Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Just watched them actually land SpaceX starship SN9. Amazing job 

 

Live stream above. Just skip back until pre-launch

[Brumby]

Bugger.

It lasted a few minutes upright* then we had an uncontrolled combustion event.

*Well, at a bit of an angle.  Apparently the landing legs did not deploy - so it sat on its arse for that time.

[med6753]

I got a response from Mouser. Seems they are continuing to have issues.


Your order has been delayed. These delays are due to extended warehouse processing times, caused by peak volume, and COVID prevention procedures.
Order Status

Sales Order No: 253803885
Purchase Order No: 21146138
Order Date: February 28, 2021

Current Status: 
Order Processing

Expected to Ship By:
March 05, 2021

As soon as your order is shipped, you will receive a Shipment Notification email.
We are working as quickly as possible to ship your order, we expect your order to be shipped by March 05, 2021. 
 
mouser.com
 
Facebook  Twitter  LinkedIn  Youtube  Instagram  RSS  Mouser Blog
Feedback | Help | Privacy Policy

To ensure delivery to your inbox,
please add mouser@info.mouser.com to your address book.
© 2021 Mouser and Mouser Electronics. All rights reserved.
Mouser Electronics Inc. - 1000 N. Main St., Mansfield, TX 76063
   
   
   

[Brumby]

At least they're communicating.

[mnementh]

Bugger.

It lasted a few minutes upright* then we had an uncontrolled combustion event.

*Well, at a bit of an angle.  Apparently the landing legs did not deploy - so it sat on its arse for that time.

Can you say "Boom!" boys and girls?

I have to be honest here... whenever I see one of these flying septic tanks, I think back to the o-o-o-old Flash Gordon flicks, and the ships that were obviously made of toilet paper rolls covered with aluminum foil. If there ever was any real-world evidence for the "Moon Landing Hoaxers", it would have to be all this. 

mnem
*currently building a gaming PC with my son*

[bitseeker]

Actually found 10 minutes  to power up the new beasty. Doesn't seem to like the 16pF 6200 Tek probes from my 453 to much or there is an issue with the test oscillator (8-12pF is the range suggested) It came with a pair of evilbay trash 6100 clones

Fed some assorted signals from the Siglent on the main bench. Output 2 to Aux 2 was max stretch for the longest test cable I own. More Jenga or a new longer lead needed

Dropped a few test points from my Valhalla Calibrator via the 6200 probe and all looked as expected albeit it off in amplitude due to the probes. So looks like I am waiting for my 6139A probe for proper playing and some bench space to lift the lid and look for suspect Caps.

Looks like that scope is set to output in a serif font...

OK, now that's a good one. A serifscope. I prefer mine sans-serif, thank you very much.

[bitseeker]

For these sorts of smaller jellybean counters it is worth trawling ebay.com for a cheap freight one. A few of mine were only $30-40 AUD for post. I landed the HP 5302A for under $100

If you're not blinded by the hp logo these are decent counters and they don't come in fugly cases. 

Oh, but they do come in fugly cases. It just depends which model(s) you choose and what you consider fugly.

[bitseeker]

It's done. The Type 422 has a fresh coat of paint with a 1000% improvement in appearance. It's still much too cold to paint in the garage so I had to resort to other means. Don't ask because it involves denial, potential liability, and certainly wrath of the landlord. But there's no collateral damage nor over spray so we got away with it. 

For now this guy is done as I want to concentrate on the Type 321A. The replacement capacitors should have shipped yesterday but so far have not heard anything from Mouser.

Right on, med. That's a beauty!

The only "repair" I got in recently was cleaning out the switches in my Logitech Trackman. The contact bounce in the buttons went beyond occasionally rambunctious to Trackmaniac level.

[bitseeker]

soon ...



(not this one.  )

I hope, mine is coming as the 230V~ version (if there is one).
If not, some toroidal transformers are very good friends of mine... 

Not this one? But, it's so clean! I look forward to seeing your conversion.

[bitseeker]

After all the years and years of working and doing for everyone else now that I'm retired this is my time. 

Marc Almond - The days of Pearly Spencer

Modified by BU508A to

The days of Papa "Tek" Smurf

A tenement, a dirty scope
Abused and broke, but he has hope
Inside it's clean and so complete
Just need a loving hand

His eyes are having this special gaze
Watching as the patterns race
On the screen and grid with that green trace
And the CRT's brightness shuns

Chorus:
The days of Papa "Tek" Smurf
     Ahh Ahh Ahh
The repair has just begun

Comparing scope with schematic maps
Looking at the swollen caps
Removing too their tantalum chaps
He desolder on and on

Order replacements for the repair
But only at Mouser because they are fair
Delivered by UPS because they care
About parcels on the run

Chorus:
The days of Papa "Tek" Smurf
     Ahh Ahh Ahh
The repair has just begun

Papa throws the caps in the bin
wait for the new ones while rub his chin
But on-time delivery makes him grin
Soon the repair will be done

Waves of square that can't be beat
The issue's gone bowed in defeat
Adjustment's done the spec's were meet
The gorilla's fails undone

Chorus:
The days of Papa "Tek" Smurf
     Ahh Ahh Ahh
The repair is on the run
The days of Papa "Tek" Smurf
     Ahh Ahh Ahh
The repair is on the run
The repair is on the run

A tenement, a now clean scope
Reparied, burned in, a connected probe
Adjusted, but it was hard to cope
All exertions now are gone

It's placed now next to the chairs
Will be used in service for many years
The issues now are memories
Written down in a thread well known

Chorus:
The days of Papa "Tek" Smurf
     Ahh Ahh Ahh
The repair is finally done ...

Added to the TEA Song section of the OP.

[bitseeker]

Talking of this, annoyingly I missed a Keithley 2001 the other day for £250. Still in calibration as well apparently  . LM399 but good enough 

 

[bitseeker]

So, which is more irritating, and why?

The AVO for sure, by a mile.

The phone desklamp actually has some kitsch charm; and being as there's almost no place left in the world where it could serve its intended purpose, it really is a useless bit of flotsam. Not rare enough to be a museum piece, so all it has going for it is the nostalgia factor.

Tha AVO still has value for its intended purpose, provided it hasn't been totally scorched to death... and the "artisan" didn't even get the mod right: you're supposed to turn the effing thing upside-down so you can see the "AVO smile".   

That thing is just 6 kinds of wrong... plus now I have these visions of both of them winding up in some museum 1000 years from now like in Futurama or Mortal Engines and being somehow representative of our generation.

Not only that. The AVO has an incomplete binding post and the least they could've done was wire up the meter so you could enjoy seeing what the line voltage is when the lamp is on.

The photo of the phone is also more artistic. The poor AVO meter only got to appear in a boring snapshot with unflattering on-camera flash.

I guess it's good the AVO wasn't forced to smile.

[bd139]

Bugger.

It lasted a few minutes upright* then we had an uncontrolled combustion event.

*Well, at a bit of an angle.  Apparently the landing legs did not deploy - so it sat on its arse for that time.

Dang missed that. Had gone to bed by then 

[bd139]

So, which is more irritating, and why?

The AVO for sure, by a mile.

The phone desklamp actually has some kitsch charm; and being as there's almost no place left in the world where it could serve its intended purpose, it really is a useless bit of flotsam. Not rare enough to be a museum piece, so all it has going for it is the nostalgia factor.

Tha AVO still has value for its intended purpose, provided it hasn't been totally scorched to death... and the "artisan" didn't even get the mod right: you're supposed to turn the effing thing upside-down so you can see the "AVO smile".   

That thing is just 6 kinds of wrong... plus now I have these visions of both of them winding up in some museum 1000 years from now like in Futurama or Mortal Engines and being somehow representative of our generation.

Not only that. The AVO has an incomplete binding post and the least they could've done was wire up the meter so you could enjoy seeing what the line voltage is when the lamp is on.

The photo of the phone is also more artistic. The poor AVO meter only got to appear in a boring snapshot with unflattering on-camera flash.

I guess it's good the AVO wasn't forced to smile.

Best thing for an Avo that.

I saw a worse one the other day but I can’t find the link now.

[mansaxel]

Best thing for an Avo that.

Together with the 8060A I got an AVO Multiminor and a Hung Chang toy. The Hung Chang is never coming close to being used; it's down right dangerous.  The Multiminor looks superficially OK, but is as of yet untested; my plan is to assess it this weekend. In the repair queue I've also got a Model 7 Avometer that looks OK from the outside but is somehow broken; no reaction on any range is detected.

None of these will be turned into a lamp.

As far as the telephone; I've got an Asterisk PABX at home where one of my Grandstream ATAs has support for pulse dialling, including the Swedish system where -- properly -- 0 is less than 1. So, a rotary phone is not useless here; I've got one by the bench and one in the garage proper. The garage one is a BC560, which is a name collision with the transistor. The phone was first.

[psykok]

Something is up with Mouser again. I place the order for the Type 321A capacitors on Sunday. With the exception of the weather issues 2 weeks ago the order would ALWAYS ship on Monday. Well as of today I have not gotten any word that order has shipped. So I sent them as "what's up?".  As soon as I get a response back I'll pass it on.

Same here. Ordered some stuff (nothing fancy) on Feb. 28th, payment done via PayPal (got the confirmation) and since then: processing. 



On other notes:
I've finished the lyrics of "The days of Papa "Tek" Smurf", they can be found here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3491328/#msg3491328

same for me, I got a mail this morning telling me that my order is still processing and will be delivered  next week

[BU508A]

I got a response from Mouser. Seems they are continuing to have issues.


Your order has been delayed. These delays are due to extended warehouse processing times, caused by peak volume, and COVID prevention procedures.
Order Status

Sales Order No: 253803885
Purchase Order No: 21146138
Order Date: February 28, 2021

Current Status: 
Order Processing

Expected to Ship By:
March 05, 2021

As soon as your order is shipped, you will receive a Shipment Notification email.
We are working as quickly as possible to ship your order, we expect your order to be shipped by March 05, 2021. 
 
mouser.com
 
Facebook  Twitter  LinkedIn  Youtube  Instagram  RSS  Mouser Blog
Feedback | Help | Privacy Policy

To ensure delivery to your inbox,
please add mouser@info.mouser.com to your address book.
© 2021 Mouser and Mouser Electronics. All rights reserved.
Mouser Electronics Inc. - 1000 N. Main St., Mansfield, TX 76063

Got the same message from mouser here as well.
Let's wait and see what happens next.

[bd139]

Best thing for an Avo that.

Together with the 8060A I got an AVO Multiminor and a Hung Chang toy. The Hung Chang is never coming close to being used; it's down right dangerous.  The Multiminor looks superficially OK, but is as of yet untested; my plan is to assess it this weekend. In the repair queue I've also got a Model 7 Avometer that looks OK from the outside but is somehow broken; no reaction on any range is detected.

None of these will be turned into a lamp.

As far as the telephone; I've got an Asterisk PABX at home where one of my Grandstream ATAs has support for pulse dialling, including the Swedish system where -- properly -- 0 is less than 1. So, a rotary phone is not useless here; I've got one by the bench and one in the garage proper. The garage one is a BC560, which is a name collision with the transistor. The phone was first.

That's always the problem with Avos. They always seem to be broken. You can tell by the high price a working one commands 

Surprisingly pulse dialling still works here on FTTC terminated at the OR box.

[BU508A]

There are two Avo meters here in the german part of the bay.
This one is looking interesting:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/193923389573

It comes with it's original bag and the battery compartment is looking nice and clean.



What do you think?

[beanflying]

Take the meter out of it slap in some Salvaged HP Nixies and add some stick on gears to the case- perfect 

[bd139]

Hahahaha 

There are two Avo meters here in the german part of the bay.
This one is looking interesting:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/193923389573

It comes with it's original bag and the battery compartment is looking nice and clean.



What do you think?

As always with such things it depends if the seller is an idiot and if carrier they are using decides to play football with the box. They aren't particularly robust.

[Zucca]

One day I will buy a broken and smelly one and create my first BS meter, I need it in my daily job.

[Brumby]

Bugger.

It lasted a few minutes upright* then we had an uncontrolled combustion event.

*Well, at a bit of an angle.  Apparently the landing legs did not deploy - so it sat on its arse for that time.

Dang missed that. Had gone to bed by then 

Our nightly news ran a story and film clip that stopped short of that little hiccup as well.  Made the whole exercise look like an unmitigated success... which is was pretty close to the truth - but, still.

[BU508A]

One day I will buy a broken and smelly one and than create my first BS meter, I need it in my daily job.

You need a bullshit meter? Well, then I'm having a suggestion for you:



Explanation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-meter

[Brumby]

Most of us here don't need an explanation.  We've seen it (and a couple of other models) before.



I agree with the Bullshit Meter part, though - 1000%