Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Neper]

Transformerless radios, etc were all but unknown in Oz back in the day.

Not to forget that all valve TV sets and many early transistorised TV sets made in continental Europe were transformerless. All the German P...-valves were developed for this purpose.

[mnementh]

TV REPAIR

We have picture !!!     

...Gonna call my friend, hopefully he can take this thing away from me ASAP and free the space....

We knew ye had it in ye!

No drama is as much your fault as it is luck, buddy. You took your time and did the prep work, you had no drama. 

Congratulations!

mnem
Whip the Drama LLama' ass! 

[Neper]

I don't care how big or expensive or "smart" these TVs are... they are all made the same, all junk. If people are crazy enough to pay more than 50 Euros for one, their problem.

Almost as bad as the TV programmes people watch with them, especially in France.

I much prefer radio. The picture is so much better.

[mnementh]

My current distraction... 

mnem
Caffeine levels dangerously low... must stop for refill...   

[Vince]

I don't care how big or expensive or "smart" these TVs are... they are all made the same, all junk. If people are crazy enough to pay more than 50 Euros for one, their problem.

Almost as bad as the TV programmes people watch with them, especially in France.

I much prefer radio. The picture is so much better.

Yes indeed.

Radio is better, but still just as brain damaging.

So I stopped listening to radio as well.

Advantage of the radio over TV, if one insists on being subjected to broadcasted programs, is of course as you said the lack of picture.
Also the radio receiver is much more compact / practical, much cheaper, and draws a lot less energy which is good for the planet and one's wallet.
It's also I think more repairable than a TV, and is much more reliable to begin with.

But as I said in my case Radio is just as bad as a TV.  A TV with no picture/back light issue is not much different than a radio to listen to....

[Vince]

My current distraction... 

mnem
Caffeine levels dangerously low... must stop for refill...   

Looks much more interesting and productive to me than listening to radio or watching TV. 

[bd139]

Some bad news. Solartron 7050 is unfortunately currently scrap. The main ASIC is where the ranging fault resides and that is unobtainium. All the right signals are going into it and it can display the decimal points if it wants to (tested) but it doesn’t.

[grizewald]

TV REPAIR

We have picture !!! 

Excellent job! I hope you are well rewarded for it.
Just the stress of having to lever all of those plastic snap connections apart to get at the electronics would have been enough to turn me into a gibbering wreck.

[grizewald]

Some bad news. Solartron 7050 is unfortunately currently scrap. The main ASIC is where the ranging fault resides and that is unobtainium. All the right signals are going into it and it can display the decimal points if it wants to (tested) but it doesn’t.

Ah well, you can't win 'em all.

As for stuff with unobtanium ASICs...

    

[Vince]

TV REPAIR

We have picture !!! 

Excellent job! I hope you are well rewarded for it.
Just the stress of having to lever all of those plastic snap connections apart to get at the electronics would have been enough to turn me into a gibbering wreck.

Reward ? Not a cent, as usual 
But my friend said the guy / colleague who owns that TV, has a bucket truck that can go up to 10 meters high.

So he can reverse his truck into my back yard and help me trim my 10 meter high tree that's taking way too much space in my tiny garden.
Would cost me lots of money to get a pro to do it. So that's my "payment"...

[TERRA Operative]

TV REPAIR

Now that you are 'the TV guy', can you take a look at this broken TV I have over here? 

Reward ? Not a cent, as usual 
But my friend said the guy / colleague who owns that TV, has a bucket truck that can go up to 10 meters high.

So he can reverse his truck into my back yard and help me trim my 10 meter high tree that's taking way too much space in my tiny garden.
Would cost me lots of money to get a pro to do it. So that's my "payment"...

That LED strip that cost X amount of Euro, no it didn't, it cost X amount x2, or X amount x3 Euro... 

[grizewald]

Yeaah... I know I need to start working with other materials... but hey! I just did some TPU bumpers for the drawer slides in my Big Fucking ToolBox™ and they turned out awrrresome first try!

I guess I'm just getting to where I can turn out some fairly fine detail (and functional!) stuff in PLA, and I'm just putting off the learning curve with a new material. 

As for the CA... of course, if that does let go, epoxy will almost always hold. 

mnem

I like TPU. It's great for quadcopter parts as it will take incredible amounts of abuse. I find it tends to get a bit blobby on complex parts, but they tend to be hidden once everything is put together.



Your bumpers looked good. I saw you printed them at 15-20mm/s. You might like to try going a little faster. I print TPU at 30mm/s for all layers, but that's with a Bondtech extruder almost directly coupled to a Mosquito hot end.

If you haven't tried PETG, there's no time like the present! The fact that it has a little elasticity, particularly compared to PLA means it's a better choice for anything that needs to take some impacts without cracking and the higher glass temperature makes it a winner for any parts that might be left in your car or used outside in the summer. It also likes a thick first layer (.32mm for me) which makes it a lot more tolerant of a not perfectly flat bed surface. I think it got a bad reputation when it first came to 3D printing as the manufacturers hadn't really got the composition worked out as well as they have now.
It also doesn't need a cooling fan and all the problems that they bring with them. The housings I've just done used zero cooling, even though they are not very large and have fine details - not even if I just print one of them.

[grizewald]

TV REPAIR

We have picture !!! 

Excellent job! I hope you are well rewarded for it.
Just the stress of having to lever all of those plastic snap connections apart to get at the electronics would have been enough to turn me into a gibbering wreck.

Reward ? Not a cent, as usual 
But my friend said the guy / colleague who owns that TV, has a bucket truck that can go up to 10 meters high.

So he can reverse his truck into my back yard and help me trim my 10 meter high tree that's taking way too much space in my tiny garden.
Would cost me lots of money to get a pro to do it. So that's my "payment"...

Quid pro quo can also be a good reward.

[mansaxel]

Consequently, devices with one leg directly connected to chassis are, and have been so for considerable time, illegal here.

Until I learned about the All American Five and similar radios, the idea of doing this was simply preposterous to me. Not real. Now it, sadly, is both.

There have been loads of appliances, mainly radios, made in Europe where the same is true.

 

[mansaxel]

... devices with one leg directly connected to chassis are, and have been so for considerable time, illegal here. ...

Isn't part of the reason for that the fact that the Schuko plug is not polarised? With the earth on the side connectors, the plug can go in the socket either way around and therefore there's no distinction between live and neutral.

Yes, of course. And that is the safer assumption. IMNSHO.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Installation was pretty painless, only tool I needed was a 10mm socket to loosen a bolt for the earth. The Facom tight access flexible head kit I got for my birthday provved invaluable. The nearest bolt was hehind the dash accessed through a hole behind the glove box. The only other thing that would have fittted would be a universal joint and short socket, But that would have been a pain as they flop all over the place and there was onl room for one hand.

That is the reason why one of my 1/4" universal joints, which was assembled too tight, or whatever makes it develop more friction than normal, stays exactly this way. It will stay in the position you bend it to, while still being usable without too much force.

[mansaxel]

5245L update:

It is now upside down and open, ready to take a new IEC inlet. Pics are in phone, but I need to cook dinner first. And perhaps finish the job, before I post about it.

But a little teaser never hurt, did it?

[bd139]

Solartron 7050 update. The power supply just exploded 

Looks like Philips cap went short and took out the bridge rectifiers before the fuse decided to join the party 

Aaaand it's now parts mule. My interest in it has declined to 0. It's now a healthy supply of BC107's and 40673's and jurassic era LED displays

Still worth the £1 I paid for it.

Edit: one thing I was really not impressed with. Whoever trimmed off the leads on it at the factory used blunt as hell cutters. All the leads are flattened at the end meaning you need to trim them more before desoldering otherwise the legs won't go through the holes   

[Zoli]

Finally!   

Nicely done! I like the color match and glossy finish quite much. 

I've found that CA can be a iffy proposition with metal to plastic repairs; sometimes it holds well, sometimes it crumbles away and falls apart. 3DP is no different, though PLA especially loves to bond to CA. My experience indicates that usually the likeliest cases for failure are those where the CA is filling any appreciable gap; gluing to a slight press-fit greatly improves chances of success, as does using CA accelerant.



Cheers, and keep printing the good stuff! 

mnem
"I made this."

Psst... Be careful so SWMBO didn't hear us: CA accelerator is acetone^*, the one used to remove nail polish, not the one used to dilute paints in the booth; source: Loctite 7452 MSDS.
P.S.: Both has the same effect on paints, but you can distinguish between them by the smell; and be sure that SWMBO don't know 'bout your CA accelerator...
^*Sometimes is known as"Acetonfree acetone"
Edit: clear up meanings

[Vince]

TV REPAIR

Now that you are 'the TV guy', can you take a look at this broken TV I have over here? 

Reward ? Not a cent, as usual 
But my friend said the guy / colleague who owns that TV, has a bucket truck that can go up to 10 meters high.

So he can reverse his truck into my back yard and help me trim my 10 meter high tree that's taking way too much space in my tiny garden.
Would cost me lots of money to get a pro to do it. So that's my "payment"...

That LED strip that cost X amount of Euro, no it didn't, it cost X amount x2, or X amount x3 Euro... 

Seeing as you can fix TDS scopes with one hand, I think you are more qualified than me to fix your TV ! 

[Neomys Sapiens]

Well the 5254L counter fuse is 2A so a C5/6 Is fine. Obviously you want a quality lead not a junk one. Any decent C5 lead will be better than a old PH163 (and then there is the polarity issue!).
I once got into a "discussion" with a UL inspector about a C5 lead. One of our customers in the USA (UK supplier) had requested a UL "one off" approval for a machine. They did an inspection at the customers site with our field engineer. It failled and I was sent out to sort it. One thing that they failed it for was a C5 lead. This was inside the machine under a "tool required to open" cover. A UK /EU approved lead had been fitted but the inspector didn't like that it wasn't UL marked or the blue / brown colour coding. So I bought a UL marked C% lead locally and installed it. A different UL inspector turned up for the second inspection. He complained that the lead was poor quality (it was a known brand) and only had single insualtion black "zip" type cable. I said would a double insulated one like this be better (pulling the old one out of the bin)? He said yes. I said it had been rejected for wrong colours. He said "but it's under a cover. I said "I know and it's connected to a internal transformer isolated supply.." The machine got it's UL mark.

UL is the biggest bunch of lousy bandits that I've ever encountered. Surely even the heads of organised crime raise from their seats in deference to this vile enterprise.
What is really making me angry is that certain notified bodies over here are using UL as their house standard for flammability/fire behaviour of materials instead of the various ISO/IEC/EN standards, just because it is easier for them. When you present them anything else, they force you to order a test from them.

[Brumby]

Bloody hell.

I have an old Thinkpad that I've been able to keep limping along for quite some time. I pulled it out last week only to find it has a keyboard issue.  Extracted it to have a look - but those things are not meant to be pulled apart.  Not sure what a replacement will be worth to me as I don't use it often, but when I do, it is really convenient.

Another thing in the repair queue .......   

[Neomys Sapiens]

Solartron 7050 update. The power supply just exploded 

Looks like Philips cap went short and took out the bridge rectifiers before the fuse decided to join the party 

No mention of the stench? Did it smell at all? How should we enjoy this if you don't describe it in detail?
 

[Neomys Sapiens]

TV REPAIR

Now that you are 'the TV guy', can you take a look at this broken TV I have over here? 

He probably won't. But maybe we can send you a French telephone repair man to take care of your 'pheun'!

[Vince]

5245L update:

It is now upside down and open, ready to take a new IEC inlet. Pics are in phone, but I need to cook dinner first. And perhaps finish the job, before I post about it.

But a little teaser never hurt, did it?

Talking about that, just saw one for sale here a minute ago, at only 50 Euros at that !
Yes, my first old HP Nixie counter, finally found one !!!

https://www.leboncoin.fr/collection/2194828839.htm


... Or not 

Local pickup only... but the guy for a change, is not located at the other end of the country. 120kms away, 1H30 drive, all highway.
But.... look... left handle is broken off, good luck finding that, and for cheap.
Then look at the plugin... it looks eviscerated ?! Big knob has been replaced with a blanking plug, and the meter movement in the top left corner is gone as well, replaced with that dark opaque window.
Too bad, front panel looks real nice, not rotten at all, look at the BNC connectors. So the inside probably looks the part as well.

Looked at the other ads the seller has on-line. Looks like he is a HAM. He is selling a "CB" amplifier, and is looking for a Yaesu radio.
So I guess he was using that poor HP counter as a luxurious CB frequency counter, didn't need the Frequency conversion plug-in and did god knows what with its guts.
Then because he is a cave man, he dropped the HP counter and the left handle took the hit and snapped.

Did the counter survive internally, who knows.

I hate this type of ad with a 50/50% mix of " WANT IT " and " DO NOT TOUCH IT " at the same time, it's a torture to be reasonable and say no.
It would be so much easier to say no if it were more expensive and/or farther away from me.

I guess I could still get it for parts, or just use it as is, after all the frequency converter plugin is not mandatory, neither is the left handle 

I don't know... please help me be reasonable and say no.... yet if I don't take it, nobody else in their right mind won't take it either, and it probably will end up in the skip, not sure I could live with that thought...