Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Per Hansson]

This other week I decided to change the resistors for the HV multiplier in my Tektronix 2215.
They have component designation: R878, R879, R880, R881, R882, and R884.
Only after did I realize that the originals where not carbon composition but film resistors.
So it was a pointless endeavor and they all measured fine, but hey, it's pictures of Tek gear so how can you complain?

[Neomys Sapiens]

The AVO in-circuit transistor tester (alleged in-circuit transistor destroyer) from Britain is here. Accessories are complete, condition is mint. The mention of 3 1.5V batteries got me alarmed, but they were not fitted and had not misbehaved before. 
Need to read into that description and will show it when an occasion for it's use arises.

[TERRA Operative]

This other week I decided to change the resistors for the HV multiplier in my Tektronix 2215.
They have component designation: R878, R879, R880, R881, R882, and R884.
Only after did I realize that the originals where not carbon composition but film resistors.
So it was a pointless endeavor and they all measured fine, but hey, it's pictures of Tek gear so how can you complain?

Don't worry, there's lots of other carbon comp resistors in there to poke at. I often find them to be out of spec in the gear I repair.
I would be careful about swapping them out, just be sure they won't affect the adjustment of the scope (unless you can readjust it).

Also, I HATE those blue top trimpots. They have always been faulty and crap in my TM500 modules. Often the grey top ones aren't much better. I usually replace them with Bourns multiturn trimpots to allow me to really dial in the adjustments.

[mansaxel]

FreeBSD server now is a very happy 13.0-RELEASE-p7 machine that knows about all its volume groups. (on a ZFS system, I always name the system zpool "rootvg" for obvious, attractive raven black reasons) Took a few hours of googling and iDRAC console waiting. Mostly waiting with a mounting sense of panic. Once I had a booting kernel and a single user prompt, I knew I had a path forward.

Only middle managers downgrade out of a problem. Engineers upgrade out of a problem.

Also won manuals for 8020A and 8060A, 20 SEK (1€90c) each.

[TERRA Operative]

If anyone here has a Tek P6015A HV probe, can you take a peek inside and let me know the value of trimpot R7?

I'm designing my own replacement compensation box for my P6015 to give me Tekprobe functions and better adjustability with silicone oil (plus my BNC is a bit broken) etc. and the schematic on the Tekwiki is crap.

[Per Hansson]

This other week I decided to change the resistors for the HV multiplier in my Tektronix 2215.
They have component designation: R878, R879, R880, R881, R882, and R884.
Only after did I realize that the originals where not carbon composition but film resistors.
So it was a pointless endeavor and they all measured fine, but hey, it's pictures of Tek gear so how can you complain?

Don't worry, there's lots of other carbon comp resistors in there to poke at. I often find them to be out of spec in the gear I repair.
I would be careful about swapping them out, just be sure they won't affect the adjustment of the scope (unless you can readjust it).

Thanks, out of disappointment I did measure all the carbon composition resistors when I realized my mistake.
But they all measured fine in circuit
I did replace one years ago in the power supply, but that was its own endeavour linked below:)
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/tektronix-2215-scope-repair/msg1825364/#msg1825364

[Saskia]

yup. Would not bid more, got too much stuff already.
- Continued with my small arcade
- had a huge bummer wrt potential buyer of the appartment called and declined
- will need to contact realtor tomorrow
- set up ultrasonic and started disassembling the Dracula pb. Which btw was called back into life by a heart transplant. (I mounted a spare CPU board)

Not feeling that great, winter blues.

That sounds like the werewolves calling their Dracula out to play / dinner 

Here, see my wolf at work:

[mnementh]

Mmmokayyy...

We have emptied out and loaded up; now treating ourselves to Farmer Plates and grits at Bob Evans.
 
The beefheart beast Saturn started right up; just reconnected the battery and hit the key no jumpstart.  Brakes are a little noisy/rusty; other than that all seems optimal (knock on wood).

Right now I'm pumping myself up with 3 different kinds of coffee in hopes of making at least half the return trip today; what they had at the Holiday Inn... calling it  burnt moose pee would be charitable. 

A'aight... Food's here. All y'alls be good; we don't need another Toaster Incident...

mnem
rawwwrrr! means Ooooh... Buttermilk biscuits and honey! Yummmm!

[Cerebus]

Here, see my wolf at work:

Googling things? Shouldn't Fenrir just ask Hugin or Munin?

[Neper]

calling it  burnt moose pee would be charitable.

The French call it jus de chaussettes... sock juice.

[mansaxel]

Googling things? Shouldn't Fenrir just ask Hugin or Munin?

That depends; Only if Oden has given permission.

Mythological backstory: FRA / The National Defense Radio Establishment, our SIGINT organisation, has always had the raven close; the two DC-3 planes FRA and the Air Force flew SIGINT missions with during the 50s were called Hugin and Munin. (Hugin was shot down with loss of all crew by a MIG-15 in 1952, which was a secret until 1991; the plane was found and lifted from the bottom of the Baltic sea in 2003.). The raven is pretty common around the FRA campus just outside Stockholm.

Also, MUST, our military intelligence organisation, has the raven on its shoulder patch. Rarely worn on mission, I assume.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Googling things? Shouldn't Fenrir just ask Hugin or Munin?

That depends; Only if Oden has given permission.

Mythological backstory: FRA / The National Defense Radio Establishment, our SIGINT organisation, has always had the raven close; the two DC-3 planes FRA and the Air Force flew SIGINT missions with during the 50s were called Hugin and Munin. (Hugin was shot down with loss of all crew by a MIG-15 in 1952, which was a secret until 1991; the plane was found and lifted from the bottom of the Baltic sea in 2003.). The raven is pretty common around the FRA campus just outside Stockholm.

Also, MUST, our military intelligence organisation, has the raven on its shoulder patch. Rarely worn on mission, I assume.

[factory]

Hmm I'm getting a "divide by Discord" error message...

@factory, was it you that was interested in that TDR that keeps getting relisted? The current price is giving my trigger finger twitches...



EDIT: Yes Specmaster, it's Saturday, now stop painting yer bleedin' banister!

It was, I think it's quite near me too, so would pick up to avoid snapped off handle syndrome.

David

Someone's stuck a bid on it, hope it's you, 'cos it ain't me.

Second bid is mine, I thought it might attract more interest now the price has dropped a bit. 

David

[mansaxel]

Stomp box update:

Drilling has been completed. We had to stop fitting components in the box because it's school tomorrow and bedtime loomed.

I concur with Cerebus' "porridge" (or what it was) verdict regarding the alloy Hammond are using. It is quite soft.  But, using 2mm pilot spiral drill (Gühring, IIRC) into punch marks and then step drilling to 12mm for the footswitch gave a perfect hole with smooth edges. No deburring needed at all. In comparison, the smaller holes for phone jacks, pots, toggles, and DC jack, varying between 4,5mm and 9mm, were all drilled with various spiral drills, some SKF, some noname, some Walter "Titex", and gave sharper edges that required a few turns with the Noga deburrer, but all were nicely circular and to dimension.

All of this of course was in the Ixxion drill press, a "boutique tiny" tabletop model, three-phase of course. Mostly low rpms; I think the step drill went at about 480rpm, and the others perhaps 850.

I'm going to fit the PCB between blocks of styrofoam and also insulate it with a heavy duty plastic sheet, because the toggle switches are protruding quite a bit into the box. 

I still have 9 PCB's left, so am contemplating selling component kits online. I've got a start on a building instructions document; praising the virtues of a large TE collection:

Measurement instruments: You must have the ability to
measure AC and DC Volts, resistance and DC current.  A digital
multimeter with 3200 counts display will probably be OK.

Verification of function will be considerably easier if you can
generate tone, look at tone, measure frequency, and check capacitance
and resistance. I collect test equipment, and I used 2 multimeters,
two oscilloscopes, a distortion analyser, a low-distortion tone
generator, a DC clamp Ampère meter, a frequency counter, and a LCR
meter.

If you're getting only one instrument beyond the multimeter,
try for the scope. Literally any scope in existence will be good
enough: A 10MHz analog scope will do. One channel is OK.

As third instrument I would suggest a tone generator. It should
at least do sine waves at audio frequency, and able to have an
output level of about 100mV.

[Saskia]

just blew 200 Pesos on pinball spares and consumables ...
started to take the Dracula apart to properly clean it.

Anybody got a 50l ultrasonic for me ? my 10l is a bit small ...

[Cerebus]

Also, MUST, our military intelligence organisation, has the raven on its shoulder patch. Rarely worn on mission, I assume.

Remember this is that well known oxymoron military intelligence, so yeah, they probably do wear it on mission. 

[mansaxel]

Also, MUST, our military intelligence organisation, has the raven on its shoulder patch. Rarely worn on mission, I assume.

Remember this is that well known oxymoron military intelligence, so yeah, they probably do wear it on mission. 

My very limited experience with Those People gives me the impression that they very much know their job. Not to be underestimated.

[AVGresponding]

Also, MUST, our military intelligence organisation, has the raven on its shoulder patch. Rarely worn on mission, I assume.

Remember this is that well known oxymoron military intelligence, so yeah, they probably do wear it on mission. 

The reputation for oxymoronic nomenclature is largely unfair; usually it's the people in government they have to talk to that think they are exaggerating, or don't take them seriously when they give probabilities lower than 100%. Usually.

[ch_scr]

Also, MUST, our military intelligence organisation, has the raven on its shoulder patch. Rarely worn on mission, I assume.

Remember this is that well known oxymoron military intelligence, so yeah, they probably do wear it on mission. 

My very limited experience with Those People gives me the impression that they very much know their job. Not to be underestimated.

Seems the proverb Flachwitz is really writing itself on this one...
Ever heard of the Swedish Intelligence Service? No? See, that's how good they are.

[Cerebus]

I concur with Cerebus' "porridge" (or what it was) verdict regarding the alloy Hammond are using. ctions document; praising the virtues of a large TE collection:

"Gummy" was the word I used, it was fouling the edges of all the cutting tools I used on it (like pure copper does). But, a couple of days later I got to the filing out of the odd (i.e. not circular) shaped holes and unlike most aluminium and Al alloys it hardly loaded up the files at all. In fact it was a pleasure to file.

Normally with aluminium (alloy) there's a risk that if I don't hit my files with a file card every few strokes (or do the french chalk trick) they load up with filings and stop cutting, then take ten minutes cleaning to get unloaded. Doesn't bother the bastards, but 2nd cut or finer it almost always happens with aluminium. Not this time.

[Robert763]

Also, MUST, our military intelligence organisation, has the raven on its shoulder patch. Rarely worn on mission, I assume.

Remember this is that well known oxymoron military intelligence, so yeah, they probably do wear it on mission. 

My very limited experience with Those People gives me the impression that they very much know their job. Not to be underestimated.

I never got to know my father in law well but was a bit surprised that he seemed to understand some of my test equipment. As far as I knew then he had been a landscape gardener and then a purchasing manager for a public utility. After he died, going through his belonings I discovered he had been in the USAF and was a "back-seater" in EC-47s (US military "electronics" version of DC3) His medals included a DFC but the citation was mostly redacted as were most of his service records. The was a lis of some equipment "AN"numbers he had been trained on. This was mostly COMINT and ELINT kit.
You just never know what people have done in the past.
https://www.ec47.com/index.php

[tggzzz]

Also, MUST, our military intelligence organisation, has the raven on its shoulder patch. Rarely worn on mission, I assume.

Military intellignce? Rainbow Warrior, springs to mind

[VK5RC]

OK not true TE but close, high voltage and electron tube and with WAF so high it is in the kitchen 👍
Tube is long life type so burn in is not an issue - well in my remaining time in the light spectrum.

[Saskia]

in my first job we had very nice R&S equipment and knew our adversaries by their voice, their communication, their location, their   ... I digress ...

[ch_scr]

in my first job we had very nice R&S equipment and knew our adversaries by their voice, their communication, their location, their   ... I digress ...

I believe it's rather "What goes around, comes around", than anyone in particular at the helm
But  so just  and hope the eschaton isn't immanentized tomorrow