Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

Oh wow that's one nice scope
I bet the inside looks just as glowy and warm.

If you look at the pictures of the innards, the answer is "yes, repeat no"...
Yes: http://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/567
No: http://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/6R1

[Berni]

Nice - I have a very clean 5334B. If the buttons stick there are ways to fix that (mine don't any more) ... 

I had the power button stick on my MSO6034A. But conveniently it has a flat slot along the bottom of the button where you can stick a flathead screwdiver into and pull the button back out. It makes me wonder if this was found to be the problem and they just added the slot rather than redesigning the push rod to the switch so that it wouldn't stick.

[Mr. Scram]

Im sure something could be done about the noise on it since it probably doesn't run that terribly hot. I did swap the fans in some of my PSUs or slow down the existing fan (And ran it full load for an hour to make sure its enough cooling)

Where i could not do that is some big boatanchor RF gear that consumes so much power that it still runs rather hot even with the "jet engine" fans blowing trough it with all there might. But at least they keep you warm in the winter.

I guess it might void calibration though, as heat can cause additional noise.

[bitseeker]

It's been more than a year since my last purchase.

There, there. It's going to be OK. At least there are many new DMMs coming out in the budget category.

[bitseeker]

My Name is Robert and I am a Test-aholic

Welcome back, Robert.

I was looking at the HP 5335A and thought what was the unit 1 number below it i.e. 5334. I looked at the specs and they were pretty close and it went for about a quarter of the price of the 'popular' 5335A/B

Yeah, so what's up with the 5335? Is it just market momentum? Some online celeb buy one and everyone else followed?

[med6753]

The addiction struck again. When I go on E-bay I lose all control. Another vintage Fluke to join the menagerie. Fluke 8600A. Should be here in a few days. Of course I'll give a full report when it arrives. Just like I did with the other recent Fluke acquisitions.

"I love the warm glow of vintage red LED's in the morning"   


(Stock pix, not the actual unit)

[bd139]

Nice meters. I've got one

Watch out for the reed relays in them though. They go dicky and are impossible to replace so I had to use another 5v one and bodge it in with epoxy and jump wires.

I accidentally bought a power supply the other day, a Farnell E30/2 as I wanted one with analogue metering. Digital meters are no good when your load is jumping around all over the place (TTL I'm looking at you!). I've taken it to bits - will post a photo or two when I can be bothered.

[bitseeker]

You know you've got test equipment on the brain when you see "bd139" and it looks like "UT139C".

[VK5RC]

tggzzz - that is a thing of beauty.
Re the 5334b - no sticky nor clacky buttons!
I think the time-nuts have pushed up the price of the 5335, the 5335 is pretty good but a lot more $ at present.

[bd139]

You know you've got test equipment on the brain when you see "bd139" and it looks like "UT139C".

I'll be walking down the street and see a shop near me called phone Tecknix. I have to do a double take because my brain registers it as Tektronix. I think you've found a genuine affliction!

[bitseeker]

OK, so we need a name for this everything-looks-like-test-equipment pattern-matching problem.

FLIR: False Lemma Identifier Recognition

[bitseeker]

Re the 5334b - no sticky nor clacky buttons!
I think the time-nuts have pushed up the price of the 5335, the 5335 is pretty good but a lot more $ at present.

Oh, the 5335 doesn't use those sliding leaf springs under the keys? That's good.

Yeah, I generally see the 5335 mentioned on time-nut posts, not the 5334.

[VK5RC]

Hi bitseeker, I don't know about the 5335, I presume it does have the dodgy buttons from the look of the front panel, the 5334 has the same spring leaf potential fault as per most of 1980s HP. Mine is OK at present - I suspect it "knows" I have some spare and pre cut springs - so they will never fail!
I don't know why the time-nuts appear to have overlooked the 5334.
The 5335A is 100pS Averaged, 2nS single shot resolution.
The 5334B is 200pS Averaged, 2nS single shot resolution.
Perhaps there is something else I am missing.
If I want to get all time-nutty I do own a 53230 which is 20pS single shot, I got recently the TAPR TICC, a time interval time stamping counter, controlled by an Arduino no less, which is 60pS resolution - and great value performance/$.
Rob

[bitseeker]

Oh, OK. I misread what you said previously. It sounded like the 5334 has the springs thereby implying the 5335 was desirable because it didn't. Since they both have those keys, yeah, there must be something else that the time nuts like about the 5335.

(Un)fortunately, I don't have space for lots of full-size rack gear. So, I'm safe from getting either counter.

[bd139]

As my wife said when I fired up my two HP 5328A's, it's not the space that annoys me, it's the noise!

[AF6LJ]

As my wife said when I fired up my two HP 5328A's, it's not the space that annoys me, it's the noise!

The noise is half the fun, especially when time delay relays kick in, and auto cal is underway.

[bitseeker]

As my wife said when I fired up my two HP 5328A's, it's not the space that annoys me, it's the noise!

That just means you don't own enough yet. However, firing up the equipment is nice in the winter.

[Berni]

It could still be worse. Im looking in to getting a CNC machine, now that will certanly make enough noise to make all my boatanchors seam silent.

[bitseeker]

Hmm, is that a consequence or a strategy?

[Vtile]

I quite like the fuzzy look of Nixies - at my age most things are like that !

(The latter was doubly irritating since they also had a 1.00000000kg weight in a nice display case)

Did you make an offer for that nice, almost a 1 kg, hunk of silicon?

[tggzzz]

I quite like the fuzzy look of Nixies - at my age most things are like that !

(The latter was doubly irritating since they also had a 1.00000000kg weight in a nice display case)

Did you make an offer for that nice, almost a 1 kg, hunk of silicon?

No, my backpack was too full as it was

I think they were wise not to leave it on the stand overnight

[Vtile]

I quite like the fuzzy look of Nixies - at my age most things are like that !

(The latter was doubly irritating since they also had a 1.00000000kg weight in a nice display case)

Did you make an offer for that nice, almost a 1 kg, hunk of silicon?

No, my backpack was too full as it was

I think they were wise not to leave it on the stand overnight

At the movies there would have been in the morning only a waterballoon filled with a liter of water. 

[med6753]

The addiction struck again. When I go on E-bay I lose all control. Another vintage Fluke to join the menagerie. Fluke 8600A. Should be here in a few days. Of course I'll give a full report when it arrives. Just like I did with the other recent Fluke acquisitions.

"I love the warm glow of vintage red LED's in the morning"   


(Stock pix, not the actual unit)

It arrived yesterday. As I unpacked it I found that the bail was broken in shipment. No big deal, epoxy fixed that. It had a last calibration date of June 13, 2016 so that looked promising. Initial DCV readings were spot on. Everything was great until I tried different ranges. Tried ACV and again it was good. But as soon as I switched back to DCV there was buzzing and the reading dropped to zero. Tried ACV again and it was OK. Ohms was OK. DCV dead. It appears that one of the many relays in this unit is either stuck or died. I did a quick check of the power supply and it's OK. So it goes on the project shelf for now until I get around to it. Oh well.

[bd139]

Those reed relays are dodgy as hell. The coil goes phut. Mine was bust on the 200v range. On the positive side, the board with the reed relays on is easy enough to get out. I desoldered the old relay and replaced it with a standard 5v reed relay I found on Farnell. The voltage rating was less but the drop across the switch contacts and the insulation rating wasn't exceeded. Obviously it's a completely different package so and the original ones are unobtainium so you'll have to use some creative jumping. Works as good as new now. For reference, the reeds have 4 terminals. The two outside ones are the switching element and the two inside ones are the coil. You can do a continuity test on the coil to see which one is dead.

Got to be honest I was a little worried and depressed when I found out the range was dead but it wasn't that hard to fix. The auto range works nicely as well now rather than getting stuck.

I have purchased an older, considerably more dodgy meter this evening, a Heathkit V-7AU VTVM. Knowing my luck it'll have been assembled by a wally and have a leaked battery in it and the selenium rectifier will emit flames instantly. Fingers crossed. Edit: oh also I hope it smells right. I want equipment that smells like it means business i.e. that warm carbony smell, not of glue which is what all the Chinese crap smells of.

[med6753]

Those reed relays are dodgy as hell. The coil goes phut. Mine was bust on the 200v range. On the positive side, the board with the reed relays on is easy enough to get out. I desoldered the old relay and replaced it with a standard 5v reed relay I found on Farnell. The voltage rating was less but the drop across the switch contacts and the insulation rating wasn't exceeded. Obviously it's a completely different package so and the original ones are unobtainium so you'll have to use some creative jumping. Works as good as new now. For reference, the reeds have 4 terminals. The two outside ones are the switching element and the two inside ones are the coil. You can do a continuity test on the coil to see which one is dead.

Got to be honest I was a little worried and depressed when I found out the range was dead but it wasn't that hard to fix. The auto range works nicely as well now rather than getting stuck.

I have purchased an older, considerably more dodgy meter this evening, a Heathkit V-7AU VTVM. Knowing my luck it'll have been assembled by a wally and have a leaked battery in it and the selenium rectifier will emit flames instantly. Fingers crossed. Edit: oh also I hope it smells right. I want equipment that smells like it means business i.e. that warm carbony smell, not of glue which is what all the Chinese crap smells of.

Yea, My plan is to check the relays....including that main range switching relay in the front of the board by the inputs. Other projects have priority at the moment.

I have a Heath V-5 VTVM. You can replace the selenium rectifier with a generic 1N4003. It will raise the B+ due to it's smaller forward drop but it won't matter. The 1% precision resistors should be OK but the carbon resistors probably have drifted high. Also re-cap it. And chances are the vacuum tubes are OK.