Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Saskia]

completely forgot about discord while unpacking. Unpacked about 50 moving boxes and assembled some furniture.back to the company Appartment in about 6 hours to pack some of the remaining stuff  tbh I want to get it over with

[Zucca]

A possible improvement?



I let you know how it goes...

And returning it. Not well eng., does the job but in 2021 we can do so much better with an old mouse wheel laying around,
I don't know .... if I see tons of improvement  and stupid design choices..... I just can't keep it.

and... it is oversized..

I can't find any other motion sensor filament run out on the market.... what the heck?

[Zucca]

this is Bigtreetech madness

and a smart idea

[mansaxel]

What, there was a discord session today, of all days, what a sad reflection that is of family life that some people had to escape their families, that being said, if I'd realised there was going to be a session today, I'd have been there. 

I did not escape; we first watched the movie (it's a Saturday, and that's movie night) and then after that, while chatting with the wife, computer in lap, I joined Discord.  I helps that the main seasonal event has passed, (as stated, we have all the fuzz on the 24th.) and that Discord starts late here. I also wasn't first in.

[Vgkid]

Since we are on page 4385 , a L&N 4385 Shunt Box

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/ln-4385-teardown/

[Robert763]

<SNIP>

Christmas TEA
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384632980216
I made an offer of £25 (including shipping!) and it was accepted 

We will see what arrives

Those are much heavier than they look... capable though. If you figure out how to reset the "Service Required" message, please share!

Yes, they are heavy, 9.5 kg. I've lugged one around before. Feels like more than 9.5kg. There is a big transformer in them for the 115V output and 25A bond test.
This is the origial model which should not have the annoying service message. If the relay has worn out and gives  failure message I'll do a return as it was sold as "used".
He has another one that is even dirtier and has no earth bond lead.

If it's just a failed relay that generates the message that'll be easy to fix. I was imagining some time/number of tests based software tag. I'll be honest, I've been too lazy to prise it open to have a look!

You are correct. The later units have a time /number of operations based "Service Required" message. The earlier ones just report n error if the relay selftest  fails. "latest & greatest" is not always "best"
In any case it's a no brainer at £25 shipped. The earth bond leads sell for £20. Certainly an upgrade from my 2000I if a little more used looking.

[Peter_O]

What, there was a discord session today, of all days, what a sad reflection that is of family life that some people had to escape their families, that being said, if I'd realised there was going to be a session today, I'd have been there. 

We had nice small garden parties at a good friend's home over many years on each Dec. 28th. Freezing cold. Hard rock. Motto: "I survived my family Xmas!"
Unfortunately that guy died from alcohol->diabetes->stroke->heart attack in 2016. We tried to revive the tradition, but had to learn that he had been the soul of those little events. We miss you, H.!

[mnementh]

What, there was a discord session today, of all days, what a sad reflection that is of family life that some people had to escape their families, that being said, if I'd realised there was going to be a session today, I'd have been there. 

Not exactly a session... I hung out with neomys and mansaxel on/off while the wife & kids watched stuff on TV I don't care for. 

mnem
*toddles off to finish fixing a washing machine*

[mansaxel]

Not exactly a session... I hung out with neomys and mansaxel on/off while the wife & kids watched stuff on TV I don't care for. 

To my mind, that's a nicely relaxed session. A good session.

[Specmaster]

This is the nearest I got to Christmas TEA, a chess computer, it looks to be almost as new, the manual was still in its plastic bag, all the pieces were present and correct and the bonus part was that the battery compartment has not had any battery damage. Whoever set the board up for the photograph clearly has zero knowledge of how to play chess 

Got a reply to my PM from BD139 last night, he is just recovering from 2 weeks of hell having contracted Covid again, done 2 lateral flow tests and is negative again so can now leave the house. Not sure which variant he had, but he did say that a side effect he experienced was a mouthful of ulcers, that alone must have been agony. They must have all cleared up now as he was just about to finish of the packet of mince pies (one of my favourites) and watch a film, so expect him to pop up on a discord session in the near future 

I just ordered another display port to HDMI cable for the Linux PC as the last one I managed to mangle the bleeding contacts on as the HDMI plug was a tad to long to fit into moulding recess of the monitor and so it slowly got bent and pulled the contacts out of their slots  This time I have selected one with a smaller HDMI plug body but had to go for HDMI to HDMI with a short Display Port to HDMI adaptor, because all the one piece leads that were on Amazon Prime had the longer HDMI plug that would fail the same way.

Which is interesting because here in the UK at least, although today is the 26th December, it is not Boxing Day, that is tomorrow as today is a Sunday so tomorrow is the UK's official Boxing Day. It seems that Amazon don't honour that because my items are supposed to be arriving tomorrow, the 27th, so place your bets will the leads arrive tomorrow or Tuesday, what's your thoughts on that? 

[Cerebus]

Whoever set the board up for the photograph clearly has zero knowledge of how to play chess 

How so? Looks normal to me.





Am I missing something?

[mnementh]

He meant the listing pic.

mnem
 

[Cerebus]

He meant the listing pic.

mnem
 

So I was missing something. Doh!

[Specmaster]

He meant the listing pic.

mnem
 

Correct, but I think C knew that all the time, its called stirring the pot 

[0culus]

Oh yeah. I ended up setting this thing up before getting home. 

[Vince]

Glad you all had a nice Xmas (except Saskia who is working very hard...) ... mine was bad as usual, Xmas always makes me extremely depressed and suicidal. I am glad it's over, but unfortunately it will come back way too soon again...

What would cheer me up is if one of you adept of vintage gear could help me find a panel mount " TV " connector so I can replace the one on my old Metrix RF generator. I searched RS and Farnell and just can't find anything other than actual TV plugs (the crappy white plastic kind) to make TV cables from, but no threaded panel mount socket suitable for use in our vintage lab instruments....

See pics below of my connector. Its outside is just cylindrical all the way, threaded from end to end, with just a couple retaining nuts either side of the plate, to keep it in place.
I guess short of finding that exact one, it I find one that has extra metal at its base, like tabs with holes for it to be screwed, or legs / pins or whatever, I can make do with, since it's easy enough to saw and file off the unwanted metal. As long as I have at least 10mm or so of thread that's all I need to put the two existing retaining nuts back in  place.

I really would hate to have to replace the original connector with some BNC socket that would look too modern and out of place, as well as protruding a lot when the old one does not.

Help me... help my generator. He just said thank you all ! Listen to him how adorable  !!! 


EDIT : since searching for " TV "coax stuff on Farnell  and (French) RS did not yield anything relevant, I looked at the parts list in the generator manual, hoping to find  a more technical / standardized acronym for this style of connector, that I could then use with more success when searching here and there. Sadly the parts list lists everything.. but the connectors ! 

[Robert763]

Vince,
why do you want to change the connector? It's a standard 75R connector known as "Belling-Lee" in UK or 9.52 in europe (IEC 61169 pt 2). you can get adaptors to BNC or F type.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belling-Lee_connector
https://www.barenco.co.uk/products/rf-adaptors/belling-lee-adaptor
https://www.nooelec.com/store/male-iec-61169-2-pal-tv-aerial-to-female-bnc-adapter.html
www.amazon.co.uk/Coaxial-Coupler-Ancable-Connector-Adapter/dp/B091DW5189/

[Vince]

Thanks for all the links and info,; hopefully armed with that I can find something suitable !   

Want to replace it because.. as I explained earlier, bad connection. The split inner core gives zero signal on one of the pieces, and the other piece I need to press on it very firmly with the tip of the scope probe to get a proper signal.

[ch_scr]

Thanks for all the links and info,; hopefully armed with that I can find something suitable !   

Want to replace it because.. as I explained earlier, bad connection. The split inner core gives zero signal on one of the pieces, and the other piece I need to press on it very firmly with the tip of the scope probe to get a proper signal.

If only the inner part is broken, maybe you can extract it and replace it with one from a more standard connector?

[Cerebus]

Correct, but I think C knew that all the time, its called stirring the pot 

No, it's called being stupid.

[mansaxel]

Thanks for all the links and info,; hopefully armed with that I can find something suitable !   

Want to replace it because.. as I explained earlier, bad connection. The split inner core gives zero signal on one of the pieces, and the other piece I need to press on it very firmly with the tip of the scope probe to get a proper signal.

Another:

https://www.atel-electronics.eu/grupa.php?grupa=AUD10

[Vince]

Thanks Robert and Mansaxel for the links. Sadly even with all that good info, I can't find a suitable socket. Everything I see for sale is clearly targetted at TV / Video appliances, not vintage test gear.. ah well 

Thanks for all the links and info,; hopefully armed with that I can find something suitable !   

Want to replace it because.. as I explained earlier, bad connection. The split inner core gives zero signal on one of the pieces, and the other piece I need to press on it very firmly with the tip of the scope probe to get a proper signal.

If only the inner part is broken, maybe you can extract it and replace it with one from a more standard connector?

I don't see how one could extract the inner part without damaging destroying the socket, as I guess it's molded intot hte plastic dielectric piece, but well, what's to lose... I guess I could order a bag of cheap sockets and destroy a few of them.Maybe after trying various techniques I will figure out a way to extract the inner part without destroying everything... then put it back in, without deforming it. Maybe the inner part is just pushed into the dielectric, so can be pulled somehow, rather molded into it in which case it's a lost cause. Guess I can only figure it out by trying....

Still it sucks ! Can believe I can't just but a brand new of these sockets, I guess this tiny little thing demand of mine was still deemed to be unrealistic by the big fat bearded guy in red !!! 

Need to find something else to do where I CAN be successful, just so I can feel a bit better...

[mansaxel]

Thanks Robert and Mansaxel for the links. Sadly even with all that good info, I can't find a suitable socket. Everything I see for sale is clearly targetted at TV / Video appliances, not vintage test gear.. ah well 

Well, the Belling-Lee socket is at best marginal on good days; its normal performance is downright abysmal. So I'm not surprised it got swapped out and is hardly available anymore. No doubt the Metrix socket was among the best available, but that is like sitting on a slightly firmer turd in a sea of manure.

[Vince]

Well it's not older than the Nixie tubes of tubes of the same era, and you can find Nixie and tubes very easily today. So just because it's old and crap is not a reason in itself for not being available today...

Hopefully the Vintage guys on here might know of a source for these...

[Cerebus]

Well, the Belling-Lee socket is at best marginal on good days; its normal performance is downright abysmal. So I'm not surprised it got swapped out and is hardly available anymore.

Oh, if only that latter bit was true. It's the standard antenna socket for UK televisions and associated aerial systems - even if you've replaced everything else in the chain when you get to the TV receiver itself you're stuck with the execrable Belling-Lee.