Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Fingers crossed either way for you.

Well spectrum analyser is off. My car just decided to drop into limp mode on the way back from the tip 

Oh dear, that's the problem these days cars are so complicated that all it takes to put a car into limp mode is a dodgy sensor or loose connection, and they virtually shut down. There is a lot to be said about the older cars, at least you could do most things yourself.

True. Seems to be ok after I rebooted it. Might just be bogons. Will take a drive locally later where I can afford to break down 

Bogons.... hmmmm... I wonder if Bogon poetry automatically roundfiles itself...?

mnem

[mnementh]

Ok do I spend on a hooky 8594E in Bracknell. Only up the road from me. Price is reasonable so far 

Has narrow bandwidth and oven options. As well as AM/FM demod.

Why the eff are you still here...?   

mnem

Auction. Ending later. Plus car difficulties 

pppfffffftttt! Mere piffling trifles!

All that means is Murphy is making you work for this one... head out now, and by the time you actually make it the auction will be over and the beast will be yours.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Yep, need some TE. At least an OBDII interface and software that can read basic codes and reset faults.
The Fiat was nice because there is very good, low cost diagnostic software available. BMW is another world and the newer cars tend to have anti-theft stuff on the OBDII now and it tends to limit what you can do via the port.

Also had a Fiat. Universally problematic to the point I used to take my thinkpad and the OBD2 cable set with me if I drove out anywhere more complicated than the local shops 

Edit: also the car had its own multimeter assigned to it (keeping it TE related  )

In your hands, a bobby pin is TE. We've seen you "throw crap together"... you're like the EE version of MacGyver. 

mnem
And a Thinkpad? With that you could fix the world... or reduce it to a smouldering ruin... 

[med6753]

Parcel from med with forwarded items arrived. Customs was zero, VAT €26.27 for the declared value of $100.00 plus the shipping costs of $41.30. Plus the €6.00 that DHL collects... Not too bad.

Pevious owner or seller seems to be a nicotine stinker, so just after unpacking all contents got a wash and had to stay outside for the remaining day. Plus someone previously had taper the cables and the glue got sticky on the cables...

After opening the Tek P6460 pods, I found one with a resistor, R106, burnt severely. This is a common problem as the 10R connects users device ground with systems ground. If both units are grounded through mains and one clips the ground lead to a supply voltage...
The second pod was unaffected.
Unsoldered the remains, cleaned the PCB and surrounding parts and soldered a new 10R into it. Hopefully the hybrid isn't toast, but as it can handle +/-40V with +/-60V between any two inputs, it should have survived if it wasn't "kaputt" before. Forgot to make a photo before reassembling... 

I'm glad it finally got to you and the VAT charges didn't rake you across the coals. Too bad the prior Gorilla (owner) toasted it and of course didn't mention it in the Ebay listing that it was FUBAR.  I hope you can get it going with minimal hassle.

[TERRA Operative]

All finished and ready to put on the pile of 'to sell... one day...'

I updated firmware, unlocked option 1M (expanded memory), replaced RIFA caps and the one electro cap on the standby power circuit that is always high ESR (causes some TVS diodes to pop which takes out a transistor and drops your standby power out so the machine won't start. Pre-emptive replacement is imperative, except when I'm buying, then it's an easy fix on a cheap scope )

Gave it a spit polish and it works perfectly. No good to me though as I have the 1GHz and 2GHz 700 series models, so I'll sell it off for the going rate of a couple hundred dollars, not bad for less than $50 plus a few capacitors outlay...


I swear I have enough of these scopes that I could make a TDS-henge in my living room. 

[Saskia]

Have Autel MaxiDiag MD 806 Pro.

It prevented me from buying a couple of cars that appeared fine on the outside.
Last car not bought: Volvo V50 2.4 because of: central processing unit: no contact to Xenon control unit left right, no contact to gear sensor in automatic transmission unit, air quality sensor dead, no contact to park assist / park distance control unit, ....

tbh this could have been a single broken wire fault. But do I want so spend hundreds (or the equivalent in hours) to track this down ?

Nah.

The diagnostic tester also has reset service options for about all cars on our market. Cost was 260€.

[bd139]

Chickening out on the spectrum analyser. The car has said no for sure and after reading the service manual the power supply is a dick and the front end mixer is repairable but difficult to calibrate if it’s blown up.

Will save the cash for a new one 

[GreyWoolfe]

am gonna name mine ethel.

It will obviously need a genus in Latin.

although i appreciate the suggestions.......was actually going for a different ethel.

as in "fred and ethel".   (maybe my ass is just too old?)

I picked up on it, and immediately thought of finding two pieces of gear to name Ricky and Lucy, but was too lazy to do so.

-Pat

Maybe it's just me, but I have never had the urge to name inanimate objects.  Mrs GreyWoolfe on the other hand, loves naming things.  Her personal protection items, her car (thankfully, not mine) and the new tree we just planted in the front yard.  Back before Mrs GreyWoolfe came along, I had a female friend who used to name my cars.  I had a white Chevy she named ghost and an old tan convertible she named Costello.  I asked why and she just said the name fits.

[xrunner]

A ham friend of mine called last night, asked me "Hey you work with Arduino stuff don't you?". I said "Yea, why - do you want to learn how to use them?" Well no ... maybe, but he wanted to know if I wanted some of it. First thing I asked "Tell me now, truthfully - is it covered with grime and cigarette smoke?"

No!

He'd gone to a local sidewalk sale and some guy had three boxes of microcontroller boards and associated parts. I guess the ham got tired of it and wanted to dispose of it all. He knew a little bit about what was in there so I said send me a pic of the boxes. What do I see?

Arduino Uno, Nano, Mega
Other controller boards
RFID
WiFi?
Displays
Sounds
Humidity sensor
Gas sensor
Various LED stuff
SD card
Buttons
Rasp. Pi
Breakout boards
Breadboards
Header pins
Pretty decent storage boxes
Those short blue USB cables they seem to send with everything If I get another one of those I think I'll hang myself with it but they're not long enough.

Another box full of stuff covered by black perfboard

He paid $50 for all of that. So this week I'll get to pick through it. Sounds like I can take as much as I want, which I will, to save it 'cause else it won't ever get used for a damn thing.

[TERRA Operative]

If someone offered that to me, it'd be a hard YES.

[bd139]

I’d take just the box 

[pcprogrammer]

A ham friend of mine called last night, asked me "Hey you work with Arduino stuff don't you?". I said "Yea, why - do you want to learn how to use them?" Well no ... maybe, but he wanted to know if I wanted some of it. First thing I asked "Tell me now, truthfully - is it covered with grime and cigarette smoke?"

No!

He'd gone to a local sidewalk sale and some guy had three boxes of microcontroller boards and associated parts. I guess the ham got tired of it and wanted to dispose of it all. He knew a little bit about what was in there so I said send me a pic of the boxes. What do I see?

Arduino Uno, Nano, Mega
Other controller boards
RFID
WiFi?
Displays
Sounds
Humidity sensor
Gas sensor
Various LED stuff
SD card
Buttons
Rasp. Pi
Breakout boards
Breadboards
Header pins
Pretty decent storage boxes
Those short blue USB cables they seem to send with everything If I get another one of those I think I'll hang myself with it but they're not long enough.

Another box full of stuff covered by black perfboard

He paid $50 for all of that. So this week I'll get to pick through it. Sounds like I can take as much as I want, which I will, to save it 'cause else it won't ever get used for a damn thing.

That is a very nice collection definitely worth the 50 bucks

[Vince]

All finished and ready to put on the pile of 'to sell... one day...'

I updated firmware, unlocked option 1M (expanded memory), replaced RIFA caps and the one electro cap on the standby power circuit that is always high ESR (causes some TVS diodes to pop which takes out a transistor and drops your standby power out so the machine won't start. Pre-emptive replacement is imperative, except when I'm buying, then it's an easy fix on a cheap scope )

Gave it a spit polish and it works perfectly. No good to me though as I have the 1GHz and 2GHz 700 series models, so I'll sell it off for the going rate of a couple hundred dollars, not bad for less than $50 plus a few capacitors outlay...


I swear I have enough of these scopes that I could make a TDS-henge in my living room. 

Well done Terra... sometimes I wish I lived in Japan so I can buy dirt cheap / free TDS all day long. Lucikly I won't have to move, because I know a guy there who....

The 600 series should not be not overlooked in favour of the 500 or 700 series. The 600 series strong point over both other series, is the sampling rate. Dramatically higher than the 500/700 scope, for a given bandwidth.  Just look at this modest 644A. 500MHz but 2GS/s. A 500/700 would  have 1GS/s, twice less. Then when you use 3 or 4 channels, it drops from 1GS/s to 250MS/s where the 644 is still rocking at 2GS/s on all 4 channels because the 600 are not multiplexed. So 2GS/s versus 250MS/s, almost an order of magnitude.

That's why I will never part with my 694C... 10GS/s on all 4 channel @3GHz, my humble non-RF hobbyist needs are covered I think... one day I will work on fixing its fried trigger chips...

So my scope strategy is 4 fold... 4x200MHz Philips/Fluke combiscope for most of the work. HP megazoom for when Megazoom MSO on hand when needed. Then TDS 544A (soon replaced with a 794D  ) for more demanding but still general purpose stuff, because lots of features available, and colour, which I quickly got to love when using several channels, never mind all 4 of them. Then the 694C for warp speed and high sampling rate.

Then the 35 other scopes is just for fun 

[bd139]

Then the 35 other scopes is just for fun 

ONE OF US! ONE OF US!

As far as needs go, I could probably get away with a 20MHz Hameg and solve all remaining problems with initiative 

Actually some times I'm tempted to do that just to be difficult 

[Vince]

A ham friend of mine called last night, asked me "Hey you work with Arduino stuff don't you?". I said "Yea, why - do you want to learn how to use them?" Well no ... maybe, but he wanted to know if I wanted some of it. First thing I asked "Tell me now, truthfully - is it covered with grime and cigarette smoke?"

No!

He'd gone to a local sidewalk sale and some guy had three boxes of microcontroller boards and associated parts. I guess the ham got tired of it and wanted to dispose of it all. He knew a little bit about what was in there so I said send me a pic of the boxes. What do I see?

[..]
Another box full of stuff covered by black perfboard

He paid $50 for all of that. So this week I'll get to pick through it. Sounds like I can take as much as I want, which I will, to save it 'cause else it won't ever get used for a damn thing.

For that price it's worth it if just for the boxes alone.

Modular with Euro sized bins. That's what I wanted to buy earlier this year when I started sorting my components, but they are not common place and the few I found are very expensive for what they are, so I gave up.

You can keep the Arduino stuff and send me the two boxes ! 

[pcprogrammer]

Then the 35 other scopes is just for fun 

ONE OF US! ONE OF US!

As far as needs go, I could probably get away with a 20MHz Hameg and solve all remaining problems with initiative 

Actually some times I'm tempted to do that just to be difficult 

Where is the line before "ONE OF US"

[mnementh]

...so I said send me a pic of the boxes. What do I see?

Arduino Uno, Nano, Mega
Other controller boards
RFID
WiFi?
Displays
Sounds
Humidity sensor
Gas sensor
Various LED stuff
SD card
Buttons
Rasp. Pi
Breakout boards
Breadboards
Header pins
Pretty decent storage boxes
Those short blue USB cables they seem to send with everything If I get another one of those I think I'll hang myself with it but they're not long enough.

Another box full of stuff covered by black perfboard

He paid $50 for all of that....

*looks up at his similar sortimo-oid containers full of STM32, SAMD21 and real/clone Ardu boards & bits*

Yeah... even with my substantial collection, I'd happily take all that for that price. Good deal. 

Yes, I know some of that is components and non-dev-board stuff; OTOH my substantial collection of programmers and 3DP logic stuff is not represented here so:

mnem
 

[pcprogrammer]

Modular with Euro sized bins. That's what I wanted to buy earlier this year when I started sorting my components, but they are not common place and the few I found are very expensive for what they are, so I gave up.

Not like what you are looking for but the Action has nice plastic boxes for not to much money.

Here is my collection of smallish boxes for project stuff



The smallest are a bit unstable when stacked, but nice for boards like the bluepill and arduino nano.

[xrunner]

I’d take just the box 

I'm afraid of boxes used by hams - a cockroach might jump out! 

[bd139]

I’d take just the box 

I'm afraid of boxes used by hams - a cockroach might jump out! 

Hahaha got a laugh out of me there 

[bd139]

Then the 35 other scopes is just for fun 

ONE OF US! ONE OF US!

As far as needs go, I could probably get away with a 20MHz Hameg and solve all remaining problems with initiative 

Actually some times I'm tempted to do that just to be difficult 

Where is the line before "ONE OF US"

I think the line is "owning more of something than is strictly necessary"

[Vince]

Then the 35 other scopes is just for fun 

ONE OF US! ONE OF US!

As far as needs go, I could probably get away with a 20MHz Hameg and solve all remaining problems with initiative 

Actually some times I'm tempted to do that just to be difficult 

As far as needs go... we don't need a lab at all, to begin with ! 99.99999999999% of people don't have one and are perfectly happy in life ! 

Don't know about the UK, but these old Hameg scopes are plentiful here (I guess due to the geographical proximity with Germany), our local site leboncoiun.fr is flooded with them at all times. Nobody wants them. I have one, It's a 60MHz version, incredible... for many years it was my best and only scope.... my dad gave it to me, when he retired it from his work place.
These days I only use it when I am doing something a bit sketchy and fear I might blow up the scope and don't want to risk my other scopes 
It's all discrete off the shelf components I think, so cheap and easy to fix if it blows. Plus it has a component tester, and the attenuators go up to 20V / DIV versus only 5V / DIV for most other scopes I have.
That said it's got its weak points as well... a few years ago a plastic shaft coupler inside, broke/cracked (sweep delay control IIRC) and now IIRC also, the vertical position control on channel one is kaput. mechanical problem again..
But the troublesome part is not easily accessible, it's stuffed deep down a hole IIRC, between two metal plates. Can't reach it easily, so... not using it any more.
I would get rid of it to make space (if just because it's ugly AF), but I can't .... it's a gift, it's sacred. Plus the memories associated with it. When the old man claps out I will be glad to have it as a souvenir.

So.... I think one day I will move my butt and fix the thing. 

[bd139]

Yeah had a couple of them myself. Perfectly good scopes. Also plentiful here but due to tiny-island-itis the prices are from ok to insane but never good.

The bench about 3 years ago 

[Saskia]

Red Devil arcade cleaner is one of the best nicotene removers I have ever seen.
500 ml are about 12 € and worth every penny.

[bd139]

Red Devil arcade cleaner is one of the best nicotene removers I have ever seen.
500 ml are about 12 € and worth every penny.

Do they do it in bath sized quantities for hams?