Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 14560806 times)

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Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29075 on: April 10, 2019, 11:16:58 pm »
Yep.  :-+
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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29076 on: April 10, 2019, 11:18:28 pm »
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.  :-DD

VTVM lead kit finally arrived from the US  :-+. And of course being the impatient bugger I am, I spent lunch time assembling them and calibrating the VTVM. All working absolutely perfectly. All ranges spot on cal. This is actually a really really nice instrument. New probes are authentic "insta-death" style which is very cool. DC probe might get some shrink around the tip a bit so I don't accidentally zap myself on anything HV



Next step is cosmetic restoration. Need to work out how to get rid of that "10" right slap bang in the middle of it. Looks like it was big ass letraset + varnish. Will work that one out later.

That's a nice one, bd. The probes are pretty scary. One slip...

If the "10" is hard to remove, I'd probably just leave it. Seems to have been done pretty well. Not partially missing or applied crooked.
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Offline Neomys Sapiens

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29077 on: April 10, 2019, 11:25:40 pm »
As I have noted that some co-addicts are into HP8660-worship, I wanted to tell that there are 2 auctions on Ebay.de, one of which is the allegedly rare test plugin and the other a 110MHz RF section.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/HP-11707A-Test-Plugin-fur-HP-8660C-Synthesized-Signal-Generator-extrem-selten/283443195687

https://www.ebay.de/itm/HP-86601A-RF-Section-0-01-110-MHz-2/283443197992
 

Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29078 on: April 10, 2019, 11:38:51 pm »
Firely is religion in this house. In fact I'm sitting here with a firefly T-shirt on  :o

Edit: as much of a selfie as I'll ever do. T-shirt neatly fits in with the other comments made :D



Cool. I watch the whole series again about once a year. Hallmark released a Serenity ornament last year. Of course, had to get that.

Woah, the prices from these third party ornament shops is crazy. It's even more crazy on Amazon. I should've bought extras. :-DD
« Last Edit: April 10, 2019, 11:41:16 pm by bitseeker »
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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29079 on: April 10, 2019, 11:43:00 pm »
Another power meter joins the collection. 432A, but most importantly, this one came with a 478A thermistor mount. I also got the special old style line cord for the 431B, which enjoyed a successful power up with no dramatics.

Nice catch! How much did that set you back?
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Offline beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29080 on: April 10, 2019, 11:46:00 pm »
Firely is religion in this house. In fact I'm sitting here with a firefly T-shirt on  :o

Edit: as much of a selfie as I'll ever do. T-shirt neatly fits in with the other comments made :D



Cool. I watch the whole series again about once a year. Hallmark released a Serenity ornament last year. Of course, had to get that.

Woah, the prices from these third party ornament shops is crazy. It's even more crazy on Amazon. I should've bought extras. :-DD

Stop complaining and get printing ;) https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=SERENITY&dwh=785cae7f88e941c
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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29081 on: April 10, 2019, 11:50:26 pm »
Hehe! Really nice paint job on that 3D logo. :-+
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29082 on: April 10, 2019, 11:51:35 pm »
Jeez... I wonder what the licensed resin one I got from DragonCon in 2005 is worth... it was commissioned for the event.

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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29083 on: April 10, 2019, 11:52:40 pm »
Pics! :D
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29084 on: April 11, 2019, 12:04:25 am »
Yep.  :-+
Last time I saw a table that was Jim's it was covered with discrete parts while repairing a scope for his friend.
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Offline 0culus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29085 on: April 11, 2019, 12:50:08 am »
Another power meter joins the collection. 432A, but most importantly, this one came with a 478A thermistor mount. I also got the special old style line cord for the 431B, which enjoyed a successful power up with no dramatics.

Nice catch! How much did that set you back?

$300, which is substantially less than good thermistor mounts seem to sell for by themselves. It does work! Probably needs cal though, as the (unbroken) HP cal sticker on the thermistor is dated due in 1998.
« Last Edit: April 11, 2019, 01:10:26 am by 0culus »
 

Offline beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29086 on: April 11, 2019, 01:28:45 am »
So I got bored with cleaning up and sorting screws from their multiple repositories into some sort of order. Dad's, Mine and others... |O

Inside the Racal SA535 Frequency Counter. Interesting it runs a Crystal Oven @ 1MHz. Looks like I will need to do a board by board clean as it has most of it's 50+ years of dust inside. Each of the bulbs is 12V @ 100mA might explain why the vintage Transistors tended to fail, there is a display timer on the front panel to help I guess. Each of the decade blocks carries 2 spare bulbs and they all appear to be good so I have a dozen spare.

Link to the Manual http://eww.ko4bb.com/manuals/121.219.19.120/Racal_SA.535_Universal_Counter_Timer_OM139.8.65.500_Issue_3.pdf

EDIT: added photos of front and back for POI completeness.

« Last Edit: April 11, 2019, 07:52:00 am by beanflying »
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Online tautech

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29087 on: April 11, 2019, 01:56:48 am »
Man, really old germanium stuff !  :o

Found a pdf with some specs that you might be able to use for X reference:
https://www.datasheet.live/index.php?title=Special:PdfViewer&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpdf.datasheet.live%2Fd10c1555%2Fdatasheet.directory%2FOC71.pdf
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29088 on: April 11, 2019, 03:09:04 am »
Pics! :D

When I find it... that stuff's all with my Farscape Memorabilia. I know it's in there somewhere... but haven't unearthed it yet. :o

And I just discovered that my dryer circuit breaker has died... with a dead gecko under the breaker next to it.  :-[

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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29089 on: April 11, 2019, 03:25:03 am »
Another power meter joins the collection. 432A, but most importantly, this one came with a 478A thermistor mount. I also got the special old style line cord for the 431B, which enjoyed a successful power up with no dramatics.

Nice catch! How much did that set you back?

$300, which is substantially less than good thermistor mounts seem to sell for by themselves. It does work! Probably needs cal though, as the (unbroken) HP cal sticker on the thermistor is dated due in 1998.

That's not bad. The lowest I saw for a working 478A was close to $400.
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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29090 on: April 11, 2019, 03:28:30 am »
Inside the Racal SA535.

Cool! Added to the POI.
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Offline Tomorokoshi

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29091 on: April 11, 2019, 03:31:54 am »
So I got bored with cleaning up and sorting screws from their multiple repositories into some sort of order. Dad's, Mine and others... |O

Inside the Racal SA535. Interesting it runs a Crystal Oven @ 1MHz. Looks like I will need to do a board by board clean as it has most of it's 50+ years of dust inside. Each of the bulbs is 12V @ 100mA might explain why the vintage Transistors tended to fail, there is a display timer on the front panel to help I guess. Each of the decade blocks carries 2 spare bulbs and they all appear to be good so I have a dozen spare.

Are those tin whiskers in the second photograph?
 

Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29092 on: April 11, 2019, 03:32:13 am »
Pics! :D

When I find it... that stuff's all with my Farscape Memorabilia. I know it's in there somewhere... but haven't unearthed it yet. :o

For a future random topic of the day diversion. ;)

Quote
And I just discovered that my dryer circuit breaker has died... with a dead gecko under the breaker next to it.  :-[

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Offline beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29093 on: April 11, 2019, 03:37:44 am »
So I got bored with cleaning up and sorting screws from their multiple repositories into some sort of order. Dad's, Mine and others... |O

Inside the Racal SA535. Interesting it runs a Crystal Oven @ 1MHz. Looks like I will need to do a board by board clean as it has most of it's 50+ years of dust inside. Each of the bulbs is 12V @ 100mA might explain why the vintage Transistors tended to fail, there is a display timer on the front panel to help I guess. Each of the decade blocks carries 2 spare bulbs and they all appear to be good so I have a dozen spare.

Are those tin whiskers in the second photograph?

Unsure, I have put the top back on until I have the time to do a proper strip/clean and restoration. Could be just lint and dust bunnies but I will take a look under the magnifying gear when I do.  :-//
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Offline 0culus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29094 on: April 11, 2019, 05:04:27 am »
Another power meter joins the collection. 432A, but most importantly, this one came with a 478A thermistor mount. I also got the special old style line cord for the 431B, which enjoyed a successful power up with no dramatics.

Nice catch! How much did that set you back?

$300, which is substantially less than good thermistor mounts seem to sell for by themselves. It does work! Probably needs cal though, as the (unbroken) HP cal sticker on the thermistor is dated due in 1998.

That's not bad. The lowest I saw for a working 478A was close to $400.

Yeah, they are expensive because they are still used to calibrate more modern open loop style RF power meters. Keysight actually still works on the 478A thermistor mounts, and lists it for sale from third party distributors. My plan is to do just that; get a more modern open loop meter and use this to calibrate it after sending it to get freshly calibrated (whether I pop for NIST traceable or not...probably not for hobby use).

I did some testing tonight after reading the manuals for the 432A and the 478A. The 478A still has all the cal seals intact, and according to the label, had a NIST traceable cal done on 11/18/97, which came due 11/18/98. The good news? The power meter and my 8566A appear to agree almost exactly. The bad news is my 8664A probably needs calibration, as it is showing about 0.4 dBm off. This particular 478A is a -H88 option which means it's a 1 GHz rather than a 10 GHz mount. But that's ok with me as my intended use case is calibrating the 50 MHz cal signal on an open loop meter. :)
 

Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29095 on: April 11, 2019, 05:39:07 am »
Does it still have its calibration factor information? I noticed in the photos, you had the meter always at 100%.
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Offline 0culus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29096 on: April 11, 2019, 05:40:00 am »
Yes, that was the closest I could get to the 99.1% cal factor it is labeled for @ 100 MHz. [edit] I'm an idiot, I should have had it on the dot in the middle.  :palm: [edit edit] So with the cal factor knob on the 99 detent I now get -9.5 dBm for the 8664A set at -10 dBm.
« Last Edit: April 11, 2019, 05:58:09 am by 0culus »
 

Online tggzzz

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29097 on: April 11, 2019, 07:26:56 am »
A very nice 453 has appeared on eBay UK.  Buyer collects. 180 mile round trip for me. Worth it. I will fight anyone to the death on that one, if I don't spend all my moolah at Kempton

The vendor has literally saved me from killing myself on many occasions :) 

He can also be found on TekScopes, and is also skilled at repairing some items that won't fit in a house.

Summary: I would expect it to be a good purchase.
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
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Online tggzzz

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29098 on: April 11, 2019, 07:51:28 am »
So I got bored with cleaning up and sorting screws from their multiple repositories into some sort of order. Dad's, Mine and others... |O

Inside the Racal SA535. Interesting it runs a Crystal Oven @ 1MHz. Looks like I will need to do a board by board clean as it has most of it's 50+ years of dust inside. Each of the bulbs is 12V @ 100mA might explain why the vintage Transistors tended to fail, there is a display timer on the front panel to help I guess. Each of the decade blocks carries 2 spare bulbs and they all appear to be good so I have a dozen spare.

Are those tin whiskers in the second photograph?

Unsure, I have put the top back on until I have the time to do a proper strip/clean and restoration. Could be just lint and dust bunnies but I will take a look under the magnifying gear when I do.  :-//

In my limited experience, those aren't tin whiskers.

Individual tin whiskers tend to be straight, but many of them can look like fuzzy dust, e.g. https://www.flickr.com/photos/anachrocomputer/36125222306/in/album-72157684032987114/
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #29099 on: April 11, 2019, 08:00:22 am »
A very nice 453 has appeared on eBay UK.  Buyer collects. 180 mile round trip for me. Worth it. I will fight anyone to the death on that one, if I don't spend all my moolah at Kempton

The vendor has literally saved me from killing myself on many occasions :) 

He can also be found on TekScopes, and is also skilled at repairing some items that won't fit in a house.

Summary: I would expect it to be a good purchase.

Excellent. Good to know. You never know if a wally has been in something (my last 453 was basically fubar inside when I got it).

So I got bored with cleaning up and sorting screws from their multiple repositories into some sort of order. Dad's, Mine and others... |O

Inside the Racal SA535. Interesting it runs a Crystal Oven @ 1MHz. Looks like I will need to do a board by board clean as it has most of it's 50+ years of dust inside. Each of the bulbs is 12V @ 100mA might explain why the vintage Transistors tended to fail, there is a display timer on the front panel to help I guess. Each of the decade blocks carries 2 spare bulbs and they all appear to be good so I have a dozen spare.

Are those tin whiskers in the second photograph?

Unsure, I have put the top back on until I have the time to do a proper strip/clean and restoration. Could be just lint and dust bunnies but I will take a look under the magnifying gear when I do.  :-//

In my limited experience, those aren't tin whiskers.

Individual tin whiskers tend to be straight, but many of them can look like fuzzy dust, e.g. https://www.flickr.com/photos/anachrocomputer/36125222306/in/album-72157684032987114/

Here's some actual tin whiskers I experienced. They were inside the reference oscillator in the 7L12 I had last year. They were brushed off carefully and then the boards hoovered out with a mini-vac. The whiskers were launching themselves off the sides of the RF shielding into the board. They hadn't caused a short (yet) but you can see where that was heading!

(picture left large on this one)

 


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