Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Back on the 212 mini.

This set of connectors from the main board to the CRT driver board are very loose and come apart way too easily. Crimped them with needle nose. Focus trimmer pot also needed some additional deoxit. Results are a stable trace. Now I just have to futz with getting the top cover back on.

[Robert763]

Don't forget to trim the flash around the join in the bezel 

[mansaxel]

Cost-wise, it doesn't make much of a difference because each set lasts twice as long if not longer. Got both sets on their own rims so I have complete wheels changed. Much easier and faster and they don't have to be balanced each time.

In Sweden, where as stated, most people swap, the norm is to have them on rims all the time.

[cyclin_al]

Spring cleaning the shack first.....

Just the opposite here. Prepping for winter. Snow brush and spare gloves in the CR-V. I'll carry a shovel only if I have to go out during a storm. Being retired is certainly a blessing with that, should not have to go out. Doing a coolant change this weekend. Every 2 years. This "lifetime" coolant or 100K mile claim is a bunch of crap.

It hasn't gone below freezing at night yet. But I expect in the next week or so it will.   

I should be doing the same here.
In La belle province, snow tires are legally required in 3.5 weeks from now...

Do "All season" tires meet that requirement or must they be dedicated snow tires? I run all season on the CR-V and with the AWD it's pretty much unstoppable in snow.

But Canadian Tyre must love that law. I remember as a kid and the days of bias ply tires (useless in snow) and come November crowds lined up outside Sears and Montgomery Ward Auto Service to get snow tires installed. And people getting into fights over who was first in line.     

"All season" tires do not meet that requirement, although there is now a new category called "four season" that does.
The easiest indicator is the "snowflake" with mountain logo imprinted on the sidewall of the tire.
Where I live, I choose a combination snow and ice tire.
Most people closer to dwagon are better choosing an ice tire.
People in Winterpeg (Winnipeg) obviously choose a snow tire.

You would be surprised at how many people take shopping trips to the US just for tires.  Even with taxes and duties plus the travel cost, it often works out to half the price of Crappy Tire.  Crappy Tire is aspiring to be more like Sears just before they went under...

EDIT:  when buying a car here, it is a pain-in-the-a$$ to negotiate on the price of the car.  I negotiate hard, because it matters to my TEA funds.  However, if asked to include a second set of rims for free, the salesperson has always responded with "no problemo".  All tires here are mounted.

[mnementh]

Canadian Tire hates me. I buy my tires in pairs, not 4-up the way they want me to.

waaah. They want my money, this is the way they get it.

mnem
just like when I replace tires on my Scooba.

[mnementh]

https://hackaday.com/2021/10/19/vcf-east-roars-back-to-life/

mnem
you have been eaten by a grue.

[25 CPS]

Spring cleaning the shack first.....

Just the opposite here. Prepping for winter. Snow brush and spare gloves in the CR-V. I'll carry a shovel only if I have to go out during a storm. Being retired is certainly a blessing with that, should not have to go out. Doing a coolant change this weekend. Every 2 years. This "lifetime" coolant or 100K mile claim is a bunch of crap.

It hasn't gone below freezing at night yet. But I expect in the next week or so it will.   

I should be doing the same here.
In La belle province, snow tires are legally required in 3.5 weeks from now...

Do "All season" tires meet that requirement or must they be dedicated snow tires? I run all season on the CR-V and with the AWD it's pretty much unstoppable in snow.

But Canadian Tyre must love that law. I remember as a kid and the days of bias ply tires (useless in snow) and come November crowds lined up outside Sears and Montgomery Ward Auto Service to get snow tires installed. And people getting into fights over who was first in line.     

"All season" tires do not meet that requirement, although there is now a new category called "four season" that does.
The easiest indicator is the "snowflake" with mountain logo imprinted on the sidewall of the tire.
Where I live, I choose a combination snow and ice tire.
Most people closer to dwagon are better choosing an ice tire.
People in Winterpeg (Winnipeg) obviously choose a snow tire.

You would be surprised at how many people take shopping trips to the US just for tires.  Even with taxes and duties plus the travel cost, it often works out to half the price of Crappy Tire.  Crappy Tire is aspiring to be more like Sears just before they went under...

EDIT:  when buying a car here, it is a pain-in-the-a$$ to negotiate on the price of the car.  I negotiate hard, because it matters to my TEA funds.  However, if asked to include a second set of rims for free, the salesperson has always responded with "no problemo".  All tires here are mounted.

Sneers is still going in the United States.  But yeah, I looked up the hours on one of the Canadian Tire stores near me and saw it listed as a "department store" which explains a lot.  They sure aren't a hardware store, not any more.

[dl6lr]

Those steel rims doesn't cost that much.

I was shocked to see how much they actually cost. My tyre dealer made me a good price for a set of decent alloys and they were marginally more expensive.

I used to change the wheels myself but with those stupid new pressure sensors I have it done by the dealer. Almost hit the bl**dy roof when the first set of sensors quit after a mere two years and the replacement would have cost me over 300 euros. In the end, we settled for 200, change and stocking included.

OK, my rims were about €20,- each but that was some years ago. As I usually buy used cars only, most of them actually already have two sets of wheels. The one with pressure sensors only have to be reset in the bord computer after changing the wheels, so no big deal.

[Robert763]

The seller of the meter collecton offered a partial refund of £5 which I accepted. So my £20 Fluke 11 is now a £15 Fluke. Took it apart and cleaned the zebra strip and  works.
The Micronta is next.

[mansaxel]

In my evening Ebay browse I stumbled on this little gem: eBay auction: #174205356843. Such a recapping target...

[factory]

To make sure I have enough, I just bought another -hp- 5245L...
Have to find a way to get one of those old hp mains cables, don't want to replace the instruments plug. I know a place where there are lots of those cables, but I have currently no access, so have to get such a cable.
Any pointer?

Oh, you bought the one in Buxtehude? Congratulations.

Yes, exactly. This is comfortable to collect, however the seller hasn't responded yet.
Seems to be in better condition than the previous one. Just for curiosity I pulled A6 and A7 and tested the rectumfiers off-line to be ok, the regulator board with the crapacitors to follow.

Looking forward to seeing more pictures, here are same the pair of boards fitted to my 5243L, not much difference in the rectifier board, but regulator board has some older looking Zeners and I agree the original capacitors are long past their best, the 100uF had been replaced in the 70's & was fine (had to desolder to check).




Must have had a major failure at some point, as the pass transistors have all been replaced with these.


David

[dl6lr]

Looking forward to seeing more pictures, here are same the pair of boards fitted to my 5243L, not much difference in the rectifier board, but regulator board has some older looking Zeners and I agree the original capacitors are long past their best, the 100uF had been replaced in the 70's & was fine (had to desolder to check).

Counter is s/n 408-00459 made in England, so way older than the service manual with series 628-xxxxx. No level control on the front, only sensitivity switch.

Inside not much dirt but some signs of corrosion, especially transistor caps on board A19, A20, A21, A35 in the bottom are dull. Boards A10..A14 are the same as A15, A16, so populated all medium frequency decimal counters where low frequency decimal counters would be required only. Board A10 is populated with different transistors, so maybe replaced once.

Measured the caps on board A7 as well as C4, C6..C10 to be fine with about nominal capacitance and low ESR, so fired the counter up and had at least some signs of life (will recap later).
First digit does not come up (bad nixie AND bad board A10, detected by swappings around), not counting right. Oscillator is working and oven heating. So have to invest some time for a more sophisticated analysis. A separate thread, I guess.

[xrunner]

No TEA just working on an issue with this old Sherwood RV-4050R. Might be 25 to 30 years old. I guess I've had it for 15 years. My neighbor was going to throw it away back then so I grabbed it for my own use. I only use it to play FM stations in the backyard. It sits in the house and has a long run of speaker wire (NO audiophool perfect surface silver wire here just cheap Radio shack wire) to speakers on the back porch.

It has an encoder for the volume control. I began noticing the volume would jump up to a pretty loud level for no apparent reason. When I turned the volume knob I could see the display indicator jump erratically. Problem solved by dousing the encoder with contact cleaner. Nice single-sided PCBs in that they show the traces on top with shaded lines. Only surface mount chip in the whole thing is a CXP50116 4 bit 4.2 MHz microcomputer.

As you can see, I did find the BAR CODE.

[tautech]

Picked a great day to skive off kite fishing as nothing much happening here.
Caught a feed for the mate and I but nothing more. 

It was long overdue to have the rig see the light of day...one like this:
https://www.fishingtacklesale.co.nz/product/810164

[beanflying]

Picked a great day to skive off kite fishing as nothing much happening here.
Caught a feed for the mate and I but nothing more. 

It was long overdue to have the rig see the light of day...one like this:
https://www.fishingtacklesale.co.nz/product/810164

I thought all the Kiwis were out crying that the Bat failed to win bird of the year 

[beanflying]

For those in the USA have a trawl of this sellers listings (plenty of other worthy TEA goodies)  and maybe this one in particular if you have the matching HP cases on your shelves but no matching supply. You know who I mean 

eBay auction: #254805092518

[Andrew_Debbie]

Best Translation of the day award goes to...

[Andrew_Debbie]

For those in the USA have a trawl of this sellers listings (plenty of other worthy TEA goodies)  and maybe this one in particular if you have the matching HP cases on your shelves but no matching supply. You know who I mean 

I might buy the engine condition levers.    Need to decide if I'm willing to pay shipping.

[tautech]

I thought all the Kiwis were out crying that the Bat failed to win bird of the year 

All that does is prove the lack of intellect of a good amount of them. 
As a good buddy would say....dumb as a sack full of hammers ! 

[Neper]

Best Translation of the day award goes to...

 

Make that 'best translation of the year'. You really had us rolling in the aisles. Thanks for making our day.

[xrunner]

Follow-up statement on the Sherwood stereo assembly

This is mainly for the guests readingwho might want to work on old electronics.

There is a nut that helps hold the volume encoder to the front panel, you can see it in the attachment. I was re-attaching the nut to the shaft and I barely tightened it and the threaded shaft sheared right off with the nut. It didn't affect the encoder thankfully. The metal is probably zinc? but after 30 years of stress it gets weakened.

I've run across this issue before on other equipment (but I still got burned!). Since this isn't worth anything I just did a ghetto repair and glued the part onto the front. The broken part does help stabilize the encoder shaft so it needs to be there. Other than that it works fine.

Be careful! 

[25 CPS]

Follow-up statement on the Sherwood stereo assembly

This is mainly for the guests readingwho might want to work on old electronics.

Fighting words:  That Sherwood isn't old enough.  The only thing with a vacuum in it is the front panel display.
That said, I really need to sit down, work out a parts order, and get some of my tube gear long term reliable properly.  In other words, correct mistakes I made when I was first learning back when I was in high school.

There is a nut that helps hold the volume encoder to the front panel, you can see it in the attachment. I was re-attaching the nut to the shaft and I barely tightened it and the threaded shaft sheared right off with the nut. It didn't affect the encoder thankfully. The metal is probably zinc? but after 30 years of stress it gets weakened.

I've run across this issue before on other equipment (but I still got burned!). Since this isn't worth anything I just did a ghetto repair and glued the part onto the front. The broken part does help stabilize the encoder shaft so it needs to be there. Other than that it works fine.

Be careful! 

Yikes!  I'm glad it turned out well in the end.  The black stereo equipment made in the later part of the 1980s and 1990s isn't as durable or as robustly built as the stuff made earlier.  That little Pioneer receiver I put in some dead space in the back corner of a rolling cabinet next to my bench a week ago was built in early 1980 and it's far more rugged than any of the black plastic stuff I've encountered that came later.

[mnementh]

Picked a great day to skive off kite fishing as nothing much happening here.
Caught a feed for the mate and I but nothing more. 

It was long overdue to have the rig see the light of day...one like this:
https://www.fishingtacklesale.co.nz/product/810164

So wait... what...?

You actually wanted to catch something...? 

That's just unnatural. Contravenes the whole purpose of going fishing; to kill a few bottles with your mate while enjoying a beautiful day out on a boat or on a sandbar...

As soon as you catch something, then you have to do work.

ewwwwwww.

mnem
*well-known to tie a bobber and nothing else on the end of his line*

[mnementh]

...Must have had a major failure at some point, as the pass transistors have all been replaced with these.   

David

Seems pretty likely that Sprague doody-bomb died the way they often do... dead-short and kaboom. I'd shotgun that section m'self, including the one that was "replaced in the 70s".

mnem
Trust no one capacitor.

[mnementh]

No TEA just working on an issue with this old Sherwood RV-4050R. (snip)   

It has an encoder for the volume control. I began noticing the volume would jump up to a pretty loud level for no apparent reason. When I turned the volume knob I could see the display indicator jump erratically. Problem solved by dousing the encoder with contact cleaner. Nice single-sided PCBs in that they show the traces on top with shaded lines. Only surface mount chip in the whole thing is a CXP50116 4 bit 4.2 MHz microcomputer.

As you can see, I did find the BAR CODE.

Looks like a printed-film analog mechano-electrical voltage encoder to me.

mnem