Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[factory]

Someone on here mentioned the old mains leads with PH163 connector used on 1960's HP TEA were unobtainium in Europe, well they were wrong, seems this seller has been collecting up all those missing leads,
https://www.ebay.de/itm/224043034507


Not cheap, but probably less than buying & shipping them from the US.

David

[bd139]

Could buy a Dremel and an IEC socket for that 

[capt bullshot]

And now for something completely different:

Have fun with TEA and some random components.

Use a beefy function generator (note the 4A fuse for its output)



Connect a powermeter to monitor its output:



A transformer salvaged from the CCFL backlight inverter of a borked monitor



Feed its output into a mysterious device, found (as usual) at the scrap containers




to create a nice arcing effect:

https://cb.wunderkis.de/wk-pub/flash.ogv

Some kind of a jacobs ladder in a small can.
Afaik, the mysterious device is a Xenon filled flash lamp for special lighting purposes, e.g. microscope photography.

[factory]

Could buy a Dremel and an IEC socket for that 

The other solution & the one I prefer is to keep buying more 1960's HP TEA and eventually you'll end up with plenty of PH163 leads.

Already have a Dremel, cost me nothing as it was bought with vouchers from the work "bribe you to go in while not well scheme".

And some old IEC inlets are crap, the plastic can break up, or those RS own brand ones with the tags riveted to the pins that become loose with age.

David

[mnementh]

Just scored a Pro-Peak SuperNova battery charger / discharger on ebay. Used but in the box for £6 
This is an older model and only does Nicad, Ni-MH and lead-acid batteries. It's big advantage for me is that it will charge up to 25 Nicad or Ni-MH cells at up to 5A when powered from 12V. this means I can charge 24V or 28V miltary type batteries in the car. You can also charge a lead acid fully from another lead acid. I had one for years but was persuaded to sell it to a friend and have missed it since.

Better hide that Tamiya connector before mnem starts roasting you!

It will have Anderson Power Poles on it before it gets any  serious use. Brumby Beanflyer is correct, it's a late 90's design.  (Edit, wrong name)

Those were the bomb back in the day of breaking down NiCd cells to lower the IR; I had 3 of 'em in my pit box with battery bays that were cooled by hi-velocity updraft muffin fans. They later released a version with CC/CV mode that quickly was adopted as the standard for LiPo charging; used an external balancer like the one I'm abusing here. 

Anderson/SERMOS connectors were popular back then; we didn't have a lot of choices other than the TAMIYA/MOLEX bi-pin. I used SERMOS too, but found they did not stay connected well; not nearly enough contact pressure for use in something that is moving under its own power and bumping/bouncing around. Also entirely too easy to break and subject to embrittlement if exposed to any of dozens of chemicals we used all the time. Then for a while the Deans' plugs were the hot ticket; I melted too many on my dragsters and went back to double-stacked SERMOS connectors. The 4/5/6mm HXT connectors were a godsend!

mnem
*juicy*

[Saskia]

don't get me any strange ideas.
Like
molten salt electrolysis of sodium fluoride in an Ozone atmosphere (I do have an ozone generator ...)

hey, I gotta post this to Pommijätkät channel. Will post a disclaimer.

[capt bullshot]

Someone said Thunderstruck?

Looks like I'm getting live thunderstruck.



No worries, these thunderstorms always pass by, never hit my village. Just some raindrops and I've heard some thunder growling.

[capt bullshot]

don't get me any strange ideas.
Like
molten salt electrolysis of sodium fluoride in an Ozone atmosphere (I do have an ozone generator ...)

hey, I gotta post this to Pommijätkät channel. Will post a disclaimer.

These are nice guys, aren't they. I like their Finnish countdown when they blow up something at Beyond the Press channel.

[bd139]

I still like Kreosan best

[Saskia]

The interesting question is: will this kind of electrolysis be sufficient to make foof ...
It should be ...

but I will chicken out on this one.

[mnementh]

Someone couldn't be bothered to properly unplug the BNCs 

   Otherwise, looks quite clean inside, no burn marks and no signs of a gorilla been inside...

Urrgghhh...

It looks like you got some nice Tek terminators as a byproduct of that careless dismantling; as you were able to get trace I assume straightening the wanged X-axis input wasn't too painful...?

mnem
 

[bd139]

Good spot. Didn't notice them when I saw it.

[capt bullshot]

Someone couldn't be bothered to properly unplug the BNCs 

   Otherwise, looks quite clean inside, no burn marks and no signs of a gorilla been inside...

Urrgghhh...

It looks like you got some nice Tek terminators as a byproduct of that careless dismantling; as you were able to get trace I assume straightening the wanged X-axis input wasn't too painful...?

mnem
 

Yes, two Tek 50 Ohm terminators were harvested, both alive and kicking. Interestingly connected to Z and Y input, so X input sensitivity was set to half of Y sensitivity at the front panel controls to compensate - WTF?
Straightening the BNC was done by gently pulling, didn't investigate further.

[mnementh]

Ahhh... oklay. I was guessing at which input was wanged; of course I guessed wrong.

mnem
*breakfast time*

[mnementh]

Shitt... I didn't mean to post that; I was just testing a problem with my keyboard which has been double-striking Ts...

mnem
*dipsttick-dwagon*

[Cerebus]

Re display filters
Lee and Rosco make filter "gels" for stage lighting etc. You can get a sample booklet like this:
https://sparkssupermarket.co.uk/products/lee-filters-swatchbook
to find the best one and then order a sheet (unless the display is small)

Another problem with blue is the human eye does not work well with it. Some wavelengths cause fluorescence in the eyy so you can't get good focus.

For technical purposes, go with Lee. They even have spectrograms of their filters on their website so it's easy to match the filter to the wavelength of your LEDS. www.leefilters.com

[med6753]

Re-cap continuing on the Type 321A. The opposite side and underneath is done. Now starting on this wall of shame. The problem is that the goopy plastic has almost completely obliterated the markings on the capacitors. So it's slow going measuring and verifying and doing one pull at a time. Good news is that once this is done it's pretty much ready for a trial power up. Bad news is that I forgot to order that .1uf/1000V black beauty. Hopefully it's not too leaky and will allow operation.

[Cerebus]

So this happened and I am already more than broke  Original listing was $200 and I sent in an offer at $140 and the seller responded with a counter of $175. eBay auction: #154358978444

Having a casual trawl for later I see the price is now revised to $150 and with a small evilbay discount it would be $144  All yours Aussie TEA 

In the end, it is a fundamental TEA truth that one ideally would need a counter to count one's counters.

Don’t get me started on owning counters. I own one counter at the moment. And it has an OCXO in it. And after owning one previously I know that the OCXO can drift out of serviceable range. Thus the question appears: how do I know it’s accurate? Then I’m starting to lurk on Leo Bodnar’s site again. Then I start wondering if it’s worth doing that sort of stuff. Then the digits taunt me. Perhaps 8 isn’t enough to justify buying a GPSDO. Now I’m looking for counters. Then I’m going to end up with another counter instead of a GPSDO and that won’t agree with the first one. And then I have three problems instead of zero problems 

If things end well next week, I'll have not one but two GPSDO. What if they don't align? 

Simple answer? Hydrogen maser.

[Cerebus]

So this happened and I am already more than broke  Original listing was $200 and I sent in an offer at $140 and the seller responded with a counter of $175. eBay auction: #154358978444

Having a casual trawl for later I see the price is now revised to $150 and with a small evilbay discount it would be $144  All yours Aussie TEA 

In the end, it is a fundamental TEA truth that one ideally would need a counter to count one's counters.

Don’t get me started on owning counters. I own one counter at the moment. And it has an OCXO in it. And after owning one previously I know that the OCXO can drift out of serviceable range. Thus the question appears: how do I know it’s accurate? Then I’m starting to lurk on Leo Bodnar’s site again. Then I start wondering if it’s worth doing that sort of stuff. Then the digits taunt me. Perhaps 8 isn’t enough to justify buying a GPSDO. Now I’m looking for counters. Then I’m going to end up with another counter instead of a GPSDO and that won’t agree with the first one. And then I have three problems instead of zero problems 

If things end well next week, I'll have not one but two GPSDO. What if they don't align? 

Then obviously you'll need a third for a majority vote!

-Pat

You'll need a fetching hat to go with that!

[tautech]

Wee interlude yesterday when Larry Minor needed pops help with a reasonable size old pine on a road boundary so dusted off #2 Husky and fitted the 24" bar to do the business. Still it needed a wire rope on it and drew the short straw for that 8m up in the digger bucket to fasten it.
~800mm at the butt and came down under full control of the 14t digger....totally uneventful. 

Don't ya love it when a plan comes together. 

[Cubdriver]

Re-cap continuing on the Type 321A. The opposite side and underneath is done. Now starting on this wall of shame. The problem is that the goopy plastic has almost completely obliterated the markings on the capacitors. So it's slow going measuring and verifying and doing one pull at a time. Good news is that once this is done it's pretty much ready for a trial power up. Bad news is that I forgot to order that .1uf/1000V black beauty. Hopefully it's not too leaky and will allow operation.

Mike - the red lettered 160P series cap is a Sprague "difilm" capacitor - apparently a combination of polyester film and tissue.  From what I know, they are considerably less likely to be leaky than the yellow lettered ones (which I believe are straight paper) are.  You might be ok.

-Pat

[bd139]

Yeah it's the yellow ones you need to watch out for. They go short and take stuff with them.

I'd be tempted to replace it anyway because the "what if" would annoy me at night 

[med6753]

Pat, thanks...good to know.  But yea, gonna replace it anyway as insurance.

[mnementh]

Re-cap continuing on the Type 321A. The opposite side and underneath is done. Now starting on this wall of shame. The problem is that the goopy plastic has almost completely obliterated the markings on the capacitors. So it's slow going measuring and verifying and doing one pull at a time...

Sometimes wiping hazy plastic with a paper towel dampened with vegetable oil improves clarity enough to read what's under it. I'd try that in this case too. Of course, you could also cut the plastic off with a X-Acto knife.

mnem
 

[mansaxel]

If things end well next week, I'll have not one but two GPSDO. What if they don't align? 

Roll your own, but use diverse technology:

http://wunderkis.de/dcf-rcvr/

That is certainly tempting, however we're on the brink of useful DCF reception here; I've got one clock that runs faultlessly, and one that just refuses to lock on. However, it's less than 1200 km to Mainflingen, "Krähenfliegestrecke", so, well, maybe..