Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Vince]

VOLTAGE REGULATORS

At least, I've sent him two Tesla MAA723H. 

Tesla what ?!  I thought they made cars ?! 
No that wasn't me ! You sent me a bunch of 709 op-amps....
(running to the bench to check them)... OH !!!!!
The two cans that have a yellow dot instead of the red dot all the others have.... they are NOT 709  they are these Tesla 723 !!! 
Oh my bad ! You sent me even more stuff than I had realized !!: 



Google found me the datasheet for them but it's written in some funky language I just can't understand, attached. Eastern European country maybe.... I don't know
I guess it's  a 723 voltage regulator then... with special specs ?

I do like to use the datasheets from TI (LM723, see attachement).
There is another one from TI for the uA723, attached it as well.

If you want to have a look at the die, check out this thread: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/lm723-die-pictures/

For more details, check out the website from Wolfgang (TEA fellow here as well): https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/power-supplies/a-collection-of-proper-design-practices-using-the-lm723-ic-regulator/

OK thanks, so regular 723 then. With such a brand name and mysterious/exotic looking Cyriliic datasheet, I though maybe they were some special kind of 723 hence I needed to know what was special about them.

Thanks for the links, beautiful pictures of the die... hoping to get microscope at some point, I am hoping I can see dies close up as well... can't wait.

BTW slight correction, you didn't send me MAA723H but regular MAA723 .... the better ! I mean if decypher the datasheet properly, the non-H version has all around better/tighter tolerances than the 'H' version.

Philistine! These are hermetically sealed MIL-Spec 723's in a TO-99 case, not some plastic dipshit package!

Good to know, thanks 

OK so I can now add them to my spreadsheet and put them in my drawer unit with all the other VR. Now I can move on and start sorting / identifying all beefy my power diodes, another daunting task...



EDIT :  just Googled and found this article on Wikipedia about lots of TO-XX packages. There is even a pic of that very MAA723 would you believe it, and they say it's a TO-76 not TO-99.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TO-5#TO-39_/_TO-9_/_TO-16_/_TO-42

The TO-99 is a " flatter " can but the MAA723, I can confirm this, has a taller can that looks just the same dimensions as a TO-39 trannystor... just with more pins.  Don't know if that's any relevant as to whether the can is sealed or not ?!

Of note in the article is that some TO packages, like this MAA723, have a  built-in  little "spacer" underneath them, to make them stand proud about 1mm above the circuit board surface... for ventilation/cooling reasons I guess ?! 

You learn a little something every day.

[Zucca]

I like my wallpaper 

My wallpaper is everywhere solid black, so save energy :-)

[mnementh]

   I like my wallpaper 

My wallpaper is everywhere solid black, so save energy :-)

mnem
All things in moderation...

[Zucca]

Yup... this is normal for a 3-prong plug in the US; depending on the unit, GND and N may need to be tied together inside the dryer. If you only connect the GND terminal, on many models the motor will not run. Only recent (well, like last 20 years) construction/renovation is required to have 4-prong outlet/plug so that GND and N are kept properly separate. But hey! At least we have a GND/N on our 220V outlets, unlike a lot of old wiring across the pond.

Bingo! It's a freaking 4-prong outlet/plug.... I did not want to fight or start a discussion, that guy was not in the position to understand anything. He was just doing what he was told to.
Should I contact the company and make them aware?

[mansaxel]

Uggghh... HVAC misery. We're still having problems with the upstairs AC, but while we try to find a different AC tech who knows his/her ass from a hole in the ground, I'm trying to at least modernize enough to use smart thermostats so we can have periodic air circulation. This means pulling new wires that have enuf conductors for the COMMON back to the XFMR that the T-Stat needs.

Oh, and both AC units are relay-relay logic, with wire-nutted connections. And the AC units are not only on a different leg of the mains from the boiler, they're actually on a different CB panel, which may be a separate feed into the house; so far I can't tell.

Means probably choosing AC unit or boiler to power the smart T-stat, then isolating the other via relay(s).

mnem
Fun, fun, fun... 

In sensible countries, having dual feeds into a house is illegal.

Mine is 3x25A 230/400V 50Hz. TESLA power. Not Edison suckage.

Wirenuts oughta be illegal.

Relay-logic is probably just fine, but not likely optimized.

Donning the electro system flamewar retardant suit

[mnementh]

Yup... this is normal for a 3-prong plug in the US; depending on the unit, GND and N may need to be tied together inside the dryer. If you only connect the GND terminal, on many models the motor will not run. Only recent (well, like last 20 years) construction/renovation is required to have 4-prong outlet/plug so that GND and N are kept properly separate. But hey! At least we have a GND/N on our 220V outlets, unlike a lot of old wiring across the pond.

Bingo! It's a freaking 4-prong outlet/plug.... I did not want to fight or start a discussion, that guy was not in the position to understand anything. He was just doing what he was told to. Should I contact the company and make them aware?

*dwagon mega-cringe*   

Yes, absolutely; that is not to code here in the US. The entire point of the 4-wire pigtail is to keep GND and N separate. Doing this makes the GND a current-carrying conductor. BIG no-no!

mnem
 

[bd139]

I like my wallpaper 

My wallpaper is everywhere solid black, so save energy :-)

Only if it’s an OLED screen. Might as well enjoy that energy you paid for otherwise 

[Zucca]

Mine is 3x25A 230/400V 50Hz. TESLA power. Not Edison suckage.
Wirenuts oughta be illegal.

Even there when somebody install something in your home, would you do not double check?
No matter where you are on this planet, always double check if it something related to mains...

That said, yes. Europe is another planet compared with USA regarding mains.

[mansaxel]

Mine is 3x25A 230/400V 50Hz. TESLA power. Not Edison suckage.
Wirenuts oughta be illegal.

Even there when somebody install something in your home, would you do not double check?
No matter where you are on this planet, always double check if it something related to mains...

That said, yes. Europe is another planet compared with USA regarding mains.

Last thing that was installed here is a smart meter. Yes, I monitored the installation. While running an extension cord across the street to the neighbour, so my marginal UPS could survive the event...

[Zucca]

Only if it’s an OLED screen. Might as well enjoy that energy you paid for otherwise 

So OLED black = OLED White in power consumption?
https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-heres-why-dark-mode-massively-extends-your-oled-phones-battery-life/

I am not an OLED expert so please explain, I wanna learn.

PS: BTW, dark screen is cool for me... I like my eyes on white are watering all the time....

[mnementh]

Uggghh... HVAC misery. We're still having problems with the upstairs AC, but while we try to find a different AC tech who knows his/her ass from a hole in the ground, I'm trying to at least modernize enough to use smart thermostats so we can have periodic air circulation. This means pulling new wires that have enuf conductors for the COMMON back to the XFMR that the T-Stat needs.

Oh, and both AC units are relay-relay logic, with wire-nutted connections. And the AC units are not only on a different leg of the mains from the boiler, they're actually on a different CB panel, which may be a separate feed into the house; so far I can't tell.

Means probably choosing AC unit or boiler to power the smart T-stat, then isolating the other via relay(s).

mnem
Fun, fun, fun... 

In sensible countries, having dual feeds into a house is illegal.

Mine is 3x25A 230/400V 50Hz. TESLA power. Not Edison suckage.

Wirenuts oughta be illegal.

Relay-logic is probably just fine, but not likely optimized.

Donning the electro system flamewar retardant suit

"I dunno" means "I dunno"; I really can't tell without crawling up there where it comes in.

Lazy-electrician WAGOs outta be illegal, just like backstab outlets.   

Relay-logic will be just fine, as it will be optimized by smart T-Stat control.

mnem
Fuxxor the electro system flamewar retardant suit... dwagons are fireproof. 

[Peter_O]

this is sick and perverted.

and yet........i am tempted to take a walk on the wild side.


https://paxer.net/voyager/

There's a decent GPL HP15 emulator, the one I normally use on my desktop...
H E W L E T T · P A C K A R D 15C
A Simulator for Windows, Linux and macOS
COPYRIGHT © 1997-2014, Torsten Manz Home page:  http://hp-15c.homepage.t-online.de

Or for Android...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.efalk.rpncalc

Ugh doesn't support high DPI on macOS. Works fine though, if a little blurry.

Still got my eye on a DM42

The question is, what makes your trigger finger itchy when seeing this:



RPN? The programmabiliy?

No. It's the iconic design and remembering the perfect key touch and feedback.

For me the reason to having bought this preloved 11C from the 80s last year. Works like new.

A 15C is nothing more than that, if you do not need the plus features. No more design, no more touch. Just the knowledge to have the best ever. If that's important for you: Go for a vintage 15C.

[mnementh]

Only if it’s an OLED screen. Might as well enjoy that energy you paid for otherwise 

So OLED black = OLED White in power consumption?
https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-heres-why-dark-mode-massively-extends-your-oled-phones-battery-life/

I am not an OLED expert so please explain, I wanna learn.

PS: BTW, dark screen is cool for me... I like my eyes on white are watering all the time....

Backlights are on all the time on LED screen; well, dynamic contrast does turn some zones darker or brighter... But still, if you're looking at say a Office document on a LED screen it is gonna all be lit up; the LCD panel blocks that light selectively, so small variation in current draw from all-black to all-white.

OLED only illuminates the pixels that are active, so large swing in current draw from all-black to all-white.

mnem
*heeds the siren call of Homeowner Hell*

[Zucca]

Thanks mnem and bd, I miss understood bd post. Mea maxima culpa.

It makes sense now....

[bd139]

There is one weird exception on my laptop. Mini-LED. The backlight is 8000 LEDs which turn on and off behind a diffuser and LCD

[dl6lr]

Already have been on discord, now available here for your amusement.
How not to pack TE for shipping, part 473:

[mansaxel]

Already have been on discord, now available here for your amusement.
How not to pack TE for shipping, part 473:

Did it survive?

I got my 5441 scope in a standard moving box. Only padding was the dust cover. The "we deal with the messy parts of selling" intermediate is what GSP was when it only was "we charge a premium for breaking up and removing padding from shipments", only worse, and the seller carries the cost. Once, I got a microphone in a Jiffy bag. It survived; it's a Sennheiser 845 and those are built like Leopard 2 MBT's.

[dl6lr]

Already have been on discord, now available here for your amusement.
How not to pack TE for shipping, part 473:

Did it survive?

Yes, fortunately it did. Good old -hp- quality, a 4952A protocol analyser with heavy hours on the CRT. eBay seller from France I had been dealing with before, first time it was very well packed on a pallete, but maybe the logistics did this for him? Will avoid further TEA from him...

[bd139]

this is sick and perverted.

and yet........i am tempted to take a walk on the wild side.


https://paxer.net/voyager/

There's a decent GPL HP15 emulator, the one I normally use on my desktop...
H E W L E T T · P A C K A R D 15C
A Simulator for Windows, Linux and macOS
COPYRIGHT © 1997-2014, Torsten Manz Home page:  http://hp-15c.homepage.t-online.de

Or for Android...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.efalk.rpncalc

Ugh doesn't support high DPI on macOS. Works fine though, if a little blurry.

Still got my eye on a DM42

The question is, what makes your trigger finger itchy when seeing this:



RPN? The programmabiliy?

No. It's the iconic design and remembering the perfect key touch and feedback.

For me the reason to having bought this preloved 11C from the 80s last year. Works like new.

A 15C is nothing more than that, if you do not need the plus features. No more design, no more touch. Just the knowledge to have the best ever. If that's important for you: Go for a vintage 15C.

That makes other things itchy.

I remember talking to an IFA about 20 years ago. He had a 12C and his fingers were yellow stained up to the palms. His lungs were even darker.

New and shiny please 

[Saskia]

Headache misery. I think I overdood it yesterday on da kayak.
for those playing along at home: it's a rusty Wilderness Ride 135 with about 80 lbs gross weight, very wide to float even the bulkiest dames ...
Did 90 minutes of paddling and was quite worn out when done.
Today I have a headache. And a cold.
Overslept, have skipped the past 10 pages of the forum, I confess, yes ...

Anyone in Duitsland interested in a ZD-987 soldering/desoldering gizmo which is about new ? and coming from the returns bench ? Or a 3D printer ? Or a Red Pitaya Diagnostics kit ? PM me.

Have some vermin in one of the Jeffreys tubes / crawlways in 1st floor. Need to think of a way to get rid of it without causing too much damage to the house. Obviously a claymore is not an option.

[tggzzz]

I remember talking to an IFA about 20 years ago. He had a 12C and his fingers were yellow stained up to the palms. His lungs were even darker.

Not as dark as his soul! They are one of the classic examples of "they only lie when their lips are moving".  They don't necessarily know that, of course. Many genuinely believed that low cost endowmemt mortgages were better than repayment mortgages, since that's what they were trained to say and they hadn't done the obvious calculation.

Occasionally, when someone has seemed ashamed about their "lowly" job, I've told them their job is useful, honourable, and at least they aren't financial advisors.

[Vince]

JUNK STEREO REPAIR (final) UPDATE

Well I phone my friend to hell him about the bad news. He said no worries you tired at least...

His wife still wants the thing back since it belongs to work / retirement home, not hers. Plus, the radio and turn table are still working...

And the CD player is also kinda working.... kinda. She was complaining about that part as well, on top of the USB issue.

Problem was the open/close button was hard at hearing at the best of times, and when it did hear you, the tray would do weird things...

so I though hey, let's see if I can fix that at least.... no luck with that either 

1) Open/close button : I pressed it2 hundred times to exercise/clean it, see if that would improve things. Didn't... at all. Now it's 100% unresponsive. No worries, I will just replace that switch. Board is easy to remove from the cabinet, and it's standard tactile switch, have lots in stock. So I pull that board and inspect the switch... no cracked solder joints hmmm.... buzzed it... eh ? It works just fine, doesn't miss a beat !    Shit, not a simple fix then, what gives...  So I start reverse engineering the thing, hoping that would be quick. Again no luck here, gave up on it ! There are 6 buttons, not a whole lot so I was hoping it would be simple with a common and individual pull-ups then go straight to a dedicated I/O pin on the CPU for each button. Sure looked like it at first, with the ground plane clearly being common to all witches.
So then tried to locate the pull-up for the switch.... no luck. contact goes to one resistor... then buggers off to a 0R jumper resistor, then buggers off much farther to... 3 more resistors and a cap... then fro that point still no connection to nay pn on the CPU, so there mus be more circuitry involved. These last resistors also were connected to a connector /flat flex that supplies another Keypads board lower down in the cabinet.  I fear there must be some analog multiplexing / fuckery going on, with the two boards intertwined. IOW, unless I am given schematic, it's hopeless. So I gave up on that... no more CD player on this stereo


2) Tray problem : found the problem. Not a broke/damage loading gear, not a tired belt... instead, underneath the tray there are teeth disposed in a straight line, that the motor meshed into. Well, the middle third of this toothed area is... absent, gone, broken off, disappeared, like someone took a hammer and hit them on the side to get them to break off of the tray. wow...
So since the first third was OK, the player was able to START opening the tray, then it stop and the motor would spin free, not being able to grip the tray anymore. So if you pulled the tray by hand then the motor gear would be able to catch again and complete the opening of the tray using the remaining teeth on the last third.

So. Tray is not repairable, open/close button neither.... total fail on the CD player as well !  This stereo really didn't want to live did it !
Date code on the CPU board says April 2016, so about 6 years old.. and already unrepairable in several accounts.  And they dare to sell this thing still TODAY, for freaking 120 Euros !!! 

At least the radio part still works.. but it's such a piece of shit, the user interface drove me nuts after just 10 seconds. The speed of the tuner is... slower than a 80 year old snail in a squeaky wheel chair.


So she will come to puck that turd soon... and maybe give another  something.... she said there is a grand pa / pentionner  in that retirement home that's got a borken CD player, one of his this time, does not belong to the retirement home.  Drawer problems again, she said. I said bring it I will have a quick look you never know... idea is to declare the thing dead and ask to keep the unit to salvage the parts as I always do with stuff I am given that I fail to fix.... that's also why I keep accepting to look at broken old consumer stuff... most of the time it's not repairable and I get to keep the thing, si I can take it apart to keep the electronic stuff and scrap the rest just as soon.  Thing is, here you are not allowed to take old electronic junk from the scrap yard. Everything is stored in a  special container for recycling and you are not allowed to steal stuff from it... I tried, got burned. I got caught on camera and the guy running the site screamed at me....
So my only source of scrap boards/parts is the junk I am given to repair.

[bd139]

I remember talking to an IFA about 20 years ago. He had a 12C and his fingers were yellow stained up to the palms. His lungs were even darker.

Not as dark as his soul! They are one of the classic examples of "they only lie when their lips are moving".  They don't necessarily know that, of course. Many genuinely believed that low cost endowmemt mortgages were better than repayment mortgages, since that's what they were trained to say and they hadn't done the obvious calculation.

Occasionally, when someone has seemed ashamed about their "lowly" job, I've told them their job is useful, honourable, and at least they aren't financial advisors.

Yes indeed. FSA FAMR and RDR eviscerated that class of IFA fortunately. They scurried off to more honourable positions like sex trafficking, estate agency and grave robbing where they don't have to justify their commission and objectivity.

Technically I actually spent the last decade and a half replacing the infernal bastards with accountable systems. Tee hee.

I feel happier about my existence now.

[mansaxel]

Headache misery. I think I overdood it yesterday on da kayak.
for those playing along at home: it's a rusty Wilderness Ride 135 with about 80 lbs gross weight, very wide to float even the bulkiest dames ...
Did 90 minutes of paddling and was quite worn out when done.

I spent the entire weekend sailing. Not in anything fancy, but in the kind of boat that makes you really work to get it moving.



Those are two different boat types, the orange one is a "Torekov Dinghy", built by Malmö Flygindustrier in the early 70s. Handles like a lead coffin. Takes a seasoned pro to sail. To the left it's an "Avanti", by the boats/bikes/mopeds manufacturer Monark-Crescent. Considerably better and funnier boat, even has a keel so does not drift downwind like crazy when tacking.

Slept outside too:



That's a Hennessy Hammock, cost about 250€ in that config. Well invested money. Noob mistake: Not bringing a mattress. I'm way past that.

Today I have a headache. And a cold.

I missed the part with sunscreen, so am selectively red in places.

[bd139]

April 2016, so about 6 years old.. and already unrepairable in several accounts.  And they dare to sell this thing still TODAY, for freaking 120 Euros !!! 

So it cost €1.67 a month

Clearly that value was derived from it. Recycle it and move on.

Have to realistically look at everything like that now.