Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Hi fi kit sounds better when you’ve just paid for it.

On TE, just checked the EFC range of all the OCXOs from China and they’re all good. Can’t moan at 5 for £12 delivered! Now I need a 1 PPS source…

PicDiv is very good.
http://www.leapsecond.com/pic/picdiv.htm
code available to burn your own.

Or get a GPS I have excess stock 

Got a Ublox LEA-5T board on the way for £13

Going to program it for 10KHz output and use that to drive a no brain GPSDO as attached. Day off today so I spent most of it in KiCad and doing research...

Edit: noticed a pin swap doh on there - don't build it!

Edit 2: fixed

[mnementh]

@mnementh - You are completely missing the point, the posts that were being made were so far off topic they didn't warrant even existing on this forum.

Despite some users demands that this thread be only about TE... it was founded and for most of its life has been about TE Addiction. We all deal with it in different ways... we come in here to talk about how eBay sucks right now, or how shippers destroyed something, or even how we deal with not being able to get new gear to tinker on.

Saskia restores vintage Pinball machines as a diversion, several members are amateur shutterbugs and car technology fanatics, Cubdriver has his cats, Cerebus and bd139 talk programming and even grumpy old med brings his carpentry in here because it holds up his TE acquisitions.

Every single thing you mentioned above here is related to electronics in some fashion, either trying to procure it, how it's used, etc...

The off topic posts that have been removed thus far are related to: painting, a fridge conversion into a four stroke engine, speed limits and regulations, firearms....

You tell me how the above topics are related in any way to electronics (perhaps the engine WAS an electronic device) or the general topic of this forum, let alone this thread. I never stated that this is a "TE Only" thread, but rather that it needs to stay on topic with regards to this forum and the community that use it while staying within the bounds of the forum rules that apply to all threads and topics regardless.

We have allowed this thread to be mostly self governed, and for the most part it has remained on topic. The fact that the regular users of this thread are starting to post moderator reports because they are sick of how far off topic it has gone tells us that we need to step in and pull things back to a sane place.

While you may feel that moderation on a thread like this to keep things within some sane bounds might drive people away, letting it fill up with off topic posts and go unchecked will just as quickly drive people away as they get sick of getting notified to posts that are not what they signed up for.

Other forums have a "General Lounge Thread" for this kind of general off topic discussion where anything goes, at this time we do not. I know first hand as a moderator on some of the largest community forums around how hard it is to moderate the "Lounge Thread" and I personally am glad that this forum does not have one as the workload for the moderators is very high to maintain it (not that I am against having it, nor is it my place to make this decision).

At the end of the day, this is an Electronics forum, posts must at the very minimum meet the requirement of being Electronics related, which includes all the topics you mention when they are in relation to electronics.

Yeah, and before you suggested we should take this subject matter to the "Everything else" section, but the thread kept rolling. Yet now that I suggest we should move the thread to the "Everything Else" section, oh no, that's not right.

You don't know this, but I've worn the mod hat myself more than a few times, and in venues that make this place look like a quilting bee. Moderation requires involvement with the community and the people you are moderating... you actually need to get to know the people you're working with. Then you know how things are relevant.

This kind of over-moderation will kill this thread, and it will be a management decision, not due to the content. This is not just my opinion; there are a number of other folks who object to this kind of heavy-handed management without any feedback mechanism. That is precisely why you're now seeing this push-back in the open forum.

I can see the tumbleweeds amassing behind the saloon, and you'll soon have the nice quiet forum you used to have. And the days when you see hundreds of viewers on a thread will also be gone, because the "interesting" will be gone too. Sure, there will be something in this space, but it won't be the Test Equipment Anonymous Group Therapy Thread anymore.

I do hope for Dave's sake that I'm wrong... but nearly 3 decades life experience as a netizen say otherwise. That's all I can offer.

mnem
Now I've said my piece. I Think I'm going to go on walkabout for a bit; at least until I have some scope bits to play with. Y'all play nice now.

[med6753]

More work on the B&K Precision 2120.

The upper board removed prior has been totally re-capped.



In order to gain access to the filter capacitors for the balance of the PSU the power transformer had to be unbolted and pushed back.





More later.



 

[Robert763]

           I have been searching ebay for a suitable piece of triax cable to make a test lead, for my soon to be arriving Keithley 616.

           My consultant metrologist says this is a probable sign of stage 3 GAS. He is recommending a course of Arduino therapy. 

What do you need want? I have some stock of small low noise nd slightly larger PTFE. I have some connectors too but most are 3 lug.

[Robert763]

Well the slightly younger HP 34401A that arrived last week seems to function OK (quick check on Sunday evening), quite a noticeable difference in display brightness too.

Is the dimmer 34401A the older one?  The reason I ask is I was one of the people who bought one of the new-old-stock US Navy surplus 34401As that were being sold on eBay a year or two ago and I was expecting it to have a very bright display but it was actually a bit dimmer than my older 34401A which I bought used.  You can kind of see in this picture here how the new one is dimmer:



In my case, I'm wondering if  the vacuum fluorescent display tube in the new one needs a bit of running time on it to get the phosphors woken up a bit or if the VFDs themselves varied that much over the production run of the 34401A.

Yes, easy to spot. It has all red input jacks. Only the early models have them. The newer ones have red and black input jacks.

I didn't notice that when I looked at the picture but I can see it now that you pointed it out.  In this case, it most likely is age and use causing the dimmer display on the older one.  I'm still scratching my head why my NOS 34401A is dimmer than the older, used one.  It's not unusable by any means, it's just perplexing that it's so reversed from what anyone would expect between new and used VFD displays.

Maybe they turned the current down on the later ones to improve display life?

[factory]

Well the slightly younger HP 34401A that arrived last week seems to function OK (quick check on Sunday evening), quite a noticeable difference in display brightness too.

Is the dimmer 34401A the older one?  The reason I ask is I was one of the people who bought one of the new-old-stock US Navy surplus 34401As that were being sold on eBay a year or two ago and I was expecting it to have a very bright display but it was actually a bit dimmer than my older 34401A which I bought used.  You can kind of see in this picture here how the new one is dimmer:



In my case, I'm wondering if  the vacuum fluorescent display tube in the new one needs a bit of running time on it to get the phosphors woken up a bit or if the VFDs themselves varied that much over the production run of the 34401A.

Yes, easy to spot. It has all red input jacks. Only the early models have them. The newer ones have red and black input jacks.

I didn't notice that when I looked at the picture but I can see it now that you pointed it out.  In this case, it most likely is age and use causing the dimmer display on the older one.  I'm still scratching my head why my NOS 34401A is dimmer than the older, used one.  It's not unusable by any means, it's just perplexing that it's so reversed from what anyone would expect between new and used VFD displays.

The older one has a S/N below #9k and the newer & brighter is below #92k, overall it's in much better condition too.
My phone camera makes it look even brighter.

David

[Specmaster]

If I were a new starry eyed TE addict and I started reading this thread recently the first question I would ask is "Where's the beef?". In other words....where is the freaking TE content?  All I see is fluff and garbage. No thanks.   

And just to show you that I'm not totally against any off topic content my "Where's the beef" comes from this classic commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug75diEyiA0.

Precisely my point, reduce the amount of fluff, the first time the fluff was mentioned, it might have some relevance to TE albeit loosely, but why do we have to have it repeated time after time, it makes scrolling a chore for those not involved in the discussion, and it highlights it when we do stroll off-topic and creates unwarranted resentment and hatred that is not really valid. I personally have zero interest in programming, RF, pinball machines guns etc, BUT I respect that others might have. Equally, I don't seek to restrict those that do have any interest in those topics, who knows, I might learn something from their posts and indeed I already have, many times.

I think, most of us live in a democracy, and in a democracy we have a thing called freedom of speech and that is a freedom that I, for one, cherish.

Normal service will be resumed.

[Specmaster]

@med6753,
You can certainly see the difference in engineering quality between that B&K Precision scope and that of a Tek for sure.

[med6753]

@med6753,
You can certainly see the difference in engineering quality between that B&K Precision scope and that of a Tek for sure.

I'm actually pretty impressed with the build quality. While not up to typical Tektronix standards as a low cost option it definitely holds it's own.

[gnif]

Yeah, and before you suggested we should take this subject matter to the "Everything else" section, but the thread kept rolling. Yet now that I suggest we should move the thread to the "Everything Else" section, oh no, that's not right.

This is what I actually said...

Acceptable, but taking this off topic to non-electronic related things is not permissible. This is an electronics forum and this topic is under "Test Equipment", so please keep it related even it it's tenuous.

There is some flexibility but this thread had gone too far off topic.

tenuous - adjective
very weak or slight.

Stop misinterpreting what was stated. You sir are the only one making a fuss over this. Keep the posts electronics related or go elsewhere, it's that simple.
Matter closed, if you have any problems with the ruling, complain to Dave. If you can't keep from posting more trife here I will restrict your account.

[AVGresponding]

Bloody hell... his "high voltage probe" is sketchy af

[bd139]

Not as bad as my sketchy one 




(Solder the probes to the board and stand the fuck back)

Yes it worked up to 2Kv fine then got a little sparky. Meter is fine. It's well protected 

Edit: add disclaimer. DO NOT DO THIS - ITS STUPID AND DANGEROUS.

[Squarewave]

I've got the option to buy an HP esa-l1500a spectrum analyzer from a friend, hmmmm, should I should I not....it would be nice to add a much more modern SA to my line of older Marconi mega boat anchors.

He's not a hoarder/collector like me, so as he's getting a Rigol, which is much smaller and compact, he's willing to let the HP go......

 

[pcprogrammer]

Edit: add disclaimer. DO NOT DO THIS - ITS STUPID AND DANGEROUS.

Yes and high voltage hurts.

Long ago when I was in school a teacher brought in a color television which was broken. Removed the high voltage connector from the tube and tried to clean the hole in the tube with a plastic thingy. The tube still had enough charge to jump a bit of distance and shocked the hell out of me. Never made that mistake again

Did manage to fix the television, but the shadow mask was shifted due to what ever. There was another broken television around and the tube matched, so the teacher swapped them. Television worked fine again until he tried to close it up. He dropped the back cover and broke the neck of the tube

[Saskia]

Found more gorillaings in the STTNG pin. Why do people always rely on adhesive tape to try to fix stuff that should be fixed properly ...

success so far:
thoroughly ultrasoniced the gunked left cannon / ball shooter
The shaft is rotating freely now, so that I can apply some lubricant. It will be Flunatec which is put to some off-label use. Stripping down the playfield one bit at a time and fixing stuff while I go (after thoroughly ultracleansonicing it.

Oopsies:
too much stuff going on. forgot one part in the ultrasonic over night. Now the protective zinc cover is gone.
It's not as if the cleaning solutions were not aggressive ....

Gorillaism:
One of the ramps is broken. Using adhesive tape is not how you fix a pinball ramp.
Grrrr. that's another 150 down the drain. And for what.
Ftards.

Further oopsies (not pinball related)
The Nakamichi OMS 7E Mk2 that returned from repair does not stay on. Apparently reassembling the case caused a problem with the power switch. Apart from that it works. Grrr. Gotta do the Dave part and take it apart again to fix it. What an unnecessary blow my limited free time out of the water situation.

Have not gotten around to mounting the crossovers into the Quadral Montan yet. Will probably do so during the week end and do a quick function test using one of my 10€ amps. Just to make sure that nothing is shorted, because that would actually blow out the power amp tranny-istors (to quote Vince). Once that's done: carefully reassemble, but in all the dampening material, fix them up, get the decent speaker cable (some would say audiophool, but I don't care about that, and then get the power amp hooked up. Once this works, swap out the preamp for the TA-E 88 that I just ferengied (see the Rules of Audio Aquisition, #283) and check operations. Drive out the marten by practicing sax and bagpipes.

[Neper]

I remember cars that had an analog "bar graph" display in the seventies: They used a regular speedo that has a drum instead of the needle and you watch the spiral on it through a slot.

Make that the 50s and 60s. The photo shows the speedometer of a Opel Rekord A or B, made from 1963 to 66, the last model with this feature. By the 70s they were out of fashion.

But how about this one, a J.E. Sugden R21 FM tuner hand-made in England. The principle is somewhat different as it's not a rotating drum but a piece of plastic film with a red and a black section that moves forth and back behind the dial. Still, a clever solution. Never seen something like it anywhere else, though.


[ Specified attachment is not available ]

[med6753]

Further oopsies (not pinball related)
The Nakamichi OMS 7E Mk2 that returned from repair does not stay on. Apparently reassembling the case caused a problem with the power switch. Apart from that it works. Grrr. Gotta do the Dave part and take it apart again to fix it. What an unnecessary blow my limited free time out of the water situation.

Basic electronics repair 101. Always double check operation after assembly into the case. Your repair guy is a dumb ass. 

[Saskia]

found a restauration thread for the tape deck I aquired yesterday.



Worth watching and most likely a good how to. Tape decks are not my specialty.

[pcprogrammer]

Not sure if I still have it somewhere, but the small tuning meter on the lower left looks very familiar.

Also brings back memories of the green glowing eye to tune your radio on. If I'm right they were called "cat eyes"?

Edit: Yes got it right https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_eye_tube

[Specmaster]

Not sure if I still have it somewhere, but the small tuning meter on the lower left looks very familiar.

Also brings back memories of the green glowing eye to tune your radio on. If I'm right they were called "cat eyes"?

I've always known those as "magic eye" tubes.

[Cubdriver]

@med6753,
You can certainly see the difference in engineering quality between that B&K Precision scope and that of a Tek for sure.

I'm actually pretty impressed with the build quality. While not up to typical Tektronix standards as a low cost option it definitely holds it's own.

B&K Precision and Sencore, based on what I've heard from people who've used them professionally, are considered to be high end in the category of 'service grade' instrumentation.


-Pat

[med6753]

Make that the 50s and 60s. The photo shows the speedometer of a Opel Rekord A or B, made from 1963 to 66, the last series with this feature. By the 70s they were out of fashion.

But how about this one, a J.E. Sugden R21 FM tuner made in England. The principle is somewhat different as it's not a rotating drum but a piece of plastic film with a red and a black section that moves forth and back behind the dial. Still, a clever solution. Never seen something like it anywhere else, though.

(Attachment Link)
(Attachment Link)

What are all those trim pots for? Could it be station presets? 

[Saskia]

Further oopsies (not pinball related)
The Nakamichi OMS 7E Mk2 that returned from repair does not stay on. Apparently reassembling the case caused a problem with the power switch. Apart from that it works. Grrr. Gotta do the Dave part and take it apart again to fix it. What an unnecessary blow my limited free time out of the water situation.

Basic electronics repair 101. Always double check operation after assembly into the case. Your repair guy is a dumb ass. 

true. I am too tired to work on that right now. To give Vince a reason for taking some medication: the price tag for this thing was thru the roof when it was released. Now it's vintage, but still.

btw one of the best cd players ever built was the Sony CDP 557 ESD. It's a piece of art (internally). Externally it's a fucking huge boat anchor. 18 kg for a CD Player. yeah right ...

[med6753]

@med6753,
You can certainly see the difference in engineering quality between that B&K Precision scope and that of a Tek for sure.

I'm actually pretty impressed with the build quality. While not up to typical Tektronix standards as a low cost option it definitely holds it's own.

B&K Precision and Sencore, based on what I've heard from people who've used them professionally, are considered to be high end in the category of 'service grade' instrumentation.


-Pat

I think Hickok falls into the category too but I also think they built counterfeit Tek Type 535's for the military. 

[Neper]

I've always known those as "magic eye" tubes.

Yep, Magisches Auge in German. They cost a king's ransom nowadays if you can find a replacement at all.

As a child I was told that the sandman was watching through this eye to see if I was going to bed like a good boy, at night. :-)

What are all those trim pots for? Could it be station presets? 

Exactly. The three pushbuttons on the left switch between four presets and the big tuning dial. The frequencies were set by the dealer to BBC Radio 2, 3, and 4 (Radio 1 was medium wave only) and the frequency of the local BBC station. There was nothing else on FM at the time. Its successor, the T48, didn't even have a dial but only buttons for the four BBC stations. Those were the days...