Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Robert763]

May be best.
According to keysight it's a 5mm pitch
https://www.keysight.com/my/partDetail/1253-5826
The one AVGresponding linked to is 5.08mm (0.2").

This looks better
https://www.phoenixcontact.com/en-gb/products/pcb-plug-mstb-25-4-stf-1786857

[Saskia]

I know, this may sound strange to you.
but there is a good reason for going with that original Keysight labelled atuff: liability. not holding an EE degree someone could actually say that I was negligent in obtaining something which does not have the original part number if indeed something went wrong. Problem is: without the EE degree I would have considerable burden of proof. I won't by using original parts for
the PSU.
for this amount of money involved it is not worth taking any risk. Why am I so anal about it ? cut I been there done that...

[25 CPS]

In the GWN, plates can only be acquired at the Ministry of Transport office (provincial, not federal).  Last time I checked, regular random plates were a bit less than $200.  That office runs a monopoly, so charging for plates is a source of revenue.

A trailer is considered to be a separate vehicle and gets its own plate number.  In Ontario, I used to be able to switch the trailer plate between trailers.  Now that I am in Quebec, I need a different plate for each trailer.

Our plates used to be aluminum, stamped and then painted with a metalic somewhat reflective paint.
The new plates are still aluminum, but are no longer stamped and only painted with a paint that peels off in 2-3 years. 
The authorities were not concerned with not being able to identify the vehicle for traffic act safety matters, but only concerned about the fraud matters that toll cameras could not automatically invoice the vehicle owner. 

You probably heard about the epic fail here in Ontario with the Doug Ford flat blue license plates with white letters that couldn't be read at night under a pretty wide variety of lighting conditions.  The scandal dragged on until they finally reverted to the previous stamped blue letters on white background aluminum that had been in use for ages.  That was after the whole series of problems with a bad run of plates that started with the letter B in the four letter, three number format (B@@@ ###) that's in use right now where all the paint faded and peeled off incredibly quickly as if the license plates were doing their impression of the "I'm melting" scene in The Wizard of Oz.  And more recently, the scrapping of the registration sticker fee followed by the refund cheques that got mailed out right before the election campaign started.

Here, specialty plates are not necessarily vanity plates.  There is no fee to get your amateur radio license put on your license plate.  A true vanity plate will cost several hundreds of dollars.

I'm not a ham radio operator.  If I was a ham radio operator, I'd be very reluctant to put the call letters on my plate since it's so easy to obtain so much publicly registered information from that callsign.  That said, I thought about doing a vanity plate on one of my cars but I decided to leave them generic, at least for now.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Pendulum is what remains of the TE part of Philips Teleindustrier AB in Järfälla, later Fluke, (the T&M alliance times) so there's a lineage to the Philips counters of yore.  The rest of Philips Teleindustrier in Sweden is now SAAB, and they make defence electronics, mostly integrated battle management systems for naval use, like for submarines (the actual Kvikkalkul application, even though rumour has it they write in Ada. ) .

And (supposed I don't mix up things) a shoulder weapon called "Carl Gustaf". The Swedish variation of "Panzerfaust".

Only true in a VERY general sense. It works by different principles (true rocket motor) and is nowadays mostly used in a slightly different application (GP support including but not limited to AT).

This Kwikkalkul beats even APL in terms of weirdness.

[med6753]

Got other equipment off bench 2. Type 547 on it's side. Bottom plate off. Then decided to go do something else. So if booty is your thing here's some luscious bottom pron for your viewing pleasure. 

[AVGresponding]

May be best.
According to keysight it's a 5mm pitch
https://www.keysight.com/my/partDetail/1253-5826
The one AVGresponding linked to is 5.08mm (0.2").

This looks better
https://www.phoenixcontact.com/en-gb/products/pcb-plug-mstb-25-4-stf-1786857

Yeah, ok? I did point out to check the pitch. The RS link was to the first one I saw in 5 whole seconds of searching. I'd be amazed if it isn't in stock at some German electronics supplier or other, which is the main point I was making.

[AVGresponding]

I know, this may sound strange to you.
but there is a good reason for going with that original Keysight labelled atuff: liability. not holding an EE degree someone could actually say that I was negligent in obtaining something which does not have the original part number if indeed something went wrong. Problem is: without the EE degree I would have considerable burden of proof. I won't by using original parts for
the PSU.
for this amount of money involved it is not worth taking any risk. Why am I so anal about it ? cut I been there done that...

That's fine, and I don't find it strange at all; I'm familiar with certain constraints of procurement procedures. Nevertheless, when you receive the part (outside the bounds of any official procurement chain I ever saw, btw), you will find no Keysight markings on it; it will be marked with the manufacturers name and part number, namely Phoenix Contact etc etc.

[capt bullshot]

This Kwikkalkul beats even APL in terms of weirdness.

Yes, looks like programming by smileys

[med6753]

I know, this may sound strange to you.
but there is a good reason for going with that original Keysight labelled atuff: liability. not holding an EE degree someone could actually say that I was negligent in obtaining something which does not have the original part number if indeed something went wrong. Problem is: without the EE degree I would have considerable burden of proof. I won't by using original parts for
the PSU.
for this amount of money involved it is not worth taking any risk. Why am I so anal about it ? cut I been there done that...

That's fine, and I don't find it strange at all; I'm familiar with certain constraints of procurement procedures. Nevertheless, when you receive the part (outside the bounds of any official procurement chain I ever saw, btw), you will find no Keysight markings on it; it will be marked with the manufacturers name and part number, namely Phoenix Contact etc etc.

Be it known that Papa Smurf's Shade Tree Parts Service is listed on the NYSE and has 1 stockholder (me) so her procurement is legit and above board. 

[capt bullshot]

It's always interesting to see stuff from ones past appearing on ebay:



Note the line "BETA 000102 ..."
There's probably one person in the world who knows what that means (now guess who )
A normal customer shouldn't have an unit showing this "BETA".

I nosed a bit around in this sellers history of sold items and found a few more gems that I know too well , and I know where Dornburg is, though I don't have an idea who this seller is, I do know where he's got the items from:



BTW, if one bothers to buy this item, you can ask me for support ...

[Robert763]

Pendulum is what remains of the TE part of Philips Teleindustrier AB in Järfälla, later Fluke, (the T&M alliance times) so there's a lineage to the Philips counters of yore.  The rest of Philips Teleindustrier in Sweden is now SAAB, and they make defence electronics, mostly integrated battle management systems for naval use, like for submarines (the actual Kvikkalkul application, even though rumour has it they write in Ada. ) .

And (supposed I don't mix up things) a shoulder weapon called "Carl Gustaf". The Swedish variation of "Panzerfaust".

Only true in a VERY general sense. It works by different principles (true rocket motor) and is nowadays mostly used in a slightly different application (GP support including but not limited to AT).

This Kwikkalkul beats even APL in terms of weirdness.

Err, no, the CG is a recoilless rifle not a rocket launcher. There are rocket assisited rounds available for it but they are not the norm. The CG uses a venturi type recoil system. The mass of gas ejected from the rear balances the recoil. It also has a rifled barrel, most true rocket systems use fin or jet stabilisation.
I did have a basic training session on the CG (the old heavy M2) many many years ago but have never fired one.

[mnementh]

...
Remember boizz and grrlzz... ALWAYS write down your measurements!

mnem
This PSA brought to you by angry pixies running down a wire.

The proper procedure:
1. Measure it with a micrometer
2. Mark it with a chalk
3. Cut it with an axe
4. Cut it again and find it's STILL too short.
 

There... FTFY.   

mnem
*hack-ily*

[Neomys Sapiens]

I have just ordered several Lemo connectors which are needed for my Philips instruments and G.Gay peak voltmeters. My ears are still twitching massively and will probably not stop doing this today. Their pricing is really up in the cloud and I am used to work with MilAero-Parts.
Speaking of which, I was delighted to win a nice assortment of Milspec tantalum caps, which are packaged entirely in glass. I had seen them before, but had none available. They are a nice alternative to the usual Milspec tants (metal barrel  and glass feedthroughs). The glass seal should ensure long term reliability. Although I am a bit baffled, as I can't match them to a specification right now.

[Vince]

HP 120B scope update

It's dry now, so put it back on the bench.

Re-installed the CRT.

Went to re-install all the tubes then realized oh no... many of them have only the European style designation marked on them, so had to Google them all to figure out the American designation number.

Resoldered a couple wires that broke.

3...2....1... FIRE ! 

... no smoke, no bang... looks like tubes are lighting up... no tragedy ?! How can that be ?! After such an intense and hour long cleaning session, it's not smoking ?!    GOOD !!!! 

First I checked all the power rails of course...

Negative 150V reference rail still there and spot on.
18V rail for the beam rotation still there.
300V still there, still a tad high as it was before, but well within spec.
Then looked at the 100V rail... 35V ! 
This rail is derived from the 300V. Just a triode pass element dropping it to 100V.
Checked voltage at the grid of the triode... was good. OK so the triode is dead.
It's a 6U8 (which contains both a triode and a pentode). This was the tube I didn't have in "stock" in my Tek collection, so had to buy a dirt cheap (15 Euros or something IIRC, shipped !) x16 lot of NOS ones from Russia. Well looks like this one didn't last very long did it... no worries, having so many of them now, and for so cheap, I don't mind if I have to reject half of them, still a good deal ! 

So I picked another one and that fixed it, 100V rail is back up, great.

Then I went straight at the CRT HV board of course, to see what the situation was. Still the same. Zero HV, not a sausage.
Then I replaced the 6AQ5 oscillator tube by a black one, now I know the black colour doesn't in any way mean it's bad.

Well guess what ? There is progress !
The input grid now measures at 150V, still not the 92V it should be, but way better than the 300V I got before !
Then measured the output grid (it's a pentode so lots of grids there...), and great improvement there as well : I used to have positive one volt or so, instead of negative 123V. Now I get negative 80 volts ! That's MUCH more like it !!! 

So since we are in much better shape than before, though still way off, I thought hey maybe this thing is alive enough to try to cough "some" HV, oscillate a little bit. And it does ! We have HV !!! 

Still no trace on the screen because it's not HV-ing enough. Missing about one kV. I measure about -1650V instead of -2500V.

So looks like the 6AQ5 was indeed dead, and this replacement used black one is now willing to oscillate and produce some HV... just enough.
So maybe it's just tired and the problem will be fixed once I replace it with a healthy NOS one.. we shall see, crossing fingers ! If not, well more trouble-shooting will have to follow !    But since I lost HV all of a sudden, and the tube was dead it now seems... it's statistically unlikely that there is another issue that declared itself at the exact same time (except cascaded failures scenario of course, though here I don't see what that could be).
So chances are high that a NOS tube will fix the HV. I am sooo impatient to receive these new tubes ! Tracking said they left early this morning, a hub in Lyon.. that's at the other end of the country.... so I am not expecting my tubes this week.. or maybe Saturday if I am lucky.

EDIT : just reloaded the tracking page, my tubes that were in Lyon at 2AM, now at midnight are in Nantes, my local hub ! That was quick !
So I might get them today ! Well... tomorrow most likely... but maybe today !.. or not... but maybe I will, who knows ! 

Crossing fingers and toes !

[mnementh]

can one of our US colleagues grab https://www.ebay.com/itm/333567035126 for me and put it into an envelope ?

Would be highly appreciated. Would take 2 of those. details via pm

Thnx

Hmmm... Since we recently discussed the generic versions of this connector, I'm guessing maybe you're looking at this kit primarily for the jumpers? 

If so, they look suspiciously like ATM or ATR series fuses to me. Might be less assache/expense to source locally (or borrow one from your vehicle for size trial) than ordering these from the US.

mnem

I know  in general, the green connector I got from Peter fits, but cannot be secured  die to lack of terminals. The sense jumpers are just a piece of metal.
Datatec is behaving like a prick. they refuse to send me those bits which they did not declare as missing when I bought that bloody PSU module. I could of course say that this was not as advertised,but doing so would cut me off from my only source of spares. nevertheless I very much want a complete kit, and this seller does not send overseas.
I know I can improvise, otoh it's not worth the hassle if the original part is easily available.
which is why I am asking ...

Ahhh, fair enuf. Had no idea you were using "at work"; thought you were intending to use "at home".
 
Thanks for helping out, med! 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

And Now for Something Completely... ON-TOPIC!

   https://www.ebay.com/itm/304467178603


So this afternoon, the UPS dood brings a package while I'm building my new woodworking bench... since I already have the cutoff grinder in my hand doing a little booty-fab on pieces of the drawers for the bench, why the eff not channel Uncle bumbleFuck for a minute...? 

The carton certainly doesn't look best built... and the contents seem to be a bit loose inside... Ehhh...




...but at least there is bubble-wrap and foam on all sides of the thing, unlike some other items I've received off the Bay of Evil.    And fortunately, the seller did put the bail perpendicular to the face of the scope, so it provides as much protection as possible.




D'aww, jeez... It's like déjà vu all over again. Exactly the same damage as my 54645A.    But looking again at the pics on the listing, it's entirely possible that is exactly how it was when he took the pics; this angle is conveniently not represented. 

While it is likely the stellar packing job made things worse, there certainly is not anything obvious enough for a "Not as Described" dispute. This scope was described as "many bruises and bumps", and in one pic I think I can actually see the edge of this crack.  I had some passing notion of possibly using this bezel to restore my 54645A; with the darker grey plastic on this one and looking so dingy and the damage, the 54645A actually still looks better overall.




IT LIVES!!!

Powers right up, decent brightness clearly readable even in daylight, and no funny sounds or smells. I thought I saw a hopeful bulge in the pouch in one pic, but alas... not an original HP probe...



...but rather, some ancient FLUKE software and bits from a old Tek 30MHz 1X probe. If you ever bought a old scope and wondered where the grabbits off the probes wound up... here they are!     Okay... time to drag it down to the dwagon-cave and on the bench...




Aside from the CRT not centered in the bezel and the ERASE button not registering, it passes all self-tests and I can get into the HPIB Menu, so that's alive. When I have more time, I'll get into the hidden service menus and make sure everything looks shipshape there.




When I saw this clear skin peeling off in one of the listing pics, I originally thought to just pull it all off and maybe spray the label with some clear acrylic sealer. Unfortunately, some of the printing has transferred to the clear skin, and it all looks pretty wretched unless you hold the skin right tight against the label; then it actually looks half decent. I have some 3M photo fixing spray adhesive; if it proves to be clear-clear, I may try and reaffix the skin with that.

The brightness knob was a 90-second fix with hot air gun followed by toothbrush/IPA; now it's the best looking part of the scope.   

A full teardown and more pics will be forthcoming; but right now I need to get back to building that workbench.

Cheers!

mnem

[Cerebus]

Be it known that Papa Smurf's Shade Tree Parts Service is listed on the NYSE and has 1 stockholder (me) so her procurement is legit and above board. 

Haven't you shortened that? I was sure that it was "Papa Smurf's Shade Tree Parts Service and Massage Emporium".

[med6753]

Be it known that Papa Smurf's Shade Tree Parts Service is listed on the NYSE and has 1 stockholder (me) so her procurement is legit and above board. 

Haven't you shortened that? I was sure that it was "Papa Smurf's Shade Tree Parts Service and Massage Emporium".

Only after normal business hours. 

[bd139]

Ok I bought something already. It's cheap, it's shit, but it has LEDs and runs off 12V DC and has no unobtainium parts but it's Griefkit and I felt sorry for it . But has tinker value and can totalise...

I've an Agilent U1604A with a dead front end if you get bored...   

Or perhaps a dead Tek 465? 

I’ve mentally cleansed myself from previous Tektronix repairs now so I am ready for another 4xx 

I am strictly purchasing old kit now. Old, mostly discrete and analogue or TTL etc where possible.

[med6753]

I’ve mentally cleansed myself from previous Tektronix repairs now so I am ready for another 4xx 

I am strictly purchasing old kit now. Old, mostly discrete and analogue or TTL etc where possible.

Glory be.....you ARE a new man. 

[Specmaster]

So this afternoon, the UPS dood brings a package while I'm building my new woodworking bench... since I already have the cutoff grinder in my hand doing a little booty-fab on pieces of the drawers for the bench, why the eff not channel Uncle bumbleFuck for a minute...? 

The carton certainly doesn't look best built... and the contents seem to be a bit loose inside... Ehhh...




...but at least there is bubble-wrap and foam on all sides of the thing, unlike some other items I've received off the Bay of Evil.    And fortunately, the seller did put the bail perpendicular to the face of the scope, so it provides as much protection as possible.




D'aww, jeez... It's like déjà vu all over again. Exactly the same damage as my 54645A.    But looking again at the pics on the listing, it's entirely possible that is exactly how it was when he took the pics; this angle is conveniently not represented. 

While it is likely the stellar packing job made things worse, there certainly is not anything obvious enough for a "Not as Described" dispute. This scope was described as "many bruises and bumps", and in one pic I think I can actually see the edge of this crack.  I had some passing notion of possibly using this bezel to restore my 54645A; with the darker grey plastic on this one and looking so dingy and the damage, the 54645A actually still looks better overall.


mnem

As the  original photos never showed that damage and the poor packing (that had plenty of room to slide about in that carton and build enough inertia to do that damage in transit), I'd be inclined to stick a claim in for "not as described" and see what transpires.

[mnementh]

               meh...

Honestly, can't be arsed. I knew I was taking a gamble given it had only pics of the front and back. I'm usually very picky about pics from all angles. Like I said; I bought the GPIB/Acquisition module as it adds complex math functions and FFT to the 546xxx series scopes.

The 54600A just came along as packing material; any fun I may have ironing the kinks out of it is just gravy.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

I’ve mentally cleansed myself from previous Tektronix repairs now so I am ready for another 4xx 

I am strictly purchasing old kit now. Old, mostly discrete and analogue or TTL etc where possible.

Scope out your old friends, the 546xxx family on fleaBay... I've seen quite a few in working condition going for very reasonable money ($100-150) lately. Buy it, just put it to work fixing what you wanna work on or fix something better and flip it.

Don't pull a Vince and pass on a 54621D for 50quid cuz "It sez Agilent (Yuckyputz!) and it has fugly knobs!"

mnem
*agitating-ily* 

[nixiefreqq]

I’ve mentally cleansed myself from previous Tektronix repairs now so I am ready for another 4xx 

I am strictly purchasing old kit now. Old, mostly discrete and analogue or TTL etc where possible.

Scope out your old friends, the 546xxx family on fleaBay... I've seen quite a few in working condition going for very reasonable money ($100-150) lately. Buy it, just put it to work fixing what you wanna work on or fix something better and flip it.

Don't pull a Vince and pass on a 54621D for 50quid cuz "It sez Agilent (Yuckyputz!) and it has fugly knobs!"

mnem
*agitating-ily* 

fess up.   you only bought it for tetris.

(press and release print/utility.   then simultaneously press the 2nd and 3rd keys from the left)

[mnementh]

I’ve mentally cleansed myself from previous Tektronix repairs now so I am ready for another 4xx 

I am strictly purchasing old kit now. Old, mostly discrete and analogue or TTL etc where possible.

Scope out your old friends, the 546xxx family on fleaBay... I've seen quite a few in working condition going for very reasonable money ($100-150) lately. Buy it, just put it to work fixing what you wanna work on or fix something better and flip it.

Don't pull a Vince and pass on a 54621D for 50quid cuz "It sez Agilent (Yuckyputz!) and it has fugly knobs!"

mnem
*agitating-ily* 

fess up.   you only bought it for tetris.

(press and release print/utility.   then simultaneously press the 2nd and 3rd keys from the left)

I can do both!   

mnem
but what does that have to do with me harassing bd139...?