Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 14405690 times)

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2925 on: October 18, 2017, 05:00:03 am »
My only concern is how stupid this cat is, and i don't mean that as an exaggeration. Something can hit his tail end and take a minute for it to reach his brain that anything has happened at all, he is amazed by the water when we refill the dish, good old fashions stone cold brain dead stupidity.  :-DD
That's very unusual, normally they just have a superiority attitude....who me, you can't be talking to me in that tone.
Most cats can be trained to some degree, our current one that loves climbing onto any higher place now has boundaries on what's allowed and what's not. A few months of launching soft missiles at her (cushions, pillows, baseball caps etc) accompanied with the command 'get down' in a gruff voice has got the message through.  :phew:
Now anytime she steps out of bounds 'get down' has her heading for the door to escape an expected barrage of missiles.  :-DD
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Offline neo

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2926 on: October 18, 2017, 05:14:13 am »
My only concern is how stupid this cat is, and i don't mean that as an exaggeration. Something can hit his tail end and take a minute for it to reach his brain that anything has happened at all, he is amazed by the water when we refill the dish, good old fashions stone cold brain dead stupidity.  :-DD
That's very unusual, normally they just have a superiority attitude....who me, you can't be talking to me in that tone.
Most cats can be trained to some degree, our current one that loves climbing onto any higher place now has boundaries on what's allowed and what's not. A few months of launching soft missiles at her (cushions, pillows, baseball caps etc) accompanied with the command 'get down' in a gruff voice has got the message through.  :phew:
Now anytime she steps out of bounds 'get down' has her heading for the door to escape an expected barrage of missiles.  :-DD

This cat is special, he is half bobcat to begin with and (i think) as a side effect to that he has significantly diminished mental capability. In short he is big, he is dumb and he most certainly does not intend to learn (if he is even capable of learning) but at least he loves me.
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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2927 on: October 18, 2017, 05:54:38 am »
The problem comes in the form of cats because the second i leave my bench they yank the stand off and no matter what i do they don't stop.

Neo, what about using an iron power cord holder? Clip it to the edge of your bench or a shelf. (Or make your own.)
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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2928 on: October 18, 2017, 05:56:33 am »
Now to find the time to wring out and clean up the counters!

Oooh! Lots of Nixies! 8)
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Offline neo

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2929 on: October 18, 2017, 06:12:49 am »
The problem comes in the form of cats because the second i leave my bench they yank the stand off and no matter what i do they don't stop.

Neo, what about using an iron power cord holder? Clip it to the edge of your bench or a shelf. (Or make your own.)

You just gave me an amazing idea.

I used tape to secure the cord in such a fashion that it still moves rather freely without hanging a "Play with me!" sign on it. Lets see how long it takes either the big idiot to ruin this idea or for me to want a better system.
« Last Edit: October 18, 2017, 06:40:17 am by neo »
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Offline BU508A

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2930 on: October 18, 2017, 06:40:40 am »
You just gave me an amazing idea.

I hope, this includes only the holder, not the flat iron.  ;)
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Offline URI

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2931 on: October 18, 2017, 07:40:18 am »
Test setup:


Ah, nice to see the rubidium reference working properly! Wouldn't expect those old counters to be so accurate.  :-+
Are those equipped with OCXOs?

I'm not a nixie fanboy at all but nice glowing, by the way; Like a warm fireplace in the winter.  ;)
The design of those counters is delicious.
Not to be compared to modern plasticky stuff (even if it's only a printed plastic foil covering the front panel).
But as I'm sticking to HP-IB/GPIB equipped instruments those pieces of gorgeous design will most unlikely hit my desk. Have to warm me (in my thoughts) with such fotos. :-DD
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Online med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2932 on: October 18, 2017, 09:47:46 am »
Wow, this thread certainly has been active lately. It’s good to see all these admitted addictions out in the open. I take comfort in knowing that I’m not alone and not crazy. Well, maybe a little nuts. But aren’t we all?

My addiction as of late has been vintage Fluke bench DMM’s. The following now grace my bench: 8000A, 8010A, 8050A, and 8600A. All E-bay purchases. Some required repair to get them working while others just needed some cleaning and touch up. All of them are now functional. And I did some basic calibration to make them useful.

But my desire was to get all my DMM’s accurately calibrated and do it without breaking the bank. As you know even surplus calibrators/references tend to be quite pricy. I do have a DC voltage reference I built years ago that is fairly accurate and does a good job in checking 3.5 digit DMM’s. But I knew it was not suitable for 4.5 digit DMM’s. So a few months ago I purchased an AD-584-M voltage reference. And then a few weeks ago purchased a 2nd one as a backup and a sanity check. I am quite pleased with their accuracy and stability. For checking ohms I built up a switch box with .1% resistors ranging from 1 ohm to 10MEG. Some DMM’s require a 190VDC reference for calibration so I used a Smakn DC-DC Converter. Unfortunately it’s not very stable so I can’t achieve as accurate results as I’d like. AC volts is a real challenge. I do have a 1.0VAC reference of unknown accuracy. That’s all I have. And most DMM’s require various voltages/frequencies for calibration. So for now I’ve chosen not to bother with AC volts other than making sure the DMM works on that function.

So what are the results? I recently spent almost an entire weekend carefully measuring and tweaking. The attached chart tells the story. Everything fell into spec except for one item. For some reason the Tek 2465 DMM will not set any higher than 9.993M with a 10.0M calibration constant. I suspect it’s due to the issues the scope is having with the Buffer Board EAROM where the calibration data is stored. But overall I’m happy and I plan on doing yearly full calibrations and occasional spot checking.

And now maybe it’s time to branch out a bit. Been thinking of going after Keithley DMM’s such as a 179. After all, I have room on the chart!
« Last Edit: October 18, 2017, 09:52:15 am by med6753 »
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Offline URI

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2933 on: October 18, 2017, 10:06:48 am »
OMG!
I've got a mouser account now..!   :scared:
Three different connectors, 2x Lemo, 1x Triax BNC 3-lug - over 130€. Huuhh. :palm:
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Online med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2934 on: October 18, 2017, 10:09:53 am »
OMG!
I've got a mouser account now..!   :scared:
Three different connectors, 2x Lemo, 1x Triax BNC 3-lug - over 130€. Huuhh. :palm:

Welcome aboard! You are now on the slippery slope  :-+
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2935 on: October 18, 2017, 10:12:30 am »
Big warning when you’re getting the old one out: getting all the legs cleanly desoldered is a pain. I actually tend to pull the top off the switch, extract the innards, Dremel most of it off, then desolder the legs individually and clean up the holes with chemtronics soder wick. This was after I ruined a board getting one off with a pump years ago.
You have got to get yourself one of these desoldering stations guns, meter stripped down, old switch photographed, desoldered top and bottom, interlock mechanism removed, switch removed, new switch had to have some bottom terminals cut off as these were connected on top so no provision was made for the pins on PCB. New switched soldered to PCB, connections remade on top, interlocking reassembled, PCB screwed back into meter along with other parts and display, battery plugged in tested, all done and fully working inside 30 minutes and not a Dremel or solder wick in sight.  :-DD

Seriously I would consider one of these vacuum pump desoldering stations a must, makes repair work and also of parts harvesting so much easier and quicker and parts are removed in a clean state ready for reuse straight away.
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2936 on: October 18, 2017, 10:15:03 am »
Sold! :)

I’ve just paid of my GW Instek meter this morning thanks to some eBay sales (not test gear!) so I’m looking at this over the next few days. Looking like the weller TCP is going in favour of a Hakko 888 and a separate Aoyue desoldering station.
 

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2937 on: October 18, 2017, 10:18:01 am »
If either of those are half as good as mine, you wont regret it I promise you, single handed operation easy peasey  :-+
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Offline Cerebus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2938 on: October 18, 2017, 11:57:52 am »
My only concern is how stupid this cat is, and i don't mean that as an exaggeration. Something can hit his tail end and take a minute for it to reach his brain that anything has happened at all, he is amazed by the water when we refill the dish, good old fashions stone cold brain dead stupidity.  :-DD

That's what he wants you to think. If you follow the above advice, one day he is going to swan in to interfere with your workbench wearing a little kitty raincoat and a pair of little kitty ear defenders. You're going to look at him and your jaw is going to drop, and then the cat is going to give you a look that says "Who's stupid now?".

Slightly off topic: I lost 1/2 of yesterday to a cat. The other half came in from doing some weeding in the back garden carrying a four week old black kitten with deep blue eyes she found huddled up by the house. It was too small and weak to have got there itself, mum was nowhere to be found, neither were any other kittens and door-to-door enquiries of the neighbours turned up nothing. So we arranged for the RSPCA to come and rescue him/her. This meant that I had to spend the next 2 1/2 hours sitting with Dr. Tinycat curled up in the crook of my elbow to keep warm while I waited for the RSPCA to arrive. No further work was achieved, but a lot of "OH, you're so cute" was.
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Offline Cerebus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2939 on: October 18, 2017, 12:03:07 pm »
You just gave me an amazing idea.

I hope, this includes only the holder, not the flat iron.  ;)

I think we've found what awesome14 uses to solder his D-105 voltage references with!

Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 

Offline AF6LJ

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2940 on: October 18, 2017, 02:46:34 pm »
I appear to have a cat problem, before i delve into the intricacies of that let me first mention my soldering iron is exactly where i want it on my bench.

Where my soldering iron sits the cord hangs off the edge of the desk, i like it that way the cord comes freely out when pulled, gravity withdraws it and i don't even have to reach for the iron as it is at my fingertips.
The problem comes in the form of cats because the second i leave my bench they yank the stand off and no matter what i do they don't stop. One of my cats stopped bothering my workbench altogether when it got whacked in the head by the stand but the main one to do it is far too stupid for that to work.
Any ideas on how to deal with a cat that can learn neither from a carrot or the stick?

I have three options, get through to the cat that my workbench is forbidden ( :-DD |O :horse:);
coil it up which i never think of and consider to be a bane of my existence to be forced to do;
or i let them break the thing by pulling it off.

So this post isn't entirely about the stupidity of cats, i have been wondering whether or not the oscilloscope i bought will require a special probe or will any probe do?
The water bottle is the way to go most cats hate to get wet. (I had two that loved the water) A good Squirt will provide a reason to leave the cord alone.
They reward said cat by providing something in the room that hangs he or she can play with.
The carrot and stick works well most of the time.
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Offline tggzzz

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2941 on: October 18, 2017, 03:16:56 pm »
Since this thread has completely drifted away from its starting point, and is going down the hill taken by the entire internet towards cute cat videos, I might as well ask whether anybody remembers the early 80s book "101 uses of a dead cat".

(Yes, there's a hint buried somewhere in the entrails of that sentence)
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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2942 on: October 18, 2017, 03:22:27 pm »
I used tape to secure the cord in such a fashion that it still moves rather freely without hanging a "Play with me!" sign on it. Lets see how long it takes either the big idiot to ruin this idea or for me to want a better system.

Cool. Hope that works out for the long term. Otherwise, you might try Sue's suggestion and provide an even-more-tantalizing toy as a diversion.


But as I'm sticking to HP-IB/GPIB equipped instruments those pieces of gorgeous design will most unlikely hit my desk.

I don't recall which exact models have "printer" ports on the back, but one could utilize a microcontroller to bridge the vintage parallel output to GPIB, USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, etc. Might be a fun project.

Wow, this thread certainly has been active lately. It’s good to see all these admitted addictions out in the open. I take comfort in knowing that I’m not alone and not crazy. Well, maybe a little nuts. But aren’t we all?

Yes, and it's good to see you back here in the pile of nuts.

And now maybe it’s time to branch out a bit. Been thinking of going after Keithley DMM’s such as a 179. After all, I have room on the chart!

You've been having quite the adventure with those Flukes. Beware of the Keithleys: The prices on them are often — most of the time — nuts, which makes them fun and challenging to acquire. Over time, I got a little brown set together: 196 DMM, 220 current source, 228 voltage source/sink.

OMG!
I've got a mouser account now..!   :scared:

Excellent. I like their project manager for organizing and sharing parts lists.

Since this thread has completely drifted away from its starting point, and is going down the hill taken by the entire internet towards cute cat videos, I might as well ask whether anybody remembers the early 80s book "101 uses of a dead cat".

After 118 pages, I suppose a tangent was bound to happen. One could say it's like herding cats. :-DD

I vaguely remember, but am pretty sure I haven't read, that "101" book. Are dead cats useful for TEA or other things in the lab? They're rather poor anti-static mats.
« Last Edit: October 18, 2017, 03:29:56 pm by bitseeker »
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Offline AF6LJ

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2943 on: October 18, 2017, 03:53:48 pm »
Since this thread has completely drifted away from its starting point, and is going down the hill taken by the entire internet towards cute cat videos, I might as well ask whether anybody remembers the early 80s book "101 uses of a dead cat".

(Yes, there's a hint buried somewhere in the entrails of that sentence)
There is a copy in the garage in the box with the RCA Receiving tube manual and a couple of old ARRL Handbooks.
Sue AF6LJ
 
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Offline Cubdriver

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2944 on: October 18, 2017, 04:25:34 pm »
Ah, nice to see the rubidium reference working properly! Wouldn't expect those old counters to be so accurate.  :-+
Are those equipped with OCXOs?

I'm not a nixie fanboy at all but nice glowing, by the way; Like a warm fireplace in the winter.  ;)
The design of those counters is delicious.
Not to be compared to modern plasticky stuff (even if it's only a printed plastic foil covering the front panel).
But as I'm sticking to HP-IB/GPIB equipped instruments those pieces of gorgeous design will most unlikely hit my desk. Have to warm me (in my thoughts) with such fotos. :-DD

The 5325B is not, but I just popped the cover off of the 5327B and discovered that it has a TCXO in it.  It's on a vectorboard edge card, but may well be custom from HP - the unit has a non-standard serial number (SC-94), so my guess is that it's built to some customer's specification.  The date codes on the parts are in the same ballpark at least.





-Pat
If it jams, force it.  If it breaks, you needed a new one anyway...
 

Offline neo

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2945 on: October 18, 2017, 05:03:27 pm »
My cat comments are entirely TEA related, in preservation of equipment. Water bottle might not work because he actually doesn't mind water even if i could catch him in the act and trust me he really is as dumb as i make him sound.

So many nixies, ebay is calling and my wallet is aching. MUST. AVOID. EBAY.
Great counters and pictures thereof Pat.
« Last Edit: October 18, 2017, 05:11:45 pm by neo »
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Offline AF6LJ

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2946 on: October 18, 2017, 05:51:50 pm »
My cat comments are entirely TEA related, in preservation of equipment. Water bottle might not work because he actually doesn't mind water even if i could catch him in the act and trust me he really is as dumb as i make him sound.

So many nixies, ebay is calling and my wallet is aching. MUST. AVOID. EBAY.
Great counters and pictures thereof Pat.
One more cat related story and I'll let it go.
My cat (the one in my avatar) when she was alive would not stop chewing on the cord for my Weller TC series soldering station. Something about soft silicon Teflon, must be like chewy rat. I could not get her to stop chewing on the handpiece cord. One day she just quit.
I figure she found it would bite back, I guess 24VAC is not so tasty.
Weller makes good cords, that cord lasted until just over a year ago.
Anyone who ever has owned one of these stations for a long time knows the cord goes open at the strain relief; that is what finally did this one in. $99.00 later a new handpiece and the old one is safely stored away as a memory to my kitty who has gone to prepare a place for us in the afterlife.

/We now return you to our regularly scheduled program.
Sue AF6LJ
 

Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2947 on: October 18, 2017, 06:06:31 pm »
... I just popped the cover off of the 5327B and discovered that it has a TCXO in it.  It's on a vectorboard edge card, but may well be custom from HP - the unit has a non-standard serial number (SC-94), so my guess is that it's built to some customer's specification.  The date codes on the parts are in the same ballpark at least.



That's an interesting frequency setting. "Yeah, can you make us a special 10 MHz TCXO? Set it 1.0 Hz high, please."  ;D
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Offline neo

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2948 on: October 18, 2017, 06:11:37 pm »
With my new (to me) scope (Tektronix 7704A) does it require probes built special for it or will common probes work?
« Last Edit: October 18, 2017, 06:21:58 pm by neo »
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Offline Cubdriver

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #2949 on: October 18, 2017, 06:22:21 pm »
With my new scope (Tektronix 7704A) does it require probes built special for it or will common probes work?

Common probes should work.  Run of the mill generics may not have the signal pins that Tek probes have; on many of the scopes those tell the scope that it's, for instance, a 10x probe so the scope can display the correct vertical scale automatically.  You might need to do some mental math in some cases with regular probes.  Just make sure that the probe frequency limit is greater than whatever you're measuring with it.

-Pat
If it jams, force it.  If it breaks, you needed a new one anyway...
 
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