Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Officer Training 101: "Don't taunt Murphy." 


mnem
"It's not fair to tempt; and tempting fate is just stupid."

[_Wim_]

I have gotten my money back, full refund. Unfortunately that still leaves me 96.93 EUR import out, but hey, I am not going to complain. From first measurements, it seems like the output power is lower than indicated. This could be what the person doing cal was referring to when labling the unit as "CALIBRATION REJECT", perhaps the output amplifiers voltage rails or sagging or it has lost some transconductance with age. I need a spectrum analyzer to really verify this, and a calibrated counter to measure the frequency correctly. It seems to be on pretty well, only a few part per million off compared to my other generator that was called in 2016 so... (this one also has a call sticker from 2016, so if it really was just rejected for the output power levels, I guess that means the frequency is also gonna be pretty spot on).

For now, I'm just happy with the unit as is, and will happily accept the refund even if it means I ended up spending the 96 EUR import. Doesn't come with the OCXO timebase.

The seller was very quick in responding so I guess they aren't just evil.

I think that is very fair. For 96€ it is a nice repair project. If not interested, I willing to take it for that price 

[djos]

I suppose you could always take a file to the tip and take a tiny bit off on each side, but not to much and then keep it well tinned.

Unfortunately I think that would result in a useless tip which could never be re-tinned. 

I don't think it would do as I used to have to use a massive iron like the one in the picture below (125-150W) during my apprenticeship and to get nice edge on it we were always filing away at it with big engineers files and we had that iron for many years. In fact it was there when I started and was still there and working when I left 10 years later.

Anyway, the cost of these T12 tips from China is so small that I'd be inclined to give it a go and see if you can replicate the tip that you like, its not going to leave a massive hole in your pocket if it fails is it.

Iirc, those old irons where Iron, modern tips are usually copper underneath the coating ... or at least the last one I tried to file was. 

That said, I dont like the tip anyway so I have nothing to lose by trying it ... I do have some re-tinning compound so see what happens eh. 

That's the spirit, give a file and see.

The old tips, or at least on the one I used was solid copper, had to keep it tinned.

So I can happily report SUCCESS!!! the tips are solid and can be filed down then retinned - I'd re-tinned the tip about 3 times in the photo and several more time since. Now it works great! I love the 9501 handle and the Quicko Station, brilliant combo! I whipped up a proto PCB board I'd designed and had been meaning to build but hadn't yet gotten to and I do prefer the chisel tip ... I think that at 42 I'm just set in my ways. 

[Specmaster]

Getting some more TEA budget built up, picked up a Bose Sound Dock yesterday on Freecycle, supposed to be not working. It was in a filthy state though, cleaned it up a bit ready to crack the sucker open, but decided to do the obvious first and checked the power adaptor (20v) it was fine, plugged it in, plugged in my Ipod Touch, and away she went, works perfectly OK, been running all day today no problems, just looking for remote for it now and then later on it'll be on Ebay. Should be worth a bit too, its the portable one with built in battery which also works fine, pop the TF930 on as well, with a bit of luck ought to raise £200 or more?

It's always amazed me how something so poorly engineered and cheaply put together can fetch such a high price! I used to sell HT systems for fun on weekends at my local BigPicture store and the profit on Bose and the Aesthetics were the only reasons we sold them. The WAF was huge but the sound quality was ordinary as they relied on DSP tricks to fill in the HUGE mid-range hole that was missing in their tiny speakers + Sub designs (Lifestyle range). Bose were so lazy they took nearly 2 years to add HDMI to their LifeStyle range and cost themselves many sales. We pulled some defective systems apart before sending them back once and found that the heft to them was provided by lead weights in the base of all the items! 

What's HT and WAF?  Strange but I always thought that Bose were not all that good despite them being sold expensively  and they nearly always were/are used as AV speakers. Just a thought here, maybe the lead was used as sort of case dampening and reinforceing  to try and prevent case rattle as most seemed to be plastic?

I have a couple other systems that are made by the same unknown company, one carries the Kenwood name the other Blaucompunkt, identical apart Obe has blue tooth input and the other has a ipod input and both have 3.5mm aux. These are far larger and heavier than the Bose and the audio just has to be heard, it's nothing short of brilliant, really nice deep and rich bass. Both of these were display units at various retailers and I kept looking at these every time I went there shopping, both were well over £200 each and they never sold, they sat there years, smaller speakers were flying off the shelves however. One day I went to one of these shops and noticed that the price had dropped to below £100, I was interested even though SWMBO  was not amused, turned that the staff had no idea how turn it on, had no box or instructions with it. I made an offer for 50% what the sale price, expecting it be refused, blow me down, they accepted and even offered to take it back I was unable to get it working or if I didn't like the sound.

Took it home and played around with it, replaced battery in the remote and bingo, it filled the house with beautiful sound, much to SWMBO's disgust, hates bass you see. A few months later I saw Amazon had a similar unit at ridiculous low figure so again I was in like a rat up a drain pipe and snatched it up.decided to see if I locate anymore anywhere, but non to be found at any price in the UK.

My eldest son at the time was working for the largest UK retailer of brown and white goods and was a massive fan of Bose and already had a Bose sound dock but at work they had this massive one costing about £800 that didn't sell and he got it for £200 and bought it round to show me, he was gutted when saw and heard mine, especially when I told him what I paid for them

[Specmaster]

So I can happily report SUCCESS!!! the tips are solid and can be filed down then retinned - I'd re-tinned the tip about 3 times in the photo and several more time since. Now it works great! I love the 9501 handle and the Quicko Station, brilliant combo! I whipped up a proto PCB board I'd designed and had been meaning to build but hadn't yet gotten to and I do prefer the chisel tip ... I think that at 42 I'm just set in my ways. 

Great, glad that it worked out, always worth a try in circumstances like that. I might give mine the same treatment as it would now transfer heat better with more contact between pad and iron. 

[Specmaster]

I'm now starting to get a bit concerned about the pending arrival of my other parts for my next T12 soldering station, purchased from AliExpress and also Banggood. Because the tracking system on Banggood has not been the best the best around, this time elected not to pay the extra for the tracking service and the only info I have is that my controller was shipped from China on Dec 30th and I wont get any more data until it is delivered to me. From past experience this "shipped" does not mean that it has actually left China, but it's left the warehouse....so its current whereabouts is unknown.

The other items, case and power supply are coming from AliExpress who always provide as standard tracking service and they state that they have departed the country of origin on the 8th Jan and apparently not yet landed and taken off the plane, 5 days after it departed, is it yoyoing between the UK and China, i.e., got wedged in the planes hold and nobodies noticed it???

Answers on a postcard please 

[Cubdriver]

What's HT and WAF?

Home Theatre and Wife Appreciation Factor.

-Pat

[Cubdriver]

Oh, and as for what to do with it - umm, I dunno, maybe use it for whatever its original purpose was?   

Oh yea I guess I could. 

Here's another possibility that just occurred to me - you could use them to leverage your 'for parts or not working' acquisitions by seeing what you can fix with them, then buying 'up'.  For instance, the HP XYZA I just bought to fix, but that works ( ) is listed in the 'required test equipment' list in the service section of the manual for the HP TUVWA - now I can buy one of THOSE and work on it!!

Sort of the opposite tack from the 'l bought a broken HP TUVWA and the manual says I need an HP XYZA to fix it, so now I need to find one of those, too' approach that I so often use to justify things in my head...

TEA at its finest!!   

-Pat

[neo]

Speaking of HP.... any progress on your 5340A?

[sreeb]

  Now THERE'S an understatement if ever there was one!  You are correct, it is definitely a roll of the dice, and I never expect anything to work. 

It works the other way too. I've bought items listed as "not working" on purpose, because I wanted a challenge to fix. In that case it's very disappointing to find that when you get it - it works just fine. I'm like "What the hell am I supposed to do with this now?" 

I have been having real problems here.  I have bought a couple of 3456a DVMs trying to get a parts machine but they all arrive working.  I have pretty much given up hope.

[tggzzz]

  Now THERE'S an understatement if ever there was one!  You are correct, it is definitely a roll of the dice, and I never expect anything to work. 

It works the other way too. I've bought items listed as "not working" on purpose, because I wanted a challenge to fix. In that case it's very disappointing to find that when you get it - it works just fine. I'm like "What the hell am I supposed to do with this now?" 

I have been having real problems here.  I have bought a couple of 3456a DVMs trying to get a parts machine but they all arrive working.  I have pretty much given up hope.

The fleabag definition of "used" is tight, and the people that resolve serious disputes don't have specific knowledge. It would be easy for a buyer to claim "the reading is wrong so it isn't working". At that point the seller is in a difficult position.

Given that and other unscrupulous practices such as returning an item with faulty components swapped in,  just stating "for spares" is not an unreasonable strategy.

[URI]

  Now THERE'S an understatement if ever there was one!  You are correct, it is definitely a roll of the dice, and I never expect anything to work. 

It works the other way too. I've bought items listed as "not working" on purpose, because I wanted a challenge to fix. In that case it's very disappointing to find that when you get it - it works just fine. I'm like "What the hell am I supposed to do with this now?" 

I have been having real problems here.  I have bought a couple of 3456a DVMs trying to get a parts machine but they all arrive working.  I have pretty much given up hope.

Keep on trying. Some day you'll get a non-working unit, you have to believe!   

[sreeb]

What's HT and WAF?

Home Theatre and Wife Appreciation Acceptance Factor.

-Pat

[sreeb]

  Now THERE'S an understatement if ever there was one!  You are correct, it is definitely a roll of the dice, and I never expect anything to work. 

It works the other way too. I've bought items listed as "not working" on purpose, because I wanted a challenge to fix. In that case it's very disappointing to find that when you get it - it works just fine. I'm like "What the hell am I supposed to do with this now?" 

I have been having real problems here.  I have bought a couple of 3456a DVMs trying to get a parts machine but they all arrive working.  I have pretty much given up hope.

Keep on trying. Some day you'll get a non-working unit, you have to believe!   

I think the key is to buy one advertised as working but I'm too cheap.

[Specmaster]

  Now THERE'S an understatement if ever there was one!  You are correct, it is definitely a roll of the dice, and I never expect anything to work. 

It works the other way too. I've bought items listed as "not working" on purpose, because I wanted a challenge to fix. In that case it's very disappointing to find that when you get it - it works just fine. I'm like "What the hell am I supposed to do with this now?" 

I have been having real problems here.  I have bought a couple of 3456a DVMs trying to get a parts machine but they all arrive working.  I have pretty much given up hope.

Keep on trying. Some day you'll get a non-working unit, you have to believe!   

I think the key is to buy one advertised as working but I'm too cheap.

You'll end up being knee deep in 3456A's 

[djos]

Getting some more TEA budget built up, picked up a Bose Sound Dock yesterday on Freecycle, supposed to be not working. It was in a filthy state though, cleaned it up a bit ready to crack the sucker open, but decided to do the obvious first and checked the power adaptor (20v) it was fine, plugged it in, plugged in my Ipod Touch, and away she went, works perfectly OK, been running all day today no problems, just looking for remote for it now and then later on it'll be on Ebay. Should be worth a bit too, its the portable one with built in battery which also works fine, pop the TF930 on as well, with a bit of luck ought to raise £200 or more?

It's always amazed me how something so poorly engineered and cheaply put together can fetch such a high price! I used to sell HT systems for fun on weekends at my local BigPicture store and the profit on Bose and the Aesthetics were the only reasons we sold them. The WAF was huge but the sound quality was ordinary as they relied on DSP tricks to fill in the HUGE mid-range hole that was missing in their tiny speakers + Sub designs (Lifestyle range). Bose were so lazy they took nearly 2 years to add HDMI to their LifeStyle range and cost themselves many sales. We pulled some defective systems apart before sending them back once and found that the heft to them was provided by lead weights in the base of all the items! 

What's HT and WAF?  Strange but I always thought that Bose were not all that good despite them being sold expensively  and they nearly always were/are used as AV speakers. Just a thought here, maybe the lead was used as sort of case dampening and reinforceing  to try and prevent case rattle as most seemed to be plastic?

I have a couple other systems that are made by the same unknown company, one carries the Kenwood name the other Blaucompunkt, identical apart Obe has blue tooth input and the other has a ipod input and both have 3.5mm aux. These are far larger and heavier than the Bose and the audio just has to be heard, it's nothing short of brilliant, really nice deep and rich bass. Both of these were display units at various retailers and I kept looking at these every time I went there shopping, both were well over £200 each and they never sold, they sat there years, smaller speakers were flying off the shelves however. One day I went to one of these shops and noticed that the price had dropped to below £100, I was interested even though SWMBO  was not amused, turned that the staff had no idea how turn it on, had no box or instructions with it. I made an offer for 50% what the sale price, expecting it be refused, blow me down, they accepted and even offered to take it back I was unable to get it working or if I didn't like the sound.

Took it home and played around with it, replaced battery in the remote and bingo, it filled the house with beautiful sound, much to SWMBO's disgust, hates bass you see. A few months later I saw Amazon had a similar unit at ridiculous low figure so again I was in like a rat up a drain pipe and snatched it up.decided to see if I locate anymore anywhere, but non to be found at any price in the UK.

My eldest son at the time was working for the largest UK retailer of brown and white goods and was a massive fan of Bose and already had a Bose sound dock but at work they had this massive one costing about £800 that didn't sell and he got it for £200 and bought it round to show me, he was gutted when saw and heard mine, especially when I told him what I paid for them

Lol. HT = Home Theatre and WAF = Wife Approval Factor. 

Bose = marketing triumphing of reality like many things these days. Without the lead weights in the base of their gear they felt just as cheap as some WunHungLo brand chinese junk, the lead weights actually made them feel premium. They might have had some other benefits but im pretty sure they were by accident.

The only thing Bose had going for them back in the early 2k's where their multi-room stuff, they were way ahead of Sonos etc in making it easy for Joe Public to have it and use it.

[Specmaster]

Bose = marketing triumphing of reality like many things these days. Without the lead weights in the base of their gear they felt just as cheap as some WunHungLo brand chinese junk, the lead weights actually made them feel premium. They might have had some other benefits but im pretty sure they were by accident.

The only thing Bose had going for them back in the early 2k's where their multi-room stuff, they were way ahead of Sonos etc in making it easy for Joe Public to have it and use it.

Oh I don't know. I think Bose have got the sound about right and the power because whenever I go to Currys, our biggest distributor and I get to play with the competitors to their gear in there, Bose always come out on top for sound quality etc until I compare them against my special ones which are no longer available, sadly because with the right marketing behind them they would blow Bose out of the water.

[bd139]

It all sounds poo unless you've got some monitor cans stuck to your head 

[Specmaster]

You need to hear mine, its a crystal clear sound with well defined deep bass.

[djos]

You need to hear mine, its a crystal clear sound with well defined deep bass.

While I'm not an AudioPhool, I have spent about $12k AUD on my lounge system which uses a Denon 4311ci AVR and 5.1 Surround Speakers from Krix (big buggers the are too) - once you've heard something decent you quickly realise that Bose are using DSP tricks to fill in the midrange freqs using their sub and imo it's quite fatiguing to listen too. Base isnt an issue for Bose systems with subs, it's the mid-range that is the problem.

[bd139]

https://en-uk.sennheiser.com/on-ear-dj-headphone-hd25

^^^ stuff on something produced well i.e. Elizium by Fields of the Nephilim ... or The Division Bell by Pink Floyd ... then wonder why the hell you bought speakers.

Had my pair for 13 years now and haven't found anything close to them.

[tggzzz]

https://en-uk.sennheiser.com/on-ear-dj-headphone-hd25

^^^ stuff on something produced well i.e. Elizium by Fields of the Nephilim ... or The Division Bell by Pink Floyd ... then wonder why the hell you bought speakers.

Had my pair for 13 years now and haven't found anything close to them.

I remember when the standard test was to play "Dark Side of the Moon".

[bd139]

Not sure why. You want something recorded with slightly more modern kit if you ask me. Some of the later remasters aren't that good IMHO.

Division Bell was recorded on some slightly more modern kit in '94, same with Elizium (same producer!). Lost for Words / High Hopes are very well put together. Also the trailing two tracks on Elizium:

[Mr. Scram]

Ancient music time! Should I get out the wax roll player?

[Specmaster]

You need to hear mine, its a crystal clear sound with well defined deep bass.

While I'm not an AudioPhool, I have spent about $12k AUD on my lounge system which uses a Denon 4311ci AVR and 5.1 Surround Speakers from Krix (big buggers the are too) - once you've heard something decent you quickly realise that Bose are using DSP tricks to fill in the midrange freqs using their sub and imo it's quite fatiguing to listen too. Base isnt an issue for Bose systems with subs, it's the mid-range that is the problem.

$12K AUD is a pretty serious amount of money for a person who is not a AudioPhool surely?

I used to have some real decent HiFi gear a few years ago but it took too much space and SWMBO objected to it every-time it was used, she hates Bass and volume, me I love it. Anyway, upshot it had to go, it just taking space, the speakers where great big Wharfedale Dovedale 3's with 12" woofers in them. So I was looking for something smaller that would give similar sound for the odd occasion I'm able to really use the power and Bass that I like.

I found these lovely Bluetooth speaker system and no they are not Bose, I have never really liked Bose and you only have to look at the size of their speakers to understand that they could not get that sound quality without resorting to DSP trickery  with active feedback amps and the like.

Mine is branded Blaupunkt model B25BT and was specially imported by J Sainsbury's Ltd, one our big supermarket chains. The speaker system was made in China and features a 7" high compliance woofer with 2 x 2.5" mid range and 2 x 1" tweeters, measures 40CMs W x 20CMs H x 14Cms D and weighs a lot, the Bose that I have been given on the other hand only has 2 x 2" speakers and is 30CMs W x 18Cms H x 10CMs D and weighs a fraction of the Blaupunkt, guessing maybe 20 to 25% of the weight.

The Blaupunkt you can see through the vents at the back has massive amplifiers in it and heat sinks, the speakers have massive magnets on them and lightweight ferrous metal objects like coins etc gravitate to the unit if placed within a few inches of it.

Now I'm not claiming that it will be Hi-Fi but in comparison to the Bose it really sounds it, the Bose can get tiring after listening to it for long periods, as can the Blaupunkt but that does take a lot longer to get tiring. I have 2 of the Blaupunkt systems, 1 upstairs in my lab and the other in the living room which hardly gets used because SWMBO spends her time down there. So for my purposes, I'm more then happy with them, they can punch out some nice sweet sounds when I want them to and they take up so little space you hardly know their there.

I have a sound bar on the TV with a separate sub woofer and that is no match for the Blaupunkt and cost me a lot more (mind you I did get a super super deal on them, about 15% of their original cost).