Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Vince]

Somehow it appeals to me, especially the display that looks like it's fluorescent rather than LED, but not 100% sure.

Might be of this kind (filament based minitrons), behind a filter panel:

Mine don't have a decimal point, but the short slash shown below the "4" could give it away (as it is a short filament that one can't easily make a dot or circle of, so they made a short line). Anyway, I might be wrong, so don't beat me in case you're now convinced to buy it and it's something else, SVP.

Oh yeah that's got to be it ! Looks 100% the same and this weird decimal point is a give away as you say. Anything LED would never look like this. Would look like a point/dot and be real close the digit, rather than half a mile further down like it is here.

Don't worry I won't blame you if it turns out to be LED ! 

This counter has other things that appeal to me as well. It's quite potent at 250MHz. My best counter goes only to 160MHz.
Like the industrial design of it, and its compact form factor as well.
But it also has an OCXO ! That would be a first for me, that would make it my first decently accurate counter, something to be proud of... my entry into time nuttery ! 

That plus its exotic-ness..... this manufacturer being completely unknown yet this piece of gear is not shabby at all.

Come to thing of it... maybe it was designed by some other manufacturer, and Syracuse just rebranded it... in which case maybe someone here will recognize this counter and be able to give me the name of the actual manufacturer, and maybe now a hope to find a service manual for it....
Hell I could just try to run t through the "Google Image" thing, might get lucky ?! .......

[Vince]

Might be of this kind (filament based minitrons), behind a filter panel:

My thought exactly when I saw Vince's post. Sony had something like this in their high-end tuners from the 80s. For many years, I haven't seen a single one where all segments were still alive. I'd stay away from them.

When Cap'tain said they might be incandescent segment I did think the same as you ! A segment might die anytime and ruin my day ! I guess they are unobtainium these days...
Well worse case scenario, if/ when they die, might be an excuse for a little project, could try to replace the displays with Panaplex (impossible to find I guess), or some other fluorescent display.... as I said there is more to this counter that I like, than just the display.

[Vince]

First post in 11 days, my new therapist is golden, shall keep consulting him...

And have you noticed something? All of sudden this thread as gone to 90% on topic content to 10% off topic content. As it should be.

Yes I sure noticed, and quite enjoy it, reading silently. SNR is so much better, drastically better, that I can now keep up to date with TEA AND at the same time find time to get work done in my house. It's truly incredible.
It's not that TEA content has increased, but the OT stuff has, so the SNR mechanically shoots up.

I wonder why all of sudden that has happen?     

Somehow appeared to happen overnight as soon as I left, somehow. I must have been the problem all this time, which further convinces me to take a step back or two from TEA. Of course correlation is not causality, so might just be a coincidence but... I don't want to risk it, so will jump back into my hole real soon, for the good of everyone.

[Cubdriver]

Wow, that is a tiny little bugger!  I agree, they look like filamentary digits.  My first thought had been Panaplex, but the segments are too thin for that (and all the Panaplex displays I've seen thus far are vertically asymmetric - the middle horizontal segment has always been slightly above the equator of the display.

Cool looking little box.   

-Pat

[med6753]

Somehow appeared to happen overnight as soon as I left, somehow. I must have been the problem all this time, which further convinces me to take a step back or two from TEA. Of course correlation is not causality, so might just be a coincidence but... I don't want to risk it, so will jump back into my hole real soon, for the good of everyone.

Trust me. You were not the problem. Far from it. 

[mnementh]

So we are no longer Canucks in waiting; we are now US citizens only again. Even though the immigration lawyers told us we had all our LMIA stuff in order (and evidently we did), we didn't do the visitor status renewal thing correctly, and being stuck in the middle of a global pandemic was not good enough reason. We went to do the last part of the process as outlined by our lawyers; returning to the US and finalizing the LMIA at the border. However the visitor status problem borked that, and we spent 18 hours "not being detained" in the border station waiting area and our car before they told us officially to piss off back to the US.

We are at this moment regrouping just across the border in New York (no med, we're not coming to your idyllic little corner of the state), and going to visit my dad in NYC.

So short version: we're starting over. We may try the LMIA thing again depending on the results of the hearing, but by the time we get back on our feet and can think about such things, we'll probably be established somewhere close to my dad which is now my primary concern.

It was a nice, if very expensive, vacation.

mnem
*so very tired*

I wish no ill will on anyone but I'm going to be brutally honest. I've made some very dumb decisions in my adult years and some of them still haunt me to this day. When I moved here 11 years ago I was recently divorced and nearly broke. All due to some very dumb decisions. So I'm not speaking from an ivory tower when I state that your move to Canada was a dumb decision. And as you have stated several times it was predicated on seeking a better life for your family which I'm not buying even if you were giving it away for free. Canadians are a friendly and polite bunch. They would never say to your face "Yankee go home", although perhaps at the border today they did essentially say that. It's very apparent they aren't go to give you residency and are going to continue to throw bureaucratic roadblocks until you give up and go back across the border. I think you need to accept that. Your first concern right now is your family and getting them settled. I really do hope it works out for you on a positive note.         

Wow, shows what you know, doesn't it?

We did it wrong, our lawyers say the worst that can happen is wait 5 years and try again.

First, it wasn't all about "going to Canada"; it was about getting away from the broken-ness of American culture. There are a lot of places I'd rather move to; Canada was just the shortest line to someplace that approximates our sensibilities.

You clearly don't understand a lot about our homeland; I don't have the time or energy to explain the reasons, as it's all tied up in all that horrible social commentary and political discussion you have shit-fit conniptions about every time anybody mentions it.

And if you think I'm being brutally honest, deal. You are the self-proclaimed knuckle-dragger of the bunch.

You just need to accept that some people operate on a different level, a different set of priorities from you, and I know from hard experience that America eats it's children. I want better for mine.

mnem
America is no longer the promised land; it is the land of broken promises.

[Robert763]

Might be of this kind (filament based minitrons), behind a filter panel:

My thought exactly when I saw Vince's post. Sony had something like this in their high-end tuners from the 80s. For many years, I haven't seen a single one where all segments were still alive. I'd stay away from them.

When Cap'tain said they might be incandescent segment I did think the same as you ! A segment might die anytime and ruin my day ! I guess they are unobtainium these days...
Well worse case scenario, if/ when they die, might be an excuse for a little project, could try to replace the displays with Panaplex (impossible to find I guess), or some other fluorescent display.... as I said there is more to this counter that I like, than just the display.

They are still available but are VERY expensive. Probably becuase they are used in aviation and military equipment.
If you want to replace them then LEDs are easiest. A set of LEDs with current limiting resistors are direct replacements as far as drive goes.

[mnementh]

Anyone want a Marconi TF2370A SA? Free, basically working. Collection ONLY near Cambridge UK.
PERSONAL MESSSAGE ONLY

Thats the equivalent of 2 boat anchors that one is   

enHEAVYment; emphasis on the heavy. 

mnem
That might actually weigh more than my arse.

[mnementh]

That is terrible.   Direct result of populist "keep them out" polices.

Possibly not. I've known several people who have emigrated from various bits of Europe to Canada. They all found the immigration process irksome, but because of its bureaucratic rigidity and insistence on dotting every i and crossing every t no matter how trivial, not because they felt it was slanted against them. All a few years ago so things might have changed.

All the Canadians I've know seem pretty welcoming of immigrants no matter where they are from. Although there was an undercurrent of dislike towards rich Chinese who started turning up as China liberalised economically. The thing that was always mentioned was that the Chinese they seemed to form rich 'ghettoes' which didn't seem to be a thing with any other immigrants. Richmond in BC is an example of the phenomenon. Not so much a "coming over here taking our jobs" thing as a "coming over here buying our property, pushing up prices" thing.

This is exactly the case; short version is we outstayed our 6 month visitor status by about 1.5 years, and worse, we didn't do any of the provided methods of renewing that status (nor did our lawyers, which was part of what we hired them for... but that is another story) out of ignorance and general horror at how the Petri Dish States was handling COVID-19. 

We made the mistake of believing that a global pandemic and all our "leaders" (both US and Canuckistan) running around with their hair on fire screaming not to leave your homes was a reasonable extenuating circumstance; their beauracracy disagreed.

What's really going to suck is that I have a feeling we're just the leading edge of the wave; because we tried to do it right we're among the first to get screwed by this absurd policy entanglement. I have a feeling (from the huge number of obviously immigrant households we encountered) that Canada as a entity is soon going to find themselves overwhelmed by a staggering number of families who were in very similar situation, and a shift in policy will come. But sadly, too late to help us.

mnem
bellwether-dwagon, or just drew the short straw...?

[med6753]

Wow, shows what you know, doesn't it?

We did it wrong, our lawyers say the worst that can happen is wait 5 years and try again.

First, it wasn't all about "going to Canada"; it was about getting away from the broken-ness of American culture. There are a lot of places I'd rather move to; Canada was just the shortest line to someplace that approximates our sensibilities.

You clearly don't understand a lot about our homeland; I don't have the time or energy to explain the reasons, as it's all tied up in all that horrible social commentary and political discussion you have shit-fit conniptions about every time anybody mentions it.

So says you. Those discussions never belonged in this thread. Never have, never will. And I will ALWAYS call you out on it and you WILL NOT shut me down. 

And if you think I'm being brutally honest, deal. You are the self-proclaimed knuckle-dragger of the bunch.

I wear the knuckle dragger badge proudly.

You just need to accept that some people operate on a different level, a different set of priorities from you, and I know from hard experience that America eats it's children. I want better for mine.

mnem
America is no longer the promised land; it is the land of broken promises.

So said the draft dodgers in the 1960's. And where did they flee too? Lemme think. 

[mnementh]

Only in America could this sort of thing happen, or am I wrong on that???

https://allthatsinteresting.com/marvin-heemeyer-killdozer

Nah, similar contraptions (though not usually based on a bulldozer) are built by militant groups in certain parts of the world in order to improve survivability of their S/VBIEDs. Only has to last long enough for the bomber to detonate though, and it has the added side effect of creating more shrapnel when the armor material spalls. Nice, huh?

I was thinking "nuh, just surprised it didn't happen ages ago..." but it did happen ages ago. Like 20 years ago, if you account for build time.

Not only in America; just that America is the only one of the supposedly "civilized" nations where this kind of crazy is not only tolerated, but in many circles celebrated.

Most of the rest of the world would consider that barbaric rather than an appropriate display of civil disobedience.

mnem
America is the land that invented Top-Fuel/Awful Altereds Drag Racing, just because we were bored.

[Kosmic]

That is terrible.   Direct result of populist "keep them out" polices.

Possibly not. I've known several people who have emigrated from various bits of Europe to Canada. They all found the immigration process irksome, but because of its bureaucratic rigidity and insistence on dotting every i and crossing every t no matter how trivial, not because they felt it was slanted against them. All a few years ago so things might have changed.

All the Canadians I've know seem pretty welcoming of immigrants no matter where they are from. Although there was an undercurrent of dislike towards rich Chinese who started turning up as China liberalised economically. The thing that was always mentioned was that the Chinese they seemed to form rich 'ghettoes' which didn't seem to be a thing with any other immigrants. Richmond in BC is an example of the phenomenon. Not so much a "coming over here taking our jobs" thing as a "coming over here buying our property, pushing up prices" thing.

This is exactly the case; short version is we outstayed our 6 month visitor status by about 1.5 years, and worse, we didn't do any of the provided methods of renewing that status (nor did our lawyers, which was part of what we hired them for... but that is another story) out of ignorance and general horror at how the Petri Dish States was handling COVID-19. 

We made the mistake of believing that a global pandemic and all our "leaders" (both US and Canuckistan) running around with their hair on fire screaming not to leave your homes was a reasonable extenuating circumstance; their beauracracy disagreed.

What's really going to suck is that I have a feeling we're just the leading edge of the wave; because we tried to do it right we're among the first to get screwed by this absurd policy entanglement. I have a feeling (from the huge number of obviously immigrant households we encountered) that Canada as a entity is soon going to find themselves overwhelmed by a staggering number of families who were in very similar situation, and a shift in policy will come. But sadly, too late to help us.

mnem
bellwether-dwagon, or just drew the short straw...?

Sad story Mnem 

I really hope you will get back on your feet quickly!

[Specmaster]

Come you two, play nicely, we all have enough in common surely to allow the occasional deviation of topic without calling each other out, it's not as if the discussions get out of hand. In my view, it's just like a social comment, similar to what you hear on the police radio, or discuss the weather etc, not on topic, but it all helps to break the boredom and enables us to get to know a bit more about our fellow members.

[mnementh]

...So short version: we're starting over. We may try the LMIA thing again depending on the results of the hearing, but by the time we get back on our feet and can think about such things, we'll probably be established somewhere close to my dad which is now my primary concern.

It was a nice, if very expensive, vacation.

mnem
*so very tired*

Is there an appeals process for this?  I’ve heard nothing but horror stories about how the pandemic has made a mess for immigration into Canada and international students coming here.

Again, probably us being on the leading edge of the wave. There is an appeals process, but the inflexibility of the beauracracy at this point makes all that process most likely moot in our case.

mnem
 

[factory]

Not done much TE related for a few days, had another sigmoid check yesterday and the situation is the same as two years after the last check, back to waiting for them to decide what surgery is needed.

This arrived just before going into hospital, another rattling item of TE, found the heatsink loose inside and it broke when I tried putting it back. 



If it works, I'll need to find a 1820-0098 IC for it, might be a while as I've still got the Tek scope repair to complete and some others.

David

[mnementh]

TEA Failure - flat batteries during the early fire therapy 

Several tons and a few hours later.....

If only I had some large spuds its about time to add them to the coals but instead its time for a well earned Beer. 

Uh-oh... bean's bored.  *puts on bunker gear*

mnem
Honey, where are my steel-toed wellies...?

[med6753]

Come you two, play nicely, we all have enough in common surely to allow the occasional deviation of topic without calling each other out, it's not as if the discussions get out of hand. In my view, it's just like a social comment, similar to what you hear on the police radio, or discuss the weather etc, not on topic, but it all helps to break the boredom and enables us to get to know a bit more about our fellow members.

Surely you realize that whenever there is a heated disagreement in this thread, whether with me or anyone else, that it's always the same common denominator?

Surely you realize that individuals have left this thread because of the bully tactics of that same common denominator?

Surely if that same common denominator would back off the caustic rhetoric there would no issue? And clearly he can't because he just posted more rhetoric.   

[Cerebus]

First post in 11 days, my new therapist is golden, shall keep consulting him...

Ah, those famous French therapists: M. Bordeaux, M. Burgundy, M. Beaujolais, and, not forgetting, Mlle. Champagne and Mme. Armagnac.
 
 

[Cerebus]

I wonder why all of sudden that has happen?     

Only half the collective filthy mind is present, mine. BD's still off in the weeds somewhere.

[Vince]

First post in 11 days, my new therapist is golden, shall keep consulting him...

Ah, those famous French therapists: M. Bordeaux, M. Burgundy, M. Beaujolais, and, not forgetting, Mlle. Champagne and Mme. Armagnac.

Nope, not even close, you bad mouth ! 

I don't drink, alcohol stinks and tastes like petrol. I do confess buying dozens of liters of ethanol each month though... but I pour it into my car's throat, not mine... works wonders in an ICE, not so much on a human liver or brain.

As for me, I run only on 3 beverages : tap water, milk and fresh orange juice. Oh, and some good organic local apple juice because a friend of mine makes some every year, I get a couple free bottles every time I fix some electronic stuff for him... like his 15 year old freezer... eventually he bought a new one anyway... with even more electronics in it and an OLED display. I am sure it will fail sooner rather than later, so I will get some more bottles, can't wait...
And he also recently replaced also his dishwasher, washing machine and drying machine, and microwave oven.. all packed with electronics. Should make for a steady supply of apple juice, yeah !

If I were to drink something I guess it would be " Cointreau ", as it's made in a little village (7500 people or so) by the name of " Saint-Barthélémy d'Anjou ", which is precisely where I grew up from the age of 3 when my parents moved there. I never even tasted the stuff.

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

[mnementh]

Speaking of Tek 212 portable scopes, I just finished completely re-working, typesetting and redrawing the Operators Manual.
The original scans were just embarrassingly bad so I went ham at it and channelled my documentation days (I really gotta get InDesign reinstalled on my PC) and here it is:

https://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/212


If you print it out in booklet mode in the Adobe Acrobat settings and set your printer settings to duplex, it'll print correctly on A4 paper so you can staple it into a nice little booklet.

Very nice work!

At the same time, I had a "Duh!" moment for myself.  I somehow overlooked that the manuals are all listed on the right hand side of the TekWiki pages.
SWMBO will atest that this is not the only case where I cannot find something that is directly in front of me.

Now that I have worked through that, I have downloaded all the manuals for the 564.  That RM564 is taking up basement space and SWMBO wants it moved.  I will be happy to oblige and move it to a place of greater honour (workbench, formerly known as her craft nook)

mnem
*toddles off to dinner*

[AVGresponding]

@Vince those Minitrons are a nice looking display. I'd hope that if you don't leave it running 8hours a day that they would last a good long time...



Keithley 705 turned up today, somewhat late and after one official reschedule and one unofficial.

My suspicions were immediately aroused by the three metal-crimp packing bands round an otherwise loose-looking cardboard parcel (calling it a box would be verging on the charitable).
Upon opening it the reason for the delayed delivery was apparent right away; the shipper (Useless Parcel Smashers) had been playing foot-box with it in the warehouse, and the packing bands were necessary to contain the evidence of their misdeeds.
The bottom right front corner of the front panel and case are both pretty well smashed, however determining where Unprincipled Pillock Shipping's responsibility ends and the damage from previous off-bench excursions begins is quite difficult; it's been had at by a gorilla, and not one of those intelligent ones.



Still, at least all the buttons and caps are present and undamaged, which is what I wanted it for anyway. But... I really do want to know if it works!

A quick peek at the power supply revealed it to be a fairly simple one with 5V and 6V linear regulators on a daughter board. Some of the gorilla evidence here, looks like some fault finding (solder mask scratched off) and the FULL WAVE bridge rectum-frier has been replaced, a current limiting power resistor has been either replaced or removed for fault finding, and with the main fuse and holder missing, the internal switch set to 115V (correctly, as it's externally marked as the 105V-125V version), I suspect some numpty had previously just plugged it into the mains using the lead from their kettle and released some magic smoke...

Not having anything to use as a fuse-holder or the inclination to show mains voltage to the thing I powered it off the SPD3303 set for a bit under 10V and a couple of hundred mA.
Instant CC, but not clipping down to 0V so I upped the I limit until at around 650mA it went from CC to CV on the bench PSU, but still the front panel is dead. Ugh.
Decided to find a service manual for it (manualslib had the prize this time) to make sure there was nothing I missed in the power section, and ofc there's au power supervisor circuit  made from op-amps to inhibit the CPU, and it's powered via a mere half-wave rectum-frier that takes its power from the AC side of the main bridge (I was clipped on to the linear regulator's inputs as it was easier).
So clipped on to the AC side of the main bridge and tried again. Instant CC, near short, WTF?!? I had already checked the diodes before even waking up the bench PSU.
Another brief study of the schematics revealed the gorilla this time had neglected to turn the power button to OFF, and that even though it's a ka-chunk-a-chunk switch, it doesn't cut the mains; it cuts the secondary side supply to the rectum-friers... and with it in the ON position, makes a short across the AC side of the bridge...
Switch to correct position and... ta daa!



The backup battery is naturally deader than a dead thing, but it's nothing complex, merely a 100mAh 3-cell Ni-Cd, easily replaced. Now I'm thinking to use it as a clock... a very inefficient, power hungry clock!   



Bonus footage, Beamex PC104 teaser shot:




EDIT: Fuck this broken-assed inline image bollocks

[capt bullshot]

The backup battery is naturally deader than a dead thing, but it's nothing complex, merely a 100mAh 3-cell Ni-Cd, easily replaced. Now I'm thinking to use it as a clock... a very inefficient, power hungry clock!   

Don't forget to turn it upside down and add a lamp holder 

[AVGresponding]

The backup battery is naturally deader than a dead thing, but it's nothing complex, merely a 100mAh 3-cell Ni-Cd, easily replaced. Now I'm thinking to use it as a clock... a very inefficient, power hungry clock!   

Don't forget to turn it upside down and add a lamp holder 

I'd only do that to one of those silly wobbly-pointy things. This has a clock already which it needs for the interval functions, though the calendar function only does dd/mm and not yy.

Forgot to mention, RAM and ROM passes self test, so the main part of the innards are intact, despite the efforts of previous owners and Unconscionable Primordial Shit-heads.

[mnementh]

I Think C may be correct with the mis-drawn common mode choke. Parts list just says 64uH RF choke. That is not enough to limit the inverter current. The 213 has a single 1.05uH choke in the top line.
PDF page 131 of https://w140.com/tekwiki/images/e/ed/070-1481-00.pdf

Yup... That was my first reaction too, but C beat me to it by a few days. 

mnem