Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tautech]

All autorouters suck !
However they are handy to put you on the right track with component layouts and orientation and therefore I do use it a bit but always Unroute and finish the job properly. 

[bd139]

Yeah I don’t autoroute anything usually. There is some value when you need differential pair and trace length matching however.

[tautech]

Mmm so I played with KiCad a while ago and it kind of sucked a few years ago and I have used Eagle in the past so randomly today I made quicky dive into the shallow end of the Gene pool and played with Fusion/Eagle. The Autorouter completely SUCKS btw. 

Yep I know a through hole single sided board and a 555 shows a complete lack of imagination but

So is it time before it is to late to run back to KiCad for another look ......

Last time I needed a timer PCB and despite a drawer full of 555's a 79c one from Aliexpress made much more sense as you couldn't populate it for that.
Currently it's doing duty on dry run pump protection where if the flow switch isn't activated it shuts the pump off in 2s.

[bd139]

That’s stripboard territory that is 

(As long as you use that nice FR4 stripboard from Roth)

[tautech]

To satisfy TEA and end of financial year spend up urges there are some new current probes and sensing scope probes coming of various BW's to have a play with......350 MHz and 500 MHz 10x autosense for 1/3 of what I can get them from Siglent. 

I'll have something to experiment/fiddle with on those shitty wet days that are not too far away.

[beanflying]

Yep Zero point to making one apart from the learning side of it for beginners. Now we are getting back to 'normal' locally I have done some technology stuff at a local School in the past and I dislike jumping the steps totally and punching buttons on a plug and play robot. The normal project in the past has been a Model Solar Car from scratch but the MPPT tracker is all SMD built by a local HAM.

Tomorrows plan then load the Latest from KiCad and see how the workflow compares with the same circuit - Lucky Glenfiddich is on special this week 

[tautech]

That’s stripboard territory that is 

(As long as you use that nice FR4 stripboard from Roth)

Nah, this for 79c ?
Not even worth getting out the iron. 

From Reply #32554

[capt bullshot]

Technically, it's called TE. I'd just call it ugly.

It's a "lab power supply" that a colleague at work toasted, and asked me for a repair. So I said: "Yes, I'll have a look at it, most probably the power transistors will be shorted". I should have known better and said no, as this one is typical for the more recent stuff we have @work. The older stuff is better, but still works ...

[beanflying]

[tautech]

Right Fugly. 

[tautech]

One for Bean....
Going after some of his nocturnal marsupial cousins this year:

[tautech]

One for Bean....
Going after some of his nocturnal marsupial cousins this year:

About a compact lithium battery for this....sick of lugging around 7AH SLA's.
Any tips on what not to get Bean or memn ?

Thinking ~20AH rated  from here:
https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20210329233434&origin=y&SearchText=12v+li+battery

[beanflying]

Quick and dirty fix for it would be run it on Brand X Power tool batteries you already own and maybe a DC-DC converter to 12V (unless it already has one inside?) Plenty of adapters already out there - example eBay auction: #402636863211

Or for me I have 3 and 4 cell LiPo's so just a harness and maybe some sort of BMS or voltage warning as our R/C gear doesn't use internal ones.

[THDplusN_bad]

Thanks for the pointers. I had already done some research on this, including watching some videos of people who do it for a living, with the full automated preheater/reballing/hot air workstation, and the ones I'd seen up to that point evidently either didn't know better or were just doing both to make sure they didn't have to do it again.

I studied several different videos, and the takeaway was preheat, bring up to approx 260-300°C for 20-30sec, (depending on the video) then cool down to ~200°C-ish quickly, then the rest of the way over a period of several minutes to prevent thermal shock. I got my stuff together for a "shadetree mechanic" approximation of such a lab, and got to work.



Here I'm just starting to preheat; I brought temp up to ~110°C from the bottom with my cheap hot air gun...



Then applied heat with both while watching the themometer to bring it up to ~260 for 10 seconds, then 300° for another 10 seconds, then down to 260° for 10 seconds, then pulled the rework gun away till it dropped to ~200°C, then slowly pulled it away over the course of several minutes to ~100°C, then just the bottom gun til it dropped below 50°.



After that, I whipped the card together real quick & tried it on the UBCD... it powered up as usual, but after a second or so, the fan went from full speed down to approx 10%, and for the first time I could actually hear the Mac boot chime with this card!  w00t!  It took 30 seconds or so to boot, as this was off a IDE DVDRW drive; but we did get all the way there.



Heartened by this, I popped the disc out ( I finally know what the Mac weenies in Dominion chat meant when they chanted "Six over, three down!!!" from time to time... that's the number of holes under the optical drive to find the right spot to poke the eject button...  ) and slid drive sled #1 into its slot.

Hall-leh-fukkin'-lu-jeh!!! Signs of life!!! I see a rotten apple on the screen! I let it run for aboot a minute, but progress was quite slow, and I was afraid to let it go any longer until I'd properly serviced the heat-sink, etc. as it was just on there with 4 screws.

We'll see how that service goes... I have a .iso for Mint with Cinnamon and Xfce DE, as well as GhostBSD with MATE DE. If the Mac boot disk or the GT8800 don't wanna play nice, I have them on standby.

mnem
 

Wow, that is very, very brave - congratulations to your repair! I am not sure I'd ever go that far with my heatgunny :-)

Cheers,

THDplusN_bad

[bd139]

Technically, it's called TE. I'd just call it ugly.

It's a "lab power supply" that a colleague at work toasted, and asked me for a repair. So I said: "Yes, I'll have a look at it, most probably the power transistors will be shorted". I should have known better and said no, as this one is typical for the more recent stuff we have @work. The older stuff is better, but still works ...

Looks like a standard mastech type design. I quite like them even if they do tend to blow up.

It probably uses relay tap switching to keep the dropout voltage for the pass transistors down thus reducing total power dissipation. However it fails unsafe and blows the pass transistors out by exceeding the SOA. If it’s that it’ll be some relays and a couple of 2n3055’s.

I think the persistent problem is the arcing on the relay contacts from the filter cap. If they put SCRs in there like the HPAK supplies they’d be much more reliable.

[Ice-Tea]

I gave KiCad another try some time ago. I can see how it could work out, but I'd have to invest too much time to get to the same level as Altium. I have my licence so right not there's no incentive to switch.

Also: Anyone know what these connectors are?

[capt bullshot]

Also: Anyone know what these connectors are?

If you'd give this to a plumber, he'd try to install it as a water heat exchanger

[tautech]

Quick and dirty fix for it would be run it on Brand X Power tool batteries you already own and maybe a DC-DC converter to 12V (unless it already has one inside?) Plenty of adapters already out there - example eBay auction: #402636863211

Or for me I have 3 and 4 cell LiPo's so just a harness and maybe some sort of BMS or voltage warning as our R/C gear doesn't use internal ones.

Nah I use a spotlight enough to justify having its own battery and this year with an explosion of bunnies a better setup than my old 30W incandesant and 7AH SLA's is called for and over our winter them possums are also easy pickings with a good setup.
In 15 mins away I just got 4 in the house paddock for the cat using a LEDLENSER headlamp handheld ! 
Cat is smiling. 

[beanflying]

Quick and dirty fix for it would be run it on Brand X Power tool batteries you already own and maybe a DC-DC converter to 12V (unless it already has one inside?) Plenty of adapters already out there - example eBay auction: #402636863211

Or for me I have 3 and 4 cell LiPo's so just a harness and maybe some sort of BMS or voltage warning as our R/C gear doesn't use internal ones.

Nah I use a spotlight enough to justify having its own battery and this year with an explosion of bunnies a better setup than my old 30W incandesant and 7AH SLA's is called for and over our winter them possums are also easy pickings with a good setup.
In 15 mins away I just got 4 in the house paddock for the cat using a LEDLENSER headlamp handheld ! 
Cat is smiling. 

Unless you are likely to take up R/C anything or have another need/use for the pack then maybe look at the Jump Start pack options. Might be handy around the farm for the odd boost on a stubborn ? during winter. Also take capacities with a grain of salt on evilbay or Aliexpress unless there is some decent feedback on an item.

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20210330002500&SearchText=jump+start+pack

Should come as an easy to charge and protected item.

[BU508A]

Also: Anyone know what these connectors are?

I'm convinced, Neomys will know for sure.
Including the MIL-SPEC Number 

[beanflying]

Also: Anyone know what these connectors are?

If you'd give this to a plumber, he'd try to install it as a water heat exchanger

Agreed one half of a 3/4 BSP Barrel Union and therefore plumbing 

[tautech]

Quick and dirty fix for it would be run it on Brand X Power tool batteries you already own and maybe a DC-DC converter to 12V (unless it already has one inside?) Plenty of adapters already out there - example eBay auction: #402636863211

Or for me I have 3 and 4 cell LiPo's so just a harness and maybe some sort of BMS or voltage warning as our R/C gear doesn't use internal ones.

Nah I use a spotlight enough to justify having its own battery and this year with an explosion of bunnies a better setup than my old 30W incandesant and 7AH SLA's is called for and over our winter them possums are also easy pickings with a good setup.
In 15 mins away I just got 4 in the house paddock for the cat using a LEDLENSER headlamp handheld ! 
Cat is smiling. 

Unless you are likely to take up R/C anything or have another need/use for the pack then maybe look at the Jump Start pack options. Might be handy around the farm for the odd boost on a stubborn ? during winter. Also take capacities with a grain of salt on evilbay or Aliexpress unless there is some decent feedback on an item.

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20210330002500&SearchText=jump+start+pack

Should come as an easy to charge and protected item.

A fine idea and I do have a 300A one with a capacity of 12.8AH however it requires a plug in dongle thingy with bulldog clips for jump starting yet it does also have a selectable 12, 16 and 19V DC jack. 
Yes that might get pressed into an alternative service.....now to find a DC plug that will fit the thing.   

Found ! 

[Saskia]

...Unfortunately, the list of supported GPUs is pretty short. And surprise, surprise, surprise... only GPUs flashed with a Mac-specific FW will have the preboot splash. 

I'm pretty sure, like all the nvidias of that age, is hit by bumpgate; maybe try an "oven reflow"?

Yeah, I actually had considered this; I've been eyeing my cheap hot-air rework station all morning over coffee. So far, the coffee has won out every time. 

   Of course, curiosity ultimately won out... as it always does with the ol' tinkerdwagon. Appropriate flux for the task has been ordered; and I'll have a chance to put my recent Panavise gift to work. 

You don't need any flux to do the rework; the problem is between the silicon and the organic support(intermediate PCB), not between the intermediate PCB and "main board(graphic card)". If you want to use the hot air gun, you will have to heat up the silicon chip, since the cracked bumps are below the chip, not between the supporting PCB and the graphic card himself. If you want detailed explanation, look up bumpgate on semiaccurate.

Thanks for the pointers. I had already done some research on this, including watching some videos of people who do it for a living, with the full automated preheater/reballing/hot air workstation, and the ones I'd seen up to that point evidently either didn't know better or were just doing both to make sure they didn't have to do it again.

I studied several different videos, and the takeaway was preheat, bring up to approx 260-300°C for 20-30sec, (depending on the video) then cool down to ~200°C-ish quickly, then the rest of the way over a period of several minutes to prevent thermal shock. I got my stuff together for a "shadetree mechanic" approximation of such a lab, and got to work.



Here I'm just starting to preheat; I brought temp up to ~110°C from the bottom with my cheap hot air gun...



Then applied heat with both while watching the themometer to bring it up to ~260 for 10 seconds, then 300° for another 10 seconds, then down to 260° for 10 seconds, then pulled the rework gun away till it dropped to ~200°C, then slowly pulled it away over the course of several minutes to ~100°C, then just the bottom gun til it dropped below 50°.



After that, I whipped the card together real quick & tried it on the UBCD... it powered up as usual, but after a second or so, the fan went from full speed down to approx 10%, and for the first time I could actually hear the Mac boot chime with this card!  w00t!  It took 30 seconds or so to boot, as this was off a IDE DVDRW drive; but we did get all the way there.



Heartened by this, I popped the disc out ( I finally know what the Mac weenies in Dominion chat meant when they chanted "Six over, three down!!!" from time to time... that's the number of holes under the optical drive to find the right spot to poke the eject button...  ) and slid drive sled #1 into its slot.

Hall-leh-fukkin'-lu-jeh!!! Signs of life!!! I see a rotten apple on the screen! I let it run for aboot a minute, but progress was quite slow, and I was afraid to let it go any longer until I'd properly serviced the heat-sink, etc. as it was just on there with 4 screws.

We'll see how that service goes... I have a .iso for Mint with Cinnamon and Xfce DE, as well as GhostBSD with MATE DE. If the Mac boot disk or the GT8800 don't wanna play nice, I have them on standby.

mnem
 

Impressive.

Next time I get an IT related problem I’m going to solve it with a flame thrower too 

or the famous 50 grams ...

[Cubdriver]

I gave KiCad another try some time ago. I can see how it could work out, but I'd have to invest too much time to get to the same level as Altium. I have my licence so right not there's no incentive to switch.

Also: Anyone know what these connectors are?

Can't be sure what with not being able to see them head on, but they look like 7/16 RF connectors to me.



-Pat

[Ice-Tea]

Seems like a match! Got some reading up to do, then.