Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

OMG... I just flashed on a memory from about the same time; I was messing around with the cover off of the Yaesu FT-101EX I inherited from HB (the M-80 + "You better run!" fellow from that story I recalled a few weeks ago); my buddy Brian and I were futzing around on Children's Band (hey - we WERE kids then) trying to reach his dad doing a long haul in his truck upstate.

I was trying to trim the multiband antenna that came with the rig (imagine your favorite "two buddies drinking story", complete with one of them nose buried in an instruction pamphlet) and he noticed the glowing 6JS finals...

"Hey... whadda these do..."
*I look up just in time to see him pointing towards one shiny exposed anode cap*
"DON'T TOUCH TH..."
*ZZZZZZZZAAAAAAPPPPP!!!*
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"

Rf burns are the WORST.   

Cor that's got some volts in there too!  ... and if it doesn't kill you it makes you wiser and if it doesn't make you wiser it kills you the next time.

I am personally scared shitless of tube PAs as a family friend and former colleague of my father killed themselves by accident in the 80s on a big ass tube PA. I went to his funeral. At the time I had no idea what had happened but I was banned from playing around with tube kit immediately. I only put two and two together about a decade later and asked about it. Turned out he was repairing a big 1KW RF PA power supply and a stray wire was in the chassis and he touched it. Heart stopped instantly. He was responsible at his company for lab safety ironically.

Personally I'm very much more aware of electrical safety now. You'll regularly find me following strict written procedures when handling even simple kit like little mains linear supplies.  Isolate, attach, power, measure, isolate etc. While you saw a mess in my corner when I was working on that scope, when it was powered, the bench is cleared down thoroughly first etc as well.

Just got back from Clacton, meter stashed away in boot for the journey as the former owner made a lovely wooden case for it and lined it with some sort of foam to protect it and it stinks. Cracked the meter open and boy o boy, the D cell has corroded nicely, as has the PP3 so that area need some attention before I can power it up and see if it does work. So the sellers notion of it working must have been based on the fact the meter movement swings back sideways when rocking the meter, er Yeh.

On the plus side the rest of the meter appears to be OK, and the range switch is thing of beauty, pure TEA porn it is, I'll pop some pictures up later. It has all the hall marks of being a factory build rather a kit, every thing is so precise in its location and presentation, a joy to see.

Looking forwards to looking at the guts of that. They're really nice VOMs. If you can clean it up it's great sitting there next to a V-7

are you orthodox or do you only wear the pasta strainer on special occasions?  (like visiting the dept of motor vehicles photo center)

I only wear the strainer when riding a motorbike 

[nixiefreqq]

why do I get the feeling that mnem has wrecked a few scooters in his time...….and still does not like wearing a damn helmet.
[/quote]

I have wrecked more than a few, but I ALWAYS wear a brain bucket. I used to be one of those crazy BMX/freestyle kids; then I graduated to YZ250s/KX250s, H1s, H2s and KZs and a GPZ1100 which I literally wore out (bought new, sold 3 rebores later and I got almost as much when I sold it after riding it for almost 10 years).

I HATE the sticky/sweaty/fogging glasses... but I love my (slightly foggy) brain better.


mnem
We have a special name for other 'cyclists who don't wear a helmet: " Organ Donor ".
[/quote]

last time my ass was on a bike was the day I watched my buddy wreck my 535 in the late 80s.  never would have guessed a guy that big could bounce so high. (he refused the helmet because only pussy's wore 'em).  fortunately he dropped the cigarette before the bike finally landed on him.....because apparently the gas cap popped open when his testicles hit the latch.  he was soaked in 89 octane and bleeding from about everywhere a mammal can bleed when his son and i pulled the bike off him.  and yet he still fought us when we stuffed him into a car for a trip to the ER (he was yelling something about his diabetes and they would not treat him and release him).   his wife at the time was a nurse who said the helmet would not have mattered because his coconut was "solid bone from ear to ear". 

glad to hear you wear the helmet.   now that we are gettin' older you need to wear the cpap too.

[bd139]

2009 Dawes Ultra Galaxy here. Human powered. Until I got hit by a taxi cunt in 2012. Won’t ride a bike any more.

Motorcycles are known as donorcycles here.

[Specmaster]

When I first opened this up and saw the level of corrosion I thought I'd been sold a pup after all as there was no way this was going to work like that, both batteries were spent but seller stated it was working so I assume that it was working at the time when he checked back in 2017 when he first tried to sell it.

Anyway, batteries were tossed away, terminals were suitably cleaned and the "D" cell spring contact removed and worked on to restore bright metal again and reassembled, new batteries fitted and nothing  not a dammed sausage, not even a flicker of the needle. Out came my 3466A and checked the circuit through, volts etc all checked out OK until I came to ohms adjust pot, open circuit, detoxed it and it did show some signs of life but boy was it finicky, detoxed it a few times and worked the pot well each time and eventually it did come good and I was able to adjust the ohms adj to get a zero reading on the ohms scales. We were in business, meter seems to be slightly sticky and the meter has a poor linearity across the scales, as does its sister V-7AU valve voltmeter. I'm hoping that as it seems the meter has been in a damp atmosphere that as it fully dries out that the meter might become more fluid in its movement and settle on its value correctly rather as it is now, sometimes having to overshoot the value and drop back slightly to correctly read the meters input.

Accuracy of the meter is at best an indication of the value when compared to todays digital meters.

 

[Neomys Sapiens]

Loong time ago, I was abused by a photographer as a repair service for her studio flash units.
Guess why I was so eager to do a commercially unsustainable repair?
After the first two, I somehow lost my respect and found out that they contain lots of hurts! Serious, knock-you-out and leave a scar (under the burned black dot) sort of hurts!
And it didn't even get me into her pants...

[tautech]

I sold a really nice kit of the FAMO 18-Ton half-track to buy a 'scope - I only have room for one space hungry hobby

YOU SOLD WHAT ? 

You should've bought a bigger place ! 

My son  but god bless him, bought a 35hp Fiat crawler for shits and giggles the other day and it spent a couple of weeks getting from one end of NZ to us in the north. Why, well cause he could and has his own decent shed in which to keep it. At only 2 tonne you can shift it on a decent 2 axle trailer.
I'll try and plonk a pic of it here in the next day or so.

Here's that pic I promised.

IS TEA related as we had to trace some non-working lights. 

Off for his first proper spin on it ~3km around the farm.

[bd139]

Better than the Fiat I drive! 

When I first opened this up and saw the level of corrosion I thought I'd been sold a pup after all as there was no way this was going to work like that, both batteries were spent but seller stated it was working so I assume that it was working at the time when he checked back in 2017 when he first tried to sell it.

Anyway, batteries were tossed away, terminals were suitably cleaned and the "D" cell spring contact removed and worked on to restore bright metal again and reassembled, new batteries fitted and nothing  not a dammed sausage, not even a flicker of the needle. Out came my 3466A and checked the circuit through, volts etc all checked out OK until I came to ohms adjust pot, open circuit, detoxed it and it did show some signs of life but boy was it finicky, detoxed it a few times and worked the pot well each time and eventually it did come good and I was able to adjust the ohms adj to get a zero reading on the ohms scales. We were in business, meter seems to be slightly sticky and the meter has a poor linearity across the scales, as does its sister V-7AU valve voltmeter. I'm hoping that as it seems the meter has been in a damp atmosphere that as it fully dries out that the meter might become more fluid in its movement and settle on its value correctly rather as it is now, sometimes having to overshoot the value and drop back slightly to correctly read the meters input.

Accuracy of the meter is at best an indication of the value when compared to todays digital meters.

Phew I hate it when you get stuff that doesn't work properly to start with. That gulp, that moment of frustration etc. Good that it's working better now. I found, via another web site, that the meters are often sticky from static. If you rub a tiny bit of washing up liquid all over the front of the meter face (not the inside!) it neutralises the charge and they don't stick. Odd but it works.

Nice looking bit of kit. I really wish they sold stuff like that now.

On to a slightly newer bit of Heathkit equipment, some photos of the IM-5238 AC voltmeter. Did some work on the power supply this afternoon. Mostly eviscerating it. There was nothing going on via radio so bugger it, chop chop time.

First some photos of the insides before I got at it. The bottom right side of the unit is the power supply which is shot. Both regulators are shorted, there's a diode gone, drifted resistors and the caps are shot too. Note the ancient 78/79MG wankers regulators.



Also discovered the transformer was knackered. One of the taps had come off and the thing smelled bad. Out it went. The entire mains side of the unit has been stripped out. I will add a new transformer, IEC socket and fuse holder. The voltage selector will be blanked off. If anyone wants to change it they can get the soldering iron out



Big hole where it was. RS will deliver me a new transformer on Tuesday. In the mean time I'll do the panel mods to add the fuse holder and the IEC socket.



Now for the power supply. Out it goes, into a pile of junk:



Not too bad looking now!



In goes the new power supply. This is a pretty standard LM317/LM337 dual rail supply with bridge rectifier. Setting resistors were 240 ohms and 3.6K which gives you around 20.1 volts. The manual specifies 20 volts within 20% so I'm doing better than they are. Protection diodes are badly soldered to the other side of the board. One half of the regulator was built up on a breadboard and loaded with 60mA of sink at 20v with 32V in on the regulators. This is 20mA over the rated current so the heatsinks were checked after an hour to make sure they weren't too hot:



Money shot. On the function generator. Pretty accurate so far. Within 2-3% and I haven't done cal on it. The power supply was the only dead thing and it didn't kill anything else. Miracle.



Next time, new mains inlet, transformer and calibration hopefully.  Oh and re-cap the rest of it before another one goes phut.

[med6753]

I sold a really nice kit of the FAMO 18-Ton half-track to buy a 'scope - I only have room for one space hungry hobby

YOU SOLD WHAT ? 

You should've bought a bigger place ! 

My son  but god bless him, bought a 35hp Fiat crawler for shits and giggles the other day and it spent a couple of weeks getting from one end of NZ to us in the north. Why, well cause he could and has his own decent shed in which to keep it. At only 2 tonne you can shift it on a decent 2 axle trailer.
I'll try and plonk a pic of it here in the next day or so.

Here's that pic I promised.

IS TEA related as we had to trace some non-working lights. 

Off for his first proper spin on it ~3km around the farm.

Cool little crawler!  But you know what "Fiat" stands for don't ya? "Fix It Again Tony" 

[bd139]

Nope. Ferrari In Affordable Trim. I drive a red Italian car myself

Unfortunately happens to be the same car that is North Korea's favourite people carrier

[med6753]

Nope. Ferrari In Affordable Trim. I drive a red Italian car myself

Unfortunately happens to be the same car that is North Korea's favourite people carrier

That must be why Fiat was so successful in North America and the only way they could get back in was to buy another loser called Chrysler after the Germans ditched it. 

[Specmaster]

Looking nice, thats a lot of work you've put in to get this far but there's something about Heathkit gear that seems to make it all worthwhile, could it be that in our younger formative years we used to stand and gaze in the local electronics shop window and wish we could afford their kits then? Whatever it is I seem to be drawn towards them now, even though the newer gear is several orders of magnitudes more accurate, I mean that both of my meters use 1% resistors wheras the AVO's and TMK's use .1% resistors for their range selectors so their readings are better and the DMM's are even better still.

I see in your meter you do have some trim pots so you may be lucky and get an improvement in reading but for mine, I think I'm stuck at probably 1 to 3% errors and when you think about, for the gear that they designed for back then had such a wide band of tolerance in everything so they were ideal for their day.

I just tried that little fudge with the washing up liquid and it does indeed work, improved it loads, thanks for the tip.

[tautech]

Better than the Fiat I drive! 

I've got 2 Fiat 4wd tractors too.

Yeah it's pretty tidy for an '80's era machine. All original light fittings.   Only 2cyl though so you can hear it for miles chuffing away.
We had to sort out one of the steering clutches as it was a little stiff and out of adjustment. Inside there was a ball on a shaft that actuated the steering clutch fork and it was frozen on it's shaft. It runs on needle rollers and they'd dried out and with a bit of clutch dust stopped rolling. Bit on a bitch to work on without a full dismantle but we got it loose again and working as it should....few squirts of penetrant helped. 
The adjustment mechanism we'd have never guessed without the service sheet from the owners manual or a power of guugling. He was late for dinner (I cooked, we're batching ATM) as while it was hot oils got dropped and replaced.
Not much left to do on it now except check track rollers and front idler for lube and a couple more small adjustments.

Note the ancient 78/79MG wankers regulators.

I thought I'd worked on some old gear but never seen those before ! 

I sold a really nice kit of the FAMO 18-Ton half-track to buy a 'scope - I only have room for one space hungry hobby

YOU SOLD WHAT ? 

You should've bought a bigger place ! 

My son  but god bless him, bought a 35hp Fiat crawler for shits and giggles the other day and it spent a couple of weeks getting from one end of NZ to us in the north. Why, well cause he could and has his own decent shed in which to keep it. At only 2 tonne you can shift it on a decent 2 axle trailer.
I'll try and plonk a pic of it here in the next day or so.

Here's that pic I promised.

IS TEA related as we had to trace some non-working lights. 

Off for his first proper spin on it ~3km around the farm.

Cool little crawler!  But you know what "Fiat" stands for don't ya? "Fix It Again Tony" 

Don't I know it !
Now there's three to keep going. 

One of my tractors has been to hell and back for the 30yrs we've had it but for the improvements it's made around the place in that time it was a good investment way back then. Dad mucked around with 2wd tractors until when I worked in Ag equipment for a few years I convinced him to 'get with the times'.
I still remember the look on his face when I took him for a ride (him standing in the drawbar) down a steep hill below the house I grew up in. WTF, you're not going down there he said as I pushed the clutch in and let her gather some speed freewheeling. Ya hanging on I replied. Slammed on the anchors and it stopped on a dime while he wiped the sweat off his brow.    Popped it into reverse and backed up to where we'd come from.
A week later he owned it. 

************
Miss ya more than anything Pop. 

[bd139]

Looking nice, thats a lot of work you've put in to get this far but there's something about Heathkit gear that seems to make it all worthwhile, could it be that in our younger formative years we used to stand and gaze in the local electronics shop window and wish we could afford their kits then? Whatever it is I seem to be drawn towards them now, even though the newer gear is several orders of magnitudes more accurate, I mean that both of my meters use 1% resistors wheras the AVO's and TMK's use .1% resistors for their range selectors so their readings are better and the DMM's are even better still.

Yes definitely that. I used to browse Practical Wireless and get the Heath catalogues (which were free). We never had enough money to buy any of it when I was a kid unfortunately. And literally the moment I had the cash I was all hormones so it got spent on beer, pizza, women, cars, computers and textbooks and they had long gone down the crapper when I shook that off

Also the Heathkit stuff has two things about it which I find nothing else does:

1. All their stuff has excellent documentation. Very few problems are insurmountable.
2. It's actually really good kit. It's solid, standard parts, easy to understand designs and does what it says on the tin.

If you crack open a Heath scope, even the higher end ones which were actually pretty damn good, you know it's going to have resistors and transistors in the front end rather than some bastard hybrid or thin film end-game part.

I see in your meter you do have some trim pots so you may be lucky and get an improvement in reading but for mine, I think I'm stuck at probably 1 to 3% errors and when you think about, for the gear that they designed for back then had such a wide band of tolerance in everything so they were ideal for their day.

You can probably trim them out a bit. 3% is absolutely fine though. That's fine for most measurements, despite what the voltnuts say. If you look in the art of electronics as an example book, most of the book is literally about telling you that within 10% is pretty much fine.

I just tried that little fudge with the washing up liquid and it does indeed work, improved it loads, thanks for the tip.

It's amazing isn't it. I couldn't believe it the first time I did it. Thought someone was having me on.

[GreyWoolfe]

Miss ya more than anything Pop. 

Right there with you.  I lost mine in 1992.  I still have his tack hammer that is at least as old as me and his brass shoehorn stamped Belgium, 1917.  I use both regularly.

[tautech]

Miss ya more than anything Pop. 

Right there with you.  I lost mine in 1992.  I still have his tack hammer that is at least as old as me and his brass shoehorn stamped Belgium, 1917.  I use both regularly.

'93 when dad passed after I'd spent a great 10yrs working with him on the land.
I'd just got married in '82 and pop took to my wife like his daughter.
When we needed a babysitter dad was there in a shot.....but never the ol' lady, never !

Those were very special years, some very few get to experience with a parent.

[Specmaster]

bd139, I think I'd have been inclined to used some hot snot on that old tranny and tried that first before buying another. It was electrically sound and not over heating?

[Brumby]

My under bench lighting has revealed something I didn't want to think about .... The dust collection in the far corners looks like there was an explosion in a felting class.

It's something I just can't unsee ... 

I'm just wondering what will travel up the hose if I get the vacuum out......

Dust elephants, not dust bunnies... a common infestation in that region. You'll need the BIG Shop-Vac, some brain bleach and a 24-inch crowbar in case there's a bull and it decides to charge. 


mnem
You mighht want to get the .303 out of the closet just in case they stampede...   

That just makes a neat hole and they carry on charging. You need a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with No. 10 shot, you have to disperse them back into free floating fluff.   

Don't own any firearms.  Never needed to.  In all my life I've only fired two rifles - both .22 - and even then only about 6 rounds in total.

I do have the crowbar and shop vac, which is all that I will need.  Australians are generally used to things wanting to attack, so this shouldn't be a problem.  Brain bleach is in short supply, though.  What generally works is to hit the neighbourhood for garage sales/yard sales and find yourself a bargain or two.  EBay is rarely adequate these days.

[bd139]

bd139, I think I'd have been inclined to used some hot snot on that old tranny and tried that first before buying another. It was electrically sound and not over heating?

Was definitely not electrically sound. The tap was loose, insulation was cracked and it smelled funny when powered up. Also hot snot tends to melt and deteriorate over time which could have caused an earth fault. New transformer was only £9 so worth it. Also not a fan of captive mains leads so I usually swap them out for an IEC socket where possible.

[Specmaster]

Yeah, I tend to agree, the IEC socket makes for a quick disconnect if you need to at anytime, also makes for neater storage if you are unable to have the test gear permanently on the bench it allows for swapping of bits of kit according to the task in hand. 

[beanflying]

Having TEA. Had a Fryer repair to do and 'test'  Local Calamari and Spuds.

Success 

[bd139]

That looks proper nice 

Yeah, I tend to agree, the IEC socket makes for a quick disconnect if you need to at anytime, also makes for neater storage if you are unable to have the test gear permanently on the bench it allows for swapping of bits of kit according to the task in hand. 

Also means you don’t fall over the cable

[med6753]

I have a stack of Heathkit Catalogs from 1970's and 1980's. Here is that IM-5238 AC Voltmeter from the Fall 1977 Catalog.

[bd139]

That’s really cool.  Thanks for posting 

[med6753]

That’s really cool.  Thanks for posting 

You're most welcome. I built many Heathkits over the years. I wish I still had them. In fits of no longer caring about the hobby I sold quite a few of them. Still have the manuals for most of them. In retrospect it was one of the dumbest things I ever did. But one specific one I did keep and I'm glad I did. The IG-4244 Oscilloscope Calibrator. It has proven to be an invaluable tool in checking these high frequency Tek scopes. And it's kinda rare to boot. 

[bd139]

That's a proper rare one. Don't ever shift that. Worth its weight in gold. I think Specmaster has the earlier 70s/early 80s blue version of that.

I've had, off the top of my head, numerous V7 VTVMs, IB-1100 counter, two IP-2718 power supplies, IM-5238 AC VM, IM-2410 counter, IM-5284 multimeter and some others I've probably forgotten.

I'm after a IM-5225 next (FET voltmeter) and an IO-4360A scope (Quite good Tek 465 rip off). See: http://www.pestingers.net/pages-images/heathkit/test-equipment/oscilloscopes/io4360A-ioa4200/io4360a-ioa4200.htm

I'd have loved to have built the scope kit with DM44 clone. It's not as good as a Tek 465 but was a hell of a lot cheaper and you could build it yourself!