Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[neo]

But i have to ship it back, that is the problem. At least thats what they said. Going to pay for that are they?

EDIT; that came off way more passive aggressive than i intended.

Pay for it they will; one photo of the damaged box and destroyed CD will take care of that.

Nope no box. Just an envelope.

[neo]

M&M, WCH

I'd buy you a beer if i could, poked around and turns out they WILL foot the bill. I am way too conditioned when it comes to what to expect when i see that i have to return it.

[0culus]

And just like that, all my HPAK test equipment has rack handles. Makes moving things around so much easier, especially with an actual move coming up...

[tggzzz]

No, you can buy them from many places; mine came from an anonymous warehouse in a trading estate at the eastern end of the tube lines But the Royal Mint isn't far from me, and I would just go and pick it up. (Old joke derived from an older advertising campaign for Polo mints: Llantrisant is the hole with the mint in it.)

The face value of a  is £100, so if the GBP falls you "ought" to be able to buy it cheaper

Actually, the USD/XAU rate is independent of the GBP/anything rate, so the exchange rate wouldn't really affect you much.

This whole deal is just fraught with "no fucking way" 

Or you could... I dunno... PP the guy and let him turn it into a Britannia when he feels like he can be arsed to.   

Not acceptable, but if you gave me a Britannia then I'd give you USD200

Well then, the fault here is a matter of information exchange, not financial instrument exchange. Telling med that the face value of the posited "1 Britannia" is £100 does him no good if that isn't the amount you can buy one for. 

The face value of £100 is actually very important to me: it is the mechanism by which I can avoid capital gains tax if it goes up in value. Even HMRC isn't stupid enough to try to claim CGT on coins of the realm. "Your £1 coin is now worth £1.29, so you owe me tax on 29p"

Just as telling him you'd give back US$200 for one Britannia is not the same as telling him how much you can buy one for, or saying how much of any specific currency you'd accept in its place, including the hassle of dealing with procurement of said "1 Britannia" yourself.

Currently I'm only interested in swapping it for golden coins. I might consider swapping it for something else, say an all expenses paid trip to Borobudur or Sigirya, but I'd have to give that some thought.

[tggzzz]

That's why I said "no fucking way"  . Besides...shipping would be a killer. 

For 1 Britannia, I'd throw in shipping for free. Well packed too: plenty of bubblewrap, box, foam rubber, a second box - no problem.

This site allows you to buy Britannias in USD, thus removing (imagined) problems with currency exchange rates.
https://www.coininvest.com/en/gold-coins/britannia/

[mnementh]

But i have to ship it back, that is the problem. At least thats what they said. Going to pay for that are they?

EDIT; that came off way more passive aggressive than i intended.

Pay for it they will; one photo of the damaged box and destroyed CD will take care of that.

Nope no box. Just an envelope.

Yes, absolutely they will. Envelope, box, freight on pallet - makes no matter. Amazon is not fleaBay. They provide 100% free returns on everything they sell, especially if it is a matter of damaged or faulty goods.

Even if this is a marketplace seller, you should call Amazon Customer Service at 888.280.4331.

Cheers,

mnem
*Veteran of a thousand psychic wars eBay & Amazon purchases*

[mnementh]

That's why I said "no fucking way"  . Besides...shipping would be a killer. 

For 1 Britannia, I'd throw in shipping for free. Well packed too: plenty of bubblewrap, box, foam rubber, a second box - no problem.

This site allows you to buy Britannias in USD, thus removing (imagined) problems with currency exchange rates.
https://www.coininvest.com/en/gold-coins/britannia/

Ahhh.... yes. Now there's the other shoe. The coin you speak of is 1oz of 99.99% pure gold. That translates to something a little north of US$1300 right now.

Sorry... never have been much of a precious metals investor. Not because of the metal or investing, but because of all the scammery that follows any such endeavour like a cloud of doomy piranhas.

mnem
It's not about the coin... it's about the quan.

[med6753]

Yep, I purchased a Rigol DMM from Amazon thru a 3rd party. Got it and it was defective. Notified Amazon customer service. Within a day I was e-mailed a pre-paid return label from the 3rd party to ship it back to them. The only thing I had to do was drive to a UPS store and hand it to them.

And within a week my account was credited. 

[worsthorse]

I sometimes wonder if I am break some rule; whenever I have a question I ask it here rather than in one of the other forums. If so, please chastise me via PM and I will address my errant behavior.

In the meantime, has anyone used one of these:



found here whilst procrastinating at my desk

https://www.circuitspecialists.com/csi835b.html

to preheat PCBs or to do reflow? LSeems too good to be true but then I am a cynical old bas---d )and I haven't done much SMD being tiny part, solder paste, and microscope phobic).

[SilverSolder]

eBay also provides free return shipping for "Item not as described", for example.   I have returned many electronics items due to not being as described.

Undisclosed missing parts, for example...  one thing is selling something for repair or not working, another is sending an empty chassis and expecting you to fill it with boards!  -  Seller always loses that argument in a dispute if it was not disclosed in the ad.  "How can I repair something that's not there?" usually does the trick.

[worsthorse]

M&M, WCH

I'd buy you a beer if i could, poked around and turns out they WILL foot the bill. I am way too conditioned when it comes to what to expect when i see that i have to return it.

Excellent news! 

[mnementh]

I sometimes wonder if I am break some rule; whenever I have a question I ask it here rather than in one of the other forums. If so, please chastise me via PM and I will address my errant behavior.

In the meantime, has anyone used one of these:

   found here whilst procrastinating at my desk
https://www.circuitspecialists.com/csi835b.html

to preheat PCBs or to do reflow? LSeems too good to be true but then I am a cynical old bas---d )and I haven't done much SMD being tiny part, solder paste, and microscope phobic).

Looks like a clone/rebrand/copy of a copy of an Aoyue 853; they come in various shapes, but all roughly this same size workspace. see below. They work well used as intended: to preheat the work so manual reflow has a higher success rate. Nearly an absolute necessity to have any reasonable success with BGA bigger than 10mm².

You can do reflow with it alone in some limited use cases and mass-desoldering parts to pick them off, but for most work you will also need a hot air gun and a handful of nozzles.

mnem
 

[tggzzz]

That's why I said "no fucking way"  . Besides...shipping would be a killer. 

For 1 Britannia, I'd throw in shipping for free. Well packed too: plenty of bubblewrap, box, foam rubber, a second box - no problem.

This site allows you to buy Britannias in USD, thus removing (imagined) problems with currency exchange rates.
https://www.coininvest.com/en/gold-coins/britannia/

Ahhh.... yes. Now there's the other shoe. The coin you speak of is 1oz of 99.99% pure gold. That translates to something a little north of US$1300 right now.

Sorry... never have been much of a precious metals investor. Not because of the metal or investing, but because of all the scammery that follows any such endeavour like a cloud of doomy piranhas

Curiously I don't see any scammers. It is speculation, a gamble, pure and simple.

At least that's the case if you have the metal in your possession; virtual possession of something held in a vault relies on believing in the company's trustworthiness. Just like paper money "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of £1", and all that.

[GregDunn]

Yes, absolutely they will. Envelope, box, freight on pallet - makes no matter. Amazon is not fleaBay. They provide 100% free returns on everything they sell, especially if it is a matter of damaged or faulty goods.

I bought a CD set via Amazon and it was shipped USPS.  Someone along the way sliced the package open and took the CD out.  The package was stuck in a USPS bag and forwarded along to me to show that it happened before the local PO took possession of it.

One quick call to Amazon, photos of the carnage, and they immediately credited my account while I was ordering a replacement set.  You really can't ask for much more than that.

[mnementh]

Curiously I don't see any scammers. It is speculation, a gamble, pure and simple.

At least that's the case if you have the metal in your possession; virtual possession of something held in a vault relies on believing in the company's trustworthiness. Just like paper money "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of £1", and all that.

The piranhas usually swarm around the point of purchase, not point of pocket. Unless you're dumb enough to let people know IRL you actually have any of them. 

mnem
"Always some muthaf***a tryin' ta ski uphill..."

[tautech]

I sometimes wonder if I am break some rule; whenever I have a question I ask it here rather than in one of the other forums. If so, please chastise me via PM and I will address my errant behavior.

In the meantime, has anyone used one of these:

   found here whilst procrastinating at my desk
https://www.circuitspecialists.com/csi835b.html

to preheat PCBs or to do reflow? LSeems too good to be true but then I am a cynical old bas---d )and I haven't done much SMD being tiny part, solder paste, and microscope phobic).

Looks like a clone/rebrand/copy of a copy of an Aoyue 853; they come in various shapes, but all roughly this same size workspace. see below. They work well used as intended: to preheat the work so manual reflow has a higher success rate. Nearly an absolute necessity to have any reasonable success with BGA bigger than 10mm².

You can do reflow with it alone in some limited use cases, but for most work you will also need a hot air gun and a handful of nozzles.

mnem
 

+1
Unless a PCB has lots of layers, lots of stitching vias or BGA's, hot air alone will do most rework and it's quite OK for reflow if you have a little practice and don't hit it with too much air.
You don't need to invest much for SMD just for the odd job.

When you get into trouble with insufficient heat use the sand in fry pan trick tggzzz offered a few pages back.

[mnementh]

Unfortunately, those scenarios are more and more common every day in every aspect of electronics. I specifically stated they are almost a necessity for BGA, which are also more and more common every day.

The reasons preheating increases your success rate are multi-fold; it ensures everything is really dry so no popping, and it means you can turn the flow down much lower on your hot air and use a smaller nozzle yet still have proper reflow, which greatly decreases the chance of dislodging or scorching adjacent components. But the main reason for it is thermal shock: Lots of modern components have ceramic structure; being able to heat/cool the work evenly/slowly greatly improves your success rate.

A modern, closed loop IR preheater does the whole heat/work/cool cycle better and more conveniently than pretty much anything else, except maybe a dedicated oven. Plus, they're cheap. ~$100 gets you started on fleaBay.

mnem
Or both. 

[0culus]

Got the fresh 4U handles on the 8664A. Looks way better now.  I also contacted Keysight calibration to enquire about this instrument's history. The nice gentleman that helped me found and sent me the complete cal report from Aug 2013, which is the last time it was seen by them (under the Agilent name at the time).

[mnementh]

Effing eBay...

So, after like 5 messages (10 total) back & forth, I finally get an offer of a $10 refund on my $58 Octa-core Processor that arrived 5 days later than the "Fast & Free Guaranteed 4-Day shipping".

I was thinking 20%... which is like $12... before I had to explain the same thing 3 times to 4 different people. But the part of me that didn't get to play with it over the weekend is still severely pissed and still feels hosed.

However... that part of me also REALLY wants to play with it, now that it has finally ARRIVED. 

I'm just fucking exhausted; today has been a day of going around and around in circles and getting nothing accomplished because of that stupid car accident last week and the insurance and the adjuster and the collision center and the effing car rental not being able to all get their shit together.

What was supposed to be "Oh, we can do this any time; whenever it's convenient for you!" (Imagine that said several times in a voice so cheerful-chirpy you wanna strangle someone  ) became a whole morning/afternoon of phone-tag & Scheduling-Conflict Jenga ultimately resulting in "We can schedule this for you tomorrow at 9:00 AM!"... when my wife decided this morning that TODAY was when she could trade vehicles with me.

So... back to my original misery... Whaddaya-all think? Take the money and run... go play with my new Octa-Core? Or is that just my exhaustion talking and I should hold out for more, considering the amount of BS involved?

mnem
And of course, she gave me the car dead on [E] 

[factory]

I have one of these (minus droppings), so I'm not interested
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-TEKTRONIX-TYPE-191-CONSTANT-AMPLITUDE-SIGNAL-GENERATOR/264253532210
They are fun, but do look at the signal and power connectors.

I've never seen that connector. I have seen older Tek scopes that have UHF connectors for inputs, though.  That would drive me nuts...I know tons of radios have them, but I hate them and make a conscious effort to minimize them in my lab.

Ahh, yes, the GENRAD hermaphrodite connectors.  Quite clever, actually, but a bit of a PITA to source these days.  I saw them live and in person for the first time at the TRW swap meet out in CA a few years ago; a vendor there had a bunch from a shop he'd bought out.  I had no need, so I didn't buy any.  Of course later that afternoon, what do I buy at Apex but a Tek 191 that takes them.  And of course, he wasn't at the next few TRW meets I managed to time a visit for, so I wound up finding some on the bay.

-Pat

I solved that problem a few years back, by buying this ex-mil set of GENRAD adaptors (before anyone asks the missing two adaptors are in the kitchen with the HP 8640B & another pair of the GR cables) and some attenuators to go with them.

That & the mention of TDR's got me searching ePay again, just put an offer on a HP 874A calibrated susceptance & GR air line to use with the two 1415A TDR plug-ins I have (which are riddled with tunnel diodes too).

David

[med6753]

I sometimes wonder if I am break some rule; whenever I have a question I ask it here rather than in one of the other forums. If so, please chastise me via PM and I will address my errant behavior.

In the meantime, has anyone used one of these:

What rule? You see any rules here?  I don't.  Have a question? Ask away. If one of us knows the answer you'll get an answer. If we don't we'll try to direct you towards an answer. It's that simple. Don't sweat it. 

[0culus]

More goodness from the vintageTek youtube channel:

[med6753]

More goodness from the vintageTek youtube channel:

And unfortunately most, if not all of it, is gone now. Subcontracted assembly to China. I suspect the only thing left in Beaverton is engineering development. 

[mnementh]

Oh FFS...

Got the kids, give my wife back her car... came back home & go to wash a pot so I can make some Mac & Cheese for the little blighters, and the sink drain blows apart, dumping a sinkful of water in all the crap under the sink. 

Ifni save me, I swear as soon as my wife gets home I'm going to bed.

mnem
The monsters can't get me under all these covers!!! Right?!? Right? right...?

[bd139]

That happened to me a few years ago. It flooded the kitchen to the point it got under the lino. After a week it stank. So dude came to replace the lino, which was there when we moved in and found asbestos floor tiles. Those had to come out at great expense. I took all the kitchen units out, floor was screeded, reassembled the kitchen, then new lino. Cost just short of £1800 that fuck up 

On TEA material, some restoration work done...

As received. Date code is 1972. Tube in it is date code 1958 and is Heathkit branded. They must have bought a metric ton of the damn things.



After waaaay too much OCD:



Waiting for parts to arrive for the electrical refurb. Evicted a double electrolytic cap, selenium stinker and some shitty soldering so far.