Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

It has arrived.

My review: This is super cool. Get one! 

Surely it is shipped preset to "Bermuda blue"?!

[Neomys Sapiens]

Well, if you sell it the same price I paid for the other one, I'll get that one too 

*Ice-Tea has left the chat*

Thanks Kosmic! Now we have established what we have to do when this guy shows up!

[m k]

Selling?
Elektronik Labor Hameg mit analog/digital Oszilloskop
https://www.ricardo.ch/en/a/elektronik-labor-hameg-mit-analog-digital-oszilloskop-1202562164/

More reasonable.
Tektronix CMC 250 1.3 GHz
https://www.ricardo.ch/en/a/tektronix-cmc-250-1.3-ghz-1191555044/

Reasonable
Frequenzzähler Philips PM 6676 1.5 GHz
https://www.ricardo.ch/en/a/frequenzzaehler-philips-pm-6676-1.5-ghz-1203024034/

Pickup only
HP Network Analyzer 8410A - HP Phase Magnitude Display 8412B
https://www.ricardo.ch/en/a/hp-network-analyzer-8410a-hp-phase-magnitude-display-8412b-1203048744/

Delivery
Bio-Rad: Kurvenschreiber Model 1327
https://www.ricardo.ch/en/a/bio-rad-kurvenschreiber-model-1327-1199222664/

[Ice-Tea]

LED backlight mod.
Not too shabby.

[capt bullshot]

I already got one of those 

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3685504/#msg3685504

Only one? 

What, is it showing off stuff o'clock again?

[capt bullshot]

LED backlight mod.
Not too shabby.

You've mounted the display upside down? All the pixels are gonna fall out.

[Cubdriver]

LED backlight mod.
Not too shabby.

When did you move to Australia?

-Pat

[Ice-Tea]

You've mounted the display upside down? All the pixels are gonna fall out.

Unit is on it's side. So I actually rotated the picture for your viewing pleasure on my laptop. Off, course, the forum decided, well something, at which point I couldn't be arsed anymore 

[TaylorD93]

Few weeks back my work were throwing out a 34401A as it had failed calibration, a number of errors 612, 613 614 and i think 621 too of the top of my head.

It had failed Calibration on all Resistance ranges and AC Volts range, Keysight who had tested it, said it was not financially viable to repair it. so advised us to just replace it wit ha 34461A instead. My manager agreed (he doesnt want any more 34401A's as we cannot buy them brand new anymore only used)

But what really caught my eye was it was a "Keysight" branded unit, so only a few years old at most. So company policy is that you put your name on it if you would like it, wait 2 weeks, then can take it home providing no one else has called dibs!


Opened it up, quick look over it, seems to be ok, although some parts appear to have been replaced already like the Ceramic chip, believe U102, with the precision resistors for the Ohms Current Source. But within a few minutes after reading a 34401A repair thread on here, i found it quickly being a dead AD706 (U201-B). Ive ordered a replacement from RS for £10.

Really hope that is the smoking gun, because £10 for a working 34401A... id say thats a pretty damn good Bargain doesnt matter that i already have a 3457A (not quite the 3458A admittedly)... But the 34401A has a VFD display haha

[tautech]

It has arrived.

My review: This is super cool. Get one! 

Surely it is shipped preset to "Bermuda blue"?!

A while back wasn't beanflying doing these with his little laser etching sheets of acrylic and bottom lighting them with LED's ?
Chatted with him by email a month or two back and he's busy getting his engineering workshop sorted.

[factory]

It has arrived.

My review: This is super cool. Get one! 

Surely it is shipped preset to "Bermuda blue"?!

A while back wasn't beanflying doing these with his little laser etching sheets of acrylic and bottom lighting them with LED's ?
Chatted with him by email a month or two back and he's busy getting his engineering workshop sorted.

I couldn't see them in the points of interest, quite a bit of searching found one of the posts from beanflying, not sure about the Agilent/Keysight (or whatever crap name they choose next) one.

Just a few more SVG's in the Zip file to add to your collections but who wants any of the Keysight and Agilent Rubbish 

Sorted the Tek engrave with bumping the power a touch too. 

David

[factory]

Few weeks back my work were throwing out a 34401A as it had failed calibration, a number of errors 612, 613 614 and i think 621 too of the top of my head.

It had failed Calibration on all Resistance ranges and AC Volts range, Keysight who had tested it, said it was not financially viable to repair it. so advised us to just replace it wit ha 34461A instead. My manager agreed (he doesnt want any more 34401A's as we cannot buy them brand new anymore only used)

But what really caught my eye was it was a "Keysight" branded unit, so only a few years old at most. So company policy is that you put your name on it if you would like it, wait 2 weeks, then can take it home providing no one else has called dibs!


Opened it up, quick look over it, seems to be ok, although some parts appear to have been replaced already like the Ceramic chip, believe U102, with the precision resistors for the Ohms Current Source. But within a few minutes after reading a 34401A repair thread on here, i found it quickly being a dead AD706 (U201-B). Ive ordered a replacement from RS for £10.

Really hope that is the smoking gun, because £10 for a working 34401A... id say thats a pretty damn good Bargain doesnt matter that i already have a 3457A (not quite the 3458A admittedly)... But the 34401A has a VFD display haha

Wonder how long the replacement Keysight 3446xA will last? 
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/keysight-34465a-reliability/

David

[tautech]

It has arrived.

My review: This is super cool. Get one! 

Surely it is shipped preset to "Bermuda blue"?!

A while back wasn't beanflying doing these with his little laser etching sheets of acrylic and bottom lighting them with LED's ?
Chatted with him by email a month or two back and he's busy getting his engineering workshop sorted.

I couldn't see them in the points of interest, quite a bit of searching found one of the posts from beanflying, not sure about the Agilent/Keysight (or whatever crap name they choose next) one.

Just a few more SVG's in the Zip file to add to your collections but who wants any of the Keysight and Agilent Rubbish 

Sorted the Tek engrave with bumping the power a touch too. 

David

Good sleuthing. 
Some more from Bean here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/mechanical-engineering/40w-300x200mm-laser-cutter-engraver-vollerun/

[med6753]

It has arrived.

My review: This is super cool. Get one! 

Surely it is shipped preset to "Bermuda blue"?!

A while back wasn't beanflying doing these with his little laser etching sheets of acrylic and bottom lighting them with LED's ?
Chatted with him by email a month or two back and he's busy getting his engineering workshop sorted.

I couldn't see them in the points of interest, quite a bit of searching found one of the posts from beanflying, not sure about the Agilent/Keysight (or whatever crap name they choose next) one.

Just a few more SVG's in the Zip file to add to your collections but who wants any of the Keysight and Agilent Rubbish 

Sorted the Tek engrave with bumping the power a touch too. 

David

Good sleuthing. 
Some more from Bean here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/mechanical-engineering/40w-300x200mm-laser-cutter-engraver-vollerun/

And I recall at the time stating I wanted one but for some reason never followed up.

[factory]

Guy on Ebay just did as promised a new ad to sell all of his DJET 10mm in a lot, so I can get all his stuff with a single shipping fee :

https://www.ebay.fr/itm/125253262712

19 Euros on offer, I sent an offer for 15, he counter with 17, deal done. Add 6 Euros shipping, for 23 Euros shipped, I get no less than 9 of these ultra expensive switches.

- The SPDT toggle switch and push button I needed
- PLUS no less than 6 DPDT toggle switches, hence very versatile / useful ,  AND.... a QUAD pole double-throw monster !!!! 

Can't wait to receive all that...

Sounds like you sorted, the replacements we used at work were the DPDT ones too if I remember correctly. Apparently I have a used one too, just can't get to the rack, those 1/4W 180Ω resistors are mocking me too  , as I wanted that size yesterday for the Tek 422, no idea why they ended up with the switches.


Seems some sellers have no idea that these tins were for the switches & not cancer causing substances. 
https://www.ebay.de/itm/275134533105


David

[factory]

A digital power analyzer for the Panaplex fans, US only auction*
https://www.ebay.com/itm/353993185981


*that HGR seller did once ship overseas, but no longer does, hasn't stopped them from spamming my "co.uk" email for the last few months.

David

[Cubdriver]

A digital power analyzer for the Panaplex fans, US only auction*
https://www.ebay.com/itm/353993185981


*that HGR seller did once ship overseas, but no longer does, hasn't stopped them from spamming my "co.uk" email for the last few months.

David

Interesting...

-Pat

[med6753]

A digital power analyzer for the Panaplex fans, US only auction*
https://www.ebay.com/itm/353993185981


*that HGR seller did once ship overseas, but no longer does, hasn't stopped them from spamming my "co.uk" email for the last few months.

David

Interesting...

-Pat

Buy it! 

[Cubdriver]

A digital power analyzer for the Panaplex fans, US only auction*
https://www.ebay.com/itm/353993185981


*that HGR seller did once ship overseas, but no longer does, hasn't stopped them from spamming my "co.uk" email for the last few months.

David

Interesting...

-Pat

Buy it! 

I'm sure you'll be shocked to learn that it has been added to my watch list.   

-Pat

[TERRA Operative]

Few weeks back my work were throwing out a 34401A as it had failed calibration, a number of errors 612, 613 614 and i think 621 too of the top of my head.

It had failed Calibration on all Resistance ranges and AC Volts range, Keysight who had tested it, said it was not financially viable to repair it. so advised us to just replace it wit ha 34461A instead. My manager agreed (he doesnt want any more 34401A's as we cannot buy them brand new anymore only used)

But what really caught my eye was it was a "Keysight" branded unit, so only a few years old at most. So company policy is that you put your name on it if you would like it, wait 2 weeks, then can take it home providing no one else has called dibs!


Opened it up, quick look over it, seems to be ok, although some parts appear to have been replaced already like the Ceramic chip, believe U102, with the precision resistors for the Ohms Current Source. But within a few minutes after reading a 34401A repair thread on here, i found it quickly being a dead AD706 (U201-B). Ive ordered a replacement from RS for £10.

Really hope that is the smoking gun, because £10 for a working 34401A... id say thats a pretty damn good Bargain doesnt matter that i already have a 3457A (not quite the 3458A admittedly)... But the 34401A has a VFD display haha

Wonder how long the replacement Keysight 3446xA will last? 
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/keysight-34465a-reliability/

David

Mine for one has already been in for warranty repairs almost exactly after the 3 year mark, luckily I got the 5 year warranty...
I was in the middle of using it and got a white screen and nothing else.
Ended up with a new main board and serial number, along with a free calibration, but loss of one data point of drift and 3 years of aging....... 

[TaylorD93]

snip
Wonder how long the replacement Keysight 3446xA will last? 
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/keysight-34465a-reliability/

David

Mine for one has already been in for warranty repairs almost exactly after the 3 year mark, luckily I got the 5 year warranty...
I was in the middle of using it and got a white screen and nothing else.
Ended up with a new main board and serial number, along with a free calibration, but loss of one data point of drift and 3 years of aging....... 

I dont get it to be honest. At a previous job we had 34401a's which were early examples, circa '95 i believe. But 20 years later they were still going strong. In 2014 we had started to adopt the 34410A instead because of the LXI connection as we were moving away from GPIB and when i left 3 years later we still had no issues at all. These meters were left in Automated Test equipment (19" rack kit) and were left on 24/7 never being switched off.

In our pool of spares (for quick swapping for Calibration) we easily had 10x 34401A's and easily double if not triple that in actual use daily.

In my current job we have moved over to the 34461A only in the past 8 months (mainly because we havent had any new projects in that time, just supporting the older existing test gear), so they are all relatively new build units. So hopefully more reliable than the units ive seen fail in the 34465 dmm thread.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Tadaaa!

Order placed today...

[AVGresponding]

Tadaaa!

Order placed today...

You're buying a Windows CE computer with a floppy disk drive?      

[Cubdriver]

"new" counter on the bench tonight.  Excavated a Computer Measurements Co. Model 880B (appears to be a 'civilian' version of the AN/USM-207 military counter) and powered it up using a suicide cord (it uses a 3 pin MS3102A connector; I *think* I found and ordered a pair of mating connectors on the bay - I'll know in a week or so when they get here).

To my pleasant surprise, when brought up on a variac it came to life without undue fanfare and appears to be working - it'd been sitting in my repair queue for about two years because I hadn't been able to find any documentation for it.  Some deeper searching today revealed it to apparently be the same as the AN/USM-207, and service info for that one IS easily available, so I was motivated to drag it out.  I'll do a more complete takedown and get some better pics of the innards in the future, but it's nice to see it working after a fashion, at least pending further testing.



The HP 5216A is monitoring the 1 MHz oscillator output of the CMC 880B, and I'm not entirely certain of its accuracy - need to pull out one of the OCXO counters, or set up the Lucent rubidium standard.  One of these days...




The nixies used are interesting in that they're dual anode tubes - odd digits on one anode and even digits on the other.  The digits are turned on by SCRs (the five small TO-18 devices near the top of the board adjacent to the tube), with the anodes being switched by a flip-flop (the four large transistors at the bottom left; the two watt resistors connect to the +180 Vdc anode supply for the nixies).  I suspect that the SCRs are switched off when the flip-flop switches and extinguishes whatever segment is lit, cutting off the holding current flow.

Based on the date codes, it looks to be only about six or seven months younger than I am.   

-Pat

Edit - typo

[ch_scr]

Tadaaa!

Order placed today...

You're buying a Windows CE computer with a floppy disk drive?      

And wasn't he about to get one with USB?