Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Oh crap....

It's 3 miles away from me.....nope, nope, nope.

It's all vacuum tube. I love vacuum tubes....nope, nope, nope.

His price is wishful thinking.....nope, nope, nope.

I have no room for it.....nope, nope, nope.

I have too many other projects.....nope, nope, nope.

Never owned an HP scope.....nope, nope, nope.

NO!

Help

 

[mnementh]

[Random Mode]

https://youtu.be/_QdPW8JrYzQ

[/Random Mode]



mnem
But wait; there's more. Now how much would you pay?

[Cerebus]

[Poisson Distribution Mode]



[/Poisson Distribution Mode]

[Specmaster]

[Random Mode]

https://youtu.be/_QdPW8JrYzQ

[/Random Mode]



mnem
But wait; there's more. Now how much would you pay?

Watched that one only yesterday, there a few others by James as well.

[Specmaster]

Here you go

[mnementh]

[Poisson Distribution Mode]



[/Poisson Distribution Mode]

Given that as presented there were only two possible decisions and an indeterminate amount of time, this hypothetical state of "left turn at Albuquerque" would have to be in a state of superposition. What does THAT do to your distribution curve? 

mnem
"Somewhere Nils Bohr walks among us; unobserved and immortal."

[mnementh]

Here you go

[James Veitch - More Adventures etc. Video]

Yeah, I linked to that one in my original [Random Mode] post.  It quite surpasses the first; I actually want to go out and buy that damned red toaster now. 

mnem
But wait; there's more. Now how much would you pay?

mnem
" 'Fire good, tree bad...' that's the level I'm operating at right now..."

[Cerebus]

Given that as presented there were only two possible decisions and an indeterminate amount of time, this hypothetical state of "left turn at Albuquerque" would have to be in a state of superposition. What does THAT do to your distribution curve? 

In a world where gravity only works when you're on the ground, or, if you're in the air, when you finally notice it? A world where a painted tunnel entrance on a cliff wall selectively admits or blocks according to species? Anything I want it to, anything I want it to. And if it doesn't do what I want I'll order one from Acme that does.

[mnementh]

Of course HammerSpace would ALSO have to exist in a state of superposition. No surprise there.

mnem
Great... now I've got HammerTime/Can't Touch This stuck in my head again...   

[bitseeker]

Fixing this for you, med.

Oh goodie!....

It's 3 miles away from you..... Yes, yes, yes.

It's all vacuum tube. You love vacuum tubes.... Yes, yes, yes.

His price is wishful thinking, but you're up for some haggling..... Yes, yes, yes.

You can make room for it..... Yes, yes, yes.

You can fit just one more project.....Yes, yes, yes.

Never owned an HP scope..... Yes, yes, yes.

YES!

You're welcome

[factory]

Oh crap....

It's 3 miles away from me.....nope, nope, nope.

It's all vacuum tube. I love vacuum tubes....nope, nope, nope.

His price is wishful thinking.....nope, nope, nope.

I have no room for it.....nope, nope, nope.

I have too many other projects.....nope, nope, nope.

Never owned an HP scope.....nope, nope, nope.

NO!

Help

 

Looks like a HP 122A, there is a lonely transistor (or maybe two depending on the age) in the power supply too.

David

[med6753]

Fixing this for you, med.

Oh goodie!....

It's 3 miles away from you..... Yes, yes, yes.

It's all vacuum tube. You love vacuum tubes.... Yes, yes, yes.

His price is wishful thinking, but you're up for some haggling..... Yes, yes, yes.

You can make room for it..... Yes, yes, yes.

You can fit just one more project.....Yes, yes, yes.

Never owned an HP scope..... Yes, yes, yes.

YES!

You're welcome

I guess I left myself wide open for that, didn't I? 

[mnementh]

Well, if he didn't do it, I would've had to... it was inevitable, really. 

mnem

[bd139]

Just buy the scope. YOLO or something as a millenial would say.

Of course HammerSpace would ALSO have to exist in a state of superposition. No surprise there.

mnem
Great... now I've got HammerTime/Can't Touch This stuck in my head again...   

Well there's a low. MC Hammer. I had to put up with that blaring out at night every fucking night of my life for about 6 months once.

Nearly went gasman on them

[mnementh]

LOL... 

It's like PTSD  for me. If I hear even a few notes... or his name (or, evidently, just touch on it tangentially via random association) that stupid video starts playing in the back of my mind. No stopping it.

mnem
Fuck.... there it is again. You still got that frying pan...?

[Cerebus]

I'll get Acme to drop ship you a Wile E Coyote special...

[mnementh]

You're going to ship anvils to the real-life Anvilania?

Bold move. Lets see how this plays out...   

mnem
They make a cream for that.

[mnementh]

Has anyone actually tried measuring very low capacitance and inductance on these yet? I’m interested to see if you can zero off a fixture and then measure 200nH - 3uH effectively.

There was a thread on single pF measurements.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/de-5000-lcr-meter-measurement-accuracy-of-small-capacitors/

Okay... I'm trying to set up some tests; planning to do a few comparisons against my 189 (where feasible) and my Chinese LCR testers and my Atlas ESR70+.

What kind of tests do you want to see? Tell me what would be useful to you. I'll do my best to set up something relevant.

Cheers,

mnem
*Feeling slightly less craptastic*

[Wolfgang]

Hi,

the pros measure components in the subpicofarad range in (expensive) test fixtures using a VNA.
You can do the same by creating test fixtures from SMA sockets and make an open/short/load cal on them.
Then you create a socket with you new components just soldered between center pin and case.
That should be fairly reliable:

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/componentology/

[Cubdriver]

Oh crap....

It's 3 miles away from me.....nope, nope, nope.

It's all vacuum tube. I love vacuum tubes....nope, nope, nope.

His price is wishful thinking.....nope, nope, nope.

I have no room for it.....nope, nope, nope.

I have too many other projects.....nope, nope, nope.

Never owned an HP scope.....nope, nope, nope.

NO!

Help

 

Oooh, that looks really nice! 

-Pat

[Cubdriver]

In other news, a rather forlorn looking Tek 453 came home with me today from the museum for the princely sum of $10.

-Pat

[mnementh]

Hi,

the pros measure components in the subpicofarad range in (expensive) test fixtures using a VNA.
You can do the same by creating test fixtures from SMA sockets and make an open/short/load cal on them.
Then you create a socket with you new components just soldered between center pin and case.
That should be fairly reliable:

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/componentology/

My question was in response to bd139's earlier query specifically about the DE-5000.

I don't know that this kind of fixturing is feasible with the DE-5000. It tests at various frequencies, with 100KHz being the maximum.



My idea for the DE-5000 would be a test fixture made from SOT23 Breakout PCBs... but I'm not sure if it might be better to design a similar PCB with only 2 or 4 connections in a foursquare pattern, maybe with a shield plane on the opposite side to minimize stray inductance/capacitance. The point being to come up with something simple and cheap enough to be disposable.

Of course, maybe what bd139 wants is to see just how close I can get with tweezers... 

mnem
*Toddles off to ded*

[Carl_Smith]

BTW...you Brits keep using the term "fortnight" and I had no idea what length of time it was. Google is your friend. 2 weeks.

Often combined with furlongs as a unit of velocity, i.e. furlongs/fortnight. 1furlong/fortnight is just about 1cm/minute. Of course the VAX/VMS used microfortnights: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFF_system

Personally I rather like nanocenturies, as in "I'll only be 20 nanocenturies, dear".

Damn, you beat me to the furlongs/fortnight thing.  I often use that as a test of online unit conversion sites.   

Another favorite unit of mine is the "attoparsec."   There are other interesting units such as the Beard-Second, the Smoot, and the nanoacre.

[URI]

The DSO_X 3034A arrived.
Well padded, undamaged and with four probes with all probe accessories.   

But I can't get it to work. 
Luckily, SWMBO didn't even ask what I received yet.   

I wished that it could be an issue with the switching power supply as this is reported (ok, rarely..).
It's not. It might be the NAND corruption issue some DSO-X 3034A-Models suffer from.
Have issued a repair request to Keysight. Don't know what the cost could be but it's HP.. Agil.. ehh Keysight.   

[PA0PBZ]

It might be the NAND corruption issue some DSO-X 3034A-Models suffer from.
Have issued a repair request to Keysight. Don't know what the cost could be but it's HP.. Agil.. ehh Keysight.   

Does it show any signs of life? If so you can hook up to the serial port to find out what the problem is.