Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Nice, almost point to point style of construction and with all that amount of metal would make the ideal anchor 

[GreyWoolfe]

4. Hundreds of sacrifices to the Flying Spaghetti Monster just because sacrificing them is fun. I will occasionally buy a bag just to blow up! Better entertainment than a Netflix sub.

Had a cap let go and the smell didn't quite leave the house before SWMBO came home.  She was not a happy bunny.  I know better than to blow a bunch up for fun.  She knows where I sleep.

[mnementh]

Yep they are boat anchors. There is the 454 of course which was a bit of a break through. 150Mhz bandwidth in a portable scope in 1968 (!). I might hang out for one of the actually.

They are built like apollo space craft. Cast, machined, neatly wired, incredibly well documented, the lot. Gold plated everything. Designed to withstand drops!

Vertical amplifier



More pictures: http://www.helo.de/helo/tek/portable/454/454_e.htm

http://elektronikbasteln.pl7.de/reparatur-eines-tektronix-454-oszilloskop-150-mhz.html

Do you want one enough to pay the freight from USA, 77530 zip code? Working ATM, has the usual intermittent HV/blown fuse issue. Also running out of time and patience with my 2230; it has a noise problem in the power supply that's causing it to fail POST on the high-speed acquisition RAM test parameter.


mnem
*Hoeing out the space under the workbench*

[bd139]

I'm going to pass on that one. Don't fancy arguing with customs at the moment. I've had a stalemate with them for about a month now on a copy of the ARRL handbook which they think was 20% VAT. Thanks for the offer though.

Got my soldering iron stands this morning. The square black ash tray variety gets a 1/10 rating. It's floppier than a floppy thing from planet flop. The inflatable padding they used in the packaging was better. If anyone wants it, it's yours for £3 delivered! If it doesn't go by next Friday it's going in the recycling.

On to stand number two now. Better. After some head scratching I managed to extract the balance bar and bend it into a suitable position to hold a 9501 handle. the sponge that came with it was shit. Metal appears to be Chinesium. Once you've bent it, it stays though. 7/10 for that one. I'll try this one for a bit and see how it goes.

The current line up with the Weller for context. The Weller base actually weighs more than the other two setups entirely (10/10) 

I'm going to trim up a weller sponge and see how I get on with the "kakko" stand.

[Specmaster]

I'm going to pass on that one. Don't fancy arguing with customs at the moment. I've had a stalemate with them for about a month now on a copy of the ARRL handbook which they think was 20% VAT. Thanks for the offer though.

Got my soldering iron stands this morning. The square black ash tray variety gets a 1/10 rating. It's floppier than a floppy thing from planet flop. The inflatable padding they used in the packaging was better. If anyone wants it, it's yours for £3 delivered! If it doesn't go by next Friday it's going in the recycling.

On to stand number two now. Better. After some head scratching I managed to extract the balance bar and bend it into a suitable position to hold a 9501 handle. the sponge that came with it was shit. Metal appears to be Chinesium. Once you've bent it, it stays though. 7/10 for that one. I'll try this one for a bit and see how it goes.

The current line up with the Weller for context. The Weller base actually weighs more than the other two setups entirely (10/10) 

I'm going to trim up a weller sponge and see how I get on with the "kakko" stand.

I have 2 of those black ashtrays and to be fair to them, they are designed to be used with the 907 handle and they work well. I have mine up high of the bench so the 9701 handle is OK there, as it lays flatter. If I rearrange my bench I would like something more upright.

[Cerebus]

The one with the knackered hfe I'd already had on a breadboard so it might have been slightly toasted or zenered.

Heh, heh. I think "zenered" might make a useful new euphemism, as in "Well zener me sideways", or "I"m completely zenered". 

[mnementh]

Actually, this is probably the place to ask, since I've been poking around this unit long enough without figuring it out. I'm certain it's something simple and stupid I keep overlooking, but I'm going to start with a brief history.

When I received the unit over 10 years ago, it had been well-used and abused by Verisuck employees; when it failed pretty obviously one or more of the trained ape brigade had taken it apart and tried to fix it. the DC-DC converter had several of the stacked epoxy-sealed Sangamo caps on the +/- 8.6V rails had cooked themselves to death, as had the big 4700uF on the 5V rail. It had shorted one diode in the line voltage bridge, which I was able to find only two of, so I replaced both on the opposing sides of the same cycle on the bridge, then I replaced every cap in the 42V DC-DC converter and low voltage inverter sections. It came back to life, everything was happy, and I used it for ~3 years without issue. Then the HV multiplier/Flyback failed, and it went in storage, got lost in a move, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public enquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months*  several years while I located a replacement and then I eventually dug it out a couple weeks ago.

First thing I noticed when I was troubleshooting the HV was that it now had a loud whine; I assumed it was T948 in the HV complaning since the flyback had failed so thought nothing of it. When I replaced the flyback it persisted, and while the 'scope did come up, it had errors in the POST. So once I determined that the fault was in the Acquisition RAM, but only on the highest speed mode, my niggling feeling that the POST errors and the new noise were related came back to mind. After poking around with an insulated screwdriver with handle held against my ear (very cautiously too, as this model has 2KV potential in the same area  ), I isolated the noise not to T948 in the HV, but to T906 in the 42V DC-DC converter.

Oy vey.  so my last few sessions have revolved around trying to isolate the source of the noise in the 42V DC-DC converter; so far, to no avail. Excessive noise floating on all DC rails except the +/- 8.6 rails (stacks of Sangamo 840uF caps) indicates to me that the problem must be somewhere in the converter; but even after removing all other caps and substituting, still no resolution. 

Ideas? Cheers? Jeers? Something stupid you can see from a mile away?

I'm using the manual from Artek; it's better than the one hosted my the Tek affiliate. This site appears to have a decent copy that passed my virus scans.


I think I'm going to go to Harbor Freight for some retail therapy now...


mnem
* shamelessly snurched from HHGTG

[Cerebus]

Mnem:

[Specmaster]

Actually, this is probably the place to ask, since I've been poking around this unit long enough without figuring it out. I'm certain it's something simple and stupid I keep overlooking, but I'm going to start with a brief history.

When I received the unit over 10 years ago, it had been well-used and abused by Verisuck employees; when it failed pretty obviously one or more of the trained ape brigade had taken it apart and tried to fix it. the DC-DC converter had several of the stacked epoxy-sealed Sangamo caps on the +/- 8.6V rails had cooked themselves to death, as had the big 4700uF on the 5V rail. It had shorted one diode in the line voltage bridge, which I was able to find only two of, so I replaced both on the opposing sides of the same cycle on the bridge, then I replaced every cap in the 42V DC-DC converter and low voltage inverter sections. It came back to life, everything was happy, and I used it for ~3 years without issue. Then the HV multiplier/Flyback failed, and it went in storage, got lost in a move, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public enquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months*  several years while I located a replacement and then I eventually dug it out a couple weeks ago.

First thing I noticed when I was troubleshooting the HV was that it now had a loud whine; I assumed it was T948 in the HV complaning since the flyback had failed so thought nothing of it. When I replaced the flyback it persisted, and while the 'scope did come up, it had errors in the POST. So once I determined that the fault was in the Acquisition RAM, but only on the highest speed mode, my niggling feeling that the POST errors and the new noise were related came back to mind. After poking around with an insulated screwdriver with handle held against my ear (very cautiously too, as this model has 2KV potential in the same area  ), I isolated the noise not to T948 in the HV, but to T906 in the 42V DC-DC converter.

Oy vey.  so my last few sessions have revolved around trying to isolate the source of the noise in the 42V DC-DC converter; so far, to no avail. Excessive noise floating on all DC rails except the +/- 8.6 rails (stacks of Sangamo 840uF caps) indicates to me that the problem must be somewhere in the converter; but even after removing all other caps and substituting, still no resolution. 

Ideas? Cheers? Jeers? Something stupid you can see from a mile away?

I'm using the manual from Artek; it's better than the one hosted my the Tek affiliate. This site appears to have a decent copy that passed my virus scans.


I think I'm going to go to Harbor Freight for some retail therapy now...


mnem
* shamelessly snurched from HHGTG

Leave their free meters behind......

[Specmaster]

I'm going to pass on that one. Don't fancy arguing with customs at the moment. I've had a stalemate with them for about a month now on a copy of the ARRL handbook which they think was 20% VAT. Thanks for the offer though.

Got my soldering iron stands this morning. The square black ash tray variety gets a 1/10 rating. It's floppier than a floppy thing from planet flop. The inflatable padding they used in the packaging was better. If anyone wants it, it's yours for £3 delivered! If it doesn't go by next Friday it's going in the recycling.

On to stand number two now. Better. After some head scratching I managed to extract the balance bar and bend it into a suitable position to hold a 9501 handle. the sponge that came with it was shit. Metal appears to be Chinesium. Once you've bent it, it stays though. 7/10 for that one. I'll try this one for a bit and see how it goes.

The current line up with the Weller for context. The Weller base actually weighs more than the other two setups entirely (10/10) 

I'm going to trim up a weller sponge and see how I get on with the "kakko" stand.

Was it a new copy of the book?

[bd139]

Yep. 2018 edition.

Need to update my 1999 edition finally

[Specmaster]

I'm going to pass on that one. Don't fancy arguing with customs at the moment. I've had a stalemate with them for about a month now on a copy of the ARRL handbook which they think was 20% VAT. Thanks for the offer though.

Got my soldering iron stands this morning. The square black ash tray variety gets a 1/10 rating. It's floppier than a floppy thing from planet flop. The inflatable padding they used in the packaging was better. If anyone wants it, it's yours for £3 delivered! If it doesn't go by next Friday it's going in the recycling.

On to stand number two now. Better. After some head scratching I managed to extract the balance bar and bend it into a suitable position to hold a 9501 handle. the sponge that came with it was shit. Metal appears to be Chinesium. Once you've bent it, it stays though. 7/10 for that one. I'll try this one for a bit and see how it goes.

The current line up with the Weller for context. The Weller base actually weighs more than the other two setups entirely (10/10) 

I'm going to trim up a weller sponge and see how I get on with the "kakko" stand.

Was it a new copy of the book?

What should the Vat be on it then?

[bd139]

Books are zero rated. 0%.

Was £58 including delivery. Next thing I know it turns up with a £20 VAT and handling charge. RSGB have it in stock now for £50 as well 

[plazma]

I checked Amazon again and these DPS5015 units are still being listed at £3.99 - 9 in stock (well, there were until I bought 5 of them, now there's only 4 )

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07433NF8F/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

I ordered the last.

Received the first one. Two more on the way.

Received the last ones. I tested the first one at work. I measured the ripple with different loads and also took thermal images. The DPS5015 got 17mV ripple @ 0A load and 121mV ripple @ 15A load. The DPS5005 model got 12mV ripple @ 0A and 33mV @ 5A load.

[bitseeker]

Nice catch, plazma. I still can't believe how good a deal that was.

[mnementh]

(SNIP)

Ideas? Cheers? Jeers? Something stupid you can see from a mile away?

I'm using the manual from Artek; it's better than the one hosted my the Tek affiliate. This site appears to have a decent copy that passed my virus scans.


I think I'm going to go to Harbor Freight for some retail therapy now...


mnem
* shamelessly snurched from HHGTG

Leave their free meters behind......

I already have 3 or 4 left over from the box full I donated to my local RC flying club. They're still better than sticking your tongue on a 4s LiPo... though not nearly as much fun.

Typical Horror Friggit run; go for the $2 epoxy, come home with your bag 20 lbs overweight and wallet $28 under due to them having a HUGE PARKING LOT SALE!.. sale!.. sale... 

Howinnahell do they even GET a cast aluminum carpenter's square for a BUCK, much less sell it for that? And then of course... there's the free flashlights. 

Mnem:

https://youtu.be/HNmIQX_ImgM

I generally preferred the BBC miniseries to the movie for a host of reasons; not the least of which because the theme song they chose was The Eagles' "Journey of the Sorcerer". Aside from being my gateway to the world of progressive rock and brain-damaging headphone abuse, it was also the musical equivalent of the dragon/wizard/unicorn mural on the side of that van on every other block which reeked of untold summers of doobie, spilled beers and sweaty, furtive sex. 

That said... as an adult, Alan Rickman's Marvin will always have place in my heart, and the leopard guards my daughter as she sleeps.

I'm going to pass on that one. Don't fancy arguing with customs at the moment. I've had a stalemate with them for about a month now on a copy of the ARRL handbook which they think was 20% VAT. Thanks for the offer though.

Got my soldering iron stands this morning. The square black ash tray variety gets a 1/10 rating. It's floppier than a floppy thing from planet flop. The inflatable padding they used in the packaging was better. If anyone wants it, it's yours for £3 delivered! If it doesn't go by next Friday it's going in the recycling.

On to stand number two now. Better. After some head scratching I managed to extract the balance bar and bend it into a suitable position to hold a 9501 handle. the sponge that came with it was shit. Metal appears to be Chinesium. Once you've bent it, it stays though. 7/10 for that one. I'll try this one for a bit and see how it goes.

The current line up with the Weller for context. The Weller base actually weighs more than the other two setups entirely (10/10) 

I'm going to trim up a weller sponge and see how I get on with the "kakko" stand.

I understand not being able to handle the hassle; I'm in the same boat with a number of my own boat anchors. This 454 belonged to a coworker who was a bit of a character, and it/he/I had some history. I'd like to find it a good home where it will be appreciated.


There's something wrong with either your Hakklone stand or your Hakklone FX-9051 handle; it's supposed to fit precisely inside the casting itself as you see here, and the wire sits above like this to give you a place to scrape off excess solder and crust as you pull the iron out. No idea from here which is the case, but you should be able to easily enlarge the opening with a Dremel and a 13mm sanding drum. Just be sure to NOT sand away the little lip at the bottom of the casting.

How many volts does it take to blow a 500v electro 

Having beer and lots of nibbles in the late afternoon sun 

Here I thought I was the last person on the planet who knew what that tool is and how to use it... 

Touch down, its here ... 

Only the unit, printed manual and power cord only.    No probe. 

Sonuvacrap... it's for real, not vaporware from some imaginary listing. 

Here's hoping you actually get it up and running and find the probe (if it needs one). 

Books are zero rated. 0%.

Was £58 including delivery. Next thing I know it turns up with a £20 VAT and handling charge. RSGB have it in stock now for £50 as well 

You should void the order with your credit card company and charge it back; tell them it was never delivered. Let the vendor hash it out with customs, as it was their choice of carrier which didn't know how to properly process a book to avoid this issue. I'm sick of incompetent carriers fu**ing up my life; I have 3 projects on hold because of USPS, FEDEX and UPS not knowing how to deliver even within the correct MONTH the order was supposed to be here.


mnem
Yes, that reeking van was MINE.    And not a damned bit ashamed of it, EITHER. 

[neo]

Actually, this is probably the place to ask, since I've been poking around this unit long enough without figuring it out. I'm certain it's something simple and stupid I keep overlooking, but I'm going to start with a brief history.

When I received the unit over 10 years ago, it had been well-used and abused by Verisuck employees; when it failed pretty obviously one or more of the trained ape brigade had taken it apart and tried to fix it. the DC-DC converter had several of the stacked epoxy-sealed Sangamo caps on the +/- 8.6V rails had cooked themselves to death, as had the big 4700uF on the 5V rail. It had shorted one diode in the line voltage bridge, which I was able to find only two of, so I replaced both on the opposing sides of the same cycle on the bridge, then I replaced every cap in the 42V DC-DC converter and low voltage inverter sections. It came back to life, everything was happy, and I used it for ~3 years without issue. Then the HV multiplier/Flyback failed, and it went in storage, got lost in a move, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public enquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months*  several years while I located a replacement and then I eventually dug it out a couple weeks ago.

First thing I noticed when I was troubleshooting the HV was that it now had a loud whine; I assumed it was T948 in the HV complaning since the flyback had failed so thought nothing of it. When I replaced the flyback it persisted, and while the 'scope did come up, it had errors in the POST. So once I determined that the fault was in the Acquisition RAM, but only on the highest speed mode, my niggling feeling that the POST errors and the new noise were related came back to mind. After poking around with an insulated screwdriver with handle held against my ear (very cautiously too, as this model has 2KV potential in the same area  ), I isolated the noise not to T948 in the HV, but to T906 in the 42V DC-DC converter.

Oy vey.  so my last few sessions have revolved around trying to isolate the source of the noise in the 42V DC-DC converter; so far, to no avail. Excessive noise floating on all DC rails except the +/- 8.6 rails (stacks of Sangamo 840uF caps) indicates to me that the problem must be somewhere in the converter; but even after removing all other caps and substituting, still no resolution. 

Ideas? Cheers? Jeers? Something stupid you can see from a mile away?

I'm using the manual from Artek; it's better than the one hosted my the Tek affiliate. This site appears to have a decent copy that passed my virus scans.


I think I'm going to go to Harbor Freight for some retail therapy now...


mnem
* shamelessly snurched from HHGTG

I can only offer one point of advice, look at ceramic caps. Other than that i am equally as lost as you.  Good luck. 

[Specmaster]

I'm going to pass on that one. Don't fancy arguing with customs at the moment. I've had a stalemate with them for about a month now on a copy of the ARRL handbook which they think was 20% VAT. Thanks for the offer though.

Got my soldering iron stands this morning. The square black ash tray variety gets a 1/10 rating. It's floppier than a floppy thing from planet flop. The inflatable padding they used in the packaging was better. If anyone wants it, it's yours for £3 delivered! If it doesn't go by next Friday it's going in the recycling.

On to stand number two now. Better. After some head scratching I managed to extract the balance bar and bend it into a suitable position to hold a 9501 handle. the sponge that came with it was shit. Metal appears to be Chinesium. Once you've bent it, it stays though. 7/10 for that one. I'll try this one for a bit and see how it goes.

The current line up with the Weller for context. The Weller base actually weighs more than the other two setups entirely (10/10) 

I'm going to trim up a weller sponge and see how I get on with the "kakko" stand.

Did stand number 2 come assembled? Looking at yours and Mnementh's it seems that actual holder on yours is lower in the wire frame and also the brackets that hold it to the wire also seem to be reversed and like wise the small wire that goes across the top to prevent the iron from falling out also is reversed?

Take a look at his pictures and you'll see what I mean. 

[bd139]

Re FX-9501 stuff...

Didn't come assembled. I haven't wedged the end of the stand in yet properly. It's just to hold it at the moment. Much like the Weller ones it takes a hell of a lot of effort to do it so I was putting it off until tomorrow. It does however look like the yellow cast bit on mine is too small. The iron doesn't fit in it at all. In fact it's about 4mm less than it should be on the diameter by the looks. Either that or the iron is 4mm too big

Here's a picture of the head end:



I frigged the wire just as a rest temporarily. It was actually bent in some fucked up all over the place mess which jammed the handle in it so it wouldn't come out. It's like someone shouted MINATURIZE at the factory and the entire yellow head end shrunk by about 5%.

I might actually try and claim it via aliexpress. 

You should void the order with your credit card company and charge it back; tell them it was never delivered. Let the vendor hash it out with customs, as it was their choice of carrier which didn't know how to properly process a book to avoid this issue. I'm sick of incompetent carriers fu**ing up my life; I have 3 projects on hold because of USPS, FEDEX and UPS not knowing how to deliver even within the correct MONTH the order was supposed to be here.

That's going to happen on Wednesday if they haven't sorted their fucked up shit out. To be honest, domestic stuff and stuff from EU is really almost never a problem here. Also crap from China just sails through. It's shifting stuff to and from the US and outside of Europe and China which is a nightmare. Although that will probably all go down the shitter as we turn into airstrip one post-Brexit.

[bd139]

Dispute raised. This is the first turd I've received from Aliexpress so far which is pretty good going.

[Specmaster]

Doing a little detective work it would seem that you have a stand sold by Ksger yes? It says for FX950/951/952 and FM203 and checking on the Hakko site they sell their units fitted with those yellow sleeves   which replace the black screw in bits that we have on the 9501 handles, so the finger guard that we have is not present on the genuine Hakko handles.

[bd139]

Well apparently not. I have a stand sold by a company listing it as KSGER.

Turns out there are a couple of people in the feedback who's genuine Hakko handles don't fit in it either with the coloured sleeves on

[Specmaster]

Well apparently not. I have a stand sold by a company listing it as KSGER.

Turns out there are a couple of people in the feedback who's genuine Hakko handles don't fit in it either 

Maybe its because the genuine hakko stand is very slightly different. Its very hard to see on their site as they use photos that are so small that if you save them, they are infact just bloody thumbnails grr.

That said however I have found this picture on Ebay of the stand correctly assembled and now I'm wondering if the iron should be presented to the holder in a downwards direction so that when the iron rests on the yellow part, the finger guard is supposed to be behind the the pierce of wire to retain it. Thats the wire that you seem to have installed backwards so that the retaining wire is in contact or could come into contact with the actual tip?

Try re-assembling it as per this photo and it might work?

[bd139]

That's how it came. That didn't hold the iron at all. It just fell out.

[Specmaster]

That's a bummer then I was thinking about getting one of those as well.