Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Pat, that 1A5 missing the variable control should be an integrated pot with a switch. You can probably get away with shorting together the leads to the switch but just not have variable gain while you search for a replacement.

I just had a thought. Lemme check the schematic and then check my parts stash. We might get lucky.

Edit, it's a very unusual 375 ohm pot with switch. But I will check anyway.

[Neper]

However I always thought that transistor testers were a bit snake oil compared to valve testers.

I suppose they were bought by people who were used to valve testers and with the arrival of the first transistor sets thought they'd need a transistor tester. I remember the days when in some German consumer electronics transistors were even socketed, so they could easily be taken out of the set in order to test them.

[Cubdriver]

Pat, that 1A5 missing the variable control should be an integrated pot with a switch. You can probably get away with shorting together the leads to the switch but just not have variable gain while you search for a replacement.

I just had a thought. Lemme check the schematic and then check my parts stash. We might get lucky.

Edit, it's a very unusual 375 ohm pot with switch. But I will check anyway.

LOL - the downside of letting engineers use bespoke parts rather than standard, readily available values.  My fingers are crossed, but not too tightly...

-Pat

[med6753]

Pat, that 1A5 missing the variable control should be an integrated pot with a switch. You can probably get away with shorting together the leads to the switch but just not have variable gain while you search for a replacement.

I just had a thought. Lemme check the schematic and then check my parts stash. We might get lucky.

Edit, it's a very unusual 375 ohm pot with switch. But I will check anyway.

LOL - the downside of letting engineers use bespoke parts rather than standard, readily available values.  My fingers are crossed, but not too tightly...

-Pat

I have several duff 560 series plug-in's and a 500 series CA plug-in and those variable pots are all in the 50K range. So sorry, no match. 

[tautech]

D Lab is short for Douchebag Lab. He has a record for destroying vintage tube gear while he sips his wine and comes off as a jerk.   

Oh Cmon med, FFS some gear is worth much more to be parted out when vintage gear should be in a museum instead.
You had a go at Thomas (oz2cpu) a week or two back and are we now resorting to flaming anyone that parts out what are now old POS or any equipment that isn't recoverable or BER ?
Best you start poking a stick at some members here for similar behavior........

[Cubdriver]

Pat, that 1A5 missing the variable control should be an integrated pot with a switch. You can probably get away with shorting together the leads to the switch but just not have variable gain while you search for a replacement.

I just had a thought. Lemme check the schematic and then check my parts stash. We might get lucky.

Edit, it's a very unusual 375 ohm pot with switch. But I will check anyway.

LOL - the downside of letting engineers use bespoke parts rather than standard, readily available values.  My fingers are crossed, but not too tightly...

-Pat

I have several duff 560 series plug-in's and a 500 series CA plug-in and those variable pots are all in the 50K range. So sorry, no match. 

No worries - appreciate you taking a look.  I'll figure something out eventually...

-Pat

[med6753]

D Lab is short for Douchebag Lab. He has a record for destroying vintage tube gear while he sips his wine and comes off as a jerk.   

Oh Cmon med, FFS some gear is worth much more to be parted out when vintage gear should be in a museum instead.
You had a go at Thomas (oz2cpu) a week or two back and are we now resorting to flaming anyone that parts out what are now old POS or any equipment that isn't recoverable or BER ?
Best you start poking a stick at some members here for similar behavior........

Watch several of his videos and check out his "my shit don't stink" attitude then report back. Personally I can't stand him.

[bd139]

D Lab is short for Douchebag Lab. He has a record for destroying vintage tube gear while he sips his wine and comes off as a jerk.   

Oh Cmon med, FFS some gear is worth much more to be parted out when vintage gear should be in a museum instead.
You had a go at Thomas (oz2cpu) a week or two back and are we now resorting to flaming anyone that parts out what are now old POS or any equipment that isn't recoverable or BER ?
Best you start poking a stick at some members here for similar behavior........

Got to agree with D-Lab comment. He's well known for parting out historical test gear or turning it into shitty guitar amps.

He's basically Avo Light Bulb Dude with some more skills and the taste of someone who buys truck nuts.

Just another personality cult...

Edit: honestly I'd have a go at anyone here who destroyed shit for their personal vanity and ego which is about all he is accountable to.

[tautech]

D Lab is short for Douchebag Lab. He has a record for destroying vintage tube gear while he sips his wine and comes off as a jerk.   

Oh Cmon med, FFS some gear is worth much more to be parted out when vintage gear should be in a museum instead.
You had a go at Thomas (oz2cpu) a week or two back and are we now resorting to flaming anyone that parts out what are now old POS or any equipment that isn't recoverable or BER ?
Best you start poking a stick at some members here for similar behavior........

Watch several of his videos and check out his "my shit don't stink" attitude then report back. Personally I can't stand him.

And that is your right albeit due to your sensitivities in preserving old gear.
Not watched any D-Lad vids other than the one on the Heathkit cap tester and only did as he did some close ups of the magic eye which were pretty nice.

However life goes on and mankind advances to where in just a generation or 2 we wouldn't dream of living in the way our forefathers did or should yet everyone seems to judge one another from only their POV instead of applying some tolerance and taking a mo to discover why they are the way they are.

We can all be dicks but here we're all mates too and how we push ourselves out there makes a difference on how we're judged.

Here, take this POV:
I have some old gear here, nothing special but just a 1740 and a couple of Philips scopes which of course I could part out to help another keep this old gear working but instead it's all going to recycling, why ?
It's a commercial decision as a supplier of new gear not old stuff.

Only the TSD2012B will remain in the hope I can get around to fixing and flogging it due to the investment I have in it.....some USD500 in a time when they were worth something.

[Specmaster]

<snip>
It's going to depend on the exact date of that set. FM transmission of  the home service, light programme and third programme was carried on FM from the 50s. The change to Radio 2, 3 and 4 was 1967 from memory. Commercial radio wasn't licensed until 1973, when LBC first started broadcasting on [checks] Oct 8th on both FM and AM.

True, bit IIRC, I remember seeing one of these tuners in a Hi-Fi shop in Loughton, playing Capital Radio, mind you, the tuner might not have been new 

[Neper]

<snip>
It's going to depend on the exact date of that set. FM transmission of  the home service, light programme and third programme was carried on FM from the 50s. The change to Radio 2, 3 and 4 was 1967 from memory. Commercial radio wasn't licensed until 1973, when LBC first started broadcasting on [checks] Oct 8th on both FM and AM.

True, bit IIRC, I remember seeing one of these tuners in a Hi-Fi shop in Loughton, playing Capital Radio, mind you, the tuner might not have been new 

Might well be. The T48, it's successor model, was introduced in 76 if my sources are correct, so the R21 was indeed the current model in 73.

[EEVblog]

@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.

Nope, gnif is right.
There have been a spate of reports recently and we had to step in. As I said, every time I do randomly look at this thread it seems on-topic, actually obsessively so, which is why I don't have the time to frequent it.
I'll be up-front here, you see it the way you do because that's the way you want the thread/forum to be. IIRC all the reports recently have been about your threads, and I have received several PM's thanking us for stepping in, and how that you are the instigator here when it comes to the thread drifting OT and it's starting to ruin their enjoyment of it.
So please stop posting OT posts.
This forum has been successful for 13 years because we see seem to have the balance just about right.
Is it too much to ask to keep the biggest thread on the forum on-topic?
I know it's a "catch-all" for test gear stuff, and seems to have it's own community, but all it takes is one or a few people to ruin it if they post off-topic stuff every day.
I actually advertise and link to this thread in videos as a place where the test equipment obsessed. I don't want people to come here expecting test equipment talk and get guns, videos, and other random chat.

[Vince]

I've got a couple of vintage TE clocks, these were made by a few TE manufacturers for adding timecode to recorder printouts & tape recording. In the case of the HP can also be used to automate the printing, with several selectable rates.

David

Wowwwwww.... this thing looks the business !!!   

Beautiful, I want one as well now ! What do you mean it took you 20 years to find one and it's the only one you have ever seen ?!

Oh well.... 

Even though HP made so many millions of their TE, some of their old stuff none the less is as rare as hens teeth nowadays.

I am sure you must be very glad you stumbled upon this one ! 

If I pay you 20 quid, can I visit your lab for an hour and play with this thing ?! 

[Vince]

For the sake of common understanding, you should stick with 'BK' for this company, as 'B&K' usually denotes Bruel & Kjaer in the world of Test & Measurement.

Yes, B&K means Bruel & Kjaer. Top notch stuff in the sound and vibration measurement industry.

Never heard of them because clueless here, but what do you know, I just stumbled upon some of their stuff over here, so yeah I know now ! 

https://www.leboncoin.fr/autres/2191713102.htm

Look at this bad boy !

A Brüel and Kjaer Heterodyne Analyzer Type 2010

I am sure someone here knows what to do with that....

Looks beautiful and not just because of the Nixie display !
Looks like a work of art... wooden cabinet as well, factory it looks like.

It's a piece of lab equipment but polished like they meant it to be displayed in your living room ! 

Priced at " only " 700 Euros ! 

Not for me...

Beautiful piece isn't it ??

Description says it works in the audio range, from 2 to 200kHz... maybe Saskia could buy it...

Guy says no shipping. I guess the better because if he were OK to ship it, he would probably pack it so badly that it would not survive the trip anyway... would be tragic for such a nice piece.

[Cerebus]

<snip>
It's going to depend on the exact date of that set. FM transmission of  the home service, light programme and third programme was carried on FM from the 50s. The change to Radio 2, 3 and 4 was 1967 from memory. Commercial radio wasn't licensed until 1973, when LBC first started broadcasting on [checks] Oct 8th on both FM and AM.

True, bit IIRC, I remember seeing one of these tuners in a Hi-Fi shop in Loughton, playing Capital Radio, mind you, the tuner might not have been new 

Capital were only a few months after LBC, maybe as little as two. Hold on...  First on-air: 16 Oct 1973. So just over a week after LBC.

[tggzzz]

I actually advertise and link to this thread in videos as a place where the test equipment obsessed. I don't want people to come here expecting test equipment talk and get guns, videos, and other random chat.

This thread isn't something I'd actively recommend to someone untll I knew they had the right personality/weltanschauung.

I had no idea you mentioned it outside these hallowed walls.

[EEVblog]

I actually advertise and link to this thread in videos as a place where the test equipment obsessed. I don't want people to come here expecting test equipment talk and get guns, videos, and other random chat.

This thread isn't something I'd actively recommend to someone untll I knew they had the right personality/weltanschauung.
I had no idea you mentioned it outside these hallowed walls.

At 5000 something pages, it's a phenomenally impressive thread!
I basically use it as a boast about how the EEVBlog forum is THE place to be if you are into test equipment.

[mnementh]

Nope, gnif is right.
There have been a spate of reports recently and we had to step in. As I said, every time I do randomly look at this thread it seems on-topic, actually obsessively so, which is why I don't have the time to frequent it.
I'll be up-front here, you see it the way you do because that's the way you want the thread/forum to be. IIRC all the reports recently have been about your threads, and I have received several PM's thanking us for stepping in, and how that you are the instigator here when it comes to the thread drifting OT and it's starting to ruin their enjoyment of it.
So please stop posting OT posts.
This forum has been successful for 13 years because we see seem to have the balance just about right.
Is it too much to ask to keep the biggest thread on the forum on-topic?
I know it's a "catch-all" for test gear stuff, and seems to have it's own community, but all it takes is one or a few people to ruin it if they post off-topic stuff every day.
I actually advertise and link to this thread in videos as a place where the test equipment obsessed. I don't want people to come here expecting test equipment talk and get guns, videos, and other random chat.

Thank you Dave, for taking the time to talk about it.

The way I "see it" is based on having been here since it started, and I just spent most of the last couple afternoons rereading the first 50 or so pages. There is a lot of OT stuff in there. And as I mentioned, there was a time when the heavy technical stuff was considered OT, and that it should be taken to one of the repair threads.

I don't know if you or any of the complainers have bothered to read those posts... it doesn't matter now, I guess. This is now, 5 years later, and as we all know, change is the only constant. Obviously what you want from this thread has changed, so we must adapt or leave.

So I guess what I'm wanting to know is where is the line? How far away from the "TE and TE only" line are we allowed to go without incurring the wrath?

Some of the earliest posts in here relate purely to how you deal with your addiction in an abstract sense; the things you do to keep yourself and family happy with your addiction, or even to protect your addiction from them. Easily half the definitions in the TEA glossary are related to these issues, and discussion over those relationships is where that all came from.

A recent example from earlier: Sure, the relevance of med's woodworking is directly obvious. So are Saskia's similar posts regarding fixing the cabinetry on her pinballs. Even Vince's bedroom flooring project...? Okay, he presented that as "getting my bed out of my lab" so sure...

But my woodworking project which posts were recently deleted is directly related to maintaining the "happy wife, happy life" status quo we refer to in this thread over and over again as a critical factor, and when I first started posting about it I got thanks because it started interesting conversation. 

Another core conversation point in here has been tools... and that subject meanders, sometimes for days, around Robin's barn and all over Hell's half-acre and back, and definitely into the realm of non-EE tools. But the fundamental addiction to collecting tools of all sorts seemed to be one of the core things that always pulled us together.

That's just a couple examples. My point here is not to be contrary... it is to have some basic "line" and know where it is. Before, the line was "Politics". Now it's "OT". Fine. Things change.

The post where Saskia had to ask if her stuff on pinball and HiFi was acceptable... that made me cringe; it felt like she was walking on eggshells. If we all start having to do that whenever something is tangentially related, this is going to start feeling a bit like a gulag.

So please... give us some concrete guidelines. "I know OT when I see it" isn't a fair rubrik.

What also isn't fair is when things that were acceptable, even garnered thanks, suddenly garner lots of complaints because some especially screechy wheel and cohorts just plain have a personal axe to grind against the person who posted them.

If we can post stuff related to our TE addiction, and make a plausible connection to our TE addiction, that would be a great start. I can live with asking first when I know that connection is tenuous.

Please consider this request as earnestly as it is presented. It is genuine.

Thanks again for your time, and for providing this space for us to come play. I'll try not to be so rowdy in the future.

mnem

[BU508A]

I actually advertise and link to this thread in videos as a place where the test equipment obsessed. I don't want people to come here expecting test equipment talk and get guns, videos, and other random chat.

This thread isn't something I'd actively recommend to someone untll I knew they had the right personality/weltanschauung.
I had no idea you mentioned it outside these hallowed walls.

At 5000 something pages, it's a phenomenally impressive thread!
I basically use it as a boast about how the EEVBlog forum is THE place to be if you are into test equipment.

I think, this thread has transformed in something more than just the biggest thread in the EEVBlog forum. It is a kind of community with inhabitants from all over the world. They meet here regularly, discussing mostly TE stuff and sometimes other topics but from my point of view they are always coming back to TE. Another reason for why I'm looking at this thread as a community is, that the TEA members are helping each other if they can, e.g. sending spare parts, helping organizing things in other countries as locals etc.

Yes, there are differences and yes, I totally agree to exclude certain topics such as guns, religion, politics, health things (Covid for example). They have clearly the potential to damage this community and I'd really prefer to see this not going to happen. There are enough dysfunctional things going on all around the world and this place is something like a comfort zone, showing me, that there are other people outside which are sharing similar interests of mine.

Occasionly OT stuff such as weird videos, little personal stories etc. which aren't directly TE related are for me something like colour dots and sometimes a source of inspiration. But they should not take too long or drift too far way.

TL;DR
Thank you for being such tolerant mods and also thank you for being tough when it's necessary.
I for myself do really appreciate the balance you and your co-moderators have found.
My (our) part is to endure the things that run counter to my (our) views and to ask now and then to stay on topic.

[Cerebus]

I suspect you being a little biased, dear BU508A, as we are the only people in the world who will put up with your stream of dad jokes! 

[med6753]

Here, take this POV:
I have some old gear here, nothing special but just a 1740 and a couple of Philips scopes which of course I could part out to help another keep this old gear working but instead it's all going to recycling, why ?
It's a commercial decision as a supplier of new gear not old stuff.

Only the TSD2012B will remain in the hope I can get around to fixing and flogging it due to the investment I have in it.....some USD500 in a time when they were worth something.

Every piece of TE that comes across my bench gets a critical assessment of the ability to repair or is it reasonably economical to repair. Not everything makes the cut. Is it a hard decision? Yes. But sometimes there's no choice. I currently have 9 Tek scopes of various models in the TE closet designated as parts mules. And at least that many various 560, 500, and 7000 series plug-in's. And all these parts units have proven a valuable resource of parts for myself as well as others here on the forum. I'll gladly share what I have with anyone who asks for nothing more than cost of shipping. It's my "give back" to the community we share on this forum.   

[tautech]

Here, take this POV:
I have some old gear here, nothing special but just a 1740 and a couple of Philips scopes which of course I could part out to help another keep this old gear working but instead it's all going to recycling, why ?
It's a commercial decision as a supplier of new gear not old stuff.

Only the TSD2012B will remain in the hope I can get around to fixing and flogging it due to the investment I have in it.....some USD500 in a time when they were worth something.

Every piece of TE that comes across my bench gets a critical assessment of the ability to repair or is it reasonably economical to repair. Not everything makes the cut. Is it a hard decision? Yes. But sometimes there's no choice. I currently have 9 Tek scopes of various models in the TE closet designated as parts mules. And at least that many various 560, 500, and 7000 series plug-in's.

Yeah well we all have a different approach. 
After having to source the manuals for my first scope, a D83 from the UK and a reproduction as PDF's of them just weren't available online back them I vowed never to get another scope for repair unless it came with manuals or they could be found free online.
I was never caught out again by taking this approach and turned over a # of CRO's, some of which I'd never heard of before but they came with a manual so who cares.
One of my last was a UK 100 MHz Bradley Type 200 that had a open secondary in the EHT transformer that was luckily on the top layer of the windings and barely a turn was lost. 

Then I discovered DSO's and fixed a couple of old Tek ones and they sold like hot cakes whereas trying to get any sort of decent return on CRO's was tough. 
Terra Op seems to do pretty well though. 

And all these parts units have proven a valuable resource of parts for myself as well as others here on the forum. I'll gladly share what I have with anyone who asks for nothing more than cost of shipping. It's my "give back" to the community we share on this forum.

We all enjoy your forays with the old Teks however in reality no one uses these old scopes commercially these days and in just the few short years of our lives being here the A brands have raised a finger to the hobbyists like you and most of us while the Asian upstarts have come along and are busy munching on their lunch.....and rapidly improving their skills with the profits made.

My plan is not to keep much of anything dated so those that come after have less to dispose of yet if there's anything small that might be of use to anyone here like the probe I sent you or the magic eye tube that went to Neo. Components that rarely get used these days can stay as there's not much invested in them and will be easy to dispose of when required.

[TERRA Operative]

More work on the B&K Precision 2120.

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

What about those two over in that little can on the right? They'll get replaced too?

[TERRA Operative]

I've got a couple of vintage TE clocks, these were made by a few TE manufacturers for adding timecode to recorder printouts & tape recording. In the case of the HP can also be used to automate the printing, with several selectable rates.





Bought some used tubes last night that will hopefully do for the Systron, it's been used so much that many tubes have metallic deposits inside the glass, making them dark & useless.

David

Hey, hey.. You should repurpose those things, as... Nixie clocks!

Wait a sec.........

 



(Needs moar blue LED  )

[EEVblog]

So I guess what I'm wanting to know is where is the line? How far away from the "TE and TE only" line are we allowed to go without incurring the wrath?

When you have multiple others reporting your posts as derailing the thread, you have gone too far.
This forum works on a reporting system, mods only get alerted if someone reports a post.
We get a lot of "storm in a tea cup" complaints of course, but when multiple people report the same posts we know the community doesn't like it.

Some of the earliest posts in here relate purely to how you deal with your addiction in an abstract sense; the things you do to keep yourself and family happy with your addiction, or even to protect your addiction from them. Easily half the definitions in the TEA glossary are related to these issues, and discussion over those relationships is where that all came from.

Obviously that's on topic, it's in the title.

That's just a couple examples. My point here is not to be contrary... it is to have some basic "line" and know where it is. Before, the line was "Politics". Now it's "OT". Fine. Things change.

Poltics, guns, religion, covid, etc, no.

So please... give us some concrete guidelines. "I know OT when I see it" isn't a fair rubrik.

I can't. As I said above, the forum works on a community reporting system. Your posts have been reported by multiple, so maybe you need to lay off on the off topic stuff for a while.
The occasional OT post has always been fine on the forum, it's natural.

Unfortunately there is not "one rule for all" as many people get reported a LOT more than others, and are therefore ticking off more people. I don't think there is a single person here who doesn't make an OT post or joke or whatever from time to time and that's fine.

What also isn't fair is when things that were acceptable, even garnered thanks, suddenly garner lots of complaints because some especially screechy wheel and cohorts just plain have a personal axe to grind against the person who posted them.

Again, if it's one person complaining, we get that all the time, and we often ignore it as a personal gripe. But if we see mutliple reports from different people about the same post, something is up.
Mods can't go and read entire thread to get the context etc, and read post history etc, it's a huge amount of work. So often we have to just tidy up a thread and remind people to bring it back on track.

I'll try not to be so rowdy in the future.

That's all we ask. Thanks.