Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Another 5 1/2 digit bench multimeter from the 90's. It's an HP 3468A off of the Bay of Pay.

Looking at the pics, I never understood fully the option to switch mains voltage to 220-240VAC or 100-120VAC.
I mean if you are in US 110, 220 otherwise. What are those fine adjustment options?

Mains voltage here used to be closer to 110V but over the years 120V is more typical. My mains is about 123-125V.

[med6753]

Ah yes sounds like the guy we have here. I think he killed everyone off.

One of the reasons I quit was he was lurking constantly waiting for victims. If anyone popped up then he’d dive right in. If you had a sked set up he’d bust into a gap and do a pretend radio check and then somehow not fuck off again. Being SDR he could watch the whole sodding band waiting for victims. He’d pull the conversation into his own schedule of bullshit immediately and then not fuck off. Grr

Gee.......nevermind. 

[tggzzz]

Semi retirement and being a carer sometimes really really SUCKS...... 

Tell me about it For me the caring bit has ended (fortunately in some senses), and the clearup begun. In our case the latter is far from trivial, e.g. is that Himalayan Moon Bear covered by CITES?

That’s going to be a pain I imagine. In similar circumstances here and in this case asbestos crammed outbuildings. Fortunately this one is not mine to deal with directly although I shall be dragged into it I suspect.

Asbestos is "simple" in that you can get an estimate from a contractor. For example, to remove my asbestos/cement sheet "garage" will cost £800-£1000, when I eventually get around it.

Determining the age of a bear (1947 being the cliff edge) is not easy and can be disputed. I believe carbon dating can be used on hair and skin, but I'm not sure about the scales on my gharial.

[tggzzz]

A real nutter on 2 meter HAM radio last night, ranting against the vaccine. Said all who took it would die in about a year. 

I would have loudly and insistently asked who will be disposing of his estate - so you can get in touch with them when (not if) you haven't heard from him for a while.

Mind you, such nutter hams' equipment probably reeks of smoke.

[xrunner]

A real nutter on 2 meter HAM radio last night, ranting against the vaccine. Said all who took it would die in about a year. 

I would have loudly and insistently asked who will be disposing of his estate - so you can get in touch with them when (not if) you haven't heard from him for a while.

Mind you, such nutter hams' equipment probably reeks of smoke.

Smoke and sometimes ... little things crawl out of them while they are on the bench. A smoking ham wanted me to look into a malfunctioning radio. Was met with an unpleasant surprise.

A story I've related before but won't at this time. 

[BU508A]

Today arrival: two Sisyphos Tektronix cups   

[Zucca]

super cool. I still thinking about a board to put in our benches (no space right?) as TEA symbol/mark... like Dave with his OUTATIME license plate...

[mnementh]

That is FUKKIN' AWESOME!!! 🤣

mnem
 

[Robert763]

On that front my mains sits around 251 volts here. This causes that TOPS1 some trouble annoyingly. There are clamp zeners across the filter caps which are being hit every cycle. 

You need a buck transformer, see below.
A little 80VA 6V toriod will give you 13A at 244V for 250V in. A 120VA 9V will give 241V out at 13A.

[bd139]

On that front my mains sits around 251 volts here. This causes that TOPS1 some trouble annoyingly. There are clamp zeners across the filter caps which are being hit every cycle. 

You need a buck transformer, see below.
A little 80VA 6V toriod will give you 13A at 244V for 250V in. A 120VA 9V will give 241V out at 13A.

Oh that's very neat. Never would have thought of that one. Thanks for the tip 

[Zucca]

super cool. I still thinking about a board to put in our benches (no space right?) as TEA symbol/mark... like Dave with his OUTATIME license plate...

What about some nixies/LCD panel that display the mains voltage, air humidity and temp?
that would be cool for our labs...

[Andrew_Debbie]

Anyone looking for an unused Metrix MX2B?

No bids at the moment.    Seller claims to have opened packaging to install battery.   (Should have kept it sealed . . . but ...  then again maybe it didn't work . . .)

I will not be bidding...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203584742767

[med6753]

Today arrival: two Sisyphos Tektronix cups   

I want one, obviously.  PM me with cost, paypal, etc. 

[BU508A]

Today arrival: two Sisyphos Tektronix cups   

I want one, obviously.  PM me with cost, paypal, etc.

I thought something like that, that's why I've ordered two. 

I'll send you one, no idea about the total costs.
One cup is around EUR 15.-.
As soon as it is on it's way I'll let you know the total amount.

Just out of curiousity:
Anybody else who want such a cup? let me know here or with a PM.
Shipping costs could be a killer, though.
Ah, and placing the picture is possible for the left, front and right side. This is the right side.

[Saskia]

you should name the cup Sisytronix 585 or similar ...

[BU508A]

you should name the cup Sisytronix 585 or similar ...

Good idea! 

[bd139]

Please add me to any cup distribution list . Will cover any fees and stuff. Might be worth shipping any to specific countries in lots and redistributing.

[Saskia]

btw the cup is not complete. The hernia and the catheder are missing ...

Sorry med, I just could not resist ...

[mnementh]

   Also found in my cheap-ass curb-score Samsuck TV... and on Amazon for $12 delivered: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07LCBLB8N

mnem
*clicky-clicky...clickety-clickety...*

There are half a dozen cute little relays in the thing. Keyboard : tactile switches, however not the cheap kind : Look at them, 100% metallic construction ?!     Never seen luxurious ones like that... probably because all the ones I salvaged came form cheap consumer devices, not pro stuff made for field use !

Thank you for burning 10 dollars from my bank account.

  did I do now?!?

mnem
*looks all over his keyboard for the "burn $10 from your bank account" macro...*

It's those darn tactile switches you found on Amazon!  His currency is not the Canadian peso, so it is only $10 instead of $12.99 CAD.

-- you can tell a Canadian price by the .99 cause it appears a whole dollar cheaper that way 

EDIT:  still holding on to my wallet ... Must resist ...

Oh... now I see. I thought Z was blaming me for something Vince  said. Looks like the "nested quotes mismatch bug" in SMF bit us both.

Huh... I always thought the xxx99.99 pricing thing was mostly a 'merkin flimflam marketeering thing. Guess I shouldn't be surprised the infection crossed the border ahead of me. 

As for the switches... why resist...? I bought them cuz I needed 6 of the metal ones to fix that curb-score Samsuck TV; and we both know there's no way in hell the rest of the kit will go unused in any of our labs. For 10 bux, a total no-brainer.

mnem
 

[med6753]

Today arrival: two Sisyphos Tektronix cups   

I want one, obviously.  PM me with cost, paypal, etc.

I thought something like that, that's why I've ordered two. 

I'll send you one, no idea about the total costs.
One cup is around EUR 15.-.
As soon as it is on it's way I'll let you know the total amount.

Just out of curiousity:
Anybody else who want such a cup? let me know here or with a PM.
Shipping costs could be a killer, though.
Ah, and placing the picture is possible for the left, front and right side. This is the right side.

OK, great. Thanks! 

[med6753]

btw the cup is not complete. The hernia and the catheder are missing ...

Sorry med, I just could not resist ...

Oh boooooooooooooooooo. 

LMAO

[med6753]

you should name the cup Sisytronix 585 or similar ...

No, Sisytronix 547.

[med6753]

Under the category of "Better late than never"

This is the scope test circuit I built almost 30 years ago. It uses an ICL8038 Function Generator chip with fixed sine, square, and triangle outputs at 0.5V p-p at approximately 5kHz. I say "approximately" 5kHz because the 100pf timing capacitor I used was a non-NPO ceramic and it drifted as much as +/-200Hz. I've been telling myself all these years I need to fix that. Well today was the day. A 100pf NPO capacitor has been installed and trimmer set to exactly 5kHz and now the drift appears to be less than 5Hz. 

 

[25 CPS]

Another 5 1/2 digit bench multimeter from the 90's. It's an HP 3468A off of the Bay of Pay. It was packed very well, but it was dirty and had a good amount of old permanent marker on it. The lithium primary battery (3V nominal) measures 3.42V, and nobody has played doctor with it. ICs have date codes of 1991.

Perhaps the 3468A isn't that interesting on it's own, but it is interesting to compare it to the Keithley 197A. The 3468A has a more modern interface with soft-touch buttons and a larger LCD. It has no backlight, but neither does the 197A, effectively. The 3468A does have HP-IL (of questionable use nowadays), and it can only measure to 300V and 3A. The Keithley can make relative measurements, measure dBm, has a built-in data-logger, and can measure the forward voltage drop of diodes. It also has safety banana jacks, and can measure 1000V and 10A. The HP has a funny shape that allows the folding bale to tuck underneath, whereas the Keithley's bale is always in the way if you aren't using it.

The 300V limit on the HP is really a deal-breaker for me (think vacuum tubes). It's either going in the sale thread or back on the 'bay from whence it came.

Getting old permanent marker off of textured plastic is a real pain. I tried multi-surface cleaner, WD-40, acetone, chlorinated brake cleaner, and car polish. The thing that seemed to offer the best results was the "magic eraser", which is a soft white sponge with a mild abrasive in it. N.B.: it creates a matte finish on the plastic and "magically erases" all printed text and graphics. It doesn't clean down into the texture, but it looks better than before.

Cerebus, HP are a step ahead of you (and hopefully me) with their warning label.

EDIT:

Anybody know the MSRP on the 197A and 3468A?

Yes that 300V limitation and the lack of a backlight was my biggest problem with the 3478 and also the 3468. I never noticed it until I did some work on a couple of vacuum tube items and the readings had me scratching my head for a while before the penny dropped that I'd run out of headroom on volts range  I soon flipped them after that, otherwise they are very good meters.

I ran into that too.  The main measurement station on my bench is a pair of 3478A with a 3457A sitting on top of them, which is great, except for anything involving a B+ voltage above that 300 volt limit.  So, next to those is a pair of 34401A stacked up.  One was an ebay buy fairly locally and the other was one of those NIB US Navy surplus ones that were being sold a year and a bit ago which takes care of the high voltage work.  I got those before 34401A prices exploded, luckily.  I can't believe what those are selling for now.

I left the 3478As and 3457A that sits on top of them in place since they're still great meters and for anything under that 300 volt threshold, keeps the VFD wear off the displays in the 34401As, plus it gives me two DMM stations to work with on that bench.

[mnementh]

I just bought a Countryman B3 

ummmm.... condolences...? Or was this an attempt to limit the curb weight of your acquisition sorties...?

mnem
Surely you wouldn't be so excited aboot a microphone...?