Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[xrunner]

I know it is been said lots of times already, but thats what comes of being busy doing other stuff all day long. I'm late to the party, but yes, you will fit right in here, welcome to the clubhouse, we are all a really friendly bunch most of the time and as in all walks of life, you will see the occasional flare of mild hostilities between one or two members but just as suddenly it flares up, it also stops as it dawns on them that we all hold our own opinions on certain topics and nothing will ever change that. It would be very boring if we all thought the same things all the time I'm sure of that   

You have a problem you that you're struggling with, mention it here, and you'll find lots of very useful advice and support being sent your way.

Welcome to the TEA group.

Well said. 

I mentioned a certain variac earlier ...

While I'm waiting on another new TEA item (an hp E3611A, same seller I got the 5385A from) I decided to look into this lovely blue variac I got several years ago. I thought I'd retrofit the crappy panel meter with an upgraded digital AC meter. Better inspect the insides too. I didn't think it was going to be wired up very well, and I wasn't wrong LOL.

They routed the green ground to a terminal which was placed between the inner and outer parts of the metal case. Problem was, the ground terminal made no connection whatsoever to the case. This because of the thick coating of blue enamel paint (I'll give them credit for a good paint job). I had to remove some of the paint so the ground would be connected. I also replaced the green wire and the terminal.

However, the ground still didn't make it to the front bezel where the switch, meter, and outlet was. Again, because of paint, the long screws, while making ground contact with the main case, didn't complete it to the bezel. There was no bonding point for a ground terminal either. More removing of paint.

Although the power switch was working, it failed after I replaced more of the wiring, some of which went to the switch and was soldered to it. The black plastic material of its case is of such poor quality that it melted a little bit and the terminals inside moved just enough so the mechanism stopped making contact. They should have used push-on connectors. Ordered a new one (different manufacturer), and will replace the wiring with push-on connectors.

The dial markings on top are nearly useless because it appears to be calibrated for 110 VAC input (my line voltage here is 124 VAC). All it really needs on it is a "LOW" marker and a "HIGH" marker and a note "LOOK AT THE FRONT METER". Also, the dial divisions are ... 13 volts. Well, the max voltage on the dial is 130 VAC, and the boss said "I want 10 equal divisions on the dial!" OK, the dial designer person divided 130 by 10. LOL.

I designed an adapter for the new digital meter and 3D printed it (might need some minor adjustments when I get the meter). The new meter has a square display bezel but a round back. I'll show it if I ever get the meter. The shipping time these days is abominable.

When the hp E3611 gets here I'll look inside it. That will hopefully clean out the memory of this abomination.

[Cerebus]

I have multiple ex-tv-repairmen as colleagues and they repair every tv remote with "lazy" buttons just by putting al foil/ al tape in there. The "cigarettes pack al paper" thing propably dates back to when everyone still smoked... They discouraged me to even try graphite paint because it was tried and works for a while but wears pretty fast.

Edit: I literally was so impressed by the K2000 cleaning result I tried the exact same thing on my stereo remote a day later. No cigar. Ended up putting little specks of al tape on the black rubber domes and it's good as new.

Edit#2: I'm talking "aluminium adhesive tape" here, the kind a plumber would use on joints of pipe thermal insulation.

I'm (ex TV repair man) using copper adhesive tape and put on this a thin layer of 24k Gold (beaten gold).
Never had any problems again.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/360892458973

I'm a bit of an idiot. I've got a decent sized pack of proper pure gold leaf and it had never even occurred to me to go and get it out whenever I've needed to patch up some contacts. 

Just checked, 22 off 8 x 8 cm leaves left from a pack of 25 that cost me just over £20 around fifteen years back. Given what's happened to gold prices over the last few years that's probably worth 3 times as much now.

[Brumby]

No money to buy fancy modern test gear of course, so I started searching for old stuff that were still good enough to be used, and preferably broken so I could get them real cheap. So I was repairing TE, or anything really, for the first time... was so fun an exciting, became addicted, started buying broken test gear I didn't even need, that I already had an example of......

That's the line that nailed it for me.  Your photos just underlined it all and I wanted to say .... ummmm ....

Well you’re definitely in the right place  . Welcome and epic first post 

Yep.  That's what I wanted to say!

Anyway, enough of me, just meant to say hi, won't bother you anymore...

No bother at all.  DON'T be a stranger.  (Well, no stranger than any of the rest of us .... which is hardly a limitation.)

[mnementh]

Hello people,

Sorry to interrupt, didn't want to, but Tautech just told me I may have a problem with TE and suggested I come here to say hi. So, hi... Better grab a cup of coffee and packet of biscuits, just saying...

Welcome, welcome... insanity loves company, and yours is quite well-honed.

The neverending taco truck is in the corner, and bean's making laser toys, so the coffee should be nice & hot; and you'll wanna watch oot for a grumpy Smurf with a can of bloo spray paint, he'll turn everything you own pseudo-Tek blue. bd139 is mostly harmless unless you see him playing with HV; if you see Saskia stuffing something, be forewarned... that is not a towel roll in her hands, but more likely a delivery vehicle of some sort... Oh, and the pervy little dragon fancier schtick is my personality flaw; get your own! 

mnem

[tggzzz]

Got an addiction for fluorescent displays too ! Be them old Nixie tubes, or  more modern VFD's from the '90s.
Scored a rare cool 8 Nixie digits 160MHz Metrix Frequency counter ! A DX446A
...
So the move into my new house is the opportunity to take my lab to version 2.0 : try to control my GAS for the better : reduce my collection of gear, a bit, in order to better equip my lab with useful stuff. What good is it to have 35 scopes if I don't even have an ESR meter to check caps on all the old stuff I keep finding myself trying to repair ? I ask....

Once you've seen Panaplex displays, you'll want to have some. Ditto the HP "dotted" seven segment LEDs.

You have plenty of tools for measuring voltage vs time, but how about voltage vs frequency, or frequency vs time? Plus, of course, tools that demonstrate your other tools are working within spec.

BTW, welcome

[mnementh]

Edit: Just the other day I had a K2000 with horrible buttons. Gave the gold contacts and the rubber domes a good wipe with cotton ear buds soaked in "Teslanol Oszillin". To my surprise they were good as new. Does not work that way with tv remotes.

Have tried various methods on other switches with no great success, so I was glad to find some actual conductive pads. I think a soft pad should make a better contact than a harder one, even if it does wear quicker.

But thanks for the suggestion - I shall certainly try cleaning before replacing them. Maybe the keithley parts are better quality than the devices I've tried to repair in the past.
 

I have multiple ex-tv-repairmen as colleagues and they repair every tv remote with "lazy" buttons just by putting al foil/ al tape in there. The "cigarettes pack al paper" thing propably dates back to when everyone still smoked... They discouraged me to even try graphite paint because it was tried and works for a while but wears pretty fast.

Edit: I literally was so impressed by the K2000 cleaning result I tried the exact same thing on my stereo remote a day later. No cigar. Ended up putting little specks of al tape on the black rubber domes and it's good as new.

Edit#2: I'm talking "aluminium adhesive tape" here, the kind a plumber would use on joints of pipe thermal insulation.

Been fixing TVs and TV remotes for decades and I never do that; it causes skips in the IR code which causes multiple iterations, and actually wears the gold or carbon contact matrix off the PCB.

The carbon pads that artag got have been around for easily 20 years; they are the right way to repair any membrane remote that cannot be fixed with cleaning.

mnem
 

[tautech]

I've much enjoyed reading Vince's posts for some years now particularly his thought processes and deliberations in his repair threads and although they can seem long winded like his introduction CV to TEA they also convey some detailed description of how he got to a certain point and why which is something we could all possibly improve on for readers to gain the benefit of our knowledge.
Nothing like writing something up to properly convey good understanding to readers, share the experience and further cement what you have learnt into the grey matter between the ears.

To my surprise I've even overlooked Vince is from France.......Rainbow Warrior ! 

Anyways, yes I'm guilty of directing him here after spotting that rack of his glowing Tek scopes in another thread.

[mnementh]

Yes mine arrived in only 6 days end to end. I think it's the seller as my JLCPCB order has entered the 4px void for the last 5 days now 

They seem to use Orange Connex as their courier or possibly for full logistics and in the past I'd sort of half noticed that stuff coming via Orange Connex seems to get here very quickly with no fuss.

Perhaps Orange Connex will put in a takeover bid for Royal Mail - please, pretty please. 

Maybe over there, but here they're an utter shitshow.

mnem
Never again.

[Kosmic]

I was not going to let Robert and Bean having all the fun with the thermal imagers, so I decided to start scanning ebay for a cheap one.

So I already have a lab style thermal imager (Calibrated, with multiple lens etc ... https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg2746508/#msg2746508) but, I wanted something more mobile I could carry where I wanted to. With a battery and its own screen.

Last week I found this one:



Ok it's huge but, it was cheap and got its own screen and power source. The Bullard TIx is an old Firefighting thermal imager. Normally the thermal imager coming from fire department unit are beaten to death but this one is in remarkably good condition. Was sold for parts and the seller did precise in the description that the camera was starting but screen was staying black.

After getting the camera and testing a little bit with my 1A bench power supply, I realized it needed more juice. Switched to a bigger PSU and the camera started correctly. When booting up it need a good 1 amp, then stay at 800ma for a while and stabilize at 200ma after something like 10 seconds. In the warming up phase (10s) the screen stay dark.

So the seller had the wrong power supply or was too impatient to wait more than 10s. In any case I got a good deal 

The Bullard ITx is equipped with a Raytheon 300D thermal core with a resolution of 320x240 and 30Hz refresh rate. It’s using a Barium Strontium Titanate (BST) detector, which is the older technology replaced by cheaper and simpler Microbolometer. Apparently they stopped making BST core because of complexity and production cost but the image quality is supposed to be really good.



My soldering Iron.


You can manually close the Iris to lower heat sensitivity.


A snap of the workshop. Image quality is a lot better in real. Because the Bullard ITx is lacking a video out I had to grab a picture of the cheap LCD with my camera.


The inside is really simple. This is pretty much a Raytheon 300D thermal core with a LCD in an enclosure 


Next steps are, finding a suitable battery and adding a video out.

As a side note, I found the listed price, and in 2008 they were selling it for only 18,500$US 

[mnementh]

Mmmm... MINTy fresh...

At least something positive came of today's efforts; today I applied my "last resort" cleaning method of scrubbing carefully with methyl hydrate  on a paper towel, and successfully removed numerous stubborn spots on the screens of this and my wife's computer monitor. Both restored 100%.

Surgery on the power brick from the 30in Cinema display yielded bupkis; voltage remained solid & steady when monitor plugged in, and id resistor tested good with correct voltage dropped across it when plugged into monitor. Gonna have to tear that beast apart; but given age and design, high likelihood of a dead/cracked CCFL tube.

For now I think I'm just going to enjoy the new cheese grater for a while; I'd like to have some constructive experience with it before I decide its fate.   

Cheers,

mnem
*clickity-click-clicky-clicky-clickity...*

[beanflying]

By the power of non essential use of TEA I declare a 'Heatwave' (pommie definition) and end to works the so remaining Buddleja lives another day. 

I was not going to let Robert and Bean having all the fun with the thermal imagers, so I decided to start scanning ebay for a cheap one.

Positive of yours if anyone gives you sh1t about its functionality  use it as a weapon to correct their verbal cerebral interface 

[mnementh]

Agreed; that thing is designed to hold up to Firefighters; we're talking aboot a breed who can break a Halligan bar.

mnem
And then drink you under the table at the bar of the same name.

[beanflying]

Not my add eBay auction: #114748519508 Wonder where the probe goes.....






_{yes it is 1/4 here}

[Robert763]

Another quick teardown from the stuff I acquired at the weekend, this time a mystery control panel (not TEA) from Cossor made for the military, as it was only a couple of £'s it followed me home.
..
David

All I see is lots of rotary Decade Resistance and Capacitance boxes in your future life or the base for a Coffee TEA Table

Yes it has to be one of the most useless items I've bought, there is only enough rotary switches (6) for one decade box, the others are strange thing with a couple numbers/letters, 0-7 & T and one that only has even numbers. I forgot to mention the seven miniature projection displays.

Hey something I know what it is for once.  It’s an IFF unit test fixture. I designed the replacement of its replacement 

To note the replacement was 95% software.

Thanks, I was wondering what the heck it was once used for. 

David

BD139 beat me to it. IFF Transponder test set.
Take one of the thumbwheels apart, you may find that there is a stop pin which if removed will at least give you a BCD thumbwheel.
Then you can do a bunch of capacitiance decades with 1,2,4,8 xF or mayber R/2R resstance 

[Robert763]

I was not going to let Robert and Bean having all the fun with the thermal imagers, so I decided to start scanning ebay for a cheap one.

So I already have a lab style thermal imager (Calibrated, with multiple lens etc ... https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg2746508/#msg2746508) but, I wanted something more mobile I could carry where I wanted to. With a battery and its own screen.

Last week I found this one:



Ok it's huge but, it was cheap and got its own screen and power source. The Bullard TIx is an old Firefighting thermal imager. Normally the thermal imager coming from fire department unit are beaten to death but this one is in remarkably good condition. Was sold for parts and the seller did precise in the description that the camera was starting but screen was staying black.

After getting the camera and testing a little bit with my 1A bench power supply, I realized it needed more juice. Switched to a bigger PSU and the camera started correctly. When booting up it need a good 1 amp, then stay at 800ma for a while and stabilize at 200ma after something like 10 seconds. In the warming up phase (10s) the screen stay dark.

So the seller had the wrong power supply or was too impatient to wait more than 10s. In any case I got a good deal 

The Bullard ITx is equipped with a Raytheon 300D thermal core with a resolution of 320x240 and 30Hz refresh rate. It’s using a Barium Strontium Titanate (BST) detector, which is the older technology replaced by cheaper and simpler Microbolometer. Apparently they stopped making BST core because of complexity and production cost but the image quality is supposed to be really good.



My soldering Iron.


You can manually close the Iris to lower heat sensitivity.


A snap of the workshop. Image quality is a lot better in real. Because the Bullard ITx is lacking a video out I had to grab a picture of the cheap LCD with my camera.


The inside is really simple. This is pretty much a Raytheon 300D thermal core with a LCD in an enclosure 


Next steps are, finding a suitable battery and adding a video out.

As a side note, I found the listed price, and in 2008 they were selling it for only 18,500$US 

Nice. Same IS engine as my Wasp. The Wasp has video out but no manual iris. Easy to add video out to yours though You can pick it up as raw video from the engine or after processing. The Engine had to have Video out due to bizare ITAR regulations. A "Sensor" was fully restricted, but there was a exemption for "Cameras". However the 30 FPS means these are still ITAR items so be careful if you cross the border with it.

[Robert763]

I know it is been said lots of times already, but thats what comes of being busy doing other stuff all day long. I'm late to the party, but yes, you will fit right in here, welcome to the clubhouse, we are all a really friendly bunch most of the time and as in all walks of life, you will see the occasional flare of mild hostilities between one or two members but just as suddenly it flares up, it also stops as it dawns on them that we all hold our own opinions on certain topics and nothing will ever change that. It would be very boring if we all thought the same things all the time I'm sure of that   

You have a problem you that you're struggling with, mention it here, and you'll find lots of very useful advice and support being sent your way.

Welcome to the TEA group.

Well said. 

I mentioned a certain variac earlier ...

While I'm waiting on another new TEA item (an hp E3611A, same seller I got the 5385A from) I decided to look into this lovely blue variac I got several years ago. I thought I'd retrofit the crappy panel meter with an upgraded digital AC meter. Better inspect the insides too. I didn't think it was going to be wired up very well, and I wasn't wrong LOL.

They routed the green ground to a terminal which was placed between the inner and outer parts of the metal case. Problem was, the ground terminal made no connection whatsoever to the case. This because of the thick coating of blue enamel paint (I'll give them credit for a good paint job). I had to remove some of the paint so the ground would be connected. I also replaced the green wire and the terminal.

However, the ground still didn't make it to the front bezel where the switch, meter, and outlet was. Again, because of paint, the long screws, while making ground contact with the main case, didn't complete it to the bezel. There was no bonding point for a ground terminal either. More removing of paint.

Although the power switch was working, it failed after I replaced more of the wiring, some of which went to the switch and was soldered to it. The black plastic material of its case is of such poor quality that it melted a little bit and the terminals inside moved just enough so the mechanism stopped making contact. They should have used push-on connectors. Ordered a new one (different manufacturer), and will replace the wiring with push-on connectors.

The dial markings on top are nearly useless because it appears to be calibrated for 110 VAC input (my line voltage here is 124 VAC). All it really needs on it is a "LOW" marker and a "HIGH" marker and a note "LOOK AT THE FRONT METER". Also, the dial divisions are ... 13 volts. Well, the max voltage on the dial is 130 VAC, and the boss said "I want 10 equal divisions on the dial!" OK, the dial designer person divided 130 by 10. LOL.

I designed an adapter for the new digital meter and 3D printed it (might need some minor adjustments when I get the meter). The new meter has a square display bezel but a round back. I'll show it if I ever get the meter. The shipping time these days is abominable.

When the hp E3611 gets here I'll look inside it. That will hopefully clean out the memory of this abomination.

That variable transformer is crap, don't dignifiy it with "variac". The only thing holding the mains lead in is hot snot and it looks like there is some on the winding too
I'dask for my money back. No  way it meets any safety code.

[Ice-Tea]

FW: E3630A and S: MY40003366  caps broken

Dear Mr. Ice-Tea,

We have been working on your request to help you with the caps and we have some good news.

Our service center had ordered these parts and received them now.
We will send them to your address (given below) and this will be free of charge for you.

Thank you for contacting us and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,


Nice Fella
Customer Contact Center Benelux

Keysight Technologies Belgium BV

 

[greasemonkey]

A few weeks ago I asked the degenerate enablers fine gentlemen of this thread if it would be worth it to buy a recently calibrated K2001.

Your support gave me the strength to resist my impulses and not buy it. In its stead I bought this:

[/attach]

Anyway BIG thumbs up for instrumex.de  . They got me a great deal on this DMM7510. I will certainly use them again.

[BU508A]

I've got my DMM7510 from instrumex as well. It was a good deal, too.
Can recommend them.

Btw, my 7510 has the IP 192.168.1.7   

[greasemonkey]

I've got my DMM7510 from instrumex as well. It was a good deal, too.
Can recommend them.

Btw, my 7510 has the IP 192.168.1.7   

Oops! I did not obfuscate my IP. I am going to be hacked now. 

[tggzzz]

Hello people,

Sorry to interrupt, didn't want to, but Tautech just told me I may have a problem with TE and suggested I come here to say hi. So, hi...

Better grab a cup of coffee and packet of biscuits, just saying...

You have a problem you that you're struggling with, mention it here, and you'll find lots of very useful advice and support being sent your way.

That is, of course, support for your addiction - not support to cease being an addict.

[AVGresponding]

I mentioned a certain variac earlier ...

While I'm waiting on another new TEA item (an hp E3611A, same seller I got the 5385A from) I decided to look into this lovely blue variac I got several years ago. I thought I'd retrofit the crappy panel meter with an upgraded digital AC meter. Better inspect the insides too. I didn't think it was going to be wired up very well, and I wasn't wrong LOL.

They routed the green ground to a terminal which was placed between the inner and outer parts of the metal case. Problem was, the ground terminal made no connection whatsoever to the case. This because of the thick coating of blue enamel paint (I'll give them credit for a good paint job). I had to remove some of the paint so the ground would be connected. I also replaced the green wire and the terminal.

However, the ground still didn't make it to the front bezel where the switch, meter, and outlet was. Again, because of paint, the long screws, while making ground contact with the main case, didn't complete it to the bezel. There was no bonding point for a ground terminal either. More removing of paint.

Although the power switch was working, it failed after I replaced more of the wiring, some of which went to the switch and was soldered to it. The black plastic material of its case is of such poor quality that it melted a little bit and the terminals inside moved just enough so the mechanism stopped making contact. They should have used push-on connectors. Ordered a new one (different manufacturer), and will replace the wiring with push-on connectors.

The dial markings on top are nearly useless because it appears to be calibrated for 110 VAC input (my line voltage here is 124 VAC). All it really needs on it is a "LOW" marker and a "HIGH" marker and a note "LOOK AT THE FRONT METER". Also, the dial divisions are ... 13 volts. Well, the max voltage on the dial is 130 VAC, and the boss said "I want 10 equal divisions on the dial!" OK, the dial designer person divided 130 by 10. LOL.

I designed an adapter for the new digital meter and 3D printed it (might need some minor adjustments when I get the meter). The new meter has a square display bezel but a round back. I'll show it if I ever get the meter. The shipping time these days is abominable.

When the hp E3611 gets here I'll look inside it. That will hopefully clean out the memory of this abomination.

Hard to tell from the pics, but it looks like there's no overall coating on the windings?



Haven't sorted out a case for mine yet, or decided on a meter. Can't make up my mind whether to use a cheap LED ACV meter or the power meter I got when I made a mains load tester before I got a HOPI.



Here's a pic from work yesterday. The grille is part of a new radiator and cover, it's fixed in well, and all heating engineers plumbers pipe fitters are arseholes.

[bd139]

Hahaha that’s terrible 

[VK5RC]

Some years ago we did an extension to our house, I was amazed at the variation in the standard of the tradies, some were brilliant - amazing to see their work, a few were so bad that we escorted them off the property. The biggest hassle was that you just had to be around to sort out issues before they came too big.

[bd139]

I’m a cheap ass and you know it. What do you think? 

Sticking with the SDS1202X-E ?

Yes. That was disposed of due to the pending move as it was going to be 12-18 months of short finances and hell. I’ve corrected this now I’ve got the deposit back so there’s a shiny new one arriving on Saturday