Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

Oh man found a Tek 7000 series plugin I really want on ebay but don't have a chassis to stuff it in.

Do I or don't I 

If you're asking us that question it's clear you already know the answer you want to arrive at. It's a bit like asking me in my younger years "Shall we have one for the road?".

[bd139]

Well too late ... so I now own 5x Tektronix 7000 plugins and a 150 quid dent in the credit card (risky business  )

So we have:

1x 7A15 single channel 80MHz vertical amp - broken volts/div knob. Will keep for spares...
1x 7M11 delay line plumbing. Will bounce..
1x 7A18 75MHz dual trace vertical amplifier - broken channel selector knob. Will keep for spares...
1x 7B50A 100MHz horizontal. Good condition. Will keep.

And the money shot.

1x 7CT1N curve tracer. Looks in good condition. No broken bits. It's not a 575 but it will fit in a 7603 or something that will fit in my house and it's mostly populated with repairable bits.

Now for a 7603...

Rabbit hole here we come.

[Vince]

...As I already said the tiny coil spring in the meter movement is wrecked, I am not a clock artisan I can't fix that... and even if I were, I have no use for such a device...

But maybe I can do like everybody does over here, and just sell it broken for 100 Euros, and putting all the usual buzz words in the title and description : " RARE, VINTAGE, FOR COLLECTORS " !! 

Now you are making me feel guilty and I might consider keeping it taking up space for nothing 

Looking at your pics, it doesn't look terribly fooked. Nothing broken, just bent a bit. If the movement responds correctly to testing with the DIODE CHECK function of your DMM, prolly not as bad as you think. Maybe the spring is just a bit bent, and easily straightened with a fine pair of tweezers, like the ceramic ones I recommended to you. Often as not, a little rubbing makes little difference to the overall accuracy anyways.

After that, then you can do some trial/error to re-cal; not exactly a high level of precision required, by the looks of it.

You know how you get good at fixing delicate little fiddly-bits...? By trying and failing and trying again until you figure out what actually works.

This piece  looks like it would be a good start; not like there's a lot to lose by trying. Plus you might learn something.

Think of it the way you would practice-soldering/desoldering on a scrap PCB. Time spent learning a new skill. 

mnem
"Any day you don't learn something is a day wasted." ~grand-dad

Are you a Dwagon or a sales man ?! 

OK... will keep the bloody thing, I took pity on it now, I am starting to look zat him like a orphan new born, it's crying and looking defenseless... how can I now possibly throw it in the big metal container at the scrap yard and hear the horrifying noise of metal to metal , meaning I just killed it and disposed of it as it he were a simple soul-less object ! HOW COULD THAT POSSIBLY BE, I ASK !!    What kind of MONSTER could dispose of a newborn like this !

Even Dragons took pity on him, so what choice does that leave me with ?!  NONE !  I have to keep him now, and provide for him, feed him, change diapers and pay for school etc ! 

[DH7DN]

Fresh Tek stuff... Need to characterize the Tek 012-0482-00 coax cable...

I admit, I am very bad at trolling... just ignore some of the photos 

The comrade on the right looks a bit worn out. 

Will clean them with love soon(tm) 

My Tek Scope army is growing (7 so far). This is becoming a problem, because I just needed a scope to do "some" measurements. Then it escalated to "Save the whales Tek Scopes" kind of attitude.
But alas, my cal lab is in preparation and the measurement capabilities are growing... 

[Neper]

Ditto not tell people who keep sheep as pets that they are eating lamb.

The supermarket across the Belgian border offered smoked horse tenderloin (much like Filet d'Anvers) for a time - absolutely delicious, it would melt on your tongue - until the butcher's little daughters spotted it and made such a fuzz that he hasn't dared order more of it, much to our chagrin.

[mnementh]

...As I already said the tiny coil spring in the meter movement is wrecked, I am not a clock artisan I can't fix that... and even if I were, I have no use for such a device...

But maybe I can do like everybody does over here, and just sell it broken for 100 Euros, and putting all the usual buzz words in the title and description : " RARE, VINTAGE, FOR COLLECTORS " !! 

Now you are making me feel guilty and I might consider keeping it taking up space for nothing 

Looking at your pics, it doesn't look terribly fooked. Nothing broken, just bent a bit. If the movement responds correctly to testing with the DIODE CHECK function of your DMM, prolly not as bad as you think. Maybe the spring is just a bit bent, and easily straightened with a fine pair of tweezers, like the ceramic ones I recommended to you. Often as not, a little rubbing makes little difference to the overall accuracy anyways.

After that, then you can do some trial/error to re-cal; not exactly a high level of precision required, by the looks of it.

You know how you get good at fixing delicate little fiddly-bits...? By trying and failing and trying again until you figure out what actually works.

This piece  looks like it would be a good start; not like there's a lot to lose by trying. Plus you might learn something.

Think of it the way you would practice-soldering/desoldering on a scrap PCB. Time spent learning a new skill. 

mnem
"Any day you don't learn something is a day wasted." ~grand-dad

Are you a Dwagon or a sales man ?! 

OK... will keep the bloody thing, I took pity on it now, I am starting to look zat him like a orphan new born, it's crying and looking defenseless... how can I now possibly throw it in the big metal container at the scrap yard and hear the horrifying noise of metal to metal , meaning I just killed it and disposed of it as it he were a simple soul-less object ! HOW COULD THAT POSSIBLY BE, I ASK !!    What kind of MONSTER could dispose of a newborn like this !

Even Dragons took pity on him, so what choice does that leave me with ?!  NONE !  I have to keep him now, and provide for him, feed him, change diapers and pay for school, fuck me !

quite right. 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Well too late ... so I now own 5x Tektronix 7000 plugins and a 150 quid dent in the credit card (risky business  )

So we have:

1x 7A15 single channel 80MHz vertical amp - broken volts/div knob. Will keep for spares...
1x 7M11 delay line plumbing. Will bounce..
1x 7A18 75MHz dual trace vertical amplifier - broken channel selector knob. Will keep for spares...
1x 7B50A 100MHz horizontal. Good condition. Will keep.

And the money shot.

1x 7CT1N curve tracer. Looks in good condition. No broken bits. It's not a 575 but it will fit in a 7603 or something that will fit in my house and it's mostly populated with repairable bits.

Now for a 7603...

Rabbit hole here we come.

Really... was there ever any doubt...? 

mnem
*toddles off to unplug EVERYTHING for the move*

[mnementh]

Oklay guys... this is it. The truck is reserved for Sunday/Monday, and we're packing down the big stuff (like the PCs and the desks they're on) now. I'll be on my tablet until we're actually moved into the new house.

*wibble*

mnem
*presses button* ROWWRRR-Rowwwrrr-rowwwwrrrr-rowwwrrrr-rowwrr...

[bd139]

Oklay guys... this is it. The truck is reserved for Sunday/Monday, and we're packing down the big stuff (like the PCs and the desks they're on) now. I'll be on my tablet until we're actually moved into the new house.

*wibble*

mnem
*presses button* ROWWRRR-Rowwwrrr-rowwwwrrrr-rowwwrrrr-rowwrr...

Good luck. May the force be with you and Murphy somewhere further South 

[Cerebus]

1x 7CT1N curve tracer.

That was my educated guess as to what it would be.

[Vince]

Well too late ... so I now own 5x Tektronix 7000 plugins and a 150 quid dent in the credit card (risky business  )

So we have:

1x 7A15 single channel 80MHz vertical amp - broken volts/div knob. Will keep for spares...
1x 7M11 delay line plumbing. Will bounce..
1x 7A18 75MHz dual trace vertical amplifier - broken channel selector knob. Will keep for spares...
1x 7B50A 100MHz horizontal. Good condition. Will keep.

And the money shot.

1x 7CT1N curve tracer. Looks in good condition. No broken bits. It's not a 575 but it will fit in a 7603 or something that will fit in my house and it's mostly populated with repairable bits.

Now for a 7603...

Rabbit hole here we come.

Wow ! Lucky you !

Would kill to have a curve tracer plugin, but too rare and expensive for my purse !
Don't have a 7000 series scope but I do have a rack mount 5111A that I love. There is only ONE guy here who has a curve tracer plugin for the 5000 series, but it's been for sale for a few years now, at 1000 Euros ! Not for me then !   

Of course I am glad I have my 575 now, but still would not mind a plugin for my 5111A !

[tggzzz]

Ditto not tell people who keep sheep as pets that they are eating lamb.

The supermarket across the Belgian border offered smoked horse tenderloin (much like Filet d'Anvers) for a time - absolutely delicious, it would melt on your tongue - until the butcher's little daughters spotted it and made such a fuzz that he hasn't dared order more of it, much to our chagrin.

Brought some reindeer back from Norway sikking holiday, and my 10yo daughter had some in her sandwiches at school. A friend asked her what she had in the sandwiches. According to my daughter, on hearing she actually turned green.

When I was growing up, there was a horse butcher in a nearby market town just down the road from bd, Kingston.

Seagul (mávur) is pleasant like an oversized fishy pigeon.

[Cerebus]

Ditto not tell people who keep sheep as pets that they are eating lamb.

The supermarket across the Belgian border offered smoked horse tenderloin (much like Filet d'Anvers) for a time - absolutely delicious, it would melt on your tongue - until the butcher's little daughters spotted it and made such a fuzz that he hasn't dared order more of it, much to our chagrin.

There was a big fuss in England some years back where it came out that horsemeat had been making its way into some Tesco ready meals. My reaction was largely "I wondered why their super-cheap range tasted so good?". The real story ought to have been about traceability (as it happened, all the horsemeat used was EU approved for human consumption) and misrepresentation but the predictable backlash was more "My Little Pony". Had it been labelled "Horse Lasagne" I probably would have gone out of my way to get some rather than consumed it as a happy accident.

[bd139]

Well too late ... so I now own 5x Tektronix 7000 plugins and a 150 quid dent in the credit card (risky business  )

So we have:

1x 7A15 single channel 80MHz vertical amp - broken volts/div knob. Will keep for spares...
1x 7M11 delay line plumbing. Will bounce..
1x 7A18 75MHz dual trace vertical amplifier - broken channel selector knob. Will keep for spares...
1x 7B50A 100MHz horizontal. Good condition. Will keep.

And the money shot.

1x 7CT1N curve tracer. Looks in good condition. No broken bits. It's not a 575 but it will fit in a 7603 or something that will fit in my house and it's mostly populated with repairable bits.

Now for a 7603...

Rabbit hole here we come.

Wow ! Lucky you !

Would kill to have a curve tracer plugin, but too rare and expensive for my purse !
Don't have a 7000 series scope but I do have a rack mount 5111A that I love. There is only ONE guy here who has a curve tracer plugin for the 5000 series, but it's been for sale for a few years now, at 1000 Euros ! Not for me then !   

Of course I am glad I have my 575 now, but still would not mind a plugin for my 5111A !

Yeah they are rare indeed which is why I tend to scan lots on ebay here regularly. The price is a little high for my liking as a perpetual cheap ass but I figured it was worth a risk and it has been on the want list for a long time. The CT plugin I just bought is nearly exactly the same as a 5CT1N in theory for your chassis just with different plugin adapter. I wouldn't pay 1000 eur for it - that's taking the piss 

Only 7k chassis here is in Doncaster which is a bit far. Perhaps I should combine it with a trip to Peak District and take an amble up Kinder Scout weather permitting 

At least this isn't that 7L12. That took some chasing of ghosts



Anyway need to disappear for a bit as someone is commanding some attention 

[med6753]

Well too late ... so I now own 5x Tektronix 7000 plugins and a 150 quid dent in the credit card (risky business  )

So we have:

1x 7A15 single channel 80MHz vertical amp - broken volts/div knob. Will keep for spares...
1x 7M11 delay line plumbing. Will bounce..
1x 7A18 75MHz dual trace vertical amplifier - broken channel selector knob. Will keep for spares...
1x 7B50A 100MHz horizontal. Good condition. Will keep.

And the money shot.

1x 7CT1N curve tracer. Looks in good condition. No broken bits. It's not a 575 but it will fit in a 7603 or something that will fit in my house and it's mostly populated with repairable bits.

Now for a 7603...

Rabbit hole here we come.

Wow ! Lucky you !

Would kill to have a curve tracer plugin, but too rare and expensive for my purse !
Don't have a 7000 series scope but I do have a rack mount 5111A that I love. There is only ONE guy here who has a curve tracer plugin for the 5000 series, but it's been for sale for a few years now, at 1000 Euros ! Not for me then !   

Of course I am glad I have my 575 now, but still would not mind a plugin for my 5111A !

Yeah they are rare indeed which is why I tend to scan lots on ebay here regularly. The price is a little high for my liking as a perpetual cheap ass but I figured it was worth a risk and it has been on the want list for a long time. The CT plugin I just bought is nearly exactly the same as a 5CT1N in theory for your chassis just with different plugin adapter. I wouldn't pay 1000 eur for it - that's taking the piss 

Only 7k chassis here is in Doncaster which is a bit far. Perhaps I should combine it with a trip to Peak District and take an amble up Kinder Scout weather permitting 

At least this isn't that 7L12. That took some chasing of ghosts



Anyway need to disappear for a bit as someone is commanding some attention 

Welcome back! 

[AVGresponding]

I've been outbid, thank the stars!   

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144176574492




This has already entered silly money territory, so no bid from me:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255113728461




Outbid again! I paid less than this for my MZ N-710, which not only came with a battery door, is Net-MD, and came with the inline remote, extended battery pack, and 12 minidiscs in their individual and an overall storage case. People are DUMB.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265285637535




HFM? On yer bike

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403114856197




There's a new meme in town:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224590212799




Brymen 233 clone/rebadge?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324777327392




Outbid on this as well, but given the imminent arrival of the 1202 I'll not come back on it:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353645509293




Nice HP, none of that Keysight rubbish:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403125279334




Waiting for the price on this to go mental:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373706588199




Same seller has this nice old boat anchor:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373707707754




And this is a, it's a, erm, an errrr.... yeah

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334130159254




Also have bids on what feels like half the world's supply of off-brand tablets (Archos etc), so obviously I hope to be outbid on all bar one of those...

[Vince]

Yeah they are rare indeed which is why I tend to scan lots on ebay here regularly. The price is a little high for my liking as a perpetual cheap ass but I figured it was worth a risk and it has been on the want list for a long time. The CT plugin I just bought is nearly exactly the same as a 5CT1N in theory for your chassis just with different plugin adapter. I wouldn't pay 1000 eur for it - that's taking the piss 

Only 7k chassis here is in Doncaster which is a bit far. Perhaps I should combine it with a trip to Peak District and take an amble up Kinder Scout weather permitting 

Anyway need to disappear for a bit as someone is commanding some attention 

Yeah 1000 is almost what I paid for my car !    Car is more useful and versatile than a CT plugins...

150 quid that's quite a fair price I find ! I wouldn't have hesitated a second to buy it.. well you didn't either ! Otr maybe a second or two, but not 3 ! 

Given the rarity and coolness factor of this plugins, 150 is more than fair I find...

As for the 7000 chassis well, as you said your car runs on mosquito farts so it's not really a cost issue here, and as for time well, if you can't spent a few hours driving ONCE, to fully experience your CT plugin dream... then you didn't really wanted it that bad !     Of course you do... so you WILL take the time to drive wherever is required to get a 7000 scope to shove your CT into ! 

Other alternative is you stay at home and instead design a little something to interface your plugin to a regular scope, but the design time for that, and parts cost and shipping, will end up being tremendously higher than just driving to wherever to get a 7000 scope !  So stop moaning and just go get that bloody scope and show us the result ! 

[med6753]

And speaking of Tek 7000 series plug-in's.

When I repaired the 7A24 last week I was also scanning Ebay in case I needed a parts unit and I did find one cheap and appeared to be in good shape except for one broken knob. So I purchased it just in case. It did state that it was untested and for parts/repair only so I knew what I was getting into.

Turns out I didn't need it since I was able to repair mine. It arrived the other day and while it looks good it definitely has issues. First thing was the vertical position pot on both channels was so tight could hardly turn them. And no amount of deoxit or light machine oil would free them up. Off to my parts stash. I have a 7A26 with a unrepairable attenuator deck. Turns out vertical pot (5k) with the identify button is the same. So pulled them and installed on the 7A24.



The plug-in works on both channels but is horribly unstable. I had cleaned the attenuators with deoxit then flushed with 100% IPA but apparently it's not enough. I'm going to have to pull both attenuator assemblies and use fine emory paper on them like I did with my 7A24 two years ago. And that fix has held with no issues.

[AVGresponding]

Ditto not tell people who keep sheep as pets that they are eating lamb.

The supermarket across the Belgian border offered smoked horse tenderloin (much like Filet d'Anvers) for a time - absolutely delicious, it would melt on your tongue - until the butcher's little daughters spotted it and made such a fuzz that he hasn't dared order more of it, much to our chagrin.

There was a big fuss in England some years back where it came out that horsemeat had been making its way into some Tesco ready meals. My reaction was largely "I wondered why their super-cheap range tasted so good?". The real story ought to have been about traceability (as it happened, all the horsemeat used was EU approved for human consumption) and misrepresentation but the predictable backlash was more "My Little Pony". Had it been labelled "Horse Lasagne" I probably would have gone out of my way to get some rather than consumed it as a happy accident.

It ended up in ready meals for several supermarkets, not just Tesco. The lack of full traceability means the claim it was EU approved for human consumption is in error.
There's an abbatoir local to me that ended up in trouble over the same sort of issue, and the horsemeat there was most certainly not EU approved. Indeed, most of the fines levied on the owner were for not having any paperwork, and the horses in question were in point of fact almost certainly local.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-32023036

[med6753]

Here's what I did 2 years that caused some controversy but it worked, and continues to work. I will be performing the same on the 7A24 that I just purchased.


https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/restoring-tektronix-attenuator-switch-deck-assemblies/ 

[Cerebus]

Ditto not tell people who keep sheep as pets that they are eating lamb.

The supermarket across the Belgian border offered smoked horse tenderloin (much like Filet d'Anvers) for a time - absolutely delicious, it would melt on your tongue - until the butcher's little daughters spotted it and made such a fuzz that he hasn't dared order more of it, much to our chagrin.

There was a big fuss in England some years back where it came out that horsemeat had been making its way into some Tesco ready meals. My reaction was largely "I wondered why their super-cheap range tasted so good?". The real story ought to have been about traceability (as it happened, all the horsemeat used was EU approved for human consumption) and misrepresentation but the predictable backlash was more "My Little Pony". Had it been labelled "Horse Lasagne" I probably would have gone out of my way to get some rather than consumed it as a happy accident.

It ended up in ready meals for several supermarkets, not just Tesco. The lack of full traceability means the claim it was EU approved for human consumption is in error.
There's an abbatoir local to me that ended up in trouble over the same sort of issue, and the horsemeat there was most certainly not EU approved. Indeed, most of the fines levied on the owner were for not having any paperwork, and the horses in question were in point of fact almost certainly local.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-32023036

If you're going to be a pedant get it right, the thing that fails the traceability test is the lasagne, not necessarily the horsemeat which could have been (and as I understand it in the case of Findus in Metz was) perfectly qualified for human consumption right up until someone mixed it with some beef mince and changed the label.

And yes it was other supermarkets as well as Tesco, but in the spirit of pedantry, I didn't buy a value line ready-meal from anyone other than Tesco at the time of the scandal.

[Vince]

I've been outbid, thank the stars!   

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144176574492

How can you possibly have been outbid, it's presently at only 20 quid or so ?!
And it's good specs and working !

Here last year I found a Gould 1604 for twice that, 50 Euros, and it was sold as " NO POWER " / defective, and much less capable : 4x20MHz 16MS/s and did not even have the built-in printer !  And over here that's cheap !

HOWEVER.... I do agree that one should run away from them  !

Turned out the seller of mine was crooked and "forgot" to say that he had already had a DEEP go at fixing it ! He clearly took it completely to bits, made an attempt to fix it, making more damage in the process... and when he gave up on it he hastily put it back together to shift it ! Half the screws were missing, and those that were present were usually not the right type !

Took me 3 intense weeks of hair pulling to fix the multiple issues in this scope ! En route I could appreciate the schematics that were next to impossible to read/decipher, too low resolution, then realizing that hey... the H/W on my particular scope does NOT match the schematics, then seeing how 90% of the components on the board were not labeled on the silkscreen so you could not find components of interest when trying to probe around, etc etc...

Somehow I managed to make a profit on the thing, managed to sell it in just a few days for 120 Euros, incredible !

Still, the 50+ Euros profit I made on this thing hardly paid for the 3 weeks of torture, so after I sold it I promised myself to NEVER BUY ANOTHER ONE !!!!

NEVER..... never...... ne-ver..... like in.... NEVER  ! 

I have been traumatized by the experience... 

[Andrew_Debbie]

And this is a, it's a, erm, an errrr.... yeah

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334130159254

What an interesting and obscure bit of TE.     If it sits unsold long enough I may put in a low offer.

https://w140.com/tekwiki/images/f/f6/Tekscope_1978_V10_N1.pdf

[Robert763]

Well too late ... so I now own 5x Tektronix 7000 plugins and a 150 quid dent in the credit card (risky business  )

So we have:

1x 7A15 single channel 80MHz vertical amp - broken volts/div knob. Will keep for spares...
1x 7M11 delay line plumbing. Will bounce..
1x 7A18 75MHz dual trace vertical amplifier - broken channel selector knob. Will keep for spares...
1x 7B50A 100MHz horizontal. Good condition. Will keep.

And the money shot.

1x 7CT1N curve tracer. Looks in good condition. No broken bits. It's not a 575 but it will fit in a 7603 or something that will fit in my house and it's mostly populated with repairable bits.

Now for a 7603...

Rabbit hole here we come.

How about this one?
Not a great photo, it's in my storage.

[AVGresponding]

How can you possibly been outbid, it's presently at only 20 quid or so ?!
And it's good specs and working !

Here last year I found a Gould 1604 for twice that, 50 Euros, and it was " NO POWER" / defective, and much less capable : 4x20MHz 16MS/s and did not even have the built-in printer !  And over here that's cheap !

HOWEVER.... I do agree that one should run away from them  !

Turned out the seller of muine was crooked and "forgot" to that he had already had a DEEP go at fixing it ! HE cklearly took it copleteyl to bits, made an attempt to fix it, making more damage in the process... and when he gave up on it he hastily put it back together to shift it ! Half the screws were missing, and those that were present were usually not the right type !

Took me 3 intense weeks of hair pulling to fix the multiple issue in this scope ! En route I could appreciate the schematics that were next to impossible to read/decipher, too low resolution, then realizing that hey... the H/W on my particular scope does NOT match the schematics, then seeing how 90% of the components on the board were not labeled on the silkscreen so you could not find components of interest when probing around, etc etc...

Somehow I manage to make profit on the thing, managed to sell it in just a few days for 120 Euros, incredible !

Still, the 50+ euros profit I made on this thing hardly paid for the 3 weeks of torture, so after I sold it I promised myself to NEVER BUY ANOTHER ONE !!!!

NEVER..... never...... ne-ver..... like in.... NEVER  ! 

I have been traumatized by the experience... 

The shipping costs would make it crazy expensive for me. The first bid was an impulse, and one that is easily suppressed from now on!