Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[neo]

G) if there’s a nuclear explosion you can bug out under it

I like where your head is at on this but unless the tables grows a foot or i shrink in diameter by that or more it will be a no go. Besides any true atomic bomb would turn the thing to dust in an instant.

I think that it is way too low at 24.5 inches tall

I found that my ideal table is this 24 inch tall writing desk, then again i am an odd one. If i'm working on something big i find it helps to have it at just that height. If i need it closer I've been known to hold it in my lap while working on it, which i just find easier if only because i'm a lazy sod who got used to working that way with little stuff.  Besides that it always helps to have to lift something heavy that much less.

Also 24 inches makes the perfect foot rest for when your not working and instead just in the area for whatever reason. For example here my main computer is entwined with my electronics area so a foot rest is handy for reading TEA.

For this table i was think 42 by 34 approximately with a two inch thick solid wood top that has a brace every  22.25 inches center to center and then a cross brace, to support the brace slats, consisting of a 4 by 6. The brace, the slats as i called them, would be 2 by 8 pieces.
Or, if my inferior description doesn't make sense, then see the image included. Black & Gray is the top, red is brace, yellow is cross brace and green are the legs
Black & Gray, top; 3, 11.25 wide by 42 long, 1.5 thick
Red, Brace ; 1.5 wide and 34 long, 6.5 thick
Yellow, cross brace; 3.5 wide, 42 long, 5.5 thick
Green, legs; 3.5x3.5 post 23 tall

The table as described could take up to about 600-1200 pounds. My logic being;
A) I have a barn full of wood.
B) One must account for potential idiocy.
C) I'll wind up with a nice 15 wide pocket just tall enough for one or maybe a pair of smaller bits of TEA.
D) MORE POWER!
E) Sag is evil.
F) I can.

Oh, and this is just the base table i intend to have a shelf on hanging off the back of it.

Can you say solid as a dead rock? 

Move the back legs outside of the braces; then you can make them 6 feet tall and build your shelving from them with standard brackets. Also, go to  your local homeowner hell and look for truss brackets/joist hangers. They're crazy cheap, and they make this kind of construction dead easy and crazy strong.

Where I live the USPS has what they call "Rural Route Delivery". We each have an individual mailbox at the road. USPS delivers the mail to the mailbox via a driver in a USPS van. Now typically if a package is too large for the mailbox our particular driver will pull up and place the package in our enclosed porch. Today I was expecting a delivery from Mouser. When I woke up this afternoon I checked and it was delivered. So came down to the front porch and no package. I look outside and I see the package wedged between my mailbox and a neighbors. Totally exposed out in the open. Apparently the postman got lazy. And of course while I was sleeping it rained like hell. So I get the package and it's soaking wet and falling apart. It's a good thing Mouser bags and seals each part. They were OK. I guess USPS doesn't check the weather forecast.     

That's why I put up a "Rural Route Mailbox" no matter WHERE I move to. 

There's room in there for electronic parts, car parts, whole oscilloscopes, a 3D Printer, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir...


mnem
But watch out for the Grelber.

Actually extending out the back and making the rear legs like that was EXACTLY what i was thinking, what i showed here was just illustrating the basic concept of the table and not going into additional details. Thanks for the idea to use metal trussing, it will come in handy i am sure.

[bitseeker]

Can you say solid as a dead rock? 

Looks like it's got space for two nice drawers, too.

[neo]

Can you say solid as a dead rock? 

Looks like it's got space for two nice drawers, too.

Drawers or equipment pockets, have yet to decide.

[GregDunn]

I was on my way to open up the practice space for my youth sports league this afternoon but was a bit early, so stopped at a small pawn shop nearby to kill a few minutes.  There's rarely anything interesting at these, and essentially never anything in the way of interesting test equipment, so it was just an excuse to browse and possibly laugh at the ridiculous prices asked for some things.

Hello, what's this yellow thing?  A Fluke 115?  $70?  Huh; it looks mint.  Even has the screen protector on and two sets of test leads.  I asked the associate to open the glass case so I could switch it on.  It powered up with "FL115" on the display and went into autorange VAC.  All the modes seemed to behave appropriately, the backlight worked, etc. etc.  I was about to make an offer, when the associate scanned the tag and said, "Oh - it's marked down to $50 now."  Yeah, I could probably have beaten it down further, but I took it.

I checked the VAC, frequency, and continuity functions before coming home, and they all seem to give accurate readings.  I'll check the other modes against my 8600A later, but I'm pretty confident it's working properly now.  Oh, and it's not one of the units on Fluke's recall list either.  A small but nifty score.

[xrunner]

Score! 

[bitseeker]

Nice one, Greg. You never know where a good deal will pop up. Just have to be ready at all times.

[GregDunn]

   Yes, I can't even remember how many times I've been in that shop and just turned around and walked back out...  the TEA gods smiled today.

Just to follow up, no one noticed the type K thermocouple in the photo?     Not sure what it originally belonged to, but surely not the 115!  At least I have a spare now.  One set of probes are the original Fluke, and the others ... not branded, but marked 1000V Cat III, 600V Cat IV with the CE logo.  Hmmm.

And the rest of the features measured OK; just for fun I stuck a 10 KHz sine wave into it and got 10.00 KHz too.  I'm officially spoiled now, with 2 autoranging DMMs.

[tautech]

  Yes, I can't even remember how many times I've been in that shop and just turned around and walked back out...  the TEA gods smiled today.

Just to follow up, no one noticed the type K thermocouple in the photo?     Not sure what it originally belonged to, but surely not the 115! 

IIRC 117 has Temp mode in much the same way the big bro of 15B, the 17B has.

Anyways, good score, I would've grabbed it too. 

[GregDunn]

I suspect that whoever gathered up the stuff to pawn it just didn't pay attention to which meter he had, or stuff from another meter got tossed in the same drawer as the 115 and it all went out together.  The 115 only comes with one set of probes from the factory, for example.     It's OK, the thermocouple fits my Triplett.

I never try to reason too deeply into pawn shop finds, because it's entirely possible that stuff was sold to get money for booze/drugs, and maybe not obtained in the most above board manner to begin with.     At hamfests, it's common for people like us to sell stuff just to be clearing out "overstock" or helping a friend pay bills.  When I picked up the Fluke 8660A and the HP power supply, the guy had a motley assortment of stuff which had clearly been used but cared for, and he was just happy to move it along.

[URI]

I'm currently waiting for my HP 6114A power supply from the US.

The seller shipped it on August 8th and it got to Frankfurt a.M., Germany on August 11th. Quiet good, I think.   

Since then it's held in Customs with slightly differing messages stating that. The last one from August 13th:   

August 13, 2018, 7:38 pm
Held in Customs
FRANKFURT/FLUGHAFEN, GERMANY
Your item is being held in Customs at 7:38 pm on August 13, 2018 in FRANKFURT/FLUGHAFEN, GERMANY.

Every time I see that it's still held in customs I'm shouting "Move! Come on" inwardly. Don't like to be waiting.   

[mnementh]

  Yes, I can't even remember how many times I've been in that shop and just turned around and walked back out...  the TEA gods smiled today.

Just to follow up, no one noticed the type K thermocouple in the photo?     Not sure what it originally belonged to, but surely not the 115!  At least I have a spare now.  One set of probes are the original Fluke, and the others ... not branded, but marked 1000V Cat III, 600V Cat IV with the CE logo.  Hmmm.

And the rest of the features measured OK; just for fun I stuck a 10 KHz sine wave into it and got 10.00 KHz too.  I'm officially spoiled now, with 2 autoranging DMMs.

I figured they came with whatever other meter the cheap set of probes came from. Good score!



I got my current daily driver Sperry Instruments DM6450 from a local pawn shop for $10 because it was totally flaky; flashing the screen & restarting if you so much as sneezed near it. Took it home & straightened out the battery contacts, it's been working perfectly ever since. Not great, not junk. 3999 count, True RMS, cap, junction test, beep continuity, Hz and Delta. Nice big .8" digits are easy on the eyes, but no BL. I like that the sub-functions & fixed ranges are easily chosen by pressing the red button in the middle.


mnem
*Toddles off to ded*

[GregDunn]

I've been using my Triplett for years; it just happened to be the best DMM the local shop carried (always tried to keep them alive; local electronics shops are scarce these days).  It's not an exciting piece of kit, just reliable and something I could throw in the car without worrying about it.  My ancient Fluke portable's display died ages ago; old LCDs were not tolerant of wide temperature variations and it did live in the car a lot.     I'm glad to have a newer one with far more features and accuracy; hopefully with a little care it will last considerably longer.

[bitseeker]

I'm currently waiting for my HP 6114A power supply from the US.

Speaking of which, what's a good way to find other HP equipment of the era that have the same bar-style feet as the 6114A/6115A? That style of enclosure was used with equipment of different widths and, hence, would have different length feet.

My bargain-bin 6114A didn't come with feet. I saw some that were $25+shipping. For a similar cost, or slightly more, I'd rather get an entire parts unit of something less desirable, but having the same feet.

[bitseeker]

Oh, and my 2-slot-to-3-lug Triax adapter arrived. It was mislabeled as a 3-slot-to-2-lug model, but the photos looked correct for the old Keithley gear. Fortunately, the photos were correct.

Now, I guess I need some crazy components as references in order to calibrate these devices.

[URI]

I'm currently waiting for my HP 6114A power supply from the US.

Speaking of which, what's a good way to find other HP equipment of the era that have the same bar-style feet as the 6114A/6115A? That style of enclosure was used with equipment of different widths and, hence, would have different length feet.

My bargain-bin 6114A didn't come with feet.

Same problem here. My first 6114A came without feet. 

I saw some that were $25+shipping. For a similar cost, or slightly more, I'd rather get an entire parts unit of something less desirable, but having the same feet.

Oh, you found feet only?
Glad one! I haven't found sets of feet matching the 6114A/6115A yet.
Hence I looked for HP gear with enclosures of the type of the 6114A/6115A. Used old HP-catalogs for that.   
But nothing really bargain-type-wise, since shipping over the pond makes that too expensive for me, over all. 

[tautech]

Contact Jeff from this link as he's into replacement feet for instruments:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tektronix-465-oscilloscope-troubleshooting/msg1554319/#msg1554319

[bitseeker]

My bargain-bin 6114A didn't come with feet.

Same problem here. My first 6114A came without feet. 

Ah, OK. Good to know in case I come across a good source for them. I've seen other feet sometimes at a better price if you buy multiple sets.

I saw some that were $25+shipping. For a similar cost, or slightly more, I'd rather get an entire parts unit of something less desirable, but having the same feet.

Oh, you found feet only?
Glad one! I haven't found sets of feet matching the 6114A/6115A yet.

They looked similar, but I didn't check the size.

Hence I looked for HP gear with enclosures of the type of the 6114A/6115A. Used old HP-catalogs for that.   

Ah, OK. The 6114A was produced for quite a while, so I guess I'll be perusing quite a few catalogs. That could be dangerous.

But nothing really bargain-type-wise, since shipping over the pond makes that too expensive for me, over all. 

Yeah, a whole instrument would make the feet cost-prohibitive due to international shipping.

Contact Jeff from this link as he's into replacement feet for instruments:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tektronix-465-oscilloscope-troubleshooting/msg1554319/#msg1554319

Thanks, tautech. On his site it looks like he only has Tek ones at the moment. I suppose if enough people wanted them, he'd develop feet for HP as well.

[Cubdriver]

Unfortunately, those old-style black HP ones that lock with the spring loaded metal button tend to be something of a rarity; the 'bar' types used in the 1/3 and 1/2 rack width enclosures even more so.  It's to the point where if I see something with those feet, I'm often willing to shell out $15-20 more than I would without.

They occasionally show up by themselves, but as you've seen, people want a pretty penny for them.  Like many things, I cringe to think how many of them have gone off to the landfill through the years...   

-Pat

[Cubdriver]

Oh, and buying things with the intent of turning them into 'parts mules' is one reason I have so many things - once I get the 'parts mule', I can't bear to kill it.   

So it joins the zoo here.

-Pat

[bitseeker]

Unfortunately, those old-style black HP ones that lock with the spring loaded metal button tend to be something of a rarity; the 'bar' types used in the 1/3 and 1/2 rack width enclosures even more so.  It's to the point where if I see something with those feet, I'm often willing to shell out $15-20 more than I would without.

As it turns out, the feet that I saw aren't for the 6114/5 (5060-0728). Very similar looking, but it's one digit different (5060-0727) and is for an HP 432A power meter. Oh, well.

Oh, and buying things with the intent of turning them into 'parts mules' is one reason I have so many things - once I get the 'parts mule', I can't bear to kill it.   

Yeah, I know. Slippery slope.

[Berni]

Now that is a sturdy bench, so you have come to a realization that the bench will have to hold up to a lot of boatanchor load.

With a lot of old gear they don't contain many specialized parts too so the parts mule is often quite fixable too.

[Cubdriver]

Unfortunately, those old-style black HP ones that lock with the spring loaded metal button tend to be something of a rarity; the 'bar' types used in the 1/3 and 1/2 rack width enclosures even more so.  It's to the point where if I see something with those feet, I'm often willing to shell out $15-20 more than I would without.

As it turns out, the feet that I saw aren't for the 6114/5 (5060-0728). Very similar looking, but it's one digit different (5060-0727) and is for an HP 432A power meter. Oh, well.

They'd likely also fit a 5221 counter.   

Oh, and buying things with the intent of turning them into 'parts mules' is one reason I have so many things - once I get the 'parts mule', I can't bear to kill it.   

Yeah, I know. Slippery slope.

Yep.  With a huge pile of old test gear at the bottom.  And once you climb down to where the goodies are, you can't get back out because you get partway up and just slide back in.  Such are the burdens of TEA...  (Fortunately the UPS/FedEx guy can just slide the packages down to you.  )

-Pat

[med6753]

This is what I bought on EBay. Still in transit. Should be here tomorrow.

It looks very clean but has some physical damage. The "B" Trigger Level/Slope switch in the upper right is bent/broken. The DM44 has some damage. The case is missing the handle. All those issues I can fix in a jiffy with my parts mule. Hopefully the rest of it is more or less functional.

[med6753]

Small project that's been in the que due to the recent 465 marathon. Re-cap of the Fluke 1900A Counter power supply.

Before. Those 3 caps are going bye-bye.


After. $15 USD for an axial 2500uf cap? I think not. Radial installed instead.
.

Magic smoke test. None observed. Counter in self test mode. All is well.

[Specmaster]

I'm working on a repair to a inverter board for the battery charging system on a Solartron 7045 meter and the board has has some suspect capacitors and other items which I can identify easily from the service manual. However the capacitor looks to me to be a tant but the manual says that these are ceramic and are C154 and C155 (C155 has shorted) which are shown in the BOM as .047 25V?  R158 (68ohms) is blown wide open. The circuit does not indicate polarised capacitors at all?