Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[SilverSolder]

[...]
You USE your collection...
[...]

In the car world, there is the concept of a "Trailer Queen"...   a vehicle kept and polished just for show, never to be driven! 

[mnementh]

New videos from The Signal Path and Marco Reps:

TSP:
https://youtu.be/HODgQpTbgt4

Marco Reps:
https://youtu.be/PCB8nv4fatc

"I hope the global chip shortage won't last too much longer but while it does, there's another job for the miniWare hotplate; my bigger one is temporarily unavailable (cuts to scene of it being used as a footwarmer)... ahhh, so good..."

*snerk*

mnem
*toddles off to sleeve some cables*

[mnementh]

[...]
You USE your collection...
[...]

In the car world, there is the concept of a "Trailer Queen"...   a vehicle kept and polished just for show, never to be driven! 

Yeah... never was a fan of that kind of motorhead, either. I think med assumed I was calling him out for that, when I had absolutely no such intention.

I mean yeah, I'm not gonna put a '68 Fleetwood in a demo derby as I've seen done recently on one of those car shows... but I WILL drive it, and even sometimes I'll drive it like I stole it. And if it dies, it died doing what it was supposed to be doing. 

Same thing here, IMO... 

If a Tek scope dies being used as test equipment... nobody here would think twice; that's just the luck of the draw, shit happens. Let's help the guy try and fix it! If someone modded one for a specific test purpose, we'd also not have a problem with it; in fact, many of us would laud the ingenuity involved. 

But let somebody solder a few fly wires on one to use it for something a little different... for making *gasp* music... and it's time to march with the torches & pitchforks. 

mnem
 

[SilverSolder]

[...]
You USE your collection...
[...]

In the car world, there is the concept of a "Trailer Queen"...   a vehicle kept and polished just for show, never to be driven! 

Yeah... never was a fan of that kind of motorhead, either. I think med assumed I was calling him out for that, when I had absolutely no such intention.

I mean yeah, I'm not gonna put a '68 Fleetwood in a demo derby as I've seen done recently on one of those car shows... but I WILL drive it, and even sometimes I'll drive it like I stole it. And if it dies, it died doing what it was supposed to be doing. 

Same thing here, IMO... 

If a Tek scope dies being used as test equipment... nobody here would think twice; that's just the luck of the draw, shit happens. Let's help the guy try and fix it! If someone modded one for a specific test purpose, we'd also not have a problem with it; in fact, many of us would laud the ingenuity involved. 

But let somebody solder a few fly wires on one to use it for something a little different... for making *gasp* music... and it's time to march with the torches & pitchforks. 

mnem
 

I have to plead guilty to not driving 'hobby' cars during the winter...  too much work getting rid of the salt etc. in the spring!   But they get driven the rest of the time, and they don't get babied! 

[Wolfgang]

That's the exact opposite of the intent here. The entire purpose is to deliberately misuse a complex system, so you can see what music can be extracted from the interplay of chaos & order inherent in that system. The guy has a proper synth. Oodles of them in fact.

What is going on here is simple exploration of the unknown; if he finds something awesome he'll sample it. That sample is the holy grail here; everything else is a means to that end.

While it may not be our idea of "the right way to use it", these instruments are actually being used for something of value. That's a lot better than a lot of collectors can say.

mnem
 

Fully agree. This guy is having fun by actively fiddling with old tech stuff. Why not ? Whats wrong with that ? Must an old rusty Tek be always treated with solemn admiration ? 

Accckkk! He said the F-word! Pass out the torches and pitchforks!!!

Get down on your knees and beg forgiveness from the lord our god Tektronix, BLASPHEMER!!!

mnem
 

I dont even think of it. The pursuit of happiness (fun ?!) is guaranteed by the constitution. 
My website is called electronic projects for fun, exactly for that reason.

If we all are not here for fun how would we ever learn something. Even dabbling with trial and error is better than just passive consumption.

So - to the church of Tek: Its a scope, yes. In the old times, they were undisputed tech and market leaders. Now - not so much.
Its fine if somebody collects and restaurates this old stuff, but its like oldtimer cars - they are easily outperformed by new cars in almost every ascpect (OK, maybe not design). Jim Williams just passed away before the digital scope wave started to sweep the market. If you want to drive, get something modern. I had old Teks (7104) but no match for an S-Series now.

Nostalgia is fine if it does not make you dogmatic or intolerant. Relax ! Or make the guy an offer to repair his scope. 

[Cerebus]

Aaaaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhh!

Spent 2-3 hours last night trying to get an RS232 connection going to either the HP 6611C and/or the HP 66312A. Much banging of head against wall, several variants of 'null modem' cable  tried, undocumented error messages on the HPs found, nothing worked. Gave up and went to bed.

Tried again today, this time getting out scope and putting it in logic analyser mode. Struggle to get decoding working, eventually realise that the USB<->RS232 adaptor I'm using is putting out something that looks like async serial but the contents, except the start and stop bits, bear no relation to what is being send but send the same rubbish consistently. Swap adaptor for another, all works; with the first null modem cable I tried previous no less.

Sometime between its last use (which was completely successful) and now, the first adaptor had failed in a way that was subtle enough to not show up as any of the basics you check first - e.g. voltages, baud rate (it was setting that properly), framing, polarity, bit order.

Not a happy bunny!

[McBryce]

[...]
You USE your collection...
[...]

In the car world, there is the concept of a "Trailer Queen"...   a vehicle kept and polished just for show, never to be driven! 

In the world of "super-cars" there are many owners who buy brand new cars just to park them in a carpeted garage with a glass viewing wall into their living room.

McBryce.

[mansaxel]

Aaaaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhh!

<snip>

Not a happy bunny!

I feel your pain! OTOH, USB serial dongles are reasonably cheap, so not painful to discard if they're found to be bad. Problem, in your case, is to find out that they're bad!   

I've got a bunch, mostly Prolific, but also a few FTDI. I'm very split in my opinion of the FTDI; I like their quality, and I dislike their bad bricking manners.

I really should press on with my idea to build an opto-isolated USB dongle.

[bd139]

Aaaaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhh!

<snip>

Not a happy bunny!

I feel your pain! OTOH, USB serial dongles are reasonably cheap, so not painful to discard if they're found to be bad. Problem, in your case, is to find out that they're bad!   

I've got a bunch, mostly Prolific, but also a few FTDI. I'm very split in my opinion of the FTDI; I like their quality, and I dislike their bad bricking manners.

I really should press on with my idea to build an opto-isolated USB dongle.

Mostly solved

https://docs.rs-online.com/84f1/0900766b80e480ef.pdf

[mnementh]

17 dollah: https://www.tindie.com/products/ZeptoBit/optically-isolated-usb-uart-adapter/

https://hackaday.io/project/28230-optically-isolated-usb-uart-adapter

https://zeptobit.com/download/Documentation-drivers-extras.zip

35 dollah - USB-USB Isolator: https://www.adafruit.com/product/2107

15 dollah - Similar USB-USB Isolator on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/HiLetgo-ADUM3160-Voltage-Isolator-Support/dp/B07235PR4V

mnem
 

[Cerebus]

Aaaaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhh!

<snip>

Not a happy bunny!

I feel your pain! OTOH, USB serial dongles are reasonably cheap, so not painful to discard if they're found to be bad. Problem, in your case, is to find out that they're bad!   

I've got a bunch, mostly Prolific, but also a few FTDI. I'm very split in my opinion of the FTDI; I like their quality, and I dislike their bad bricking manners.

I really should press on with my idea to build an opto-isolated USB dongle.

I already have, sort of.  I have a USB<->serial breakout board that I've interfaced to a pair of Toslink transmitter and receiver that I've used to talk to the serial ports on dev boards that I've had doing floating measurements. I too have been meaning to refine this to something more like a finished project for general use,  rather than the lash-up it is at the moment. Still quite handy though - the ability to stick something at the end of a couple of bits of cheap fibre optic has its uses.

[ch_scr]

Thank god someone outbid me on that Keithley2400 with the broken display

[mansaxel]

Aaaaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhh!

<snip>

Not a happy bunny!

I feel your pain! OTOH, USB serial dongles are reasonably cheap, so not painful to discard if they're found to be bad. Problem, in your case, is to find out that they're bad!   

I've got a bunch, mostly Prolific, but also a few FTDI. I'm very split in my opinion of the FTDI; I like their quality, and I dislike their bad bricking manners.

I really should press on with my idea to build an opto-isolated USB dongle.

Mostly solved

https://docs.rs-online.com/84f1/0900766b80e480ef.pdf

Cool.

My idea was more like FTDI chip + optocoupled RS232 interface (including power transfer). But I'm happy to be shown an easier way. I do want a "real" (as in 3-wire  ) RS232 interface, not 3.3V or TTL only.

[med6753]

Started troubleshooting the Type 321A. As I suspected it's a Time Base Issue. The Trigger Circuit is working correctly and there's an excellent trigger pulse into Q135. And that's where it goes to crap. The output on the collector of Q145 is some weak spikes. I'm going to pull those 2 transistors plus Q183 and check them.

A question. Both Q135 ans Q145 are NPN GE. Q183 is PNP GE. Silicon equivalents 2N3904 and 2N3906. Now I read that you should double the value of the emitter resistor if you sub them in. True?   

[bd139]

I’d measure out and annotate the voltages first. It might be one of the diodes gone or resistors drifted which are easier to replace and will bugger up Si biasing as well. Either way, make sure you heat sink the legs of everything Ge based when you’re desoldering or lifting.

As for substituting you need to get the collector and base voltages about the same. I’ve only done this on old radios myself. But this is a differential amp so yes the tail resistor. Substitution box and a bunch of multimeters comes in handy here 

Edit: check your data. 135, 145 are 2n2501 Si NPN. 350MHz fT. I’d do voltages, if odd pull them, test them then sub 2n2369.

[Robert763]

Got notification from ebay that the Supernova charger had been delivered but I've received nothing. Royal Mail says it was delivered at 9:45. I was within 3 ft of the door bell from 7:30 to 10:30 so even with the lack of a dog  I would not have missed them. No other post and nothing left outside.
On the plus side the Wasp Thermal imager WAS delivered (Parcel Force). Seems  to work fine. Picture is daylight taken from screen of TV so not ideal. Not great for close focus but I have a ouple of options for that. Pretty good for the money.

[nixiefreqq]

anyone think this would be useful?   maybe for blowing shit up?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bio-Rad-3000Xi-Computer-Controlled-Electrophoresis-Power-Supply/164758676742?hash=item265c61e506:g:6yEAAOSws9ZezCBH

[Robert763]

anyone think this would be useful?   maybe for blowing shit up?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bio-Rad-3000Xi-Computer-Controlled-Electrophoresis-Power-Supply/164758676742?hash=item265c61e506:g:6yEAAOSws9ZezCBH

High Voltage lowish current. The big issue with Electrophoresis PSUs is the protection circuits. Any leakage current to ground will cause (most of) them to shut down. They can be useful for capacitor charging or breakdown testing but not always the best option. That one is at least cheap if shipping is OK.

[Saskia]

Got notification from ebay that the Supernova charger had been delivered but I've received nothing. Royal Mail says it was delivered at 9:45. I was within 3 ft of the door bell from 7:30 to 10:30 so even with the lack of a dog  I would not have missed them. No other post and nothing left outside.
On the plus side the Wasp Thermal imager WAS delivered (Parcel Force). Seems  to work fine. Picture is daylight taken from screen of TV so not ideal. Not great for close focus but I have a ouple of options for that. Pretty good for the money.

your thermal imager looks like a flir in a target aquisition system.

How much do you want for it ? 

[mnementh]

On The Bench Tonight: Brain Surgery on Wifey's E540 Laptop

Cue flashiebackie noises to yesterday morning...

"Honey, wake up... my laptop's a POS after you put that monitor and keyboard dingus on it."

"Dongle honey... dongle. I was up til 3AM working on the boi's computer... gimme a break."

"Dingus, dongus... I don't care. It took it 20 minutes to open GMail, and I have school documents I need to print. It's a POS. Get up and FIX IT...!"

*2 cups of coffee and a bagel later*

""Hmmm... it looks like it's hung up on an update to version 2004... 1909 has been deprecated for a while now, and it's aspoda be EOL here very shortly, but your laptop just keeps failing every time I try to make it update ANYTHING. I may have to do a clean install; good thing I have the media from the boi's PC right here. Where are all your documents?"

In those folders on the Desktop. Everything I have is right there."

I know she has ~100GB of music in her iTunes... so I let that one pass. Yup... several gigs of text documents in her Documents folder as well. Fuck you, Office 2010.  I start copying everything from her desktop to the backup HDD and... Failed to read from source disk!!! Hit [TRY AGAIN], it chugs along for a minute, then Failed to read from source disk!!! pops up again. Uggh. Hit [SKIP], it chugs for a few more minutes, then pops up again on a new file. And I have another 12GB in those folders...

"Baby, has this laptop been dropped lately?"

"No... but the kids trip over the cord all the time; it's probably been knocked off onto the floor a dozen times."



"Okay honey... that's what I needed to know. Looks like the hard drive is chunked. I'll recover everything I can, but I've already seen a dozen damaged files. I'm gonna order you a new SSD and do my usual New-Used Laptop service. You won't believe it's the same machine when I'm done with it, it'll be so fast."

"Fast is good. That's why I keep you around."

"I know it baby."

Then I set the thing up next to me while I work all afternoon so I can tend it while its poor addled brain tries to copy 230GB of files and music to the Backup HDD...

mnem
"If the women don't find you handsome, make sure they find you handy." ~ Red Greene

[bd139]

Ah home IT support. Glad I have one less client three days. She was the worst 

[Saskia]

Ah home IT support. Glad I have one less client three days. She was the worst 

I could say the same about hubby. devoid of IT knowledge but very challenging ...

[mnementh]

     https://xkcd.com/2083/

mnem
*currently putting the pooky in the place under the thing*

[vk6zgo]

[

Ho crap I found a video

I hope the asshole shocks himself and fucking dies. 

Took the words out of my mouth.

Anyone who sees something functional and thinks “drone machine” should be locked away somewhere there is no technology.

A lock is technology!

[med6753]

On The Bench Tonight: Brain Surgery on Wifey's E540 Laptop

Cue flashiebackie noises to yesterday morning...

"Honey, wake up... my laptop's a POS after you put that monitor and keyboard dingus on it."

"Dongle honey... dongle. I was up til 3AM working on the boi's computer... gimme a break."

"Dingus, dongus... I don't care. It took it 20 minutes to open GMail, and I have school documents I need to print. It's a POS. Get up and FIX IT...!"

*2 cups of coffee and a bagel later*

""Hmmm... it looks like it's hung up on an update to version 2004... 1909 has been deprecated for a while now, and it's aspoda be EOL here very shortly, but your laptop just keeps failing every time I try to make it update ANYTHING. I may have to do a clean install; good thing I have the media from the boi's PC right here. Where are all your documents?"

In those folders on the Desktop. Everything I have is right there."

I know she has ~100GB of music in her iTunes... so I let that one pass. Yup... several gigs of text documents in her Documents folder as well. Fuck you, Office 2010.  I start copying everything from her desktop to the backup HDD and... Failed to read from source disk!!! Hit [TRY AGAIN], it chugs along for a minute, then Failed to read from source disk!!! pops up again. Uggh. Hit [SKIP], it chugs for a few more minutes, then pops up again on a new file. And I have another 12GB in those folders...

"Baby, has this laptop been dropped lately?"

"No... but the kids trip over the cord all the time; it's probably been knocked off onto the floor a dozen times."



"Okay honey... that's what I needed to know. Looks like the hard drive is chunked. I'll recover everything I can, but I've already seen a dozen damaged files. I'm gonna order you a new SSD and do my usual New-Used Laptop service. You won't believe it's the same machine when I'm done with it, it'll be so fast."

"Fast is good. That's why I keep you around."

"I know it baby."

Then I set the thing up next to me while I work all afternoon so I can tend it while its poor addled brain tries to copy 230GB of files and music to the Backup HDD...

mnem
"If the women don't find you handsome, make sure they find you handy." ~ Red Greene

So familiar. Seems like yesterday I was in your shoes. Oh hell, I still am with the Lady Cop.....tablets, phones, and computers just don't get along with her. I only advantage I have is that she can't bump me in the middle of the night to tell me her sob story.