Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Andrew_Debbie]

You've gotta laugh at the crazy markup on "special" stuff for technical purposes that could be substituted with "ordinary" cheap stuff.

If you are purchasing for 10 hospitals with 12 scanners plus a mobile unit, you have to buy MRI Safe everything.  Cleaners won't know what is ok and what isn't.    On top of that ordinary items can change without notice.    Even if no one gets hurt, ramping down a magnet to remove a mop is expensive.


We get around some of that by not allowing housekeeping into the MRI suite at all.  I do the cleaning, even in the control room.

[Vince]

QUESTION :  just finished sorting an entire shoe box of salvaged discrete components I waz given. Scrapped 80% of it but the remaining 20% left me with enough small WIMA or ERD plastic caps to last me a life time, I think ! 
But also a few nice 1% precision caps as well.

Among the miscellaneous stuff that I am not too sure what to do with just yet, are these thingies below.
What are they ? They are made of a thin flat disc with a big blob on each side, in the center of the disc, onto which the two leads attach.
Looks like some mains protection thing like a MOV/VDR/Varistor ?? Or some other protection device... Does anyone what type of component it actually is ?

And how I could know their value/rating ? As you can see, the 3 "charcoal" looking ones have zero markings... so I guess good for scrap.
However the others are either marked " 10Kf " with a grey body and a yellow dot at the top, and the others are brown body with a blue stripe across them.
So maybe there is some hope to identify these ?

I think I need a grey beard on that one... it's old stuff for sure.

Thank you very moosh in advance....

Should I just throw them away ? Or maybe keep them to have some fun blowing them later on once I have a HV PSU ? I could try to measure current as well while ramping the HV, to plot their response, before they blow. Could be educational and fun. Well, nerd fun I mean 

[TERRA Operative]

Looks like MOV's to me, but unless you can find datasheets, I'm not sure how useful they'll be...

[factory]

Could be thermistors too, try warming them up & measuring the resistance. 

The two larger ones look very similar to some NOS ones I fitted to the hp 150A oscilloscope, part of the conversion from 115V to 230V mains, for inrush current limiting, they are 10-ohm disk thermistors according to the manual.


Random 6¼A mains fuse from the scope, changed to 3A for 230V operation.


David

[med6753]

   Only YOU (me? me!) can prevent socialist ranting by posting actual TE content!

Aww, come on man... it weren't that much of a rant. And I'm not much of a socialist, either. I'm a humanist.

The problem with EVs is...yeah, there's all kinds of horrible in them as they're made and sold right now. But the way people drive the market is with their dollars... so if we really want the infrastructure to happen that makes EV possible, and we really want to change how electricity for that infrastructure is generated, first we have to make it clear to these smoke-filled-boardroom-dwelling morlocks that we aren't going to accept anything less than a future based on EV, where ICE are used very infrequently, primarily as boostrap energy to get real clean energy happening.

And we do that by voting with our dollars. Once EVs are the new normal, then we can start pressuring them to make the cars with better manufacturing carbon footprints and the electricity generation carbon neutral.

Remember... the people driving dirty energy are the worst of humanity. We have to be 1000x better than they are to make things right.

mnem
Also, we might get some fresh O₂ as a side incentive...

This might still apply in some places.


We still have diesel powered trains moving shit-tonnes of coal, shaking the house every few days , not sure exactly where it goes after the sidings. Most coal power generation in the UK has gone bar a couple of stations.
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:H20927/2022-02-07/detailed


At least that is mined in the UK, we used to have imported coal going through, to Fiddler's Ferry power station until it closed a couple of years ago.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-52100822

David

That's a coal train? Meh. 

This is a coal train.

[factory]

Clearly we don't use as much coal any more, the train that used to go through here on it's way to Fiddler's Ferry power station was longer* but still not as long as that.

*Seemed longer from being stuck waiting at the level crossing. 

David

[med6753]

Clearly we don't use as much coal any more, the train that used to go through here on it's way to Fiddler's Ferry power station was longer* but still not as long as that.

*Seemed longer from being stuck waiting at the level crossing. 

David

I'm not sure who uses that much coal either. Most power plants that once burned coal converted to oil many years ago. Since the train is in Nebraska and heading west I suspect it's for export, probably China.

Edit, if you watch the entire video you'll see that the train required 3 locos up front, 3 in the approx center of the train (Known as DPU's or Distributed Power Units), and one pushing from the rear. 

[mnementh]

   Only YOU (me? me!) can prevent socialist ranting by posting actual TE content!

Aww, come on man... it weren't that much of a rant.

No, but it provided me with a nice opening line. 

And I'm not much of a socialist, either. I'm a humanist.

Dare I guess which is rated worse by the people above&behind me?

O₂? Don't you want finally to make the upgrade to O₃?

Glad I could be a suitable foil for your witty repartee...?

Ummm... not sure whatcha mean by "people above and behind me" ...? In thread...? IRL...? At work...? Any who might be surveilling us randomly...? I'm guessing maybe a language difference thing?

While I do like the smell of small amounts of ozone... as commonly released by air ionizers and the like... any higher concentrations and I start to have a problem with this pesky "I need to breathe..." thing. 

mnem
*toddles off to start making lunch*

[TERRA Operative]

Just adjusted the Tektronix Tekprobe 1103 power supply that arrived today, then used that to help adjust the two P6247 differential probes I got recently (one of which also came today). One of the two probes adjusted a bit better than the other, so after I replenish some of the accessories, I'll keep the better one and sell off the other to recoup costs a little.

Still keeping my eye out for a Tek ADA400A differential preamplifier, but none have popped up here in Japan yet..

[AVGresponding]

Well, someone's probably going to try and swap me out for an LED, as I'm incandescent with fury at E-On.

I spoke to them to get my prepayment meter swapped out for a normal credit one, and they told me they can't right now as their credit checking systems are broken, have been for some time, and they don't know when they'll be working again.

Said thankyou and goodbye, then went to speak to British Gas to get my gas swapped to them (I already get my electricity there), and they said, no dice unless my existing supplier swaps the prepayment for a credit meter.   

So I'm being held hostage by E-On. Well, we'll see about that. I already fired of an angry (but polite) email to them, informing them of my next steps, namely to contact my local MP, and BBC R4's "You and Yours" consumer affairs programme. Done and done.

I'm sure they will deal with it in their usual way once this sort of escalation happens; trite apologies and rapid action. Turds.

[Specmaster]

Well my Brother PT300 label printer arrived this morning, it allegedly failed to switch on after being stored for a while. Popped some batteries in it, pressed the power button and hey presto it fired straight up, stuck a tape in it and printed a label perfectly. Tried to cut the tape using the built-in cutter, and it failed, the cutter was all badly gummed up with glue. Removed and cleaned, refitted, cuts after a fashion, needs a new cutter, which currently are unavailable everywhere. Very fiddly to do, but may just be able to resharpen the blade on my diamond block, when I find it again 

So no great repair to do on it at all, ordered a lot of new tapes for, which is handy as the tapes also fit the PC label printer PT1230PC.

I'm now the proud owner of 1 x PT650m 2 x PT300 and 1 x PY1230PC.

I didn't need the second PT300 but as it was on eBay as BIN for £2.94 and delivered for £6.14 all in I thought why not take a chance, and it paid off handsomely 

[Vince]

Could be thermistors too, try warming them up & measuring the resistance. 

The two larger ones look very similar to some NOS ones I fitted to the hp 150A oscilloscope, part of the conversion from 115V to 230V mains, for inrush current limiting, they are 10-ohm disk thermistors according to the manual.


David

Thanks, you were right thermistors they are. NTC to be more precise.

Well at least these three that are similar to yours.

I measured the 2 big ones at between 160 and 230 ohms cold. Then I heated them up to 350 progressively with the hot rework air station, they dropped at single digit ohms.
The smaller one actually has a marking on it, says " 10RA " , so maybe 10 ohms. Measured it at 13ohms. Once hot goes down to 2 ohms.

Then tried the bunch of brown ones with a blue stripe.
Measured all 15 of them, cold. It varies quite a bit, though all in the kilo-ohms range.  Ranges from 2.3k up to 10.8k !
However most of them are in the 5 to 6k range, so maybe the few that are way above or below that, are simply bad...
I heated of those in the 5/6k range. However this time I lowered the temperature to 150°C to avoid cooking them too much...
Doing so, the resistance does not decrease all the much !  Down to  2k or so.
I tried increasing the temperature to 250°C but still around 2k. So 2k it is then...

Then I tried the handful of small grey ones with a dot, marked " 10Kf ".
They do not appear to be thermistors at all. All of them read the same : open-circuit both cold or hot.

So I guess they must be MOV / Varistors instead...
I google for their marking, 10Kf, but didn't find anything interesting... I guess these shall go to the bin.... the NTC's I can keep to play around with. Now that I know they are NTC and have measured them, I can stick them in a little zip big and label them with hot/cold values.

[Vince]

Well my Brother PT300 label printer arrived this morning, it allegedly failed to switch on after being stored for a while. Popped some batteries in it, pressed the power button and hey presto it fired straight up, stuck a tape in it and printed a label perfectly. Tried to cut the tape using the built-in cutter, and it failed, the cutter was all badly gummed up with glue. Removed and cleaned, refitted, cuts after a fashion, needs a new cutter, which currently are unavailable everywhere. Very fiddly to do, but may just be able to resharpen the blade on my diamond block, when I find it again 

So no great repair to do on it at all.

Sucks, I was so looking forward to some electronic troubleshooting and pictures ! 

[AVGresponding]

Well my Brother PT300 label printer arrived this morning, it allegedly failed to switch on after being stored for a while. Popped some batteries in it, pressed the power button and hey presto it fired straight up, stuck a tape in it and printed a label perfectly. Tried to cut the tape using the built-in cutter, and it failed, the cutter was all badly gummed up with glue. Removed and cleaned, refitted, cuts after a fashion, needs a new cutter, which currently are unavailable everywhere. Very fiddly to do, but may just be able to resharpen the blade on my diamond block, when I find it again 

So no great repair to do on it at all, ordered a lot of new tapes for, which is handy as the tapes also fit the PC label printer PT1230PC.

I'm now the proud owner of 1 x PT650m 2 x PT300 and 1 x PY1230PC.

I didn't need the second PT300 but as it was on eBay as BIN for £2.94 and delivered for £6.14 all in I thought why not take a chance, and it paid off handsomely 

The power button on my Brother 550 can be temperamental.

[AVGresponding]

@Saskia I'm putting my order in now!   

[Specmaster]

Well my Brother PT300 label printer arrived this morning, it allegedly failed to switch on after being stored for a while. Popped some batteries in it, pressed the power button and hey presto it fired straight up, stuck a tape in it and printed a label perfectly. Tried to cut the tape using the built-in cutter, and it failed, the cutter was all badly gummed up with glue. Removed and cleaned, refitted, cuts after a fashion, needs a new cutter, which currently are unavailable everywhere. Very fiddly to do, but may just be able to resharpen the blade on my diamond block, when I find it again 

So no great repair to do on it at all, ordered a lot of new tapes for, which is handy as the tapes also fit the PC label printer PT1230PC.

I'm now the proud owner of 1 x PT650m 2 x PT300 and 1 x PY1230PC.

I didn't need the second PT300 but as it was on eBay as BIN for £2.94 and delivered for £6.14 all in I thought why not take a chance, and it paid off handsomely 

The power button on my Brother 550 can be temperamental.

Ooh, thats a posh one that, looks like you could print address labels on it?

[Vince]

Juss sorted another shoe box full of random components.
this time, no salvaged junk, no, brand new stuff.  A huge, single, mile long strip of resistors and diodes.
Normally a strip contains identical parts isn't it... well not so here. It's one kilogram worth of components all taped together in a single strip.
A pot-pourri of 90% 1/4W or smaller, carbon resistors, with a few diodes in the mix.
Of course the strip is 40 years old I am sure, so the paper and glue had gone bad, leads coming off, and turned all this once neatly organizes strip, into a huge kg worth of entangled and glued together pile of stuff. Freeing a single component from this mess was a job in itself... never mind going through all of them 
So I decided the carbon resistors just were not worth the time and trouble, so I concentrated on trying to get all the diodes out of this mess, and discarded all the resistors.


Then proceeded to further sort the diodes. Separated all the tiny glass transparent small signal ones, from the chunkier ones. For the latter are much easier to read the markings from ! 
So I have now meself some "brand new" diodes.... which I promptly put into labelled zip bags. Long live zip bags and labels...
I looked them up quickly on Google to write down basic specs on the labels. Here is what I happen to have then :


1N4004 - 1A 400V
1N4006 - 1A 800V ... a single, lone diode.
1N4936 - 1A 400V Fast switching low drop high efficiency blah blah, for use in SMPS I guess....
BA157   - exactly the same as above... I guess there must be SOME difference but nothing obvious from the first of their respectively datasheet...
BYV 38 - Beefy glass bead 2A 1kV bad boys.

so I have some stock now... on top of my salvaged diodes.

Then I have all these tiny small signal transparent glass diodes.... marking on these is much more difficult to read, a PITA with my crappy eyes.... not sure it's worth the trouble, given how cheap small signal diodes are.... might just throw everything away and buy a few 1N4148 I guess...

But well I have time, so... I will at least give it a shot.
First will sort them visually just by the size and looks of the package. I think I saw at least 3 or 4 variations.
Then I will take a couple of each type and see if I can manage to read what's on them.... all I have is my "optivisor " thingy, hope it' will do it.

Who knows, maybe some of them have some interest, I don't know, super fast, or Germanium, or super low leakage, or god knows what....

[Kosmic]

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.   

Thanks for the link. I printed one of those but found them too small, hard to grab and a bit too loose.

So I added a flange and shrunk it down a little bit so it fit tight on the connector and do not move around.



The end result, printed on PLA on a glass bed.



.STL file is here : https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/?action=dlattach;attach=1410475

[AVGresponding]

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.   

Thanks for the link. I printed one of those but found them too small, hard to grab and a bit too loose.

So I added a flange and shrunk it down a little bit so it fit tight on the connector and do not move around.



The end result, printed on PLA on a glass bed.

.stl files or it didn't happen!

[xrunner]

Vince can you get any sort of conductivity from the bottom of that pretty pile to the other side? 

Then proceeded to further sort the diodes. Separated all the tiny glass transparent small signal ones, from the chunkier ones. For the latter are much easier to read the markings from ! 
So I have now meself some "brand new" diodes.... which I promptly put into labelled zip bags. Long live zip bags and labels...
I looked them up quickly on Google to write down basic specs on the labels. Here is what I happen to have then :

[AVGresponding]

Vince can you get any sort of conductivity from the bottom of that pretty pile to the other side? 

Then proceeded to further sort the diodes. Separated all the tiny glass transparent small signal ones, from the chunkier ones. For the latter are much easier to read the markings from ! 
So I have now meself some "brand new" diodes.... which I promptly put into labelled zip bags. Long live zip bags and labels...
I looked them up quickly on Google to write down basic specs on the labels. Here is what I happen to have then :

V_f=  ?

[Vince]

Then proceeded to further sort the diodes. Separated all the tiny glass transparent small signal ones, from the chunkier ones. For the latter are much easier to read the markings from ! 
So I have now meself some "brand new" diodes.... which I promptly put into labelled zip bags. Long live zip bags and labels...
I looked them up quickly on Google to write down basic specs on the labels. Here is what I happen to have then :

Vince can you get any sort of conductivity from the bottom of that pretty pile to the other side? 

Of course I can ! My old Fluke 8060A  can do Siemens !!! 

I get 674.5 nS !!!   

[Vince]

Vince can you get any sort of conductivity from the bottom of that pretty pile to the other side? 

Then proceeded to further sort the diodes. Separated all the tiny glass transparent small signal ones, from the chunkier ones. For the latter are much easier to read the markings from ! 
So I have now meself some "brand new" diodes.... which I promptly put into labelled zip bags. Long live zip bags and labels...
I looked them up quickly on Google to write down basic specs on the labels. Here is what I happen to have then :

V_f=  ?

Alas no ! Tried several meters, none can give me a reading, they all suck big time !!! 

[Kosmic]

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.   

Thanks for the link. I printed one of those but found them too small, hard to grab and a bit too loose.

So I added a flange and shrunk it down a little bit so it fit tight on the connector and do not move around.



The end result, printed on PLA on a glass bed.

.stl files or it didn't happen!

Done, added to original post.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/?action=dlattach;attach=1410475

[Specmaster]

Vince can you get any sort of conductivity from the bottom of that pretty pile to the other side? 

Then proceeded to further sort the diodes. Separated all the tiny glass transparent small signal ones, from the chunkier ones. For the latter are much easier to read the markings from ! 
So I have now meself some "brand new" diodes.... which I promptly put into labelled zip bags. Long live zip bags and labels...
I looked them up quickly on Google to write down basic specs on the labels. Here is what I happen to have then :

V_f=  ?

Alas no ! Tried several meters, none can give me a reading, they all suck big time !!! 

Vince can you get any sort of conductivity from the bottom of that pretty pile to the other side? 

Then proceeded to further sort the diodes. Separated all the tiny glass transparent small signal ones, from the chunkier ones. For the latter are much easier to read the markings from ! 
So I have now meself some "brand new" diodes.... which I promptly put into labelled zip bags. Long live zip bags and labels...
I looked them up quickly on Google to write down basic specs on the labels. Here is what I happen to have then :

V_f=  ?

Alas no ! Tried several meters, none can give me a reading, they all suck big time !!! 

How do you mean they all suck, they all have a diode mode don't they?