Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[TERRA Operative]

Bah humbug. Minimum firmware version for the HDD option is 5.3.

Latest I can find online? 5.2 (what I have in my scope).    fffuuuuuuuuu...


I have a lead on V5.3 firmware, but if anyone here has 5.3 or later, GIVE IT TO MEEEEEE!   

[Vince]

Sorting lab stuff is nearing completion, at least the first pass. Second pass will be required to sort and identify all the semi conductors discrete or IC.

Today I am looking at my pile of salvaged transformers. Well most of it anyway.. I am sure I have a few more burried into my 4 big boxes full of scrap boards.... but I don't feel like emptying them all to find  the few transformers that are hiding in there.

So what should / could I do with these ? Idea as always is to try to be reasonable, pragmatic, and throw everything to save space and reduce clutter.

But I thought hey, miaybe they could be useful in some way that I have not thought about.... who knows. So speak up if you have clever ideas...

I gave up on the idea of salvaging the wires from them, too much trouble... will just go buy a kit of enameled wires of various gauges and call it done.

Also gave up on reusing them to repair stuff.... I am trying to put the a stop to fixing people's stuff, and the transformer is not exactly what dies most often in stuff... and even if, then the chances of finding a suitable one ion my pile, is slim, and would require work to identify it first .. going through all of them, figuring out pinout, figuring out wire gauge/current capabilities, voltages etc... wha ta pain. No thanks.

Could use them in new designs for my own use ? It's not like I was designing stuff day in day out.... maybe at best I would need a transformer per year, who am I kidding, that's optimistic... then I can just order one with the specs I need, no time wasted. small / average size transformers are not that expensive.

So my plan so far.. so far, in an effort to compromise and not throw all of it away is :

GET RID OF :

- Those that came from a switch mde power supply (the ones in yellow) : too specific to be reused.
- Those with two many wires : too much work testing them to figure out their specs, and too low a chance I would need their specific combination of windings.
- The two flyback transformers I salvaged from my old CRT monitors I took apart the other day.... I was thinking of playing with them to make big sparks... but there are two many pins on them, I would screw things up. If I want to make sparks I can just buy a cheap kit designed to do just that... I am sure it exists somewhere in China land for 10 bucks delivered.

KEEP :

- The ones with no specs on them but only one secondary, because pinout is obvious, just need to figure out which is primary which is secondary, which is easy. Then just measure output voltage unloaded, then load it a bit to see, ballpark, how much current I can reasonably get out of them.

- Keep those that have more than just two output wires BUT have the specs and pinout written on it, so I don't have to work figuring it out.


@Dwagon ; don't reply, you will tell me to keep 100% of it and I don't want to ! 

[Cerebus]

...
GET RID OF :

...
- Those with two many wires : too much work testing them to figure out their specs, and too low a chance I would need their specific combination of windings.
...

Don't be too hasty with those ones. If any are from test gear they may be the sort that have several windings for quite common voltages suited to standard 15-0-15 and 0-5V supplies with multiple isolation screens in them. Transformers like that are like hen's teeth and almost impossible to find as standard items from transformer manufacturers. A giveaway would be that the screen taps would be electrically isolated from any other leads on the transformer.

[TERRA Operative]

I junked a handful or two of switchmode transformers a while back, too hard to figure out their specs when bobbins and cores are so cheap anyway.
For mains transformers I kept the bigger and badder looking transformers, especially those with part numbers that were able to be found on google etc, but the little ones salvaged from consumer equipment were tossed as they are basically impossible to find info on.

And then just the other day I picked up a bunch of tube amp power and output transformers from a friend, so I'm now back to square one...

[factory]

I've had two things recently with bad transformers, unfortunately both have multiple secondary windings of low voltage & one higher voltage.
There are a few here I kept from old consumer grade audio/video equipment, which might be useful one day, just wish I had measured the output voltages prior to removing them and had wrote this on them.

Anything vintage can probably be sold if not required, the seller near me that cleared her late husbands TE & HAM collection, sold a whole pile of old/vintage used transformers on ePay and for a lot more than a scrapyard would pay.

I agree the SMPS transformers are not worth keeping.

David

[factory]

It took a while, but after days/weeks of reorganizing and cleaning
The Lab looks like this, proud to share it with you.
Before it is a mess again

Looking good  , but where is the hp 5323A, did I miss it in the video?

David

[mnementh]

@Dwagon ; don't reply, you will tell me to keep 100% of it and I don't want to !     

I'd keep the big ones regardless of tap counts; they're likeliest to have useful current capacity when you need to whip up a temp power supply for something.

SMPS ferrite XFMRs are usually very limited in application; like old motors, I keep a few around just to strip for enameled wire. They break apart with a most satisfying crunch.

Those flybacks with exposed ferrite are the easiest in the world to make a quick sparkity-spark, or even a plasma ball out of a large globe incandescent light bulb, at least until the plasma burns a hole in the envelope. Just 6-12 turns of ~16ga wire around the ferrite, connected to a push-pull oscillator made of AF/PO transistors in the 60V/15A range (or better yet, some salvaged TV HOTs), and you're ready to light shit up!

mnem
I guess today's kids would use a MOSFET driven by a Arduino so they could program it to make music or somesuch shit...

[tautech]

Old mains transformers are generally pretty easy to sort out and more so if they have tag terminals as the winding gauges are normally visible.
Typically the primary is a couple hundy ohms and you just need identify if any of the secondary's are linked or tapped.
Then connect the mains via a DBT and measure all the secondary's then label them and into storage.

[cyclin_al]

We've had a fair roasting this year in Auckland with temps high for weeks longer than usual but as grandma used to say we follow the northern hemisphere so our turn of your stuff is coming but a cold one is a few years overdue.
Never had snow here but have been out in the sleet which is pretty miserable stuff if there's a howling gale with it too.
Don't care much these days as the young ones can work 7 days in the shite like I did for decades but now it's their turn.   

To be honest, I will take a -10C snowstorm anytime, rather than sleet.  Dry snow is not chilling at all with appropriate clothing.  Sleet is incredibly chilling as there is no truly appropriate clothing for such miserable conditions.
I would say that a windy -21C or so is bitter enough to rival blowing sleet.

I dislike being a minion, but I have not graduated to Mike's class, and probably not anytime soon.

Daytime high this week have been between 4C and 10C causing lots of melting.  Any sand or salt applied to the roads tends to wash off or sink to the bottom.  Night time lows this week have been between -14C and -19C turning everything into a skating rink.  Morning commute is very profitable for the tow trucks and auto body repair shops.  Even the dog refused to go on a walk one evening 
At the moment, it is snowing to disguise the ice.

I am not going out today, not even to see a couple of HP 34401A's that just showed up on Kijiji.  Seller offers calibration for extra.  I will ask questions about serial # and hours of use to take a guess at wear of the display?  I think that is the biggest concern with these, besides checking the onboard battery.

[tggzzz]

The worst is where the temperature hovers around 0C. Thawing during the day and refreezing overnight is a recipe for chaos. Staying below 0C is much easier to deal with.

Guess what happens lowland/southern UK

[Peter_O]

I wanted one of these HP8904A synthesizer generators and have been tracking the market for some time now.

Today it arrived and seems to be working fine.   

There is some minor sticker gunk to be removed and some scrateches, but overall it's in great shape.


It's has option 2 installed, which is the 2nd output board. And an original option 1, which is 4 internal channels. You could hack option 1 into the device but obviously not option 2.




It came without feets, but these 'adam hall' ones work fine when there is enough room for a washer and an nut inside, and that's the case here. I use fixing nuts. But will change them for some printed big and flat plastics ones, just in case one would fall off inside ... .



Up- and down inside:





Downside carries the two output boards. Obviously it's possible to change the BNCs to backside for system use.



I saw Devpom's Schaffner filter adventure (time delayed smoke bomb)  on Youtube.
But here there is no IEC socket main filter module. The filter is on the PSU board, and there are three small RIFAs only, which I plan to change, because they are cracked. The electrolytic capacitors are looking fine at first glance.



Might be that somebody has been active on the PSU, there are some "ok"-stickers, one plastic post is broken, and overall I'm not quite sure the PSU is original?!

On the other hand the Keysight calibration sticker were unbroken so the device might be ok-ish from their point of view at some time in the nearer past.



And maybe I should mention, that it took me back just 140 Euros shipped. 

[tautech]

We've had a fair roasting this year in Auckland with temps high for weeks longer than usual but as grandma used to say we follow the northern hemisphere so our turn of your stuff is coming but a cold one is a few years overdue.
Never had snow here but have been out in the sleet which is pretty miserable stuff if there's a howling gale with it too.
Don't care much these days as the young ones can work 7 days in the shite like I did for decades but now it's their turn.   

To be honest, I will take a -10C snowstorm anytime, rather than sleet.  Dry snow is not chilling at all with appropriate clothing.  Sleet is incredibly chilling as there is no truly appropriate clothing for such miserable conditions.
I would say that a windy -21C or so is bitter enough to rival blowing sleet.

Decades ago when pop was still with us a winters morning consisted of driving the tractor to each mob and feeding out conventional bales of hay. Pop drove and I threw out the hay slabs and after one particular sleet event the poor old fella was nearly blue. Sitting down driving with hands on the wheel, no cab, no roof wasn't nice whereas me standing and doing some work on the transport tray was a more attractive task.
Now with big bales and tractor cabs it's a much less tedious task. 

Daytime high this week have been between 4C and 10C causing lots of melting.

We rarely get into the negatives here and winter highs are rarely below 10C which is not too bad as long as you have something to do.

[factory]

...snip...

I am not going out today, not even to see a couple of HP 34401A's that just showed up on Kijiji.  Seller offers calibration for extra.  I will ask questions about serial # and hours of use to take a guess at wear of the display?  I think that is the biggest concern with these, besides checking the onboard battery.

No need to worry about batteries in a 34401A, as they haven't got any.   


David

[Vince]

That pic does not prove anything at all.... battery could be hiding anywhere under that huge shield, or the ribbon cable.

We need better proof than this. Try again....

[ch_scr]

I wanted one of these HP8904A synthesizer generators and have been tracking the market for some time now.

Today it arrived and seems to be working fine.   

There is some minor sticker gunk to be removed and some scrateches, but overall it's in great shape.


It's has option 2 installed, which is the 2nd output board. And an original option 1, which is 4 internal channels. You could hack option 1 into the device but obviously not option 2.
(...)

Why is it so shiny? Why it is so perfect? 

[Peter_O]

I wanted one of these HP8904A synthesizer generators and have been tracking the market for some time now.

Today it arrived and seems to be working fine.   

There is some minor sticker gunk to be removed and some scrateches, but overall it's in great shape.


It's has option 2 installed, which is the 2nd output board. And an original option 1, which is 4 internal channels. You could hack option 1 into the device but obviously not option 2.
(...)

Why is it so shiny? Why it is so perfect? 

Patience is key. And with this one it was not clear if it would run at all. So you need to like some risk.

Did I mention that it passed all selftests.   

[srb1954]

I wanted one of these HP8904A synthesizer generators and have been tracking the market for some time now.

It's has option 2 installed, which is the 2nd output board. And an original option 1, which is 4 internal channels. You could hack option 1 into the device but obviously not option 2.

Make sure to check the battery. The enabling code for the options is stored in battery backed RAM. If the battery goes flat the options are also lost.

And maybe I should mention, that it took me back just 140 Euros shipped. 

A great deal.

[tonyalbus]

It took a while, but after days/weeks of reorganizing and cleaning
The Lab looks like this, proud to share it with you.
Before it is a mess again

Looking good  , but where is the hp 5323A, did I miss it in the video?

David

Thank you David!
That HP and some other equipment is stored downstairs in the guestroom
i have to much stuff...i made a selection of what i 'use'

[tonyalbus]

I wanted one of these HP8904A synthesizer generators and have been tracking the market for some time now.

Today it arrived and seems to be working fine.   

There is some minor sticker gunk to be removed and some scrateches, but overall it's in great shape.


It's has option 2 installed, which is the 2nd output board. And an original option 1, which is 4 internal channels. You could hack option 1 into the device but obviously not option 2.
(...)

Why is it so shiny? Why it is so perfect? 

Patience is key. And with this one it was not clear if it would run at all. So you need to like some risk.

Did I mention that it passed all selftests.   

Nice find Peter,
i also have one, just in, i traded for my Owon XDM2041 i was not using.
it is hugh!!
its the dual output like yours seems to be too.

[capt bullshot]

...snip...

I am not going out today, not even to see a couple of HP 34401A's that just showed up on Kijiji.  Seller offers calibration for extra.  I will ask questions about serial # and hours of use to take a guess at wear of the display?  I think that is the biggest concern with these, besides checking the onboard battery.

No need to worry about batteries in a 34401A, as they haven't got any.   

David

Yes I know. I didn't even have to open one up, as there's there's the full schematics in the service manual. I've got dead tree format one with the first 34401A.

[TERRA Operative]

Replacement DS1486 NVRAM built, waiting on RAM chips for the DS1250Y, I just hope I got the layout correct... These PCB's were pricey due to the 0.2mm spacing...

[AVGresponding]

Replacement DS1486 NVRAM built, waiting on RAM chips for the DS1250Y, I just hope I got the layout correct... These PCB's were pricey due to the 0.2mm spacing...

c/w bonus fingerprint on the cell...

Did you use rechargeable coin cells?

[AVGresponding]

Winging its way to me...

[Robert763]

Nice,
I love the Greenpar interseries adaptators/ I have a couple of the little "commercial" kits and that one's big brother.
Also attenuators and matching pads. They are good to about 2-3 GHz

[Insatman]

I had one of those kits back in the day at work.  Until I lent it to someone and half of it's components went missing.