Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Work is killing me today.

Why I do not start my company and do what I want how I want?
Who has his own company here?

I have my own company called "retired". 

[capt bullshot]

loaded my stereo into the trunk and I am on my way to the new house. 300 miles with a quarter metric ton.I like m stereo a lot ..  you may call me batshit crazy.

I used to have a large stack of consumer stereo devices back in the days. All that is left today are the speakers. I never got into real cult or high end stuff like the Yamaha NS-1000 that were recently mentioned here, so my range of experience is quite limited here, but I never ran into any speakers that can compare to them. Anything else in the signal chain IMO and experience isn't that important as long as it isn't total crap.

[capt bullshot]

Work is killing me today.

Why I do not start my company and do what I want how I want?
Who has his own company here?

I have my own company called "retired". 

Lucky one.

[Saskia]

me with my employers consent

[Zucca]

one day I will write the same....

[ch_scr]

Work is killing me today.

Why I do not start my company and do what I want how I want?
Who has his own company here?

In germany having your own company is called beeing "selbstständig" with a meaning close to "independent",
or more literal "self supporting".
But it's composed of the words "selbst"=self, own and "ständig"=support, standing or continuously.
And as you might imagine the flat joke goes some thing like this:
Don't like it here? Get "selbstständig", then you can work "selbst" and "ständig" 

[mansaxel]

beyerdynamic are a bit underrepresented in Sweden, their distributor went bellyup a couple years ago.

This is quite unfortunate because in my humble experience their products are of higher quality and far more durable than Sennheiser's. AKG have dropped out of the race altogether since they're having their K240 produced in China and I've had to downgrade them to junk status.

Both Sennheiser and beyerdynamic are privately owned. AKG is a Harman sell-out, much as the rest of the Old Brands. Goes to show.

[tautech]

Work is killing me today.

Why I do not start my company and do what I want how I want?
Who has his own company here?

This enabler has.
Lots of things can be claimed against income. 

[Vince]

Old metrix Wobulator now buttonned up and off the bench.  Spent a whole day working on the thing. Took my time to tape together all the bits of the jigsaw schematics, and had a go at the thing. Checked power supplies and other things, found numerous problems. Verdict is that it's a rabbit hole that could easily prove to be extremely time consuming and costly parts wise as well (tubes and caps), and I would never be able to get any ROI nor even break even. Financially and practically, makes zero sense to try to fix it from what I saw. So, it will be sold as is. Put it up for sale today, already 20 people were curious enough to click on my ad to see what's inside... there is a market  ^^

Anyway, bench now free for the next repair : my 453 portable vintage Tek scope with a failed CRT HV / no trace.

Will have a go at that one now.


From what you said the other day, there is a slight chance that the HV transformer might still be good. You said it was classical for this scope to have the circuitry on the secondary to overload the transformer and cause the HV to fail coming up. So first thing for me is to figure out if the transformer, oscillator or secondary circuitry are at fault.

So mùy question :  I know squat about transformers so just in case I am about to do something stupid : since overloading the secondary can have repercussions on the primary and the oscillator itself... could there be problems if I disconnected all the circuitry from all the secondary windings of the transformers, to try to isolate the fault ??

I would think not but hey, who knows, I might learn something and better safe than sorry eh ?

If safe then will do that. Disconnect everything from the secondary windings and then see if the oscillator runs and if I get sensible voltage levels on all the secondaries.

Thanks in advance for your wisdom and experience...

Below the schematic for the CRT section to help...
Oscillator is made of 4 discrete NPN trannies, one of them in a big T03 package drives the primary of the transformer. Secondary has 4 rectifiers, 2 solid state and 2 vacuum tubes.

Have an HV probe for use with a DMM, so I can check any voltage anywhere on the secondary side, no problem.

[mnementh]

Work is killing me today. Why I do not start my company and do what I want how I want? Who has his own company here?

This enabler has. Lots of things can be claimed against income. 

Zucca... as you are currently in the USA, have you considered going "independent contractor"...?

I personally don't recommend it to anyone who has a "real job" with a "civilized employer" that offers actual "benefits"; as it is hard work, long hours and the pay from FMS platforms like OnForce (woops, now defunct) and WorkMarket is generally very "supply and demand". Plus you as a independent contractor in the US are required to pay both the employer and employee taxes and paperwork, and to provide your own health, liability, and accidents & omissions insurance coverage... but it does have one singular benefit:

You decide on a case by case basis which tickets you are going to take and which service buyers you are willing to put up with. This means that if you need a day away for your own sanity or a week off for family business, it is a decision up to you and nobody else.

As your employer was progressive enough to be willing to pay for your relocation to the US, I have to admit I don't personally believe the FMS lifestyle can hold a candle to your current terms of engagement... but I also understand viscerally just how dire the need to escape that cage can feel.

Good luck, my friend. I expect you are going to need it.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Work is killing me today.

Why I do not start my company and do what I want how I want?
Who has his own company here?

I have my own company called "retired". 

Lucky one.

Starting over from ground zero. In my 50s. 

mnem
*drops back and punts*

[mansaxel]

the answer to a vocalist who can't sing in tune is either training, silence or euthanasia.

Truer words seldom uttered.

If it worked on me, it'll pretty much work on anyone. I sang horribly, very much out of tune, and hesitantly, until I had to learn one of the voices in the deliberately arranged 4-voice drinking songs in the student theatre I helped out. And I had children. Lullabies are important tools, sometimes life-savers. Better so if in tune.

[mansaxel]

The worst I've ever heard from Autotune is the background music in the Flunch chain restaurants in France.

I've only ever been to one Flunch, in Aix-en-Provence. I do not remember the music, but it was maybe 6 years ago and I had distraction, two of them, 8 and 5 years old, actually. The entrecôte was properly "bleu", at least.

[mansaxel]

You seem to be missing the point here... what's fun is watching you try to do it, especially one-handed so as to hold a camera. 

If you'd only held out telling the truth I might have fallen for it. Doubly so. Am done in the balance-on-chairs-department, almost. I need to get a power source for the BT receiver up; right now it's a power bank feeding the USB in. I have some mechanical poking to do, bend a double D-sub bracket into shape and bolt it in and so on. In the other end I've bodged the loose wires in, just to check things over. A bodge-plug (binding post to XLRf) and then a short XLRM-bantam into the patchbay that sits before and after the matrix. If it is a bodge you can close the rack door around, you're in the clear!

And the verdict? Instant success! Several family members joined their phones in succession and played parts of their favourite playlists in Spotify.

[mnementh]

the answer to a vocalist who can't sing in tune is either training, silence or euthanasia.

Truer words seldom uttered.

If it worked on me, it'll pretty much work on anyone. I sang horribly, very much out of tune, and hesitantly, until I had to learn one of the voices in the deliberately arranged 4-voice drinking songs in the student theatre I helped out. And I had children. Lullabies are important tools, sometimes life-savers. Better so if in tune.

Sing Paul Simon tunes until you know them by heart. Best way for a guy to get moderately in tune without breaking his brain. Or marry a opera singer/vocal instructor/choir director, like I did. 

mnem
Teaching this pig to sing is still very much a WIP. However, my wife still assures me I am not her most hopeless student. 

[med6753]

What a Type CA plug-in should look like in a Type 535A.



What the Type CA plug-in from Saturday's haul looks like.

I'd say that's a fail. I checked the output pins resistance values against my known good plug-in and they all matched. So there's a signal path issue on both channels. Luckily this plug-in can be worked on by just removing the side cover on the Type 535A. Tomorrow's fun activity.

[tautech]

So mùy question :  I know squat about transformers so just in case I am about to do something stupid : since overloading the secondary can have repercussions on the primary and the oscillator itself... could there be problems if I disconnected all the circuitry from all the secondary windings of the transformers, to try to isolate the fault ??

I would think not but hey, who knows, I might learn something and better safe than sorry eh ?

If safe then will do that. Disconnect everything from the secondary windings and then see if the oscillator runs and if I get sensible voltage levels on all the secondaries.

I wouldn't. The Xformer primary is protected by the fuse and if it looks old and crusty is probably original.
For basic operational checks you can just hold a probe near the primary for the EMI and see if it's oscillating at approx the right frequency then move on to check voltages at the prescribed check points.
No good overthinking it...........

BTW, check every one of them M Ohm resistors.

[Neper]

Don't like it here? Get "selbstständig", then you can work "selbst" and "ständig" 

There's an even bigger joke: "You freelancers have it good. You can organise your working hours as you wish!"

Can't even laugh about that anymore.

[mnementh]

Just took a walk down to Long Island City Chemists for some pseudoephedrine. Also got to experience a bit of wind-chill over the ~1 klik walk; maybe not the Hudson Hawk spoke of in the movie by that name, but still cold and sharp enough to make my bum knee angry with me.

Came home with a couple packages of the 12-hour variety; something I've had to live without since we escaped Tejas.

mnem
*toddles off to make some hot chocolate*

[bitseeker]

Greetings, all. Ooh, music stuff. Time to start reading back in the thread.

Meanwhile,



this is the most boat-anchory bit of TE I've acquired thus far. I've been on the casual lookout for one of these test sets, either an 8920 or 8924, for a while but they tend to be pricey. I finally came across this one



It has a 6-Watt input, instead of the usual 3-Watt, but not the beefier 60- or 100-Watt. It does have the mechanical attenuator, which makes its calibrated bottom end 400 kHz instead of the 30 MHz of the ones with electronic attenuator.
...

If you have not bought the replacement bezel I have a spare you can have FOC.
Does t have the Spectrum Analyser fitted?

Hi Robert! I actually did purchase a bezel already (it's badged as an 8924E). If something happens to it on its way over here, or it turns out to look worse than I can tolerate , I'll let you know. Thanks for the offer!

Yes, the 8924C has the spectrum analyzer as default equipment. The only "problem" I ran into while verifying its operational condition was that it had been set up for CDMA operations, so some of the tests failed without the 83256B PCS interface. After reconfiguring it for regular analog operation, all was well. Having never used one of these before, it's been a bit of an adventure poking around all the menus and the built-in HP BASIC programs.

[bitseeker]

The guy (a ham) said now he doesn't want to sell the Boonton power meter to me. I had mentioned I wanted to test the meter to make sure the sensor was OK, because if it wasn't I didn't want the meter at all - I don't need it, I already have two fine hp power meters with sensors. I didn't want to buy a Boonton sensor for lots of money if it's defective. Now I think he realizes if the sensor is OK the meter and sensor is worth more than $15. I was talking with another ham friend who knows us both very well, and he said the other guy probably also was put off because I just didn't buy the meter without testing it first. But he knows me and agrees with what I wanted to do.

Heh, I hear ya. Over the years, I ended up buying four HP 432A power meters with 478A sensors, only one of which was known good and cost more than the other three combined. Ended up with two good ones and two likely bad ones that won't zero. I haven't yet attempted to "adjust" the bad ones to see if they might be salvageable. For the right price, not testing in advance can work out, but it's a gamble. And now I have lots of cute candidate project enclosures with big, beautiful, mirrored analog meters.

I talked with the seller on the phone when he called me to say he didn't want to sell it to me now. I explained that all I want to do is test it because if the sensor is bad I don't want to buy one. However he doesn't know how to test it himself. I asked him if he tested it and he said "yes". Because I know him and have been to his garage I asked how he tested it. He said "I connected my signal generator to it and applied a signal and the meter needle moved." I asked him how much power he applied. He said he didn't know how to figure that. So for all I know if the sensor wasn't bad before it might well be now. I just told him do what you want I don't need it have fun! 

Yeah, that doesn't sound promising.

This ham was just talking on the radio last night about a power supply kit that he assembled from Ebay - it's this one -

eBay auction: #373577880823

He was telling everyone how it was working but he was "probing it" and he shorted something. It let out smoke from several parts and now doesn't work so he's ordering another one. That's what I'm dealing with.

Oof! My condolences.

Remember hams are a weird bunch. Except for me, I'm a ham and I'm not weird. No not me. OK, I'm the least weird of all the local hams. 

You're just the right kind of weird to fit in here. That's sufficient.

Getting a ham license has been on my bucket list since I was a teenager. No rush.

[bitseeker]

I opened YouTube last night and saw a piece of test gear I wasn’t expecting to see:



Apparently Mr. Carlson has a Stark VT-9 as well.  He isn’t exaggerating about the size of the dial face.  I can take more pictures of mine later if anyone is interested.

Yeah, I saw that. First I'd see one and that meter is crazy huge. I like it. There's always something out there to add to the shopping list.

[bitseeker]

I was going to point this offer out to everyone here, but then I saw that it's "Only To Be Used By Qualified Electrician or Electronic Engineer" !! 
So for all of those here with the appropriate qualifications... 

https://www.ebay.de/itm/265418163607



McBryce.

 

Well, you can imagine the potential havoc that an unqualified person could cause by using the precision 2-wire gold short in the wrong places.

[bitseeker]

The guy (a ham) said now he doesn't want to sell the Boonton power meter to me. I had mentioned I wanted to test the meter to make sure the sensor was OK, because if it wasn't I didn't want the meter at all - I don't need it, I already have two fine hp power meters with sensors. I didn't want to buy a Boonton sensor for lots of money if it's defective. Now I think he realizes if the sensor is OK the meter and sensor is worth more than $15. I was talking with another ham friend who knows us both very well, and he said the other guy probably also was put off because I just didn't buy the meter without testing it first. But he knows me and agrees with what I wanted to do.

EDIT: Don't feel bad, x. You aren't the first TEA-er who's talked himself out of what should have been a "buy now, ask questions later" deal. I mean, for $15, it's a good shelf ornament.

Exactly. For $15, lots of old equipment, if not otherwise usable, can be nice sources of project boxes, switches, connectors, meters, indicators, etc. Of course, that's why I now have lots of potential project boxes, switches, connectors, ... 

[bitseeker]

Work is killing me today.

Why I do not start my company and do what I want how I want?
Who has his own company here?

I have my own company called "retired". 

"Where do you see yourself in five years?"

Owning a company called "retired" that runs teanonymous.com.