Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

HP MegaZoom Mega-Post!!!

   SQWEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

mnem
*scurries off badger-like into the dwagon-cave*

When last we looked in on our intrepid tinkerdwagon, he'd just received a little carton of joy from the Bay of Fleas...



Let's see what he's got. *cues up stripperella music*




Oh yeah, that's it... take it off...




take it all off...   





*sighs and bites lip* oh you tease...




Oh fuck me with a gawddamn shovel. You have got to be fucking kidding me!!!

Tested working my big bouncy dragon testicles!!!   

Jeebus they sure used enough eBay tape; maybe they think it's magic, and somehow a substitute for properly packing a monitor so shit doesn't get broken off...?  What the hey; maybe there is some magic there. Might as well pop the CRT PCB on there & test it; takes but a minute to plug the stoopit thing in. 




Well HELL! It WORKS!   

And no error messages aboot the memory battery!   

So... now a little boring disassembly work to clean the thing and get ready for the next phase; while I'm in there I see some fresh soldering on a big ballast resistor and what looks like a cap replaced. 

Hmmmm... Now if this were me shipping the thing and I'd had to take it apart to fix it... I might leave the neck board off and anchored with gaffer tape or a wrapped in a wad of bubble wrap to ensure the CRT arrived in one piece without the evac nipple broken off like the one this is replacing. I'd probably leave a note to that effect for the customer though... 

Is it reasonable to suppose that any fleaBay vendor was actually this circumspect...?




So, while I'm working on this, I dismantle both the  CDM-7SX191 and CDM-7SF191 monitors; after comparing the two mainboards side by side til my eyes watered, I couldn't find any material difference between them. While the layouts appear different between the two mainboards, the component list appears the same.

Voltages at the ribbon cable also appeared comparable aside from those I expected to be different due to the VGA analog video, but I'd literally need to draw out the entire schematic for both monitors to be sure.

I didn't have time or energy for that tonight, so I took one for the team and just swapped the CRT neck board over and tried it.




Franken-monitor is no joy; it is not possible to make a CDM-7SF191 serve as a CDM-7SX191 just by swapping the CRT neck PCB. 




So once I reassemble the two monitors correctly and reassemble the 54600A and the 54621D, it is time for the next part of my cunning plan: To test the IDE cable & HP pods I'd made for my LeSiglent  T3DSO2102 with the 54621D. Yes, it works, and the whip leads are all even correctly identified! w00t!


   

I just cannot take a picture that shows how delightfully crisp the traces and text are on this scope; the camera doesn't want to focus correctly without bleeding. If anything, it is clearer than the 54645A, and yet more information conveyed thanks to the grayscaling. Well-done HPAK!   




And here's the family portrait... 3 generations of 546xxx scope! 

It's weird how serendipity brought exactly the right bits together to make these three scopes complete on my bench. The 54621D came without monitor or bail; but the bail on my 54645A is Agilent branded, and I never use it anyways, as it lives on the wedge base I printed. DigiKey didn't want to play nice on the memory battery, but I already had one that was suitable, and the means to make it work... and another fun project. Two fun projects in one, actually.

As self-satisfied as pulling this all together on a shoestring budget makes me... I will admit that it still niggles at me; not keeping my promise to eBay to send the carcass of that 54621D back. I feel a bit of a dirty dwagon... but that does seem to fade just a little more every time eBay smacks me in the face with another complete muppet vendor that doesn't deliver what was advertised or who forgets my order for a week and a half... 

But wait... there's another fun project...

   

Snurching the bail from the 54645A meant I needed to fill some holes in it. I think the 3DP project I killed a afternoon with while waiting forever for that replacement monitor turned out very well, even if it did take 6 iterations to get something that would print this cleanly at 0.20 LH without supports.

And as always, for those who care full details and 3DP nerd stats are available over on the 3DP Thread...

Welp... that brings my little HP party to a close... this one's a bit of a monster, so hope you had fun coming along for the ride. I think I'm gonna toddle off to bed and carefully inspect my eyelids for pinholes...

mnem

[cyclin_al]

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€.

Autel MD 801 here.  Very useful kit.  Was formerly sold at Princess Auto; where else can Canuckistans shop?

[Saskia]

@tautech first step will be to install an anemometer and check the wind speed.
the authorities told me that they had no objections to anemometering from roof top.
Anything but real hones data would just be sheer speculation and would not warrant the investment.
To give you an idea: a 2.5 kW turbine is about 7500, the 3.5 kW variant is 17.5 k€ over here. Plus installation.

[Neomys Sapiens]

had a call with the authorities.
For a wind mill I need a building permit, but I am to officially ask and they will check if they will allow a 3 - 5 kW turbine
If I put PV onto the roof, I don't need a building permit. If I put it into the garden, I need a building permit, unless it is only temporary in which case they will tolerate it for the time being.
 

What turbine specs did you have in mind ?
This 1200mm bit bigger one than we installed a few weeks back was dropped off to install:
https://www.jaycar.co.nz/500w-12-24vdc-wind-turbine/p/MG4550?pos=3&queryId=6bcbf8f1ed01ef062243fe012b9566ef

That's ~500 in real money.

If the damn weather improves enough to get up the hill !

I actually found a reasonably priced wind turbine with a nominal 3.5 kW rating and a 5m rotor ... however 5m is way too much for installation in our garden, I cannot put up the required mast as it could have to be approximately 27m high ...
https://en.wind-turbine.com/wind-turbines/42840/1xantaris-small-wind-turbine-3-5-kw-complete-with-mast-price-vs.html

Have you looked at a combined Darrieus+Savonius rotor?

[Saskia]

no, vertical rotors are not that great in this particular area as we have too many obstacles.
Mounting such a rotor on a large mast would cause vibration issues ...

[bd139]

And here's the family portrait... 3 generations of 546xxx scope! 

Well that's quite a sight to wake up to. Nice job 

[Neomys Sapiens]

no, vertical rotors are not that great in this particular area as we have too many obstacles.
Mounting such a rotor on a large mast would cause vibration issues ...

Somewhere in the lower part such a combination is shown:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savonius-Rotor

The Savonius rotor act as a starting aid for the Darrieus rotor.

[Saskia]

Thanks for the suggestion -

I would need to calculate the permissible load and predominant wind direction to put this onto the garage / car port to get the thingie away from obstacles like bushes, the supermarket next door, etc. It would need to get up into the air to at least 10m ...

This would become an issue during the next winter storm as anchoring it would be a challenge.

[Saskia]

Uni-T scope successfully ferengied.
@ch_scr I was not trying to advertize it to the forum as Uni-T scopes are not worthy of being promoted here ...

[tggzzz]

Thanks for the suggestion -

I would need to calculate the permissible load and predominant wind direction to put this onto the garage / car port to get the thingie away from obstacles like bushes, the supermarket next door, etc. It would need to get up into the air to at least 10m ...

This would become an issue during the next winter storm as anchoring it would be a challenge.

FYI, from a very sound starting point for sustainable energy, https://withouthotair.com/c10/page_66.shtml

In a typical urban location in England, microturbines deliver 0.2 kWh per
day. Source: Third Interim Report, www.warwickwindtrials.org.uk/2.html.
Among the best results in the Warwick Wind Trials study is a Windsave
WS1000 (a 1-kW machine) in Daventry mounted at a height of 15 m above
the ground, generating 0.6 kWh/d on average. But some microturbines de-
liver only 0.05 kWh per day – Source: Donnachadh McCarthy: “My carbon-
free year,” The Independent, December 2007 [6oc3ja]. The Windsave WS1000
wind turbine, sold across England in B&Q’s shops, won an Eco-Bollocks
award from Housebuilder’s Bible author Mark Brinkley: “Come on, it’s time
to admit that the roof-mounted wind turbine industry is a complete fiasco.
Good money is being thrown at an invention that doesn’t work. This is the
Sinclair C5 of the Noughties.” [5soql2]. The Met Office and Carbon Trust
published a report in July 2008 [6g2jm5], which estimates that, if small-scale
turbines were installed at all houses where economical in the UK, they would
generate in total roughly 0.7 kWh/d/p. They advise that roof-mounted tur-
bines in towns are usually worse than useless: “in many urban situations,
roof-mounted turbines may not pay back the carbon emitted during their
production, installation and operation.”

That, website or downloadable pdf, contains far more useful information than implied above.

If nothing else, see the range of organisationsn and individuals that recommend it.

[Saskia]

thanks - I am about to scrap the idea anyway. What I would need is a 30 m mast and a 5 - 10 m rotor. This is completely unacceptable if the next house is about 15 m away ...

[tggzzz]

For those that like making clocks nixies, there are some more up for sale
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165617170763
That seller sold another batch recently, if you want to get an idea of the selling price

[Vince]

Oh and wishing Vince all the best for tomorrow....his first day back at being gainfully employed for a while.

@Vince, good luck for your first day back at work again 

Well, my first day was exhausting ! 

Yes I know... it's not even noon, my day is not even finished yet... but yes it is !

No, have not been fired just yet, didn't even get that opportunity.
Manager phoned yesterday asking me to show up this morning at 8H30, at the security post, where she would pick me up. Said she did the admin work so that I would be allowed on site.

So I showed up at 8H30 as asked. Girl at the counter in the security post said sorry, I don't have any trace of you in my computer, you can't get in. Manager turned up at the post, eventually figured what was wrong : when she asked Airbus permission to let me in yesterday, she misspelled my name ! Can't freaking believe it ! She is a manager, we are working in QUALITY CONTROL, and she can't even type my name properly ?! How "Quality" is that !!! 
Granted, nobody can ever spell my name to save their life, and they always do the same error, all of them. Don't know why, my name is as French as it gets.
Still, no excuse ! 

So well.... arrived at 8H30 at the security post, at 9H00 I was already back home ! 

Didn't sleep much last night.... alarm clock set to 6H45 but the night before that's when I FELL ASLEEP..... so well, it didn't really compute did it, was falling asleep at the time I was supposed to get up... 
So I am glad my first day lasted only 30 minutes !  Now it's noon and I can go take a nap... and go to bed early because this week they put me on the freaking morning shift !
I signed up for a day job... not shifts...
But that's just for this week. Not everybody is back from vacation at Airbus and there is not enough people to run all services properly on two shifts. So instead they gathered everybody on the morning shift, even those working regular office hours, because better have one shift working properly, than 2 shifts that can't do squat because some service isn't available.

Well, thinking about it it's a god sent. It's only for a week (and already 2 days are gone... so only 3 days left), plus this very week we have yet another, 4th freaking heat wave ! So being able to start early in the morning to enjoy some fresh air, the go back home very early to barricade... it's fantastic.
Then next week when the heat wave will be gone, I will start working normal office hours. 8H00 to 17H00 or so. 15H00 on Friday it looks like.

So tomorrow starting at 6H30, then Thursday 04H45 to 13H00. Friday 04H45 - 11H35.

So it's noon now... program for this afternoon is napping, and going very early to bed, like 22H00 dead line, something like that. I am sure I will be incapable of it, but I gotta try...


Congratulations Dragon for your scope. sorry Dave for the rusted and cracked Nixie tubes, and congratulations for all those masks ! Had a good laugh out of them.... and Saskia 17.5k Euros for only 3.5kW sounds extremely expensive doesn't it... how much would it cost to get the same power output from solar panels ?!
BD you are even worse than me. I was feeling guilty for keeping my old metal cans with gold plated legs  that I found when sorting my junk... because they looked cool... but you went 3 steps farther and actually ACTIVELY searched for these things and even PAID to get them....and even paid A LOT (not cents I mean...). Yes, I definitely DO NOT feel guilty any more, thanks BD !!! 

Now going to lie down, have fun.

[Saskia]

@Vince they tend to quote you 25k for 5 kWp for solar.

[Vince]

Oh so basically it's exactly the same price as windmills...suspicious... either the windmill guys or the SP guys, increased their prices to match the other 

Geez the price of these solar panels went through the roof it seems ! PUN !!! 

Was thinking of going solar in 4 or 5 years, when I get to this stage of my house work, but by then I will be like 50yo and with panels so crazy expensive (plus battery + inverter + maintenance /repairs / replacement on those expensive items...)... plus me not consuming a lot of electricity to begin with..... looks like I will be dead before I break even on the huge initial investment !
And that supposing I will die in this house which I don't think I will... have a low IQ partying kind of girl as a noisy neighbour and I want to move to a quieter place.
So doesn't make any financial sense to spend all that money and either be dead, or out of this house, before I can start making a profit.

[tautech]

Oh and wishing Vince all the best for tomorrow....his first day back at being gainfully employed for a while.

@Vince, good luck for your first day back at work again 

Well, my first day was exhausting ! 

Yes I know... it's not even noon, my day is not even finished yet... but yes it is !

So well.... arrived at 8H30 at the security post, at 9H00 I was already back home ! 

Now going to lie down, have fun.

Translation = Oh that's what the new guy looks like....come back tomorrow. 

[tautech]

If you’ve got some E12 resistors you can add a 3db at each end using a DIY pi attenuator. 270 ohms in series and 18 in each parallel element. That’s 49 ohms and 3.08dB which is close enough 

Well yes I could conjure up that with some 0805 SMD components ..........

Just finished and at 22.40 only time for a quick test as need be up early to take the chief cook and bottle washer to hospital for an op tomorrow. Sorta serious but apparently straight forward so batching for a couple days until I get the call to collect her.

Anyways closest I had was 20pF 0805's so it won't be perfect but all going well should get these crystals buzzing.

[bd139]

For those that like making clocks nixies, there are some more up for sale
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165617170763
That seller sold another batch recently, if you want to get an idea of the selling price

Oh great I'd forgotten about that seller. I now have two other things on my bloody watch list 

[bd139]

BD you are even worse than me. I was feeling guilty for keeping my old metal cans with gold plated legs  that I found when sorting my junk... because they looked cool... but you went 3 steps farther and actually ACTIVELY searched for these things and even PAID to get them....and even paid A LOT (not cents I mean...). Yes, I definitely DO NOT feel guilty any more, thanks BD !!! 

We are enablers here 

Congrats on the first day even if it was a normal corporate shit show. I'm onboarding a new guy at the moment as well here. They can't even work out how to get him to log in yet 

[Specmaster]

I've just ferengied my Heathkit C-3U bridge after seeing how much others were going for, I decide to put mine up for sale, seeing as I haven't used it in earnest for almost 2 years, much easier to use my Chinese parts tester / identifier which is good enough for my purposes, I really only need a go / no go test, precise values don't really amount to a row beans in domestic audio gear.

Well anyway I thought after how much some were fetching, to be ambitious, so I put it for 6 times what I paid and I anded up with almost 5 times not a bad result, but after all the added value work I did bringing back into use, I suppose I was closer to 4 times, but still an acceptable figure, still not gained any more bench space though as it lived in my overspill area, the landing.

Maybe, I'll try my luck with some TTi bench power supplies, when I get my double unit, I don't really need it and 3 single TTi units do I 

[med6753]

Speaking of alternate energy sources. The window in this picture faces due West and gets sun almost the entire day. Which explains the location of the plants. Directly under the window is the roof of the front porch. Perfect for an array of solar cells. But being a rental I'm sure the landlord would not be keen to the idea. And also it's on the front of the structure and I'm sure his objection would be related to the "look" since he doesn't even want A/C units installed on the front windows.   

[dl6lr]

Geez the price of these solar panels went through the roof it seems ! PUN !!! 

They are cheap. Have an offer for 10kW solar panels from the local electrician. Only about 6k€ (€220 per  400W panel). Quality inverter with battery capability and emergency power (island operations) costs abt. 3.5k€. Battery with 7.5kWh is abt 6.5k€, but lead time is 12 months, so will get it later retrofitted. What is really expensive is all the mounting and changes to the electrical distribution, the legal work etc.

[Zenith]

Thanks for the suggestion -

I would need to calculate the permissible load and predominant wind direction to put this onto the garage / car port to get the thingie away from obstacles like bushes, the supermarket next door, etc. It would need to get up into the air to at least 10m ...

This would become an issue during the next winter storm as anchoring it would be a challenge.

I have a friend who has a neighbour who lives about 400m away. He had a wind turbine in his garden which must have been at least 10m high. It was there a couple of years. I'm pretty sure it was installed by the company which supplied it. One winter it blew down and was a write-off. It definitely happens. I heard he wasn't getting much satisfaction from the supplier/installers.

As well as the cost of the wind turbine, there's any damage it might do as it comes down, which could be to property, such as cars, or people. I suppose you can insure them against damage, or damage they may cause.

[Specmaster]

Thanks for the suggestion -

I would need to calculate the permissible load and predominant wind direction to put this onto the garage / car port to get the thingie away from obstacles like bushes, the supermarket next door, etc. It would need to get up into the air to at least 10m ...

This would become an issue during the next winter storm as anchoring it would be a challenge.

I have a friend who has a neighbour who lives about 400m away. He had a wind turbine in his garden which must have been at least 10m high. It was there a couple of years. I'm pretty sure it was installed by the company which supplied it. One winter it blew down and was a write-off. It definitely happens. I heard he wasn't getting much satisfaction from the supplier/installers.

As well as the cost of the wind turbine, there's any damage it might do as it comes down, which could be to property, such as cars, or people. I suppose you can insure them against damage, or damage they may cause.

All of this is reason enough for the main essentials of life as we know it today, public transport, energy, water, sewerage and telecommunications to be publicly owned and ran for the benefit of the public, not private companies and shareholders who are only interested in profits.

No further comments to be made.

[mnementh]

Uni-T scope successfully ferengied.
@ch_scr I was not trying to advertize it to the forum as Uni-T scopes are not worthy of being promoted here ...

Still better than FNIRSI. 

I really liked my little UT-962E arb; until channel B went tits up. That much sig-gen in a palmtop package that'll run off a single 18650 cell does have its uses. 

This reminds me... I need to do a hard reset (not a 50 gram RESET ) and see if it's just a FW glitch in the thing.

mnem