Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

I touched the snippers on the chassis when snipping the positive wire I think.

On a positive note, I've been RTFM and I have found out how to calibrate it. Not rocket science. I just did the 10V range against my voltage ref.

However I need 10 minutes with a real proper voltage and resistance standard. Unfortunately I don't have one of them that reads 1/3 scale on all ranges so off it goes for a week.

As my good friend who works for a standards laboratory has disappeared after I asked him if he'll slide a 3478A in, I did some quotes.

Calmet Teddington: £84 inc VAT (drop off, pick up, 10 mins up the road from me)
Pass/Calibrate: £101 inc VAT (collection and delivery included)
"Test Meter": fucking idiots don't even know that HP made DMMs

Calmet is looking likely as they are up the road.

So total BOM is looking like £156 for a 5.5 digit multimeter with traceable calibration which is still pretty damn good

Calmet are the real thing. If you look at their UKAS accredited capabilities and take careful note of the uncertainties it's clear that they know what they are doing. Given that NPL (and hence the actual national standards) are a ten minute drive from Calmet this should come as no surprise.

[Specmaster]

I touched the snippers on the chassis when snipping the positive wire I think.

On a positive note, I've been RTFM and I have found out how to calibrate it. Not rocket science. I just did the 10V range against my voltage ref.

However I need 10 minutes with a real proper voltage and resistance standard. Unfortunately I don't have one of them that reads 1/3 scale on all ranges so off it goes for a week.

As my good friend who works for a standards laboratory has disappeared after I asked him if he'll slide a 3478A in, I did some quotes.

Calmet Teddington: £84 inc VAT (drop off, pick up, 10 mins up the road from me)
Pass/Calibrate: £101 inc VAT (collection and delivery included)
"Test Meter": fucking idiots don't even know that HP made DMMs

Calmet is looking likely as they are up the road.

So total BOM is looking like £156 for a 5.5 digit multimeter with traceable calibration which is still pretty damn good

Calmet are the real thing. If you look at their UKAS accredited capabilities and take careful note of the uncertainties it's clear that they know what they are doing. Given that NPL (and hence the actual national standards) are a ten minute drive from Calmet this should come as no surprise.

A real local hero no less it seems then eh?

Just looked up their web site and what I find strange is that given their important status, they don't actually offer a calibration service of their own 

[bd139]

They only offer calibration of transfer standards etc I think.

Calmet it is. Will book it in shortly

[med6753]

When I posted the scope cart last week I mentioned that I did design it to accept different types of scopes including portables. I've modeled 3 and here are the results. First one is a 2465. The black piece in the rear is a removable safety bump stop to prevent the scope from sliding. Next is a B&K 2120 with the same bump stop in the rear. The last one looks a little ridiculous but I did decide to include the Siglent DSO. The safety bump stop is moved forward and believe it or not it is stable.

The bump stop has 3 wooden pins on the bottom that fit into holes drilled into the top to hold it in place.

This project is now complete.     

[bd139]

Iffy 465 £50 - https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F123099526615

Another iffy 465 £40 pick up Clacton - https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F273178032727

Working 475 with DM44 £100 - https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F123099519077

eBay is improving. Do I get the 3478a calibrated or take on another 465? Hmm

[Specmaster]

Calibrate the 3478A and go for another scope, offsetting its cost against the future sale of the GDM-8341?

[bd139]

Possible. Check the sale price of a working 475 https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F323039330743

I’m slightly hoping someone else buys them so I don’t have to explain it to the wife

[Specmaster]

If you have the cash, go for it and stick it all on your excel spreadsheet so you can explain as a business decision that you could not ignore, just bad timing.

[bd139]

Going to skip it. Have written a project queue and I’m lagging on a lot of things

[Specmaster]

Or you didn't fancy a tongue lashing from wife...another haircut or shopping trip to Westfield would wipe out any profits from the scope though so on balance maybe its for the best.

[bd139]

Wasn’t that actually. I mentioned it to her and she was quite happy. Perhaps this made me uneasy. Perhaps you are right 

[Specmaster]

Wasn’t that actually. I mentioned it to her and she was quite happy. Perhaps this made me uneasy. Perhaps you are right 

At the end of it all you have to do what your comfortable with and you're still working on the transceiver and it would be pushed into the background again.

From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

[bd139]

Yep. Talking of that transceiver, it’s receiving now, which is a miracle. Fully synthesised TCXO based frequency control and receive current of 40mA into earphones. 4% of the power my Yaesu uses on receive ... need to work out how to do noise figure and sensitivity measurements next. Plan is to make an FT-817 minus the power consumption and crappy audio and cost and 2m.

PA still keeps exploding though. I’ve started wearing safety glasses when I key down now.

That TF930 counter gets used more than any other gear now bar possibly the power supplies.

[Specmaster]

good job you snapped up that TF930 then 

[bd139]

Yep. The counter in the DG1022Z was a turd in comparison. Barely noticed anything under 100mV p-p

[Specmaster]

Still waiting for the delivery driver to show up, somehow I Just knew that because I live near the couriers yard I'd end up being one of the last on the schedule.

Would have thought that in the interests of being green, it'd work better in reverse as all the time the van would be getting lighter and therefore use less fuel on the round trip? I expect they drive to the furthest point of the route and back wards from there, so driving a heavily loaded van to X and end up with an empty van back at Y 

[GerryBags]

Still waiting for the delivery driver to show up, somehow I Just knew that because I live near the couriers yard I'd end up being one of the last on the schedule.

Would have thought that in the interests of being green, it'd work better in reverse as all the time the van would be getting lighter and therefore use less fuel on the round trip? I expect they drive to the furthest point of the route and back wards from there, so driving a heavily loaded van to X and end up with an empty van back at Y 

Empty vans are horrible to drive, and the drivers don't pay for their own fuel.... also, if they gave a toss for being green they probably wouldn't be delivery drivers. Upshot is: You get your stuff last

[Specmaster]

Still waiting for the delivery driver to show up, somehow I Just knew that because I live near the couriers yard I'd end up being one of the last on the schedule.

Would have thought that in the interests of being green, it'd work better in reverse as all the time the van would be getting lighter and therefore use less fuel on the round trip? I expect they drive to the furthest point of the route and back wards from there, so driving a heavily loaded van to X and end up with an empty van back at Y 

Empty vans are horrible to drive, and the drivers don't pay for their own fuel.... also, if they gave a toss for being green they probably wouldn't be delivery drivers. Upshot is: You get your stuff last

Not sure I agree about them being horrible to drive empty, I used to own my a Ford Transit van and it drove better empty, faster, more responsive to steering and brakes too, and comfort was good either way. Seeing as they reckon most couriers are struggling and this one is UPS, I'd be surprised if the drivers actually planned their routes and loaded their vans to match, would've thought they would have dedicated teams for that and just handed the driver a schedule of drops to make. But I could be wrong, or as has happened before, my package has been wrongly delivered and never ever showed up again... Time will tell 

[bd139]

UPS can turn up late up to 7pm here. Sometimes 9am sometimes 7pm.

I love driving empty vans. They go bloody fast.

[Specmaster]

UPS can turn up late up to 7pm here. Sometimes 9am sometimes 7pm.

I love driving empty vans. They go bloody fast.

Mine did, I used to love driving it, took the twin passenger seat out and mounted it further back in the van and mounted a single seat in its place, making it into a 4 seater, paneled the floor, walls and ceiling with veneered plywood with fibreglass insulation filling the voids so it was pretty quiet for a van and fitted a banging stereo system with speakers taken from a touring coach. It went like stink that thing did, caught a lot of people by surprise when they tried to beat me away from traffic lights etc, it had so much bottom end torque that it pull away cleanly in 2nd gear and pull all the way up to a top speed of around 100mph and that was in the 80's, at that time I think it was the fastest van around. Now I think its the Volkswagen Transporter.

[GerryBags]

  Townies! The more exposed roads here in Snowdonia can have your arse twitching like a bunny's nose in high winds without plenty of weight on the back. I can't stand being in any motor driven vehicle these days, sets off my nerve pain, so any comments I make about cars are based on my sketchy memory, anyway, but I do remember that the old Merc Sprints used to be pretty rapid when light.

[Specmaster]

Townies!!! I used to drive that thing all over East Anglia, in those days it wasn't as built up as it is now. Yes, those Sprinters are fast but also very bouncy on the road, Mercedes commercial vehicles are a far cry from their cars.

[GerryBags]

I finally got round to taking some pics of my ESI 250DE bridge, but I'm having trouble getting them to post, even though I shrank them. Erm, problem solved, ahem.

[Specmaster]

That looks a nice piece of kit.

[GerryBags]

Just a couple more: