Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

I received a TEK1503 cable tester today. It uses the same CRT and TEK326. Therefore, I plan to use it to repair the damaged CRT 326. However, after receiving it, I found that this 1503 is very new and very beautiful, so what should I do?

The answer is quite obvious imho. Keep it and look for another source for the CRT. 

[capt bullshot]

I received a TEK1503 cable tester today. It uses the same CRT and TEK326. Therefore, I plan to use it to repair the damaged CRT 326. However, after receiving it, I found that this 1503 is very new and very beautiful, so what should I do?

Of course, keep (and repair if necessary) the 1503 and carry on searching for another spare tube.

[Robert763]

In the post today was my "Parts or repair" £42 Fluke 8060A. Seller said "display fades". Well there was nothing on the LCD 
So a quick look indicated it had not been had at. Reseating the LCD Zebra strip made no difference  so i pulled th min PCB to display PCB zebra and flipped it over. Screwed back together and all is good 
As for calibration, see image below, can't beat a 8060A  This one came with a soft case and two sets of leads, one genuine Fluke with the croc clips.

[jxjbsd]

I received a TEK1503 cable tester today. It uses the same CRT and TEK326. Therefore, I plan to use it to repair the damaged CRT 326. However, after receiving it, I found that this 1503 is very new and very beautiful, so what should I do?

The answer is quite obvious imho. Keep it and look for another source for the CRT. 

I think I made a decision, even though it was a difficult decision, and I don’t know right or wrong. 

[mansaxel]

I think I made a decision, even though it was a difficult decision, and I don’t know right or wrong. 

Now you simply need to locate a replacement CRT for the 1503. Easy.

[bd139]

In the post today was my "Parts or repair" £42 Fluke 8060A. Seller said "display fades". Well there was nothing on the LCD 
So a quick look indicated it had not been had at. Reseating the LCD Zebra strip made no difference  so i pulled th min PCB to display PCB zebra and flipped it over. Screwed back together and all is good 
As for calibration, see image below, can't beat a 8060A  This one came with a soft case and two sets of leads, one genuine Fluke with the croc clips.

That’s exactly all I did with my 8060A a while back.

Make sure you swap the caps out in it still as they tend to give up fairly quickly and cause damage.

Here’s what I swapped out of mine https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/old-fluke-multimeters/msg3167894/#msg3167894

[jxjbsd]

I think I made a decision, even though it was a difficult decision, and I don’t know right or wrong. 

Now you simply need to locate a replacement CRT for the 1503. Easy.

This may be the joy of TEA. 

[med6753]

I think I made a decision, even though it was a difficult decision, and I don’t know right or wrong. 

Now you simply need to locate a replacement CRT for the 1503. Easy.

This may be the joy of TEA. 

Wow. Tough choice. But I've been there. It is so hard to make the decision that something becomes a parts unit. My recent 485 Moe, Larry. Curly rebuild to get at least 2 functional scopes is a prime example. But hopefully you can find a replacement CRT for that 1503.

[jxjbsd]

Heart transplantation work will begin.
A strong heart, emitting a strong blue light, very good

[mnementh]

I received a TEK1503 cable tester today. It uses the same CRT and TEK326. Therefore, I plan to use it to repair the damaged CRT 326. However, after receiving it, I found that this 1503 is very new and very beautiful, so what should I do?

Keep it, and love it, and play with the not-very-common X-Y plotter output like a good little boy... 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Oh dear... and I did try so hard to say that with a straight face... 

mnem

[tonyalbus]

Okey that went well ... now i need to sell first to get is covered for the Siglent SSA2031
Means i need to sell..... okey i can do that 

Anritsu goes ,both of them....and some powersupplies i had duobles... some little stuff
together with some affiliate poins... it should cover.

Now the tetris starts.. 

[tonyalbus]

My coockie or what it arranges to stay logged in... does not work.. i keep being logged out and when i log in again i am not in this treath again..
any advice on this guys?

[mnementh]

Set your browser to accept cookies for eevblog.com again.

Also... am I the only one here...? When I see Tony's poster with his callsign... at first glance, I read pen01s... 

mnem
Every. Damned. Time.

[mnementh]

When test equipment sellers start mentioning "Low Serial number" or "for collectors" you'll know it's time to find a new hobby.

Good call.  However; I'm in this because (I want to) need the capabilities of the instruments I'm piling up. I want the instruments to live an extended useful life, as if they were in their natural habitat, albeit an environment where caring for investments and learning through maintenance is valued.  The Venn diagram between corporate activities and this my dream is not exactly Yin/Yang close.

As a consequence function always trumps mint-condition-ness. OTOH, I never change something just because.

I recognize that chart...

mnem

[Cubdriver]

An example of the opposite of the packaging we see all to often from sellers of gear on the bay (and, for that matter, all too often from Amazon, too).  I went to weld the broken end of my friend's lawn mower handlebar yesterday and discovered that the battery in my auto darkening helmet had moved on to the big charger in the sky.  It's a lithium coin cell, so for starters I looked on Amazon to see if it would be easier to order it than to make a special trip to the store to get one.  Found it there; for $3.46 shipped next day to my door it was a no brainer.  It'd be almost that in gas to go to and from the store to buy one.  It arrived this morning.  In a 6 x 9 x 5" box (~155 x 225 x 125mm for you metric types), cushioned with 8 air pillows.



Perhaps it needed to be packaged that way due to shipping regs (it sports a UN3090 battery warning sticker on the side), but I was quite surprised and expected it to show up in a padded envelope.  Less than $3.50 packed like that and delivered next day HAS to be a loss leader for them!

-Pat

[mnementh]

We notice you're not mentioning whatever other naughty stuff you ordered to make the minimum... 

mnem
*awaiting birthday prezzies for wife that were supposed to be here days ago*

[Cubdriver]

We notice you're not mentioning whatever other naughty stuff you ordered to make the minimum... 

mnem
*awaiting birthday prezzies for wife that were supposed to be here days ago*

That's actually the ONLY thing I ordered!  Didn't need anything else at the time, and truth be told I'm rather surprised that there wasn't some minimum.  But I figure I'm paying them for Prime, might as well use it.

-Pat

[mnementh]

Hmmm... Here there's a $25 minimum for free next day, even for members. Otherwise it's 2-3 day shipping. And they've been failing miserably even on that score lately; the load from this 3rd wave of COVID lockdowns has probably got them slammed again. Or at least that's the excuse they're gonna use...

In Other News...



I hoped I'd be able to avoid this particular misery and just do a quick blow-out with compressed air; no such luck. 

mnem
meh.

[bd139]

No minimum here. Ordered £1.87 coloured pencils yesterday (Sunday) same day delivery 

[Cubdriver]

I find there's not much rhyme nor reason for next day minimums.  It seems that to get next day delivery on a lot of things there is a minimum order amount (can't exactly recall if it's $25, $30 or $35; perhaps it varies with the tide and phase of the moon or something), but in this instance there was none.  Perhaps the minimum varies depending on what's in stock where, and they have more local warehouses now so it's a matter of 'a truck is going right by there anyway, add the cheap thing to the load' and get the economy of scale while making the customer happy too.  I haven't been using them as much lately (trying it rein in my profligate spending of late and stop fattening Jeff Bezos' wallet), but in my experience after everything being a horrific mess last year shipping wise that they have, here at least, gotten pretty much back on track with timely deliveries in my neck of the woods. 

-Pat

[mnementh]

I just checked... I have orders from 4 different days now supposedly "out for delivery". 

mnem
*hole-y*

[SilverSolder]

An example of the opposite of the packaging we see all to often from sellers of gear on the bay (and, for that matter, all too often from Amazon, too).  I went to weld the broken end of my friend's lawn mower handlebar yesterday and discovered that the battery in my auto darkening helmet had moved on to the big charger in the sky.  It's a lithium coin cell, so for starters I looked on Amazon to see if it would be easier to order it than to make a special trip to the store to get one.  Found it there; for $3.46 shipped next day to my door it was a no brainer.  It'd be almost that in gas to go to and from the store to buy one.  It arrived this morning.  In a 6 x 9 x 5" box (~155 x 225 x 125mm for you metric types), cushioned with 8 air pillows.



Perhaps it needed to be packaged that way due to shipping regs (it sports a UN3090 battery warning sticker on the side), but I was quite surprised and expected it to show up in a padded envelope.  Less than $3.50 packed like that and delivered next day HAS to be a loss leader for them!

-Pat

I once had a Micro-SD card delivered from Amazon in the same way - except the box was even bigger, probably twice as large in each dimension as the one they sent you.  You must have somehow insulted them! 

[SilverSolder]

Hmmm... Here there's a $25 minimum for free next day, even for members. Otherwise it's 2-3 day shipping.   [...]

Yeah, I got so tired of that I ended up canceling my membership and live with the fact of 2-3 day shipping (which it had turned into anyway).

On the plus side, a ~$100 extra budget per year for toys!

[Cerebus]

More OCXO shenanigans.

Decided to give one of the OCXOs a winter overcoat and see how it performs in that. So, a nice warm jacket made of closed cell polyethylene foam (the kind that truly careful equipment packaging is made from). The OCXO's the right way up this time, insulated on all sides and the leads led out of holes made in the bottom of the foam with a bit of stainless steel wire heated up on the gas stove. Agains, a little uncalibrated 100k NTC bead thermistor taped to the OCXO. Taped to the underside this time, theory being that I'd mount an SMD thermistor on the board to monitor the OCXO temperature in its final resting place. Given the mechanical as well as thermal sensitivity of crystals, it strikes me that this might not be too bad a way of mounting the crystal anyway.

So, tailoring:



Warm up curve:



Section from the last half hour of monitoring where the temperature curve is essentially flat, with a different scale so we can see what the variation is once it's 'stable'.



d(temp)/dt plotted as well with both to get a feel for rates of change, stability, and noise in the temperature measurements. I'm thinking of using d(temp)/dt as a way of detecting that the OCXO has reached a comfortably stable operating condition, so I want to see the temperature derivative for that reason too.