Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

It also begs the question, why is it on mute if you're watching TV, why not turn it off, I mean if anything remotely interesting is going to happen on the radio, you'll miss it anyway.

Because switching it to mute involves one toggle switch vs multiple switches to turn it on/off.

Call me lazy I guess. 

Eh    All of my scanners and those that I've seen have a single switch to turn them on and off   

[mansaxel]

some DeWALT TSTAK stuff:

Tool and gear storage is important!

I've got, for my go-to kit, a Toolmark leather case, made originally for British Telecom, and found by me in the Canford Audio catalogue. It is not a cheap bag, but, again, my wife found one, in the UK, very lightly used, for considerably less than the new price. It holds the most necessary parts of my "small things and electronics" tool kit, weighs a LOT, and is quite stylish.

As can be seen, I'm fond of best-of-breed solutions, with the case holding Wiha, Wera, Gedore, Knipex, Belzer, Bosch, iBost, Bahco, Matador, Hazet, Lindström, Stripax, Fluke, Facom, Uni-T, BGS, Hultafors, TS100, iFixit, F. Dick, Jonard, et al.

The tool kit is continously evolving, but I'd say that about 85% of it are long-stay items.  For fixing cars and carpentry, I usually drag out my tool cart and my steel tool box. But this tool kit almost always comes along; it's with us on car trips, for instance.

And, I drag it to work, although infrequently.

This post has TE content. Just pointing that out too!

[mnementh]

As my sister says, moving is always more difficult, more expensive, and takes longer than you think...

Or, as they used to say here in Cologne: Dreimol ömjetrocke es einmol afjebrannt. (Three moves equal one house fire.)

Been dere, dunnat, burned the shirt. While I was wearing it.

Dollars & cents-wise, probably true. But no comparison as far as disruption life-wise.

mnem
I'd much rather move, even after 5 moves in the last 2 years.

[med6753]

It also begs the question, why is it on mute if you're watching TV, why not turn it off, I mean if anything remotely interesting is going to happen on the radio, you'll miss it anyway.

Because switching it to mute involves one toggle switch vs multiple switches to turn it on/off.

Call me lazy I guess. 

Eh    All of my scanners and those that I've seen have a single switch to turn them on and off   

Well my set up is just a tad more complex than just the scanner. And just out of view on the right is a hand held for backup.

[Saskia]

da bloody garage still did not attach da bloody trailer hitch. 1 week overdue. I guess it's scrambled eggs (smashed nuts for you muricans) time for the proprietor when I next meet him.

The big vault (330 lbs) is out of the appartment, Odin be praised for his wisdom in telling me to take out the bloody door. Christmas in the Nakatomi appartment: Ho ho ho,  I now have a crowbar ...
without it I would never had gotten the door out. Had to evade the vaccination police to get the crowbar.
They are plain nuts over here (no, I will not freely get a CoVid jab, I know too many people with minor adverse effects such as retina infarction (blindness), cortical trombosis (death), myocarditis (death), lung embolism (just barely survived) ...

tomorrow will be a crap day. Pick up a trailer with a Ford Transit, load the content of my garage into the trailer, add about 50 - 60 moving boxes, then load up a bulk of the furniture and drive 500 km. Unload Friday, try to set up the bloody wardrobe (it's another quarter of a metric ton), get the dinner table into the house (it's massive beech wood) ...
urgs.

[factory]

Got to stop having half days on Wednesday, ended up buying another little Tek scope, the Sony/Tek 323 with book & cover panel. Should be working, but not been used for a while according to the listing.
And yes even I can't take a screengrab showing the actual sold price (more than £10.99) when logged in. 


Also picked up this vintage ASEA panel meter from the local heritage centre, which seems to work fine (10V for FSD).
I was told they came from a railway related substation, hence the 660VDC line on the scale, they had sold most of them but had a pair of 800V & one 10000A left, all would have had an external resistor/shunt for use. The logo dates them to the 1933 or earlier according to wiki.



David

[Vince]

As can be seen, I'm fond of best-of-breed solutions, with the case holding Wiha, Wera, Gedore, Knipex, Belzer, Bosch, iBost, Bahco, Matador, Hazet, Lindström, Stripax, Fluke, Facom, Uni-T, BGS, Hultafors, TS100, iFixit, F. Dick, Jonard, et al.

I see that large black wire stripper in the leather case...... bought the same almost 30 years ago, when at 16 or so I bought my first toolbox and went to populate it.
Only FACOM stuff as I had a discount through my dad who new a guy who owned a H/W store. So I bought that very expensive Facom wire stripper... 500 Francs IIRC ! A fortune ! 30 years later I still have to figure out how to get any good out of it ! I never use it... the biggest waste of money I made on hand tools, biggest disappointment too, as it's a FACOM so supposed to be good...
No matter how I adjust the little wheel under the lower jaw, it's hopeless at stripping wires. I still own it because I paid so much for it I can't resort to throwing it away but.... 

Since you love fine tools, I am sure yours works beautifully and you are very happy with it. I guess I must be using it wrong 

Anyway, cool leather case, looks very retro/vintage 

[Specmaster]

Next up with is the little multifunction tester which I put through it’s paces with a random assortment of junk box parts from the retired Nortel engineer’s cookie tin of doom:

...snip...



I'm not surprised at the result here.  This was a junk box 7805 linear regulator.

...snip...

Anyhow, that's it for test equipment for today for me.  I'm about to head over to a friend's house for a little Christmas get together and need to stop to pick up a dessert on the way.  Tis the season.  As much as I enjoy the gatherings with friends, the longstanding hatred I have for the season lurks in the background regardless.

Are these even designed to test voltage regulators? Can't help thinking I've read they can't test them somewhere before too.

David

No they are not.

Dave did a little review of one and there are some items that they cannot test. There are also of course, other devices out there that test some ICs and even correctly identify them down to their part number level, but they can be pricey.

[RolandK]

some DeWALT TSTAK stuff:

Tool and gear storage is important!

I've got, for my go-to kit, a Toolmark leather case, made originally for British Telecom, and found by me in the Canford Audio catalogue. It is not a cheap bag, but, again, my wife found one, in the UK, very lightly used, for considerably less than the new price. It holds the most necessary parts of my "small things and electronics" tool kit, weighs a LOT, and is quite stylish.

As can be seen, I'm fond of best-of-breed solutions, with the case holding Wiha, Wera, Gedore, Knipex, Belzer, Bosch, iBost, Bahco, Matador, Hazet, Lindström, Stripax, Fluke, Facom, Uni-T, BGS, Hultafors, TS100, iFixit, F. Dick, Jonard, et al.

The tool kit is continously evolving, but I'd say that about 85% of it are long-stay items.  For fixing cars and carpentry, I usually drag out my tool cart and my steel tool box. But this tool kit almost always comes along; it's with us on car trips, for instance.

And, I drag it to work, although infrequently.

This post has TE content. Just pointing that out too!

Very useful collection. As a hint for the future:

Wiha has a grip for the electrician srewdriver set which can store up to 6 Bits. And i put 4 small ones (T10, PH1, PZ1, etc) between the 6, only the 2 positions for the snapper must stay free.

I had a IXO 2, which i sold because of the missing speed control (same as IXO 1 to 5). The IXO 6 has speed control. More exact it is moment control, speed depends on load.

[mansaxel]

Since you love fine tools, I am sure yours works beautifully and you are very happy with it. I guess I must be using it wrong 

Anyway, cool leather case, looks very retro/vintage 

Actually, I'm looking at a Knipex 12 12 06 right now. Because I think I want one of those too..

And, yes, the case is very back-asswards vintage, like much UK kit. Not in a bad way, like US tools that almost always are like something invented in the 50s, but crappier, no, rather in a more selective "this works, so we'll just keep on keeping on" way. It's a very thin line, agreed, but the difference is there.

There are 3 US-specific tools in my case, the electricians scissors, a lacing needle for wire looms, and a Jonard wire-wrap tool. Then the iFixit kit of course is US in origin, but has been heavily modified and augmented with European tools. 

Those three have earned their place. They're the very best at what they're doing, and therefore they're in the kit. Same with the big No 3 screwdrivers, Philips and Pozidriv. They're iBost, from before Stanley stupidized the brand. Because one becomes very strong with those.

[Saskia]

Have been dismantling stuff with the Festool T18+3.
I love it. It just works. Hassle free, as expected. Would buy again even tho it is bloody expensive.

[factory]

I've had another look at the hp 745A AC calibrator this afternoon, testing with the Tek THS reveals no problems with the output (34401A DMM didn't like it when tested last week).


Also checked the full frequency range and error controls, all are working fine. 



It's just the 10V range that is faulty, it lights overload indicator and gives large & distorted output.



Also the 1000V ext range does the same, need to RTFM, but I would have expected no output without the 746A clone connected. Could do with finding a real manual.

Also tried out a the UV lamp and remote for IR (was no good, needs removing to run without flashing).


Edit: forgot I lifted the front panel trim and found some spare lamps are still present, button/lamp removal tool is broken on the button removal end.


David

[mansaxel]

Very useful collection. As a hint for the future:

Wiha has a grip for the electrician srewdriver set which can store up to 6 Bits. And i put 4 small ones (T10, PH1, PZ1, etc) between the 6, only the 2 positions for the snapper must stay free.

I had a IXO 2, which i sold because of the missing speed control (same as IXO 1 to 5). The IXO 6 has speed control. More exact it is moment control, speed depends on load.

I'm ogling the IXO series, but I'm not screwing Reihenklemmen that much that I think I need it. (And with Wago 221 I screw less!)

I of course might want it anyway...

The storage trick is really nice!

Is it the same insulated 6mm (purposely not 6,35mm / ¹/₄"!) blades as Wiha's been running for some time now?

[Saskia]

I kinda like the Festool / Tanos systainers. Expensive, but very nice for storing your stuff.

[RolandK]

The storage trick is really nice!

Is it the same insulated 6mm (purposely not 6,35mm / ¹/₄"!) blades as Wiha's been running for some time now?

Yes, they are the same as in your set.

[cyclin_al]

I'm going to throw this out there since I know many of you have encountered ham radio operators.  And in this case, an aspiring ham radio operator.

What's the deal with the scanners blaring constantly whenever you have to talk to one of these people?  I hate having to alternately have to shout over and hear through the noise of their scanners.  If you're talking to someone, turn it off or turn it well down.

I am not even sure where my scanner is .... ?

It may have something to do with self-importance?  My observation is that those who are constantly on-air are also those that wear ARES (amateur radio emergency support) badges..
My experience is that these are a small few, and the majority of Canadian hams I would not event recognize as being hams (maybe they do not want to be associated with the former  ) as they are very very discrete about it.

[Neomys Sapiens]

I see that large black wire stripper in the leather case...... bought the same almost 30 years ago, when at 16 or so I bought my first toolbox and went to populate it.
Only FACOM stuff as I had a discount through my dad who new a guy who owned a H/W store. So I bought that very expensive Facom wire stripper... 500 Francs IIRC ! A fortune ! 30 years later I still have to figure out how to get any good out of it ! I never use it... the biggest waste of money I made on hand tools, biggest disappointment too, as it's a FACOM so supposed to be good...
No matter how I adjust the little wheel under the lower jaw, it's hopeless at stripping wires. I still own it because I paid so much for it I can't resort to throwing it away but.... 

Since you love fine tools, I am sure yours works beautifully and you are very happy with it. I guess I must be using it wrong 

Anyway, cool leather case, looks very retro/vintage 

And you are totally right here. As any automatic wire stripper with two straight blades should be rather called a wire mutilator. Solution: use a Stripmaster or a manual one.

[Vince]

I have been using side cutters instead, but am dreaming of buying a proper tool one day... lab V2.0 is in the making and ambitions are high ! 

[med6753]

I'm going to throw this out there since I know many of you have encountered ham radio operators.  And in this case, an aspiring ham radio operator.

What's the deal with the scanners blaring constantly whenever you have to talk to one of these people?  I hate having to alternately have to shout over and hear through the noise of their scanners.  If you're talking to someone, turn it off or turn it well down.

I am not even sure where my scanner is .... ?

It may have something to do with self-importance?  My observation is that those who are constantly on-air are also those that wear ARES (amateur radio emergency support) badges..
My experience is that these are a small few, and the majority of Canadian hams I would not event recognize as being hams (maybe they do not want to be associated with the former  ) as they are very very discrete about it.

While my scanner is on 24/7 except in the times previously mentioned I'm just a casual listener and curious as to what is going on locally.    It's basically some background noise. I'm not a member of any club nor do I do any stupid stuff like chase fires/accidents/etc. Those clowns are real wackos and need to get a life other than their Mother's basement.     

[AVGresponding]

Also tried out a the UV lamp and remote for IR (was no good, needs removing to run without flashing).


David

Ah well it was worth a try. Did you manage to try the method someone else suggested, using a graphics manipulation tool?

[med6753]

I've had another look at the hp 745A AC calibrator this afternoon, testing with the Tek THS reveals no problems with the output (34401A DMM didn't like it when tested last week).

...snip

That's the one thing my little (?) collection of TE lacks. A good AC calibrator. And finding one that works, and won't break the bank.

[25 CPS]

Next up with is the little multifunction tester which I put through it’s paces with a random assortment of junk box parts from the retired Nortel engineer’s cookie tin of doom:

...snip...



I'm not surprised at the result here.  This was a junk box 7805 linear regulator.

...snip...

Anyhow, that's it for test equipment for today for me.  I'm about to head over to a friend's house for a little Christmas get together and need to stop to pick up a dessert on the way.  Tis the season.  As much as I enjoy the gatherings with friends, the longstanding hatred I have for the season lurks in the background regardless.

Are these even designed to test voltage regulators? Can't help thinking I've read they can't test them somewhere before too.

David

No.  That's why I jumped at the chance to put that 7805 on there when I came across it in the cookie tin from doom.  I wanted to see how the tester would respond to a part I know it can't handle.  Specifically, what I was interested in seeing was if it would take the 7805 and mis-identify it as something else or if it would reject it as bad a bad or unknown item.  That gives me a bit more confidence in the tester than I would have if it had erroneously claimed that 7805 was something it's not instead.

[25 CPS]

I'm going to throw this out there since I know many of you have encountered ham radio operators

There's even a few of us here.

What's the deal with the scanners blaring constantly whenever you have to talk to one of these people?

No idea. Bad upbringing, most probably. Just like people leaving the telly on when they have visitors or have it blaring in the background while they're on the phone.

Moot point here anyway, since all services which could be remotely interesting have gone digital and my old scanner won't decode them.

The purpose of this phone call was to ask me some questions about a test equipment purchase meanwhile I could barely hear through the racket this guy's multiple scanner setup was making.  If you're going to phone someone to ask them questions, one would think you'd knock down the unnecessary noise that's making it hard to hear, but no...

You're right, it's the same with the television.  I've run into that with people, even family members.  My grandparents wouldn't miss Wheel Of Fortune and Jeopardy no matter what, even with family visiting.

[Vince]

OK so here is the 502A ! 

Sorry for not posting yesterday when I got it. Was too tired once back home.

So I now know a bit more about this "transformer" shit on his ad, where he claimed the transformer was used for tube amps and was selling for parts just for that...

Actually turns out he has not one but TWO 502A ! He gave me the best one and opened it up for me spontaneously to show what condition it was in inside, and that no part was missing.

So, the story goes : someone contacted him about his 502A (probably not knowing he had two of them), saying he MIGHT be interested in the transformer and a couple specific tubes in it, just two of them, don't know which ones. That guy said he was a professional who designs new tube amps himself and sells them for lots of money. Apparently he is well known in the audiophool business. Didn't say his name, and I don't care anyway.

But, this guy said he is not buying just now, he said he needs to study the specs of the transformer in detail to make sure it's actually suitable for what he wants to do. So basically he didn't do his homework before bothering the owner. 
So now the owner knew the transformer interested audio people, so he updated his ad description accordingly !

So, I said to the owner... since that guy really knows he only wants the transformer and a couple tubes, and nothing else... just  remove these parts only, cleanly please... then I will buy the dead corpse from you, for 20 Euros for parts...
So maybe I will get a third 502A scope, albeit probably (or not, we shall see...) transformer-less. So a whole bunch of parts to maintain the other ones I have 

Guy is heavy into wood working, 99% of his huge workshop is devoted to that. His old Tek  scopes where stacked in a corner in the middle of all that wood stuff. Well I happen to like fine woodworking so it was cool seeing all his stuff and chat with him about wood. But he also knows his stuff about electronics. He taught electronics for any years in various engineering schools, so we talked electrons as well as wood...
Hell he even used to have / drive a Renault 21, like I did for 20 years before I got my Safrane 3 years ago... so we talked R21 as well !

Was really cool meeting him, spent 2 hours there 

Anyway so here are a few pics I just took of the thing a few minutes ago, just because I love you soi much. Well sadly the pics look crap, don't know what's wrong... or maybe they are OK and it's my new computer monitor that's crap... my last (had 3 of them) beloved Samsung Syncmaster 700p CRT 17" monitor gave up the ghost a week ago, had to replace it in hurry with a crappy cheap LCD screen I luckily had been given recently as a thank you for fixing some electronic stuff for a friend. Will buy a new hopefully better monitor when I can afford it. Not now. For now it displays a picture which is all I expect to do. Crappy picture might be, but a picture none the less, so it's functional...

Overall condition is good. Not a rust bucket and no physical damage to the cabinet unlike my other one.
Just a fine layer of wood dust, just like Papa Smurf 547, well, a 100 times less... just a thin layer not a kilogram of it...

Exterior : cabinet needs repainting and carry handles as often need redoing. They are so far gone that tehy are missing altogether, only the metal work is is still in place, and it's rusty as hell.
A couple screw missing, the two at the front of one of the two painting cross members at the bottom of the cabinet.
Also one of the two screws is missing on the air filter housing.

Front of the instrument of course is super filthy, you would expect that, sitting for decades in  a damp wood shop...but should clean up just fine I think, not worried at all.

Inside :

- The dreaded transparent plastic piece that holds the neck of the CRT, the part that likes to disintegrate and vanish completely like it did on my 575 curve tracer... well it's still there and still holding up for now, but not for long I think ! As you can see it's on the verge of turning to dust. It has turned into a "granular" material, like a casting made of grains of sand, really what it looks like.

- Tubes are lie new, super clean. I mean the ones located on the top side of the lower deck of course are covered with dust, but if you look at the tubes on the UNDERside of the upper deck, their glass envelope looks like new, like it just got cleaned with IPA or something. A few of them carry a sticker showing they have been pulled to go consult a tube tester... some labels are hand written, others have been printed on a type machine, looks luxurious...

- The fan motor looks strangely "modern". I mean usually the windings are wrapped in thick yellow fabric of some kind... making them look very vintage... but  this fan has no such wrapping. The windings are visible, anc coated in green enamel. It looks too modern for the vintage of a 502A to me ! Maybe got replaced at some point.

All contacts/tracks on the wafer switches are very black. Access is not great on most of them, so lots of painful and time consuming disassembly work ahead to  be able to work on them comfortably on the bench.


OK now time to power it up :

Didn't want to at first... From now on, I want to get a variac to bring the voltage up slowly to give the filter caps a chance to reform a bit before applying full power. It's the last time I take the risk to power up one of my old Tek scopes without a variac..I will get one, I will, I will...

Anyway, powered it up anyway, with some anxiety...

Result :

- Fan starts on the button, great. It makes one hell of a rattling noise.. the blades are hitting the air filter (it's a metallic wire mesh not a foam filter). Loosened the screws of the grill, rattle gone. Still not 100% quiet, of course needs oiling...

- The low voltage stuff seems to work : the tube filaments light up. Bulbs for the graticule illumination work well too.

- Neon indicator bulbs work too on the front panel. These require higher voltage, so there is at least some of the power rails working to some degree....

- However... ZERO life on the CRT no matter what ! Not looking good 

- I spotted a tube that was glowing PURPLE at its base ! IIRC that's indicative of a tube that's losing its vacuum, not vacuuming anymore it is      Looked beautiful that said ! Wanted to take a picture, so turned off the lab lights, grabbed the camera and.... too late, purple glow had already vanished, tube now completely dead ! No picture for me/you ! 
It was a 12AT7 tube, V474 on the upper beam sub-assembly. Looked it up in the schematics, it's the tube that drives the lower deflection plate. Tek scopes seldom use the 12AT7, have very few of them... ended up pulling one from my other 502A (which I know works). Need to buy a new tube now then, of course. Hopefully they are cheap and I can buy two or 3 of them to have spares.

Then after a few minutes running, I heard a brief " TSSSSsssss..... " sound. Like... a big electrolytic cap spewing its guts out.... probably what it is ! Scope didn't catch fire, no smoke. Just the brief noise but no noticeable change to the way the scope was running. No better, no worse.

OK so it's late at night but I could not help but do some quick trouble shooting... and it's promising.

Looks like CRT HV is not dead after all : there is a rotary switch on the left of the cabinet, accessible through a hole in the panel.
It lets you select the XY mode, or the swept mode. In XY mode the upper beam is used as the 'X' beam.
I tried the switch in both positions, still no joy. In either position the CRT is dead. However... however... WHILE you are transitioning the switch from one position to the other... THEN you get life on the CRT !!!!  So I left the knob set half-way between its two stable positions, and now the CRT does display something !  A get a couple dots, one for each beam. I get no sweep no matter what I do. So I only get the two dots.
They are bright, so the HV is working fine it seems, PHEW that's a relief !!! 
One of the dots is sharp and crisp, that's the lower beam, and I can move it up and down.
Dot for the upper beam however, a huge fat and fuzzy dot, can't focus it at all, and can't move it up and down either, it just stays there. However the upper beam is also the one where I replaced that gassy tube, so maybe there are other related tubes that need replacing...

So I gave up on the faulty upper beam for now, knowing it needs some work, and moved on to check the lower beam further, as it looked more promising. I fed a signal to its input. I just used the probe calibrator, which I knew worked as I quickly tested it with my DMM. There was signal and voltage levels were what they were supposed to be.
Lower beam does respond properly : It shows two immobile dots (since there is no sweep...), spread apart appropriately as I modify the voltage level of the calibrator, or modify the setting of the attenuator.


It's 1AM and super tired so that's it for now !

So to sum it up looks like CRT HV is fine, that sweep is dead, and upper beam is very sick as well.

Next time tomorrow maybe, will work some more on it. From all I said above, I now need to :

- Check service manual to locate test points for the power rails, and check for ripple of course to try to spot which can cap I heard spewing out.

- Clean the XY switch so I can get proper operation without having to keep it in between its two stable positions...

- Start troubleshooting sweep and upper beam, some more dead tubes ahead I guess...

- Give the front of the scope a good quick clean as it's really filthy ! 

[Vince]

....