Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[ch_scr]

Second the 7/16 connector. Used for high power in e.g. mobile communications towers antenna cabeling. Implying that that coupler is likely a 50W+ device. Would you look at that says 200W at the box
Edit: 700 to 2700Mhz, 200W Power, 7/16 Connector. Right on the box, once in a lifetime where it's actually decipherable on a RF mystery box...

[capt bullshot]

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

So, a big thumbs up for the Peaktech support, they've sent me the schematics within half an hour. 

Anyway, they're a perfect match to the unit in terms of uglyness ...

An example:

[Ice-Tea]

Second the 7/16 connector. Used for high power in e.g. mobile communications towers antenna cabeling. Implying that that coupler is likely a 50W+ device. Would you look at that says 200W at the box
Edit: 700 to 2700Mhz, 200W Power, 7/16 Connector. Right on the box, once in a lifetime where it's actually decipherable on a RF mystery box...

AAaaaaahhhHHH! That's the 7/16 in the P/N!

[med6753]

So I call this Urology group yesterday to get an appointment for checkout and hopeful removal of the catheter. The EARLIEST I can get in there is April 9th.  No fucking way am I wearing this damn thing an additional 2 weeks. My discharge papers state a week to 2 weeks max. I've had it in since last Wednesday. I tried to explain this to the unfeeling reception but got no where. Then I asked if they get a cancellation can they call and reschedule me. Curt response was "we don't have that policy". Bitach!    So...starting Thursday I'm calling them everyday to see if a cancel happened and I can get in earlier. And once I get this cat out I'm going to find this man hater and stab her with the catheter needle. 

Anyway.....today's TE. Switching gears. Going to replace that transistor in the Type 321A and see if the sweep finally works.   

[med6753]

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

So, a big thumbs up for the Peaktech support, they've sent me the schematics within half an hour. 

Anyway, they're a perfect match to the unit in terms of uglyness ...

An example:

That schematic is a hot mess too. 

[factory]

First teardown from the items acquired on Saturday, this is an Advance Components Ltd frequency divider type TCD40, good for dividing 1 to 40 MC/S (MHz) for ancient frequency counters with very limited input range.


I'm not sure exactly which counter it was intended to be used with, but the case is a similar style to the Advance SC1 Counter/Timer I have, the TCD40 is a bit newer though as it's completely solid state & has no stripboard inside.


For a change the PSU has the output voltages marked, electrolytic capacitors are mostly WIMA apart from the large plastic cased ERIE one, there is a screw missing from one of the Belling Bellend Lee fuse holders and the pass transistor isn't soldered directly to the board.




The input divider & double divider boards have no wax/paper or tant capacitors for a change, can't say I've seen that many Philco transistors outside of HP stuff before.



David

[Robert763]

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

I hope that's not mains on the contacts, no way that it meets creapage and clearance to the mounting 
I'd at lest have used an insulated pillar even at 12V.
For that application yu need extra clearance for bugs.

Last time I thought about using a 555 I used a 8 pin PIC instead.

[bd139]

Personality disorder on the latest toy.





Apologies to tautech here on going back to the dark side. No fan and goes to 100MHz for 60 quid less. Even if the UI sucks balls.

[Ice-Tea]

Med: Read that as "discharge diapers". Carry on.

Robert: HN?

[factory]

The second teardown is the Airmec optical probe type 283, I can't find anything online about this or the Airmec frequency meter type 265 I acquired from the same seller last year. I forgot to take any teardown pictures of 265 & it's currently in storage, no idea if it has the power connector for the probe.
The Airmec brand became part of Racal in 1969.


Not very much inside, just a 6V 1.8W lamp, Mullard photo-transistor and some passives hidden in the handle.



It's pretty much a solid state version of the hp 506A I have.


David

[dl6lr]

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

Excellent "Assorted cables" box, just use a wire cutter to salvage short pieces for daily use in the lab 

[FransW]

Does anyone have the pinout of the 2350W pwr supplies or start-up conditions?
Same for the output Voltage range(s)?

Frans

[factory]

Now I have to look for the missing top cover screw. Seems to be some kind of US self tapping screw. Same for a missing screw on the side.

It's going to be a screw with a Pozidriv head that hp used on those covers, but it's not self-tapping. You really need a Pozidriv driver head if you want to do it right, but yea you might resort to Phillips head I realize ... 

It's quite the challenge to find Pozidriv machine screws in other than metric threads.  Evilbay seems to be about the only source unless you want to buy a box of like ten gazillion of them for a couple of hundred bucks.  That said, 6-32 is the thread size used in most of the older equipment.

-Pat

<edit to add - I wish they were more available - I mush prefer them to self-camming Phillips screws.>

I'm sure I've seen Phillips, JIS and slot head too on older HP TEA, maybe due to them being produced in different places all over the world.

If only we had a website as good as McMaster-Carr in the UK, OK they only seem to have Phillips head, but they do have a much better range and not just the Stainless stuff offered by UK supplier ACCU.
https://www.mcmaster.com/screws/flat-head-screws/phillips-flat-head-screws/thread-size~6-32/

For some reason some HP 180 series & other later scopes used a smaller size for the covers, they are often missing or badly chewed up.

David

[Saskia]

received a care package today. My thanks to a member in the Dresden area

[xrunner]

I'm sure I've seen Phillips, JIS and slot head too on older HP TEA, maybe due to them being produced in different places all over the world.

Could be. I'm a ham and I do know that many of the radios have JIS screws (another one that looks like Phillips). Only one other ham actually knew that. There is a very small "dot" on the top of the screw that indicates JIS. But ... of course they all use Phillips to take out the screws, and couldn't care less about getting the correct screwdriver LOL. 

[factory]

I'm sure I've seen Phillips, JIS and slot head too on older HP TEA, maybe due to them being produced in different places all over the world.

Could be. I'm a ham and I do know that many of the radios have JIS screws (another one that looks like Phillips). Only one other ham actually knew that. There is a very small "dot" on the top of the screw that indicates JIS. But ... of course they all use Phillips to take out the screws, and couldn't care less about getting the correct screwdriver LOL. 

May depend how old they are too, quick look at 606A manual (1960's) which has slot & Phillips listed and quick look at 8640B manual (1980's) which has Pozi listed.

The big parts list from 1973-74 that can be found online doesn't mention head types, only thread size & length, see pages 128 to 135 for fasteners (pdf page 131 to 138).

David

[Robert763]

Does anyone have the pinout of the 2350W pwr supplies or start-up conditions?
Same for the output Voltage range(s)?

Frans

There are up to two 1150W PSUs each has 12.25V @ 25A (300W) and -52V at 16.4A (850W) in a rack switching/fan unit.  I don't know the connections at the moment but as I have a 1150W PSU, 750W PSU and and the rack coming I hope to be able to work it out.

[bd139]

I'm sure I've seen Phillips, JIS and slot head too on older HP TEA, maybe due to them being produced in different places all over the world.

Could be. I'm a ham and I do know that many of the radios have JIS screws (another one that looks like Phillips). Only one other ham actually knew that. There is a very small "dot" on the top of the screw that indicates JIS. But ... of course they all use Phillips to take out the screws, and couldn't care less about getting the correct screwdriver LOL. 

Most hams probably use flat blades on those screws as well 

[Robert763]

I'm sure I've seen Phillips, JIS and slot head too on older HP TEA, maybe due to them being produced in different places all over the world.

Could be. I'm a ham and I do know that many of the radios have JIS screws (another one that looks like Phillips). Only one other ham actually knew that. There is a very small "dot" on the top of the screw that indicates JIS. But ... of course they all use Phillips to take out the screws, and couldn't care less about getting the correct screwdriver LOL. 

Proper JIS are hard to find and expensive if you do. I came across a Japanese"Dollar Store" type shope in the UAE of all places a couple of years ago and they had some. Most were indeterminate or philips but the were some JIS. I bougth the entire stock (only about 6 of varios sizes).
The best "cross head" screwriver I hav is the removable bit in my Leatherman Wave Ti. It seems to fit ANY #1 or#2 size cross head screw.

[xrunner]

Most hams probably use flat blades on those screws as well 

Vise grips wouldn't be out of the question either. 

[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

I hope that's not mains on the contacts, no way that it meets creepage and clearance to the mounting 
I'd at lest have used an insulated pillar even at 12V.
For that application yu need extra clearance for bugs.

Fear not only 12VDC and pillars are ~10mm high. Fused at ~2A IIRC.
Any mains in that cabinet is 230VAC that feeds another cabinet with 415VAC 3 phase where the contactor, Phase failure and overload relays are.
Whole installation has been in ~15 years and the dry run protection timer relay ~2 yrs.

We replaced the suction side foot valve with a fancy 2 1/2" BSPT unit some 8" in dia that came with a nice filter sock but too fine as it blocked with the fine algae in the pond and tripped the pump dry run protection. 
Had me fooked for a while what the problem was but satisfied my hobbled together protection circuit worked just fine ! 

[mansaxel]

Proper JIS are hard to find and expensive if you do. I came across a Japanese"Dollar Store" type shop in the UAE of all places a couple of years ago and they had some. Most were indeterminate or philips but the were some JIS. I bought the entire stock (only about 6 of various sizes).
The best "cross head" screwdriver I have is the removable bit in my Leatherman Wave Ti. It seems to fit ANY #1 or#2 size cross head screw.

I bought a JIS No. 1 / 2 / 3 set, by Vessel (which is a quality brand), from a UK motor cycle dealer a year or so ago, before Brexit, so shipping fees and time were OK. Not exactly cheap, but Vessel never is. I have a bunch of japanese radios, Icom and Yaesu, and they're substantially easier to open with the right gear.

[McBryce]

I'm sure I've seen Phillips, JIS and slot head too on older HP TEA, maybe due to them being produced in different places all over the world.

Could be. I'm a ham and I do know that many of the radios have JIS screws (another one that looks like Phillips). Only one other ham actually knew that. There is a very small "dot" on the top of the screw that indicates JIS. But ... of course they all use Phillips to take out the screws, and couldn't care less about getting the correct screwdriver LOL. 

Most hams probably use flat blades on those screws as well 

You're assuming there was no butter knife nearby?

McBryce.

[Wolfgang]

People are always strange and unpredictable. Test equipment is not. Which is why we prefer interacting with test equipment.

I have to say that this only applies to garden variety test equipment. Everything that scratches on the limits of physics IS strange and unpredictable.
Example: 8 1/2 digit multimeters, FSWP phase noise analyzers, extreme bandwidth scopes, ...

[Cerebus]

Looking interesting. The stinking big OCXO gives it away  .

As I say, just mucking about at the moment. When I started i didn't know if I was laying out a breakout/dev board for the STM32F411 like the filename suggests, or a n F411 + FPGA dev board, or doing a dry run on what it obviously became. I've got a couple of very nice Trimble Resolution-T GPS timing boards, one of which is the PPS source for my NTP server and the other which I've earmarked for a GPSDO. They have a "difficult to find a mating part for" hard-metric header on and I thought the discipline of adding a footprint for a daughter board seemed like a useful learning tool - so the GPSDO route was taken.

I do have to say one thing about kicad and that is most of the problems you are seeing are endemic to the Mac version of it. There’s something about Qt and Cocoa which is just entirely fuckity wherever has been portrd. But I’m using 5.1.9, on windows, and it’s absolutely fine. I’m doing all the EDA stuff on windows due to the “principle of least buggery”.

Except they use wxWidgets, so Qt can't take the blame for that one. I found the same UI problems in earlier versions of KiCad on both Linux and Windows before there was a Mac version. There's just a wild lack of consistency some of which which screams "For god's sake refactor this thing so that the same actions use the same bit of code" and the other half of the scream is "... and learn something about how people use things - a five to ten key press workaround is not the same as doing something right in the first place".

Edit: I’ve looked at some of the UBlox modules recently and I reckon they are hand solderable as well. That brings the BOM cost and board size of such things down considerably. And yes I have the same thing planned

The Resolution-T (see below) limits how small I can spin this so I thought I might as well go for the whole 100mm x 100mm and get my money's worth. 



BD139 for scale.