What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[Bud]

That is where a thermal camera would shine. Power the bus with a current limiting power supply like 1V 200-500mA (start with less) and look at the board. The dead part will heat up and you will see it.

[McBryce]

That is where a thermal camera would shine. Power the bus with a current limiting power supply like 1V 200-500mA (start with less) and look at the board. The dead part will heat up and you will see it.

That's what I call "Lazy diagnosis" and is also what I regularly do! But most of my repairs are 80's digital (TTL) devices with endless rows of 74 series IC's. A Thermal camera is your best friend in those situations.

McBryce.

[pizzigri]

A Rigol DG811 that has been promptly hacked to DG922 status. Thanks to TV84.

[m k]

Latest arrival.

STK-0050 clone, not tested yet.
(050DBF5G)

[jonpaul]

 Bonjour,   a 1940 tube radio size of a small book, with 1V miniature 7 pin tubes and   original  67V battery

RCA RB-10

Used at start  wwii by SOE 170 were shipped out from USA >>SOE<<French Résistance before the "spy sets" were deployed.

 My Grandfather had a similar Emerson, I recall from 1952

Anyone else have these old tube portable sets?

Jon

[jonpaul]

Bonjour

Worked  telephone interconnectand patents.

Just recieved these 1970s Bell System Linemans set and tone tool like banana tracer.

Linemen's set has talk/monitor and original cloth leads and clips.

  tracers  use 9V battery like an AA cell.

All others use 9V transistor battery.

Tone generators (square and rectangular yellow) generate a talk battery and have an early LED or alternating distinctive tones high low.

Anyone else interested in vintage telephone tools or gear?

Jon

[rpiloverbd]

My latest purchase of electronics components was some sensors. Metal-touch sensor, Avoidance sensor, Tracking sensor, Shock sensor, Tap sensor, Joystick etc.

[wkb]

Two HP 59306A HPIB controlled relay boxes. 1973 era design, these were built in 1979. Complete HPIB implemented in TTL, and on fully gold plated PCBs. No cost spared 

One of the boxes will house my homegrown RF power meter, the other one I left alone. Threw some Python scripts at it via the HPIB. Works fine. As a useful side effect from dismantling one: qty 18 HP binding posts 

[TerraHertz]

An HP 8770A Arbitrary waveform synthesizer. See HP catalogs
  1986 pg 450  1st mention
  1992 pg 455  OPT H12  digital data output.
  1997         Last brief mention

Relatively cheap ($160) due to dented front panel, broken off power button, and front status "error" light lit.

I'd noticed in seller's pictures the two clock loop-back cables on the rear were absent, and hopefully that would be the reason for the "Fault" light.

Fixing the bent panel and broken button switch both met difficulties. That's another story.

Once done, with the loop cables in place now it powers up without the fault light. So hopefully it's working.

Still need to set up some kind of HPIB control system, to run it. It seems to have had a few versions of software for wave generation, that ran on various platforms. Does anyone know anything about those?

I aim to do a teardown. Especially since there _might_ be a screw and nut still loose somewhere in the machine, that had worked loose from the fan mounting. Missing, no apparent rattles in the case and hopefully they are gone. But it would be nice to be sure.

This machine is another instance of a manual with schematics existing, but when you check it turns out that HP chose to omit schematics for one or more crucial boards. With the manual claiming along the lines 'Board not repairable, return to HP for replacement.'  Translated: "We just don't want to give out circuits for some boards, because secret."

[m k]

Latest arrival.

4-wire short from China.

Delivery time 1 month, pretty fast.

Though for a reason or another customs is still processing.
My guess is relabeling.

[wkb]

LCR meter. Bought it via eBay JP, free shipping with Fedex, which made it significantly cheaper than buying local. Even if a customs invoice were to follow, which I currently wonder about as there was only a Fedex address slip attached to it. 

[McBryce]

LCR meter. Bought it via eBay JP, free shipping with Fedex, which made it significantly cheaper than buying local. Even if a customs invoice were to follow, which I currently wonder about as there was only a Fedex address slip attached to it. 

The DER EE DE-5000, great device. You should have ordered some of the attachments at the same time. Well worth having.

McBryce.

[Martin72]

Agree to it, mine came also from ebay JP with "everything" - and it was much more cheaper as when buying it extra.

My buy of the day:

Hioki Milliohm-Meter, used, handle is missing - but works perfectly 

[wkb]

LCR meter. Bought it via eBay JP, free shipping with Fedex, which made it significantly cheaper than buying local. Even if a customs invoice were to follow, which I currently wonder about as there was only a Fedex address slip attached to it. 

The DER EE DE-5000, great device. You should have ordered some of the attachments at the same time. Well worth having.

McBryce.

Oh, I intentionally bought it "bare", plan the create my own accesories. Because I can, no real good reason otherwise.

Nice design I think, and robust build quality.  Have seen much, much worse.

[Ground_Loop]

Grabbed another basket case off Ebay.  Kikusui PLZ 300 seen here after a thorough cleaning, repair and tune up. Now working perfectly.



Other than the two digital voltmeter chips driving the displays it is entirely analog.  No keeper battery, no firmware to rev. and no digital interfacing.  The output signal is analog voltage, the display decimal points are comparator driven, switching frequency and PW is via 555s, and even the power calculation is performed by an analog multiplier chip.

[SpookyGhost]

I got myself this "KAIWEETS" branded clamp meter for a grand total of $68. It does inrush and seems pretty accurate

Right now I don't think I can justify a Fluke for home use. This seems to do the job

Here I'm measuring inrush on my 4 Ton AC

[Ed.Kloonk]

I got myself this "KAIWEETS" branded clamp meter for a grand total of $68. It does inrush and seems pretty accurate

Right now I don't think I can justify a Fluke for home use. This seems to do the job

Here I'm measuring inrush on my 4 Ton AC

Give us a 1 to 10 on the range switch feel.

[SpookyGhost]

I got myself this "KAIWEETS" branded clamp meter for a grand total of $68. It does inrush and seems pretty accurate

Right now I don't think I can justify a Fluke for home use. This seems to do the job

Here I'm measuring inrush on my 4 Ton AC

Give us a 1 to 10 on the range switch feel.

Its not the best, but it works. Maybe a 6/10. My main gripe with it is that there isn't much grip. If you don't have it held secure, turning it can be a challenge. The action itself seems fine though. Greasy hands? Forget it.

For some, that could be a positive as there is no way you are going to bump it on in the bag though

[McBryce]

LCR meter. Bought it via eBay JP, free shipping with Fedex, which made it significantly cheaper than buying local. Even if a customs invoice were to follow, which I currently wonder about as there was only a Fedex address slip attached to it. 

The DER EE DE-5000, great device. You should have ordered some of the attachments at the same time. Well worth having.

McBryce.

Oh, I intentionally bought it "bare", plan the create my own accesories. Because I can, no real good reason otherwise.

Nice design I think, and robust build quality.  Have seen much, much worse.

I built myself some other attachments anyway (also because I could). My files here might be of use to you if you have a 3D Printer: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/de-5000-lcr-tl-21-mod/

McBryce.

[david77]

A nice HP6112A arrived today. I paid too much for it but I don't care. I've lusted after one for along time and they're like hen's teeth here. I'm still checking it out but so far all is well. Even all the electrolytics show perfect capacity & ESR values - nothing to do.

Now I'm back at the hen and egg problem: Who's correct HP or the Fluke? Mind you neither one has warmed up properly yet.
Ah, the joys of light volt nuttery  .

[ChristofferB]

A nice HP6112A arrived today. I paid too much for it but I don't care. I've lusted after one for along time and they're like hen's teeth here. I'm still checking it out but so far all is well. Even all the electrolytics show perfect capacity & ESR values - nothing to do.

Now I'm back at the hen and egg problem: Who's correct HP or the Fluke? Mind you neither one has warmed up properly yet.
Ah, the joys of light volt nuttery  .

The decade thumb wheels are a really nice idea! Makes it easy to hit the same setting every time.

I got a whole lot of PTFE stuff: Rod and a spool of wire. Very nice for high voltage/impedance/vacuum stuff!

I also got a strange vacuum assembly, just for the hardware. Turned out a bonus was hiding inside: The smallest mass spectrometer I have ever seen!

[Keith956]

Scored myself a nice HP 4140B on Ebay, $290 delivered.  The last cal sticker is mid 2016.  Both voltage sources check out accurate against my K 6500 as well as their respective current limit functions.  Offsets on all ranges are in the range of +/- .003.  With a very rudimentary high resistance setup I was able to confirm current measurement functions.  Now I need proper fixtures and cables and will officially have my toe in volt nut waters.

(Attachment Link)

Nice one. Check the RIFA capacitor which you'll find near the power socket at the back - its worth replacing it before it goes phut. I also replaced the fan on mine with a quieter Papst one.

[DiTBho]

Chuwi Larkbook X intel "Jasper Lake" Laptop!
Not too bad, paid 300 UKP, loaded with Linux

[gamalot]

A pair of Pomona 5291A-60-0/2 test leads, some RF shields and clips.

[deadlylover]

Sometimes I worry that my phone will stay awake the whole night and the battery will drain before the alarm goes off.

Problem solved...? Maybe I should also buy an extra cheaper model as backup too.