Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

Arrived today. More coming soon ...

 

[capt bullshot]

Arrived today. More coming soon ...

 

That display looks cool, old Monsanto MAN1 type?

[med6753]

Arrived today. More coming soon ...

 

[BU508A]

Arrived today. More coming soon ...

 

That display looks cool, old Monsanto MAN1 type?

Don't know. Maybe I can tell, when I've opened the device. Will do that at the weekend.

[Cubdriver]

If that 2440 was working as claimed, then why the feck wouldn't they photograph it working???

That's one that's always puzzled me, too.  You claim it works; plug it in, turn it on and take a picture.  It would be a big positive towards getting a sale.  Of course the same skepticism causes me to doubt people who say "It'll work fine, you just need to replace the blown fuse."  Then why don't you put the $1.50 fuse in it and sell it as working for a lot more money than "non working, just needs new fuse"??  I was born at night, but it wasn't last night...

-Pat

[bd139]

Oh the ones with repair instructions always piss me right off. Or the “works fine but the timebase knob is missing” variety of descriptions. Grr 

Edit: also the “two things which are going to turn into a Newton’s cradle when shipped via Hermes but you only want one of them” auctions.

Seen all of them today 

[Neomys Sapiens]

That is hefty charge rate. No wonder the arrays can't keep up if you have bad weather.

Not so much as the 390AH series pair were pretty low after going flat and the system crashing from insufficient charge. Their actual resting voltage that day way just 11V but with that amount of charge going in they showed 12.6V on our remote monitoring. The panel orientation on that installation is not optimal as we used the existing pipe framework after the site was abandoned yet we could possibly unbolt it and rotate it 90^o to have it more like it should be however for sure the bolt holes wouldn't line up and we'd need to drill more holes in the concrete bunker it's on. This but now with 2 panels:

Another idea for generating electricity in your rural situation:
IIRC you have lots of cattle running around. Instead of a bell, fit them with a similar generating device and a supercap bank in the neckstrap. When full, the thing must get uncomfortably warm or itchy until they discharge it into one of the terminals. Problem solved.
 
Moooo....Zzot....Bleep!

[bd139]

Thank you for that. 54520a added to watch list 

Same seller also has a 1.5GHz probe, but it is a bit expensive: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274825509075

I have three of them, so don't need more. They are my favourite probe - but I can't afford FET differential probes

Yes I saw that. However you can frig yourself one of them for a considerably lower number of notes. Probably won’t do 1.5GHz but not far off it.

[bd139]

That is hefty charge rate. No wonder the arrays can't keep up if you have bad weather.

Not so much as the 390AH series pair were pretty low after going flat and the system crashing from insufficient charge. Their actual resting voltage that day way just 11V but with that amount of charge going in they showed 12.6V on our remote monitoring. The panel orientation on that installation is not optimal as we used the existing pipe framework after the site was abandoned yet we could possibly unbolt it and rotate it 90^o to have it more like it should be however for sure the bolt holes wouldn't line up and we'd need to drill more holes in the concrete bunker it's on. This but now with 2 panels:

Another idea for generating electricity in your rural situation:
IIRC you have lots of cattle running around. Instead of a bell, fit them with a similar generating device and a supercap bank in the neckstrap. When full, the thing must get uncomfortably warm or itchy until they discharge it into one of the terminals. Problem solved.
 
Moooo....Zzot....Bleep!

Tautech’s son: ”Hey Dad! There’s a smell of roast beef coming from the bottom field”  .

[Specmaster]

Update on the Casio WK3000 keyboard.

After resolving the liquid damage to the PCB around the power switch, (carbon membrane type) and testing with a ohm meter, I reassembled the boards into the top half of the unit and then married the keyboard section to it and connected those bloody solid conductor ribbon cables (heat from iron melts the bloody insulation between conductors )

Plug power unit in and the thing won't switch on, just about to give up, and it powers up, display comes on and thats it. Switch off and power on again, and after a few presses of the power button it comes and works OK. Switch off and on, and it takes many presses of the power button before it fires up.

Replaced the power pack with a bench supply, so I can observe the current draw, and I notice something odd. Switch the power supply and set for 12.6V and there is zero current being drawn, as you would expect until the keyboard power switch is pressed. Press it, and it draws around 111mA but does not switch on. Press it again and hold it down and the current drawn increases to around 120mA, release, and it returns to 111mA. Switch off the power and on again and the process repeats, press the power switch a few times, and suddenly it will kick into life and draw about 240mA. Press the power switch again to switch it off, and sometimes it shut right off with zero draw, other times it returns to the 111ma but the display and all LEDs switch off giving the impression that it is dead when it clearly isnt.

All I can find online is the user manual, no service manual or schematics 

[med6753]

Oh the ones with repair instructions always piss me right off. Or the “works fine but the timebase knob is missing” variety of descriptions. Grr 

Edit: also the “two things which are going to turn into a Newton’s cradle when shipped via Hermes but you only want one of them” auctions.

Seen all of them today 

Ran when parked. 

[mnementh]

From the MAKE MY SON STOP WHINGING ME TO DEATH Dept...



A few days ago, I took my son thrifting... and he found this set of Turtle Beach gaming headphones in near-mint condition. As they were only $6 and I had fond memories of a similar set of Turtle Beach deep-cup headphones from back in the day, I didn't look too close except to note the USB plug and that the pads were in decent shape before dropping them in the bag as a replacement for his old Logitech gaming headphones, which as you can see are pretty well used up.
When we got them home I realized that they are not a USB headset, but actually a prehistoric all-analog design that just uses the USB for power.   



So I set them aside while I finished up the Yamaha Keyboard; I figured if I let the problem percolate a little in the back of my mind, I might come up with a better solution than hacking the cables with 1/8 headphone plugs to go into the back of the PC old-school style. 

The power jack was a pretty straightforward panel mount with a small roadbump in that there wasn't room for the nut, so I had to commit a bit of epoxy abuse. Some silicone wire made for power leads on my micro-quadcopters gave me a connection with a little flex, so I don't need to worry aboot stuff breaking loose, while not being a melty PITA to solder direct to the PCB.

After that it was relatively uneventful reassembly; wifey played with it for a bit and liked the feel as well as the default Piano voice, declaring it a good student keyboard, which is good enough for me.



So... back to the headphones... Tracing out the wires in the Logitech revealed that the PCB in the MUTE/VOL Control bug was a perfect place to marry the two together; they'd even thoughtfully labeled the solder pads on both units.     A little heat to wrangle the strain relief off the Logitech cable onto the wire from the TB headphones, and the reassembly was almost painless. I like painless.



Testing the newborn LogiTurtle Beach HeadPwns on Discord (the delay really helps you tell what is from the headphones and what is in your head) demonstrated that the mic works properly; a little streaming music yielded the awesome sound that made Turtle Beach famous: It's all in the drivers man.   

It's always good to show the kid that quality is quality, no matter how old. 

mnem

[Neomys Sapiens]

Can anyone round here give me a well-founded recommendation for a model or maker of a portable voice recorder (aka solid-state dictaphone)? Should take standard batteries and have a line-in.
Should also produce standard file format and have a interface of some sort.

The obvious answer in gear-head-land is the Nagra.

People who record music and can't afford the Nagra swear by the various Zoom recorders; the most likely in your scenario whould be the H1N, but I'd raise the bar and say that the H4N is about right. XLR inputs is a must on anything that records.

If you really want only a dictaphone replacement, there are a bunch of Olympus recorders that are very affordable and compact; you might have to search a bit for Line in, though.

In Germany, the Thomann store probably is the most economical way to get hold of these devices. I'm a happy customer -- haven't bought any recorders, but a piano and lots of sundry pro-audio items.

Edit: "Standard size batteries" (I'm thinking you mean a bunch of AAA or similar) is not a feature of these, as far as I can tell. Cheap built-in rechargeables have seen to that.

I'll think about a Nagra when you redo your cooling installation with launch-vehicle-grade tubing and pumps. 
The zoom devices are nice, but wayyy to capable. They ARE useful when doing ungentlemanly things in cases where heavy post-processing is required, though.
The thing Mnemeth proposed is already above the requirement in some parameters. Stereo was not required, for example. 'Voice' meant 'speech', not audiophile concert bootlegging.

[Cerebus]

If that 2440 was working as claimed, then why the feck wouldn't they photograph it working???

That's one that's always puzzled me, too.  You claim it works; plug it in, turn it on and take a picture.  It would be a big positive towards getting a sale.  Of course the same skepticism causes me to doubt people who say "It'll work fine, you just need to replace the blown fuse."  Then why don't you put the $1.50 fuse in it and sell it as working for a lot more money than "non working, just needs new fuse"??  I was born at night, but it wasn't last night...

-Pat

That suggests you're buying your fuses from the wrong guy. Those kind of fuses (5 x 20mm, BS1364, etc) ought to be less than £0.20 (3A 5 x 20mm £0.062 GBP, say $0.10 CDN).

[bd139]

Update on the Casio WK3000 keyboard.

After resolving the liquid damage to the PCB around the power switch, (carbon membrane type) and testing with a ohm meter, I reassembled the boards into the top half of the unit and then married the keyboard section to it and connected those bloody solid conductor ribbon cables (heat from iron melts the bloody insulation between conductors )

Plug power unit in and the thing won't switch on, just about to give up, and it powers up, display comes on and thats it. Switch off and power on again, and after a few presses of the power button it comes and works OK. Switch off and on, and it takes many presses of the power button before it fires up.

Replaced the power pack with a bench supply, so I can observe the current draw, and I notice something odd. Switch the power supply and set for 12.6V and there is zero current being drawn, as you would expect until the keyboard power switch is pressed. Press it, and it draws around 111mA but does not switch on. Press it again and hold it down and the current drawn increases to around 120mA, release, and it returns to 111mA. Switch off the power and on again and the process repeats, press the power switch a few times, and suddenly it will kick into life and draw about 240mA. Press the power switch again to switch it off, and sometimes it shut right off with zero draw, other times it returns to the 111ma but the display and all LEDs switch off giving the impression that it is dead when it clearly isnt.

All I can find online is the user manual, no service manual or schematics 

Best thing to do with those things is usually to unplug everything from the main board you can including the key bed and see if it’ll come up on its own. Then plug stuff in until it doesn’t. If nothing works then the main board is hosed. Casio used a bunch of shitty ASICs for their kit so there will be no useful service info anyway and the board is a write off instantly.

Also watch out for the jack and ancillary boards. Seems to be a design feature that they use those horrible brown FR2 boards that crack and soak up any moisture.

The more expensive brands aren’t much better. I once fought valiantly with a Korg Trinity for three months and found the issue was actually the SoC was fucked. Sold the thing in lots for parts in the end.

[mansaxel]

I'll think about a Nagra when you redo your cooling installation with launch-vehicle-grade tubing and pumps. 
The zoom devices are nice, but wayyy to capable. The thing Mnemeth proposed is already above the requirement in some parameters. Stereo was not required, for example. 'Voice' meant 'speech', not audiophile concert bootlegging.

Previous employer has lots of the Nagras.  They like them.

The nuances of recorded memos deserve full frequency response, good dynamic (TBH the most important part) and, of course, stereo.

You simply need to up the requirements a bit. 

And, my coolant pump is bronze. That gotta count for something.

[Robert763]

<SNIP>
If that 2440 was working as claimed, then why the feck wouldn't they photograph it working???

Because the seller is WEE / IT disposal company who:
A/ Were probably paid to take it away
B/ Don't know an oscilloscope from a PC
C/ Find it is cheaper to sell it at any price than pay for proper disposal

[factory]

Ahhh, yes... the ol' "Could be a crank sensor, could be a cam sensor... which do you replace first...?" conundrum. Which, in the absence of scope validation, is usually answered with "Cam sensor first; it's quickest and easiest to get to." unless it's hugely more expensive than the crank sensor.

This is of course dependent on what the service documentation says; sometimes even when the error code doesn't tell you which, the behavior of injectors vs coil will tell you which. A cheap set of noid lights is still one of your best low-tech investments for this kind of diag work.

mnem
 

Something like that but less critical to operation, the rev counter to be precise and the owner has no documentation as far as I know, or electrical knowledge either.
Yes he could try changing the sensor, but it could be the wiring or even the counter mechanism itself. I've no idea if he got anyone else to look at it since asking me, to be honest I have very little interest in old cars.

My Budget is below £100, which would rule out new scopes & the common Fluke/Philips & Tek ones mentioned previously. It's mainly to fill a gap in portability, a few months ago I was talking to a work colleague who was having car problems (old 90's Ford) and was asking for advise, I couldn't help as I haven't got the right TEA to properly diagnose the electrical fault.

Anyway, I would probably be best to find something that will take regular alkaline batteries as it probably wouldn't get used often, I think it would be easier to remove the batteries when not needed and not have to worry about them. Vintage scopes would be OK too, as I'm more likely to be able to repair older stuff without SM parts.

David

Stewart of Reading are advertising Fluke 97's for £75 that will just about hit your budget with VAT and post. They have 99b's for £125.

I've had a look at a thread on the Fluke/Philips 97 and it seems meet my requirements for being old and using ordinary batteries instead of the old NiCrud pack, price seems to be "from £75" according to one of their stocklists. I've sent an enquiry to them about one and something else from hp I spotted on the website. Hopefully they aren't completely knackered as the price seems a fair bit lower than ePay sold listings.

David

[Neomys Sapiens]

It's not easy to post from my shitty J6 but here's a few:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-3582A-Spectrum-Analyzer-/294239298862

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-5334A-Frequency-Counter-Hewlett-Packard-/114859062183

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lloyd-Instruments-MPM-1015-Three-Phase-Inverter-/373624969047

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Hewlett-Packard-54520A-500-MHz-Digital-Oscilloscope-1GS-s-500MSa-s-/274835321193

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TEKTRONIX-2440-500MS-S-DIGITAL-OSCILLOSCOPE-/324689570363

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hewlett-Packard-HP-11C-Programmable-Scientific-Calculator-with-Manual-/284341718967


One of my saved sellers seems to have acquired a large SK lot, it's in the US unfortunately:


[url=https://ebay.co.uk/usr/the]https://ebay.co.uk/usr/the*treasure*trove*[/url]
[/b][/color]

If that 2440 was working as claimed, then why the feck wouldn't they photograph it working???

So that you don't see that it is the version where the softkey menus don't work.

[factory]

One of my saved sellers seems to have acquired a large SK lot, it's in the US unfortunately:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/the*treasure*trove*

mnem

I've seen that seller before. I'm not going to say what it is, but I've had one of their items in my watch list that is incomplete for over 8 months, I did ask if they had the missing part, but they didn't and it's still at the same daft price, really they could do with adding offers if they want to sell it. 

Also just seen this item of incomplete junk from them, for the bargain price of $199. 
eBay auction: #304037076386
Makes you wonder if the other plug-ins on offer (that don't show the bottom view) are maybe in a similar condition.

David

[mnementh]

If that 2440 was working as claimed, then why the feck wouldn't they photograph it working???

That's one that's always puzzled me, too.  You claim it works; plug it in, turn it on and take a picture.  It would be a big positive towards getting a sale.  Of course the same skepticism causes me to doubt people who say "It'll work fine, you just need to replace the blown fuse."  Then why don't you put the $1.50 fuse in it and sell it as working for a lot more money than "non working, just needs new fuse"??  I was born at night, but it wasn't last night...

-Pat

Because he DID replace it... first with a 5A, then a 15A, and then when smoke poured out just before it blew a 30-Amper, that's when he decided to put it up on fleaBay... 

mnem

[BU508A]

Arrived today. More coming soon ...

 

That display looks cool, old Monsanto MAN1 type?

Don't know. Maybe I can tell, when I've opened the device. Will do that at the weekend.

I did a little research and I believe, those aren't Monsanto MAN-1 types.
Reason: in my display you can see clearly 2x 5 dots per segment, the Monsantos MAN-1 I've found have 2x 4 dots per segment.

Example:

[mnementh]

The obvious answer in gear-head-land is the Nagra.

People who record music and can't afford the Nagra swear by the various Zoom recorders; the most likely in your scenario whould be the H1N, but I'd raise the bar and say that the H4N is about right. XLR inputs is a must on anything that records.

If you really want only a dictaphone replacement, there are a bunch of Olympus recorders that are very affordable and compact; you might have to search a bit for Line in, though.

In Germany, the Thomann store probably is the most economical way to get hold of these devices. I'm a happy customer -- haven't bought any recorders, but a piano and lots of sundry pro-audio items.

Edit: "Standard size batteries" (I'm thinking you mean a bunch of AAA or similar) is not a feature of these, as far as I can tell. Cheap built-in rechargeables have seen to that.

I'll think about a Nagra when you redo your cooling installation with launch-vehicle-grade tubing and pumps. 
The zoom devices are nice, but wayyy too capable. They ARE useful when doing ungentlemanly things in cases where heavy post-processing is required, though.
The thing mnementh proposed is already above the requirement in some parameters. Stereo was not required, for example. 'Voice' meant 'speech', not audiophile concert bootlegging.

I have no idea what you're talking aboot. 

mnem
*toddles off to look for The Outer Limits online*

[Specmaster]

Update on the Casio WK3000 keyboard.

After resolving the liquid damage to the PCB around the power switch, (carbon membrane type) and testing with a ohm meter, I reassembled the boards into the top half of the unit and then married the keyboard section to it and connected those bloody solid conductor ribbon cables (heat from iron melts the bloody insulation between conductors )

Plug power unit in and the thing won't switch on, just about to give up, and it powers up, display comes on and thats it. Switch off and power on again, and after a few presses of the power button it comes and works OK. Switch off and on, and it takes many presses of the power button before it fires up.

Replaced the power pack with a bench supply, so I can observe the current draw, and I notice something odd. Switch the power supply and set for 12.6V and there is zero current being drawn, as you would expect until the keyboard power switch is pressed. Press it, and it draws around 111mA but does not switch on. Press it again and hold it down and the current drawn increases to around 120mA, release, and it returns to 111mA. Switch off the power and on again and the process repeats, press the power switch a few times, and suddenly it will kick into life and draw about 240mA. Press the power switch again to switch it off, and sometimes it shut right off with zero draw, other times it returns to the 111ma but the display and all LEDs switch off giving the impression that it is dead when it clearly isnt.

All I can find online is the user manual, no service manual or schematics 

Best thing to do with those things is usually to unplug everything from the main board you can including the key bed and see if it’ll come up on its own. Then plug stuff in until it doesn’t. If nothing works then the main board is hosed. Casio used a bunch of shitty ASICs for their kit so there will be no useful service info anyway and the board is a write off instantly.

Also watch out for the jack and ancillary boards. Seems to be a design feature that they use those horrible brown FR2 boards that crack and soak up any moisture.

The more expensive brands aren’t much better. I once fought valiantly with a Korg Trinity for three months and found the issue was actually the SoC was fucked. Sold the thing in lots for parts in the end.

Yep, that was going to my approach to it when I first acquired it, problem is that there are no plugs involved, its all hardwired and soldered using the crappiest solid core ribbon cables that instantly melts the insulation when a soldering iron is applied to the terminals  the bloody thing is evil 

[tautech]

That is hefty charge rate. No wonder the arrays can't keep up if you have bad weather.

Not so much as the 390AH series pair were pretty low after going flat and the system crashing from insufficient charge. Their actual resting voltage that day way just 11V but with that amount of charge going in they showed 12.6V on our remote monitoring. The panel orientation on that installation is not optimal as we used the existing pipe framework after the site was abandoned yet we could possibly unbolt it and rotate it 90^o to have it more like it should be however for sure the bolt holes wouldn't line up and we'd need to drill more holes in the concrete bunker it's on. This but now with 2 panels:

Another idea for generating electricity in your rural situation:
IIRC you have lots of cattle running around. Instead of a bell, fit them with a similar generating device and a supercap bank in the neckstrap. When full, the thing must get uncomfortably warm or itchy until they discharge it into one of the terminals. Problem solved.
 
Moooo....Zzot....Bleep!

LOL
Like the ones here one of our customers has developed ?
World leading fenceless farming:
https://halterhq.com/