Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[AVGresponding]

Broadcast audio always sucked. Shitty music on loop with too many ads.

Well just seen a 465B on auction here actually selling at £170 with 20h to go yet. I feel slightly less pained about spending £20 on an IC for mine now 

Friday Rock Show and Saturday Night Rocking were pretty good back in the 80s and 90s. Most of the time FM is better than DAB in my experience, especially in marginal signal conditions.

[AVGresponding]

Discord is currently demodulating

[tggzzz]

...485...

I think I need one in my life 

I actually find I have reached a plateau in CRO ownership now. Owning 3 classics, 465, 5440, and 2465, and the almost-next-gen TDS 520, I'd actually rather go towards a cheaper Siglent or similar for my next one. OTOH, I've got one of those "salae" analysers. Almost not used it. For decoding purposes, I imagine it'd go some way.

The "damn the torpedoes" engineering of the 485 could mean I change my mind, though.

Also, I'd want a decent function generator too. And a RF gen. And some devices to actually test and align FM stereo receivers (Sweden has more or less shelved DAB, letting FM sunset much longer. Having to maintain sunk cost in a 90s digital format bound to MPEG2 and PDH framing when Internet streaming owns the market did not even attract politicians. In the end.)

I've got rid of 465s, on the grounds they don't add anything to a 2465 and 1740. Ditto 475s and most other similar scopes.

Don't forget 485s have a 50ohm//0pF input unlike the 2465/1740 which have a 50ohm//15pF input. Big difference with decent bandwidth probes. And the blue phosphor is delicious

[Zenith]

I've got rid of 465s, on the grounds they don't add anything to a 2465 and 1740. Ditto 475s and most other similar scopes.

Don't forget 485s have a 50ohm//0pF input unlike the 2465/1740 which have a 50ohm//15pF input. Big difference with decent bandwidth probes. And the blue phosphor is delicious

I've got a soft spot for 475s. If I could only find a decent scrapper, for a sensible price, to provide a heatsink missing from a hybrid in the Y amp of the last I bought, I wouldn't be frightened to use it.

Wasn't the 485 the "bandwidth at all costs" version? I don't see so many around.

I've always had a hankering for an HP1727.

The one I usually grab is a Siglent. About the size and weight of a shoe box and does most of what I want.

[mnementh]

WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) Improvement Project Table Update:



All parts of the trestle have been stripped. Finish sanding to begin tonight or tomorrow; but first some well-earned rest and food.

Also, maybe a little disruptive behavior in the Discord. 

mnem
I is a naughty widdle stripper-dwagon, and I must be pew-nished...

[mansaxel]

@Mansaxel

Maybe you can get one of those: Agilent E5810A - GPIB / RS232 to IP bridge

I'd love to. Fits just in with how I'd like to build my infrastructure. Much expensive they are, though.

[nixiefreqq]

oooops.

made a mistake when posting the pic of the 5340a at the bottom of a stack. (lest anyone jump on me with both feet for posting an HP lookin' thing not in any catalog)

near the top of the stack is a rubidium oscillator with an HP badge on it.

full disclosure......it is just an LPRO-101 stuck into a fubar sweep generator chassis.

and as a pre-emptive strike let me explain about the 1.5 x 10^-11 sticker.

set up the attached system.  let it all warm up for about 4 hours.  then set matching GRI's on the Loran C simulator and the Loran C receiver.  set the receiver to start gathering statistics and walk away for 48 hours.  come back and read  1.5 x 10^-11 as the difference between the rubidium oscillator and GPS.  within spec for that oscillator.

edit  it used to be a whole lot easier before they made the coasties shut down loran c.

have been toying with the idea of sending a spare LPRO-101 to med just to see if he will go down the time nut rabbit hole.

or would that be rotten?

[mansaxel]

...And some devices to actually test and align FM stereo receivers (Sweden has more or less shelved DAB, letting FM sunset much longer. Having to maintain sunk cost in a 90s digital format bound to MPEG2 and PDH framing when Internet streaming owns the market did not even attract politicians. In the end.)

Honestly, meh. I couldn't care less about any form of broadcast audio.
fuck broadcast media in all forms.

Sweden is not the USA. Here, the fascists and those who lick fascist butt (all parties to the right, which is flabbergasting but then you think about it and realise it is an election in a month...) complain that the radio news is run by the left. To me, that means they get something correct. 

I would really like to lay hands on something like the Panasonic RF sig gens, that are well aimed at aligning FM receivers. I've got a gorgeous Marantz 4230 receiver that's been untouched except for some power amp transistors that went boom in the 80s. It's been in the family since new back in 1974 or so.  That's why.  (yes, mods, there is TE in this post!)

[mnementh]

You're right of course... I forget that there are still some semi-civilized places in the world. 

OTOH, I still hear morons complaining aboot "the liberal media" as if there has been such a thing over here any time in the last 3 decades.

Sorry for passing judgement so blindly; of course it doesn't matter what you want to listen to, or even if you listen to it at all after you get it right.

What matters is that you have it, you want it to be right, and that is all the reason one needs for  acquiring more TE!

mnem
*thwaps self 22 times with a wet noodle as penance*

[Cerebus]

With of course the moat filled with piranha and a drawbridge over it that you can pull up and keep mad redheads at bay.

To clarify it's to keep HMRC and pikeys out and the crazed redheads in.

If you want to be unpleasant to someone, call the police. If you want to be mean, call the tax inspector. If you want to be vicious, call HMRC. HMRC has nastier abilities than the police, stemming from the days before police, and when they travelled on horses and used candles. A moat won't keep them out unless you use lethal force.

<snip>

Well that why the piranhas are in the moat, can't much more lethal than that?

An aardvark doing backstroke, and smiling in anticipation?

[mnementh]

mnem
*hides over there*

[TERRA Operative]

Also...

Tonight on the bench is one of my HP 5340A 18GHz frequency counters. And yes, they are both nixie versions of course! 

This one is the good one that I'm building up all nice with all the parts I have that are the newest revision and in the best condition.
The other will be assembled to a working state with the 2nd grade parts and sold off. (I bought one or two extra parts mules which were beyond repair so they were stripped down for parts aaggeess ago).


Here's hoping that the high frequency front end in at least one of these hasn't been blown, or I'll be on the hunt for more parts.....


Also, I got my hands on an Option 001 OCXO transformer, and designed a power supply PCB, all I need is the OCXO itself to get that option complete, but I have the Leo Bodnar GPSDO until then anyway. (Which I'll probably just use all the time but I do so love my options. )


General note: In ALL the units (4 so far) that I got my hands on, the big power capacitors have ALL been completely dried up and dead. Some even sounded like maracas they were so far gone.
I would suggest checking them and replacing them in any unit you come across....

you scared me!

enough to run downstairs and turn on the 5340a.  (it has been a long time since it was powered up)

looks ok.  but maybe it should be pulled out from under the stack and checked for real.  bought it about 10 years ago.  it came with a broken side rail but other than that don't remember ever having a need to pop the cover.

as we used to say in panama.........mañana.

At least these caps are screw-mounted types, so they are trivial to remove and stick on a current limited power supply to reform.
I chose a handful of the best ones from my junker units and have so far been successful in reforming the first few to around 5uA of leakage.
Once a set of caps is finished, I'll test them for capacitance, ESR and dissipation and stick them in the 'to sell' 5340A just to get it working.

[mnementh]

With of course the moat filled with piranha and a drawbridge over it that you can pull up and keep mad redheads at bay.

To clarify it's to keep HMRC and pikeys out and the crazed redheads in.

If you want to be unpleasant to someone, call the police. If you want to be mean, call the tax inspector. If you want to be vicious, call HMRC. HMRC has nastier abilities than the police, stemming from the days before police, and when they travelled on horses and used candles. A moat won't keep them out unless you use lethal force.

<snip>

Well that why the piranhas are in the moat, can't much more lethal than that?

An aardvark doing backstroke, and smiling in anticipation?

It's not the Piranhas you really need to worry aboot anyways... it's the schools of Candiru he imported to keep them company. 

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

[Neomys Sapiens]

With of course the moat filled with piranha and a drawbridge over it that you can pull up and keep mad redheads at bay.

To clarify it's to keep HMRC and pikeys out and the crazed redheads in.

If you want to be unpleasant to someone, call the police. If you want to be mean, call the tax inspector. If you want to be vicious, call HMRC. HMRC has nastier abilities than the police, stemming from the days before police, and when they travelled on horses and used candles. A moat won't keep them out unless you use lethal force.

<snip>

Well that why the piranhas are in the moat, can't much more lethal than that?

Good luck with that!
I expect that you'll see them counted, numbered and weighed in the next HMRC auction!
Oh, and you'll be taxed for them!

[BU508A]

@Mansaxel

Maybe you can get one of those: Agilent E5810A - GPIB / RS232 to IP bridge

I'd love to. Fits just in with how I'd like to build my infrastructure. Much expensive they are, though.

Sometimes they show up cheap, like mine which I've bought after a heads-up from Zucca.

[bd139]

Hamfest time. Wish us attendees luck. I pray to lord Cthulhu that Mercedes dick gets an engine warning light 

[Cubdriver]

Hamfest time. Wish us attendees luck. I pray to lord Cthulhu that Mercedes dick gets an engine warning light 

Happy hunting, BD!   

-Pat

[Saskia]

after a long needed good nite's sleep  (more than 5 hours first time in a month) I had breakfast, then unloaded 4 concrete blocks @56 kg each that will make the base for my initial quick win pv balcony plant.
2 Trina 400 panels-> microinverter and straight into the outlet of our garden shed. Quick fix, quick win, immediate result plus analysis how much I can get outta them. it should also give me an idea on how to size the battery charger.

I will need some tracking of the microinverter to determine how much juice I can indeed suck out of it.

and now ..
I vill meazure ze rooff off ze gahden shedt to deterrmin hou many pannels I cahn fitt ...
Zen haff a discussion wiff the loacal cahpenta about throwing zem on ze rooff ...

[AVGresponding]

There's a host of high end TE up on a hacked Australian fashionware account on ebay today. I've reported a couple, hopefully with the reports other people will be sending in it'll get taken down before they rip anyone off.

[Specmaster]

With of course the moat filled with piranha and a drawbridge over it that you can pull up and keep mad redheads at bay.

To clarify it's to keep HMRC and pikeys out and the crazed redheads in.

If you want to be unpleasant to someone, call the police. If you want to be mean, call the tax inspector. If you want to be vicious, call HMRC. HMRC has nastier abilities than the police, stemming from the days before police, and when they travelled on horses and used candles. A moat won't keep them out unless you use lethal force.

<snip>

Well that why the piranhas are in the moat, can't much more lethal than that?

An aardvark doing backstroke, and smiling in anticipation?

It's not the Piranhas you really need to worry aboot anyways... it's the schools of Candiru he imported to keep them company. 

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

Nothing a few simple wooden stakes can't fix 

[Saskia]

sticks are good. Charlie taught me something about the use of sticks for a decent intruder deterrent system.

[Cubdriver]

I just got replacements for the suspected bad DS8880 display driver IC in the HP 432C RF Power Meter I was looking at a few months ago and got ambitious and finished troubleshooting it.

Used Photoshop to convert to B&W and mark up a pic of the driver board underside to document the connections:

(the problem child is the 'a' segment of the most significant digit on the left)

Soldered cut off leads to the 'a' segment connection on the IC and the ground pin, then turned things on to confirm that the display was still bad (didn't think it was a cold solder joint, but hope springs eternal...) - as expected, the problem was still there:


Grounding the missing segment through a 330Ω resistor (straight to ground caused the missing segment to be at a lower potential than the others being switched by the chip, extinguishing them) got it to light, giving the display end inter-board connections a clean bill of health and confirming the IC has failed:


Now I need to dismantle the display and replace the faulty IC - hope to find time later today to do so, but must hit the sack now as it's almost six AM in these parts.   

-Pat

[bd139]

Quick Hamfest report

1x HP204D £10
1x Farnell TM6 RF voltmeter £15
2x ARRL books to bounce £3
2x loads of trimmers £5

Hard to spend at these things 

[m k]

LR44 inside sleeving from the $2 shop is the simplest fastest fix for the now nearly unobtainium 15V cell.

V74PX / 10LR54 - 15V
Diameter: 16mm
Height: 35mm

LR44 - 1.5V
Diameter: 11.5mm
Height: 5.4mm

LR54 - 1.5V
Diameter: 11.6mm
Height: 3.05mm

LR41 - 1.5V
Diameter: 7.9mm
Height: 3.6mm

I think, the LR54 will fit better than the LR44 which is 2mm too high.

5xCR1632 and some change could be more stable emergency solution than the pictured one.

[Cubdriver]

Quick Hamfest report

1x HP204D £10
1x Farnell TM6 RF voltmeter £15
2x ARRL books to bounce £3
2x loads of trimmers £5

Hard to spend at these things 

Did that 204D come from Israel?

-Pat