Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Some good points.

I contacted Mirfield and they have already replied saying they will send another unit out and to keep this one. They think that their supplier has thrown a few bad ones in to make up numbers. They apologised and are running self tests before sending them out now apparently. Now I know there is a probability, based on reading the group, that there are ones with modified firmware to pass the self tests so I will DFU the official firmware without such mods onto it and check it works then to make sure I'm not getting screwed. This might be a genuine issue at this point. Time will tell.

I do have to give a thumbs up to Erik at tinySA who has quite frankly amazing support and so far the Mirfield turnaround is minutes 

DFU both units and then you might end up with 2 working ones 

Just remember... "DFU mode" means DON'T. FUCK. UP. Or you may wind up with a nicely decorated brick. 

mnem
Actually, STM32xxxx are remarkably hard to kill... but man, you can spend days pulling your hair out fixing one that's stuck in zombie mode...

I always get a little scared doing firmware updates, really need a UPS for safety’s sake but hey those things cost some serious money.

I've not managed to brick anything other than a couple of android handsets so far. Should be fine. I've done DFU on NanoVNA and tinySA before and have done some STM32 dev so know the drill already. Worst case I'd have to buy a hot air doohickey and swap the MCU out

Yeah, I've done it a few times, but they always tell you not to switch off before its completed, but if the power just cuts out what then?

[mnementh]

Use a laptop when flashing. 

mnem
*currently stripping a GPU*

[mnementh]

   What a difference a little compressed air and IPA make...

      

mnem
*toddles off to watch Twilight Zone widda boi*

[cyclin_al]

Is a 5335A close enough for you?

Here is one in Canada, probably within road trip distance of 25CPS or the dwagon:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/373116324971
I cannot quite make out in the photos what is listed on the options sticker.
Tempted myself, but have already overspent on home repairs and other necessary stuff (according to SWMBO...).

Same seller on fleabay also has a HP 3311A, Fluke 1900A, crimp tools and other items.

Someone (Pat maybe?) once mentioned that HP made some 3311A in metal enclosure instead of plastic. Is that readily discernible in photos? The aluminum and plastic versions of the 3478A are easy to differentiate, but I've only ever seen the plastic version of the 3311A (that I know of).

I have a 3310A, 3310B, 3312A and 33120A. A non-plasticky 3311A might be nice.

Here is the link to the HP 3311A.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/373611561435
By the looks of the wear & tear on the top and bottom, my guess is that it is actually a metal case.
It looks to my eye that the dings all show a bright metallic colouring.
However, at first glance, the shape of the case made me think plastic, hence the uncertainty.

Hmmm, on closer look, someone photo-shopped out something from the photo of the top, on the top centre at the edge where it meets the front panel...

[cyclin_al]

Bargain for you guys in the US: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Agilent-E3648A-DC-Power-Supply-Parts-Unit-/184995561039?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

Unregulated output on channel one. I’d buy it if it wasn’t $100 for shipping and customs!

Schematics and service manual http://ridl.cfd.rit.edu/products/manuals/Agilent/power%20supplies/E3646AE2.pdf

Thanks for lining that one up for me. 

EDIT:

While I've got a post, here's one for med:

https://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/ele/d/portland-tektronix-529-oscilloscope/7362452602.html

EDIT EDIT:

Can anyone recommend a 4-wire kelvin leads/clips set with banana (safety OK) plugs? Looking for something dirt cheap, around USD25.

I just received a set of these ones; I have not opened up the package to take a close look yet.
Tony Albus has a set also, but I think he also has some better ones as well.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000802610759.html

[cyclin_al]

https://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/ele/d/portland-tektronix-529-oscilloscope/7362452602.html

Is craigs horror list still a thing in USA? I had some success in evil bay.com lately but everybody is telling me to go to facebook marketplace.

I miss my ebaykleineanzeige from Germany......

Yes, CL is still a thing here. I've actually had good luck with it. Never used Facebook Marketplace.

SWMBO uses Facebook Marketplace sometimes.  It appears to me to not be quite as good as CL for the search functions, and for listings hanging around for items that are already sold.  It is one of these things where it is advised to meet in a public place and deal with cash only... YMMV

[cyclin_al]

That guy in Orilla, ON has a 2020A for $300... it was one of the items I was thinking "might make it worth the trip".

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324608786118

mnem
  was I thinking...?

"Orilla" sounds too much like "Gorilla". I would avoid. 

It is actually "Orillia".  Please be nice to the folks that live there; they have to tolerate the head office of the Ontario Provincial Police in their nice town....
For anyone who likes a bit of history and humour, look up Stephen Leacock 

[cyclin_al]

@bd139 You asked what it is like as a multimeter, well as you can see from the photos, it does acquit itself pretty well if you can live with it limited voltage capability of 250V, which should be fine for most solid state projects. As with all of these types of devices that I have looked at, some compromises have to be made, the voltages are always measured using the probe on channel 1 and has settings for X1 and X10 probes.

There is an extensive onboard help menu and will present you with error messages when you go into overload situations. It even has a continuity setting, handy that, I often find myself using that option on meters.

I think these photos are pretty much self-explanatory, but sadly because this unit is in such perfect condition, the screen makes it almost impossible to get a really clear photo as it is angled upwards and as such things get reflected on it and these are not normally detected by the naked eye, but a camera just seems to amplify the problem.

Thanks for this. Much appreciated. That’s really neat actually. I am impressed 

Yeah, a fair bit of my kit is now from the TTi family, I have 3 PSU's, Cap meter, Scopemeter, 3 bench meters, pulse generator, function generator and a counter, all British made, like we discussed doing a few years back, except, I haven't flipped any of my British gear  . Even our benefactor Dave said in one of his videos recently, that TTi make some pretty smick gear and is available pretty much globally and well worth picking up if you can. 

Edit, Even the BNC sockets on the SM630 have plastic shells to aid the safety aspects of using it on live gear, I expect that their probes of the day would have been fitted with insulated plugs.

You’re doing better than me. I’ve got the PL320 still. That’s being buried with me 

On British gear I still have the D75, Farnell TOPS1, the solartron 7150 plus and the TTi PL320.

Other British gear I have is 4 (6 after Sunday) Avo's, 1 Feedback Function Generator, 1 Advance RF signal generator, 1 Advance AF signal generator and 1 Heathkit Cap tester, making my tally 21 bits of kit, its growing nicely 

What nothing from Marconi, Racal, Airmec, Dawe, Taylor, Venner, Wayne Kerr, etc. Maybe those will help you find some more British TEA to feed your addiction. 

David

Does a Marconi TF995A count as British or Canadian TEA?
The tag says it is made in England, but it carries a CMC (aka Canadian Marconi Company) serial number ....

If so, it is my only British piece.

[beanflying]

https://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/ele/d/portland-tektronix-529-oscilloscope/7362452602.html

Is craigs horror list still a thing in USA? I had some success in evil bay.com lately but everybody is telling me to go to facebook marketplace.

I miss my ebaykleineanzeige from Germany......

Yes, CL is still a thing here. I've actually had good luck with it. Never used Facebook Marketplace.

SWMBO uses Facebook Marketplace sometimes.  It appears to me to not be quite as good as CL for the search functions, and for listings hanging around for items that are already sold.  It is one of these things where it is advised to meet in a public place and deal with cash only... YMMV

The issue with Marketplace is the attached Farcebook part 

[mnementh]

I pulled the plug on them nearly a decade ago; never looked back.

mnem
timesink - noun: a complete waste of time and mental energy which would be better spent doing something... anything... else. See Facebook.

[cyclin_al]

   https://www.amazon.ca/Flycow-Adjustable-Switching-Temperature-Protection/dp/B081JQV816

Now that is a brand which inspires confidence. 

mnem
 

It sounds like it must be a brand in the business of power supplies for agricultural electric fences... 

This has all sorts of possibilities, but they all appear to go recursive ... 

[duckduck]

I said last minutes (or hours), the way you said you usually do, not seconds.

Gixen dashboard is the easy way to keep track of auctions you have a Gix on; they keep track of current bid and will alert you if you use the app or keep a tab open.

I've never had Gix fail to up a bid, and I've done it more times than I can count in the last 30 seconds of an auction. Of course, I was in the US so YMMV, DQMOT, etc...

And of course, you can always still bid against your own Gix from the eBay dashboard... it doesn't have any feelings to get bent out of shape, so  still a good idea to put in a crazy lowball Gixen bid any time you're actually interested in something.

mnem
 

OK, between you and Specmaster shilling Gixen, I tried it for an EQ guitar effect pedal that I've been wanting and ended up being the only bidder. I won it for a good price. I started browsing through the list of auctions ending soon and putting in lowball offers (using Gixen) on a bunch of Agilent bench DMM listings (which required buying an account). I don't think I'm going to win any of these, but I can see how eventually you would, if you kept on playing. Neat.

EDIT:

I have found this to be a real GAS-enabling technology.

[mansaxel]

   https://www.amazon.ca/Flycow-Adjustable-Switching-Temperature-Protection/dp/B081JQV816

Now that is a brand which inspires confidence. 

mnem
 

Perhaps they're trying to compete with Flying Pigs.

That is an actual brand -- Flying Pig Systems made very innovative lighting desks. They're now engulfed by ETC.

[RolandK]

From Fluke 8800A. We are on page 3904, so a picture of Motorola 2N3904.
They are used to switch the amplification via jfets. One of the control lines had to be lifted (green wire to gate), because the 5 Megohm between two of them were to much leakage so the jfet didn't swich on or needed minutes while the displayed value was 188888 or driving carrusel. Cleanin and drying the board didn't help. Error was back next day.

[Cubdriver]

 

Roland, earlier I was seriously thinking of digging out a 2N3904 and taking a pic, but was just too lazy to do so.  Well played, sir!

-Pat

[Specmaster]

Use a laptop when flashing. 

mnem
*currently stripping a GPU*

Fine if you have one, not everyone does 

[Specmaster]

Is a 5335A close enough for you?

Here is one in Canada, probably within road trip distance of 25CPS or the dwagon:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/373116324971
I cannot quite make out in the photos what is listed on the options sticker.
Tempted myself, but have already overspent on home repairs and other necessary stuff (according to SWMBO...).

Same seller on fleabay also has a HP 3311A, Fluke 1900A, crimp tools and other items.

Someone (Pat maybe?) once mentioned that HP made some 3311A in metal enclosure instead of plastic. Is that readily discernible in photos? The aluminum and plastic versions of the 3478A are easy to differentiate, but I've only ever seen the plastic version of the 3311A (that I know of).

I have a 3310A, 3310B, 3312A and 33120A. A non-plasticky 3311A might be nice.

Here is the link to the HP 3311A.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/373611561435
By the looks of the wear & tear on the top and bottom, my guess is that it is actually a metal case.
It looks to my eye that the dings all show a bright metallic colouring.
However, at first glance, the shape of the case made me think plastic, hence the uncertainty.

Hmmm, on closer look, someone photo-shopped out something from the photo of the top, on the top centre at the edge where it meets the front panel...

That has all the hallmarks IMV of being a plastic enclosure, all the clamshell cases I have seen in metal have screws along both sides to secure them.

[Specmaster]

@bd139 You asked what it is like as a multimeter, well as you can see from the photos, it does acquit itself pretty well if you can live with it limited voltage capability of 250V, which should be fine for most solid state projects. As with all of these types of devices that I have looked at, some compromises have to be made, the voltages are always measured using the probe on channel 1 and has settings for X1 and X10 probes.

There is an extensive onboard help menu and will present you with error messages when you go into overload situations. It even has a continuity setting, handy that, I often find myself using that option on meters.

I think these photos are pretty much self-explanatory, but sadly because this unit is in such perfect condition, the screen makes it almost impossible to get a really clear photo as it is angled upwards and as such things get reflected on it and these are not normally detected by the naked eye, but a camera just seems to amplify the problem.

Thanks for this. Much appreciated. That’s really neat actually. I am impressed 

Yeah, a fair bit of my kit is now from the TTi family, I have 3 PSU's, Cap meter, Scopemeter, 3 bench meters, pulse generator, function generator and a counter, all British made, like we discussed doing a few years back, except, I haven't flipped any of my British gear  . Even our benefactor Dave said in one of his videos recently, that TTi make some pretty smick gear and is available pretty much globally and well worth picking up if you can. 

Edit, Even the BNC sockets on the SM630 have plastic shells to aid the safety aspects of using it on live gear, I expect that their probes of the day would have been fitted with insulated plugs.

You’re doing better than me. I’ve got the PL320 still. That’s being buried with me 

On British gear I still have the D75, Farnell TOPS1, the solartron 7150 plus and the TTi PL320.

Other British gear I have is 4 (6 after Sunday) Avo's, 1 Feedback Function Generator, 1 Advance RF signal generator, 1 Advance AF signal generator and 1 Heathkit Cap tester, making my tally 21 bits of kit, its growing nicely 

What nothing from Marconi, Racal, Airmec, Dawe, Taylor, Venner, Wayne Kerr, etc. Maybe those will help you find some more British TEA to feed your addiction. 

David

Does a Marconi TF995A count as British or Canadian TEA?
The tag says it is made in England, but it carries a CMC (aka Canadian Marconi Company) serial number ....

If so, it is my only British piece.

That is the same model as I had and it is certainly British and IIRC made in StAlbans.

[Specmaster]

From Fluke 8800A. We are on page 3904, so a picture of Motorola 2N3904.
They are used to switch the amplification via jfets. One of the control lines had to be lifted (green wire to gate), because the 5 Megohm between two of them were to much leakage so the jfet didn't swich on or needed minutes while the displayed value was 188888 or driving carrusel. Cleanin and drying the board didn't help. Error was back next day.

That sounds like the board is still not cleaned well enough. That part of the circuit is a high impedance area and any leakage will affect it. I had a similar issue with a Blackstar 4503 DMM, and I had to do a deep clean with IPA on that about 20 times before I cured the problem. It now performs very well indeed and is one of my favourite DMMs.

[DC1MC]

Get yourself a wall of obsolete (?!?) transistors:

 

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/transistoren-itt-03648-fast-komplette-ve/1821843392-168-6987

[AVGresponding]

Just finished repacking a certain item that is to be forwarded to a certain forum member. I make no apologies for using enough packing tape to uprate the cardboard box to IP68...

A teardown post has been promised, which I will be interested to read, as I haven't had the courage to open mine and witness the infestation of smd caps!   

[Andrew_Debbie]

I just bought some gear to bounce. Got a tidy looking 50MHz TBS1052B-EDU For under 100 quid.

Wow. 


I passed on an ExDemo unit direct  from Tek  or this one --> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255061489561?hash=item3b62d97799:g:HyAAAOSw9otg-DQT

Tektronix advertise Ex demos for about 40% off. (~£270)   When I asked for a quote, they pointed me to a new 1052C from Farnell

[factory]

Is a 5335A close enough for you?

Here is one in Canada, probably within road trip distance of 25CPS or the dwagon:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/373116324971
I cannot quite make out in the photos what is listed on the options sticker.
Tempted myself, but have already overspent on home repairs and other necessary stuff (according to SWMBO...).

Same seller on fleabay also has a HP 3311A, Fluke 1900A, crimp tools and other items.

Someone (Pat maybe?) once mentioned that HP made some 3311A in metal enclosure instead of plastic. Is that readily discernible in photos? The aluminum and plastic versions of the 3478A are easy to differentiate, but I've only ever seen the plastic version of the 3311A (that I know of).

I have a 3310A, 3310B, 3312A and 33120A. A non-plasticky 3311A might be nice.

Here is the link to the HP 3311A.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/373611561435
By the looks of the wear & tear on the top and bottom, my guess is that it is actually a metal case.
It looks to my eye that the dings all show a bright metallic colouring.
However, at first glance, the shape of the case made me think plastic, hence the uncertainty.

Hmmm, on closer look, someone photo-shopped out something from the photo of the top, on the top centre at the edge where it meets the front panel...

That has all the hallmarks IMV of being a plastic enclosure, all the clamshell cases I have seen in metal have screws along both sides to secure them.

Take a look at the back of it, you can see the ends of the two black strips that latch the two case halves together, this is used on all of them I have (3311A, 5300 series & 34740 series) and mine all have die-cast metal case halves.

If you haven't seen Tony's 5300 video, then have a look at how they fit together.


David

[tautech]

I just bought some gear to bounce. Got a tidy looking 50MHz TBS1052B-EDU For under 100 quid. Reckon I can double that just by taking some better photos

tautech can leer at it disapprovingly 

Edit: wow even 50MHz analogues go for more than that at the moment  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114837779169

Sure....
A truly pitiful 2.5k mem depth  but at least it has a 7" display. 
Yeah flick it and make a buck to support your affliction hobby. 

[AVGresponding]

What is it with you guys (and gal)?

All week while I'm at work you shitpost to the tune of 4 or 5 pages a day, and now it's the weekend and I'm at home, you go completely quiet!   



@Specmaster, UPS's aren't that expensive nowadays, you can pick up a 750VA-1.5kVA APC second-hand for £50 or so if you've patience with the bay of evil. Or you could make your own from an inverter, car battery, and car battery charger.



@RolandK well if we're ok with components for page numbers, there's going to be a lot of low-hanging fruit when we hit page 4000... though we may find out who has the best collection of obscure CMOS jellybean logic!