Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

Speaking of old and older stuff, this now graces my stairwell

[AVGresponding]

And that tired old trope about profit and war is just not true. Newton wasn't thinking about war or profit when he wrote Principia, nor was Darwin when he wrote On the Origin of Species etc etc.

I wonder what Newton was thinking about when he accepted the position of Warden of the Royal Mint, masterminded the re-issue of the English currency, and tracked down, prosecuted & eventually hanged the counterfeiter who had the temerity to try and mess with him while he was doing it?

Who knows? May as well ask Albert Einstein what he was thinking about when the Enola Gay turned Hiroshima into ashes. Conflating multiple points only serves to muddy the waters.

Newton wasted a good part of his life and wealth chasing alchemical mirages; the moral of the story is, people are people, no-one is perfect, and you take the good with the bad.
I maintain that the likes of Newton, Einstein et al were not thinking about profit or war when they came up with their revolutionary insights. They were thinking "what if?". I'll remind you that correlation is not causation.

[bd139]

Speaking of old and older stuff, this now graces my stairwell

That is quite frankly the most deranged ornament I’ve ever seen. I love it 

[AVGresponding]

On topic and @factory and Specmaster

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393411128625

Or for that really retro, nostalgia vibe:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265208241332

[AVGresponding]

Speaking of old and older stuff, this now graces my stairwell

Needs blinkies...      

[tggzzz]

Speaking of old and older stuff, this now graces my stairwell

Needs blinkies...      

Even better: the eyes follow you up and down the  stairs, with an unblinking gaze like something from Lovecraft's bestiary.

Ditto (according to an elderly relative) the Barbary Ape's eyes, which is destined for my daughter.

[Robert763]

What's the tube? Is it a videcon with a cap on or something weird with a convex cathode?

[mnementh]

Funnily enough, yesterday, before the new / old discussion on here I did an idle list of what it would cost to replace my "basic" TE (mostly HP, Fluke etc) with new HP or Siglent. So for a 350MHz 4ch DSO, 2 Ch MSO, couple of DMM's Coulpe of bench supplies, Waveform generator, 3GHz ish SA, signal generator LCR meter. Differences were Keysight had a RF power meter and Universal counter while Siglent had a 1,3G SA/VNA. Neiter of these lists cover my full "in the workshop and use it" capability, big item missing is an analog Tx/Rx radio test set, but they are not a list item new.

The New Keysight cost was just over £40,000 
Siglent came to just over £21,700.

My total payout for the used kit is less than £2000 but in reality the cost was much less. For example buying a lot that included two items for under £100 keeping one (+other bits in the lot) and selling the other for over £500.
There is no way I would spend £20-40,000 on new kit just to get the warranty. The only possible reason would be to save space, but this is the TEA thread right?
 

Quite right and not only that, but how many hobbyists could afford the £21,700 let alone the £40,000. All fine if that is your business and its making money for you. Seeing as this the TEA thread, isn't one of the aims of it to keep the older gear out of landfill, and not just stock pile it in every nook and cranny we can find, but to repair if required and then use it to further the cause?

mnem
Remember when we used to ridicule that guy...? Now we put him in the White House...

[Cerebus]

OK, minor giveaway time.

I've got a Brother P-touch 2420PC label printer. One of these:



It prints onto self-laminating tapes and is, not merely good, but great for labelling bottles of potions, unguents and solvents (the labels have so far stood up to every liquid chemical I have thrown at them). Also good for labelling boxes and drawers full of parts, labelling cables, and for putting labels that say "Mine!" on any choice comestibles in the house. Another good use that I've had from it is labelling mains plugs with what they are connected to. Still works perfectly but the bastards stopped updating the Mac drivers some time back. I've carried on using it, but I'm now terminally fed up with the hassle of booting an old machine just to print some labels. So, I've bought myself a replacement, another Brother P-touch with current Mac driver support.

Brother have kept the Windows drivers up to date, at least up to and including Windows 10. So although it is no longer really useful for me, it is still ready to start a useful second career with anyone so benighted as to still be in thrall to Microsoft or who has the testicular fortitude to get a printer driver working under Linux or BSD.

So, free to a good home one P-touch 2420PC, with 230V PSU (UK moulded plug wall wart), USB cable and a stock of tapes (24mm part used, 12mm part used, 9mm part used and 3 untouched 9mm tapes). At the rate I've been using them, that's probably another 5 years worth of supplies included. No warranties implied or given, if you use it and your ears drop off or your cat leaves you that is your problem.

UK TEA regulars get first pick, UK TEA dilettantes second pick - in either case I'll pick up the postage just to make sure that it goes to a good home. If no one in the UK takes it I'll happily send it to the rest of the world for a contribution towards postage on the condition that you figure out exactly what I need to put on the customs forms that is both honest and gets it to you with minimum hassle your end.

[mnementh]

[Sings]

"Don't pay the ferry man,
Don't even fix a price,
Don't pay the ferry man,
Til he gets you to the other side."

*sings along*

"And then the ferryman said
'There is trouble ahead,
So you must pay me now, ' (Don't do it)
'You must pay me now... ' (Don't do it)
And still that voice came from beyond..."

mnem
Also, give that box a kick before you go past that dark alleyway...

[Specmaster]

On topic and @factory and Specmaster

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393411128625

Or for that really retro, nostalgia vibe:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265208241332

God what a state, looks like it has been used as a make shift rugby ball and drop-kicked a few times in its life 

[Robert763]

I'd like the P-touch, but don't need it at all as I have the self contained one that takes the TZ laminated tapes.
But if no one wants it.........

[Cerebus]

Noted.

[Specmaster]

OK, minor giveaway time.

I've got a Brother P-touch 2420PC label printer. One of these:



It prints onto self-laminating tapes and is, not merely good, but great for labelling bottles of potions, unguents and solvents (the labels have so far stood up to every liquid chemical I have thrown at them). Also good for labelling boxes and drawers full of parts, labelling cables, and for putting labels that say "Mine!" on any choice comestibles in the house. Another good use that I've had from it is labelling mains plugs with what they are connected to. Still works perfectly but the bastards stopped updating the Mac drivers some time back. I've carried on using it, but I'm now terminally fed up with the hassle of booting an old machine just to print some labels. So, I've bought myself a replacement, another Brother P-touch with current Mac driver support.

Brother have kept the Windows drivers up to date, at least up to and including Windows 10. So although it is no longer really useful for me, it is still ready to start a useful second career with anyone so benighted as to still be in thrall to Microsoft or who has the testicular fortitude to get a printer driver working under Linux or BSD.

So, free to a good home one P-touch 2420PC, with 230V PSU (UK moulded plug wall wart), USB cable and a stock of tapes (24mm part used, 12mm part used, 9mm part used and 3 untouched 9mm tapes). At the rate I've been using them, that's probably another 5 years worth of supplies included. No warranties implied or given, if you use it and your ears drop off or your cat leaves you that is your problem.

UK TEA regulars get first pick, UK TEA dilettantes second pick - in either case I'll pick up the postage just to make sure that it goes to a good home. If no one in the UK takes it I'll happily send it to the rest of the world for a contribution towards postage on the condition that you figure out exactly what I need to put on the customs forms that is both honest and gets it to you with minimum hassle your end.

I already have one, its the P-Touch 1230 PC which still works a treat.

[tggzzz]

What's the tube? Is it a videcon with a cap on or something weird with a convex cathode?

CRT from a Tek 465, with the horrible ceramic bit sawed off.

https://entertaininghacks.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/rescuing-a-broken-tektronix-465-crt/

[AVGresponding]

On topic and @factory and Specmaster

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393411128625

Or for that really retro, nostalgia vibe:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265208241332

God what a state, looks like it has been used as a make shift rugby ball and drop-kicked a few times in its life 

Impact tested for your convenience

[AVGresponding]

Discord is live!

Kind of in the same way as Frankenstein's monster...

[mnementh]

mnem
grr. arg.

[mnementh]

On The Bench Tonight: Pioneer VSX-1022K 6.1 Surround Receiver



This is my current mental torment. Pioneer VSX-1022K DTS receiver. Dead as a dork-nob, but has STBY power and 3.3V to the processor. For ~US$13, I had to... and, it has 2 cousins. A Yamaha HTR-5850 and a Sony STR-K900. Also ~US$13 each; I got them all last week on that LMFM Sale Thrifting excursion...

mnem

Oh, Ifni save me... I just found the Service Manual. And it has schizzmatics... *waves as I fall*

[Vince]

Well for the price it was worth it if just for the parts I guess ! 

[mansaxel]

As I was logging into Discord tonight I was pinged by the local auction site app that it was sniping time for a watched auction. I now have won and paid for a modular Tek scope. The pictures are quite fuzzy, but my northern eye says this oughta be a 5440 with 5A48 dual-trace plugin, a 5A38 35MHz dual-trace plugin and a 5B40 60MHz time-base.



Not seen any pics of it working, but the price was impressively low; 63,57 € shipped.

Did I need it? Well, since I haven't really exhausted my 465 and this is less specified, especially in bandwidth (but looks to have 4 channels, albeit 2 with even lower bw), no, not really.

Did I want it? You betcha.

I'll get back to it once it's here.

[nixiefreqq]

Speaking of old and older stuff, this now graces my stairwell

is this how the rest of the house is decorated?

[tggzzz]

Speaking of old and older stuff, this now graces my stairwell

is this how the rest of the house is decorated?

Sometimes it feels like that

Perhaps it is the start of a new aesthetic for instrument design. Jurassicpunk rather than steampunk, or something.

Fortunately it isn't like this property available for AirBNB lets https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/31345904

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.7591591,-1.2132019,3a,60y,196.79h,93.86t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHvlffeEBwaoBVnUWcQZYnQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

[beanflying]

Tidy if anyone in NSW wants it and can go pick it up in Plague times    eBay auction: #224511129478 Same seller (also a member here is under 'instructions' from 'The Management') has some other bits for sale too that can be shipped.

[mnementh]

*resurfaces just long enough to post a pic*



Pray for me; it has already gotten so involved I was forced to move this part of the work off my bench onto a side table...

mnem