Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Robert763]

Had another session in the garage today. Mostly moving boxes of books and lots of junk. Also dissasembling "boltless" racking. Had to resort to the DeWalt cordless angle grinder and cutting disk on on rack.
Following on from the discussion on legacy operating systems, I found a unopened copy of OS/2 warp. Box is pretty tatty though.

[med6753]

Had another session in the garage today. Mostly moving boxes of books and lots of junk. Also dissasembling "boltless" racking. Had to resort to the DeWalt cordless angle grinder and cutting disk on on rack.
Following on from the discussion on legacy operating systems, I found a unopened copy of OS/2 warp. Box is pretty tatty though.

Up until a few years ago I still had a copy of OS/2 warp. All 17 or so diskettes. 

It got binned.   

[Vince]

[...} I did look at a late model Safrane estate a few years ago but was not impresssed. 

I don't understand... I have currently a Renault Safrane, for 3 years now.. but there never was an Estate version and production stopped 20 years ago now anyhow so... I am confused ?! 

Does Renault use the Safrane badge again today in some markets, for a current car model ?! Never heard of it. Sounds lame to me... it just can't be a Safrane of course, so why not just come up with whatever other name, that's strange. Just confusing for no good reason... 

Any llnk to it ?? Anyway if it's modern can only be crap, but you picked my curiosity anyway ! 

The Renault Latitude is still called the Renault Safrane in some markets (specifically Mexico and middle east), althought the Latitude was based on the Laguna, not the Safrane?? 

McBryce.

Ah OK OK, the Latitude... yeah makes more sense 
Still sucks to call it Safrane but hey, that's marketing for you....

[Vince]

I found a unopened copy of OS/2 warp. Box is pretty tatty though.

I bet someone on Ebay would bid 2 grand for it, give it a go ! 

Would not mind a copy of it to play with, never was exposed to it back in its day. Have a few old first gen Pentium computers, probably works fine on these, could try installing it on a rainy day just for fun..

[Vince]

P.S they almost did an Safrane estate
https://www.artcurial.com/en/lot-1994-renault-safrane-v6-turbo-ie-long-cours-no-reserve-2138-235

Hmmm interesting, didn't know about it.

Was ugly though, glad Renault refused that proposal / prototype from Heuliez.

[Robert763]

Had another session in the garage today. Mostly moving boxes of books and lots of junk. Also dissasembling "boltless" racking. Had to resort to the DeWalt cordless angle grinder and cutting disk on on rack.
Following on from the discussion on legacy operating systems, I found a unopened copy of OS/2 warp. Box is pretty tatty though.

Up until a few years ago I still had a copy of OS/2 warp. All 17 or so diskettes. 

It got binned.

This is a CD (maybe 3.5" too didn't check. They do seem to fetch £20-50 on ebay...

[salvagedcircuitry]

This is a test and "Measurement" thread right? 
I went ahead and refurbished a bit of measurement for my father this Christmas season.
Found this poor little guy on ebay in need of attention.
Ever since I can remember, my father had a nicely made 5ft American level. Many American levels were made with solid mahogany bodies, brass shoulders and brass end caps. This year I figured it was time to find him a shorter version to match.
A bit of light sanding, brass polishing and coating with danish old and boy she sure cleaned up nice!
3 generations of measurement - all made in the states!
A measurement photo shoot can't be part of T&M without some test gear. Here's some HP and Simpson gear of similar vintage.

[Cubdriver]

anyone know what a 5232L-4B or 5245-6001 is used in?  (guess they will make good organ donors for the boards i have documentation for)

I was correct and needn't have bothered risking further aggravation to my back; I already had pics...   

thanks!   good to know that they will work in the low speed slot of a 5245l.  will try them out there and see if mine are functional or belong in the repair pile.

edit....oh wait.  you said slot A16-17.   that would make them 5 Mhz boards?

edit 2  doh!  needed to look twice at the picture.

He's right too (it's not for A17, that is the high speed counter board without display), I looked at the 5243L manual last night & already had the info saved for the later 5245L cards.

The 5243L only uses one 5232L-4B for A16, it does however describe it as the 2-MC (2MHz) decimal counter.



The older 5245L uses two 5232L-4B for A15 & A16, the manual upgrades it to a 5-MC (5MHz) decimal counter.   

As the label is missing from A16 in my 5243L I couldn't use the pictures to check.


David

This thread prompted me to pull the 5243L I have here out to power it up and see what ails it.  I was initially confused because the A11 board was claiming to be a 05212-6016, series 648 but still had the exact same test date stamped on it as all the others (April of 1963) and looked to be the same board.  Upon closer inspection, some rework is evident - some time in the distant past the display decoder section was replaced.  (It also lived in less-than-ideal conditions at some point, too, based on the appearance of those transistors!)


It at least sort of works, though there are some issues with skipped/doubled digits on counting (decades 1, 2 and 5 most noticeably) and a few of the carries to next decades seem squirrely.


Documentation is currently on order to do some actual troubleshooting; I expect it might  need a cap or three.

Some additional pics at: https://pmanning.smugmug.com/Electronics/HP-5243L-Electronic-Counter

-Pat

[factory]

Well the high speed counter seemed to correct itself after a while. One of the low speed boards in my 5245L misbehaves with two digits lit at the same time, until it has run for a bit.

David

[Cubdriver]

Well the high speed counter seemed to correct itself after a while, one of the low speed boards in my 5245L behaves this way till it has run for a bit.

David

It goes back and forth - sometimes it counts normally, then reverts to incrementing by two.  Figure I'll start with power rails, as with troubleshooting pretty much anything.  Got the manual link from Artek this morning.

-Pat

[Cerebus]

Had another session in the garage today. Mostly moving boxes of books and lots of junk. Also dissasembling "boltless" racking. Had to resort to the DeWalt cordless angle grinder and cutting disk on on rack.
Following on from the discussion on legacy operating systems, I found a unopened copy of OS/2 warp. Box is pretty tatty though.

Up until a few years ago I still had a copy of OS/2 warp. All 17 or so diskettes. 

It got binned.

IBM's PR people used to send me a boxed version of every new release. I think I had more copies of OS/2 than any other single product, including DOS and Windows.

[med6753]

Had another session in the garage today. Mostly moving boxes of books and lots of junk. Also dissasembling "boltless" racking. Had to resort to the DeWalt cordless angle grinder and cutting disk on on rack.
Following on from the discussion on legacy operating systems, I found a unopened copy of OS/2 warp. Box is pretty tatty though.

Up until a few years ago I still had a copy of OS/2 warp. All 17 or so diskettes. 

It got binned.

IBM's PR people used to send me a boxed version of every new release. I think I had more copies of OS/2 than any other single product, including DOS and Windows.

When Warp came out every beamer got a free copy.

[med6753]

the sadness

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284564868035?hash=item4241634bc3:g:HBwAAOSwJAVhKNoR

He already pilfered the 12AX7, 12AU7, 6DJ8 tubes out of all of them apparently. I won't say what I'd like to see happen to his little collection for fear that karma may come back and bite me in the arse. 

This was also posted on the Facebook Old Tek Group and someone filed a complaint with Ebay and the auction was taken down with no bids placed. 

[factory]

Seller has no items listed, are you sure they didn't just end everything for another reason?

David

[med6753]

Seller has no items listed, are you sure they didn't just end everything for another reason?

David

Unsure. But I do know at least one complaint was filed. Whatever the real reason it's taken down. 

[mansaxel]

When Warp came out every beamer got a free copy.

Students could buy it for considerably less than the price of empty diskettes here.

[mnementh]

I found a unopened copy of OS/2 warp. Box is pretty tatty though.

I bet someone on Ebay would bid 2 grand for it, give it a go ! 

Would not mind a copy of it to play with, never was exposed to it back in its day. Have a few old first gen Pentium computers, probably works fine on these, could try installing it on a rainy day just for fun..

There may be a similar box on the ToD. I shall pray for us both all. 

mnem
Great Sick minds think alike.

[mnementh]

Oh, the CARNAGE!!!

Just spent the afternoon triaging and cleaning a set of crusty & rusty Clinton-era Kenmore washer/dryer; got ~$50 worth of maintenance kits on the way. Why? Well, firstly, since we now have a Xmas tree, SWMBO has set me upon a Quest for Fire... errr, Laundry...  

But also, because even though they're old and ugly, they were pretty close to top of the line so still good feature set, and they're Whirlpool Calypso family machines, which are arguably one of the best washers/dryers ever made. Keep 'em clean and oiled, and throw $20-30 worth of wear part kits at them every decade or two, and they'll outlive you if the tin termites don't eat them from the ground up. Literally a 60-year machine if you take care of 'em.

I figured instead of spending thousands on a new washer/dryer, fix these up and spend some of that on the kids.

Lordy, I may even spring for a bottle of touch-up paint. 

mnem
*toddles off to fill his belly wid' sghetti*

[Vince]

Join me in welcoming a new piece of TE at home !   

A Metrix type 920 ! Of course you don't know what a type 920 is.. neither would I if I didn't have it on my bench...

Remember that huge Metrix Wobuloscope boat anchor I bought recently ? .. Thinking it was a super duper luxury sig gen... when in fact it's a highly specialized bit of kit meant to test TV sets. Was mistaken, my bad, impulse buy, regrets... no business owning this thing... that's what happens when you are so young that you don't have a clue what a Wobuloscope is....

Well last week I finally found what I was really looking for... a more general purpose sig gen. Well according to the manual it's still not quite general purpose, meant to test radio receivers. So the frequency bands and output signal amplitude levels (very low...) reflect that.

But that's OK. Compared to the Wobuloscope, it's "general purpose enough" to my linking.  I mean it has a broad frequency range, can go quite low, 50kHz, and can go quite high, 50MHz.  It has also amplitude modulation which I wanted. The output attenuator is also versatile, wide dynamic range, with both a pot and a range switch to select levels from 1uV up to 10mV (up to 100mV for the modulation signal/tone, 400Hz).

Also has input for an external modulation signal.

And it's MUCH small and lighter than the wobuloscope !!!
A third of the weight at 6,5kg, a third narrower, a third of the depth, it's not even a boat anchor at all in fact ! 
And I love its front panel paint colour, much prefer that to the light grey of the Wobuloscope.
I also love how the front panel is slanted, makes it super easy / comfortable to operate ! 
Inside, it's a MUCH simpler instrument, so much easier to work on ! A lot less stuff, only 3 tubes in all, and everything is super easy to access, a dream.

Oh, and it also comes with the original paper work / file, containing only a handful of pages but enough to squeeze operation of the instrument, parts list and schematic, the latter of which fits on a single page !

Oh, and it comes even with its original warranty card ?! 

Oh, and it's in excellent nick inside out, and cost only 30 Euros ( 42 euros shipped) !

So... for all these reasons I just could not resist, this was the one for me !!! 

So now let's get rid of the Wobuloscope...

Seller said it was untested, of course... what do you expect for 30 Euros these days ! 
Honestly I assumed when he said that, he was just trying to cover his ass because he probably stole the tubes in it !
So when I opened it up, I fully expected to find... no tubes. But go figure, they are still in there ! 
Mind you, as I said only 3 tubes in this thing, and probably none that interest audiophools.

A 6X4 rectifier tube, and a couple 6J6 tube ( a double triode) for the oscillators.

I don't know this 6J6 tube, none of my Tek scopes have them.
Just had a quick look on Ebay, some of these 6J6 cost 50 USD but most of them are single digit money, phew.

I immediately noticed that someone worked on this thing before.... the power supply section has clearly been visited / reconstructed !
One of the two big smoothing caps has been replaced with a cheap modern radial. Also, the beefy resistor connecting the two caps has also been replaced it seems (looks too modern to me...), and I also notice a beefy diode soldered directly to the socket of the rectifier tube ! So  I guess that tube is dead.

I looked at the output of the generator on my scope. I can see the modulation signal (alone), frequency about correct, looks like a clean sine wave, but amplitude is very low. Should be 100mV tops, but I get 2mVpp, I can just about see it on my scope (2mV sensitivity, signal is just one division peak to peak).

As for HF, when cranked to the max I am supposed to be able to get 10mV out of it (RMS or Peak or Peak to Peak I don't know...)... and I can just about distinguish some HF content, of a frequency that may make sense, and that I can get to vary when I move the main rotary dial. But signal amlpitude is so minuscule it's hard to figure out a signal in the noise floor of the scope...

So.... looks like I have life, but very, VERY weak life...  so either the attenuator is kaput, which seems unlikely (it's just a few resistors / switch and a pot, and it behaves appropriately), or I just have two weak 6J6, and a dead 6X4 rectifier tube.

So probably need to replace the 3 tubes, well at least the two 6J6, and I should probably be back in business. Need to order them so will take some time for shipping sadly, I am so impatient...
This instrument is so simple and so easy to access, it's probably possible to fix it easily and quickly and cheaply... so will try to do so.

Obviously before I order new tubes, I will first check the power supply to make sure it's been fixed properly, then check the amplitude of the HF and LF signal BEFORE the attenuator, to be 100% sure it's a weak oscillator(s) and not a faulty attenuator.

[BU508A]

What is that R2-unit doing in your garage? 

[SilverSolder]

Oh, the CARNAGE!!!

Just spent the afternoon triaging and cleaning a set of crusty & rusty Clinton-era Kenmore washer/dryer; got ~$50 worth of maintenance kits on the way. Why? Well, firstly, since we now have a Xmas tree, SWMBO has set me upon a Quest for Fire... errr, Laundry...  

But also, because even though they're old and ugly, they were pretty close to top of the line so still good feature set, and they're Whirlpool Calypso family machines, which are arguably one of the best washers/dryers ever made. Keep 'em clean and oiled, and throw $20-30 worth of wear part kits at them every decade or two, and they'll outlive you if the tin termites don't eat them from the ground up. Literally a 60-year machine if you take care of 'em.

I figured instead of spending thousands on a new washer/dryer, fix these up and spend some of that on the kids.

Lordy, I may even spring for a bottle of touch-up paint. 

mnem
*toddles off to fill his belly wid' sghetti*

They absolutely don't mak'em like they used to.

At our previous rental house, there was a Maytag dryer from 1971 still working like a charm, including the electronic dryness sensing circuit (based on capacitors, neon bulbs, resistors, etc. - you can chuckle at the crudity until you remember that it has served for 50 years and counting!).

Contrast this with the recent conversation with the technician when a new dishwasher failed after 18 months...:  "Not worth repairing, the cost of parts and labor is as high as buying a new unit"

[duckduck]

New acquisition:

Tektronix T912 Oscilloscope (10MHz 2-channel CRO)

I bought it from the guy in Seattle that sells old scopes and signal generators on Craigslist. I traded him my partially-functional TDS 320 (Tek DSO) for partial credit. He was nice to deal with and he sells out of his home.

Everything works, but the fan is a little loud and the controls seem like they could do with some lubrication. It needs a good cleaning. I'm giving it the "med" 24-hour burn-in now. Once it passes that, I'll crack it open and see what could stand to be replaced -- definitely the fan, and I expect to find some capacitors in the power supply that are old enough to start thinking about divorce and buying a red Corvette convertible.

I powered it up and spent 15 minutes doing the same thing that anyone that owns a 2 channel function generator and an X-Y capable scope did the first time they had the chance. A couple weeks ago I ordered several BNC cables / tees / etc. from China. I expect them sometime in January.

My ultimate goal for this thing is to act as a display for an "octopus curve tracer" that I plan on making. E.g. https://www.jammarcade.net/simple-component-tester-a-k-a-octopus-curve-tracer/ (I'm not necessarily going to build that one).

Here's the Tek Wiki page for the scope: https://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/T912 It is listed as "single sweep" there. Does that mean single trace? The T912 is very definitely a dual trace unit. I've already got an account on Tek Wiki, so I will look into that and update it if needed.

Someone has already posted gut shots on EEVBlog: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tektronix-t912-oscilloscope-w-broken-trigger-help-(teardown-pics-inside)/

EDIT:

The refrigerator in our garage was made by GE in the 1990's and it works like new. Our 4 year old Samsung refrigerator (a fancy one, mind you) had an ice maker that jammed up solid as often as it made ice, and almost all of the plastic door shelves had cracked and broken -- this happened enough that I bought two-part epoxy in bulk. Samsung will gladly sell you replacement door shelves for USD75 each.    We have replaced it with an LG and that seems to be working fine.

EDIT EDIT:

"Single sweep" doesn't have anything to do with the number of traces. Single sweep is a trigger mode that captures events and then "freezes" the display until it is reset. Pretty neat trick for 1977. RTFM FTW!

EDIT^3:

ICs in it have date codes in 1980.

[Specmaster]

Guys, off-topic but a topical warning all the same, best to check your frozen turkey or turkey crown for best before / use by date. SWMBO always insists on getting a Bernard Matthews one each year but this year, they seem to be in short supply (yes, I know we were warned that turkeys would be rarer this year because of a certain event) but this rare?

Anyway, we were in our local Iceland store today (Tuesday) and we found a nice large crown and while waiting at the checkout to pay, SWMBO spotted the date on it read Aug 2021  and pointed it out to the cashier, who called the manager who went to the freezer cabinet to get a replacement one, only to discover to his horror that the entire Bernard Matthews stock was out of date and further investigation revealed that they were packed and frozen in 2019,  so they were 2 years old, and the entire load had to be removed from sale. We already had a medium one that I found awhile ago in the freezer, so tomorrow I'll have to get it out and check on the dates on that one as well.

So I suggest that you carry out the same checks on your frozen turkey, just in case, don't anyone getting food poisoning over Christmas.

[mnementh]

I have two spiral-cut Smithfield honey-glaze hams in the freezer since the day after we got here. 

Bought fresh, not frozen, best by date Feb 15 2022.

Thank Ifni for my COSTCO card.

mnem
*toddles off to fix a nuke-ro-wave*

[med6753]

Guys, off-topic but a topical warning all the same, best to check your frozen turkey or turkey crown for best before / use by date. SWMBO always insists on getting a Bernard Matthews one each year but this year, they seem to be in short supply (yes, I know we were warned that turkeys would be rarer this year because of a certain event) but this rare?

Anyway, we were in our local Iceland store today (Tuesday) and we found a nice large crown and while waiting at the checkout to pay, SWMBO spotted the date on it read Aug 2021  and pointed it out to the cashier, who called the manager who went to the freezer cabinet to get a replacement one, only to discover to his horror that the entire Bernard Matthews stock was out of date and further investigation revealed that they were packed and frozen in 2019,  so they were 2 years old, and the entire load had to be removed from sale. We already had a medium one that I found awhile ago in the freezer, so tomorrow I'll have to get it out and check on the dates on that one as well.

So I suggest that you carry out the same checks on your frozen turkey, just in case, don't anyone getting food poisoning over Christmas.

Interesting. Turkeys here are just as numerous and fresh as they were for Thanksgiving.

But if you want really fresh you can sit in my bedroom window and shoot your own.