Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[McBryce]

Isn't it nice when the seller even posts a picture of the cracked RIFA in the sale information: https://www.ebay.de/itm/194782816280

McBryce.

[tggzzz]

I plan to fiddle around with linear power supplies in the near future and looked for a variable transformer for that purpose.

Most economic way would have been to buy a galvanic separated 240V variac and have all voltages in one box.

But that would not be TEA style.   

So I found this beautiful Ruhrstrat 0-25V / 10A one, built 1981.
(....)

As beautiful as it is inside, I probably would change that Selenium rectifier. Aside from sparing you the Stench when it cooks off, it would also lower output impedance and increase max voltage a bit, while lowering waste heat inside the case...

Gleich riecht er!

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-work-chalcogen-polyazides

Ah yes, Mr Lowe. Recommended.

If you want to see other such droll posts, then (slightly strangely) use https://www.science.org/topic/blog-category/things-i-wont-work-with

The experimental section of the paper enjoins the reader to wear a face shield, leather suit, and ear plugs, to work behind all sorts of blast shields, and to use Teflon and stainless steel apparatus so as to minimize shrapnel. Hmm. Ranking my equipment in terms of its shrapneliferousness is not something that's ever occurred to me, I have to say. It's safe to assume that any procedure which involves considering which parts of the apparatus I'd prefer to have flying past me will not get much business in my lab, no matter how dashing I might look in a leather suit.

[tggzzz]

Isn't it nice when the seller even posts a picture of the cracked RIFA in the sale information: https://www.ebay.de/itm/194782816280

Less so the leaked SMD caps and test failures. But he gets excellent bonus points for honesty!

[Cerebus]

Ah yes, Mr Lowe. Recommended.

If you want to see other such droll posts, then (slightly strangely) use https://www.science.org/topic/blog-category/things-i-wont-work-with

The experimental section of the paper enjoins the reader to wear a face shield, leather suit, and ear plugs, to work behind all sorts of blast shields, and to use Teflon and stainless steel apparatus so as to minimize shrapnel. Hmm. Ranking my equipment in terms of its shrapneliferousness is not something that's ever occurred to me, I have to say. It's safe to assume that any procedure which involves considering which parts of the apparatus I'd prefer to have flying past me will not get much business in my lab, no matter how dashing I might look in a leather suit.

I suspect him of slight mis-quoting there. The advice to use PTFE or stainless steel isn't, I suspect, to minimise shrapnel, it's to maximise the biocompatibility of the shrapnel, so that should you survive the surgeons don't have to go digging for every little bit of it and can just leave the small insignificant pieces in situ.

[McBryce]

Isn't it nice when the seller even posts a picture of the cracked RIFA in the sale information: https://www.ebay.de/itm/194782816280

Less so the leaked SMD caps and test failures. But he gets excellent bonus points for honesty!

Yes, extremely honest. I'd consider it as a fixer-upper, but for the lost Calibration. I don't have the equipment to re-cal a 2465 = New Rabbit-hole.

McBryce.

[Peter_O]

My bnc dust cap supply went dry.

But I found these ones on thingverse:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1778219

Just printed a bunch of them.



Nice objects to use filament rests.



The color makes all the difference.   

[TERRA Operative]

Tonight's work: Removing all the nasty, crappy Texas Instruments IC sockets from my Tek SG503 Levelled Sine Wave Generator and replacing them with nice gold plated turret sockets.
I also found a bunch of the TI IC's had corroded through the plating on their legs and had started to rust the metal underneath, a couple has legs that were barely holding on...

Seems TI didn't really have a good run for a while there... 

So tomorrow it's off to Akihabara to find some new chips on the way in to work.

[xrunner]

My bnc dust cap supply went dry.

But I found these ones on thingverse:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1778219

Just printed a bunch of them.

Oh no ... I checked the model and they do twist on. Now I know what I'll be printing today in appropriate colors. 

[Cubdriver]

Pat, I tried to verify that hot spot you are seeing in the A Sweep/Trigger circuit but mine is wired differently. This is an early S/N with a detachable line cord. I assume yours is probably a later S/N with a fixed line cord like my other two with the HV issues. Later this week I'm pulling out the one that still has the 5642 HV rectifiers in it to verify that the HV transformer is FUBAR. At that time I'll look and see if it's the same as yours and if yes I'll check to see if the same result as you are seeing.

Yes, mine is a later one - the easily visible 6AU8s have 68-XX date codes on them, and the serial number is 012731, so it's just a bit past the 6739/6740 S/N transition point in the manual.

I've moved it up to my main bench now that I've finished the work project that had been occupying it and have gotten a better look - had to remove the feet and lifting straps, and need to relocate my under - bench - shelf strip lighting to get a quarter inch of clearance to get it in there.  I did find one cracked 6DJ8 ( ), but it's in the Alternate Sweep Switching circuit (V494), so I don't think it's causing the heating issue.  I'll put a new one in regardless, but need to find my stash.  Also want to rig up a higher-power voltage/current metered variac to test it further - my Sencore Powerite II is only rated for 3 A continuous and 4 A intermittent, so I was running it on the ragged edge pulling hair over 4 A with the 547 the other night.

Dead tube, tight squeeze:




Wish the bench shelf was two inches higher - would then be able to fit the scope on the lazy susan to make it easier to work on.

-Pat

[Peter_O]

My bnc dust cap supply went dry.

But I found these ones on thingverse:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1778219

Just printed a bunch of them.

Oh no ... I checked the model and they do twist on. Now I know what I'll be printing today in appropriate colors. 

They are sitting somewhat loose, but there is a kind of loose bayonet that keeps them from falling off, when you shake the device, even front down. I like it this way because it's very easy to put them on and off.

In any case they are good enough for me not to start designing own ones.  :-)

[med6753]

Pat, I tried to verify that hot spot you are seeing in the A Sweep/Trigger circuit but mine is wired differently. This is an early S/N with a detachable line cord. I assume yours is probably a later S/N with a fixed line cord like my other two with the HV issues. Later this week I'm pulling out the one that still has the 5642 HV rectifiers in it to verify that the HV transformer is FUBAR. At that time I'll look and see if it's the same as yours and if yes I'll check to see if the same result as you are seeing.

Yes, mine is a later one - the easily visible 6AU8s have 68-XX date codes on them, and the serial number is 012731, so it's just a bit past the 6739/6740 S/N transition point in the manual.

I've moved it up to my main bench now that I've finished the work project that had been occupying it and have gotten a better look - had to remove the feet and lifting straps, and need to relocate my under - bench - shelf strip lighting to get a quarter inch of clearance to get it in there.  I did find one cracked 6DJ8 ( ), but it's in the Alternate Sweep Switching circuit (V494), so I don't think it's causing the heating issue.  I'll put a new one in regardless, but need to find my stash.  Also want to rig up a higher-power voltage/current metered variac to test it further - my Sencore Powerite II is only rated for 3 A continuous and 4 A intermittent, so I was running it on the ragged edge pulling hair over 4 A with the 547 the other night.

Dead tube, tight squeeze:




Wish the bench shelf was two inches higher - would then be able to fit the scope on the lazy susan to make it easier to work on.

-Pat

Yea, the S/N of the one I checked today is B002646 so it's an early one. The other two are S/N B008570 and B010425 so they should match yours.

If you need a 6DJ8 let me know.

[m k]

You don't know what it installs.
We've lost control when MFM controller was left behind.

BTW,
Palmtronic and RAD results 1, DEG is a bit under, w/o tan() it's a bit over and w/o cos() it's 1.

BTW2,
my poor P-touch 500 doesn't even have a display.

I do because I've dumped and inspected the entire contents of the virtual drive and also connected it to a Linux machine where I can fully monitor what the USB connection is doing. It doesn't install anything.

McBryce.

They(them) will secretly inject those legit files.
And export bogus empty space.

Your disk tracks have sectors and sectors and those other sectors are reallocation zones.
So when sector is bad it is reallocated and LBA doesn't change but physical place is different.

The disk can also reallocate for what ever secret purposes it want.
It can also use unused space how ever it see fit.

So when disk is nearly full they say it has troubles but why.
Obviously because it must relocate all the spy stuff.

So that's how they did it in the last century! Neither my PC nor the label printer has disks or sectors. They're completely solid state. Or are you telling me that you don't use USB sticks for fear that the manufacturer will install spyware? How can you use a PC at all with that view?

McBryce.

But those solids are still using blocks and FATs and what not.
Man, they are emulating.

And you don't even know how much space it really has or what it has inside of inside, like those secret chip in board things.

[Vince]

You can save tape by typing in more than one label title in at a time. Like the "FUSES" label. Type it in and then add more label titles like this -

FUSES        RESISTORS        CAPACITORS

Put spaces between words (maybe 8 - 10 spaces) and then print it all out at once. Then cut between the label titles with scissors. Then you won't have all that waste at the front and back of each label.

Yeah but I do want some "wasted" space.. I mean I want all the lable to be the same width, the width of the drawer fronts, regardless of how long the character strings are for a given label.... just a bit of OCD there I admit !    It would look all over shop and untidy to me if the labels were all different sizes and didn't match perfectly the drawer width. OK think what you want of my OCD...

The printer has a parameter to control how much blank space you want to put between the labels...  : narrow/medium/ large... and the last setting is called "chain"... it's supposed to be what I want : zero space between the labels. The printer lets you set the width of a label. Drawer are 50mm wide so I set the label 50mm wide. Then I center justified teh text into these 50mm, then selected Chain printing... but still, somehow, it still puts blank space between the labels, but it should not !  Weird... I think the Firmware of this printer is buggy or corrupt... must have done by a student somewhere in India   
So I am trying to find ways to circumvent the buggyness of the printer.... for example I tried surrounding the labels with a frame, a rectangle all around the label. This way I have an easy guide to tell me where to cut with my scissors. But..... I find that adding frame on these narrow tapes just looks over crowed and crap. Looks cleaner and easier to read when there is just text and nothing else... so I am giving up this solution.
I am thinking of cutting the labels approximately, then stacking them up on a cutting mat, putting a custom made tool, 500mm wide, on top of the labels, then I would just have to trim the excess around the tool to make sure all the labels are perfectly 50mm wide.  I made that tool by cutting piece of thick plastic from the cover of a margarine container... but I have no cutting mat and sharp blade / scalpel... only my worn out box cutter. So.... I am still working on it ! 

[Vince]

I use continuous printing or words to that effect in the Brother PC software to avoid the leading and trailing waste.

Also, for that bug with the posting images display corruption, it is a known thing (I thought it was resolved?) AFAIK the easy work around is to not use the first slot when uploading images, start from the second slot and then upload as usual.

Yep I know it's a common problem but it happens so rarely (last and first time for me was 18 months ago IIRC ! ) that it didn't bother me that much.... however I didn't know, or remember, that there was this work around ! If my brain manages to remember it next time I run into the issue, I would try it ! 

[McBryce]

You don't know what it installs.
We've lost control when MFM controller was left behind.

BTW,
Palmtronic and RAD results 1, DEG is a bit under, w/o tan() it's a bit over and w/o cos() it's 1.

BTW2,
my poor P-touch 500 doesn't even have a display.

I do because I've dumped and inspected the entire contents of the virtual drive and also connected it to a Linux machine where I can fully monitor what the USB connection is doing. It doesn't install anything.

McBryce.

They(them) will secretly inject those legit files.
And export bogus empty space.

Your disk tracks have sectors and sectors and those other sectors are reallocation zones.
So when sector is bad it is reallocated and LBA doesn't change but physical place is different.

The disk can also reallocate for what ever secret purposes it want.
It can also use unused space how ever it see fit.

So when disk is nearly full they say it has troubles but why.
Obviously because it must relocate all the spy stuff.

So that's how they did it in the last century! Neither my PC nor the label printer has disks or sectors. They're completely solid state. Or are you telling me that you don't use USB sticks for fear that the manufacturer will install spyware? How can you use a PC at all with that view?

McBryce.

But those solids are still using blocks and FATs and what not.
Man, they are emulating.

And you don't even know how much space it really has or what it has inside of inside, like those secret chip in board things.

Wow, you're really on the paranoid juice. So how do you use a computer at all? They could hide spyware anywhere and you wouldn't know it! Anything that can save executable data is a threat? USB Sticks, printers, scanners, webcams? Even a mouse or keyboard via USB is a threat if you use that logic.

Sad story time: I had a similar discussion recently with someone who had read that webcams could be activated by hackers etc, etc and wanted me to check if his computer had been infected by such viruses. I entered his livingroom to find an Alexa sitting right in the middle of the room. Why bother with spyware/virus scanners on a PC at all, when you are willing to pay for a spying device right in the middle of your livingroom? Case closed.

McBryce.

Just added tinfoil to the shopping list, my old hat wearing out.

[tggzzz]

You don't know what it installs.
We've lost control when MFM controller was left behind.

BTW,
Palmtronic and RAD results 1, DEG is a bit under, w/o tan() it's a bit over and w/o cos() it's 1.

BTW2,
my poor P-touch 500 doesn't even have a display.

I do because I've dumped and inspected the entire contents of the virtual drive and also connected it to a Linux machine where I can fully monitor what the USB connection is doing. It doesn't install anything.

McBryce.

They(them) will secretly inject those legit files.
And export bogus empty space.

Your disk tracks have sectors and sectors and those other sectors are reallocation zones.
So when sector is bad it is reallocated and LBA doesn't change but physical place is different.

The disk can also reallocate for what ever secret purposes it want.
It can also use unused space how ever it see fit.

So when disk is nearly full they say it has troubles but why.
Obviously because it must relocate all the spy stuff.

So that's how they did it in the last century! Neither my PC nor the label printer has disks or sectors. They're completely solid state. Or are you telling me that you don't use USB sticks for fear that the manufacturer will install spyware? How can you use a PC at all with that view?

McBryce.

But those solids are still using blocks and FATs and what not.
Man, they are emulating.

And you don't even know how much space it really has or what it has inside of inside, like those secret chip in board things.

It should be realised that a USB disk is really a programmable computer with some flash chips. You also need to check that it is only a disk, and not a disk plus something else... One example from
https://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/28/14#subj6.1

"Most USB thumb drives can be reprogrammed to infect computers

"One of the attacks involves a USB stick that acts as three separate devices -- two thumb drives and a keyboard. When the device is first plugged into a computer and is detected by the OS, it acts as a regular storage device. However, when the computer is restarted and the device detects that it's talking to the BIOS, it switches on the hidden storage device and also emulates the keyboard, Nohl said.

"Acting as a keyboard, the device sends the necessary button presses to bring up the boot menu and boots a minimal Linux system from the hidden thumb drive. The Linux system then infects the bootloader of the computer's hard disk drive, essentially acting like a boot virus, he said."

[Specmaster]

OK I am back from the offcie supplies store, got a tape printer.

I got fooled, stupid me... I checked the web site of that store thinking they wold have everything in stock... but nope.
The cheaper printers I was targeting, around 30/35 Euros, had to be ordered ! No stock in the store !   
I didn't want to wait, I want some labeling action right now, not in 3 or 5 days.

So out with the Brother D210... instead I got, for 20 Euros more, 55 Euros total. a Brother D400.

Thermal transfer on laminated tape like the D210, so it's good, but it looks much better. Hated the black and faux carbon fiber treatment of the D210 
D400 is white, looks so much better, more appeasing to the eye, and brightens up the lab.
Also has a better LCD screen so you can better see what the label will look like.
Also has a wider form factor, which allow for a better keyboard, with more keys, more intuitive to use.
Proper intuitive scroll down menu system, navigation keys and Esc/OK button cluster at the right, it's a joy to use, it's like a little baby computer of back in the day, an early word processing machine or something.
K/B is rubbery, feels nice to the touch, quiet to use, lovely.
Good build quality.
Also can do wider tapes as well, not just 6/9/12mm. It can also do 18mm ! It's quite big... comes with an 18mm tape, so bought 12 and 9mm tapes to make sure I could get something that works for the drawer fronts.
However not yet expensive enough to enjoy a USB connector to download custom graphics, oh well.... was not really an essential feature was it 
Does have lots of built-in icons/ cliparts though, including a dozen EE related ones believe it or not... there are ground and earth symbols, AC, DC, filament lamp, fuse, stuff like that.
Lots of nice looking fonts too, 13 total IIRC.

It's really a lovely bit of kit, I am very happy I bought it, worth the money.
I see it as an investment... it's gear, that I need and will be useful.. it's not like I wasted 55 Euros on petrol to drive the car around aimlessly, or to buy alcohol or cigarettes or shit like that 

Obviously I would prefer to be like some here, that get printers for free ! Failing that, I am OK coughing 55 Euros for that one, it's good vale for money to me.

OK so let's get printing then ! 



EDIT : looks like the forum is having trouble with the pic thumbnails... the one for the first pic depicts a picture I posted yesterday !    But if you click on it, you do get the correct picture... it's only the thumbnail itself that is corrupt.

EDIT #2 ;  I spoke too soon !  I reloaded the page and now BOTH the thumbnail AND the full size pic are corrupt  ?! 

EDIT #3 : I re-uploaded the troublesome pic... seems to work now, the forum behaves... for how long I don't know, crossing fingers !

Vince, not sure if you are aware or not, I know that it has been widely posted here before, but what you describe with the thumbnails, it is a known issue and the way to circumvent it is to never ever insert anything into the 1st available slot, but leave that one empty and start with the 2nd slot and move on, adding a new slot for each photo or other insert. This has been working just fine, doing it that way round.

[xrunner]

You can save tape by typing in more than one label title in at a time. Like the "FUSES" label. Type it in and then add more label titles like this -

FUSES        RESISTORS        CAPACITORS

Put spaces between words (maybe 8 - 10 spaces) and then print it all out at once. Then cut between the label titles with scissors. Then you won't have all that waste at the front and back of each label.

Yeah but I do want some "wasted" space.. I mean I want all the lable to be the same width, the width of the drawer fronts, regardless of how long the character strings are for a given label.... just a bit of OCD there I admit !    It would look all over shop and untidy to me if the labels were all different sizes and didn't match perfectly the drawer width. OK think what you want of my OCD...

Vince you're hopeless ...

Well, so am I. 

[tautech]

You can save tape by typing in more than one label title in at a time. Like the "FUSES" label. Type it in and then add more label titles like this -

FUSES        RESISTORS        CAPACITORS

Put spaces between words (maybe 8 - 10 spaces) and then print it all out at once. Then cut between the label titles with scissors. Then you won't have all that waste at the front and back of each label.

Yeah but I do want some "wasted" space.. I mean I want all the lable to be the same width, the width of the drawer fronts, regardless of how long the character strings are for a given label.... just a bit of OCD there I admit !    It would look all over shop and untidy to me if the labels were all different sizes and didn't match perfectly the drawer width. OK think what you want of my OCD...

Vince you're hopeless ...

Well, so am I. 

We all are in our own special way.

Skiving off for a fishing trip and catch up with some cuzzies in the north.
Hopefully some pics and fishing stories to come.
Seez ya'all next week.

[Cerebus]

Tonight's work: Removing all the nasty, crappy Texas Instruments IC sockets from my Tek SG503 Levelled Sine Wave Generator and replacing them with nice gold plated turret sockets.
I also found a bunch of the TI IC's had corroded through the plating on their legs and had started to rust the metal underneath, a couple has legs that were barely holding on...

Seems TI didn't really have a good run for a while there... 

Anecdotally I'd say from my experience that TI chips are a bit more fragile than others. I can recall finding the same kind of corrosion myself with very old TI 74 series logic but not to the same extent with National or other brands.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Tonight's work: Removing all the nasty, crappy Texas Instruments IC sockets from my Tek SG503 Levelled Sine Wave Generator and replacing them with nice gold plated turret sockets.
I also found a bunch of the TI IC's had corroded through the plating on their legs and had started to rust the metal underneath, a couple has legs that were barely holding on...

Seems TI didn't really have a good run for a while there... 

So tomorrow it's off to Akihabara to find some new chips on the way in to work.

Reminder set to open up mine!
Unrelated, I just grabbed another FG501 for 33.50€ total.

[m k]

You don't know what it installs.
We've lost control when MFM controller was left behind.

BTW,
Palmtronic and RAD results 1, DEG is a bit under, w/o tan() it's a bit over and w/o cos() it's 1.

BTW2,
my poor P-touch 500 doesn't even have a display.

I do because I've dumped and inspected the entire contents of the virtual drive and also connected it to a Linux machine where I can fully monitor what the USB connection is doing. It doesn't install anything.

McBryce.

They(them) will secretly inject those legit files.
And export bogus empty space.

Your disk tracks have sectors and sectors and those other sectors are reallocation zones.
So when sector is bad it is reallocated and LBA doesn't change but physical place is different.

The disk can also reallocate for what ever secret purposes it want.
It can also use unused space how ever it see fit.

So when disk is nearly full they say it has troubles but why.
Obviously because it must relocate all the spy stuff.

So that's how they did it in the last century! Neither my PC nor the label printer has disks or sectors. They're completely solid state. Or are you telling me that you don't use USB sticks for fear that the manufacturer will install spyware? How can you use a PC at all with that view?

McBryce.

But those solids are still using blocks and FATs and what not.
Man, they are emulating.

And you don't even know how much space it really has or what it has inside of inside, like those secret chip in board things.

Wow, you're really on the paranoid juice. So how do you use a computer at all? They could hide spyware anywhere and you wouldn't know it! Anything that can save executable data is a threat? USB Sticks, printers, scanners, webcams? Even a mouse or keyboard via USB is a threat if you use that logic.

Sad story time: I had a similar discussion recently with someone who had read that webcams could be activated by hackers etc, etc and wanted me to check if his computer had been infected by such viruses. I entered his livingroom to find an Alexa sitting right in the middle of the room. Why bother with spyware/virus scanners on a PC at all, when you are willing to pay for a spying device right in the middle of your livingroom? Case closed.

McBryce.

Just added tinfoil to the shopping list, my old hat wearing out.

Dang, I thought my tone was obvious.

But anyway, we are heading to interesting situation, where real is really questioned.
I read that Russian spy organization was already ordering typewriters.

[mansaxel]

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-work-chalcogen-polyazides

That blog series set me on the track of the Gergel book. The rest is a very explosive history.

[Cubdriver]

Yea, the S/N of the one I checked today is B002646 so it's an early one. The other two are S/N B008570 and B010425 so they should match yours.

If you need a 6DJ8 let me know.

Interesting - yet again, mine has no 'B' prefix in the serial number.

And thanks for the offer of a 6DJ8; I have some squirreled away here, just need to find where I hid them. 

-Pat

[mansaxel]

Gleich riecht er!

Legendäre flachheit!