Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[neo]

Nope can't use power supplies , sorry as they are only in this instance single digits 

Not if you stumble upon the right ones!     (Something is off here, but neither has been wrung out yet, so I don't know which)





(apologies for the crappy iPhone pics.)

-Pat

Nixies in a power supply?! I approve! 

Speaking of nixes, any progress with your 5340A?

[Specmaster]

Nope can't use power supplies , sorry as they are only in this instance single digits 

Not if you stumble upon the right ones!     (Something is off here, but neither has been wrung out yet, so I don't know which)





(apologies for the crappy iPhone pics.)

-Pat

These are ok although  some have to many digits to fit the pattern.

[beanflying]

I very nearly pulled the trigger on a Nixie frequency counter a few hours ago but I left it for you lot to buy

[mnementh]

This seems like the perfect time to post this... 


This old Chestnut...                                         By mnem


Chestnuts roasting on an open Tek scope;

Jacks and plugs aligned in rows...

Yuletide songs played on tube amplifiers,

And folks warming their hands by the triodes' glow.

Every TEA'er knows... a little extra grid bias and a heated cathode,

Help to make their nixies bright.

EEs and HAMs with their benches all aglow,

Will find it hard to flip that breaker tonight.

They know the carrier's on his way;

He's loaded all kinds of scopes and meters and maybe a 2-way.

And every nerdling's child is going to spy,

To see if a therumin can really make you fly.

And so I'll offer to tune the phase;

on antennas from one to ninety-two...

Although it's been tuned, many times, many ways,

There's no such thing as just right, even when it's Christmas, at two...


Merry Christmas all you maniacs, and may your God go with you!


mnem

[Cubdriver]

Nixies in a power supply?! I approve! 

Yeah, I stumbled upon that on my recent trip out west and grabbed it.  I'd never seen one before.  At some point I'll do a teardown and cleanup with photos.

Speaking of nixes, any progress with your 5340A?

Ugh - afraid not.  I started going through the troubleshooting procedure again fresh, and it called for an RF source higher than what I had readily available and functional, so that prompted me to close it up and put the 8662A that you see beneath the meter and power supply on the bench to have a go at it.  It has a blown cap (molded axial tantalum), so I ordered some replacements which arrived just before I left on the trip during which I got the Kepco.  Before I left, I took the new caps out of the box and put them somewhere safe.  Turns out they're safe alright - they're currently safe from me, as I can't find the damned things since I got home.   
   

It's been bugging me (the 5240 manual is sitting next to me emitting guilt rays), so I'm going to do some digging again soon, but in the meantime have been putting down flooring upstairs and want to finally knock that particular task off my list.  (I'm off to continue with that now, as a matter of fact.)  I hope to get to the 8662A later in the week, and then get the 5240 back onto the operating table after that, so hopefully soon.  (...famous last words...)

-Pat

[bitseeker]

Sometimes you have to love eBay. Fourteen pictures of the same item, from nearly the same angle. It's undoubtedly well intended, but quite useless if you want to know how that bit looks that's not visible from that exact angle.

A for effort!

Must've been hoping that at least one of those pics would be the one that gets you to buy it.

[Specmaster]

This seems like the perfect time to post this... 


This old Chestnut...                                         By mnem


Chestnuts roasting on an open Tek scope;

Jacks and plugs aligned in rows...

Yuletide songs played on tube amplifiers,

And folks warming their hands by the triodes' glow.

Every TEA'er knows... a little extra grid bias and a heated cathode,

Help to make their nixies bright.

EEs and HAMs with their benches all aglow,

Will find it hard to flip that breaker tonight.

They know the carrier's on his way;

He's loaded all kinds of scopes and meters and maybe a 2-way.

And every nerdling's child is going to spy,

To see if a therumin can really make you fly.

And so I'll offer to tune the phase;

on antennas from one to ninety-two...

Although it's been tuned, many times, many ways,

There's no such thing as just right, even when it's Christmas, at two...


Merry Christmas all you maniacs, and may your God go with you!

Brilliant well done 

[neo]

I think my case of TEA may have developed further, i'm drooling over a new Fluke 8846A and scheming ways to get it.

[bitseeker]

Or fill in the gaps with smaller bits of gear - power supplies, for instance:

I love it - gap fillers! 

I concur! And nice fillers they are, too.

[bitseeker]

Nixies in a power supply?! I approve! 

Yeah, I stumbled upon that on my recent trip out west and grabbed it.  I'd never seen one before.  At some point I'll do a teardown and cleanup with photos.

I like that Kepco. Never seen one like it, either. Oh my poor shopping list.

[mnementh]

Does TEA include Telephone Equipment?

I took a $31 gamble this afternoon on a busted $150 smartphone just because I wanted to tinker with a more recent version of Android... maybe if I install an oscilloscope app?


mnem
Out there... somewhere.

[bitseeker]

Lemme see. Do you run the Keysight DMM app, or an audio signal generator app, or ...

It might squeak through under the right conditions.

[Berni]

Well it can still be used to read service manuals while fixing test gear.

But even tho im not old i still like to print out the relevant pages of a service manual because i like to scribble on the diagrams during troubleshooting. It helps me keep a big picture of what i checked and what i didn't check or put notes on convoluted parts of schematics once i finally figure out what that weird thing is supposed to be doing.

[beanflying]

Someone in the UK needs to rescue it and bring it home from the Heathen masses (UK plug already fitted) 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Racal-9835-Universal-Counter-Timer-with-UK-220V-Power-Plug/302467316140?_trksid=p2485497.m4902.l9144

[Mr. Scram]

Well, they countered my offer for the universal frequency counter. I'm not going to haggle over 10 pounds if I actually want the item, so now it's just a matter of getting them to accept my money

I'm paying 50 quid for it, which isn't too bad, considering the price hike.

[Specmaster]

Well, they countered my offer for the universal frequency counter. I'm not going to haggle over 10 pounds if I actually want the item, so now it's just a matter of getting them to accept my money

I'm paying 50 quid for it, which isn't too bad, considering the price hike.

That's still a bargain when you consider that it's still a current product and RS are selling it @ £277 plus VAT so it can't be very old either. Mine is in mint condition as well.

[bd139]

I'd like mine to be dispatched now 

[neo]

Someone in the UK needs to rescue it and bring it home from the Heathen masses (UK plug already fitted) 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Racal-9835-Universal-Counter-Timer-with-UK-220V-Power-Plug/302467316140?_trksid=p2485497.m4902.l9144

Are you calling all americans heathens or just californians? I can only get behind one of those 

I'd like mine to be dispatched now 

Fed-ex delayed my package by a week for no reason other than the time of year.

[Mr. Scram]

That's still a bargain when you consider that it's still a current product and RS are selling it @ £277 plus VAT so it can't be very old either. Mine is in mint condition as well.

If mine looks like yours, I'd be quite happy. I haven't been having a lot of luck with gear lately, though, so they might just send me that yellow thing in the pictures.

TTi seems to sell the same gear for long periods of time, though.

[Specmaster]

That's still a bargain when you consider that it's still a current product and RS are selling it @ £277 plus VAT so it can't be very old either. Mine is in mint condition as well.

If mine looks like yours, I'd be quite happy. I haven't been having a lot of luck with gear lately, though, so they might just send me that yellow thing in the pictures.

TTi seems to sell the same gear for long periods of time, though.

Well if it ain't broke why fix it? They are an established company and seem to know what their doing in the market as well.

[bd139]

Definitely. Their recent (circa 1997 onwards) power supplies are really nice bits of kit. Also function generators are spot on.

We're talking HP quality and performance at half the cost.

[Specmaster]

And of course, they're a British company.

A spot of Trivia for you, we're catching up on the other very popular thread here on the forum "What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!" we are now just 8 pages short of them.

[Kilo Tango]

This EEV forum is costing me a fortune. In all the test kit I "must have" !.

Just put in an offer of £35 on one of those TF930's. It can join the other 2 freq counters I already have ....

However I will have to now build something that generates a frequency so I can check them. But what happens if they don't agree ?. 

Arg,  need more coffee......

Ken

[bd139]

Well then you need a GPS disciplined frequency standard of course!

[Specmaster]

Well then you need a GPS disciplined frequency standard of course!

How is a sat nav going to help?