Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

That's what you get when you try to make pasture ornaments do something useful.

mnem
 

Still, I didn't need to have that image to deal with for years to come. Poor girl (50+ woman) was really banged up. 

She was lucky. Surgeons/Medics call the region bordered by the bridge of the nose and the corners of the mouth "The Triangle of Death". There are a number of structures associated with this region where infection or trauma can kill you. A shod horse's foot planted firmly into this area definitely falls into the category of "life threatening events".

[tautech]

That's what you get when you try to make pasture ornaments do something useful.

mnem
 

Still, I didn't need to have that image to deal with for years to come. Poor girl (50+ woman) was really banged up. 

She was lucky. Surgeons/Medics call the region bordered by the bridge of the nose and the corners of the mouth "The Triangle of Death". There are a number of structures associated with this region where infection or trauma can kill you. A shod horse's foot planted firmly into this area definitely falls into the category of "life threatening events".

Exactly.
Some poor kiddy cops it ever few years here totally as a result of parents not doing their job. 

She next doors was lucky for sure and it's her 2nd dice with death with nags.
A few years back her big Doberman thought it would be a good idea to race the horse with her on it only for it to do a sidestep at full gallop and leave her in midair to suffer a pretty serious concussion when she hit the deck.
Mid winter it was and we had to carefully extract her from the paddock and up to the house to await the ambo and get carted off for a few days that time too !
Some don't learn to quit while they're ahead.

[Wolfgang]

The only way I like horses is this one:
http://www.windisch-wurst.at/leberkaese/60-pferde-leberkaese

I am sorry, but horses have too much strength and too little brain.
Never felt comfy around them, never will.
ymmv of course.

Horses ? Yes, always, but I prefer them in a Salami. 

[Brumby]

A package arrived this morning!

(Pics and details later ... have to go out.)

[Specmaster]

You gotta remember... Andonstar, MusTool, EatMyShortsOptical, etc ALL get their bits & pieces from the same half-dozen (or less) factories. You simply cannot count on any single one of these China-direct labels to ALWAYS BE crap or not crap.

Yes but Andonstar are clearly requesting better specs than Mustool.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07XVC1LWB/

Ehhhh... maybe sometimes. I've seen some true pieces of shite sold under the AndonStar label as well. 

I doubt Mustool is speccing anything here... more likely they're just slapping their label on whatever is popular at the moment. Mine wasn't sold under their label; but I recognized the unit being the same as the MusTool G1200 from a lot of time spent researching this very type of product before I pulled the trigger.

I'll admit I got a lot more microscope than I expected for ~US$76; whether that was a matter of good luck, careful shopping or a combination of the two is probably going to remain the sole purview of Ifni and her own mysterious ways.

mnem

Totally agree with you here, I have the same microscope as you do, sourced from Bang em Good, but it is branded MusTool and I have about 13.75cms of working space between the bottom of the scope and the PCB being worked on, plenty of room for a soldering iron and tweezers etc. I also a smaller microscope branded AndOnStar label which is not a very good microscope TBH.

[beanflying]

Still happy with my version of this when needed. I need to build a better lighting solution for it but otherwise it is far from a bad option.

[mnementh]

That's what you get when you try to make pasture ornaments do something useful.

mnem
 

Still, I didn't need to have that image to deal with for years to come. Poor girl (50+ woman) was really banged up. 

She was lucky. Surgeons/Medics call the region bordered by the bridge of the nose and the corners of the mouth "The Triangle of Death". There are a number of structures associated with this region where infection or trauma can kill you. A shod horse's foot planted firmly into this area definitely falls into the category of "life threatening events".

Exactly.
Some poor kiddy cops it ever few years here totally as a result of parents not doing their job. 

She next doors was lucky for sure and it's her 2nd dice with death with nags.
A few years back her big Doberman thought it would be a good idea to race the horse with her on it only for it to do a sidestep at full gallop and leave her in midair to suffer a pretty serious concussion when she hit the deck.
Mid winter it was and we had to carefully extract her from the paddock and up to the house to await the ambo and get carted off for a few days that time too !
Some don't learn to quit while they're ahead.

Okaayyy... I guess I was a bit flippant. Sorry aboot that. 

But in my defense... I thought you didn't much like your neighbors... or neighbors in general. 

mnem
*toddles off to pollute my son's mind with the remastered Twilight Zone on Hulu*

[mnementh]

Didn't I see that thing in a Transformers movie...? 

mnem

[beanflying]

More of a Dr Octavius thing optional Lightning which cant be DC because it is a Marvel

[cyclin_al]

I grew up in Epsom, where they used to take thoroughbreds from stables to be exercised, past my school along public roads. They weren't stable animals. More than once I've seen them jump 6ft sideways, presumably being spooked by a fallen leaf.

Another neighbor is a breaker and when getting them bullet leaf proof rides with a 1m stick with a plastic shopping bag tied to it constantly waving and shaking it at the edge of the nags vision....then swaps to the other side and so on. When he's finished with them they are literally bullet proof but never for the ones I'd use ! 

A farm down the street and around the corner has retired police horses of international acclaim.  Those are bullet proof and gorgeous animals.
At the other end of the street; stay far away .... it appears all the horses are unbroken and the owner is worse than the horses...

[tautech]

I grew up in Epsom, where they used to take thoroughbreds from stables to be exercised, past my school along public roads. They weren't stable animals. More than once I've seen them jump 6ft sideways, presumably being spooked by a fallen leaf.

Another neighbor is a breaker and when getting them bullet leaf proof rides with a 1m stick with a plastic shopping bag tied to it constantly waving and shaking it at the edge of the nags vision....then swaps to the other side and so on. When he's finished with them they are literally bullet proof but never for the ones I'd use ! 

A farm down the street and around the corner has retired police horses of international acclaim.  Those are bullet proof and gorgeous animals.
At the other end of the street; stay far away .... it appears all the horses are unbroken and the owner is worse than the horses...

There certainly are some nice nags and many years ago we had a cracker called Rika a white gelding that at some time in his youth must have done dressage as I remember a mate brought his squeeze at the time out to ride him. I never had seen a horse do tricks like that ! 

He was given to us by a neighbor when they sold and moved away on the understanding their adult kids could come and ride him should they want to and as pop had horses in his youth he rode him some doing stock work which the nag really loved and in some ways after he twigged what stock work was all about he was as good as a dog to have on musters. After we got him he was loaned all around the district to various families for their first pony and they all rode him to primary school where there was a horse paddock to keep him until it was home time.
To have 2 or 3 kids on his back was normal and delivered them to and from school for gawd knows how many kids and over many years.
District demographics changed and there was no longer any kiddies and school duties so he came back to the farm in his twilight years to hang out near our house with the cattle when we renamed him Snoopy due to his inquisitiveness.
He was a gentle soul and always came for a chat and slice of bread and our infant daughter got quite fond of him and at ~2 could hang onto his mane and take her for a slow walk but one day distracted she slid off his broad fat back and hit the deck only for him to freeze mid step and turn his head to see where he could safely place his hoof without hurting her.......you don't often witness such intelligence from an animal and that vision I will take to my grave.
Sadly not long after he came to the gate by the house and foundered and I had to put him down....he knew his time was up. Best we could calculate he was ~38 so had a marvelous innings.

[beanflying]

So apart from a suspect likely fake 32Gb Sandisk card (edit was unformatted  seems legit too) everything else is super clean and pristine. Emissivity fail was bound to happen on all the shiny chromed Brass and Stainless but I was being to lazy to leave the seat. Lots to learn and play with 

[Brumby]

So many pretty colours..... 

[Brumby]

How broken is eBay? - and I'm limiting this to the programming side of it.......

Just got a "reminder" to pay for my $61 auction win.  FFS, it's already been ripped out of my transaction history!

But, out of curiosity, I clicked on the link to "Complete Purchase" and I was promptly told it wasn't available in the quantity specified (which was 1, BTW).  No shit Sherlock.   



 

[mansaxel]

BTW this is my top impulse buy ever, not TEA or yeah sort off:

Bought this one 9 years back, still very satisfied with it:
metabo KGS254M

I got its slightly smaller brother as a birthday present 2019. And the table.

[jonovid]

look who bought a Massive Pile of Test Equipment

[beanflying]

look who bought a Massive Pile of Test Equipment

That is so a few days ago  We won't mention the localized skirmish that followed either over the rightness or more likely wrongness of it

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3510594/#msg3510594

[McBryce]

The only way I like horses is this one:
http://www.windisch-wurst.at/leberkaese/60-pferde-leberkaese

I am sorry, but horses have too much strength and too little brain.
Never felt comfy around them, never will.
ymmv of course.

"Oh Daddy, can I have a horse, puleeeeaaase....?"

"Yes"

"Really, really, when?"

"Sunday afternoon".... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauerbraten


McBryce.

[bd139]

Hahahah 

I got dragged to France once many years ago on a family holiday. The only memorable thing for the entire trip is I ate horse steak and french fries in a local restaurant much to the disgust of my family who are a horsey lot.

[Robert763]

look who bought a Massive Pile of Test Equipment

That is so a few days ago  We won't mention the localized skirmish that followed either over the rightness or more likely wrongness of it

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3510594/#msg3510594

I was not going to get into that "discussion" but my issue with this type of video is it can encourage people who really don't know what they are doing to risk their safety and destroy equipment. 

[tautech]

Life is never dull...........
Not long safely dark enough to dose a German wasp nest with 1/4 cup of Carbaryl just 8m from the front door !

Take that you hot arse little buggers ! 

[2nOrderEDO]

Hi again folks,




I was able to score an HP3577A, it looked really well in the pictures (see below) but when it arrived (from the US to Switzerland) it had a crack on the bottom right corner of the front panel bezel. The crack can't be seen when the instruments is laying on the bench, but the front panel has deformed a little bit in the corner. The rear panel bezel also has a small hit. Functionality wise, it passes all self-confidence tests and I plan to tear it apart to the last piece for rectifiying the front panel, recaping electrolytics, fan replacement, changing the EPROMs to EEPROMs, etc.



Now guys, I want to take advantage of you knowledge, so some questions follow:

Looking at the service manual, I was able to find the replacement parts for the front and rear bezels in ebay, but those are for the HP3577B. Please, can someone confirm that these are equivalent? In the service manual these parts appear with different codes for the 3577A (front: 5020-8807, rear: 5020-8808) and 3577B (front: 5021-8407, rear: 5021-5808)

Also, does somebody know if Keysight is still selling parts for this instruments? it seems that this frame/chassis is used in many other HP/Agilent instruments. I would prefer to buy it from them than from ebay.

Are the bezels made of steel or aluminum? Maybe I can repair the crack on the front bezel with one of this metal-epoxy glues sold as "cold welding".

I also plan to install the front handles, since the thing weights 28 kg (62 lbs) and I want to be able to move it a little bit more easily. Would any 5U front handle from HP/Agilent work? The one the service manual specifies (5062-3991) look very familiar to the new versions. Are they compatible?

Any advice you may have is welcome!

[Brumby]

The package..... My NEWPORT LABORATORIES Counter Timer Model 700 has arrived!

It was adequately packed such that the enclosed IEC mains cable laying on top did not make any impression on the case and there was a couple of pieces of folded rubber sheet placed around the front panel knobs, keeping them safe.

However, I was a little taken aback by the size.  I was expecting something roughly similar to my 3478A, and while it is the same height and only 1 cm deeper, it is notably wider.  Will have to rethink my bench layout ... again.


So far so good, but when I tipped the case over to check the back, something was loose inside.  Oh-oh.  Time to open it up.

Found two captive screws at the back and once loosened, the whole chassis slid out.  This thing was built for serviceability!


The loose bit was rather obvious, as you can see in this top shot.


Looks like a TCXO can with an octal socket - with a problem.  The plug has been displaced down inside the can and is now no longer able to be plugged into the socket.  I will be having a conversation with the seller.
   

I was curious about the proto board near the front, so I removed 3 screws and carefully flipped it over.  Yes, that is wire-wrap!







Here's are bottom and rear shots for completeness.

[beanflying]

Wow old school low volume construction bits Last time I wire wrapped anything might be close to 40 years ago 

Staggered down the backyard to put some Iron on the Lemon tree no luck finding Possums with it yet but there is a Yellow Brick Road back to the shack it seems. Crude depth of field test but working well.

[tggzzz]

I grew up in Epsom, where they used to take thoroughbreds from stables to be exercised, past my school along public roads. They weren't stable animals. More than once I've seen them jump 6ft sideways, presumably being spooked by a fallen leaf.

Another neighbor is a breaker and when getting them bullet leaf proof rides with a 1m stick with a plastic shopping bag tied to it constantly waving and shaking it at the edge of the nags vision....then swaps to the other side and so on. When he's finished with them they are literally bullet proof but never for the ones I'd use ! 

A farm down the street and around the corner has retired police horses of international acclaim.  Those are bullet proof and gorgeous animals.
At the other end of the street; stay far away .... it appears all the horses are unbroken and the owner is worse than the horses...

Reportedly the only thing that will "spook" a police horse is lifting its tail and inserting something.