Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[capt bullshot]

Now I have a big container of a million and one IEC power cords, 2 or 3 pronged. I am sure there close to a hundred cables in there, not even kidding.

Everyone has at least one of these:



Tell you a secret: The cables and power cords spawn while you don't watch 'em.

[Vince]

Oh that does not sound very encouraging but well...

What is this brown piece of TE in the box ?

Looks like an electrical version of the Russian roulette ? Stick your fingers in the socket and press a button : it triggers a random number generator and you have one chance out of XX to get zapped ?

[capt bullshot]

What is this brown piece of TE in the box ?

Looks like an electrical version of the Russian roulette ? Stick your fingers in the socket and press a button : it triggers a random number generator and you have one chance out of XX to get zapped ?

Oh, well. That's a combination of two functions, I've build this thing to a particular purpose some twenty years ago:

- First, it's an inrush current limiter. If you turn on the green rocker switch, the outlet gets turned at exact zero cross of the line voltage to reduce the inrush of a bunch of devices that were connected here. The circuit is similar to this: http://wunderkis.de/esb/index.html
- Second: Using the shrouded banana sockets and the black push button, one could bring a power meter into the circuit, to measure the power consumption of the attached devices.

The red LED indicates the power meter is in the loop, and the green LED indicates the "correct" polarity of the input voltage (so the blue connector is neutral, black is live and red returns live from the meter to the socket.

[Cerebus]

Tell you a secret: The cables and power cords spawn while you don't watch 'em.

Except for the rare, difficult to find and unusual ones. The regular power cords gang up on them and eat them.

[mansaxel]

Tell you a secret: The cables and power cords spawn while you don't watch 'em.

Except for the rare, difficult to find and unusual ones. The regular power cords gang up on them and eat them.

Also, the ordinary ones eat one of their own if you've calculated the exact amount you need. I always bring one or two extra for this purpose; just to keep them in check.

Edit: It's like guitar cables; there's always one less than needed in any guitarists kit. It is a coöperation with the 9V batteries, who either go flat or are missing.

[capt bullshot]

This would be a setup of the Electrical Russian Roulette box:

[Cerebus]

- First, it's an inrush current limiter. If you turn on the green rocker switch, the outlet gets turned at exact zero cross of the line voltage to reduce the inrush of a bunch of devices that were connected here. The circuit is similar to this: http://wunderkis.de/esb/index.html

If one is naïve one can get caught out by that. Turning on at the voltage zero crossing sounds like it will limit inrush current, and it will for a resistive load; for a simple reactive load it maximises the inrush current.

I may have made that mistake myself in the past...

[capt bullshot]

- First, it's an inrush current limiter. If you turn on the green rocker switch, the outlet gets turned at exact zero cross of the line voltage to reduce the inrush of a bunch of devices that were connected here. The circuit is similar to this: http://wunderkis.de/esb/index.html

If one is naïve one can get caught out by that. Turning on at the voltage zero crossing sounds like it will limit inrush current, and it will for a resistive load; for a simple reactive load it maximises the inrush current.

I may have made that mistake myself in the past...

Yes, that's correct. This box is / was intended to reduce the inrush of massive SMPS loads (the old PC / monitor style with no PFC and little inrush limiting on their own), not transformers or other reactive loads.

[cyclin_al]

What is this stuff you call ice and snow? Today's minimum 25C max 38C!
Best investment was 8kW of solar panels - takes out the big 'electrickery' bills.

Pffffft .... today's maximum was -24C.

Faucet for filling the dog's water bucket was frozen.  I never get time to tinker with what *I* want to play with...

[Vince]

This would be a setup of the Electrical Russian Roulette box:

Hmmm that power meter looks cool, just needs a nice face plate to complete the package. Was that a kit you built, or a DIY / design project of your own ?
Only thing missing is the power factor  measurement ! 

[Cerebus]

Yes, that's correct. This box is / was intended to reduce the inrush of massive SMPS loads (the old PC / monitor style with no PFC and little inrush limiting on their own), not transformers or other reactive loads.

I was sure you you weren't being that naïve but I may have misdesigned something along those lines myself in the past and just wanted to leave a little breadcrumb trail for others.

[capt bullshot]

Hmmm that power meter looks cool, just needs a nice face plate to complete the package. Was that a kit you built, or a DIY / design project of your own ?
Only thing missing is the power factor  measurement ! 

Yes, the front panel is missing. It's a left over prototype. I've designed hardware and software, it's a professional product that you could buy about sixteen years ago. Of course, it can do power factor and a whole lot more, basically everything one can calculate from measured 3ph + auxiliary voltage and current:
- Voltage, Current, Power (including phase shift, power factor, ...)
- Harmonics (up to 50th)
- Flicker
- Detection of distortions
- programmable recording of all (or selected sets of) measured values

The sales term was "Power Quality according to EN 50160"

[Vince]

Oh, a fancy super duper commercial professional product, no wonder I found it looked kinda nice then !

I would love a little power meter to measure consumption and PF of various appliances and TE, but a cheap / affordable consumer grade compact device will have to do.

I would just like one that is half accurate, ie actually measures line voltage rather than just use a default/hard coded value of 240V or whatever, which I am sure cheap Chinese ones aren't afraid of doing, because cost cutting has no limit...
Power factor would be nice too thee days, especially when working on SMPS that have PFC circuitry in them, so I can see if it works or not...

Don't need 3 phase of course, don't have that at home.

Just one of the sooo many pieces of TE on my ToBuy list.... 

[capt bullshot]

They change models on a pretty fast schedule:

https://www.reichelt.de/energiemessgeraete-c5938.html?&nbc=1

So I can't recommend a particular one, but I've bought one of  this breed some ten years ago, and it's pretty accurate with all types of load. Shows U, I, and real power.
Look for one that has a "electrical metering" chip inside, same kind of chip as your supplier of electrical energy uses in the "electronic" or "smart" meters today, these are very accurate by design.
From my experience, it's the cheap ones with less features that give you good accuracy.

[tautech]

A nice little HP10430A miniature passive 500MHz probe just arrived to match my HP 54504A.
Found it for 20 Euros. 

Can you measure the probe barrel diameter with the hook grabber removed ?
Why ?
I have some tiny 2 leg grabber probe hats I think will fit these probes.
Yours if they match and you want them for the postage costs.

It's 2.4mm

~3.3mm is the probe hole opening where they would press together.
The 2 leg grabber end is 20mm long metal tube and 2.4mm diameter.....pretty sure these with fit your probe.
No markings except for a tiny HP logo.

Very fine grabber whiskers, as fine as Tek grabbers although the metal barrel on these is certainly not ideal for use in confined spaces. 
I have 2 and both can go to new homes as I have no use for them and they've been in my probe accessory box for years.
Free to anyone that's prepared to just pay postage.

I'd rather see them go to 2 recipients......

[Vince]

They change models on a pretty fast schedule:

https://www.reichelt.de/energiemessgeraete-c5938.html?&nbc=1

So I can't recommend a particular one, but I've bought one of  this breed some ten years ago, and it's pretty accurate with all types of load. Shows U, I, and real power.
Look for one that has a "electrical metering" chip inside, same kind of chip as your supplier of electrical energy uses in the "electronic" or "smart" meters today, these are very accurate by design.
From my experience, it's the cheap ones with less features that give you good accuracy.

Wow, they cost only 10 Euros !    Didn't realize these things were that cheap ! And for that price it looks decent, not too ugly. The 12 Euros one has a large LCD display, measures U / I / W / PF , has auto-ranging to give you the best possible resolution, down to 1mA and 1mW... what more could I ask for 12 Euros !

OK so these things are cheap ! No excuse then, I can get one right now, no need to post pone...

[Specmaster]

It's been 7 days since the seller said they'd contact their supplier and reply to me within 24 hours. They haven't, so I've started an ebay return for the ADF4351 sig gen.

Ebay at the moment is a mixed bag, I've been beaten on a few TE items so no new TE toys yet, but I did win a small magnetic chess set with board… or should I say, I thought I had. I made an offer, and it was accepted, paid instantly, just like I always do, and then waited for the seller to dispatch it. Delivery date was estimated as being 14th at the latest. Today, I suddenly get issued a full refund with no given reason, so I asked why. Turned out the seller's partner refused to sell it  Was the seller pulling fast one because there are many others, the same model on the bay, selling for 2 to 3 the price they accepted, that's my gut feeling. Anyway, I was thinking about reporting it to eBay but when I looked, there was another, less flashy but far better value on a BIN listing, so I brought it has already been dispatched.

TE prices at the moment are really stupid, so I may be TE toyless for a while longer yet. 

[mnementh]

My wife confessed me yesterday she took the first 2,5mm DC jack power supply ding she found in my lab.
Input specs. 5VDC 800mA CC. The tossed in 12VAC.

Who is more responsible for this failure? The moron designer who used a 2,5mm Jack for 5VDC (USB, hello mcFly?) or my wife who did not read the manual?
To me is 80% a design fault, but I am still angry with my wife.

That's pretty typical.
Barrel jacks get used for almost any voltage / polarity / AC or DC in nearly any size, so there's nothing that hinders you to use the wrong adapter.
For technical people like the most of us here, it's not a big deal to find the correct wall wart for a gadget, since we do understand and know what could go wrong. Many non-technical people (and some technical, too) that I know religiously keep each wall wart adapter (physically or mentally) tied to the gadget it came with, some people practice this with standard IEC power cords, too.
Now if a person of the latter type mixes up with the first type (e.g. I'm sorting the wall adapters by output voltage, and not by gadget they belong to), confusion and damage is pre-programmed.
Anyway, though USB is pretty common with 5V, I prefer barrel jacks over USB connectors, as they are more robust.

Sometimes it even happens to technically minded folk who do know better... exhaustion, distraction, the universe playing silly-buggers with us... like happened to me a few months ago, and killed an expensive 17" digital picture frame... 

While I would love it if we actually could force the ding-dongs who make this crap to adhere to the EIAJ standard for these connectors, another part of me wishes I could make them all use the either the 5.5x1mm size or the 5.5x2.4mm size for everything (center (+) of course), just to take one of the variables out of the hunt for replacements from the "wall of wall-warts" at the Thrift.

mnem
 

[Zucca]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/373640679384?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338722076&customid=&toolid=10050

https://www.ebay.com/itm/264647974884?hash=item3d9e3f9fe4:g:NAsAAOSwUMxZ7lmc

Fluke 87V for cheap?

[Specmaster]

My wife confessed me yesterday she took the first 2,5mm DC jack power supply ding she found in my lab.
Input specs. 5VDC 800mA CC. The tossed in 12VAC.

Who is more responsible for this failure? The moron designer who used a 2,5mm Jack for 5VDC (USB, hello mcFly?) or my wife who did not read the manual?
To me is 80% a design fault, but I am still angry with my wife.

That's pretty typical.
Barrel jacks get used for almost any voltage / polarity / AC or DC in nearly any size, so there's nothing that hinders you to use the wrong adapter.
For technical people like the most of us here, it's not a big deal to find the correct wall wart for a gadget, since we do understand and know what could go wrong. Many non-technical people (and some technical, too) that I know religiously keep each wall wart adapter (physically or mentally) tied to the gadget it came with, some people practice this with standard IEC power cords, too.
Now if a person of the latter type mixes up with the first type (e.g. I'm sorting the wall adapters by output voltage, and not by gadget they belong to), confusion and damage is pre-programmed.
Anyway, though USB is pretty common with 5V, I prefer barrel jacks over USB connectors, as they are more robust.

Sometimes it even happens to technically minded folk who do know better... exhaustion, distraction, the universe playing silly-buggers with us... like happened to me a few months ago, and killed an expensive 17" digital picture frame... 

While I would love it if we actually could force the ding-dongs who make this crap to adhere to the EIAJ standard for these connectors, another part of me wishes I could make them all use the either the 5.5x1mm size or the 5.5x2.4mm size for everything (center (+) of course), just to take one of the variables out of the hunt for replacements from the "wall of wall-warts" at the Thrift.

mnem
 

Wouldn't it be really lovely if they all agreed on a common voltage supply, even if they then had to build in voltage regulators in the equipment if it requires lower voltage, say USB's 5V DC barrel jacks 12 or 18V, positive pin. Those silly mistakes then couldn't happen.

[mnementh]

My preferred storage solution for such things - which includes all kinds of cables and plug-packs - is to put each set into a zip-lock bag.  You can then dump all these into any storage container you like and they will never get tangled.  Also far easier and quicker to sort through them - and FAR less likely to get damaged.

Here's a random sample from my unsorted  container.   

I used to do this as well... until my collections reached "fills a storage tote" size. When the pile is that dense, you can't see the trees for the forest and all definition of what the cables are gets lost in the silvery fog of the ziplock bags.



My solution is gardening ties. These come in a bulk container with a cutter as seen above. This means you get exactly the length you want, and if you need to tie a cable to a thing it belongs to, you're covered there too. They're usually available in a package of 100m of tie for $4-8, but I've even bought them from the Dollar Store.

It's overall much cheaper than Ziplok baggies, and it is much more efficient use of your storage space; baggies waste a lot of volume. I typically keep a cheap plastic drawer unit (okay, 2 or 3... I have a cable fetish ) with them separated into drawers for LV digital, LV Analog, DC power, AC power, and a bin or two for 2 and 3-conductor EIC power cables. Test leads, scope probes, patch cables and 4mm power patches I separate out into plastic shoe boxes on a shelf under the bench for easy access.
Now Muttley-ply all that approx 20fold, and now you know how the ToD came to be... 

mnem

[mnementh]

Tell you a secret: The cables and power cords spawn while you don't watch 'em.

Except for the rare, difficult to find and unusual ones. The regular power cords gang up on them and eat them.

Also, the ordinary ones eat one of their own if you've calculated the exact amount you need. I always bring one or two extra for this purpose; just to keep them in check.

Edit: It's like guitar cables; there's always one less than needed in any guitarists kit. It is a coöperation with the 9V batteries, who either go flat or are missing.

And paper clips are the larval form of coathangers. Don't believe me? Put a handful of paper clips in an otherwise empty box in the back of your closet and wait a couple months.

mnem
don't say I didn't warn you...

[BU508A]

Arrival on Monday from Mouser:
some SMD prototype PCBs. Got the hint from the captain. Thanks again. 



Material in every case is FR4 with a thickness of 1.7mm except for the big one (160x100).
It comes with a thickness of ~0.8mm (1/32") and the label is saying it can be cut with a scissor.

Now I need to think of a nice little project to tinker with them. 

P.S.
Sorry Vince for the huge sizes but I thought, in this case a higher resolution might be necessary / helpful.

[Zucca]

I like the post it "Sicherheits-Disketten. Eine Sorge weniger"

[Zucca]

and then you open it... and stunning quality production standards....



grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....