Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

Speaking of Nixie tubes. This is a very rare and very expensive one:

a Rodan Okaya CD47 / GR411

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324751882708


second image is from this website

Seller (NAWTS) is asking for 2345.67 EUR for it (negotiable). 

The digits are looking like this:


Edit:
Some additional data about the CD47:

http://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nixie/data/cd47-gr411.htm

added another image from the tubetester website

[Neper]

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...

Quit being such a drama queen.

The improvisation needed to replace parts which aren't readily available is part of the fun in restoring old equipment.

[Vince]

How helpful 

[Saskia]

arrived back in the Rhein-Main area after volvo-snailing across Eifel and Hunsrück. 60 - 80 km/h at up to 18l/100 with an empty trailer. My respect for the V70 just plummeted.

checked with my buddy and he allowed additional tours with his Transit. 

Now I need to get the bloody moving boxes out of the bloody trailer.

Without them getting soaked, it is pouring outside.

Good thing tho:
I have new cable ties, I had dug out my soldering stuff and I have the replacements I need to get the Starship Troupers pinball back online.

[Robert763]

The adaptors I linked to will plug into the existing socket on the Metrix and provide a BNC or F type without altering the unit.
The center contact of the Metrix probably just needs a clean and maybe a gentle squeeze together of the split.

[mansaxel]

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.

It's standard here too. For that. It's been replaced everywhere else except in domestic antenna usage, and, as Vince has found out, thus exists only in the marginal "max 25 mating cycles" implementations found on the back of our Telescreens.

[Martin.M]

the HEATHKIT experience, part 1: SB401 : recap / test / repair

as part of a heathkit line ( BFO, Radio, TX, Scope, speaker )

[med6753]

I glad it seems everyone had a good Christmas. I didn't. Friday afternoon I noticed my right jaw starting to swell. And the pain was pretty bad. I could not eat anything without extreme pain. I tried some hot compresses without any relief. By Friday evening I knew I was in trouble. I had no choice but to go to the hospital ER. Due to short staffing on Christmas Eve it was 4 hours before I was seen by a doc. He determined I had an infected salivary gland but needed to confirm it via CT scan. The CT scan confirmed it. Due to the seriousness of the infection he wanted to put me on a IV and admit me for at least two days. So that's where I've been until this afternoon. Home now and still some swelling but at least I can eat and I'm on a 10 day antibiotic. And follow up with an specialist.

I guess humbug came back to bite me in the arse. Karma she be a bitch. 

[tautech]

OUCH ! 
GWS.

[Vince]

The adaptors I linked to will plug into the existing socket on the Metrix and provide a BNC or F type without altering the unit.
The center contact of the Metrix probably just needs a clean and maybe a gentle squeeze together of the split.

Thanks for actually be willing to help, rather than judge, that's refreshing. If only they could all be like you, how friendly and productive TEA would be, not to mention the SNR would skyrocket.

I grabbed my LED torch light and threw some serious Lumens into that socket, I noticed that the two halves of the split inner core  were actually joining at their very bottom, it's in fact one single piece of metal. Therefore it did not make sense that one half was giving me a signal and not the other. Had to be bad connection. And when I saw the staggering amount of crust covering 100% of all surfaces in that socket, all black in there, thick layer.... it further reinforced the hypothesis.  So I did what I could to clean it. Attacked it first with a tiny flat screw driver to break up most of the black crust, blew some human air in there to force the debris out.  Then flooded the socket with contact cleaner / Deoxit, agitated it with the stiff hair of a nylon brush. That loosened the remaining crap. Then using the screw driver again,  I managed to shove a kitchen paper towel deep into the socket to dry it and take all the debris out.

Now looks soooooooooo much better ! Shiny and clean, almost like new. What I thought was "patina" from a distance, was in fact just crust and nothing else.

Fired up the scope and generator, now works much better.....

Will order a BNC adapter and see how it goes, but should do it I think...

[Vince]

@ Papa Smurf : wow that sucks for sure, sorry ! It could have happened any time of the year but it happened RIGHT for X-mas, that's what sucks even more !

... but glad you're OK, looks kinda benign and quickly sorted, COMPARED to your pissing in a bag episode earlier this year, eh ?

At least you should be back in business to enjoy another good meal for new year's day 

[Vince]

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.

It's standard here too. For that. It's been replaced everywhere else except in domestic antenna usage, and, as Vince has found out, thus exists only in the marginal "max 25 mating cycles" implementations found on the back of our Telescreens.

Yes indeed, in Frog land we still have this ancient connector on TV sets..
The socket on the wall is a bit more modern though, something you can screw, but on the TV set itself it's still the antique connector.

Well, I have not had a TV since 1997 so I am no expert, but I had that screw type socket in my previous house that I rented, and I can see what TV sets are like because friends bring me lots of TV and monitor to fix or take apart. So I manage to kinda keep in touch with technology this way ! 

Hu... come to think of it I am not even so sure anymore about the screw type socket in the wall... maybe it was for cable TV not for the aerial on the roof....
anyway, on the TV set itself for sure it still uses the General Lee socket.

[Saskia]

@Med
GWS.

[mansaxel]

I glad it seems everyone had a good Christmas. I didn't.

Mine was OK until I read about yours, then mine just improved in comparison.    It's good you're home, and improving. Get better!

[Vince]

Speaking of Nixie tubes. This is a very rare and very expensive one:

a Rodan Okaya CD47 / GR411

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324751882708



Seller (NAWTS) is asking for 2345.67 EUR for it (negotiable). 

Wow 2500 Euros for one single Nixie... what can you do with ONE ?!
And for that price he does even says it has problem, it's not even perfect ! 

Maybe if they were NOS, and you got 100 of them for the price... OK. But one single tube 

[mansaxel]

Fired up the scope and generator, now works much better.....

Will order a BNC adapter and see how it goes, but should do it I think...

I'm happy that you've found a way!    I'm sorry that I possibly came across as negative. I was sort of tracking your desire to replace the socket with an identical one, and that influenced my suggestions. Had I understood that adapting to BNC was OK, (which I should have concluded much faster!) I might have suggested what Robert came up with too. But that he did and not I does not matter, because you were given inspiration to fix things, and then who gave it to you is less important. The only competition we're in is having the largest TE pile.

On that subject: Day after tomorrow, I'm picking up my telecoms test set and my 200CDR oscillator. Pile is improving.

[Zucca]

eBay auction: #393813563192

550USD for a 34465a? Too good to be true, no calib info... minimal description...

mmm I smell BS... with the recent updates about KS dealing with hobbyists...

No thank you...

curious to see at what price it will sell...

[Zucca]

the HEATHKIT experience, part 1: SB401 : recap / test / repair

as part of a heathkit line ( BFO, Radio, TX, Scope, speaker )

That Bernstein tool box 

... and yes everytime I see those old well done manuals... I want to cry....
In 2021 we have a pdf telling us to call support.... so sad.

[Saskia]

same with software. You could compare such a nice manual with the well commented kernel source of BSD/OS (the commercial 4.4 BSD version for PCs in the late 90s).
Superbly written by the original BSD developers of CSRG (Mike Karels and Marshall Kirk McCuseck (sp ?)
Look at what you get today ... (would you like to try our McPizza ? Only if I can get a McBarfBag ...)

[Vince]

Fired up the scope and generator, now works much better.....

Will order a BNC adapter and see how it goes, but should do it I think...

I'm happy that you've found a way!    I'm sorry that I possibly came across as negative. I was sort of tracking your desire to replace the socket with an identical one, and that influenced my suggestions. Had I understood that adapting to BNC was OK, (which I should have concluded much faster!) I might have suggested what Robert came up with too. But that he did and not I does not matter, because you were given inspiration to fix things, and then who gave it to you is less important. The only competition we're in is having the largest TE pile.

On that subject: Day after tomorrow, I'm picking up my telecoms test set and my 200CDR oscillator. Pile is improving.

Eh ? I was not referring to you !    You were trying to help like Rob, you are in the good guys category, thanks for your contribution ! 

Yes BNC adapter was always a given from the start, I wanted one regardless. But I was ALSO wanting to replace the old socket since I thought, initially, that the inner core was somehow defective ! But now the evidence just showed that it was only a pile of crap causing the bad connection, nothing more.. so no need to replace the socket anymore... but still want to get an adapter for ease of hooking to scopes and what not.  Will try to find one locally for fast delivery and cheap shipping and no import duties/taxes non-sense / PITA.

[Martin.M]

That Bernstein tool box 

I like them, but the old company is in something very old fashioned,
so the tool box must be enhanced with something from china, what else  (small accu loaded drillmashine what pass in the bag for a screwdriver, pen multimeter what pass also in... , LED light.. )
with something from the states (special allen keys for Collins knobs, bristol spline sized),
with something from UK (again allen keys, combinated set of black colored metric + imperial set)

and my weller solding is now jobless bec. the JBC there.

[mnementh]

   He meant the listing pic.

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

No, it's called being stupid.

Hey, I know I'm so dense I absorb neutrinos... but stoopit...?

Yeah, okay... I'm lucky if I can tie my shoes without getting lost on the way up; may as well own it. 

mnem
pssssttt... let a guy throw you a lifeline every once in a while, C.

[mnementh]

I glad it seems everyone had a good Christmas. I didn't. Friday afternoon I noticed my right jaw starting to swell. And the pain was pretty bad. I could not eat anything without extreme pain. I tried some hot compresses without any relief. By Friday evening I knew I was in trouble. I had no choice but to go to the hospital ER. Due to short staffing on Christmas Eve it was 4 hours before I was seen by a doc. He determined I had an infected salivary gland but needed to confirm it via CT scan. The CT scan confirmed it. Due to the seriousness of the infection he wanted to put me on a IV and admit me for at least two days. So that's where I've been until this afternoon. Home now and still some swelling but at least I can eat and I'm on a 10 day antibiotic. And follow up with an specialist.

I guess humbug came back to bite me in the arse. Karma she be a bitch. 

So... not going back to peeing in a bag then...? 

I feel where you're coming from... a couple years ago I had a antibiotic resistant infection after a tooth extraction, which took 3 different scrips to KO. 🤕

Seriously... good that you're on the mend.

mnem
Welcome home, med. 

[mnementh]

...Now looks soooooooooo much better ! Shiny and clean, almost like new. What I thought was "patina" from a distance, was in fact just crust and nothing else. Fired up the scope and generator, now works much better...   Will order a BNC adapter and see how it goes, but should do it I think...

If it continues to give you grief, I'll suggest the same technique passed on to me by the old hollow-state guy who got me started in electronics: a short cut (4-6 in/100-150mm) of bronze-wound guitar string (D/A/E) and your favorite contact cleaner to clean the contacts on tube sockets, which tactic should work well here too.

Choose the size of string to give just a wee bit of resistance when dragging across the contacts. Works a treat on the smaller sockets; gets them clean without taking away metal. It can also work on those with larger pins, but requires a bit more creativity when scrubbing.

mnem
 

[Cerebus]

   He meant the listing pic.

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

No, it's called being stupid.

Hey, I know I'm so dense I absorb neutrinos... but stoopit...?

Yeah, okay... I'm lucky if I can tie my shoes without getting lost on the way up; may as well own it. 

mnem
pssssttt... let a guy throw you a lifeline every once in a while, C.

FFS Mnem, read what people have written. It's very obvious that I am referring to myself being stupid.