Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

Sure, will do. But I have to put it aside for now, because of other projects and the VFD needs some time to arrive from .cn

[mnementh]

mnem
Made you look.

[mnementh]

On that note I need some more furniture and there’s a 7704A project on eBay. I am considering it (no sniping me   )

Have installed fans and "No more Teks". Someone has hacked bd's id. 

*finger hovering over the Save bd from himself button...*

mnem
Oklay... who's gonna save me...?

[Cerebus]

I think I have bitten off more than I can chew.



OK, not really but I am going to get some chewing practice. I don't have a problem with 0.5mm pitch parts in QFP form, but I've found the 0.5 mm leadless packages a bit intimidating. You've only got to look at that package to figure out why. I've been meaning to find something cheap in QFN that I can get some soldering (reflow) practice with. There are quite a lot of relatively inexpensive MCUs in small QFN packages but none of them are MCU architectures I'm set up to use and I don't really want to set up a toolchain, programming tools etc. just for some soldering practice. The thing is through, you want something you can actually test once you're done.

I finally hit on the ideal part when I was looking to order some 74x595 shift registers the other day. NXP have a 74LVC595 in a 16 pin 2.5 x 3.5mm package (that's it 'dead bug' above). They are £0.097 each + VAT in pack quantity 15, and you're not going to care about scrapping a few 11.64p parts. It's testable as it's easy to daisy chain as many shift registers as you like and the parallel part of the IC is perfectly capable of driving an LED. Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone else is thinking of dipping their toes into the water like me.

[cyclin_al]

I think you refer to the Hague Conventions on Land Warfare.

Just smartassing

I haven't signed anything so she'd better watch out!

On the test equipment theme, I have several strings of Christmas lights run down the fence to light up my back yard whenever I have guests over after dark and this nutcase cut the wire last year.  This year, she unplugged them all.  I've been thinking about unscrewing the bulbs a little bit so they don't make contact in their sockets and then getting out one of my vacuum tube power supplies to energize the wires so there's B+ sitting, just waiting for the next time she decides to lean over the fence and go to work on my lights.

Load detector and a large klaxon might be enough. Whether cut, unplugged or otherwise disconnected - AHOOOGA AHOOOGA AHOOOGA

An electric fence circuit would probably be quite effective ... we have the description of the dwagon to rely on so that the rest of us do not need to test it 

[Brumby]

mnem
Made you look.

I wondered what you were on about ... but then I worked it out.

A bit of a reach - but I acknowledge the effort.

[mnementh]

I think you refer to the Hague Conventions on Land Warfare.

Just smartassing

I haven't signed anything so she'd better watch out!

On the test equipment theme, I have several strings of Christmas lights run down the fence to light up my back yard whenever I have guests over after dark and this nutcase cut the wire last year.  This year, she unplugged them all.  I've been thinking about unscrewing the bulbs a little bit so they don't make contact in their sockets and then getting out one of my vacuum tube power supplies to energize the wires so there's B+ sitting, just waiting for the next time she decides to lean over the fence and go to work on my lights.

Load detector and a large klaxon might be enough. Whether cut, unplugged or otherwise disconnected - AHOOOGA AHOOOGA AHOOOGA

An electric fence circuit would probably be quite effective ... we have the description of the dwagon to rely on so that the rest of us do not need to test it 

                 

mnem
*twitch... twitch... twitcha-twitch...*

[Saskia]

klaxon ... hmmm.

I have a pneumatic horn sitting here, rating is 135 db@1m ....

if you need something like that let me know.

Or just install a pepperball sentry gun ...
https://youtu.be/RxBa5bQfTGc

[BU508A]

Or a beast like this, pointing to her house. If she is manipulating your lightchains, this bad boy will power up.



The DC power supply for this could be a kind of a challenge. 

[capt bullshot]

klaxon ... hmmm.

I have a pneumatic horn sitting here, rating is 135 db@1m ....

Do you also have the recommended accessoires?

[ch_scr]

Or a beast like this, pointing to her house. If she is manipulating your lightchains, this bad boy will power up.



The DC power supply for this could be a kind of a challenge. 

It comes with its own DC generator. Brightness is controlled via engine RPM.
Demonstration towards the end. Also note the lanthanated graphite rods 

[bd139]

On that note I need some more furniture and there’s a 7704A project on eBay. I am considering it (no sniping me   )

Have installed fans and "No more Teks". Someone has hacked bd's id. 

Yep, completely out of character on the fan issue, maybe the Covid jab is the cause, and he is now under the control of Bill Gates as per the 5G conspiracy pushers claimed that jabbed people would be...ooer hang on I'm feeling rather strange myself... I must got and obtain loads of Tek's etc etc, whats that Bill yes yes I understand....

Nothing to do with the COVID jab that. The sudden desire to eat brains might be though 

Let’s be clear about the no more Teks. This is somewhat inaccurate. The point was no more 4xx Teks  . I have resisted a couple of them recently!

[bd139]

klaxon ... hmmm.

I have a pneumatic horn sitting here, rating is 135 db@1m ....

Do you also have the recommended accessoires?

That thing is quieter than my neighbour’s arse. Got woken up by that this morning at 6AM   

[BU508A]

 
 

Edit:

[bd139]

I think I have bitten off more than I can chew.



OK, not really but I am going to get some chewing practice. I don't have a problem with 0.5mm pitch parts in QFP form, but I've found the 0.5 mm leadless packages a bit intimidating. You've only got to look at that package to figure out why. I've been meaning to find something cheap in QFN that I can get some soldering (reflow) practice with. There are quite a lot of relatively inexpensive MCUs in small QFN packages but none of them are MCU architectures I'm set up to use and I don't really want to set up a toolchain, programming tools etc. just for some soldering practice. The thing is through, you want something you can actually test once you're done.

I finally hit on the ideal part when I was looking to order some 74x595 shift registers the other day. NXP have a 74LVC595 in a 16 pin 2.5 x 3.5mm package (that's it 'dead bug' above). They are £0.097 each + VAT in pack quantity 15, and you're not going to care about scrapping a few 11.64p parts. It's testable as it's easy to daisy chain as many shift registers as you like and the parallel part of the IC is perfectly capable of driving an LED. Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone else is thinking of dipping their toes into the water like me.

I think you’re insane 

Realistically these shouldn’t be terrible to place but you’d need a stencil, solder paste, hot air to do it properly. The killer of course is the possibility of bridging pads. Undoing that mistake is risky as braid can lift the solder mask. At which point you’re up shit creek.

Good luck.

[tautech]

On that note I need some more furniture and there’s a 7704A project on eBay. I am considering it (no sniping me   )

Have installed fans and "No more Teks". Someone has hacked bd's id. 

Yep, completely out of character on the fan issue, maybe the Covid jab is the cause, and he is now under the control of Bill Gates as per the 5G conspiracy pushers claimed that jabbed people would be...ooer hang on I'm feeling rather strange myself... I must got and obtain loads of Tek's etc etc, whats that Bill yes yes I understand....

Nothing to do with the COVID jab that. The sudden desire to eat brains might be though 

Let’s be clear about the no more Teks. This is somewhat inaccurate. The point was no more 4xx Teks  . I have resisted a couple of them recently!

You really must be bored....or trying to scrape together a few more bucks for when you finally get to move digs. 
Me I'm over fixing old shit as the 4 busted and unfixed CRO's can attest to.

Don't them girls better deserve your attention ?

[bd139]

They’ve got to the point they only talk to me when they’re hungry. Actually that’s not true. I’m trying to negotiate a truce between two of them at the moment and get them out the door for school 

As for busted old CROs I know what you mean. I’m not sure I’m going for it unless it’s special. The 7704A isn’t that special. If it was a 7704 it would be.

Decided to not move now. Will sort out the associated issues and suck it up. That means compact kit but there’s enough room for one scopemobile 

[tautech]

They’ve got to the point they only talk to me when they’re hungry. Actually that’s not true. I’m trying to negotiate a truce between two of them at the moment and get them out the door for school 

Not surprising 2 half bred batshit red heads would behave that way. 

As for busted old CROs I know what you mean. I’m not sure I’m going for it unless it’s special. The 7704A isn’t that special. If it was a 7704 it would be.

Yeah but we know of your luck with fixerupper punts. 
The only hope is you seem to have shed the penis fingers. 

Decided to not move now. Will sort out the associated issues and suck it up. That means compact kit but there’s enough room for one scopemobile 

Probably really wise in these uncertain times.

[AVGresponding]

@BU508A
Just be very careful when replacing the VFD on that 34401A, I seem recall a post in this thread, maybe about a year ago regarding the VFD displays on those, it seems IRRC that there are 2 versions, one of which is thought not replaceable and one that is, so it might be an idea to a search for that posting?

Thanks Spec for the hint. I'm aware of this. The one to be careful about is from the very early HP branded 34401A with the input jacks all red. This one is an Agilent branded one, so I do not expect any issues here. I'll open it anyway to have a closer look to the usual suspects.

There are three physical hardware versions on the front panel AFAIK and the early one suffers from complete failure resulting in the only option being replace the entire module. The Chinese displays aren't that good either I understand.

You can replace the entire module however directly from Keysight and save yourself a massive assache: https://www.keysight.com/my/partDetail/34401-66522

The insane thing is you can probably recoup half that back by selling the faded one to someone on ebay who wants to replace a completely buggered one 

I'm only aware of two versions. The first one with the leaky and unobtainium driver IC's and the next major revision which is unchanged to today to my knowledge. Those two versions are completely incompatible. If one is having an older unit with a broken display with those leaky driver IC's then you have lost. There is a thread here in the forum where someone replaced the display with an microcontroller and an OLED display IIRC. But this is a lot of work to do so.

Edit:
I thought, I'll give one of those sellers a try:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/372678311082
https://www.ebay.com/itm/113493375735
https://www.ebay.com/itm/372548711621

Amusing how all three vendors use the same picture of the display powered on... I guess they all buy from the same supplier/manufacturer.

[tautech]

One for Bean....
Road trip to daughters found her blokes new grinder....evidentially some flash thing made in small #'s in USA and at some price I was too scared to ask about. 
Micrometer adjustable single cup grind and a little bellow to blow any remaining grounds out of the mechanism. 

Anyways his morning Mocca was to die for and a real kick in the arse pick me up and that good the girl should consider him a keeper even though she don't indulge in the beans. 

[Specmaster]

They’ve got to the point they only talk to me when they’re hungry. Actually that’s not true. I’m trying to negotiate a truce between two of them at the moment and get them out the door for school 

As for busted old CROs I know what you mean. I’m not sure I’m going for it unless it’s special. The 7704A isn’t that special. If it was a 7704 it would be.

Decided to not move now. Will sort out the associated issues and suck it up. That means compact kit but there’s enough room for one scopemobile 

This arrived in my inbox this morning, you might like to have a look at? The seller has other gear as well.
https://www.shpock.com/en-gb/i/YO0k3G6d9EJpLYHZ/philips-pm3050-50mhz-dual-beam-oscilloscope

[bd139]

They’ve got to the point they only talk to me when they’re hungry. Actually that’s not true. I’m trying to negotiate a truce between two of them at the moment and get them out the door for school 

Not surprising 2 half bred batshit red heads would behave that way. 

Fortunately they appear to have inherited my variety of nutcasery 

As for busted old CROs I know what you mean. I’m not sure I’m going for it unless it’s special. The 7704A isn’t that special. If it was a 7704 it would be.

Yeah but we know of your luck with fixerupper punts. 
The only hope is you seem to have shed the penis fingers. 

Oh no definitely still got the penis fingers. Watch this space 

Decided to not move now. Will sort out the associated issues and suck it up. That means compact kit but there’s enough room for one scopemobile 

Probably really wise in these uncertain times.

100% that. Plus I'm not trashing all my disposable income any more on another risk. Gonna spend it on test gear again 

[bd139]

They’ve got to the point they only talk to me when they’re hungry. Actually that’s not true. I’m trying to negotiate a truce between two of them at the moment and get them out the door for school 

As for busted old CROs I know what you mean. I’m not sure I’m going for it unless it’s special. The 7704A isn’t that special. If it was a 7704 it would be.

Decided to not move now. Will sort out the associated issues and suck it up. That means compact kit but there’s enough room for one scopemobile 

This arrived in my inbox this morning, you might like to have a look at? The seller has other gear as well.
https://www.shpock.com/en-gb/i/YO0k3G6d9EJpLYHZ/philips-pm3050-50mhz-dual-beam-oscilloscope

Ooh nice but I can't be arsed to go to Redditch to get it 

I need to have a look on Shpock more often. I have the app on my phone but never look at it 

[Cerebus]

Nothing to do with the COVID jab that. The sudden desire to eat brains might be though 

That just comes naturally after you've been living south of the river for a while. 

[McBryce]

Looks like this HP1607A is going to go for the minimum bid. I'm tempted just for those toggle switches, but maybe someone here is a collector of this type of gear?

https://www.ebay.de/itm/353569175703

McBryce.