Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[factory]

Quick lunch time 3478A update.

Destickered and cleaned up finally.  HP stack...



Job done.

I did some comparative measurements with my other two Flukes and everything is within specification. Either that or they're all equally wrong 

That is a good-looking stack there bd, for sure, job well done.

I think I owe you an apology about PackLink, they are bastards, just sent me a demand for £4.99 being the differance between what I paid for a parcel I sent in Jan and what they say I should have paid  IIRC when using their service, you have input the weight and the carton size, and they use that along with its destination to give you a price, which came to £5.39, and I paid that. I had a long online chat with their agent, and he said that I only paid for the smaller parcel size which was what they call 180 and mine was 200. Apparently they calculate it as being the sum of the 2 shortest sides, multiplied by 2 and add the longest side and claimed all of that info was on screen. He gave a link to their eBay page, so I could check  , it asked me the usual questions from and where to, weight and dimensions, so in goes 5Kg, 45 x 46 x 32 cm and I get a price of £5.99, and it clearly shows on screen 5Kg, 45 x 46 x 32 cm.

I won't be using them again thats for sure.

To input the actual size & weight on Packlink via ePay, I find they hide it under the "other" option, hopefully won't have any problems doing it that way. 
 
David

[mnementh]

10.5.8. Ancient. 

No. If it's MacPro3,1 (Early 2008) it officially goes to 10.11.6 (El Capitan). If it's MacPro2,1 it officially goes to 10.7.5 (Lion). With a little fiddling all the Intel Mac Pros will run El Capitan, even the MacPro1,1.

I have two MacPro1,1s here, one's running El Capitan, the other's running VMWare EXSi 6.0. 

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

Mac pro 3.0, as in the page linked above.

Currently annoyed AF; with substitute GPU it seems to boot normally and shut down normally; even goes into sleep mode if you let it sit a while, and wakes up properly as well if you tap the KB.  Then randomly it turns itself on from an off condition.

However no video of any sort even if installed in a different slot, and GPU from the thing is no output when tested in my hp, tho I can now see that the wind tunnel noise I previously assumed was the Mac was in fact the fan on the GPU never spinning down. And the hp does not seem to power down normally with the Mac GPU installed.

So evidently there is something borked in both the GPU and the PCIe slots on the Mac. 

At this point I'm beginning to suspect massive cap failure and/or PSU faulty.

mnem
maybe I'll just give the monitor to my wife and just be glad of it...

[bd139]

You can probably repair it for $20 or so. Find a bashed up one that still works and do an organ transplant 

Either way you got a working monitor for $0 

[bd139]

Just put a stupid offer on something. I am due some karma and I’m hoping they are a stupid seller 

Dang it. They didn’t take my £100 for a Keithley 2000 

[factory]

Nice box
I have a HP16058A fixture that was modified by it's previous owner, with some of the inserts. Back from when I did not know that the K2636 had Keithley-specific toleranced triaxial jacks, so that only the plugs you buy on their cables fit and dreamed of making my own triax connection cables.
When I bought the fixture on "offer a price" it was good, at least taking into account the additional triaxial jacks mounted to the modification. Little did I know...
Edit: looking at epay, the prices for these seem to have gone up. Feel a little better now having bought mine ~4 years ago
Just to rub it in, I could not even begin to think of using this until now...

Good day,

yes, these Triaxial leads and connectors are surely nice and they have their advantages in low-current-sensing and RF-sensitive applications.
But they are just a pain for those who do not need these benefits... Even the adapters are truly expensive.

Cheers,

THDplusN_bad

Is this one of the Triaxial BNC's that the matching leads are really expensive, or something easier to obtain?
It's on the back of the only item of Keithley TEA I have a 455 picoammeter, it went into storage yesterday along with the pair of Solartron voltmeters I haven't got leads for yet.




David

[Cerebus]

10.5.8. Ancient. 

No. If it's MacPro3,1 (Early 2008) it officially goes to 10.11.6 (El Capitan). If it's MacPro2,1 it officially goes to 10.7.5 (Lion). With a little fiddling all the Intel Mac Pros will run El Capitan, even the MacPro1,1.

I have two MacPro1,1s here, one's running El Capitan, the other's running VMWare EXSi 6.0. 

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

Mac pro 3.0, as in the page linked above.

Currently annoyed AF; with substitute GPU it seems to boot normally and shut down normally; even goes into sleep mode if you let it sit a while, and wakes up properly as well if you tap the KB.  Then randomly it turns itself on from an off condition.

However no video of any sort even if installed in a different slot, and GPU from the thing is no output when tested in my hp, tho I can now see that the wind tunnel noise I previously assumed was the Mac was in fact the fan on the GPU never spinning down. And the hp does not seem to power down normally with the Mac GPU installed.

So evidently there is something borked in both the GPU and the PCIe slots on the Mac. 

At this point I'm beginning to suspect massive cap failure and/or PSU faulty.

mnem
maybe I'll just give the monitor to my wife and just be glad of it...

So that's a MacPro3,1 aka (Early 2008).

Before assuming that anything is borked, try turning it on while simultaneously holding command-option-p-r - resets PRAM- a magic incantation that can cure many a Mac's ills.

 You can run the diagnostics by holding down 'd' while powering on.

 Wait for the chime before releasing any 'hold during boot' key combinations.

Other startup key combinations: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201255

[Saskia]

if you need to end its misery, 50 grams of ...

[AVGresponding]

That should be the default treatment for all A**le products before they leave the factory.

[bd139]

if you need to end its misery, 50 grams of ...

That’s how you end up with spherical macs

https://youtu.be/kEVG1xGaN6M

[xrunner]

Here it is bd139. An hp 5385A. Needs a bit of clean-up but it's working (ext ref now).

[ch_scr]

Nice box
I have a HP16058A fixture that was modified by it's previous owner, with some of the inserts. Back from when I did not know that the K2636 had Keithley-specific toleranced triaxial jacks, so that only the plugs you buy on their cables fit and dreamed of making my own triax connection cables.
When I bought the fixture on "offer a price" it was good, at least taking into account the additional triaxial jacks mounted to the modification. Little did I know...
Edit: looking at epay, the prices for these seem to have gone up. Feel a little better now having bought mine ~4 years ago
Just to rub it in, I could not even begin to think of using this until now...

Good day,

yes, these Triaxial leads and connectors are surely nice and they have their advantages in low-current-sensing and RF-sensitive applications.
But they are just a pain for those who do not need these benefits... Even the adapters are truly expensive.

Cheers,

THDplusN_bad

Is this one of the Triaxial BNC's that the matching leads are really expensive, or something easier to obtain?
It's on the back of the only item of Keithley TEA I have a 455 picoammeter, it went into storage yesterday along with the pair of Solartron voltmeters I haven't got leads for yet.




David

This is a 2-lug-triaxial connector. Plugs are often more expensive because it's the old style. Was phased out because it could be mixed up with BNC, subsequent expensive damage. New style is 3-lug-triaxial. But, there exist standard 3-lug-triaxial, where you can buy a NOS plug on ebay and expect it to fit (like on the back of my HP16058A fixture) and there is magic Keithley 3-lug-triaxial, that looks just the same but the plug will go on REAL stiff, feeling like you damage something. While the factory Keithley cable, it's plug magically fits on the HP16058A and the K2636.
For your unit, best solution might be a new panel mount 3-lug-triaxial connector, assumed its panel mount with cables not pcb mount inside. Cheapest solution is a file, quickly making it an super-universal 1-lug-triaxial connector fitting both plug types...

[bd139]

Here it is bd139. An hp 5385A. Needs a bit of clean-up but it's working (ext ref now).

Very nice  .

What ref does it have in it? I’ve just put together a board design for a replacement OCXO module.

[xrunner]

Here it is bd139. An hp 5385A. Needs a bit of clean-up but it's working (ext ref now).

Very nice  .

What ref does it have in it? I’ve just put together a board design for a replacement OCXO module.

Cool.

It has the TCXO which is an option for the 5384A but standard in this one. But it will always be on ext. ref. in my possession. I'll take more pics of the innards tomorrow. Really pleased with the seller and the unit.

[factory]

Well Farnell managed to deliver the right parts for a future project. 


It's an odd variant of the hp 5321B counter, with 104V or 208V mains input and yes the mains transformer is different to the standard version. A bucking transformer should be able to drop the extra voltage & keeping the Cannon socket will prevent me doing dumb if it was converted to IEC (it does have the cutout for one).



Some teardown pictures, the HP logo fell off when it was unwrapped (I put it in a deal bag inside to prevent it getting lost) and I'm going to need to make some sides for it as it didn't come with any.





David

[bd139]

Here it is bd139. An hp 5385A. Needs a bit of clean-up but it's working (ext ref now).

Very nice  .

What ref does it have in it? I’ve just put together a board design for a replacement OCXO module.

Cool.

It has the TCXO which is an option for the 5384A but standard in this one. But it will always be on ext. ref. in my possession. I'll take more pics of the innards tomorrow. Really pleased with the seller and the unit.

Excellent. Look forward to that 

Incidentally a massive surprise from China here. I ordered the OCXO modules from an ebay seller on 22nd. This is the tracking already



It's with Hermes here already. This was economy surface mail 14-30th april!

[factory]

Nice box
I have a HP16058A fixture that was modified by it's previous owner, with some of the inserts. Back from when I did not know that the K2636 had Keithley-specific toleranced triaxial jacks, so that only the plugs you buy on their cables fit and dreamed of making my own triax connection cables.
When I bought the fixture on "offer a price" it was good, at least taking into account the additional triaxial jacks mounted to the modification. Little did I know...
Edit: looking at epay, the prices for these seem to have gone up. Feel a little better now having bought mine ~4 years ago
Just to rub it in, I could not even begin to think of using this until now...

Good day,

yes, these Triaxial leads and connectors are surely nice and they have their advantages in low-current-sensing and RF-sensitive applications.
But they are just a pain for those who do not need these benefits... Even the adapters are truly expensive.

Cheers,

THDplusN_bad

Is this one of the Triaxial BNC's that the matching leads are really expensive, or something easier to obtain?
It's on the back of the only item of Keithley TEA I have a 455 picoammeter, it went into storage yesterday along with the pair of Solartron voltmeters I haven't got leads for yet.


David

This is a 2-lug-triaxial connector. Plugs are often more expensive because it's the old style. Was phased out because it could be mixed up with BNC, subsequent expensive damage. New style is 3-lug-triaxial. But, there exist standard 3-lug-triaxial, where you can buy a NOS plug on ebay and expect it to fit (like on the back of my HP16058A fixture) and there is magic Keithley 3-lug-triaxial, that looks just the same but the plug will go on REAL stiff, feeling like you damage something. While the factory Keithley cable, it's plug magically fits on the HP16058A and the K2636.
For your unit, best solution might be a new panel mount 3-lug-triaxial connector, assumed its panel mount with cables not pcb mount inside. Cheapest solution is a file, quickly making it an super-universal 1-lug-triaxial connector fitting both plug types...

I'm sure I bought some connectors from a ex-mil junk stall, just can't find them to determine if they were plugs/sockets or two/three lug types. 

For some reason I didn't look in the screened input section when I took a few pictures of the insides a while ago, will see if the pdf manual gives any clues.





David

[AVGresponding]

Currently 4 hours and 15% into the first of 3 parts for the AA storage box. It took 2 hours to go to 1%, I suspect that the % progress indicator refers to the height, and since the bottom is solid and the rest of it mostly air, it skews the result.
Given the slicer software estimates the filament length and weight needed, I would have thought a more representative % progress indication could be worked off this, but w/e...

Rather amusingly the shape of the spacers between the batteries make the stepper motors sound like a Trimphone ringing, fortunately at a low enough volume level to not be intrusive.

Here's the test print, turned out quite well I feel given my "on the fly, by eye" bed levelling. The only question remaining, is do I send it to Med, or Mnem, for painting?

[ch_scr]

Currently 4 hours and 15% into the first of 3 parts for the AA storage box. It took 2 hours to go to 1%, I suspect that the % progress indicator refers to the height, and since the bottom is solid and the rest of it mostly air, it skews the result.
Given the slicer software estimates the filament length and weight needed, I would have thought a more representative % progress indication could be worked off this, but w/e...
[...]

It often refers to the % of the gcode file already printed. I vote for Med, believe he could use a distraction & a cheer up.

[mnementh]

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

Mac pro 3.0, as in the page linked above.

Currently annoyed AF; with substitute GPU it seems to boot normally and shut down normally; even goes into sleep mode if you let it sit a while, and wakes up properly as well if you tap the KB.  Then randomly it turns itself on from an off condition.

So that's a MacPro3,1 aka (Early 2008). Before assuming that anything is borked, try turning it on while simultaneously holding command-option-p-r - resets PRAM- a magic incantation that can cure many a Mac's ills.

 You can run the diagnostics by holding down 'd' while powering on. Wait for the chime before releasing any 'hold during boot' key combinations.

Other startup key combinations: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201255

Thanks; I was starting to get really frustrated. That's probably a better starting point than tearing stuff apart... but too late. 

I'm already engaged in exploratory surgery to reseat the PSU connectors on the MB. And dust things out along the way. And see what there is to see.

If I don't see anything heinous inside, I'll reassemble and do the Macimagical incantations you recommend... 

*wanders off, muttering* "Interesting... the core chassis is some kind of coated steel... only the outer panels are anodized aluminum..."

mnem
 

[bd139]

so who got the deal of the century?

Immaculate looking Tek 2467B for £135

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-2467B-4-Channel-400MHz-Analogue-Oscilloscope/143988361052

[mnementh]

   ...Here's the test print, turned out quite well I feel given my "on the fly, by eye" bed levelling. The only question remaining, is do I send it to Med, or Mnem, for painting?

Best not send it to me... it'll wind up a hood ornament on a Mac. Which may soon become a hood ornament on a Mack Truck... 

mnem
*punt*

[Specmaster]

so who got the deal of the century?

Immaculate looking Tek 2467B for £135

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-2467B-4-Channel-400MHz-Analogue-Oscilloscope/143988361052

If it was you, when are you collecting it then??

[bd139]

Unfortunately not. Someone bought it just as I opened the auction 

[Specmaster]

That sucks.

[BU508A]

Sometimes you lose, sometimes the others win.