Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Peter_O]

in case you missed, here the hp 35665a service manual

Peter_0 already knows...

Uploaded it to HO4BB. Will take some time to appear.

[Cerebus]

As I said "I've been looking at dashcams that have three wire power feeds", I don't think I could have made it any plainer. I know that they have three wire feeds, it's part of my selection criteria because I want it on the car battery, not the internal battery, when it is recording in parking mode.

I have no doubt that you have been looking at 3 wire options, but I'm having difficulties finding any at that price point you mentioned. The BMW ones cost around the £500, and as you rightly said, some of that cost will be for the BMW badge on them  but not £300 surely not 

Just an example: Blackvue DR590X 2 channel (i.e. with separate rear camera) £240 at Halfords plus about £30 for the hardwiring kit - 1080p front and rear. I haven't set a price point yet, necessarily, it's just that I objected to the BMW's £500 for a dashcam roughly equivalent to that but with only a front camera.

Quite rightly so, you want the parking mode to be on the car battery supply, not the dashcam's internal battery, if indeed they even have one. I've seen loads that only have a super cap, which is not capable of powering it for longer than a few minutes on its own. Really designed to enable you to remove the dashcam and snap a few photos in the event of an accident occurring, to assist your claim.

So if you have some details of these dashcams with 3 wire control, I'd very much like to see the details please as I'd like to consider getting one myself so my car can have some extra protection while it is sat outside on the road 

When I've got it down to a list I'll let you have a copy. I'm currently still at the stage of looking for models with suitable features, getting all the specs (which can be much harder than it ought to be - marketing bullet points,  yes, - proper specs, harder) and trawling YouTube for examples of real life footage. After all, the things are no bloody use unless you can read the number plate of a hit and run driver, eh?

Ugh, this takes me back to compiling "Features Tables" in my PC Magazine computer review days. A tedious, pain in the arse job, that always took too long.

[mnementh]

They used to say, that naughty TEA members go to hell after death - everything is exactly the same except interests include biotech and apartment size is like Japanese hotel bathroom. Apparently on rare occasions this may happen also before death, with SEM, centrifuge, -84c freezer, sequencer, autoclave and other torture devices arriving early...

So you're saying... you actually use a electrophoresis power supply for its intended purpose, rather than torturing TE and tinkering with hollow-state circuits...?

How many do you own...?

Oh, and welcome to the nuthouse, CNG. Good to see people de-lurking! 

The neverending taco truck in the corner is missing bean, so do give it a thumbs-up if you visit; I've been doing straight Columbian Supremo for a few days now, as I'm needing the boost.  Papa Smurf has been arguing with fans again, so be prepared to avert your eyes in case of booty-fab. bd139 is doing hard time in the command center, but we see him from time to time in the Discord, so we know he's alive. If you see Vince battling *NIX, give him a hand, willya?  The crusty old Aardvark in the corner is mostly harmless, but watch out for extension cords in random locations... and I'm up to my elbows in storage bins again; I may resurface sometime soon! 

mnem

[Cerebus]

Just taken delivery of the fattest appliance flex I've ever personally owned. 3 x 6.0mm² + 2 x 0.5mm² cores. Five metres and weighs about 4kg!



Now I can go to the shops and get a free charge at a couple of my local supermarkets. With electricity currently a bit north of £0.20 per kWh here in the UK, and going up in the near future no doubt, that probably adds up to a bigger discount than using the supermarket loyalty card.

For those who were rightfully expressing discomfort at flexes of a mere 1.5mm² being rated at 13A you can be comforted by the thought that this monster is only rated at 32A. My car will in fact only pull 16A, but I decided to effectively derate the cable myself (for lower I²R losses) and also having a 32A rated cable means that I'm in the position to help someone else out who needs the higher rating if need be. These 'type 2' EV cables actually have a resistor attached to the signalling wires that allows the vehicle and charging point to determine the cable rating and negotiate a safe charging rate.

[mnementh]

I have been looking around for a Spectrum Analyser for a little while now, nothing too fancy, but being bit of a fan of HAMEG equipment, I like a few from their range, being the HM-5006 and HM5011 which are 500MHz and 1050MHz Analysers with built in Tracking generators.

But in my travels, ive found what appears to be a near identical Chinese clone, on aliexpress, sold as a MEILI SM-5011, £670 to the door inc taxes etc.

Not sure if its worth taking a risk on it. All kinds of questions can be raised about its quality, but im not finding much online regarding these clones.

Certainly have the money burning a hole in my pocket for it!

The HM30xx SA are pretty basic analog units with limited performance. They are more like a panoramic recever than a measuring instrument. A SDRPlay receiver and software would give similar results.
What is your use case? Need to know more to make specific recommendations.
If you have a bit more space any of the older HP "portables" will have higher performance. A new Siglent is not that much more than a clone of an obsolete design.

I looked around and it appears the same model is sold under a number of "China-direct" labels in versions from ~500MHz to ~1GHz. The whole thing has a very "Feeltech" feel about it, if you know what I mean; even the same cheesy "greige" grey-beige plastic.

Here's a 1-page datasheet I found:

mnem

[mnementh]

But, I doubt that "nearside" & "farside" are current usage anywhere else---after all, the Poms call the mudguards (OK, "fenders') "wings"!

Noooo the mudguards may well be called wings but never fenders, those we call bumpers 

Wait....you call "fenders" as "bumpers" then what do you call the proper "bumpers" at the front and rear? Help me out here. I want to understand. 

You Brits are funny. 

The bumper is the bit at the front and back of the car, they used be metal and chromed years ago. You Yanks called them fenders as I understand it and hence the term "fender bender" for an accident as the bumpers would be bent. 

Nope. And I see where the confusion is. We called the bumpers same as you described. But when the bumper got it hit it would get bent (pushed in) and contact the fenders (the bodywork over the wheels) and typically cause them to buckle out. Hence the term "fender bender"

Well, that and the fact that the most common types of 2-vehicle MVA occurs at an intersection or while parking, and the vehicles don't collide head-on. At least one vehicle usually gets hit on the side, such that their bumper is often not involved at all.

These accidents are usually low-speed impacts, so little chance of personal injury; hence the phrase "minor fender-bender".

mnem
*t-boned 3 times* is not a fun club to be in.

[mnementh]

When I restored the Type 105 a few weeks ago one of the items that I couldn't fully resolve was the excess slop in the armature of the cooling fan. The result is that sometimes it bangs back and forth generating noise. I knew I had this fan from the Type 310A fan mount project which I had replaced with a DC fan. Twice I went out in the garage shuffling through all the TE totes and couldn't find it. Well yesterday after reorganizing that mess I found it, naturally. 

Here it is all pulled apart. I'm just interested in the bushings. They aren't in the best of shape either but I figure if I double up on the spacers I can get rid of most of the slop in the Type 105 fan. Later today I'll pull that fan apart and install additional spacers and see what happens.

For those playing along at home, who might not have a donor motor to rob for bushings:

If you're in a bind you can hand-cut washers for these small induction motors from 2 liter soda bottles or gallon milk jugs; both plastics hold up well to wear and the usual light oils.

Also note that many of these motors use a small nylon or polypropylene (I think) button inside the back bearing cap as a thrust bushing. These can often fall out on the bench and never noticed when the motor is disassembled.

Keep an eye out for that little gawddammitt!

mnem
 

[mnementh]

A very quick post, that will be lost amongst all this car crap. 

Tek 422 with AC/DC power option is now working again.        

You may now resume the usual motor vehicle related nonsense.

Are you gonna make a battery pack too? What solution if so...?

mnem
                         
I vote for 18650s and commodity BMS module...

Not sure what to do with that part yet, sadly as the original batteries are gone, that also means the frame that held them in place, with the built-in connections is also missing, no pictures on Tek wiki, the only reference is in the manual.

It did come with both the AC power cord & an unused DC power cord, here are some pictures together with the AC/DC PSU boards that aren't on Tek wiki...

   

David

Interesting... so it supports DC power from internal and external battery? Or is the external DC cord to go to a charger for the internal battery? Or is this unknown ATM...?

I love the way that thing is made... very creative PCB design all in layer-cake layout, and all that translucent FR4 with gold-plated traces... so very "Space-Race era"... 

mnem
 

[TERRA Operative]

Spot the difference.

 

I am very much a happy panda tonight. 
(Especially after finding a pin snapped off the PCB on the HDD, a touch with the soldering iron had it all fixed)

[Vince]

HD now 

[SoundTech-LG]

I need to check my 422...

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/vintage-tek-restoration-pictures-by-martin/msg927235/#msg927235

nice teardown/repair...

[TERRA Operative]

HD now 

Yup, finally...

Just installed the Java runtime, now I just need to go find as many software packages as I can...... They seem a little difficult to find online..

[med6753]

Just taken delivery of the fattest appliance flex I've ever personally owned. 3 x 6.0mm² + 2 x 0.5mm² cores. Five metres and weighs about 4kg!



Now I can go to the shops and get a free charge at a couple of my local supermarkets. With electricity currently a bit north of £0.20 per kWh here in the UK, and going up in the near future no doubt, that probably adds up to a bigger discount than using the supermarket loyalty card.

For those who were rightfully expressing discomfort at flexes of a mere 1.5mm² being rated at 13A you can be comforted by the thought that this monster is only rated at 32A. My car will in fact only pull 16A, but I decided to effectively derate the cable myself (for lower I²R losses) and also having a 32A rated cable means that I'm in the position to help someone else out who needs the higher rating if need be. These 'type 2' EV cables actually have a resistor attached to the signalling wires that allows the vehicle and charging point to determine the cable rating and negotiate a safe charging rate.

I'm unfamiliar with the charging stations you see scattered about. Do you pay a "flat rate" to charge up (unlimited time) or do they charge your vehicle for a certain amount of time then shut off? Or is the amount needed to charge 100% actually metered? Or a different scheme?   

[m k]

The installer fails BU !

See below...   

Anyway, at least I managed to make a bootable USB stick, get the laptop to boot from it, and Linux managed to load so.... it's still a victory.

So I will try other Linux install disks until I find one that works...
I am very curious to understand why the fuck the Ubuntu ISO can't boot, it's nonsensical.

If memory serves ISO is optical disk image and not bootable by it self.
CD boot needs a special floppy image that loads optical file system and continues from there.

So ISO is not necessary a HDD boot image and memory stick is a HDD.
To counter that you need one bootloader more, or a file that is a HDD boot image, what can be that extra bootloader and an ISO combined.
It seems I can't remember how that kind of a bootable stick is seen by the machine, maybe it's a CD.
There were also some drive letter swappings or something like that but can't remember that any better.

With HDD images you have few options, BIOS or UEFI, MBR or GPT and actual file system.
Usually it seems to be UEFI, GPT and FAT32 or BIOS, MBR and what ever.
Google is so full of user level boot stuff that more closer technicalities seems to be somewhere else.

The whole hassle is because booting is something that is included in hardware and when CD booting became a necessity hardware was already there in millions.
Then came USB and its booting, and hardware was already there in billions.

There are also some other things, like AMT SOL.
(googling it may give pimples)

BTW,
I had once far eastern winter tires too long, one's lumbar section will tell.
The problem was that they were too long lasting.
Means that they are finally very hard and very bad, specially side grip is next to none.

BTW2,
Tek Type 516 situation is rather old, maybe it's not valid anymore.
Maybe it wasn't any more valid earlier either.

[Cerebus]

I'm unfamiliar with the charging stations you see scattered about. Do you pay a "flat rate" to charge up (unlimited time) or do they charge your vehicle for a certain amount of time then shut off? Or is the amount needed to charge 100% actually metered? Or a different scheme?

Charges, if you're charged at all, are typically based on kWh transferred, just like paying for domestic electricity. Rates vary quite a bit around the country from and what little time I've spent looking at it they are highly unpredictable - I've seen £0.40/kWh in "nowhere special" to £0.17/kWh in Belgravia (one of London's most expensive districts for just about everything else). By comparison, my general domestic tariff is a smidgeon over £0.20/kWh.

Some vendors also charge a time based fee for sitting there not charging to discourage you from leaving it to charge and then tying up the charger after your charge has finished.

Some of the supermarkets here have installed completely free charge points (Sainsburys, Tescos) to encourage trade from skinflint EV/hybrid owners (e.g. me) and/or to bolster their 'green' credentials.  Some of the supermarkets have installed paid charge points on the same networks that operate commercial points in general (Lidl, Morrisons).

[Ice-Tea]

Heh. Lidl over here is free

[med6753]

I need to check my 422...

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/vintage-tek-restoration-pictures-by-martin/msg927235/#msg927235

nice teardown/repair...

My Type 422 is S/N 022032 so I assume it's FET vertical pre-amp because I never checked. The scope worked when I got it and while I did re-cap the AC only supply the only other action that was needed was minor adjustments of the vertical compensation which fell into place with no issues.

[AVGresponding]

They used to say, that naughty TEA members go to hell after death - everything is exactly the same except interests include biotech and apartment size is like Japanese hotel bathroom. Apparently on rare occasions this may happen also before death, with SEM, centrifuge, -84c freezer, sequencer, autoclave and other torture devices arriving early...

Blade Runner anticipated that 40 years ago (gulp), with the odd-parts man in a freezer in a shop like Akihabara/Lisle St.

Wait until the script kiddies use DNA as their script

This is already a reality with CRISPR Cas-9 technology.

Just taken delivery of the fattest appliance flex I've ever personally owned. 3 x 6.0mm² + 2 x 0.5mm² cores. Five metres and weighs about 4kg!



Now I can go to the shops and get a free charge at a couple of my local supermarkets. With electricity currently a bit north of £0.20 per kWh here in the UK, and going up in the near future no doubt, that probably adds up to a bigger discount than using the supermarket loyalty card.

For those who were rightfully expressing discomfort at flexes of a mere 1.5mm² being rated at 13A you can be comforted by the thought that this monster is only rated at 32A. My car will in fact only pull 16A, but I decided to effectively derate the cable myself (for lower I²R losses) and also having a 32A rated cable means that I'm in the position to help someone else out who needs the higher rating if need be. These 'type 2' EV cables actually have a resistor attached to the signalling wires that allows the vehicle and charging point to determine the cable rating and negotiate a safe charging rate.

Use of 1.5mm² for extension cables/flat-fours/sixes etc has so many weasel words it's unreal. Personally I wouldn't use it at anywhere near that kind of load if it's longer than a couple of metres. It beggars belief that manufacturers can get away with selling 25m reel extensions by including a few lines of small print that no domestic user will ever read.

Since you've worked in entertainment (unless I'm mixing you up with someone else on here) you'll be familiar with the fun* of coiling 16mm² 5-core (or similar) flex back up after use...

[mansaxel]

Since you've worked in entertainment (unless I'm mixing you up with someone else on here) you'll be familiar with the fun* of coiling 16mm² 5-core (or similar) flex back up after use...[/color][/size][/b]

You don't coil it. You push it into a figure-of-eight. If you coil it, you have a winder, and you feed the winder from a figure-of-eight you made first.



That's 10mm ø 50Ω coaxial cable (Messi & Paoloni or SSB Technic) but the principle is similar.

[TaylorD93]

I have been looking around for a Spectrum Analyser for a little while now, nothing too fancy, but being bit of a fan of HAMEG equipment, I like a few from their range, being the HM-5006 and HM5011 which are 500MHz and 1050MHz Analysers with built in Tracking generators.

But in my travels, ive found what appears to be a near identical Chinese clone, on aliexpress, sold as a MEILI SM-5011, £670 to the door inc taxes etc.

Not sure if its worth taking a risk on it. All kinds of questions can be raised about its quality, but im not finding much online regarding these clones.

Certainly have the money burning a hole in my pocket for it!

The HM30xx SA are pretty basic analog units with limited performance. They are more like a panoramic recever than a measuring instrument. A SDRPlay receiver and software would give similar results.
What is your use case? Need to know more to make specific recommendations.
If you have a bit more space any of the older HP "portables" will have higher performance. A new Siglent is not that much more than a clone of an obsolete design.

I looked around and it appears the same model is sold under a number of "China-direct" labels in versions from ~500MHz to ~1GHz. The whole thing has a very "Feeltech" feel about it, if you know what I mean; even the same cheesy "greige" grey-beige plastic.

Here's a 1-page datasheet I found:

mnem

Yes its pretty much an identical match to the old Hameg HM5011 model, so i suspect its a clone with perhaps lower quality components or perhaps dodgy CRT's as i cant imagine there are many manufacturers out there anymore for that type of CRT.

Main planned usage is for filter design/testing, maybe a little bit of tinkering with RF (something id like to get into). I also have a few switch mode PSU's that i want to repair/use which have some nasty switching harmonics, my scope cannot quite detect them correctly and id like to experiment with different filters and sniffing out noise sources to try and improve the designs (things are built to a cost, so if i can spend a few more £££ to make them better, why not?)

[Cerebus]

Use of 1.5mm² for extension cables/flat-fours/sixes etc has so many weasel words it's unreal. Personally I wouldn't use it at anywhere near that kind of load if it's longer than a couple of metres. It beggars belief that manufacturers can get away with selling 25m reel extensions by including a few lines of small print that no domestic user will ever read.

I was at a garden party (i.e. summer barbie and piss-up) at a friends place who clearly wasn't a reader. An extension of this type:



that was only pulling a few amps, nothing close to the full rating, melted, shorted, and left a puddle of PVC and copper that when it cooled made a perfect mould of the inside of the case.

I'm please to note that the only photos of that style of extension reel that I could find all have obvious thermal cutouts on nowadays.

Since you've worked in entertainment (unless I'm mixing you up with someone else on here) you'll be familiar with the fun* of coiling 16mm² 5-core (or similar) flex back up after use...[/color][/size][/b]

I have had that dubious pleasure.

[factory]

A very quick post, that will be lost amongst all this car crap. 

Tek 422 with AC/DC power option is now working again.        

You may now resume the usual motor vehicle related nonsense.

Are you gonna make a battery pack too? What solution if so...?

mnem
                         
I vote for 18650s and commodity BMS module...

Not sure what to do with that part yet, sadly as the original batteries are gone, that also means the frame that held them in place, with the built-in connections is also missing, no pictures on Tek wiki, the only reference is in the manual.

It did come with both the AC power cord & an unused DC power cord, here are some pictures together with the AC/DC PSU boards that aren't on Tek wiki...

   

David

Interesting... so it supports DC power from internal and external battery? Or is the external DC cord to go to a charger for the internal battery? Or is this unknown ATM...?

I love the way that thing is made... very creative PCB design all in layer-cake layout, and all that translucent FR4 with gold-plated traces... so very "Space-Race era"... 

mnem
 

Might have helped if I had posted the picture of the cover. 


The extra cable is for an external DC source of 11.5V to 35V, it does not charge the missing internal batteries.
The charger circuit is quite simple, a two transistor voltage regular giving 27.1V to charge from the mains, or 26.7V with the scope running at the same time. There is a thermal switch that will trickle charge once the Ni-Cds have been grilled.  And a low voltage indicator circuit that is only connected when it's running from the batteries.


There is plenty of room for adding LiFePO4 cells (the original would have had 20 D cells), I need to find out more about the BMS for charging them and if I could reduce the amount needed to keep the costs down.

P.S. there might be some differences to the circuit diagram on Tek wiki, as it's for S/N above 20000, mine is 3404.

P. P. S. If I read the book correctly, the low voltage indicator is set to flash the power lamp when the batteries get down to 22V.

David

[Robert763]

<SNIP>


Yes its pretty much an identical match to the old Hameg HM5011 model, so i suspect its a clone with perhaps lower quality components or perhaps dodgy CRT's as i cant imagine there are many manufacturers out there anymore for that type of CRT.

Main planned usage is for filter design/testing, maybe a little bit of tinkering with RF (something id like to get into). I also have a few switch mode PSU's that i want to repair/use which have some nasty switching harmonics, my scope cannot quite detect them correctly and id like to experiment with different filters and sniffing out noise sources to try and improve the designs (things are built to a cost, so if i can spend a few more £££ to make them better, why not?)

@TaylorD93
Is size a concern? What is the lowest frequency you want to look at?
The Hameg or its clone are not best "bang for the buck"
To do the filters you do of course need the tracking generator.

[TaylorD93]

<SNIP>


Yes its pretty much an identical match to the old Hameg HM5011 model, so i suspect its a clone with perhaps lower quality components or perhaps dodgy CRT's as i cant imagine there are many manufacturers out there anymore for that type of CRT.

Main planned usage is for filter design/testing, maybe a little bit of tinkering with RF (something id like to get into). I also have a few switch mode PSU's that i want to repair/use which have some nasty switching harmonics, my scope cannot quite detect them correctly and id like to experiment with different filters and sniffing out noise sources to try and improve the designs (things are built to a cost, so if i can spend a few more £££ to make them better, why not?)

@TaylorD93
Is size a concern? What is the lowest frequency you want to look at?
The Hameg or its clone are not best "bang for the buck"
To do the filters you do of course need the tracking generator.

Size is not much of a concern, but the Rigol DSA815-TG seemed to be quite a small form factor being a modern bit of kit.

As i said before, i do like a bit of Hameg kit, owning a fair few of their Analog CRT Scopes, but the only HM-5006 (500MHz SA + TG) or HM-5011 (1GHz SA + TG) on ebay are over £1500, for which money i could get the above mentioned Rigol.

Budget is say around £600, which is why the Chinese Clone of the HAMEG caught my eye. Ive also seen a few HP Portables on ebay, but they tend to be broken or in need of calibration which is a bit out of my league given my other test equipment on the bench.

[mnementh]

<SNIP>


Yes its pretty much an identical match to the old Hameg HM5011 model, so i suspect its a clone with perhaps lower quality components or perhaps dodgy CRT's as i cant imagine there are many manufacturers out there anymore for that type of CRT.

Main planned usage is for filter design/testing, maybe a little bit of tinkering with RF (something id like to get into). I also have a few switch mode PSU's that i want to repair/use which have some nasty switching harmonics, my scope cannot quite detect them correctly and id like to experiment with different filters and sniffing out noise sources to try and improve the designs (things are built to a cost, so if i can spend a few more £££ to make them better, why not?)

@TaylorD93
Is size a concern? What is the lowest frequency you want to look at?
The Hameg or its clone are not best "bang for the buck"
To do the filters you do of course need the tracking generator.

Size is not much of a concern, but the Rigol DSA815-TG seemed to be quite a small form factor being a modern bit of kit.

As i said before, i do like a bit of Hameg kit, owning a fair few of their Analog CRT Scopes, but the only HM-5006 (500MHz SA + TG) or HM-5011 (1GHz SA + TG) on ebay are over £1500, for which money i could get the above mentioned Rigol.

Budget is say around £600, which is why the Chinese Clone of the HAMEG caught my eye. Ive also seen a few HP Portables on ebay, but they tend to be broken or in need of calibration which is a bit out of my league given my other test equipment on the bench.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/384771285289

EDIT: Oh, I see... you're wanting the 5011, not the 5010. 

mnem