Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mansaxel]

Ok 3478A done.

All the electrolytic capacitors replaced with modern 105 oC Panasonic FR or Kemet units. RIFAs replaced with non RIFAs 

Cool. What are you replacing the RIFAs with? Kemets? That's RIFA ;-)

ASEA and a few other Swedish electric/electronic companies founded RIFA 1942 as Radioindustrins Fabriksbolag (Radio industry manufacturing company) to secure domestic capacitor supply, since what imports the Germans did not sink en route, the British confiscated...  Ericsson had had a capacitor manufacturer since 1929, so were not interested, but with the onset of analog frequency multiplex after the war found that capacitors were critical, and therefore bought RIFA piecemeal until they had all stock by 1947.  During the 60s and 70s RIFA branched into valves, semiconductors and IC's.  When the analog multiplex era was over in the 80s, Ericsson kept the IC part, but in 1988 sold the RIFA capacitor manufacturing to Finvest who also owned Evox. Later, Finvest sold Evox RIFA to Kemet, and then Yageo bought Kemet.) 



Today, there is no RIFA / Kemet / Yageo manufacturing in Sweden. The biggest factory was in Kalmar, and it's now torn down:

Meter works perfectly afterwards with no calibration loss. Phew!!! 

Excellent!

[bd139]

Interesting to read 

These are Kemet parts (I forget which series) so yes RIFA heritage as well. I suspect I’ll be dead by the time these ones go up 

[BU508A]

As promised, here is my little report about the Andonstar ADSM302 digital microscope.

I've bought it at Welectron/Germany and they sent me this nice box.
Pictures of the unboxing:


One need 2 AAA batteries for the remote control, they aren't included.

The screen is crisp and of a good quality.
The unit reacts a bit sluggish and one has to point the rc directly to the microscope.
The structure of the menue is straightforward. Switching between video and (still) camera mode is one knob on the rc.
Plugging in the USB connector to the camera and the round DC connector into the backside of the stand for the LED lamps.
There is a remote control on this cable as well: it powers on/off the device and controls the brightness of the LED lamps.

The working distance varies between ca. 50 and 250mm which is (for me) more than enough to work with.

I did not check the connection to a PC or an external monitor with the HDMI cable. Will do this at another time.

I've inserted a 32GByte microSD card and made some pictures.
I haven't reduced the resolution of them, they are as they are saved by the microscope.
The pictures itself are stored in jpg format and are having a size of about 3.5MByte per picture.

Let's start with some resistors to check the colours of them:


Looking good so far. One can easily distinguish between red and brown which can be sometimes a problem.
On the second picture the resistor is ca. 4-5mm above the PCB but still looking crisp. 

Next one is a simple adapter PCB for SMD transistors. I do like this nice little pointy hill in the middle of the pad.


This is a BSS138 SMD MOSFET transistor which can be soldered on the PCB adapter from above.


Next one is a Nixie tube, a Russian IN-15A. I took this picture, because I wanted to check on how many layers the digits are crisp.


These are some LTC3045 voltage regulators. I was curious about how good the microscope will focus through some transparent material.


The last two pictures are from a rare p-channel depletion MOSFET transistor which I thought, I could tinker with it.
Well. Not one of the best ideas I had.    The scaler shows distances of 0.5mm. I haven't found a PCB adapter board for this kind of package yet and even if I could get one: how to solder these bloody tiny thingies on it? Oh dear ... 
The transistor is a FJ4B01120L1 and you can get it for example from Mouser. And yes, this nasty little bugger has still some markings on it (right picture).


Thank you for watching.
If you are interested in some more details which I can test for you, please let me know.

[Cerebus]

Ok 3478A done.

All the electrolytic capacitors replaced with modern 105 oC Panasonic FR or Kemet units. RIFAs replaced with non RIFAs 

Cool. What are you replacing the RIFAs with? Kemets? That's RIFA ;-)

ASEA and a few other Swedish electric/electronic companies founded RIFA 1942 as Radioindustrins Fabriksbolag (Radio industry manufacturing company) to secure domestic capacitor supply, since what imports the Germans did not sink en route, the British confiscated...  Ericsson had had a capacitor manufacturer since 1929, so were not interested, but with the onset of analog frequency multiplex after the war found that capacitors were critical, and therefore bought RIFA piecemeal until they had all stock by 1947.  During the 60s and 70s RIFA branched into valves, semiconductors and IC's.  When the analog multiplex era was over in the 80s, Ericsson kept the IC part, but in 1988 sold the RIFA capacitor manufacturing to Finvest who also owned Evox. Later, Finvest sold Evox RIFA to Kemet, and then Yageo bought Kemet.) 



Today, there is no RIFA / Kemet / Yageo manufacturing in Sweden. The biggest factory was in Kalmar, and it's now torn down:

Meter works perfectly afterwards with no calibration loss. Phew!!! 

Excellent!

If you take a careful look at the photo you can see the central facilty that ensured that extra smoke was packed into every RIFA capacitor. The group of anti-smoke stacks on the side actually extracted smoke from the atmosphere, it was concentrated in that room on the top of the building, and then piped down to the actual manufacturing smoke insertion points down those radial pipes.

[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.


 

I decided to plug everything together the best I could and try to power it on. So, the monster half assembled on my bench successfully powered on but almost instantly, something blew up in the power supply and smokes came out. Boohoo 

After investigation I found the culprit.



A small 22 ohms carbon composite resistor in the regulator subassembly of the power supply. Not too sure why it blew up like that. It's located in a rather toasty section of the power supply so maybe years of been cooked plus the rough ride to my place was just too much.



The original part was .125W, so I replaced it with a metal film .25W

Funny how Fluke were always using their own precision wire wound resistors. Even in 1988 when this unit was built.



Second try





It's Alive! 

Now I just need to disassemble everything, untwist all the metal bits and replace some plastic parts. 

[tautech]

 
That HPAK DMM needs calibrating ! 

[Kosmic]

That HPAK DMM needs calibrating ! 

I don't really know. If the Fluke 5200a didn't drift too much the HP 974a is well within specs (0.5% + 30).

[Brumby]

That HPAK DMM needs calibrating ! 

Stirrer.   Let's not open that can of worms again - at least not here.

[mnementh]

   

Went Thrifting in the old neighborhood today; this is what I scored. First pic is a ioGEAR DisplayPort KVM for $5, a Logitech G510 KB & a M215 Mouse for my laptop bag. Total CAD$18.

Second pic is a couple watches... please don't think I've been bitten by the watch collecting bug; I seriously only buy them when they are a bona fide exceptional deal. This Skagen Steel in as-new condition still in plastic skins for $25 and this Columbia CL-3005 for $9 definitely qualify.

The Skagen Steel I've seen before in magazines; I liked it then and still like it. I have a Fossil Arkitekt which is very similar style. The Columbia is actually a serviceable outdoorsman watch; yes the crown actually works. It may become my go-to daily beater watch; we'll see how the band responds to a little vegetable oil.

I'll report back here with results of my attempts to resurrect all of the above.

mnem
 

[tautech]

That HPAK DMM needs calibrating ! 

Stirrer.   Let's not open that can of worms again - at least not here.

Yep, couldn't resist ! 

[tautech]

The Skagen Steel I've seen before in magazines; I liked it then and still like it. I have a Fossil Arkitekt which is very similar style. The Columbia is actually a serviceable outdoorsman watch; yes the crown actually works. It may become my go-to daily beater watch; we'll see how the band responds to a little vegetable oil.

I'll report back here with results of my attempts to resurrect all of the above.

mnem
 

Is vege oil the right thing to use on leather ?
Whaddabout Dubbin or Coacholine specifically made for leather ?

[Cubdriver]

This one's still in the repair queue, but fits this page.




Lots of stuff in that box






-Pat

[Cerebus]

The Skagen Steel I've seen before in magazines; I liked it then and still like it. I have a Fossil Arkitekt which is very similar style. The Columbia is actually a serviceable outdoorsman watch; yes the crown actually works. It may become my go-to daily beater watch; we'll see how the band responds to a little vegetable oil.

I'll report back here with results of my attempts to resurrect all of the above.

mnem
 

Is vege oil the right thing to use on leather ?
Whaddabout Dubbin or Coacholine specifically made for leather ?

Neatsfoot oil is the classic (basically deodorised rendered cow's foot oil). I too would be dubious about using vegetable oil on leather - the unsaturated nature of the fatty acids involved in vegetable oils means they are more prone to both rancidity and polymerisation from atmospheric oxygen, the latter being the very reason that 'oil' paints contain vegetable oils like linseed and tung.

[cyclin_al]

The Skagen Steel I've seen before in magazines; I liked it then and still like it. I have a Fossil Arkitekt which is very similar style. The Columbia is actually a serviceable outdoorsman watch; yes the crown actually works. It may become my go-to daily beater watch; we'll see how the band responds to a little vegetable oil.

I'll report back here with results of my attempts to resurrect all of the above.

mnem
 

Is vege oil the right thing to use on leather ?
Whaddabout Dubbin or Coacholine specifically made for leather ?

I think it would depend on how hard and crusty that leather is.
If it was super hard with risk of cracking, then the vege oil would certainly help soften it up.
However, if the leather is already pliable, the oil might make the leather too soft and prone to damage.
If already pliable, the heavier treatments specifically made for leather are better for maintenance and prevention.

[mnementh]

Been using light vegetable oil on suede since my youth on the farm. If it were something important like tack it would get saddle soap and neatsfoot oil. This is just a old watchband I'm not even sure I really like; not interested in making an investment.

But since y'all seem to mind so much, I'll rummage aboot in the pantry & see if I have a little light olive oil instead. 

mnem
Or just put a cheap NATO band on it and call it a day... 

[mnementh]

      

As I said; I went to the old neighborhood today... while I was driving through, one gentleman was wheeling these to the curb. Needless to say, I stopped immediately and asked if that was really what was in those boxes; the answer was yes, but the hard drives had been removed. I said that was fine, I had a G5 back in the day and this would be a great chance to revisit... but could I please take the sleds off the old drives if he still had them...?

The fellow hemmed & hawed for a minute, then produced a box with 4 750GB Barracuda drives and asked "Are you a computer guy?" I said yes. "Would you please wipe the drives?" "Yeah, no problem!"

I took the box and thanked him, and we were on our way.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/specs/mac-pro-eight-core-3.0-2008-specs.html

Whuf... this one was loaded for storage & graphics; those HDDs were all part of the original build. As were dual Xeon E5472s, 2GB DDR2-800 RAM,  a GeForce 8800GT GPU, and dual GB Ethernet. Huh.

https://everymac.com/monitors/apple/studio_cinema/specs/apple_cinema_display_30.html

Whuf again... that 30" Cinema Display cost nearly as much as the PC... together nearly $9K with upgrades, or over $10K adjusted.

The 8800GT was a bit of a bastard child; almost DirectX11 but not fully supported. But with any semi-modern GPU and a few more GB RAM, I suspect this thing might even run Win10! Damn... maybe I need to look into BootCamping it for my wife... She loved GarageBand! 

Allright... I've peeked inside the boxes to make sure they didn't contain angry badgers or bobcats; tomorrow after I've had a chance to rest I'll actually unpack and look inside the CPU.

mnem
 

[beanflying]

Narrowed the Solder Station choices no tips included and there is a new slightly fancier JBC coming so seems the current ones might be reduced at least in Oz. Prices are to my door and Tax paid from local distributors. Looked at TEquipment and a few of the usual suspects and savings are $50-80 and 120V PITA transformer use mainly due to $100+ USD of postage.

JBC CD-B 130W version "General Purpose Station" $574 AUD
Pace ADS200 120W instant setback stand version $680 AUD

By the time a few tips are added they will both finish up about level pegging for price - way to much 

[URI]

[T12-BlaBla]

I'm looking for JBC stations for C470 cartridges for the soldering jobs needing "real" power on the other hand..     

Will this never end...?   

I can recommend the JBC T470/C470 soldering iron. I'm owning one as well. Bought it in the bay (HD-2B with the T470) for around 150 Euro. I've made an adapter switch for it, so I can use a T245/C245 soldering iron as well.
Pictures can be found here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg2814526/#msg2814526

Yep, I have a look at HD2Bs as well. 
I read about a hack with a switch that switches the two secondary power windings of the transformer between 48V (series) or 24V (parallel).
Have you come across that solution as well? Why did you choose the solution with a series resistor burning away more than half of the power..?   

[ch_scr]

I'll add my praise for the TS100. Once it gets a laptop PSU (old IBM 16V or "hp" 19V) driving it, it's almost invincible. But I'd like a chisel tip; the present pin-point is not a very good heat transfer device..  Is it the "TS-D24" I am looking for?

Pretty sure that is the one. Also added praise for the TS100 from me. I have to colleagues - one with a TS80 and one with a TS80p.
They bought it on my recommendation. I'll add their praise for them here

[capt bullshot]

Think ePay need to work on their translations, not sure what the hell they are offering here (third one down). 


David

That's a good one

Adjacent channel power meter - Nachbarkanalleistungsmesser

Looks like they've got slightly issues with Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänsmützenhalter style words

[beanflying]

Starting to get concerned @med is laying at the rear of his wagon with a Tek scope pinning him in place  Anyone heard from him in the last few days?

[bd139]

It's been a couple of days now 

I am picturing...



Edit: have sent med a PM. Fingers crossed

[beanflying]

I'll add my praise for the TS100. Once it gets a laptop PSU (old IBM 16V or "hp" 19V) driving it, it's almost invincible. But I'd like a chisel tip; the present pin-point is not a very good heat transfer device..  Is it the "TS-D24" I am looking for?

I went with bevels for mine in particular on the larger ones for more sheer mass. If I am out and about far more likely I will be tinning/soldering 8-12G multistrand wire for R/C than PCB work. The Chisel points were a bit limited from memory. edit'ish Had a quick look on Ali Express with the seller I used and only the D24 for a chisel option.

[Saskia]

audiophoolery:

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/sony-fw-90-esprit-floating-magnet-soundbase/1275247614-172-4354?simcid=42de91d0-d0ae-4100-88a7-2121d6b5a448

single base for a case - you need four of them for a single appliance.

D'oh.

[Robert763]

The mystery TE
 www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aircraft-Parts-Ground-Equipment-GROUND-AAIR-TRAINING-WEAPONS-EFFECT-SIM-TEST-SET/384017553215?
Turned up. I was hoping it was a RF simulator but no such luck. It's basically a giant IR remote control with two buttons 
Not even much in the way of components just a bunch of CMOS logic chips etc. It did come with a lead so a 10W milspec connector pair at least. The housing is cast alloy and weighs aa lot. Might be useful for a rugged geiger counter.

Not a complete fail though. Not shown in the listing photos, it came with a very nice deep drawn aluminum briefcase style carry case. Even has the keys