Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

What you're doing there is probably a wise idea for any Heathkits anyway. I've seen a lot of criminal builds in my time 

Edit: talking of which this turned up in my search. It has extra holes  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234084118035

My Father did an excellent job when the kit was originally built. It's me that sort of made a mess of things over the years replacing parts. So this rebuild is an atonement for my past sins.  Besides, I needed a project and a diversion from the Type 547 which continues to mock me on a daily basis. 

[vk6zgo]

Firstly, that is only a drawing, not an actual photo, the car itself is a Wolsey 1500 and as you will see from the these 2 photos, is a small car and that the engine layout is totally different, the battery for instance on those cars sat on the engine bulkhead at the back of the bay. I have had a car since the 60s with Lucas electrics and have never experienced anything like the horror stories some of you relate. Also, I have never had the starting problems that some of you have mentioned, just kept the car well maintained, but I suspect that a lot of the issues arose from the bonnet (hood for you yanks) was unlined and so when the temperature dropped, would cause the condensation to drip all over the engine and ignition leads.

The Wolsely 15/60 is a very different & larger car to the little 1500 you had, which was really just a rebadged Austin Lancer.

The 15/60 was one of the second gen Farina bodied cars (the first generation was the little Austin A40 "Farina") & its engine bay looks exactly like the drawing.

http://automotoclassicsale.com/node/11315

In Googling  I saw that one for sale in Perth.

I love the look of it, particularly the "galah" themed paint job, & was momentarily filled with lust, but I managed to beat it down.
If it had been 20 or 30 years ago, I would not have stopped till I made it my very own!

[BU508A]

A new video (sorry, it is in German) from the electronic guys from the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg.
At the moment they are in the process of building Monaco. The Formula 1 racetrack will also be there,
with 24 cars competing against each other. The problem is that the cars are too small for a motor and a battery,
so they only have a package of extra-strong magnets on board. The cars are controlled by magnetic field-generating circuit boards,
which is a great achievement in itself. But then there is the software and the tracking. Gerrit and Stefan
talk about this in this video. For the TEA approach, you can admire a great oscilloscope from R&S, the RTB2004. 
Have fun!



As a side note:
They have managed to bring down a chinese company producing PCBs.
Now they are with a German company and it seems they are achieving the goal.

[med6753]

On the same day I went in for surgery my Mother was admitted to the hospital for various aliments. Obviously due to my post surgical recovery I was unable to travel to Colorado to visit her but I did speak with her on a daily basis. For some reason which her doctors could not explain she started to rapidly go downhill. The last I was able to speak with her was this past Wednesday and she was so incoherent that I could hardly understand her. The last time my Brothers on scene were able to talk with her was this past Thursday.

I got that dreaded phone call. She passed this morning. August 3rd would have been her 90th birthday. Her wishes were no funeral.   

[BU508A]

 
My sincere condolences, med.

[mnementh]

Oh, man... that's rough buddy. Condolences just seems so inadequate, especially with everything just piling on right now.

Stay safe, take care of yourself, and try to remember the good more than dwelling on the bad. Wish I could be there and take you out for a pint; I'd drink it too, just because.

mnem

[bd139]

Sorry to hear med. My condolences.

[Specmaster]

Having just paid a £875 dentist bill or wait 8 months it depends on how well your socialised care works. The folk who can’t pay have to wait. That isn’t working right.

I paid £46,000 in income tax and NI last year approximately and VAT on what was left over from that.

Geez, thats way more than I'd have earned in a year before tax and NI deductions had I still been working

[Specmaster]

What you're doing there is probably a wise idea for any Heathkits anyway. I've seen a lot of criminal builds in my time 

Edit: talking of which this turned up in my search. It has extra holes  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234084118035

That has been listed for weeks now 

[bd139]

Ok so been mashing eBay searches for two days now and nothing worth buying is coming up. There are a few near things. There’s a 54502A up for £82 including delivery for a 400Mhz 400MS/s digital  scope. But it’s first gen and also only 6 bit ADC 

[McBryce]

My condolences med. I hope you at least have the possibility to be there for the funeral.

McBryce.

[med6753]

My condolences med. I hope you at least have the possibility to be there for the funeral.

McBryce.

There will be no funeral. Her desire was to be cremated. Her ashes will be brought back East. I will get a portion and my niece will get a portion. I will spread the ashes on my youngest sister's grave who lived for only 3 days. Her grave is local to me. The other portion will be spread on my other sister's grave in Brooklyn. She died at age of 47 in 2002.   

[Cubdriver]

My condolences med. I hope you at least have the possibility to be there for the funeral.

McBryce.

There will be no funeral. Her desire was to be cremated. Her ashes will be brought back East. I will get a portion and my niece will get a portion. I will spread the ashes on my youngest sister's grave who lived for only 3 days. Her grave is local to me. The other portion will be spread on my other sister's grave in Brooklyn. She died at age of 47 in 2002.   

Deepest condolences, Mike - I’m very sorry to hear. 

-Pat

[capt bullshot]

I've seen that video (and many others of them). If Hamburg wasn't that far away from where I'm living, this would be my favourite job. Especially this video show a great deal of enthusiasm and care of details in terms of stuff that I could do (electronics and microcontrollers) for them. I believe I'd be a total fail in building that great model stuff they're doing for their life. Anyway, if you ever happen to visit Hamburg, don't skip that place.

[Specmaster]

McBryce is 100% correct, it is indeed a 15/60 Wolsey, god knows I've spent enough time working on them and others from the same group, i.e, Morris Oxford and the Austin A60, the give away was the scuttle that the person is leaning on 

[Specmaster]

@med6753.

My sincere condolences to you med, I echo all the sentiments the others have already expressed. Now go and finish the Heathkit and make a brilliant job of it in memory of your Mother and Father now, do them both proud

[Cerebus]

I got that dreaded phone call. She passed this morning. August 3rd would have been her 90th birthday. Her wishes were no funeral.   

My condolences too.

The only good thing is that with elderly parents one is expecting it. My mother died at 94 and the only real surprise was that she'd actually gone and done it - she seemed indestructible. My father died suddenly overnight when I was  in my early twenties, I really didn't know how to react to that at the time, it was beyond my experience and that of my closer friends too. At least when you get to our respective ages you've had a bit of practice at losing people. It's still a wrench though.

Keep your pecker up. Actually, don't do that, you'll just get yourself into more trouble. 

[bd139]

My mother went down the toilet slowly over the space of a decade. I'd rather go suddenly myself. Not much consolation for those who have lost loved ones but genuinely my thoughts are with you.

On a slightly positive note, after complaining earlier I managed to bag a reasonable looking bit of test gear on eBay 

[Specmaster]

On the eBay front, I was just pipped at the last second on that Fluke 99B last night, snipped at 5seconds to go and was winning and at the last second,  someone responded with a bid just £2 higher, well done to them. On the plus side I don't have to do that long drive now, just as well, as I also managed to chuck out my Philips electric shaver accidentally when clearing my bench the other day, so now I have to buy another 

[factory]

Sincere condolences Med, we've been through this three times in the last 18 months, lost my Mum in December 2019 to vascular dementia, Gran in Jan this year to the horrid virus and Grandad went suddenly downhill with dementia last month, hopefully it'll be a long time before we see another funeral.

David

[bd139]

On the eBay front, I was just pipped at the last second on that Fluke 99B last night, snipped at 5seconds to go and was winning and at the last second,  someone responded with a bid just £2 higher, well done to them. On the plus side I don't have to do that long drive now, just as well, as I also managed to chuck out my Philips electric shaver accidentally when clearing my bench the other day, so now I have to buy another 

Gah hate that. They might have gone significantly higher but your bid only popped £2 on it. Don't sweat it.

Anyway latest acquisition to go along side the 8060A and the 25...

[mansaxel]

I got that dreaded phone call.

Oh, I'm so sorry for you. My deepest felt condoleances.

[mnementh]

McBryce is 100% correct, it is indeed a 15/60 Wolsey, god knows I've spent enough time working on them and others from the same group, i.e, Morris Oxford and the Austin A60, the give away was the scuttle that the person is leaning on 

. 

We're on the road again, looking at properties.

When I first posted that pic, my wife looked over my shoulder and said "That's just wrong..."

Now I'm finally catching up on the thread and I'm like:

"Hey baby... You remember that picture from the other day? We've just had 3 pages of conversation over what the make and model of car in the picture is."

"What... Not over how wrong that is...? I grew up with those books from my grandmother... "

"No, we're pretty sure it's a real car; just trying to figure out the make and model."

"Y'all are such nerds..."   

mnem
in the interest of domestic tranquility, I did not relate the discussion aboot Lucas or which exact motor was in the car...

[factory]

Well I've not had any problems buying stuff from the EU, accidentally won a rack mount HP 180A scope last month from Germany  , import charges were just over €3, shipping was quite a bit more than the auction price. Well I've always wanted the rack width version & they never seem to appear in the UK, not helped by all the people that prefer to scrap stuff instead of selling it. 

It's not in perfect condition, but is quite an early one built at the South Queensferry factory (U647-00149), the 1801A/1821A plug-ins are a little bit newer (must have got swapped at some point), being an early one most of the diagrams in the manual are for the later ones, thankfully the change sheets had all the required info.


Powering it up when it first arrived last week resulted in not much happening, the beam find button did produce a spot on the CRT, but initial testing was quickly interrupted by smoke emerging from the 1821A timebase section. 

Yesterday I finally had some time to look at fixing it, first thing as always was to check the power supply rails (I removed the plug-ins), all were OK apart from the -12.6V rail, which was over -20V.
After checking the voltages around some of the transistors it became apparent the amplifier transistor Q412 was doing nothing, it was not turning Q409 off. After removing Q412 it was found to be completely open circuit. The manual gives part no. 1854-0071 and the part fitted was marked MPS3391, I replaced it with a 2N3704 (pinout is different to the old part) and the -12.6V was now working & could be adjusted.


The plastic cover for the fuses was missing, but they helpfully left the screw in place, I found a plastic draw divider that was good size to cover the fuses, it was drilled and a couple of plastic spacers fitted to get the height correct.
Many of the missing screws from the frame & one of the PCB's have been replaced and I cut a piece of thin plastic sheet to replace the missing piece that should be stuck to the metal cover for the HV section.


Now to look at what caused the smoke release from the 1821A timebase, resistor R309 was found to be burnt, but not open circuit.
Checking for shorts found the axial tantalum capacitor C308 next to it was shorted, this one was made by STC. I replaced both the resistor & capacitor before testing the plug-ins.


With the plug-ins refitted we now had a trace, well half a trace. None of the controls seemed to be able to get it to fill the screen.


I decided to try a signal to see if the vertical plug-in was working first, in the time it took to retrieve an oscillator the trace had filled the screen. The problem turned out to be the beam finder switch having dirty contacts (a common problem with HP scopes).
Both inputs were working, but it would probably benefit from some switch cleaner too.
Everyone knows HP scopes do not trigger and this one is no exception  , I cheated and used the external trigger input for the picture below. 


It needs a couple more capacitors replacing in the 1821A before I think about further checking & probably adjustment/repair to cure the trigger problem. These capacitors are C327/328 and are wet tantalum  types (Sprague 109D), I will probably end up using a slightly higher value regular electrolytic to replace them due to cost.


David

[bd139]

Nice post 

Those Sprague 109D's are bastards. I've seen a couple actually explode quite violently with a bang and leave a hole in the side!

Edit: found a picture of one of the sods in my archive: