Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

I acquired this Advance DMM2 about six months ago on the UK vintage radio forum, as received it's completely untested, a little corroded in places inside, but nothing too bad. Also all the button caps have had the fronts cut or filed for some unknown reason, they are glued on too. 
(SNIP)


David

That image definitely did have some considerable cringe factor...

As for your buttons issue... 3DP is calling you, if you haven't already heeded it's siren song... 

mnem
*currently printing some HP knibberty-knobs*

[mnementh]

...Thanks everyone for the info on how these things work. I can now button it back up and move on to the next item in the list...

Not quite... I know you may already know this, but just in case you don't; these things are designed to use a deep-cycle battery, which has a bit higher IR than your car/motorcycle starting battery there, and the float charge it puts across the battery terminals can cook a starting battery to death.

Once you're back among the gainfully employed, you'll want to invest in a SLA/GMA battery of similar capacity to the one you took out of the thing. Or maybe one small enuf to fit inside. 

Cheers!

mnem

Oh crap, that sucks !  .... or not... means I am done with this thing and I can just salvage it for parts. that will make some room.

Naaaah. You can buy a new cheap Chinesium GMA/SLA of approx that size off eBay or Amazon for ~$20 once yer back on yer feet. 

Seems a cheap investment to me; I've done this with recycled UPSes for all my home networking stuff, for example. It is a total PITA waiting for it to reboot if the power flickers; and then sometimes things don't always want to reconnect with the new WiFi6 mesh APs in our house.

mnem
*toddles off to find some baseball games for Dad*

[Vince]

Oh, that cheap  ?!    When you said " special " I immediately translated that to "Freaking expensive not worth it ! ".

OK.... OK... I will keep that thing for a bit longer 


Fresh, streamed live from my garden.... after one Coypu parent eating grass with one baby coypu... then later I saw two babies eating alone, mom and dad weren't there any longer.... and now, right now... I see FIVE babies alone !!!  Boy they are reproducing fast !    Don't need their parents anymore either, they are big boys.

Well they maintain my "lawn" / weeds so that's good, keeps me from having to mow anything which I hate !

[mnementh]

Am I the only one thinking "Tribbles with ears!" here?   

mnem
Why's there never a Klingon around when you really need one...?

[bd139]

I’m thinking fat rats.

I’m sure Saskia is thinking targets 

[mnementh]

 

LOL... we have bushy-tailed tree rats up here in New England. Oodles of them. And a widdle bunny who lives in the hedge. And stares me down when I step outside to check the mail. 

mnem

[Neomys Sapiens]

Looking at the date codes it's the same age (early 90s) as the three phase motor inverters, we still repair at work.

Ah yes, can't believe I didn't even think of checking date codes on these chips... 1993 it is then. 25 years old spot on a quarter of century... but still works 

They use the ceramic LM139/LM124, instead of the 339/324 in your UPS, but the LM317 & 4000 series are just the regular plastic versions. 

You are too critical... what's next, you want gold plated traces and conformal coating ?! 

I guess their reasoning was that the electrolytic caps on their board would cause trouble long before the plastic chips would ?

Besides, I don't even know if those CMOS logic chips were available in ceramic packages to be begin with, at least in the '90's they might not ?!

At least NS, RCA, Philips, Motorola and Fairchild made them.

[Andy Watson]

J2E details are difficult to track-down, but fortunately they're almost identical to the previous generators in the series.

The only challenge is that it is of poor quality.  You can make out the components, but the values are next to unreadable.

See iff the attached will yeild-up better information!

[xrunner]

Fresh, streamed live from my garden.... after one Coypu parent eating grass with one baby coypu... then later I saw two babies eating alone, mom and dad weren't there any longer.... and now, right now... I see FIVE babies alone !!!  Boy they are reproducing fast !    Don't need their parents anymore either, they are big boys.

Well they maintain my "lawn" / weeds so that's good, keeps me from having to mow anything which I hate !

I can't help thinking "BBQ" but I'm in Texas. Do you have a BBQ by your back porch? 

[TERRA Operative]

Had a semi productive weekend over here in the land of the rising sun..

Got a few more busted transistors replaced in the Advantest R6144, just had to wait for some to be delivered but all done now as far as I can tell so far.
I'm STILL getting the damned 'Error 05' on boot.. I swear.........    The only silicon I haven't replaced or tested is the expensive vref and opamp (which shouldn't throw that error) or the GPIB stuff (2 chips not empirically tested) as I had thought may be an issue before, but was hoping wasn't the issue, as it will throw the error..
Luckily I found a cheap-ish NOS GPIB chip locally, so that's on the way to try out. The other suspect chip I can get new, but it's 700 yen (US$5 or there abouts) so I'll wait on that one before I drop the yens.. Unfortunately, it's the only chip that my 'Retro Chip Tester' won't test (beyond the microprocessor and that other GPIB chip).

Next I won an auction for a HP 8116A 50MHz Pulse/Function Generator.  Got it cheap for parts to fix the 8112A 50MHz Pulse Gen, but if it ends up working I won't scrap it.. I'll just keep looking for parts for the 8112A... And endure the suffering of acquiring a new bit of test gear (I'll probably spit polish it, adjust it and flip it. One day I'll get my HP 8160A 50MHz Pulse Gen up and running...)

And finally, I pulled one of my 3478A's back off the shelf to finish the backlight mod I was working on. Just gotta work out a way to hold the LCD panel assembly in without fouling the chassis.
I had originally planned to flip the OEM bracket around to make things fit with some standoffs, but it hits the chassis, so I might have to fabricate a plate from some aluminium.
Once that's sorted, it's just a matter of getting a 7809 vreg to run the LED's and it should be good to button back up and test. Fingers crossed there's no other faults in the unit (as my luck would have it....).


Oh, I also ran through the adjustment procedure for my Yokogawa 2554 DC voltage/current standard too, just for fun.


And finally burnt some meat on the barbeque to keep the families stomachs happy. 

[mansaxel]

Fresh, streamed live from my garden.... after one Coypu parent eating grass with one baby coypu... then later I saw two babies eating alone, mom and dad weren't there any longer.... and now, right now... I see FIVE babies alone !!!  Boy they are reproducing fast !    Don't need their parents anymore either, they are big boys.

Well they maintain my "lawn" / weeds so that's good, keeps me from having to mow anything which I hate !

I can't help thinking "BBQ" but I'm in Texas. Do you have a BBQ by your back porch? 

I just fed the family sausages from the Weber (simplest possible sphere charcoal/briquettes model). Third meal-on-porch this week. Something of an achievement given that I was transiting Europe, missing BU508 only by 30 km, for most part of the week.  Sausages are considerably easier than ferreting out ferrets and making them edible. Think I'll pass on the furry ones.

Yes, Vince, we had Bornier Dijon mustard. Summer vacation btw has a stop in Dijon, so we'll be able to do the mustard shop experience... (Bornier is now multinational, same company as Kühne, who by the way make the best choucroute available here, with Lidl a good No. 2. )

TE / Bench update: The 5440 occupies the bench and there are other Projects waiting for shop time, so will need to crack on, or at least make it possible to move off of the bench.  Said waiting project is a study in opamps; I did a "TL072 is good enough for Soundcraft, It'll do fine in a stompbox" replacement drive while building the Middle Boys chorus. He's been complaining over gain structure problems, so will first go back to 4558 that was suggested and see if the not-so-infinite input impedance of a not-a-JFET opamp can tame things. I've got a RCA-made 4558 that I salvaged from a Seem Audio mixer output card (chock full with Lundahl transformers, btw, also salvaged. At 100 money a piece, they're deffo worth keeping.) , so can also claim "vintage" 

[factory]

Looking at the date codes it's the same age (early 90s) as the three phase motor inverters, we still repair at work.

Ah yes, can't believe I didn't even think of checking date codes on these chips... 1993 it is then. 25 years old spot on a quarter of century... but still works 

They use the ceramic LM139/LM124, instead of the 339/324 in your UPS, but the LM317 & 4000 series are just the regular plastic versions. 

You are too critical... what's next, you want gold plated traces and conformal coating ?! 

I guess their reasoning was that the electrolytic caps on their board would cause trouble long before the plastic chips would ?

Besides, I don't even know if those CMOS logic chips were available in ceramic packages to be begin with, at least in the '90's they might not ?!

We didn't make it, it's actually European designed and yes there is conformal coating. The electrolytic caps do sometimes pee themselves & eat the traces, we also get random failures of the transistors, block tants and those Nat-Semi 124/139 ICs. I've never found a problem with the CMOS. It's the last product we repair since the downsizing/EOL of the lab at work, I'm sure they would love to get rid of these motor inverters too, but that would upset a major customer.

Other stuff we once repaired did use ceramic CMOS logic, or 54 series instead of 74 series logic.

David

[Vince]

Fresh, streamed live from my garden.... after one Coypu parent eating grass with one baby coypu... then later I saw two babies eating alone, mom and dad weren't there any longer.... and now, right now... I see FIVE babies alone !!!  Boy they are reproducing fast !    Don't need their parents anymore either, they are big boys.

Well they maintain my "lawn" / weeds so that's good, keeps me from having to mow anything which I hate !

I can't help thinking "BBQ" but I'm in Texas. Do you have a BBQ by your back porch? 

Don't you touch my baby coypus, you cruel heartless trigger happy barbarian  !!!   

Don't have a back porch nor a BBQ... and I hate BBQ !! Way too much work and trouble than it's worth !

OK, some people like to eat them and make pâté with them.... Google says the Brits use the French word " Pâté " as is, is that right ?! Makes my life easier for sure but I can't believe there isn't a "proper" English word for Pâté...

Anyway I would never eat the thing, why not eat insects and horses and butterfly larvae while you're at it ! I know it's trendy but not my thing... 

[TERRA Operative]

Don't have a back porch nor a BBQ... and I hate BBQ !! Way too much work and trouble than it's worth !

Them's fightin' words!   

[xrunner]

Don't you touch my baby coypus, you cruel heartless trigger happy barbarian  !!!   

Just call me "Conan". 

[Cerebus]

OK, some people like to eat them and make pâté with them.... Google says the Brits use the French word " Pâté " as is, is that right ?! Makes my life easier for sure but I can't believe there isn't a "proper" English word for Pâté...

"Potted meat". You can see why we prefer "pate", but we don't use the accents because we're ignorant savages who paint themselves blue and drink hot water.

[mansaxel]

I just made the Google stock a femto-cent less valuable; by removing one data leakage point from the local network:

Code: [Select]

64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=10 ttl=120 time=5.022 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=11 ttl=120 time=6.880 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=12 ttl=120 time=8.243 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=13 ttl=120 time=8.780 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=14 ttl=63 time=2.952 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=15 ttl=63 time=1.553 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=16 ttl=63 time=2.415 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=17 ttl=63 time=1.357 ms

Yes, the TTL decrease plus the RTT cut means that I now have an instance of spyware resolver locally; it's just a /31 802.1q subinterface on the router, a VLAN and another interface on my virtual resolver box. After being poked at by BD in Discord yesterday, I'm going to instrument my resolvers using Prometheus and Grafana, just to check what the fuss is about.  Also, I'm going to repeat the performance with the other Google address.

[tggzzz]

OK, some people like to eat them and make pâté with them.... Google says the Brits use the French word " Pâté " as is, is that right ?! Makes my life easier for sure but I can't believe there isn't a "proper" English word for Pâté...

"Potted meat". You can see why we prefer "pate", but we don't use the accents because we're ignorant savages who paint themselves blue and drink hot water.

Potted meat and pate are very different.

Pate is finely or coarsely ground meat mixed with fat, and is usually spread on bread.

Potted meat is a preservation technique where hot meat is sealed in a jar with fat. To reduce the use of expensive materials, in some cases the fat completely surrounds the meat, e.g. potted shrimps.

[bd139]

I just made the Google stock a femto-cent less valuable; by removing one data leakage point from the local network:

Code: [Select]

64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=10 ttl=120 time=5.022 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=11 ttl=120 time=6.880 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=12 ttl=120 time=8.243 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=13 ttl=120 time=8.780 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=14 ttl=63 time=2.952 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=15 ttl=63 time=1.553 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=16 ttl=63 time=2.415 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=17 ttl=63 time=1.357 ms

Yes, the TTL decrease plus the RTT cut means that I now have an instance of spyware resolver locally; it's just a /31 802.1q subinterface on the router, a VLAN and another interface on my virtual resolver box. After being poked at by BD in Discord yesterday, I'm going to instrument my resolvers using Prometheus and Grafana, just to check what the fuss is about.  Also, I'm going to repeat the performance with the other Google address.

Black box exporter DNS probe … https://github.com/prometheus/blackbox_exporter/blob/master/CONFIGURATION.md#dns_probe

[Cerebus]

I just made the Google stock a femto-cent less valuable; by removing one data leakage point from the local network:

Code: [Select]

64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=10 ttl=120 time=5.022 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=11 ttl=120 time=6.880 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=12 ttl=120 time=8.243 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=13 ttl=120 time=8.780 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=14 ttl=63 time=2.952 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=15 ttl=63 time=1.553 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=16 ttl=63 time=2.415 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=17 ttl=63 time=1.357 ms

Yes, the TTL decrease plus the RTT cut means that I now have an instance of spyware resolver locally; it's just a /31 802.1q subinterface on the router, a VLAN and another interface on my virtual resolver box. After being poked at by BD in Discord yesterday, I'm going to instrument my resolvers using Prometheus and Grafana, just to check what the fuss is about.  Also, I'm going to repeat the performance with the other Google address.

Code: [Select]

    policies {
        from-zone MainLAN to-zone INTERNET {
            policy Permit-DNS {
                description "Only official DNS servers may access outside DNS";
                match {
                    source-address [ Imbolc Wadjet ImbolcV6 WadjetV6 Shu ShuV6 ];
                    destination-address any;
                    application [ junos-dns-tcp junos-dns-udp ];
                }
                then {
                    permit;
                }
            }
            policy Deny-DNS {
                description "Stop hosts from picking their own DNS servers so that DNS firewall is effective";
                match {
                    source-address any;
                    destination-address any;
                    application [ junos-dns-tcp junos-dns-udp ];
                }
                then {
                    deny;
                    log {
                        session-init;
                    }
                }
            }
            policy No-Outbound-Access {
                description "Stop LG TV snooping";
                match {
                    source-address LG-TV;
                    destination-address any;
                    application any;
                }
                then {
                    deny;
                    log {
                        session-init;
                    }
                    count;
                }
            }

and so on...

[med6753]

Fresh, streamed live from my garden.... after one Coypu parent eating grass with one baby coypu... then later I saw two babies eating alone, mom and dad weren't there any longer.... and now, right now... I see FIVE babies alone !!!  Boy they are reproducing fast !    Don't need their parents anymore either, they are big boys.

Well they maintain my "lawn" / weeds so that's good, keeps me from having to mow anything which I hate !

I can't help thinking "BBQ" but I'm in Texas. Do you have a BBQ by your back porch? 

Don't you touch my baby coypus, you cruel heartless trigger happy barbarian  !!!   

Don't have a back porch nor a BBQ... and I hate BBQ !! Way too much work and trouble than it's worth !

OK, some people like to eat them and make pâté with them.... Google says the Brits use the French word " Pâté " as is, is that right ?! Makes my life easier for sure but I can't believe there isn't a "proper" English word for Pâté...

Anyway I would never eat the thing, why not eat insects and horses and butterfly larvae while you're at it ! I know it's trendy but not my thing...

Those look like Europe's answer to what we call "woodchucks" or "ground hogs" here. Highly destructive if you have a garden. Dig holes for someone or livestock to step in a break an ankle or worse. They need to die but I don't think I'd want to BBQ them. 

[Vince]

OK, some people like to eat them and make pâté with them.... Google says the Brits use the French word " Pâté " as is, is that right ?! Makes my life easier for sure but I can't believe there isn't a "proper" English word for Pâté...

"Potted meat". You can see why we prefer "pate", but we don't use the accents because we're ignorant savages who paint themselves blue and drink hot water.

Potted meat and pate are very different.

Pate is finely or coarsely ground meat mixed with fat, and is usually spread on bread.

Potted meat is a preservation technique where hot meat is sealed in a jar with fat. To reduce the use of expensive materials, in some cases the fat completely surrounds the meat, e.g. potted shrimps.

Pâté to us as you said is any meat that's "ground" as you say.. the type of container it comes in, doesn't matter. Normally it's a glass jar if it's home made, or made by your local farmer..because that's all an individual can do, from a practical perspective. But if it's an industrial product it can also come in a metal can like any other canned product.. because cheap. But for marketing reasons most  industrial Pâté do come in glass pots any way, to play the "home made / artisan " card to try and seduce the customers and extract more money from them.  Glass containers also have the advantage that you can see what the stuff looks like inside...

[Cerebus]

Fresh, streamed live from my garden.... after one Coypu parent eating grass with one baby coypu... then later I saw two babies eating alone, mom and dad weren't there any longer.... and now, right now... I see FIVE babies alone !!!  Boy they are reproducing fast !    Don't need their parents anymore either, they are big boys.

Well they maintain my "lawn" / weeds so that's good, keeps me from having to mow anything which I hate !

I can't help thinking "BBQ" but I'm in Texas. Do you have a BBQ by your back porch? 

Don't you touch my baby coypus, you cruel heartless trigger happy barbarian  !!!   

Don't have a back porch nor a BBQ... and I hate BBQ !! Way too much work and trouble than it's worth !

OK, some people like to eat them and make pâté with them.... Google says the Brits use the French word " Pâté " as is, is that right ?! Makes my life easier for sure but I can't believe there isn't a "proper" English word for Pâté...

Anyway I would never eat the thing, why not eat insects and horses and butterfly larvae while you're at it ! I know it's trendy but not my thing...

Those look like Europe's answer to what we call "woodchucks" or "ground hogs" here. Highly destructive if you have a garden. Dig holes for someone or livestock to step in a break an ankle or worse. They need to die but I don't think I'd want to BBQ them.

Coypu are American, not European. Vince's are probably the result of a zoo escape, rather like the Wallabies in Bedfordshire.

[factory]

Great post. Very interesting. Looks like the custom IC is a candidate for replacement with an MCU of some sort. Looks like it's just a few 4 bit registers and a counter and tristate mux on the output.

Never got involved with writing software, MCUs are alien to me, wouldn't know where to start. Plus would need to get one of the Sony/Tek logic analyzers working, to investigate all the signals & timings. Damn need one of those nice HP MSOs, like Vince got recently. 

Another thread on here, did suggest using an AY-5-4057, but they have different pinout, possibly not all the same function pins and normal BCD code out, not cheap either & no guarantee another ancient IC is still working. Makes me wonder if anyone else made a similar IC. 

I acquired this Advance DMM2 about six months ago on the UK vintage radio forum, as received it's completely untested, a little corroded in places inside, but nothing too bad. Also all the button caps have had the fronts cut or filed for some unknown reason, they are glued on too. 
(SNIP)


David

That image definitely did have some considerable cringe factor...

As for your buttons issue... 3DP is calling you, if you haven't already heeded it's siren song... 

mnem
*currently printing some HP knibberty-knobs*

That broken IC pictured, must mean students I mean vandals, from Queensland Uni, destroyed an Advance DMM2. Looking at the corrosion it was probably in worse condition, than this one.


Too late, already have these from Bulgaria. 


And I don't have a 3DP printer and don't get on with CAD programs.  Also the bloody heavy freight trains would ruin any print, with the vibration. 

David

[bd139]

Wallabies in Bedfordshire.

I think the tails and hopping frantically are just a result of human inbreeding out there.