Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Brumby]

Edit 2: Might be onto something. Bought something for 5.21. Got refund for 5.67. 

I'd say you caught exchange rate fluctuations on the right side.

[Specmaster]

Haha, you came up with the same thoughts I did about the hedge fund.

Its only just lately that I have been having issues with Chinese sellers. I brought a voltage reference from one on Ebay in Nov, day 2 it stopped charging and ever since I have been battling to get either a refund or a replacement. To be fair, they did allegedly sent a replacement on the 22nd Nov which has never arrived, the original was ordered on the 7th Nov and arrived inside 2 weeks.

Since the 2nd one failed to arrive, I have been asked to allow a few more days for it to arrive, which seemed fair enough as it was then heading into Christmas, after Christmas it still had not arrived and again was asked to allow a few more days as there was a backlog of mail etc. this went on for a while until I could not raise a claim via Ebay, then they wanted me to return the faulty one after nearly 3 months, which I didn't have, then they said that a refund was ok, how much did I think was fair, when I said a full refund I heard nothing. Then I messaged them again and they said that they would either refund me in full or send another replacement, I said a refund please, now nothing has been received or heard from them. Thats the worst Ebay experience with a Chinese seller.

I have a few with Aliexpress and Banggood but mostly they were resolved fairly quickly until I ordered this T-conn board from one of their sellers, 1st was ordered 30th Dec and refunded after I complained to Aliexpress that the seller had allegedly cancelled the order according to the tracking info, mid flight. That one never did show up, so I don't think it ever was dispatched. 2nd one was order from a different seller on 7th Jan, never arrived. 7th of Feb, they claimed bad weather was to blame and allow a few more days, it never arrived, they sent a replacement on the 7th March and this is the current status of this one.
Number: RL781646136CN
Package status: In transit
Destination: United Kingdom
Origin: China
2018-03-16 12:29 Xiamen Processing Center, has been exported straight seal
2018-03-16 12:21 Xiamen, opened and dismantled
2018-03-16 01:11 Fujian Quanzhou receiving and forwarding center, has left, the next station processing center
2018-03-15 21:51 Fujian Quanzhou Collection and forwarding center, has been sealed
2018-03-15 21:40 Fujian Quanzhou receiving and sending center, received
======================================
Powered by www.17track.net

I would have cancelled it but I cannot locate a suitable replacement board anywhere else it seems.

It only takes a few rogue sellers to completely tarnish a countries reputation, I have since being introduced to both Aliexpress and BangGood through members of this forum purchased shit loads of stuff from them with by and large no problems until Nov, then the shit started with Ebay and then Aliexpress in Dec. 

[PA0PBZ]

2018-03-16 12:21 Xiamen, opened and dismantled

I wouldn't give up hope yet but that really doesn't sound too good 

[Specmaster]

2018-03-16 12:21 Xiamen, opened and dismantled

I wouldn't give up hope yet but that really doesn't sound too good 

No, I'm hopeful this time because I never got this far before with the T-conn board, I think that the "2018-03-16 12:29 Xiamen Processing Center, has been exported straight seal" means that customs are satisfied about the item and have sealed it up again ready for exporting to me. We shall what its next movement is.

[bitseeker]

Fingers crossed for them to have a safe journey to you.

Yeah, doesn't bode well. Hope they have a safe journey to you, it would be a shame if the mail system broke them.

The 5020 and 2020B arrived safe and sound. Thanks for the positive thoughts. The front panels were padded with a couple inches of foam. Doing so, however, left the rear panels and one side of the mounting "ears" directly against the inside of the box, but the double-walled corrugation provided sufficient protection for the short trip. A nice touch was that the seller put each supply in a thick plastic bag (it's been fairly rainy the past couple weeks).

Here's a quick shot of my old 2010 with its new (and better looking) neighbors.

I still have to load test them. The only physical issue I found so far is that the 10-millivolt knob on the 2020B doesn't click at each value. It just rotates freely.

[Specmaster]

So glad to hear that they arrived safe and sound, enjoy you new toys 

[bitseeker]

Thanks, Spec. I've been shopping for a nice 5020 or 2020B for a couple years. They tend to be either hard to find, in bad shape, over-priced, missing parts (especially the feet and tilting bail) or skimped on (the 5020, in particular, has turned up with decals on the voltage dials and even across the top of the faceplate instead of having the lettering silkscreened onto the metal).

[Barbouri]

The 5020 and 2020B arrived safe and sound. Thanks for the positive thoughts.

Glad to hear that they arrived safe. Both look very nice.
Hopefully the electrical testing goes well for both of them.

[Terry01]

Fingers crossed for them to have a safe journey to you.

Yeah, doesn't bode well. Hope they have a safe journey to you, it would be a shame if the mail system broke them.

The 5020 and 2020B arrived safe and sound. Thanks for the positive thoughts. The front panels were padded with a couple inches of foam. Doing so, however, left the rear panels and one side of the mounting "ears" directly against the inside of the box, but the double-walled corrugation provided sufficient protection for the short trip. A nice touch was that the seller put each supply in a thick plastic bag (it's been fairly rainy the past couple weeks).

Here's a quick shot of my old 2010 with its new (and better looking) neighbors.

I still have to load test them. The only physical issue I found so far is that the 10-millivolt knob on the 2020B doesn't click at each value. It just rotates freely.

Very nice pieces of equipment! They just don't make stuff that looks like that now. I love looking inside older pieces like that.

Lucky you! Enjoy buddy 

[bitseeker]

I think the Power Designs Precision Power Supplies thread has pics of the innards. If not, I'll take some when I open them up.

[bd139]

Something came of my test gear finally. After much buggering around and fixing things with it, I got my first received signal on my home brew transceiver. 3300km from Bulgaria on some wire chucked up into the tree outside!  Nearly fell on my arse with surprise.

IF chain is fucked up still and the audio filter is ringing but it mostly works. Woohoo.

[mnementh]

I certainly hope you're not heading to "ded."

Yeah, it's a good feature set for a Benjamin. The reason I'm undecided is that my main DMMs are 6.5 digits.

Oh, yes, I was... and I'll be "Toddling off to ded" again tonight.   'Tis a pun on "crawling off to die" or "Dead tired"; the last couple days have been pretty brutal, but the pay was decent. I survived it, but just barely. 

I realize it's just playtime stuff to a true volt-nut... but speaking as a one-time subscriber to Nut & Volts, I'm willing to take my chances. There's so much local noise in my environment, once you get below mV it's pointless anyways. And no way in hell I'm building another Faraday cage... they make the voices go away.   

Confucius say: Man with a watch always knows what time it is; man with two is never sure.

This is TEA. Confucius go buy GPSDO and transfer standard

Confucius is smart enough to know that even with the above you MIGHT be off by a few nanoseconds or more, depending on how far the units are apart and how long various signal circuits and what specific velocity factors may be involved therein. More than enough that observational inaccuracy becomes a theoretical possiblity.




That is entirely too much wiggle-room, says the guy with THIS for a wristwatch!!! 

Fingers crossed for them to have a safe journey to you.

Yeah, doesn't bode well. Hope they have a safe journey to you, it would be a shame if the mail system broke them.

The 5020 and 2020B arrived safe and sound. Thanks for the positive thoughts. The front panels were padded with a couple inches of foam. Doing so, however, left the rear panels and one side of the mounting "ears" directly against the inside of the box, but the double-walled corrugation provided sufficient protection for the short trip. A nice touch was that the seller put each supply in a thick plastic bag (it's been fairly rainy the past couple weeks).

Here's a quick shot of my old 2010 with its new (and better looking) neighbors.

I still have to load test them. The only physical issue I found so far is that the 10-millivolt knob on the 2020B doesn't click at each value. It just rotates freely.

Didn't I see that stack on an episode of "The Outer Limits" when I was a kid?!? 


mnem
*Toddling off to ded...  right after I finish my Buffalo Wingz*

[Terry01]

I think the Power Designs Precision Power Supplies thread has pics of the innards. If not, I'll take some when I open them up.

Thanks you! 

[Specmaster]

Something came of my test gear finally. After much buggering around and fixing things with it, I got my first received signal on my home brew transceiver. 3300km from Bulgaria on some wire chucked up into the tree outside!  Nearly fell on my arse with surprise.

IF chain is fucked up still and the audio filter is ringing but it mostly works. Woohoo.

Good work, won't be long to wait until you crack the problem.

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

[bitseeker]

Yeah, it's a good feature set for a Benjamin. The reason I'm undecided is that my main DMMs are 6.5 digits.

I realize it's just playtime stuff to a true volt-nut... but speaking as a one-time subscriber to Nut & Volts, I'm willing to take my chances. There's so much local noise in my environment, once you get below mV it's pointless anyways. And no way in hell I'm building another Faraday cage... they make the voices go away.   

I'm quite a ways from qualifying to be a volt-nut — just getting my toes in the water having joined the US Cal Club thread. Last year, I was able to check my meters against the club's preliminary roving standards. First run. Second run.

All four 6.5-digit meters were within a couple hundred µV of each other and the two HPs had a Std Dev of just a handful of µV over the course of an hour or two. Not bad for good ol' test gear.

[bitseeker]

I think the Power Designs Precision Power Supplies thread has pics of the innards. If not, I'll take some when I open them up.

Thanks you! 

Here's the beginning of the thread: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/looking-for-goodinexpensive-bench-power-supply/

And I dug up some posts with pics for ya (some are teardowns):

• 2005
• One of each: 2005, 2010, 2020, 5020
• 2005A
• 4010
• Variety (precision and regular): TP340A, 5020, 2020, 2005A, 6010
• Later model 5020 (notice the meter is different and some dials use decals), bottom side
• 605
• 5015A (not precision) and TP343B (triple channel)
• 6050D (digital display) and 6150 (rack mount)
• 2005A video
• C500

That's it. Unfortunately, it appears that lots of images were remotely hosted and have disappeared.

[tautech]

.............
 Unfortunately, it appears that lots of images were remotely hosted and have disappeared.

Yep and that's narked me some over the years. 

rant on
If you're to post pics here for prosperity and have some consideration for those with limited 'net connections, by far the best and simplest is to upload them to Dave's server once compressing them to fit the forum file size limits and max size/post.
Recently after shifting to W10 and Office16 and desperately missing MS Picture Manager that I'd always used for this I spent some time hunting out a replacement to MS Office Picture Manager without much success.  Then I discovered that now it is available free within a package called SharePointDesigner.exe.
Just be sure when installing to turn OFF all the other BS so to get only the Picture Manager.
Crop, Resize, Compress, Save As and in another format are all valuable to have on a single package.
Happy tautech again. 
rant off.

[mnementh]

.............
 Unfortunately, it appears that lots of images were remotely hosted and have disappeared.

Yep and that's narked me some over the years. 

rant on
If you're to post pics here for prosperity and have some consideration for those with limited 'net connections, by far the best and simplest is to upload them to Dave's server once compressing them to fit the forum file size limits and max size/post.
Recently after shifting to W10 and Office16 and desperately missing MS Picture Manager that I'd always used for this I spent some time hunting out a replacement to MS Office Picture Manager without much success.  Then I discovered that now it is available free within a package called SharePointDesigner.exe.
Just be sure when installing to turn OFF all the other BS so to get only the Picture Manager.
Crop, Resize, Compress, Save As and in another format are all valuable to have on a single package.
Happy tautech again. 
rant off.

For Windoze userz, the Windows Power Toys Image Resizer global menu extension still exists; it has been maintained by third parties and is still available for all current versions. I've attached the .msi from DigitalRed as a .zip (Yes, I scanned it before I put it up here); it's the version I used in my original 64-bit Windows 7 builds and current Windoze 10 upgrade. If you see me post an image that has (Large) in the name, that's what I used to resize the image real quick right from the eevBlog  ImageResizer-2.1_x64.zip (209.03 kB - downloaded 93 times.) dialog.

If you remember and miss the PowerToys quick access shortcut, it's still around in Win10 too.

Just copy this to your clipboard: PowerToys.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} then create a new folder in your desktop, paste that string as the folder name, hit [ENTER] and you'll have your PowerToys shortcuts to everything instead of just the short list from the Start button.


Cheers,


mnem
*Toddles off to ded with milk & cookies*

[beanflying]

Yep off site images kill some threads. I do occasionally use them linked to ebay adds or similar but where it is more important a save trim and then post is the way to go. Nice freeware for bulk resizing and basic photo stuff is IRFANVIEW for those who haven't used it.

Nice power supplies btw 

[Brumby]

Photobucket's turn about was enough of a lesson in that.  Aside from being constantly bombarded with advertising, I tried to download an image from my own account last night and it was a nightmare.

Nice freeware for bulk resizing and basic photo stuff is IRFANVIEW for those who haven't used it.

+1   A lot of features and you can apply several of them at a time.  Very useful for bulk processing.

[bitseeker]

Didn't I see that stack on an episode of "The Outer Limits" when I was a kid?!? 

Quite possible. It's been said (around this forum) that aliens dropped off the technology.

Nice power supplies btw 

Thanks. This should conclude my PD collection. I think I have nine of them now — eight different models.

Yep off site images kill some threads. I do occasionally use them linked to ebay adds or similar but where it is more important a save trim and then post is the way to go. Nice freeware for bulk resizing and basic photo stuff is IRFANVIEW for those who haven't used it.

Yep, I use Irfanview and Gimp.

If you remember and miss the PowerToys quick access shortcut, it's still around in Win10 too.

Just copy this to your clipboard: PowerToys.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} then create a new folder in your desktop, paste that string as the folder name, hit [ENTER] and you'll have your PowerToys shortcuts to everything instead of just the short list from the Start button.

Thanks! Been a long time since I've had PowerToys on my machine. Now I've got plenty of power toys on my bench.

[xrunner]

Well bitseeker - has this thread (your baby) taken over the entire site yet, or at least eaten it's way to a #1 spot in the stats? 

[bitseeker]

At #2 now on replies. It won't be too long to get to #1. Simply amazing.

What have you been up to, xrunner?

[xrunner]

At #2 now on replies. It won't be too long to get to #1. Simply amazing.

What have you been up to, xrunner?

Thanks for asking. I have a model railroad as another hobby in another room, which I've been working on. I have also been doing some ham radio repairs for some local ham friends. I also have been doing ham radio in that there are several DXpeditions going on I wanted to contact. A DXpedition is when a group of hams go to a country that has few or no ham operators so that everyone has a chance to make the contact with that country and get it logged. The recent ones I worked were 3C0W Annobon Island off the coast of Africa, and 3D2EU Rotuma Islands.

I have been itching to get me a new piece of test gear so hope to grab something soon ...

What have you been up to? 

[bitseeker]

I have a model railroad as another hobby in another room, which I've been working on. I have also been doing some ham radio repairs for some local ham friends. I also have been doing ham radio in that there are several DXpeditions going on I wanted to contact. A DXpedition is when a group of hams go to a country that has few or no ham operators so that everyone has a chance to make the contact with that country and get it logged. The recent ones I worked were 3C0W Annobon Island off the coast of Africa, and 3D2EU Rotuma Islands.

Sounds like you've been busy. Neat idea to have someone go where there isn't yet a transceiver and set one up temporarily.

I have been itching to get me a new piece of test gear so hope to grab something soon ...

Uh, oh. I wonder what that might be.

What have you been up to? 

I guess you've got lots of posts to read up on.

Actually, work has been really busy, so I haven't done a lot of electronicles lately. However, I did pick up some power supplies and was helping Inverted18650 with a little project to make replacement I/O boards for our Keithley 228/228A SMU's. So many of these devices get sold off without the board that provides access to the power, sense, and monitor lines. They probably get yanked out with cables still attached and dumped as a whole. So sad. Anyway, you can check out the thread for more info.