Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Zucca]

@Zucca I already showed you how to build a nice audio streamer with high quality PC parts ...

Yes I know,
you always trigger me with your TEA stuff, I always try to get my revenge but I fail miserably.

Sorry.

[AVGresponding]

Hmm I may have inadvertantly cued myself up for a jammy-git award. Scored a box of random old RS stock for £25 shipped, and these things are always a bit of pot-luck, but the first items out of the box are already good.

There's a tube of about 20 LT1062CN8, these are £7+ at Mouser, loads of oddball TTL and CMOS including at least 1x 74LS155 which istr someone on here needing recently?

It'll take a while to sort through this box, it's packed, must be 5kg+!

[Neper]

the Beetle's metamorphosed into a dune buggy driven by Franz Kafka

The Beetle was the object of the world's biggest cult. They believed it was a car.

[mnementh]

I'd argue that the Trabant beats the Beetle hands-down as far not being a real car. 

Cult-wise, not even in the same ballfield... not even playing on the same longitude... as supply side economics. Sorry to rain on that parade.

mnem
Which rainy parade the Trabant would likely melt in...

[med6753]

So I go to perform touch up of the 1MEG compensation on my other 485 and I'm greeted with this on Channel 1. With no signal applied Channel 1 is in random oscillation in both 50 ohm and 1MEG mode.  Channel 2 is OK.



So is this oscillation coming from the vertical pre-amp module or the vertical board? Easy way to find out. Pull the interconnect coax between the two. Result is a flat line trace. Problem is in the vertical pre-amp module.




The Channel 1 vertical pre-amp module is the lower assembly.



I have 2 spare vertical pre-amp modules in stock so I got lazy. I pulled the entire module and replaced it. The only issue is in both spares the 50 ohm/1MEG switch indicator lamp is burnt out. In order to replace that lamp it would involve complete disassembly of the module including the attenuator switch deck assembly. And then pray you can get it aligned properly afterwards. Not going there. I can live with the burnt out lamp.

The pulled module in foreground. The replacement needs 1MEG compensation as can clearly been seen. I checked the 50 ohm and it's perfect.

[mnementh]

Hmm I may have inadvertantly cued myself up for a jammy-git award. Scored a box of random old RS stock for £25 shipped, and these things are always a bit of pot-luck, but the first items out of the box are already good.

There's a tube of about 20 LT1062CN8, these are £7+ at Mouser, loads of oddball TTL and CMOS including at least 1x 74LS155 which istr someone on here needing recently?

It'll take a while to sort through this box, it's packed, must be 5kg+!

*Looks across the room at his drawers full of obsolete AF PA and non-FET BL motor driver ICs*

...

...

...

*sigh*   

mnem
*toddles off to do laundry*

[mnementh]

So I go to perform touch up of the 1MEG compensation on my other 485 and I'm greeted with this on Channel 1. With no signal applied Channel 1 is in random oscillation in both 50 ohm and 1MEG mode.  Channel 2 is OK.   



So is this oscillation coming from the vertical pre-amp module or the vertical board? Easy way to find out. Pull the interconnect coax between the two. Result is a flat line trace. Problem is in the vertical pre-amp module....

Good herd-tending Papa Smurf; thanks for sharing your diag wisdom for those playing along at home. 

mnem
Hold onto yer lugnuts...

[mansaxel]

For old-school sparkies that take pride in knowing how to correctly wire using wirenuts and screw terminals

Wirenuts are shit. They take ages to connect, they are impossible to mix wire types in, they do not re-use safely, they're big and bulky.

Wagos aren't US crapola quick-connect devices.

US, the country of mains plugs built from wet cardboard and pot metal. And a conservative working class full of know-it-alls standing lower-jaw-deep in technical debt that they Stockholm Syndrome love to death. 

fighting words, them. 

[Specmaster]

I think the forum went down for a while earlier this morning 

Ok, then, seeing as the thread is slightly off the rails with all the chatter about driving etc, lets see how many of you will get this question right. About 20 years a go, the BBC had a poll to see what was considered to be the greatest car off all time and these are the contenders:-

McLaren F1
Ford Mustang
Black Taxi Cab
Rolls Royce
E Type Jaguar
Land Rover
Audi Quattro
Fiat 500
Citroen DS

And the winner is 

What a stupid question, every one of those cars is in a different class, it's pointless to compare them.

Think outside the box for once. Yes they are all different, like chalk and cheese, everyone can see that. The whole poll was based on what the cars meant to the presenter of each car and their reasons for them presenting the car as the best car in their eyes. To coin a phrase, "Sweet cheese and crackers" we all have our own ideas of what is the best car that suits us, otherwise we would all be driving the same bloody cars. So the task at hand here is to try and guess what car did the BBC audience vote for, and it wasn't only restricted to UK viewers as many BBC programs are sold to other countries as well, so the result is more of an international flavour, and the cars reflect that as well, so which car was voted as the best?

[McBryce]

Where's the Ford Model T, the Volkswagen Beetle, the Citroen Traction Avant, the Lamborghini Muira, the Lancia Stratos, the Peugeot 205, the BMW E46 M3, the Toyota Corolla, I could go on and on and on.

For that matter where is The Ford Pinto,  The AMC Gremlin,  The Pontiac Aztek,  Rover Metro 100,  Renault Fuego Turbo,   Morris/Austin Marina, and of course the G-Wiz?

For a decade or more nearly all news articles about electric cars featured a photo of a G-Wiz.   Eventually they replaced that with an iMiev, which then became the stock photo.

Maybe that was over there. Over here, it was the EV1 (until it was the Prius), a car so beloved by its drivers that many refused to give them back at the end of the market-trial lease, and GM actually hired bounty hunters to track them down when their big-oil cronies decided to murder the whole idea of EV for another generation in favor of Hummers and Escalades.

Fun Fact: The EV1 was based on the Saturn SL1 platform, and used a 3-PH induction motor/single-speed transaxle with Lead-Acid batteries which performed well compared to similar ICE compact cars and had a very respectable 100-mile range. Later NiMH models bumped that up to 160 miles.

mnem
*tzzzzzzzt*

Wasn't that one of the Saturns with ABS body panels that were almost impossible to dent?

McBryce.

[mansaxel]

the Peugeot is on strike and is picketing a priorité à droite junction

Found it!

[Specmaster]

For old-school sparkies that take pride in knowing how to correctly wire using wirenuts and screw terminals

Wirenuts are shit. They take ages to connect, they are impossible to mix wire types in, they do not re-use safely, they're big and bulky.

Wagos aren't US crapola quick-connect devices.

US, the country of mains plugs built from wet cardboard and pot metal. And a conservative working class full of know-it-alls standing lower-jaw-deep in technical debt that they Stockholm Syndrome love to death. 

fighting words, them. 

WTF, those are fighting words. There are many installations here in the UK where wire nuts have been used, and I have come across many such installations, many that have had them in use for many decades and the connections have been perfectly secure. I like to think about Wago's as the electrical equivalent to SMD components on today's circuit boards. Most of us will willingly admit that we seriously have doubts if many or indeed any of today's TE gear will around in say 30 or more years. Compare that with old-fashioned point to point and through hole system of connected TE that so many of us cherish and lovingly restore back to their former glory, case in point is Papa Smurf's and Vince's growing collection of room heating Tek scopes etc.

Of course, Wago's and also SMD devices might stand the test of time, but the fact is that so far they don't appear to be likely candidates for longevity, but only time will tell for sure.

[Neper]

the Peugeot is on strike and is picketing a priorité à droite junction

Found it!

Or this one: code de la route meets Magritte...

[m k]

I think the forum went down for a while earlier this morning 

Ok, then, seeing as the thread is slightly off the rails with all the chatter about driving etc, lets see how many of you will get this question right. About 20 years a go, the BBC had a poll to see what was considered to be the greatest car off all time and these are the contenders:-

McLaren F1
Ford Mustang
Black Taxi Cab
Rolls Royce
E Type Jaguar
Land Rover
Audi Quattro
Fiat 500
Citroen DS

And the winner is 

What a stupid question, every one of those cars is in a different class, it's pointless to compare them.

Think outside the box for once. Yes they are all different, like chalk and cheese, everyone can see that. The whole poll was based on what the cars meant to the presenter of each car and their reasons for them presenting the car as the best car in their eyes. To coin a phrase, "Sweet cheese and crackers" we all have our own ideas of what is the best car that suits us, otherwise we would all be driving the same bloody cars. So the task at hand here is to try and guess what car did the BBC audience vote for, and it wasn't only restricted to UK viewers as many BBC programs are sold to other countries as well, so the result is more of an international flavour, and the cars reflect that as well, so which car was voted as the best?

(out of the box)
Trabant 601, Wartburg 353, Moskvitsh 408 Elite, UAZ-452 Bread Loaf.

[mansaxel]

Of course, Wago's and also SMD devices might stand the test of time, but the fact is that so far they don't appear to be likely candidates for longevity, but only time will tell for sure.

My house is chock full of screwed connections and wire nuts. We, too, had them, in the 70s when it was built. You can still buy them. And the Schneider/Thorsman "Torix" brand probably is the best wire nut around, but it still is clearly inferior to a 221 clamp.  I have no doubt that wire nuts can be made to work, but they will suffer from slowness, high requirement for operator skill, inability to mix wire layups, space issues and rework/reuse problems.  I will never again fit a wire nut if it can be avoided. The elevated price of the 221 clamps is not a problem; they are so much more convenient.

SMD, too, will work very well. It is easier to get right in manufacturing, sturdier, and better built. Just a tad complicated for ham-fisted half-blind people like me. It is much more a question if it was done well, than with which technique it was done, as long as the method is sufficiently evolved. Tek ceramic hardwire is good enough. Glass-fiber through-hole PCBs is good enough, especially if it is conformally coated. And, SMD on glass-fiber boards will also be OK.  Spider-web oldschool hardwire, pertinax PCB's and counterfeit SMD components won't, but that's application error, not a problem with the concept.

Anyway, in all those cases, it will be the caps that betray us.

[mansaxel]

Or this one: code de la route meets Magritte...

Wonderful! Can I guess (from your previously disclosed roving grounds) that it's northern France? Mine was from  Rians, in Var, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, but is actually pretty common all over France.

[Robert763]

Bugger, sort of. Made a silly offer on a bit of Time Nut TE earlier this evening. Now it’s TEA. 
A Yokogawa TA520 Time Interval Analyser. £90 inc. Shipping.   
At least it’s not a boat anchor. I really don’t need more timenuttery stuff and was not expecting the offer to be accepted. It’s coming from a TE business and is supposedly refurbished.
(random pic from web)

[Neper]

Wonderful! Can I guess (from your previously disclosed roving grounds) that it's northern France?

It is indeed. Merlimont Plage, a few miles South of Boulogne, in 2004. Remodelled almost beyond recognition, in the meantime:

https://www.google.com/maps/@50.461353,1.5823613,3a,30y,286.97h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sTVcySuFI84m6mzdPBKvStQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

[Specmaster]

Bugger, sort of. Made a silly offer on a bit of Time Nut TE earlier this evening. Now it’s TEA. 
A Yokogawa TA520 Time Interval Analyser. £90 inc. Shipping.   
At least it’s not a boat anchor. I really don’t need more timenuttery stuff and was not expecting the offer to be accepted. It’s coming from a TE business and is supposedly refurbished.
(random pic from web)

You clearly need to step away from the keyboard otherwise your in danger of filling another garage full of items sitting in your repair queue.

[BU508A]

Wonderful! Can I guess (from your previously disclosed roving grounds) that it's northern France?

It is indeed. Merlimont Plage, a few miles South of Boulogne, in 2004. Remodelled almost beyond recognition, in the meantime:

https://www.google.com/maps/@50.461353,1.5823613,3a,30y,286.97h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sTVcySuFI84m6mzdPBKvStQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Instead of this

Code: [Select]

[url=https://www.google.com/maps/@50.461353,1.5823613,3a,30y,286.97h,86.62t/data=]https://www.google.com/maps/@50.461353,1.5823613,3a,30y,286.97h,86.62t/data=[/url]!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sTVcySuFI84m6mzdPBKvStQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
you should use this:

Code: [Select]

[url=https://www.google.com/maps/@50.461353,1.5823613,3a,30y,286.97h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sTVcySuFI84m6mzdPBKvStQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192]https://www.google.com/maps/@50.461353,1.5823613,3a,30y,286.97h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sTVcySuFI84m6mzdPBKvStQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192[/url]

[Neper]

Done. Thanks.

[Zucca]

WTF, those are fighting words. There are many installations here in the UK where wire nuts have been used, and I have come across many such installations, many that have had them in use for many decades and the connections have been perfectly secure. I like to think about Wago's as the electrical equivalent to SMD components on today's circuit boards. Most of us will willingly admit that we seriously have doubts if many or indeed any of today's TE gear will around in say 30 or more years. Compare that with old-fashioned point to point and through hole system of connected TE that so many of us cherish and lovingly restore back to their former glory, case in point is Papa Smurf's and Vince's growing collection of room heating Tek scopes etc.

Funny every 2/3 weeks we need to ram our horns with "WAGO" vs "Wire Nuts".
As stated before the brain who is using the tool IS the crucial factor, as in many other cases.

That said it is more easy to do an improper installation with "Wire Nuts" rather than "WAGO".

All the rest falls in the speculation and/or personal taste bucket. 

[Cerebus]

the Peugeot is on strike and is picketing a priorité à droite junction

Found it!

Or this one: code de la route meets Magritte...

... c'est ma femme.

[Robert763]

Bugger, sort of. Made a silly offer on a bit of Time Nut TE earlier this evening. Now it’s TEA. 
A Yokogawa TA520 Time Interval Analyser. £90 inc. Shipping.   
At least it’s not a boat anchor. I really don’t need more timenuttery stuff and was not expecting the offer to be accepted. It’s coming from a TE business and is supposedly refurbished.
(random pic from web)

You clearly need to step away from the keyboard otherwise your in danger of filling another garage full of items sitting in your repair queue.

Probably, but remember where you are 
At least this does not need repair and is not a duplication of something I alrady have. I am getting the time nut bug again. Maybe an infection from the two GPSDO's and Racal standard /distribution amp I found when I got to the back of the garage.

[AVGresponding]

Hmm I may have inadvertantly cued myself up for a jammy-git award. Scored a box of random old RS stock for £25 shipped, and these things are always a bit of pot-luck, but the first items out of the box are already good.

There's a tube of about 20 LT1062CN8, these are £7+ at Mouser, loads of oddball TTL and CMOS including at least 1x 74LS155 which istr someone on here needing recently?

It'll take a while to sort through this box, it's packed, must be 5kg+!

Too much to sort through completely tonight; I need an early night as I've an early start in the morning.

Here are the highlights so far.

Aside from the obscure TTL and CMOS, there's a fair bit of jellybean stuff, like LM358's, 2N3053's, but there's some real gems, such as 9x LM301AH, 4x MC1436G, a couple of BNC to binding post adapters, some trimming tools, a 8880 gas discharge display driver, some strain gauges and an amplifier, a vernier knob for a panel mount multiturn pot, a bunch of reed relays, some 4mm binding posts, some Vero boards for mini rack mount prototyping, some very obscure and obsolete 6-pin TO-18 FETs WD402 (dual matched? idk, will have to find a datasheet), some 16-pin ceradip 6330 fuse programmable PROMs which I'm guessing are used, as they have hand written part numbers on them, some 4-pin TO-18 transistors I can't yet find a reference to (MT101B), some 1N823 zeners (meh, only 500ppm), oh, and this stowaway from Deutschland!: