Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[nfmax]

The heathkit HT supply is a notable bit of kit too. Good second hand market value 

Yeah, HT supplies are hard to come by. For some reason. I'm looking for a 6209, of course.

The 6209 is all well and good, and I'm happy to have one, but the voltage adjust control is frighteningly close to the output terminals!

[Specmaster]

Celebrated my EEVblog 5 year anniversary with a curry, beer and some single ladies tonight at Namaste in Holborn  .

One of them has an electrical engineering degree. But she’s 15 years older than me 

Anyway enough slacking off. Getting home soon and will do a Vince and sort out my capacitors 

Sorting out your capacitors is a hell of a lot safer and cheaper long term, but not quite as much as fun as the ladies 

[Zenith]

Yeah, HT supplies are hard to come by. For some reason. I'm looking for a 6209, of course.

I've seen very few.

Something I never understood is why audio distortion meters are quite common, but low distortion oscillators of a standard to use with them, are quite rare.

[Vince]

[...]
Getting home soon and will do a Vince and sort out my capacitors 

Sorting components, I found out, is a surpringly relaxing and therapeutic activity, I am sure you will enjoy it.
It's the kind of thing that could be beneficial to you, given how stressed you must be all day long trying to fix huge hopeless piles of junk software combining all together to produce the most hellish of results.

You could do some boxing after work as well, but sorting components is cheaper, can be done at home, and does not make you sweat, so no need to then spend even more money, on electricity and washing powder that is, to then wash those sweaty clothes.

No, go sort your capacitors, you will feel better once your are done. 

[factory]

The heathkit HT supply is a notable bit of kit too. Good second hand market value 

Yeah, HT supplies are hard to come by. For some reason. I'm looking for a 6209, of course.

The 6209B is all well and good, and I'm happy to have one, but the voltage adjust control is frighteningly close to the output terminals!

Yes that is correct for the 6209B, it's the current control that is next to the output terminal on the 6209A, but in that case the manual is unobtainium.

David

[Cubdriver]

The heathkit HT supply is a notable bit of kit too. Good second hand market value 

Yeah, HT supplies are hard to come by. For some reason. I'm looking for a 6209, of course.

Mine gets a good bit of use testing/reforming higher voltage electrolytic caps.  Set the voltage limit for the cap's rated voltage, the current limit for 5-10 mA, then connect it to the cap in question with bench volt and ammeters in the circuit to monitor the voltage across and current through the cap and let it rip, with only an occasional glance to ensure things are on the right track.

And it seems with the steady decrease in operating voltages for microprocessors that a lot of people will soon be thinking anything over fifteen volts is high voltage!

-Pat

[Specmaster]

All of this here talk about heating oil reminded me of one of my first weekend jobs I had while I was at senior school. I used to go around on an old Bedford "O" type fuel tanker like the one in the photo, but it was branded "Pink Paraffin" and had a manual delivery pump at the rear. I used to go round towns on the housing estates dispensing fuel in gallons into peoples own jerry cans. I remember knocking one persons door and a young lady in the nude answered it and gave me her can to fill up. I told the driver of the tanker about her state of undress and he said "I'll take the can back and collect the money" "Bastard" I said under my breath, and laughed when he returned moments later, fuming because while filling her 5 gallon can, she had put some clothes on. 

[med6753]

One of them has an electrical engineering degree. But she’s 15 years older than me 

What's wrong with an older woman? She can teach you a thing or two. 

[bd139]

[...]
Getting home soon and will do a Vince and sort out my capacitors 

Sorting components, I found out, is a surpringly relaxing and therapeutic activity, I am sure you will enjoy it.
It's the kind of thing that could be beneficial to you, given how stressed you must be all day long trying to fix huge hopeless piles of junk software combining all together to produce the most hellish of results.

You could do some boxing after work as well, but sorting components is cheaper, can be done at home, and does not make you sweat, so no need to then spend even more money, on electricity and washing powder that is, to then wash those sweaty clothes.

No, go sort your capacitors, you will feel better once your are done. 

Very good advice

Boxing definitely not my thing. Have taken up running again after work however. Trying to get alternate 5k walk and run days. And yes. Sweat. Ugh.

[bd139]

One of them has an electrical engineering degree. But she’s 15 years older than me 

What's wrong with an older woman? She can teach you a thing or two. 

Once she’s put her teeth back in 

[Vince]

The heathkit HT supply is a notable bit of kit too. Good second hand market value 

Yeah, HT supplies are hard to come by. For some reason. I'm looking for a 6209, of course.

And it seems with the steady decrease in operating voltages for microprocessors that a lot of people will soon be thinking anything over fifteen volts is high voltage!

-Pat

ISTR an old video where Dave said he is scared with anything above 12Volts... since the day as a kid he got zapped while fiddling inside his parents television...

[mansaxel]

Yeah, HT supplies are hard to come by. For some reason. I'm looking for a 6209, of course.

I've seen very few.

Something I never understood is why audio distortion meters are quite common, but low distortion oscillators of a standard to use with them, are quite rare.

I actually have two low-distortion oscillators; a hp 200CDR and Tektronix SG505, with accompanying AA501 Distortion analyser, of course.  But no HT supply 

[med6753]

One of them has an electrical engineering degree. But she’s 15 years older than me 

What's wrong with an older woman? She can teach you a thing or two. 

Once she’s put her teeth back in 

But prior to that you have a big arse smile on your face.   

[nfmax]

So, last August, I had the house repainted, which involved taking down the outside air temperature sensor. The plastic 'screen' thingy promptly fell apart 

Time for a new one. I found a thingy on eBay, 3D-printed an adapter bracket to fit it in place of the old one, and swapped out the old sensor for a new PRT probe. The junk box provided me with a 4-20mA loop current transmitter, and I finagled the resistors to give me a sensing range that covered the extremes of the temperature range experienced in England.

What with one thing and another, I didn't get round to fitting it until just recently - when the national high temperature record was smashed by, I think 1.6˚C. So I just spent a slack day recalculating the resistors again, this time covering about -20˚C to 43.6˚C, which should be OK (I sincerely hope).

Incidentally, since I'm using micropower parts instead of the originals in the transmitter, the loop current works linearly down to about 0.75mA, which helps extend the range. Though the PRT linearisation is only good to about 0.1˚C.

The last step: calibrating it all against my Isotech reference thermometer. I used an ice point and a Grant water bath at 35˚C (as low as it will stabilise at - the lab is currently around 26˚C) to get two fixed points. Checks with the resistance box shows that is plenty good enough. I anticipate an overall error of around 0.2 or 0.3˚C, taking everything into consideration, and assuming the Isotech is as good as it was when it was made (in 2004). Given Isotech's reputation, I don't think that is much of a risk. It reads 0.00˚C in an icepoint made with deionised water, and around -0.01˚C if using tap water.

And I will fit it tomorrow evening! Promise!

[mnementh]

Celebrated my EEVblog 5 year anniversary with a curry, beer and some single ladies tonight at Namaste in Holborn  .

One of them has an electrical engineering degree. But she’s 15 years older than me 

Anyway enough slacking off. Getting home soon and will do a Vince and sort out my capacitors 

*sifts through the archives*

Looks like I celebrated mine by building a new gaming rig for my son. Then when the conversation turned to keyboards, I posted this:



I am shocked, I say...  shocked... that it took me 5 years to post that WANTED reference in here...

mnem

[mansaxel]

I actually have two low-distortion oscillators

Make that three -- I just remembered my hp telco test set, that while not very low indeed has bearable distortion.

[Cerebus]

All of this here talk about heating oil reminded me of one of my first weekend jobs I had while I was at senior school. I used to go around on an old Bedford "O" type fuel tanker like the one in the photo, but it was branded "Pink Paraffin" and had a manual delivery pump at the rear. I used to go round towns on the housing estates dispensing fuel in gallons into peoples own jerry cans. I remember knocking one persons door and a young lady in the nude answered it and gave me her can to fill up. I told the driver of the tanker about her state of undress and he said "I'll take the can back and collect the money" "Bastard" I said under my breath, and laughed when he returned moments later, fuming because while filling her 5 gallon can, she had put some clothes on. 

Was it early? If it was, she probably thought you were the milkman! 

Did you and the Esso Blue boys have gang wars over territory? Roman candles at 50 paces, see who could blow up whom's tanker? 

[mnementh]

Somehow, it's fitting that should be your eleventy-leventy-leventh post, ya dirty-minded ol' reprobate... 

mnem
*dirty-minded ol' reptile*

[tautech]

Celebrated my EEVblog 5 year anniversary with a curry, beer and some single ladies tonight at Namaste in Holborn  .

About that 5 years, aren't you forgetting about your 6mth disappearing act yet you sorta let us know you were still sucking air via Discord.

One of them has an electrical engineering degree. But she’s 15 years older than me 

So does Mr Bean.

Good result from Telonic here. They shipped a duff PP215 probe with my SDS1202X-E. tggzzz will no doubt identify which bit went wrong instantly. New probe in the post to me today free of charge.

Just died recently or like that from the start ?

[Zenith]

I actually have two low-distortion oscillators

Make that three -- I just remembered my hp telco test set, that while not very low indeed has bearable distortion.

Yeah. I have an AWA G232, which really is low distortion and a Philips PM5110 which is tolerably low distortion.

But that's not the point, you see a lot more distortion analysers/meters than oscillators fit to use with them, and it seems odd.

[factory]

The model numbering is a bit confusing, the 5326A/B/C are 50MHz only, 5327A/B/C have the 550MHz prescaler added, B models have the DVM added, C models have time interval mode removed.
The early ones predate the 10544A oven, hence why the later ones, with exactly the same model number & letter have the redesigned motherboard.

There are three custom ICs for adding the 8th digit option, these are difficult to obtain NOS, they can be found from sellers that only flog the readout boards, but I don't like buying from these sellers knowing they probably destroyed working machines.

These are the two I own, the early 5326B below, crystal board is on the right, next to the side frame..

David

This is mine.


I think there's provision for an OCXO. There look to be solder points, but I imagine there should be a socket.

I had vague thoughts that the extra N***e would just be a matter of finding the right N***e and a 74141. No, three custom chips. I can't really see that happening without coming across a total wreck with the right parts. I wonder if it would be possible to make up a daughter board that would do it.

The fan looks a more approachable problem than I'd thought at first glance. There must be a modern fan that fits, or can be adapted, and has the right airflow and pressure. I'd be more tempted to use it if it didn't kick up that din.

According to the manual, the OXCO option uses the same socket as the regular oscillator & TXCO option, all the extra PSU parts are already fitted right next to the socket, just need two #6x32 3/8 inch screws & fiber washers, might be a link that needs removing too (shown on the diagram).

The counter, buffer/storage & display decoder ICs use negative logic, this is opposite to more common 7490, 7475 & 74141 parts, also pinouts are different, the HP custom ICs can also blank unused readout choobs and the custom buffer/storage IC has extra outputs for the recorder/printer output, this probably won't matter if you haven't got a recorder (I have a 5055A in the repair queue).

All the information is in the free pdf 5326B manual (254MB) that is on the web somewhere, it might be possible to use regular ICs to achieve the same function, but more ICs would be needed, surface mount parts would help fit it in the available space.
Alternately keep an eye out for sellers flogging HP N***e choobs & ask if they will sell the board that they stole them from and hope they still work, parts are 1820-0092, 1820-0116 & 1820-0119.

Have you tried repairing the fan? It could have worn spacers and/or need oiling.

David

[bd139]

Celebrated my EEVblog 5 year anniversary with a curry, beer and some single ladies tonight at Namaste in Holborn  .

About that 5 years, aren't you forgetting about your 6mth disappearing act yet you sorta let us know you were still sucking air via Discord.

One of them has an electrical engineering degree. But she’s 15 years older than me 

So does Mr Bean.

Good result from Telonic here. They shipped a duff PP215 probe with my SDS1202X-E. tggzzz will no doubt identify which bit went wrong instantly. New probe in the post to me today free of charge.

Just died recently or like that from the start ?

Hey I’ve earned tenure now 

As for the duff probe, dodgy from the start. The guy at Telonic said they’d had quite a few duff ones recently. Worth keeping an eye out. Issue is with the 1X/10X switch.

[grizewald]

The heathkit HT supply is a notable bit of kit too. Good second hand market value 

Yeah, HT supplies are hard to come by. For some reason. I'm looking for a 6209, of course.

The 6209 is all well and good, and I'm happy to have one, but the voltage adjust control is frighteningly close to the output terminals!

You just have to get into the habit of always adjusting the voltage with your left hand.

[grizewald]

The heathkit HT supply is a notable bit of kit too. Good second hand market value 

Yeah, HT supplies are hard to come by. For some reason. I'm looking for a 6209, of course.

And it seems with the steady decrease in operating voltages for microprocessors that a lot of people will soon be thinking anything over fifteen volts is high voltage!

-Pat

ISTR an old video where Dave said he is scared with anything above 12Volts... since the day as a kid he got zapped while fiddling inside his parents television...

Getting a mains voltage shock off an old electric bar fire was what got me interested in electronics! I was about seven at the time...

[tautech]

As for the duff probe, dodgy from the start. The guy at Telonic said they’d had quite a few duff ones recently. Worth keeping an eye out. Issue is with the 1X/10X switch.

Very few here in recent times.
They had issues a while back then changed to 00 marked ones then we had more issues for a while but lately problems are now rare.
We got into the routine of checking and compensating every probe when we do our PD checks so caught every dud before it went out the door. 
I cycle the attenuation switch ~5 times and if it's dodgy out it goes ! Warranty claim here we come ! 
This is where Siglent are excellent, never in nearly 10 yrs have we argued about a claim, they always front up ! 

Anyways, doing a PD check allows us to pop on some company badging, check FW is the latest, check probes and leave the instrument in the best settings for best first impressions.......something Siglent haven't yet listened to us about ! 

rant
WhyTF would you want a scope to factory boot or Default to 1us/div is beyond me....the first thing with a new instrument you always wanna do is compensate probes so a default s/div setting nearer 1ms/div should make more sense, right ? Seems not.  What TF would we know ? 
Another far more annoying is having menus set to 3s autohide as default.  So you pull this new to you instrument outta the box, plug the sucker in and boot it then admire the new and strange to you GUI only to have the menu squirt off to places unknown while you're trying to get to grips with your new possession !
They make some wonderful instruments yet some shit they do is as dumb as fuck !

tautech default setting = menu autohide = OFF !
/rant