Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Spot on. The 3478A just carries offset and scale calibration values per range in the NVRAM to do a y=Mx+c type transformation in the MCU.

[Specmaster]

I wish it was that. Wouldn’t be having this discussion now then  .

A point to note though with some of the instruments. The 3478A and most closed case cal units tend to have the ability to read the cal ram over GPIB when cal is enabled. Part of a more detailed cal process, and full check out of the instrument, is comparing the last recorded cal data with the current one to make sure no one has futzed with the meter or any calibration issues are hardware failure related.

Yes, this is the case with the TTi 1906, it is not adjustable from the front panel.

[Specmaster]

Ooh nice 

No discord tonight. My mother had a cardiac ablation done yesterday so I’m over there this evening until late. Seems to have worked though so far.

Good News but aging Mothers are still a nuisance     Might see if I have the urge to wet the bed and need to get up for Pain pills and Coffee in the morning....

Yeah just carted my mother to the hospital in an ambulance.

. Hope all goes well.

Yes, agreed. Hope all goes well.

I had a terrible nights sleep. After pretty much pain free yesterday the spasms returned with a vengeance last night. Still hurting a little this morning and can't sit here for long periods. I doubt I'll be on Discord later today.   

Sorry to hear that, strange though, how most things always seem to get worse in the night, even common colds get worse at night 

[Specmaster]

Incidently just rewatched Dave's video on the 3478A and from 10:30 on he talks about the battery backed RAM and if you disconnect the battery or short it out you will lose the calibration constants  and will then need to spend more money then you paid for the meter to get it traceable calibrated once again. So in his view, having a meter calibrated does indeed involve having adjustments made to the meter to return it to the design specifications again and not just verifying and noting any drift that the user should take into account when using said meter. So Dave and I both share the view that calibration is not a case of checking against references and recording the differences, but actually includes making the necessary adjustments to make the meter reflect the references applied to it.   

I think if you asked Dave for his current perspective (not 2013 Dave) and in particular after visiting the Keysight Cal Labs several years later you will get a different answer. In the case of the 3478A, 34401A etc they all have a 24 Hour spec. IF one or more ranges don't meet this spec and only IF you agree after being notified they will perform an adjustment on that range or ranges. The only other time an Adjustment would be done would be if the OWNER requested it.

If it meets the 24 hour Spec then it will be issued a Certificate of Calibration.

Ok, perhaps I should have used the term re-calibration? It was always I thought the last step of production of test gear even if adjustments were able to be carried out via trim pots, digitally or selecting the final value of a part, that was all done in the calibration dept of the production process?

[bd139]

Time nuttery commences. 5384A arrived. Good condition  . Has HP issued sealed stickers on it so probably untouched inside. These units are RIFA free fortunately so shouldn’t need any work.

Oscillator out of junk box being tested. Tear down later. Need to go shopping and for my daily sanity walk

Not going to my mothers now as my sister is over there so will be on discord after all.

[Specmaster]

Time nuttery commences. 5384A arrived. Good condition  . Has HP issued sealed stickers on it so probably untouched inside. These units are RIFA free fortunately so shouldn’t need any work.

Oscillator out of junk box being tested. Tear down later. Need to go shopping and for my daily sanity walk

Not going to my mothers now as my sister is over there so will be on discord after all.

That is nice little counter 

[Saskia]

bought one of those 3prong unobtainium HP power cables today.

Apparently the 716 absolutely requires it and I do not have any intention to rip it apart and do dremel work on the case.

[BU508A]

Ongoing scam, today: Advantest R6581

https://www.ebay.com/itm/402757154444

[Saskia]

ok, lotsanews
- got chewed out by my boss for being online yesterday
- will get chewed out on monday for fixing what those infrastructure assholes fucked up during patching today (systems down ...)
- will get the update for my notebook (+32GB RAM + 1TB SSD) on Monday. Will also get a mem expansion for my T460 backup notebook
- argument with Hubby. Want a Pogo 1,2,3 or 850. Can't afford a Pogo 40
- would sell the British car I have or trade for a Pogo 3
- Atari 800 is working. Boot error from Disk Drive. Contacted Seller. "oh, this is expected, the disk is blank"  why did he not include an effing boot disk ... (I have none, I thought at least a boot disk came with that critter)
=> into storage with that thing
- have potential customer for my Shadow pinball. Will let it go for 3500 - 4000 € ... we'll see
- had to buy a new freezer and a new fridge yesterday. The old fridge is showing a puddle of water which is never good.
- Hubby bought a few knives instead of participating in the fridge funding. Oh well.
- need to put 3 batteries onto the charger.
- need to flip at least 3 PCs
- need to to my next tax declaration. BTW for German colleagues: if you are using TaxMan they have a new call home copy protection. If you install it on more than 2 PCs it will self destruct. Unfortunately this is the best tax software for private folks / sbos out there.
- got a few PSUs the past couple of days. 2 Corsair RM550x, 1 Corsair RM750x (already installed and running), 1 Corsair HM850 Platinum ... (not yet opened, spare). Also got that 3070 installed. Need to tweak the mining rig a little, but currently it covers for one salary (Hubby's) which is gonesky due to his health condition.
- next tasks: get my Motorbike set up, fix up my Expedition (engine issues, airbag warning light, ...)

[McBryce]

- Atari 800 is working. Boot error from Disk Drive. Contacted Seller. "oh, this is expected, the disk is blank"  why did he not include an effing boot disk ... (I have none, I thought at least a boot disk came with that critter)
=> into storage with that thing

The Atari 800 doesn't need a boot disk unless you want to access disks, which you obviously don't need to do at the moment because you don't have any.

McBryce.

[Runco990]

Time nuttery commences. 5384A arrived. Good condition  . Has HP issued sealed stickers on it so probably untouched inside. These units are RIFA free fortunately so shouldn’t need any work.

Oscillator out of junk box being tested. Tear down later. Need to go shopping and for my daily sanity walk

Not going to my mothers now as my sister is over there so will be on discord after all.

I perf boarded an oscillator together for mine.  Was a simple job.   

Aaaand then I promptly proceeded to run it from my external rubidium standard anyway!  But I KNOW it's IN there! 

[mansaxel]

Aaaand then I promptly proceeded to run it from my external rubidium standard anyway!  But I KNOW it's IN there!

Thanks for the reminder! I must get on with building a distribution amp for my Meinberg GPSDO. Having 10MHz on tap is soo convenient.

[mnementh]

Looks like Murphy's imps are out in force today. Best wishes to all with unwell mothers... I would give anything to hear mine telling me off one more time... *sigh*

Today's misery is much less important; however all-encompassing nonetheless: Somehow, I've killed the motherboard on my PC with the move to a new case. That'll teach me to try and save a buck and upgrade at the same time. 

So far, I've isolated the fault to a power rail in the VRM for the AMD Chipset... my worst fear is that it is the PCIe controller itself, rather than one of the I/O ports buggered. Chances of warranty are probably nil; MB was bought at Micro-Center in the US. +

mnem
             
"thank you sir, may I have another...?"

[bd139]

Time nuttery commences. 5384A arrived. Good condition  . Has HP issued sealed stickers on it so probably untouched inside. These units are RIFA free fortunately so shouldn’t need any work.

Oscillator out of junk box being tested. Tear down later. Need to go shopping and for my daily sanity walk

Not going to my mothers now as my sister is over there so will be on discord after all.

I perf boarded an oscillator together for mine.  Was a simple job.   

Aaaand then I promptly proceeded to run it from my external rubidium standard anyway!  But I KNOW it's IN there!

Similar plan. I’ve ordered some OCXOs from China. Will do a board for this one once I’ve cracked it. Board probably get here before the OCXOs do 

May grab a Leo Bodnar GPS reference on pay day as well.

I am good at a few Hz resolution here for my needs but it’s nice to know for sure 

Tearing it down for inspection now.

[bd139]

Looks like Murphy's imps are out in force today. Best wishes to all with unwell mothers... I would give anything to hear mine telling me off one more time... *sigh*

Today's misery is much less important; however all-encompassing nonetheless: Somehow, I've killed the motherboard on my PC with the move to a new case. That'll teach me to try and save a buck and upgrade at the same time. 

So far, I've isolated the fault to a power rail in the VRM for the AMD Chipset... my worst fear is that it is the PCIe controller itself, rather than one of the I/O ports buggered. Chances of warranty are probably nil; MB was bought at Micro-Center in the US.

mnem
             
"thank you sir, may I have another...?"

That’s what killed my Athlon XP I had years ago 

Good luck on fixing it though. I don’t envy the situation.

My corp Dell is being swapped out on Monday so I’m using my own kit again. I might accidentally not have the time to switch to this new one.

[mnementh]

Yeah... another aspect of the old saw aboot how "No good deed goes unpunished." ; should've just put my old GPU in the boi's old HP and told him it was now a gaming rig.

Currently stripping down the MB one item at a time to see if the short across that rail goes away; confidence is not high.

mnem
 

[Saskia]

how did that happen ?

Is it an Asus board ? If so you might get in touch with Asus directly, they normally have repair centers that actually fix stuff.

[mnementh]

Still evaluating.

2-year-old X570 Aorus Pro WiFi MB. Not likely gonna get warranty, except maybe factory-direct. Will look into it.

mnem
"Life is hard. Fortunately, it is also short." ~козак proverb

[Saskia]

normally 3 years factory, pickup / drop off by courier, turnaround 7 - 14 days. Been there, done that ...

[bd139]

Joy to UK. Busts within 6 years: replacement via retailer.

[Kosmic]

My god, is it that hard to package something?

Last week I found a really decent Fluke 5200a for sale. Was in good shape and the seller accepted my offer. Shipping was a bit expensive but I figured the seller would at least do its job correctly considering the amount I was paying.

Just received this 

The box is way too small and the instrument was floating inside. Its important to specify that the weight of the instrument is around 53lbs.


A little bit of small bubble wrap between the handles and that's all. The sides and handles of the instrument was directly in contact with the box. So not much protection there.


The back handles and the frame absorbed most of the impacts during the trip.






On of the massive aluminum handle is badly bent.


A lot of plastic holder are broken.


The Transfo module is all twisted.


Metal parts are bent all over the place. I probably need to disassemble everything.


Started as a simple project but now I would need to do metal works and replacing plastic parts with the 3d printer   

[Saskia]

the idea was to check if the disk drive was indeed working.
WIthout boot disk or any software or knowledge about the Atari that is somewhat difficult ...
I confess though that currently I am too tired to read any FM.

[Kosmic]

My god, is it that hard to package something?

Last week I found a really decent Fluke 5200a for sale. Was in good shape and the seller accepted my offer. Shipping was a bit expensive but I figured the seller would at least do its job correctly considering the amount I was paying.

Just received this 

The box is way too small

Miraculously the front panel and front handles are still in good shape.


 

[bd139]

I’d expect it for free after that shit show. As for can anyone package stuff properly? Yes me. But I’m never in the receiving end. Perhaps I should send myself stuff so I’m not disappointed 

[Kosmic]

I’d expect it for free after that shit show. As for can anyone package stuff properly? Yes me. But I’m never in the receiving end. Perhaps I should send myself stuff so I’m not disappointed 

Yes, case was open yesterday, full refund received already.