Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[25 CPS]

So what have I been up to the last few days?

I finished off the battery project.  The last things to get done were the current clamps.  I have a Fluke i410, two i1010, and the big 2000 amp OTC.  The OTC is definitely not Fluke quality.  To start with, it doesn't have a dedicated battery compartment so to replace the battery, you need to fully open it up which gave the opportunity to look it over:



In addition without a dedicated battery access, the case was two coarse thread screws directly into plastic which won't be long term durable.



This Everactive came out of one of the other clamps.  A knockoff of Eveready?  It was past due with that 2016 date.

Then there's some of the test fixtures that get used with the current clamps.  One is a three pronged MTP and the other, the first one I ever bought, is a two prong Sperry that I got from Canadian Tire:





Electrical safety standards are weak here but even the two pronged Sperry at least has a polarized socket, right?



Not necessarily.  Look at the plug end carefully.  The MTP is built how a three pronged plug would be with the circular ground prong and the polarized line and neutral but the Sperry, no.  It's plug isn't polarized so it can be plugged in either way around which means the polarized socket on the back is meaningless so that could end up biting you if you aren't careful.

Last night, a friend and I had coffee and decided to have some extracurricular non-work related fun with some spectrum analyzers.  A TinySA and a not-so-tiny-SA up at a lookout on the Niagara Escarpment at about the halfway point between Toronto and Niagara.





The 88-108 MHz band is interesting to look at in a location like this because of the geography and population of the area.  Between the elevation of the escarpment and the presence of Lake Ontario, you get radio stations from the major population centres of Toronto, Rochester, NY and Buffalo, NY, plus all the smaller markets surrounding the lake travelling in unobstructed over the water, plus others located inland coming in from behind on top of the escarpment.  The result is that 20 MHz chunk of spectrum used for FM is absolutely packed tight.



The view from up there is beautiful too.  We also played around with the demod functions on the Agilent using the aftermarket carplay system on my truck which feeds the stereo on 89.3 MHz.  The crammed FM spectrum here makes that difficult as you can clearly see from the two spectrum analyzers and 89.3 is the weakest radio station to have the carplay clobber overtop of  in the absence of any completely vacant frequencies.  With the demod function set up, it was neat to walk around the truck and watch the signal strength of the carplay fall off, demodulated audio get noisy, and then the broadcast radio station on 89.3 punch through and obliterate the signal from the carplay unit.  I wanted to do this around dusk but it ended up getting delayed until after dark but it was a nice way of spending a late evening.

[TERRA Operative]

I have the DCA55. Very confident little bugger that. I like it a lot. Does one thing, does it well, and gives clear, exploitable results.

(And for L/C/R I've got the DE-5000, so don't see the need for a Peak device at the moment. )

Nice, I'll have to get one sooner rather than later. The Chinese component tester I have is.... limited in what information it gives....

For L/C/R, I also have a DE-5000, but my go-to is my restored HP 4276A that I made my own DC Bias option from scratch for, I love that bit of TE.

[Vince]

Oh boy looks like it's chore time.... looks like I got meself into a Dragon Table-like project ! 

Now that the bedroom is operational, there are a couple of shelving units I would like to move to the bedroom, to free space in the living room / lab.

But before I do that I would like to renovate them a bit and repaint them a different colour....

Old man made them for me just 20 years ago now. The old varnish has yellowed badly, even though IIRC it said on the can it is UV resistant to prevent just that. My ass...
Also I painted the background of them inside, Lotus British Racing Green / BRG.... but this won't fit the deco theme I want for this new house.
Plus, I have moved places a few times and there are battle scars that need to be fixed...

So I emptied one the units from the dozen junk boxes containing mostly EE and computer stuff.

Quick clean with a wet sponge to remove all the dust... then tried to sand the scars to see how it's going....

Problem is that this old varnish reacts like gum. Tried with 120 grit first.... slides over it like it were a wet sponge, not a dent ! 
That's annoying, as I wanted to key the entire surface of the unit with 120 grit before applying a coat of primer (old varnish is solvent based says the old man, but I want to repaint it with acrylic lacquer I already have in stock, that I used for the plinths and interior doors).
So I tried with 80 grit paper.... now it does make a dent in the varnish... but only ONE dent ! You wipe it just a few times, literally 4 or 6 wipes / strokes, and the paper is already clogged with varnish, already useless ! 

So I tried 50 grit instead, but I have only that in the form of disc pads to be mounted on my power drill on an adapter. So I tried that... it does work, at last !
So I was able to remove the scars this way. Then I could use the 80 grit by hand to smooth the carnage that the 50 grit left. The 80 grit now works because the 50 grit removed enough vanish, and exposed the wood, so the 80 grit paper doesn't clog as fast.

So....that means that if I can't key the surface directly with 120 grit... I need to first do the entire unit at 50 grit, at least a quick pass, then do it all over again at 80 grit, then again at 120 grit...... LOTS of work!!! 

I absolutely do not envisage doing it by hand, I am not a slave, and have better things to do, and limited time now I am back at work so.... I guess I will have to do like dragon and get some cheap ass but half decent sanding machines. The small kind that fits in your palm... one that takes " pointy " sanding pads, so I can do the edges and corners inside, and another machine that can do the flat areas quickly and easily. Orbital is it called ?!...

Can't afford to buy any fancy good quality tools, I am on a tight / non existent budget here... so I will look for sub-50 Euro machines. IIRC the dirt cheap / crap ones are at 10 or 20 Euros.... really crap though. I will try to find something a bit less shitty, in the 25/50 Euros bracket, per machine.

I have two of these big shelve units to do, and also a third unit that's full of drawers, 26 of them... an antique that a friend gave me. From the '50s. Need to sand all the drawers inside to make them look decent again, smooth, and get rid of the old dried out mold / black stains..... so lots of sanding to do  ! Hence need machines....

It's too hot here to do any painting, but I thought I could do all the sanding / prep work first, then in a couple weeks or 3, when the weather cools down a bit, I could then do the painting.

Yes Saskia I need all your cool Festool gear, for sure....

Oh, and last evening as it was almost dark, I surprised an adult coypu busy eating my vegetable garden, caught him on camera so I can provide evidence to the court once I drag him there.....  bloody thing...

[AVGresponding]

CT type number and a Copenacre sticker on it. It has to be a special variant for the military. This could be a good or bad thing. It looks to be in as nice a cosmetic condition as could be hoped for.

For £500, he's having a larf.

This seller usually has "speculative" pricing. I've not tried to pm them direct offers, haven't seen anything I really want yet.

[med6753]

Kosmic, clean up that 8921A with a coat of paint like this 7260A. It at least addresses some of the ugliness.   

[Specmaster]

End of sale update, that Peak ESR60 on eBay went in then end for £43.

Wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, m'self.

mnem
 

Me neither, I only knew because eBay emailed me telling me that it was finishing soon and they knew that I'd viewed it and that was only because of the link posted here. I think I have enough cap and ESR testers anyway, and a Peak device would be one of the last things I'd consider.

Of the "lets abuse a microprocessor to do what a real piece of TE should do" Chinesium testers out there, the PEAK/ATLAS brand is probably one of the best product lines out there. It was the ESR60 in particular that I wouldn't touch, as I know from experience its inputs are unprotected.

Cheers,

mnem
 

*Puts a DCA75 back on the shopping list...

I have the DCA55. Very confident little bugger that. I like it a lot. Does one thing, does it well, and gives clear, exploitable results.

(And for L/C/R I've got the DE-5000, so don't see the need for a Peak device at the moment. )

Last time I looked, a DCA55 was a Peak device and competes with the DE-5000

[Cubdriver]

Kosmic, clean up that 8921A with a coat of paint like this 7260A. It at least addresses some of the ugliness. 

Those enclosures definitely have a Star Trek original series space shuttle Galileo vibe to them.

-Pat

[med6753]

Kosmic, clean up that 8921A with a coat of paint like this 7260A. It at least addresses some of the ugliness. 

Those enclosures definitely have a Star Trek original series space shuttle Galileo vibe to them.

-Pat

Definitely. But they are designed to be stackable.

[AVGresponding]

Kosmic, clean up that 8921A with a coat of paint like this 7260A. It at least addresses some of the ugliness. 

Those enclosures definitely have a Star Trek original series space shuttle Galileo vibe to them.

-Pat

I wonder if that's intentional? Someone on the design team might have been a fan!

[bd139]

Last time I looked, a DCA55 was a Peak device and competes with the DE-5000

No - the DE-5000 is an LCR / ESR meter.

Peak sell different devices. Off the top of my head:

DCA55 -> simple component analyser
DCA75 -> much nicer component analyser and curve tracer
LCR45 -> LCR meter
ESR70 -> ESR meter

Plus some other miscellaneous crap.

I'd rather have the Peak stuff. They have reliable distributors, a good reputation, always exceed the specifications and importantly support their hardware through calibration and repair.

[bd139]

Kosmic, clean up that 8921A with a coat of paint like this 7260A. It at least addresses some of the ugliness. 

Those enclosures definitely have a Star Trek original series space shuttle Galileo vibe to them.

-Pat

If you stack them they remind me of a pile of armadillos fucking.

[Kosmic]

Kosmic, clean up that 8921A with a coat of paint like this 7260A. It at least addresses some of the ugliness.   

Yeah I was thinking using a gray paint though 

Did you do anything special to prepare the plastic before painting ?

[Kosmic]

Kosmic, clean up that 8921A with a coat of paint like this 7260A. It at least addresses some of the ugliness. 

Those enclosures definitely have a Star Trek original series space shuttle Galileo vibe to them.

-Pat

If you stack them they remind me of a pile of armadillos fucking.

For my part, I only have 1 and no intention of letting her reproduce.

[med6753]

Yeah I was thinking using a gray paint though 

Did you do anything special to prepare the plastic before painting ?

Nope, just made sure it was clean and grease free. 

[factory]

Kosmic, clean up that 8921A with a coat of paint like this 7260A. It at least addresses some of the ugliness. 

Those enclosures definitely have a Star Trek original series space shuttle Galileo vibe to them.

-Pat

If you stack them they remind me of a pile of armadillos fucking.

Something like these then, even comes with a bog roll dispenser at the top. 
Also some odd third party video noise filter unit in there too.



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204066808798

David

[tggzzz]

If you stack them they remind me of a pile of armadillos fucking.

I'm a little concerned that it "reminds" you of that. To me it is a completely new concept, I'm relieved to say.

[bd139]

Kosmic, clean up that 8921A with a coat of paint like this 7260A. It at least addresses some of the ugliness. 

Those enclosures definitely have a Star Trek original series space shuttle Galileo vibe to them.

-Pat

If you stack them they remind me of a pile of armadillos fucking.

Something like these then, even comes with a bog roll dispenser at the top. 
Also some odd third party video noise filter unit in there too.



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204066808798

David

That was the picture I wanted to attach to my post but couldn't find it  . No I'm not buying it.

I love the bog roll dispenser comment 

[AVGresponding]

Kosmic, clean up that 8921A with a coat of paint like this 7260A. It at least addresses some of the ugliness. 

Those enclosures definitely have a Star Trek original series space shuttle Galileo vibe to them.

-Pat

If you stack them they remind me of a pile of armadillos fucking.

Something like these then, even comes with a bog roll dispenser at the top. 
Also some odd third party video noise filter unit in there too.



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204066808798

David

The Ultimate TEA bathroom accessory!

[bd139]

If you stack them they remind me of a pile of armadillos fucking.

I'm a little concerned that it "reminds" you of that. To me it is a completely new concept, I'm relieved to say.

Actually it was originally the large pile of rather horny homosexual tortoises at Colchester Zoo that reminded me of it. They are quite beautiful animals unlike the armadillo so I thought I'd not insult them with comparing them to that ugly thing.

[mnementh]

So what have I been up to the last few days?
(SNIP)
The 88-108 MHz band is interesting to look at in a location like this because of the geography and population of the area.  Between the elevation of the escarpment and the presence of Lake Ontario, you get radio stations from the major population centres of Toronto, Rochester, NY and Buffalo, NY, plus all the smaller markets surrounding the lake travelling in unobstructed over the water, plus others located inland coming in from behind on top of the escarpment.  The result is that 20 MHz chunk of spectrum used for FM is absolutely packed tight.



The view from up there is beautiful too.  We also played around with the demod functions on the Agilent using the aftermarket carplay system on my truck which feeds the stereo on 89.3 MHz.  The crammed FM spectrum here makes that difficult as you can clearly see from the two spectrum analyzers and 89.3 is the weakest radio station to have the carplay clobber overtop of  in the absence of any completely vacant frequencies.  With the demod function set up, it was neat to walk around the truck and watch the signal strength of the carplay fall off, demodulated audio get noisy, and then the broadcast radio station on 89.3 punch through and obliterate the signal from the carplay unit.  I wanted to do this around dusk but it ended up getting delayed until after dark but it was a nice way of spending a late evening.

And no HAMs were harmed in the production of this RF event!!! 

mnem
 

[tggzzz]

If you stack them they remind me of a pile of armadillos fucking.

I'm a little concerned that it "reminds" you of that. To me it is a completely new concept, I'm relieved to say.

Actually it was originally the large pile of rather horny homosexual tortoises at Colchester Zoo that reminded me of it. They are quite beautiful animals unlike the armadillo so I thought I'd not insult them with comparing them to that ugly thing.

I agree that those TE cases do remind me of fugly tortoises inspired by Essex inhabitants. Armadillos are cute in comparison. Neither animal can be stacked as reliably as all/all sane test equipment.

Some modern TE doesn't look very stackable except presumably with inbred equipment from the same manufacturer. I don't remember the specific manufacturers, but theor TE reminds me of American Football players crossed with sports trainers, with a little bit of 1980s toys thrown into the mix.

[25 CPS]

So what have I been up to the last few days?
(SNIP)
The 88-108 MHz band is interesting to look at in a location like this because of the geography and population of the area.  Between the elevation of the escarpment and the presence of Lake Ontario, you get radio stations from the major population centres of Toronto, Rochester, NY and Buffalo, NY, plus all the smaller markets surrounding the lake travelling in unobstructed over the water, plus others located inland coming in from behind on top of the escarpment.  The result is that 20 MHz chunk of spectrum used for FM is absolutely packed tight.



The view from up there is beautiful too.  We also played around with the demod functions on the Agilent using the aftermarket carplay system on my truck which feeds the stereo on 89.3 MHz.  The crammed FM spectrum here makes that difficult as you can clearly see from the two spectrum analyzers and 89.3 is the weakest radio station to have the carplay clobber overtop of  in the absence of any completely vacant frequencies.  With the demod function set up, it was neat to walk around the truck and watch the signal strength of the carplay fall off, demodulated audio get noisy, and then the broadcast radio station on 89.3 punch through and obliterate the signal from the carplay unit.  I wanted to do this around dusk but it ended up getting delayed until after dark but it was a nice way of spending a late evening.

And no HAMs were harmed in the production of this RF event!!! 

mnem
 

No, but several people walking along past the lookout we were parked at did get subjected to my taste in music though when we were playing around with the aftermarket Car Play system on my truck.

[factory]

Update on the Racal 9037 universal counter that was buried in a box of very OT masks.


Opened it up and found one of the low voltage Mullard/Philips can capacitors had shat itself, along with the Erie cap for the 200V display supply.
The mask wasn't needed in the end, no tants blew up, display fully working for a change, self check OK.


After this quick test I found the other can capacitor with beige seal had pissed itself. 


Luckily I had enough spares to replace both low voltage cans & the HV capacitor, had to make do with 250V for this one, the 836 book says 275V, old one was 315V, I measured around 200V across it.


The new Philips can caps were quite a bit shorter, I had to modify the clamp with an extra strip underneath, this kept them straight when the clamp was tightened down.



Reassembled it the next day & tested it to 60MHz & slightly beyond all good. 


Here it is with the military version of the 836 (aka 9036), the differences are the extra cover on the top & some spare fuses provided inside, no idea what component differences there are for the lower 32MHz spec, as I've not got a manual with parts list for the 60MHz version. The 836 has the extra wiring loom for the recorder output option & oddly it has wiring for the display latch switch, but the switch & 7475 ICs are not present, might add these in the future.


There is a 9038 60MHz version (not seen any yet), they have the fast warm-up burn-up crystal oven, probably best avoided as Racal made crystal ovens seem a bit unreliable, lots of tants in the last failed one I opened up and no circuit diagrams were found.

David

[grizewald]

I wouldn't be without my ESR70. The 1mm thick needle sharp probes get straight through dirt and grime (and your fingers if you don't cap them after use!). The best thing is the different sounds that it makes after each test. You quickly get to know what the various sounds mean and that lets you probe a PCB very quickly without needing to look up and read the meter's display after each test.

Great test equipment and very obviously designed by people who actually use what they make.

[mnementh]

Oh boy looks like it's chore time.... looks like I got meself into a Dragon Table-like project ! 

Before you get too aggro with sanding that - you're sure it's solid wood and not veneered composite/MDF, right? They've gotten really good at hiding it... 

I had to run my sandcat at like 2 or 3, no higher, or the sanding belts would clog almost instantly. Highest grit I could get any bite with was 80; the finish sanding took/is taking forever.

I did finish sanding on the 5" random orbital sander starting at 120 grit, then 240 grit. I did not get a detail sander; I did that work and steel wool after staining by hand.

Relevant posts are here (first link you get to see what I started out with on the table):

SandCat:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg4173202/#msg4173202
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/what-did-you-buy-today-post-your-latest-purchase!/msg4150234/#msg4150234


Random Orbital Sander:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg4264327/#msg4264327
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/what-did-you-buy-today-post-your-latest-purchase!/msg4176511/#msg4176511

For those who care; Here's where I'm at now on the WAF Improvement Project:



 3 of 5 pieces of the base have been fully sanded and stained, then allowed to dry overnight. I will probably shoot the first coat of polyurethane on them this afternoon, then once they dry to the touch move them outdoors to cure in the sun.

Vince, if you'd like to chew the fat on this subject I'll suggest we take further discussion to PM so as not to clutter this thread. I'm trying to keep my own updates on this topic only sporadic to comply with current OT guidelines.

I tried to start a new topic in the OT Hobbies section to move the tedious bits of this project out of the TEAnonymous thread, yet still link to them for my friends like I do with my 3DP Stuph; it seemed a good place to put such things. However, you cannot create a new topic outside the only subforum already there which is Cooking...

mnem
*toddles off to spray some stuff*