Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

At another airfield on top of a hill, I'm told they occasionally accidentally launched sheep by catching them under the horn.

That I would like to see that just for the giggle factor. After all, we've had flying pigs. Why not flying sheep? 

Flying squirrels?

[AVGresponding]

Yeh, don't mess with aircraft, be they propeller or jet, they take no prisoners. I'm sure that there will be an incident on the airfield that I go to quite often. There are 2 cafe's, both are open to the public and both are located very close to taxiways which the public have to use to gain access to the airfield and the cafe's. While there are no jet passenger planes of the size in the incident above, there are a business jets along with some ex military fighters jets and trainers, in use by flight training and display teams along with bucket loads of propeller planes, some of which are large C54, and often a pair of Dakotas. Added into this mix you also have a few helicopters, police and air ambulance and some military ones that come in for servicing.

So far there have a few cases of people not knowing how dangerous it is, walking across the path of these taxiing planes , one occasion causing the delay of the air ambulance launch because some idiot was standing in the middle of the taxiway photographing the helicopter trying to get airborne with the pilot frantically waving his arms at the photographer to get out of his way.

The airfield ops team tell me that they also get idiots riding bikes and driving cars on the actual runway, FFS.

Personally, I hope that I never have to witness anything the above happening 

Entirely believable.

Where I used to glide there were frequently tyre marks found on the runway, and I've seen someone walk across the field, stepping over the steel hawser being used to launch gliders. At another airfield on top of a hill, I'm told they occasionally accidentally launched sheep by catching them under the horn.

[xrunner]

Today the Tek TDS210 arrived that bd gave the heads-up on, arrived. Very well-packed, essentially double boxed and wrapped in bubble wrap.

Very clean looking unit but the BNC sockets on both channels are wiggling slightly, so will need attention, but currently not causing any problems.

Hooked it up to my IG-4505 calibrator, fed it a 100uS square wave and it is well within specification and still has the calibration seal on it. That was a steal at £60 delivered.

Congrats. I have one and still use it from time-to-time. Here it's checking for RS232 levels on the end of a long cable.

[mnementh]

Oh gewd laird... Speaking of "attack of the globflies"; I just made the mistake of putting "dash cam" in my Amazon search. 

Even on a price-limited Prime-next-day-only search, almost a full page of "sponsored" hits. 

Last time  I shopped these things there were like a dozen to choose from, and two of them were the Mobius and GoPro, which I already have from my FPV quadcopter habit.

Sweet biscuits and gravy, there has to be something budget that isn't just cheap shit, but finding it in this sea of China-direct gizmos... Ifni save me...

mnem
*swarmed*

[mnementh]

RE: Desoldering tools

In most cases this has worked well for me. Replacement tips readily available. Although there have been times where it doesn't produce enough heat, such as on ground planes, so I have to use other methods. Then it's liquid flux and solder wick.   



Cod wrapped nice and tight just to bug mnem. 

Nice firestarter. Gonna get the charcoal grill going for Birthday dinner?   

I really don't need to know how your cod is wrapped, thanks... I think that whole area is definitely lady-cop's baliwick.  

mnem
at least it's not wrapped around the squeeze bulb, turning it into a permanently squoze bulb...

[bd139]

Today the Tek TDS210 arrived that bd gave the heads-up on, arrived. Very well-packed, essentially double boxed and wrapped in bubble wrap.

Very clean looking unit but the BNC sockets on both channels are wiggling slightly, so will need attention, but currently not causing any problems.

Hooked it up to my IG-4505 calibrator, fed it a 100uS square wave and it is well within specification and still has the calibration seal on it. That was a steal at £60 delivered.

Good good. Decent seller that one. The BNCs are pretty easy to replace. Did them here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tektronix-tds210-teardown-and-bnc-replacement/

Got my TDS2012B as well today. Mint condition, completely working as well. I think the seller has cottoned on to what people are doing though because I bought two off him  . The next one he has listed as an auction which is already at £82.

Anyway money shot...



Also sold the TBS1052 today for 2.7x what I paid for it 

[Saskia]

oh sweet torrential rains of Ferenginar ...

[med6753]

At another airfield on top of a hill, I'm told they occasionally accidentally launched sheep by catching them under the horn.

That I would like to see that just for the giggle factor. After all, we've had flying pigs. Why not flying sheep? 

Flying squirrels?

Always entertaining and multiple examples on YT. 

[med6753]

Today's mini-project. The graticule illumination on the Type 535A was very weak even at highest setting. Both lamps were working but I suspected that they were the wrong bulbs. And this CRT does not have an internal graticule like later Tek's. It's an overlay of plexiglass.

Getting to the lamps is somewhat of a pain. And as I suspected. They were #47 bulbs, not the higher power #44 bulbs. #47 bulbs are intended for pilot lamps, not for this application. But #47 bulbs are everywhere and very common. #44 bulbs not so much.



Much better but still not as bright as other scopes but will have to do. If I really wanted to get fancy I could whip up some LED's. Not gonna happen.

 

[mansaxel]

So... not "Fukkin'-A, Run Away!!!" then...? 

Nopes, "Danger". Or, if you're German, "Gefahr" .


/Boringly factual..

[Cerebus]

So... not "Fukkin'-A, Run Away!!!" then...? 

Nopes, "Danger". Or, if you're German, "Gefahr" .


/Boringly factual..

So much for English being the defacto universal language of aviation. 

[McBryce]

So... not "Fukkin'-A, Run Away!!!" then...? 

Nopes, "Danger". Or, if you're German, "Gefahr" .


/Boringly factual..

So much for English being the defacto universal language of aviation. 

How do you get Gefahr from the initials FARA?

The only real "Fara" danger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrah_Fawcett (at least when I was young).

McBryce.

[med6753]

Today the Tek TDS210 arrived that bd gave the heads-up on, arrived. Very well-packed, essentially double boxed and wrapped in bubble wrap.

Very clean looking unit but the BNC sockets on both channels are wiggling slightly, so will need attention, but currently not causing any problems.

Hooked it up to my IG-4505 calibrator, fed it a 100uS square wave and it is well within specification and still has the calibration seal on it. That was a steal at £60 delivered.

Good good. Decent seller that one. The BNCs are pretty easy to replace. Did them here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tektronix-tds210-teardown-and-bnc-replacement/

Got my TDS2012B as well today. Mint condition, completely working as well. I think the seller has cottoned on to what people are doing though because I bought two off him  . The next one he has listed as an auction which is already at £82.

Anyway money shot...



Also sold the TBS1052 today for 2.7x what I paid for it 

Dumb question from the peanut galley. Gonna keep them or flip them? 

[Specmaster]

Today the Tek TDS210 arrived that bd gave the heads-up on, arrived. Very well-packed, essentially double boxed and wrapped in bubble wrap.

Very clean looking unit but the BNC sockets on both channels are wiggling slightly, so will need attention, but currently not causing any problems.

Hooked it up to my IG-4505 calibrator, fed it a 100uS square wave and it is well within specification and still has the calibration seal on it. That was a steal at £60 delivered.

Good good. Decent seller that one. The BNCs are pretty easy to replace. Did them here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tektronix-tds210-teardown-and-bnc-replacement/

Got my TDS2012B as well today. Mint condition, completely working as well. I think the seller has cottoned on to what people are doing though because I bought two off him  . The next one he has listed as an auction which is already at £82.

Anyway money shot...



Also sold the TBS1052 today for 2.7x what I paid for it 

Well done with that, I declined the offer that you sent me on that as well, just as well really, cos in the end you got the full asking price 

[bd139]

Yeah that was auto offer that one as well. 

med: flip 

Edit: will be holding on to them for a few weeks as market is currently saturated

[Specmaster]

Yeah that was auto offer that one as well. 

med: flip 

Edit: will be holding on to them for a few weeks as market is currently saturated

Yeah, I'm wondering if that seller has a stash of them and is selling them one at a time, I see that the latest one is being sold by auction rather than BIN.

[mnementh]

So when will we see that cheap 54645A on your desk, bd...? 

mnem
*agitating-ily*

[Saskia]

just spent 327 Pesos on a Xilinx Kria KV260 Vision AI starter kit.

It could be used to:
do face or entity recognition
move the camera in a way so that the model appears in the middle of the image by setting x,y and calibrate for wind speed, drop and coriolis effect

It could also be used for OCR ...

[Specmaster]

So... not "Fukkin'-A, Run Away!!!" then...? 

Nopes, "Danger". Or, if you're German, "Gefahr" .


/Boringly factual..

So much for English being the defacto universal language of aviation. 

How do you get Gefahr from the initials FARA?

The only real "Fara" danger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrah_Fawcett (at least when I was young).

McBryce.

Could this be the true meaning of FARA on that SAAB J32B Lansen?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Attack_Reconnaissance_Aircraft

[mnementh]

Considering the program was initiated in 2018, when all but a handful of that aircraft had been mothballed, not likely.  A 60-year-old design hardly seems forward-looking.

I looked it up and got similar results myself; that one definitely didn't seem relevant.

mnem
 

[bd139]

Engineering meeting:

Programme manager: “remember that thing we did really well. We need to do that again!”

Followed immediately by engineers photocopying the original plans and strutting to off to the pub chuckling to themselves.

[Saskia]

fnort.

Need to fill out export license paperwork. 

[duckduck]

Oh gewd laird... Speaking of "attack of the globflies"; I just made the mistake of putting "dash cam" in my Amazon search. 

Even on a price-limited Prime-next-day-only search, almost a full page of "sponsored" hits. 

Last time  I shopped these things there were like a dozen to choose from, and two of them were the Mobius and GoPro, which I already have from my FPV quadcopter habit.

Sweet biscuits and gravy, there has to be something budget that isn't just cheap shit, but finding it in this sea of China-direct gizmos... Ifni save me...

mnem
*swarmed*

https://dashcamtalk.com/

[factory]

Just found this curious little thing here :

https://www.leboncoin.fr/equipements_industriels/2008120762.htm

An old HP little gizmo, unusual to me, in like new condition for a reasonable sum (50 Euros)... in case the HP nuts on here might be interested I can help...



An HP 403A , an " AC Transistor Voltmeter ".

I have no idea in concrete terms how you would use this thing and why you would want to use it... maybe you can teach me...

Only problem is the left side of the case has been mutilated in order to fit half a dozen connectors, but if the item is rare (?), might still be worth it as it should be easy enough to repair. I mean I assume the enclosure is made of metal so should be easy to plug the hole and respray the thing, no ?

Anyway, it caught my attention, a pristine old HP thingy for only 50 Euros over here is unheard of ! 

It's a transistor successor to instruments like the 400H. I have the predecessor, so am not interested. They pretty soon were surpassed by DMM's which of course can do all the things a full VTVM will do plus current, albeit with limited frequency response. For the thing they excel at, level matching in telecom and pro audio up to a MHz or so, there soon came specialised gear from several vendors, like Wandel & Goltermann, Siemens and I believe -hp- built something too, in Scotland, at that.

No I think it actually a replacement for the hp 404A, which is a portable battery operated valve voltmeter. The 403A is tiny compared with it's hollow state ancestors.
https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Site-Technical/Engineering-General/Archive-IRE-IDX/IDX/40s/IRE-1948-08-OCR-Page-0013.pdf
http://hparchive.com/Manuals/HP-404A-Manual-sn-462.pdf
Only needs three 45V batteries and each vacuum bulb has it's own battery.

Here are some pictures of a 404A I was watching, that ended early on ePay a few years ago.






David

[mansaxel]

So... not "Fukkin'-A, Run Away!!!" then...? 

Nopes, "Danger". Or, if you're German, "Gefahr" .


/Boringly factual..

So much for English being the defacto universal language of aviation. 

Back then, the Swedish Air Force was using Proper Units in aviation too, so speeds in km/h, altitudes in meters, et c. Nowadays, as they're trying to be the best NATO member that isn't, everything's in English, speeds are in bulbs on a rope towed from a boat, and the altitude measurement unit has odour.



This aircraft, fvnr 39216 is a JAS 39C. Probably operated out of F21 wing in Luleå (LLA / ESPA).