Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 14553885 times)

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Online bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18450 on: October 20, 2018, 09:09:45 am »
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18451 on: October 20, 2018, 09:16:06 am »
Here's some examples of trivial shit that I have stored away and indexed for quick access in my memory banks that really has no business being there because it's essentially useless.

I know that vacuum tube type 12AU7A/ECC82 is a medium gain twin triode that is pin for pin the same as a high gain twin triode 12AX7A/ECC83 and when it is appropriate to use one vs the other. Who gives a crap today except for some rabid audiophools who eat this shit right up.

The Heathkit O-10 Oscilloscope was the first Heath scope to be able to display and measure the 3.58MHz color burst signal on NTSC color TV's. It's response was 3db down at 5MHz. It came out about 1954/5.

And if you ask me what I had for dinner yesterday I couldn't tell you.   :-//
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18452 on: October 20, 2018, 09:16:07 am »


My speciality is, err, fire extinguishing.

And blowing up greenhouses.  :-DD

Talking of which I got me a bag of this last week https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F222191239653  :-DD
Making your own fireworks this year then, plenty of "whizz poppers" eh? [emoji6]
« Last Edit: October 20, 2018, 09:59:29 am by Specmaster »
Who let Murphy in?

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Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18453 on: October 20, 2018, 09:18:00 am »

"Necromancer of Test Equipment"?  :wtf: There you go with them big words again. I had to look that up. Wizard or Warlock practicing the occult such as raising the dead. OK, I'll buy that. I've brought numerous pieces of test equipment back from the gates of hell and made them useful again. I've also killed my share. Just yesterday through my own carelessness and stupidity I had a fatality. And I'm not gonna say right now what it was and don't ask because I am super pissed at myself. It's gonna go in the DOA (Dead On Arrival) closet to perhaps work on and possibly revive at a later day. But I don't hold out much hope that my future necromancy will work. We'll see.


Well, don't ask me! It happens quite often that all goes rather well up to the finishing touches. Then, with just a wee bit of carelessness, I outright kill it (like I did with that LeCroy) with no hope of necromancing (I like that word, got to stash it in my organic dictionary). It's not just that a piece of (again working fine) equipment is lost, also lost is all the time and sweat you invested, which can be substantial.
That's what really makes me angry. |O

I hear you brother!  :-+ Been there, done that.
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Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18454 on: October 20, 2018, 09:19:08 am »


My speciality is, err, fire extinguishing.

And blowing up greenhouses.  :-DD

Talking of which I got me a bag of this last week https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F222191239653  :-DD
Making your own fireworks this year then, plenty of "whizz poppets" eh? [emoji6]

WTF??? You a freakin dangerous.  :-DD :-DD :-DD
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Offline Martin.M

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18455 on: October 20, 2018, 09:21:19 am »
12AU7, 12AT7 are Tek-Spare and not for audiophools  :)
 

Offline Housedad

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18456 on: October 20, 2018, 09:21:50 am »
Noob question.

On pictures on the net, I can see on the back (rear) of the HP 5385A is four screw holes.  Did they make rear (bottom) feet for these?

All devices that came in this type of housing have those screw holes. Yes, for bottom feet.
But if even the pictures in the service manual show the back of the 5385A without bottom feet I doubt they were factory-equipped with any.

Nevertheless, this is not true for my 5006A signature analyser: With the same housing like the 5385A mine came with bottom feet that are also clearly shown in that manual.   :-//

I got a bug up my butt about it and had to go searching. 

Yep, same case as 5006a.  Apparently the 5006a's were assumed to be used on the go a lot, as all the pics on the net I found showed them with side handles.  It also seems the rear feet are the rear anchor for the side handles.  So they would be part and parcel with the handle.  Probably only came with the handle kit.  The 5006a's manual shows the handle kit but not rear feet as options.

« Last Edit: October 20, 2018, 09:34:55 am by Housedad »
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Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18457 on: October 20, 2018, 09:24:08 am »
12AU7, 12AT7 are Tek-Spare and not for audiophools  :)

Of course I know that too!  :-+ ;D
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Online bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18458 on: October 20, 2018, 09:35:15 am »
You can still get new 12AU7’s and 12AT7’s. Use those in the teks, well the Brimar and Mullard ones to the audio wallies and use the cash to buy more tek things.  :-+
 

Offline Martin.M

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18459 on: October 20, 2018, 09:55:32 am »
in respect to the royals we use british tubes for Tek where the serial No begins with "1"

 8)
« Last Edit: October 20, 2018, 09:57:04 am by Martin.M »
 
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Offline Ero-Shan

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18460 on: October 20, 2018, 10:01:20 am »
With all that talk about LeCroys (granted, it was only I talking :)), I just had to pull my 9450 out of its hiding place (didn't even remember which model I have!) and see how it did. Now that I have a decent signal generator, I'm no longer limited to AF.

The advertised 350 MHz are not too well:



But up to 200 MHz it should be pretty usable:



Of course, all controls show the LeCroy disease. Touching the Y attenuator only slightly makes it jump all over the place from 20 mV/cm to 1 V/cm.

And while I took these pictures, the doorbell rang ... (to be continued)
 

Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18461 on: October 20, 2018, 10:11:20 am »
@bd139, when I discovered you had purchased some Saltpetre and knowing your past history, I got a bit worried especially when I logged onto the BBC news site this morning and discovered that an explosion had last night ripped the whole front face off a house in London, I kid you not. I gave a sigh of relief when I read that it was in Wimbledon and not Twickenham  :phew:
Who let Murphy in?

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Offline Ero-Shan

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18462 on: October 20, 2018, 10:14:32 am »
... and DHL brought another parcel.

There's one thing I don't need any more of: DMMs.

So why did I bid on them? If there needed to be more evidence that I'm insane, it is right here.  |O

Maybe I was teased by getting 4 at once (3 should be working, 1 as parts mule). And they're 4½ digits. Do you think 60 € is justifiable for them? I'm honestly undecided.



BTW: There's a 'parts only' Philips PM 3240X on german ebay. Looks like it was dragged through a swamp. And the seller asks 159 € for it. Un-be-liev-able!
 

Online bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18463 on: October 20, 2018, 10:21:32 am »
@bd139, when I discovered you had purchased some Saltpetre and knowing your past history, I got a bit worried especially when I logged onto the BBC news site this morning and discovered that an explosion had last night ripped the whole front face off a house in London, I kid you not. I gave a sigh of relief when I read that it was in Wimbledon and not Twickenham  :phew:

Hahaha  :-DD

 

Offline Martin.M

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18464 on: October 20, 2018, 10:36:37 am »
With all that talk about LeCroys (granted, it was only I talking :)), I just had to pull my 9450 out of its hiding place (didn't even remember which model I have!) and see how it did. Now that I have a decent signal generator, I'm no longer limited to AF.

The advertised 350 MHz are not too well:



But up to 200 MHz it should be pretty usable:



Of course, all controls show the LeCroy disease. Touching the Y attenuator only slightly makes it jump all over the place from 20 mV/cm to 1 V/cm.

And while I took these pictures, the doorbell rang ... (to be continued)

the Innovators of instrumentation  :)
I have one here where the both 1M input modules are destroyed and don`t know if a day will come I can repair that.
50 ohms works allready. The Dallas batterie is empty, like yours.

Martin
 

Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18465 on: October 20, 2018, 10:39:46 am »
@ Ero-Shan
I would think that 60 Euros for those is a bit of a bargain and TBH, I think that I'd have gone for them as well even though another meter especially 4.5 digit ones is something I don't need but there's a certain something that draws me towards meters. Besides, if you can get them all cleaned up and working, there's always a steady market for them as others slowly work their way upwards towards a better class of equipment. The revenue earned could then put towards buying even more TEA items so the cycle begins.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2018, 10:45:43 am by Specmaster »
Who let Murphy in?

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Offline Martin.M

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18466 on: October 20, 2018, 10:44:59 am »
 you cannot display 300MHz with 1M, go on 50 ohms to see what the scope can do for you.

Martin
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18467 on: October 20, 2018, 11:36:15 am »
On the left. ECC82/12AU7A branded "Daystrom" and made in Great Brittan by Mullard. It's the original 12AU7A in the 1951 Heath V-5 VTVM. (And it's still good).

On the right a brand new 12AU7A made in USA by C.G. Conn, Ltd.

The Heath VTVM currently has a new C.G. Conn 12AU7A installed.

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Offline Martin.M

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18468 on: October 20, 2018, 11:51:25 am »
when the Heath is always in use you can give him a 12AU7WA  (german equivalent is E82CC) long life tube  :)
Martin
 

Offline Ero-Shan

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18469 on: October 20, 2018, 11:58:49 am »
you cannot display 300MHz with 1M, go on 50 ohms to see what the scope can do for you.

Martin

It certainly was at 50 Ω. If you look closely, you can see it even in the display. :)
 

Offline GreyWoolfe

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18470 on: October 20, 2018, 12:11:13 pm »
With all that talk about LeCroys (granted, it was only I talking :)), I just had to pull my 9450 out of its hiding place (didn't even remember which model I have!) and see how it did. Now that I have a decent signal generator, I'm no longer limited to AF.

The advertised 350 MHz are not too well:



But up to 200 MHz it should be pretty usable:



Of course, all controls show the LeCroy disease. Touching the Y attenuator only slightly makes it jump all over the place from 20 mV/cm to 1 V/cm.

And while I took these pictures, the doorbell rang ... (to be continued)

Hey look!!  It's a Lecroy with all of its buttons intact.  That seems to be a rarity when I drool over them on evilBay. :-DD
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Offline Martin.M

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18471 on: October 20, 2018, 12:17:00 pm »
you cannot display 300MHz with 1M, go on 50 ohms to see what the scope can do for you.

Martin

It certainly was at 50 Ω. If you look closely, you can see it even in the display. :)

thank you. Then you are right, the 350MHz are pretty poor.
no compliment for a instrumt of this class..
 

Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18472 on: October 20, 2018, 12:46:17 pm »
A little later than promised, I can now show you the photos of the tds210 and the diff probe. The scope has cleaned up really well, looks almost new as does the diff probe, which only came with the connecting BNC lead, so used some of my plentiful supply of meter leads to make a complete setup that is usable.

When I saw this item for sale (not eBay) it had all the warning signs flashing at me telling me to keep away from it, poorly presented, not photographed working, insufficient details etc. and yet I was inexplicably drawn to it, I think maybe it was the diff probe, although the photo was so poor that I was unable to extract any info from it do a web search for details etc.

The seller was asking £200 or offers so I offered £150, what I thought would be the going rate for something was (although he did say it was working, but we have all been there before when we shouldn't  :palm:) not shown working. My offer was declined but was not going to increase it because of the uncertainties. A few days went by and the seller contacted me stating that he had other offers all with the same figure but seeing as I was first to reply to the advert, if I was still interested I could have it at that. First gut reaction is this a con? Never been approached like that before so was a bit wary as you can imagine. I asked if he could photograph it working for me, and he did, so I said cautiously, I was in if we could get a shipping cost organised, which duly arrived the next day and I accepted it.

Then onto the payment stakes which was a right shambles, his PayPal address gave me all kinds of problems claiming that the seller only accepted payment via his website, which he claimed he didn't have a website, at this stage I was just to call a halt to the whole process as I was getting even more suspicious that it was turning out to be con, that’s when he said that I could perhaps transfer the money directly to his bank account, this made the alarm bells ring really loud in my head and TBH if it was not for the lure of that diff probe, I would have. He gave me his account details but the transaction would not go through, get telling me that the details were incorrect so I rang the bank to find out what was wrong. They told me the sort code was incorrect, so back I go to the seller and asked him to double check the info he gave me and he replied that he had given me the wrong sort code  :palm: which sort of reassured me as he had confirmed what the bank told me. Anyway, payment through and he confirmed that he received the payment and that he would dispatch it the following morning to me.

The following day I got a text message telling me that he had sent it 1st class on an overnight so I would get the following day, still I had little niggles, what if he has done the same thing with the others that had offered the same amount... would I be getting parcel with a brick in it?

The following day, parcel duly arrived, opened it up and was relieved to find everything was there, my fears had so far proved to be groundless. Then I noticed the supplied probes never had the grabbers or the earth lead and croc clips with them. Contacted seller who did a look for them and confirmed that he couldn't find them.

Switched on the scope and if worked OK, did the same with the diff probe, dead. Replaced the battery and the LED came on, hopes were raised once again, connected it and found some meter leads, plugged them and bingo it worked, so all in all not a bad deal after all, despite all the problems along the path.  :-+

Edit:
Notice the increase noise floor however with the diff probe set on 200X range, I suspect that would not the case when dealing with a greater input voltage other then the 5v PP test signal?

« Last Edit: October 20, 2018, 12:53:06 pm by Specmaster »
Who let Murphy in?

Brymen-Fluke-HP-Thurlby-Thander-Tek-Extech-Black Star-GW-Avo-Kyoritsu-Amprobe-ITT-Robin-TTi
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18473 on: October 20, 2018, 01:17:43 pm »
Glad it worked out. You are a lot more trusting than I am. After the first FUBAR with the payment attempt I would have said "see ya".
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #18474 on: October 20, 2018, 01:25:52 pm »
Glad it worked out. You are a lot more trusting than I am. After the first FUBAR with the payment attempt I would have said "see ya".
I would have done the same but it's that diff probe that kept me in the deal. So relieved that it all worked out OK in the end.
Who let Murphy in?

Brymen-Fluke-HP-Thurlby-Thander-Tek-Extech-Black Star-GW-Avo-Kyoritsu-Amprobe-ITT-Robin-TTi
 


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