Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Robert763]

Hermes just delivered what must be the Acterna Cell Site tester / Spectrum analyser.
Need to walk the dog before playing though.

[tggzzz]

Those look like two different principles.

The slate quarry lift going down is heavier than the empty lift going up, so gravity "fuels" the lift. The two canal caissons have exactly the same weight whether or not they are loaded. An engine is used to overcome friction losses.

UK examples of canal lifts, old (Anderton, also on the Trent river ) and new (Falkirk):

There are several examples of water-powered lifts, e.g. Lynton and Lynmouth (850ft long, 500ft high) and 3(!) at Bournemouth

Thanks!  I enjoying all those different lift designs.

In the liftlocks, they use blocks in the system as limit switches.  They upper caisson is always positioned at a slightly lower point with respect to the upper water level.
When the gates are opened to allow entry/exit of boats, the upper caisson will end up with more water than the lower caisson.
No electricity is needed, only opening and closing a hydraulic valve...

In the Falkirk wheel they deliberately keep both caissons balanced with the maximum difference in water height being 37mm. The motors used to overcome friction are only 22.5kW, and it takes 1.5kWh per half turn, the same as to boil 8 cups of water! Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel#Structure

Similarly, the Anderton lift's motor are 30kW. Only half of that is required for normal operation, the remainder being used if there is an imbalace in the caissons' weight. Source: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Anderton_Boat_Lift

Another "strange" device is the "transporter bridge". There are seven around the world, including one in Middlesborough, and one in Newport. Until you tell them, few people can guess how they operate

[bd139]

TE megapost coming up. I’m up to my ears in gear today and it all works 

[Specmaster]

I had to go on site at work today. Actually playing with wires and TE a rig with star delta wiring....
Got in and had to get a diesel Mondeo moved of the designated EV spot so I could charge the car. Had to go out to pick something up and all was OK got back and plugged in and chargiing. Finshed work and went to un-plug and charger was dead (it's a type 1 10A slow charger with 13A plug). Fuse was OK but no lights. Reads open circuit between L & N
So time to investigate. It's clearly not ment to be serviced but that did not stop me. I'm not paying £2-300 for a new one. The cover of the moulded case had tamper proof Torx screws. I've plenty of tools for those. I was soon clear that the cover was also glued down with what looks like Sikaflex. Bit of leaverage sorted that. Thirty seconds with the Fluke confirmed an open circuit live between the (moulded on) plug and ring tag inside charger. I removed the cable and as I suspected from the start the wure was broken at the compression cable gland. This had clearly been over tightened.
New lead (Cut off quality 1.5mm IEC lead with moulded plug) fitted and now all working. 
I put a bit of glue lined heatshrink over the cable were it comes through the gland for added protecton. I'll have to get some black Sikaflex to seal it up properly.
Pretty sure the garage would have said "not fixable" and wanted more than £300 for one. The extended warranty company would probably say "accessories are not covered" too.
Before anyone says it, I always use the support lanyard and never leave the charger hanging on the cable.

I think sealed units should be banned personally.  Black Silkaflex is sold by Screwfix for £6.99 

[Cerebus]

Hermes just delivered what must be the Acterna Cell Site tester / Spectrum analyser.
Need to walk the dog before playing though.

"Walking the dog" sounds euphemistic. What were you really doing? 

[bd139]

Hermes just delivered what must be the Acterna Cell Site tester / Spectrum analyser.
Need to walk the dog before playing though.

"Walking the dog" sounds euphemistic. What were you really doing? 

My phone corrects that to wanking the dog 

[Specmaster]

TE megapost coming up. I’m up to my ears in gear today and it all works 

Jammy git 

Discovered that my scopemeter is now actually sitting in Yodels depot in Basildon, just 15 to 20 drive from me, and it has been there since 11:00 this morning, but delivery is still being shown as scheduled for Saturday. Spoke with their online agent portal and tried to get the address of the depot so I could collect it. They responded that collection was NOT possible until they attempt delivery and fail, at which time they will give me a card asking to collect it from them. So in the meantime I have to sit and wait and hope that they decide to deliver it earlier, what kind of BS is this? 

[mnementh]

yes.

mnem
 

Heh-heh...

Sorry... there has been an unexpected delay caused by Amazon taking forever to deliver some A27 batteries. and now, due to a mishap during fitment/design of part B, I have to wait til Friday for some pogo pins before I can use it anyways.

I'll update once I have something meaningful accomplished... this is actually TEA related for a fucking change.

mnem

[Cerebus]

...it takes 1.5kWh per half turn, the same as to boil 8 cups of water!

That sounded wrong given that my 3kW kettle boils ~1.5 litres in under 3 minutes, so 1 ran the numbers. 1 cup = 220ml = 220gm, x8 -> 1.76 kg. Specific heat capacity of water 4.2 kJ/kgK, heating from 20ºC->100ºC -> ~590 kJ -> 0.165 kWh. Some one's off by a factor of 10.

[mnementh]

Hermes just delivered what must be the Acterna Cell Site tester / Spectrum analyser.   Need to walk the dog before playing though.

"Walking the dog" sounds euphemistic. What were you really doing? 

My phone corrects that to wanking the dog 

Of course it does... it's your phone... 

mnem
 

[Cerebus]

TE megapost coming up. I’m up to my ears in gear today and it all works 

You must be sorely disappointed. 

[Cerebus]

Hermes just delivered what must be the Acterna Cell Site tester / Spectrum analyser.   Need to walk the dog before playing though.

"Walking the dog" sounds euphemistic. What were you really doing? 

My phone corrects that to wanking the dog 

Of course it does... it's your phone... 

mnem
 

Yeah, it's yer machine learning innit?

[Specmaster]

Those look like two different principles.

The slate quarry lift going down is heavier than the empty lift going up, so gravity "fuels" the lift. The two canal caissons have exactly the same weight whether or not they are loaded. An engine is used to overcome friction losses.

UK examples of canal lifts, old (Anderton, also on the Trent river ) and new (Falkirk):

There are several examples of water-powered lifts, e.g. Lynton and Lynmouth (850ft long, 500ft high) and 3(!) at Bournemouth

Thanks!  I enjoying all those different lift designs.

In the liftlocks, they use blocks in the system as limit switches.  They upper caisson is always positioned at a slightly lower point with respect to the upper water level.
When the gates are opened to allow entry/exit of boats, the upper caisson will end up with more water than the lower caisson.
No electricity is needed, only opening and closing a hydraulic valve...

In the Falkirk wheel they deliberately keep both caissons balanced with the maximum difference in water height being 37mm. The motors used to overcome friction are only 22.5kW, and it takes 1.5kWh per half turn, the same as to boil 8 cups of water! Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel#Structure

Similarly, the Anderton lift's motor are 30kW. Only half of that is required for normal operation, the remainder being used if there is an imbalace in the caissons' weight. Source: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Anderton_Boat_Lift

Another "strange" device is the "transporter bridge". There are seven around the world, including one in Middlesborough, and one in Newport. Until you tell them, few people can guess how they operate

Yep, I guessed how they work, having seen one up in Middlesborough many years ago.

[mnementh]

Look what I came across at rummaging around and thought you also might enjoy it: connector pornography!   

*mugs you for some pogo pins*

mnem

[bd139]

TE megapost coming up. I’m up to my ears in gear today and it all works 

You must be sorely disappointed. 

Yes. Still got that fucked up TOPS1 to fight though.

Just got to go to Asda and get pudding or the kids are going to kill me and I’ll write it all up

[factory]

Some cheap boat anchor TEA for those in the US, including the hp 2590A from a few weeks back, several microwave amplifiers, a RF signal gen and a few TV waveform monitors. All reduced to $10 start price.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/Test-Measurement-Inspection/181939/m.html?_ssn=elizha35&_from=R40&_nkw=

If that 2590A was over here I would have bid.


David

had been watching that 2590 transfer oscillator at 50 bucks for a couple of weeks.   then saw it go to an auction starting at 10.  was gonna wait till the last second and steal it just to have something cub does not already have.  (because who in the world would be watching for a POS like that).

but then SOMEONE had to announce it to the only crowd on planet earth who are compulsive enough to actually bid on it.

you have almost pushed me to the point of crowing about tossing tea in the harbor. 

am consoled by the fact that on sunday morning i stole a 5256a hetrodyne converter from a hobo for 20 bucks.

I didn't think anyone was interested, as I mentioned it over a month ago when it was $25, or maybe I missed the replies.  The B version sold pretty quickly.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3597532/#msg3597532

I've now got to confess after last nights post, I asked about shipping and it now has an international option added. 

David

[Cerebus]

TE megapost coming up. I’m up to my ears in gear today and it all works 

You must be sorely disappointed. 

Yes. Still got that fucked up TOPS1 to fight though.

Just got to go to Asda and get pudding or the kids are going to kill me and I’ll write it all up

Tell them that foraging is the new trendy thing and they should see what they can find growing through that neglected hedge at the end of the garden. 

[bd139]

Living in London, that bush is probably full of porn magazines 

[bd139]

Ok TE post dump. Doing some catching up here after a bit of a hiatus...

So the Solartron 7150 plus is first candidate. Was stripped down and all the capacitors checked. They were all good! Winner.



Then the mains filter was swapped out carefully with the proper replacement part. I can't bear to see some of the cheap hacks people have done which involve cutting chunks out of things to save a few quid. The new one is almost identical other than it takes 20mm fuses instead of the long ones. I have just inserted the old fuse holders into the new unit as I didn't have any 250mA slow blow 20mm units. It comes with the filter pre-wired to the dual fuse compartment. I pulled off the spades and slipped over some heatshrink to avoid issues with accidental contact. The original one had a 100k carbon composition resistor across the mains as well to discharge the X2 capacitor in the filter. I omitted that as it was too much faff.



After this it was powered up and checked and all was good. The old mains filter was discarded.

Next came the LED upgrade. This is a bit of a pain in the arse if I'm honest. I snipped the old LEDs out, removed the LCD display and the diffuser panel, cleaned out the PCB holes properly and reassembled with new white LEDs. The unit was fully reassembled and powered up. All good 



It was compared to all DMMs I have and the 8060A, 25 and Solartron agree with each other. The 87 is however slightly off (7 counts) on DC volts so I need to look into that.

I will clean the whole thing up properly another day.

[Specmaster]

Living in London, that bush is probably full of porn magazines 

Really, I never managed to find any there 

[bd139]

Next up is the E3630A. Hermes decided to do some buggery with this but it arrived on schedule in the end. Well done.

It is completely new. There is no sign of any use at all. All cal seals intact, original screen protector, cal certificate from Agilent dated 2011 and it works perfectly. Not much more to say on that!



There is of course a RIFA hiding inside it so I will be breaking the cal seals and replacing that in the next couple of days so I don't get a nasty surprise one day.


Last item today is the HP 5381A. This is a fairly crappy counter from the 1970s but is absolutely fine for what I need it for. It arrived limping. This turned out to be something fairly simple though. I checked the ESR on the main filter cap and it was showing about 12 ohms. Oh no. Removed the cap and retested it again and it was fine. Reinstalled it and it was fine. It was probably the screw terminals being loose as it was a screw in cap.

The right three digits of the display have been replaced with later type of LEDs at some point which is why they are brighter - must have blown up!

Some HP pr0n:






Some minor additions to the collection as well:

Got the transistors for the TOPS1 arrive and some lacing wire so I can do a decent job of looms in future.

Now I'm going to sleep 

[Specmaster]

Those Solartron meters used high quality parts within them, apart from the dreaded mains filter. Some people have had them fail and not bothered to fit new ones, and they still seem to carry without any adverse effects on the readings.

Yes those LEDs are a pain in the arse, it feels as if the plastic clips that hold them in place is going to break when extracting the old ones, but thankfully didn't, and I see yours didn't either and the finished result make a real improvement over the unlit 3478A display. Good work, as always 

[Andrew_Debbie]

Andrew - what kind of edge connectors does the Dana meter use?  If they're the 'conventional' type with the fingers on the card edge, you might look for HP extender cards - as such things go, they're relatively common on the Bay of Evil.  It's taken a while, but I've managed to find most sizes:

Search on things like "HP extender", "HP extender board", "HP Extender card" and the like.

(If, on the other hand they use the Fluke-style soldered in forks, well, you're forked.  Extenders for those in my experience are rarer than hen's teeth.)

-Pat

Dana use something I've never seen before.    The main board has pins like the ones commonly used for test points.   At either end are larger posts that locate the card.

The card has connectors that fit on to that.

[bd139]

There's a whole bunch of them in that Solartron. See bottom:

[Andrew_Debbie]

Oh a mere mortal / consumer can get professionally etched keycaps ?! What a wonderful world we live in ! 

Thanks for all the info ! Had no idea one had all the tools to build himself a fully custom top quality keyboard.. there is hope for a good keyboard then, that's marvelous ! Will try and make my Cherry last as long as possible, but if it ever dies for good, it's incredible peace of mind to know I have now a plan 'B' ! 

Will copy/paste your message in a safe place to make sure I can find it easily when I need it !   

Yes -   There is plenty of support from OpenSource designs and firmware.   Cherry MX switches are available or you can get  MX compatible switches from several companies in China.   You can do your own layout or buy a kit.

Keycaps are their own thing - There are many keycap sets for sale or you can design your own.     Or you can buy a brand new Keyboard from Cherry!!!