonable. 

[Specmaster]

Question for you guys, as you may know my AD584-M rolled over died last week and seeing as it was one without the calibration sticker on it stating the tested voltage on each of its 4 channels. I decided to see if I could purchase one that did, then as Med says, it allows me to see if the unit drifts over time etc. Well it turns out that is hard to do as people who are advertising that they have calibrated units, as it turns out, don't have them.

Anyway, that lead me down the path of repairing the old one so at least for the time being I have a rough and ready means of providing a sanity check. In the absence of any available schematics I did some rudimentary testing on it and discovered a load of parts that showed up as having failed, meaning that their values had shifted by a huge margin when tested in the circuit.

I got out my microscope removed a 16V 4.7uF tantalum capacitor (1206 size) that showed up as a short in the circuit and indeed it still did after removal and the other components then tested OK. So I soldered a 4.7uF electrolytic in it's place as a temp measure and it sprung back to life again. I checked supply rails and discovered that the tant has been sitting there with its ends straddling 13.8V, just 2.2 away from its maximum value. This seems to me to be a bit tight for headroom, any thoughts on this at all?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

[mansaxel]

Question for you guys, as you may know my AD584-M rolled over died last week and seeing as it was one without the calibration sticker on it stating the tested voltage on each of its 4 channels. I decided to see if I could purchase one that did, then as Med says, it allows me to see if the unit drifts over time etc. Well it turns out that is hard to do as people who are advertising that they have calibrated units, as it turns out, don't have them.

Anyway, that lead me down the path of repairing the old one so at least for the time being I have a rough and ready means of providing a sanity check. In the absence of any available schematics I did some rudimentary testing on it and discovered a load of parts that showed up as having failed, meaning that their values had shifted by a huge margin when tested in the circuit.

I got out my microscope removed a 16V 4.7uF tantalum capacitor (1206 size) that showed up as a short in the circuit and indeed it still did after removal and the other components then tested OK. So I soldered a 4.7uF electrolytic in it's place as a temp measure and it sprung back to life again. I checked supply rails and discovered that the tant has been sitting there with its ends straddling 13.8V, just 2.2 away from its maximum value. This seems to me to be a bit tight for headroom, any thoughts on this at all?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Modern electrolytics are cheap as chips, take no space like they used to, and quite dependable if you shop carefully and rate them conservatively. So why bother with a Tantalum? I say you'd do good to look at permanenting the bodge a bit nicer and be done with it.

[tggzzz]

I checked supply rails and discovered that the tant has been sitting there with its ends straddling 13.8V, just 2.2 away from its maximum value. This seems to me to be a bit tight for headroom, any thoughts on this at all?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

See C911 in Tek 485s. Or rather, see the remains of them or R911

[bd139]

Again... ludicrous. Too many transactions that simply aren't possible to courier, or the seller can't offer that service. To the seller, that trip may very well mean the only income they've had in weeks, and cannot pay for shipping... it certainly is essential to them. As long as a traveler has a invoice, then the travel is legitimate.

mnem
*smh*

No, "essential" items and stores are defined for full lockdown in the UK e.g. food is "electronics" are not. Unless it is business it would be illegal to travel to pick up test equipment for example. And rightly so. Even for a business you could be asked to justify a trip. I had to travel (in UK) for work during the last lock down. It had to be authorised at executive level and the company has a letter from the government stating our business is essential. The whole point of lockdown is to stop the spread of Covid 19 and save lives. No amount of TE is worth a single life. Travelling to pick up TE is adding to the risk you don't know for sure that you or the seller is clear. You have to get fuel, possibly stop for food. A breakdown or accident is possible. The attitudes "it's just one trip" or "it's my right" are selfish and dangerous. 

I’m going to be a controversial wanker here but at this point the general cost and body count is going to be higher from the impact of lockdown on society over the next decade. As much as I subscribe to social responsibility, the majority of the health outcomes for victims, including the two in my family, were inevitable over three decades ago when choices were made on both personal health and more recently, political alignment.

The reality I see is people waiting for schools to lend them laptops so their kids can actually still do school while they queue at food banks because rather than furlough they were laid off. This is at the same time while fighting off rogue landlords and even the local councils and housing associations. I care more about those folk. And there’s an order of magnitude more already than the body count will be. It affects them, their kids, our communities and businesses.

This is fucked. Completely.

Getting to my point, which is mnem’s point I suspect, if it’s your primary income source it’s so it or go hungry. It’s easy to sit in a comfortable ivory tower issuing moral judgment than it is being on the receiving end.

So yeah TE isn’t essential unless it’s putting food on the table. But I’m not going to sit here and whine at someone who picked something up on gumtree at the same time.

I’m not even getting into the actual legislation and the nature of enforcement either. I could write a few pages on that one due to the ambiguity and inconsistencies in it.

[tautech]

It’s easy to sit in a comfortable ivory tower issuing moral judgment than it is being on the receiving end.

You ain't kidding !

Shiny arse freshmen and career bureaucrats with little real world experience are a scourge on society as they consistently lack the big picture vision. 
That they can shine an office chair to an unparalleled polish is without question but most possess little other skill. 

[factory]

Question for you guys, as you may know my AD584-M rolled over died last week and seeing as it was one without the calibration sticker on it stating the tested voltage on each of its 4 channels. I decided to see if I could purchase one that did, then as Med says, it allows me to see if the unit drifts over time etc. Well it turns out that is hard to do as people who are advertising that they have calibrated units, as it turns out, don't have them.

Anyway, that lead me down the path of repairing the old one so at least for the time being I have a rough and ready means of providing a sanity check. In the absence of any available schematics I did some rudimentary testing on it and discovered a load of parts that showed up as having failed, meaning that their values had shifted by a huge margin when tested in the circuit.

I got out my microscope removed a 16V 4.7uF tantalum capacitor (1206 size) that showed up as a short in the circuit and indeed it still did after removal and the other components then tested OK. So I soldered a 4.7uF electrolytic in it's place as a temp measure and it sprung back to life again. I checked supply rails and discovered that the tant has been sitting there with its ends straddling 13.8V, just 2.2 away from its maximum value. This seems to me to be a bit tight for headroom, any thoughts on this at all?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

There is a reverse engineered schematic of one of the AD584 units and a couple of simpler ones here, is it anything like your unit?
https://www.markhennessy.co.uk/ad584_references/

David

[Saskia]

you seem to be describing our secretary of health. Him being a bankster trainee who just bought some villa for 4 mill euros (how can you afford that kind of stuff even from a health secretary's salary

Makes you wonder where he left his pockets to be stuffed.

We have career bureaucrats with their very own agenda who have proven that they think of their bottom line first, and that needs to stop.

I am very much in favor of a society formed after what Heinlein described in his Starship Troopers (the novel, not the bloody movie).
To get into office you must put your ass on the line and risk paying with your life to serve the people. Only then do you get your right to vote and to get voted into office. Sounds fine to me.

[bd139]

you seem to be describing our secretary of health. Him being a bankster trainee who just bought some villa for 4 mill euros (how can you afford that kind of stuff even from a health secretary's salary

Makes you wonder where he left his pockets to be stuffed.

We have career bureaucrats with their very own agenda who have proven that they think of their bottom line first, and that needs to stop.

I am very much in favor of a society formed after what Heinlein described in his Starship Troopers (the novel, not the bloody movie).
To get into office you must put your ass on the line and risk paying with your life to serve the people. Only then do you get your right to vote and to get voted into office. Sounds fine to me.

I agree up until the Starship Troopers bit. That was a pretty terrible military dystopia. I’m not sure it’s worse than our current shit show but it’s not where I want society to be. Other than the assholes being eaten by bugs bit 

[Robert763]

@BD139
The thing is we were not talking about someones work, we were taking about driving 100+ miles to pick up some junk obsolete test equipment with no practical modern application.  No one has suggested it is wrong or illegal to travel as part of your work.
As part of a hobby it is wrong.

[mnementh]

Again... ludicrous. Too many transactions that simply aren't possible to courier, or the seller can't offer that service. To the seller, that trip may very well mean the only income they've had in weeks, and cannot pay for shipping... it certainly is essential to them. As long as a traveler has a invoice, then the travel is legitimate.

mnem
*smh*

No, "essential" items and stores are defined for full lockdown in the UK e.g. food is "electronics" are not. Unless it is business it would be illegal to travel to pick up test equipment for example. And rightly so. Even for a business you could be asked to justify a trip. I had to travel (in UK) for work during the last lock down. It had to be authorised at executive level and the company has a letter from the government stating our business is essential. The whole point of lockdown is to stop the spread of Covid 19 and save lives. No amount of TE is worth a single life. Travelling to pick up TE is adding to the risk you don't know for sure that you or the seller is clear. You have to get fuel, possibly stop for food. A breakdown or accident is possible. The attitudes "it's just one trip" or "it's my right" are selfish and dangerous. 

*puts on Devil's advocate hat*

It is nothing to do with that. It is simple livelihood in many cases. To have an arbitrary restriction on CL, etc means that those hardest hit... poor people who would be selling goods on Craigslist, etc because they cannot work from home... have another form of income taken away from them. So now how do we explain away the desperation that comes from them having no way to make a living because we make these arbitrary rules?

Just because you and I have been fortunate enough to be able to make a living without contacting others doesn't mean others are so fortunate. And while we in here generally talk aboot our hobby as if it were just that, many folks reading this thread are actually looking for the tools of their trade (or looking to get into such a trade) and actually need things bought from these sources to do that.

It simply is not that BLACK & WHITE . I think we in here are all capable of making reasonable arrangements for curbside pickup... and I think it is reasonable to expect to be able to travel for commerce provided you make such arrangements.

Things are of course in a constant state of flux as well... we have not had a situation like this since the advent of the information age. The instantaneous flow of information makes a lot of travel unnecessary... but we also have a whole different relationship with our "leadership" as a result. I'm constantly wondering how much of the lockdown status is entirely due to political pressures vs actual safety.

Up here, for example, Stage 3 lockdown is being lifted for the greater Toronto area starting last week through next week for kids to go back to school... no idea what the status is over there. 

mnem