Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cubdriver]

I heard someone mention Knipex. Can someone recommend a suitably decent pair of their needle nose pliers for electronics work? I actually have no pliers at the moment at all as I knackered the Piergiacomi ones. Need to have grips on and cutters. Utterly fed up of shit ones.

Depends...  I have a few Knipex ones, and a tiny Xcelite that's good for delicate work.


The leftmost Knipex in the above photo has long, smooth jaws (no serrations):




The rightmost one is a 'standard' needlenose, with serrated ends and a cutter:

Stoopid cell phone didn't focus properly on the lettering, sorry   


And the small green pair in the middle are the little Xcelite ones - model L4; they have no cutter but do have serrated tips:




FWIW.

-Pat

[Vince]

A bit of TE now.

Had this old PSU I was given. It's very heavcey and ugly and looked like a home made project... so I stored it away and didn't think too much of it.

But I dug it out today and spent some time on it. After brushing off all the dust inside, and looking more closely.. it didn't look home made any more.
There is even a sticker on it... says it's made by ADTECH Power " PSU, model TAPS4-2, in the US of A.

Then as I was cleaning it, I noticed a piece of paper trapped between the chassis and the underside of the transformer... pulled it out and oh.... what do you know, a nice double sided A4 size original spec sheet for the thing ! Oh I just love old tech paper, I was over the moon. 

Looking at that sheet, I now understand why it looks home made... it's not. But, it's a "budget" PSU, so comes bare bone... you just get a giant piece of folded thick sheet metal that serves both as a sturdy chasis, and a big heat sink. Then they put the circuit board ni place, bolt down the big filter caps... and that's about it. Then it's up to you to fit binding posts, and wire them up to the circuit board etc.
So in this case 4 rubber feet wre added, as well binding posts with markings using a sharpie... blac sharpy on a black chassis, how clever  . That's all for a "front panel"... Then a metal bracket was added to support the power cable, power switch and fuse holder and earth connection. Also a piece of plexiglas was added to cover the side of the chassis where all the TO3 pass transistors are mounted.

So that gives it an uglty loook... but if you go past that anc just concentrate on the PSU itself, before it was "modded", then it's actually quite nice. Nice looking PCBs, nice rigid chassis. 3 output : 5V 12amps, and twin 12-15V 3 Amps. The "front panel" make sit look like it's a symmetrical / common ground  +/- 12V supply but looking at the terminals on the board, and reading the datasheet... the 3 supplies are floating. There is no common ground. So I could potentially put the two 12V supplies sin series, say, so that's cool.

Wghat's cool as well, are the voltage regulator chips... we wxere just discussing these 723 chips from Tesla in that TO round metal can... AVG saying they are nice sealed units. Well... this PSU uses a 723 for each of the 3 outputs, and they are the TO can type.. aren't they beautiful, with gold plated legs as well ! 

Also... as AVG said, they are cool because sealed... and I guess it was cool even back in the day, because lookj at the spec sheet / marketing at the top of the first page... look what they proudly state : " ALL IC's and transistor HERMETICALLY SEALED, NO PLASTIC !!! "   

Oh I just love it. I am now loving this PSU more and mode.

It's got to be useful in the lab.... 5V 12A and twiun floating 12V 3A outputs, adjustable up to 15V as well. So beefy 5V for your TTL and CP%U stuff, and twin 12/15V supllies for your analogy AOP fun.

Yes... I like this PSU a lot. I think I will strip it from all the ugly crap that was bolted to it, to "clean it up", then make a nice cabinet for it, so that the guts aren't exposed anymore/at risk, and so I can make a nice front panel for it, and integrate it more easily in the lab with the rest of the TE.

Yeah.... I think I have just added myself yet another project to the list ! 

Hi Vince,
That is not a "budget" power supply. It is a high performance professional "open Frame" PSU. It's intended to be built into a piece of equipment. They are a standardised basic design with interchangable models made by many manufacturers. Specification and quality is high They will run rated output 24/7 for years (some need a bit of fan cooling or heatsinking for full output). They are still made bu not not so common as SMPSs have become popular. Still used for low noise and legacy applications. A new replacement for yours will cost £200-300 depending how many you buy.
https://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/Bel-Power-Solutions/HDCC-150W-AG?qs=gCHJnwMCk7Ta3xAQtQTxFQ%3D%3D

They make great triple output bench power supplies but MUST be in a proper case for safety. Bringing the voltage trimmers out to pots on the panel will give some flexibility.

THanks. Wow so they ar still sold today, incredible... some standards do last then...

So my idea was the gonnd one then, put it in a cabinet and make a proper fornt panel for it. Will do that then... will take time though, as finding a suitable enclosure for such a bog and heavy piece... not gonna be simple nor cheap. Need to keep the budget under control...   I guess I would need to add a fan in the enclosure to force some airflow over the chassis/heatsink, or maybe relocate the x5 TO3 pass transistor on a proper / finned heat sinks, at the back of the enclosure, like you find in any linear power supply.

Also, I called budget because... not me, but the manufacturer itself called it that on their spec sheet in the title, if you have a look. It says "

ADTECH POWER
Microprocessor power supplies
Triple output OEM Economy general purpose power supplies


I can only guess that things went downhill over the years, and what they called "economy" PSU in 1977, 45 years later is now deemed "top quality" and expensive....

Still, as you say a nice PSU, so will definitely make a decent enclosure for it and proper front panel with access to the pots of course... but that will take money so it's way down on my priority list at the moment. Will get done... just not any time soon I think...

Forgot to mention yesterday, but the board the does the 5V supply, has TWO pots on it. One to fine adjust voltage, and is identified in the spec sheet. However the second pot is not mentioned in the spec sheet so I don't know what it does. It is user accessible just like the other pot, via a hole in the chassis/ heat sink, so I guess that means I am "allowed" to play with it... just would like to know WHAT it does !

I guess that's a fantastic excuse to pull that board out and reverse engineer it to see what's what.

[bd139]

I heard someone mention Knipex. Can someone recommend a suitably decent pair of their needle nose pliers for electronics work? I actually have no pliers at the moment at all as I knackered the Piergiacomi ones. Need to have grips on and cutters. Utterly fed up of shit ones.

Depends...  I have a few Knipex ones, and a tiny Xcelite that's good for delicate work.


The leftmost Knipex in the above photo has long, smooth jaws (no serrations):




The rightmost one is a 'standard' needlenose, with serrated ends and a cutter:

Stoopid cell phone didn't focus properly on the lettering, sorry   


And the small green pair in the middle are the little Xcelite ones - model L4; they have no cutter but do have serrated tips:




FWIW.

-Pat

Perfect - thanks for this post. Just what I was after.

And guess what number one contender was already at number one in the sheet...



Well that's solved. For now. Thanks all for the input

[tautech]

BD, you also will need bent medium/small length/weight long nose for awkward angled stuff....probably my most used set.

[mansaxel]

I am not looking at Lindstrom. They are really nice but out of budget unfortunately. I have owned a pair before

The Superknips it is then. They're economical  flush cutters, so good for cable ties and such.

I tend to have three kinds of cable/wire cutters;

• Flush cutters for precision work, cutting component legs et al.
• Normal side cutters for heavier wire; several sizes; larger ones possibly for piano wire too
• Cable shears, for everything heavier, up to three-phase single-strand cable.

A bonus is that cable shears are  very good for nicking the outer sheath of our variant of twin-and-earth / Romex / NYM-J; a light hand circling the cable with the jaws held open cuts half-way though the PVC, so a subsequent bend will stress-break the rest of the way through without damaging conductor insulation.  Then it's Wago 221 all the way to bliss, while recycling wire nuts to metal scrap..

[bd139]

BD, you also will need bent medium/small length/weight long nose for awkward angled stuff....probably my most used set.

I actually have some of them I haven't buggered yet (Clarke branded). Totally agree 

[bd139]

I am not looking at Lindstrom. They are really nice but out of budget unfortunately. I have owned a pair before

The Superknips it is then. They're economical  flush cutters, so good for cable ties and such.

I tend to have three kinds of cable/wire cutters;

• Flush cutters for precision work, cutting component legs et al.
• Normal side cutters for heavier wire; several sizes; larger ones possibly for piano wire too
• Cable shears, for everything heavier, up to three-phase single-strand cable.

A bonus is that cable shears are  very good for nicking the outer sheath of our variant of twin-and-earth / Romex / NYM-J; a light hand circling the cable with the jaws held open cuts half-way though the PVC, so a subsequent bend will stress-break the rest of the way through without damaging conductor insulation.  Then it's Wago 221 all the way to bliss, while recycling wire nuts to metal scrap..

Ah I'm a ninja with the stanley knife on the cables without damaging them

Will look into superknips 

[BU508A]

Whoah! Isn't that a beauty?



ideal-tek ES6025

And they are having tungsten carbide cutters of all kind!

Look at all those high precision cutters! This is tool heaven! 

[bd139]

Whoah! Isn't that a beauty?



ideal-tek ES6025

And they are having tungsten carbide cutters of all kind!

Look at all those high precision cutters! This is tool heaven! 

This reminds me of



Have seen them live. Completely bananas but excellent.

[tggzzz]

I heard someone mention Knipex. Can someone recommend a suitably decent pair of their needle nose pliers for electronics work? I actually have no pliers at the moment at all as I knackered the Piergiacomi ones. Need to have grips on and cutters. Utterly fed up of shit ones.

I'd like to put a word in for Pastorino. I've had a couple pairs over the years and they simply seem like an extension of my mind, and grip where I want. Their handles are clad with a sturdy non-slip foam that keeps them very secure in the hand. I like that.

For cutters, nothing of course beats Lindström. Although the Knipex Superknips comes close.

Thanks will have a look.

I am not looking at Lindstrom. They are really nice but out of budget unfortunately. I have owned a pair before

These are the cutters and pliers I used most often. I also have other throwaway cutters and pliers.

The two blue handled ones are 47 years old. I chose the pliers as a compromise between brute force and fine work pliers. They still work admirably within their obvious ranges.

The two cream handled ones are 42 year old Lindstrom tools. Again, they continue to work well. The white handled Lindstrom cutters, also full-flush were "cheap" on fleabay, and were bought as a backup if the white cream one failed.

You may see a pattern there.

It helps that, as with any decent knife, I don't allow anyone else to use them

[Specmaster]

I am not looking at Lindstrom. They are really nice but out of budget unfortunately. I have owned a pair before

The Superknips it is then. They're economical  flush cutters, so good for cable ties and such.

I tend to have three kinds of cable/wire cutters;

• Flush cutters for precision work, cutting component legs et al.
• Normal side cutters for heavier wire; several sizes; larger ones possibly for piano wire too
• Cable shears, for everything heavier, up to three-phase single-strand cable.

A bonus is that cable shears are  very good for nicking the outer sheath of our variant of twin-and-earth / Romex / NYM-J; a light hand circling the cable with the jaws held open cuts half-way though the PVC, so a subsequent bend will stress-break the rest of the way through without damaging conductor insulation.  Then it's Wago 221 all the way to bliss, while recycling wire nuts to metal scrap..

Ah I'm a ninja with the stanley knife on the cables without damaging them

Will look into superknips 

These are the side cutters and also flush cutters I use, perfectly adequate, especially when I have 3 other people always looking to use my tools, and they don't care if they use the correct item, as long as they can make it do what they want  They really perfectly fine for the application and despite all the abuse they have taken over the years, I still have all 5 and in are perfect knick still, that's what I call a result.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07KWWK7XY/ref=sw_img_1?smid=A22JC62RPFN244&psc=1

[tautech]

BD, you also will need bent medium/small length/weight long nose for awkward angled stuff....probably my most used set.

I actually have some of them I haven't buggered yet (Clarke branded). Totally agree 

You must be a rough bastard with tools ! 
Looks at his nearly 50yr old Diamondalloy long nose that are still quite serviceable however showing their age and decades of misuse.
For general hack use you need a small set of slip jaw pliers/polygrips and they'll save all your better pliers in the absence of all manner of sockets and spanners for small work.

[Vince]

@Vince
Graphoplex 612 HP
https://www.leboncoin.fr/collection/2058381905.htm

No money, and already have an electronic calculator that's much better   

That guy also has 2 other slide rules for sale. Another cheap one at 10 Euros also, but a third one that he says is " VERY RARE, BRITISH "... "Made of Bamboo".. no price for this one, just " Make me an offer" .... yeah sure.

Don't know if he thinks it's rare because it's English, or because it's made of Bamboo. Or both.

I've browsed easily over 100 sellers and one thing is clear, they generally have no idea what they are selling.

What I don't understand is why take many almost equal pictures and none with specifics.
With slide rules the case seems to be that the whole thing must be in the picture.

I understand that gear may be limited, I know I have, and lighting seems to be near dungeon, no matter what.
But shouldn't specifics be even more in center then.

Well yes, Leboncoin.fr is used by the average joe seller, so you get to see what the average French Joe is like : can't right French, can't tale a picture, can't put neurons together to figure out what relevant pictures and information potential buyers would be wanting to see/know about the item for sale.
Sellers just don't "think", they just throw their stuff on the web and call it a day. People  all have a fancy state of the art smartphone, they buy lots consumer "tech".. yet they know so little about tech that they don't how to use e-mail properly, how to use forums properly, how to take a decent picture, how to compose an ad to sell something.... people are just mostly tech and computer illiterate.
I think it should be taken seriously in this day and age, and schools should spend a few hours a year to teach all the basics so that people actually can use tech properly in their everyday life. Because clearly they can't figure it out on their own.

[bd139]

BD, you also will need bent medium/small length/weight long nose for awkward angled stuff....probably my most used set.

I actually have some of them I haven't buggered yet (Clarke branded). Totally agree 

You must be a rough bastard with tools ! 
Looks at his nearly 50yr old Diamondalloy long nose that are still quite serviceable however showing their age and decades of misuse.
For general hack use you need a small set of slip jaw pliers/polygrips and they'll save all your better pliers in the absence of all manner of sockets and spanners for small work.

To be fair I actually had some cheap shitty radio shack pliers for 30 years, roughly equivalent to the ones I just bought. But I made a stupid accident of leaving them outside on a dustbin lid for two weeks in the rain after repairing some outside lighting and it utterly rusted them to oblivion 

The one that really fucked me off is I had some very nice CK cable shears and the ex wife used them for cutting hard craft wire and ruined them 

[bd139]

The white handled Lindstrom cutters, also full-flush were "cheap" on fleabay, and were bought as a backup if the white cream one failed.

That's exactly the Lindstroms I had. Very very nice. They were actually worn out after a few years of use.

[Vince]

Bought this at the recent hamfest. What should I control with it?

Looks cool, glad you bought it.

I am bit late in this, been busy today for a change, but I will say that when I saw your post, somehow something did cross my mind instantly, I did have an opinion... and it is that it would be cool  to use it to remotely / safely apply reverse power to electrolytic caps....Three, Two...One... BANG !!!   

[mnementh]

VI-I-I-INCE! Dammit, ya psychotic frenchman!

You done infected the TEA with your refrigerator problems, and now you got me!!!

      

Wife tells me the waffles are half-thawed in the top of our garage freezer... sure enough, the evap's all frosted up. Put all the food out into ice chests, strip out the shelves and start a manual defrost cycle, bypassing the defrost thermodisc (top-left corner of evap) as freezer is now warm enough for it to be open.

Next, wipe out all the melties and stick a fan in there to dry everything out so it doesn't just frost up again. Throw the thermodisk in the kitchen freezer so I can test it once it freezes again.

   

While that's doing, take the circulating fan out and do service... to do it right, you remove the fan, dismantle the motor, and clean up the shaft with 1000 grit sandpaper (I cheated and used an old fingernail buffing stick (not a nail file or emery board); then finally, a good squirt of SUPCO non-paraffin ZOOM OIL (made for this work so it doesn't freeze up and turn gummy) into each of these bearing caps to re-saturate the felt inside.

Then, test thermodisc ( it tests good -  ), reassemble and button it up...






mnem
Only 40 degrees more... errr, less...

[mansaxel]

Some TE for a change...

We have a trace!



Or, a sort-of-trace.

First, some background. This 5440 came to me with a fuckerized tantal cap, shorting the -30V bus. ...which controls all the other, in usual fashion. So, one low-ESR Würth cap later, it's OK. Then one of the vertical input modules turned out to be a short on the +30V bus, so it was removed and set aside. And, a trace! With read-outs. Such modern! (There is a "remove readouts" option on this scope family, which I wasn't certain I'd escaped.  But here's text.  )

However, the trace is not very much extended in X axis, at all, actually. X Position can be varied, but trace does not, for lack of a better word, run. I've done some tests, and Y axis seems to be at least in the right ballpark -- we're looking at a 10kHz sine 1Vp-p  at 0,2V/div. Not perfect, but it moves and scales and does its thing. Only not in X.

I guess I'm going after the sweep circuit. I have the feeling it sortakinda trigs; I can make the trace disappear by disabling trig source on the vertical module.

I have the full paper manual, so I'm going to dive in Theory of Operation next.

[Vince]

Cool, it's alive 

Yes you are right. Problem appears to be limited to sweep not working. Horizontal amplifier itself seems fine since you said you can move the trace left to right properly. Vertical amplifier obviously works. Trigger too or you just would not have any trace whatsoever to begin with.

So just the sweep circuitry by itself to look at. Maybe some more tants hiding in that plugin and simple fix ! 

In any case, go download the service manual for your time base plugin, if you haven't already done so...

Keep us posted and show us pics, I wanna see what's going on... 

What's the model  / type of your TB plugin ? Will download the SM to have a look...

[mnementh]

They stood up to my high school electronics class ... I was definitely one of the gentler students (ie. with half a clue what I was doing, instead of no clue).  I want one only for that reason.  This US price is getting more reasonable, but the cross-border shipping kills the deal...

You had electronics in high school?! Jealous

*raises a paw*   Ummm... wood shop, machine shop, and motorhead shop too... 

*remembering fondly that  moment when I asked old man Kirsch what 3-phase meant, and he drew those infamous 3 nested sine waves on the chalkboard...*

mnem
I also remember almost getting kicked out of school for bringing a MicroFlame torch      to solder some coil bobbins we made out of brass stock...     

What!! I only had woodwork, metalwork, chemistry, physics and technical drawing.

Oh, yeah; I had Tech Drawing/Drafting and all the sciences... and the lab experiments too!   

But not Computer Lab/Computer Science... As I advanced from grade school to middle school to high school, I was always just in time to be too late... Every time, the next year's students would come to a "New curriculum" with new "Computer Sciences". 

My only exposure to computers prior to Uni was at Penn State... I took some advanced placement testing when I went back to High School; I was able to do some advanced college-prep Science and Lit coursework. They had a whole room full of Trash-80s and Tandy CC IIs... got some C-64s my last year.

mnem
*couch tuber time widda family*

[vk6zgo]

... I also have AF and Whitworth sockets, but still lack the BA ones. ...

AF doesn't mean what you think it means, which from context is some sort of imperial sizing. "AF" just stands for "across flats" so a 10mm AF socket is just as much a 'thing' as a 1/2" AF socket. Don't worry, you're not the first to draw the same erroneous conclusion.

Indeed, but the only such spanners that say "AF" on them are UNC/UNF, or what we used to call "SAE".
This was probably to distinguish them from Whitworth & BSF spanners which used the thread diameter for sizing.

[vk6zgo]

@Vince
Graphoplex 612 HP
https://www.leboncoin.fr/collection/2058381905.htm

No money, and already have an electronic calculator that's much better   

That guy also has 2 other slide rules for sale. Another cheap one at 10 Euros also, but a third one that he says is " VERY RARE, BRITISH "... "Made of Bamboo".. no price for this one, just " Make me an offer" .... yeah sure.

Don't know if he thinks it's rare because it's English, or because it's made of Bamboo. Or both.

I've browsed easily over 100 sellers and one thing is clear, they generally have no idea what they are selling.

What I don't understand is why take many almost equal pictures and none with specifics.
With slide rules the case seems to be that the whole thing must be in the picture.

I understand that gear may be limited, I know I have, and lighting seems to be near dungeon, no matter what.
But shouldn't specifics be even more in center then.

Well yes, Leboncoin.fr is used by the average joe seller, so you get to see what the average French Joe is like : can't right French, can't tale a picture, can't put neurons together to figure out what relevant pictures and information potential buyers would be wanting to see/know about the item for sale.
Sellers just don't "think", they just throw their stuff on the web and call it a day. People  all have a fancy state of the art smartphone, they buy lots consumer "tech".. yet they know so little about tech that they don't how to use e-mail properly, how to use forums properly, how to take a decent picture, how to compose an ad to sell something.... people are just mostly tech and computer illiterate.
I think it should be taken seriously in this day and age, and schools should spend a few hours a year to teach all the basics so that people actually can use tech properly in their everyday life. Because clearly they can't figure it out on their own.

And those "punks" can "Get off your lawn", too!
Welcome to your "Grumpy Old Man" decades!----they are the best fun you've had in years!

[mnementh]

...I am not looking at Lindstrom. They are really nice but out of budget unfortunately. I have owned a pair before

Y'all know my love affair with Lindström... those are my very favoritest close/side cutters. So much so that I made double damned sure they came back with me from Canada, while my fully-restored Logitech Z-5500 THX-certified SpeakerGeddon™ did not.

Of course, as you say, they cost a left nut (and I've paid it ); but if cost is a problem, they are definitely a thing I'd put in my fleaBay search script.

Alternately, I would also highly recommend you look into the XURON product line. A lot of their stuff is made from stamped steel, it is true... but they make it out of good steel, and then they machine it properly to make a good tool at a decent price. I've never regretted a XURON purchase; I first discovered them as a add-on pair of flush-cutters to go with a fleaBay purchase decades ago. I liked how cleanly they cut, so I sought them out from distributors and at one time had easily a dozen of their pliers. When my venerable Craftsman flat-bill pliers finally broke in my hand, they were the brand I shopped immediately:

   https://xuron.com/index.php/main/downloads

mnem
*still toolish after all these years*

[Carl_Smith]

Please help, I've purchased six ratcheting screwdrivers this week, and I'm planning on buying a seventh. I never knew how good a ratcheting mechanism could be until I used a PB Swiss...

Best ratcheting screwdriver is the Creative Tools Easydriver Ratchet Ball.  Hasn't been manufactured for decades though.

[mnementh]

   https://www.ebay.com/itm/392788330566

   https://www.ebay.com/itm/221186199687

*sigh*   $40ish... brand-new... free shipping...   

Fuck all of y'alls... 

mnem
*wibble*