Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tautech]

4 speed, high/low, overdrive. Had one myself. Ate wheel bearings once a quarter.

Yup, a series 2 (not even 2a) Land Rover.

• the gear between the halfshaft and the rear axles disintegrated. Even the mechanics commented on the noise as that entered the workshop

Transfer case idler, right ?
Yeah they beefed the shaft they ran on up in 2a and later.

[mnementh]

Pretty keen on your bench mat mnementh. 

Got a job for one just like that today to check a rifle......got a bambi hunt booked for tomorrow.

 

It's the Fiskars 24" x 36" version; $20 @ Wally World. These are nice in that the flip side has the same exact graph and scales printed on it, only the dark grey and light grey are inverted.   I caught mine on "we fucked up the inventory sale" for $8.00 last summer; somebody mixed it up in the online inventory with the SKU for the 12" x 18" version. When I was actually able to get mine for that price, I bought the other three they had; traded one to a friend for a $45 flight controller and ESCs and family claimed the other two.

A word of warning... just like the green ones, these things STINK. They reek of polymer and sulphur forever unless you lay them outside in the sun for a week (not exaggerating in the least bit here) before you bring them inside. Don't forget to flip it over sometime around Wednesday so the other side can pass outgas, BTW.  Seriously; the only thing I ever had on my bench that smelled worse was a 3D printer fire.   


mnem
*Currently rebuilding a Casio Watch while I wait for my new MisFit activity tracker*

Seems too nice to put holes in. 

Done my checks, POI 12-14" down @ 300 yds and just where it should be.
We might get some looooong shots tomorrow so need to on my game.
Bambi...yum !

Oh, Doyt..!

I imagined you wanting to do a full tear-down but not wanting your precious porta-cannon from getting scarred up on your bench, so therefore the desire for a cutting mat. 

Yes; you put bullet-holes in MY mat, it's gonna shoot back. I'll make double-damned sure of it.


mnem
Being a human is hard; time be a dragon.

[tggzzz]

Actually got my eye on a 110 at the moment. Can get a lot of scopes in the back of one of them

You have to define "scope" in this context. By one reasonable definition you can put scopes in the back before a journey - but you may only get fewer out at the other end of the journey.

[orin]

My second car was a brown cortina. I had that for three weeks. It died. When I say died, I hit the brakes and the engine came out. 

Maybe it was the reincarnation of the brown one I had when I lived alongside Hackney Downs.  Got stolen twice.  The second time, we went to the really disreputable area where it had been found, sans many parts, took one look and got out of there ASAP.  Called the insurance and told them to go get it - if they dared.

What area would be then?

I don't recall exactly - never had any need to go back, but SE of Clapton, some kind of broken down lockup under a railway.

[tautech]

Pretty keen on your bench mat mnementh. 

Got a job for one just like that today to check a rifle......got a bambi hunt booked for tomorrow.

 

It's the Fiskars 24" x 36" version; $20 @ Wally World. These are nice in that the flip side has the same exact graph and scales printed on it, only the dark grey and light grey are inverted.   I caught mine on "we fucked up the inventory sale" for $8.00 last summer; somebody mixed it up in the online inventory with the SKU for the 12" x 18" version. When I was actually able to get mine for that price, I bought the other three they had; traded one to a friend for a $45 flight controller and ESCs and family claimed the other two.

A word of warning... just like the green ones, these things STINK. They reek of polymer and sulphur forever unless you lay them outside in the sun for a week (not exaggerating in the least bit here) before you bring them inside. Don't forget to flip it over sometime around Wednesday so the other side can pass outgas, BTW.  Seriously; the only thing I ever had on my bench that smelled worse was a 3D printer fire.   


mnem
*Currently rebuilding a Casio Watch while I wait for my new MisFit activity tracker*

Seems too nice to put holes in. 

Done my checks, POI 12-14" down @ 300 yds and just where it should be.
We might get some looooong shots tomorrow so need to on my game.
Bambi...yum !

Oh, Doyt..!

I imagined you wanting to do a full tear-down but not wanting your precious porta-cannon from getting scarred up on your bench, so therefore the desire for a cutting mat. 

Yes; you put bullet-holes in MY mat, it's gonna shoot back. I'll make double-damned sure of it.


mnem
Being a human is hard; time be a dragon.

Nothing precious at all in any I have......they're just another tool ! 
Some precision, some POS.

At the end of the day what makes them any good or not is the nut behind the wheel. 

[mnementh]

Good work on the light saber but what the hell do you yanks do to our British cars? Fords are very reliable over here, Hmm could it be that your grease monkeys don't know how to service small engines that extract a lot of HP from very few CC's?

A lot of HP out of small CCs? Not from the engine in THAT thing... This was the original Cortina motor, a 4-cyl iron-head/iron-block pushrod dinosaur designed in the '50s that made about 85 HP in its prime. Add stone-age emissions control from the '80s and a Holley 5200 series electric carburetor... that thing barely made enough    HP to get out of its own way.

The first thing we teenagers did on them was to deplumb the engine, core out the cat and bolt on a non-electric 5200; then the damn thing could be counted on to get you to & from work. When inspection time came around, we'd put the stock air cleaner with all it's hosiery & crap back on the non-electric carb so they couldn't tell it had been gutted unless they were willing to poke around a half an inch of grease and oil from all that crap.

I didn't do that to mine until it hit 80K and started sucking oil back through the EGR; what a stinking mess THAT made of things.  I was SO relieved to be rid of the three of them when I bought my first Honda Civic, I tell you what. 


mnem
*Veteran of a thousand psychic wars used cars*

Sounds like you had a completely setup to us Brits then.

 


mnem
I must be losing it. more.

[med6753]

maybe its an inherited trait.

in 1986 my old man was 'bout the only guy in the greater philly area to buy a racing green import called a "cortina".  what a piece of dog shit it was.  every morning before cranking it over he had to look underneath to see what had spontaneously fallen off it overnight.  the ford dealer never could make it right and finally took it back (he got a torino to replace the little green turd).

to this day he loves that damn cortina.

and I love my 1740 series scopes.

That's no surprise. Because the Cortina was.....








ahem.....











wait for it.......










Here it comes........









Ford 

And where does ford come from? 

FORD = Fix Or Repair Daily.....Found On Road Dead....First Out on Race Day.

Trust me, most American cars during that era were rolling turds too. The difference was we could get the parts for repair same day rather than wait 6 weeks for import.  And then the Japanese nearly ate our lunch.   

[bd139]

My second car was a brown cortina. I had that for three weeks. It died. When I say died, I hit the brakes and the engine came out. 

I presume you bolted it back in, and continued the journey. That's what I did

Unfortunately not. It foobared the ignition loom. Engine was crudely relocated and then it was towed home by a friend. Back then, no mobile phones so it was stuck on the A120 for three hours while I found a pay phone.

[Cubdriver]

And where does ford come from? 

FORD = Fix Or Repair Daily.....Found On Road Dead....First Out on Race Day.

Trust me, most American cars during that era were rolling turds too. The difference was we could get the parts for repair same day rather than wait 6 weeks for import.  And then the Japanese nearly ate our lunch. 

Fecking Over Rated Disaster

-Pat

[SeanB]

Well, years ago I was in my home, and heard shouting outside. Go to window and look out, there is a Mk1 Ford Escort 1600 Sport stopped at the light, with smoke coming from the engine bay. Pick up the phone right there and call the fire department. While dialling there is a tow truck driver there with a dry powder fire extinguisher, aiming it under the bonnet to try to put out the fire. fire deparment answers, and, before i could even finish giving them the address of the vehicle both driver and tow operator were running away from the rapidly spreading pool of fire that had suddenly appeared. Still on the phone and first the one front wheel exploded, then the other. Put down the phone and watch the show, around 30 seconds later the fire is at the rear, and growing, and there are another 2 bangs before the spare pops open the rear. Glass breaks from the heat, interior well aflame, and after 3 minutes the fire brigade roars up, to put out the remains to protect the road.

Those early 1600 Escorts, and pretty much every ford with the same engine, had a well known fault, in that the fuel line ran right over the exhaust going to the carburettor, and if there was a fuel leak, or the hose rotted from the heat, you would have a fire. I made sure after that to check and replace fuel lines on my vehicles, so that I would not suffer the same fate.

But, my Ford/Mazda, with the Ford CVH engine, was pretty reliable, did the clutch on it, rebuilt the engine, did CV joints, did lifters and cambelts, and the only stock fault they had was a weakness in the ignition module, which might fail after a few years of being toasted on the distributor. I carried both a spare tested module, a 7mm spanner and a little pack of white grease in the vehicle, and had another completely rebuilt distributor in the tool box at home as well. Those modules were cheap as pattern parts, around $7, so were not an issue to keep.

[bd139]

Back on topic, some quick Saturday afternoon TEA actually doing something fun. Got a scope with an FFT so decided to see if I could build a pure sine wave generator to test it. Plus I haven't built a proper sine wave oscillator since university. Quick Wein bridge with an HP style bulb for feedback did the job. Had to frig around with the feedback resistors to stop it bashing the rails.

Lash up. Used a breadboard. Sue me. At least it's a 3M one



Not bad. What harmonics?



This sort of stuff is also incidentally where the HP 6237B I bought recently would fit in nicely. Rather than two bloody great big PL series supplies and a tentacle monster, three nice neat wires, one voltage control and one power switch. Plus an HP logo.



Slightly want an old HP dynamic signal analyser now.

[Specmaster]

Nice work, I must get my breadboards out and try something one day, not today though, been polishing up the old 1740A ready for disposal.

I love those TTi power units, surely they are better then the old HP ones? Granted they do take up more room then the HP but TTi also do double and triple supply versions, perhaps one day I'll get something like that myself.

Still not quite made up my mind on that other digital scope, its an early HP54502A and while its 400MHz, this I believe is in digital mode, real time its only 100Mhz.

Edit:

Just noticed that this 3390B also has a FFT mode, sweet. Heres a screen showing a 50Hz and the FFT trace for that.

[bd139]

They’re better than the old HP ones as far as the setting goes. The actual output on the HPs is slightly better with respect to noise and transient response. The HP supplies are also a lot smaller and easier to fix. Both are silent which is a big win in a world of whining bastard equipment.

One really good feature of the supplies with analogue current readout is they have damping built in. Even on the TTi PL supplies the current damping is crap.

I’d stay away from the 545xx series of scopes myself. I used one extensively many years ago and it was a pig. The 546xx ones are much better. If you’re going to spend, wait out for a later one with an Agilent logo on it.

That’s pretty damn good if that has an FFT built in!

[Specmaster]

They’re better than the old HP ones as far as the setting goes. The actual output on the HPs is slightly better with respect to noise and transient response. The HP supplies are also a lot smaller and easier to fix. Both are silent which is a big win in a world of whining bastard equipment.

One really good feature of the supplies with analogue current readout is they have damping built in. Even on the TTi PL supplies the current damping is crap.

I’d stay away from the 545xx series of scopes myself. I used one extensively many years ago and it was a pig. The 546xx ones are much better. If you’re going to spend, wait out for a later one with an Agilent logo on it.

That’s pretty damn good if that has an FFT built in!

That's what I thought seeing as it's 10 years old [emoji106]

Funny your message arrived just as I made my mind up to wait for further lab clearance auctions and see if I can bag either a faster one or a 4 channel one. I'm getting to like having to do nothing to my TEA purchases other than tearing them down for photos and cleaning. It's even better than buying new as I don't have to pay that massive premium called depreciation 🤣



From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

[bd139]

Yeah it’s nice not to have broken shit on your hands sometimes. Hence why I actually got to build something today 

If I could justify it I’d kit myself out with a new Keysight scope, power supply and DDS. Better get me a lottery ticket

[Specmaster]

Yeah it’s nice not to have broken shit on your hands sometimes. Hence why I actually got to build something today 

If I could justify it I’d kit myself out with a new Keysight scope, power supply and DDS. Better get me a lottery ticket

Yep, if I won I'd buy a bigger house and kit myself out with a dedicated lab room and new kit as well. Then buy old kit, do it up and sell it as refurbished. Great fun, oh and I'd have all the proper gear for calibration, maybe get approved and open up as a calibration lab, 3478a is a speciality now. [emoji2]

From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

[bitseeker]

This one's for Pat, especially, but any HP gear owners with missing badges. Tomorokoshi posted in a recent thread about HP badges, the following listing by someone who got some NOS badges:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Agilent-Keysight-Label-Logo-lot-of-3-Approx-size-13mm-X-7-5mm/183244639135

$15 for three badges seems a bit much, but if you really need some, this is an opportunity.

[Mr. Scram]

I think it's reasonably fair for NOS. If it was just one badge it might be too expensive, but if it happens to be exactly what you need even that might be cheap to some.

[bitseeker]

Yep, everyone must gauge for themselves. I'm just spreading the word as these things are well-known for disappearing from front panels.

[tggzzz]

4 speed, high/low, overdrive. Had one myself. Ate wheel bearings once a quarter.

Yup, a series 2 (not even 2a) Land Rover.

• the gear between the halfshaft and the rear axles disintegrated. Even the mechanics commented on the noise as that entered the workshop

Transfer case idler, right ?
Yeah they beefed the shaft they ran on up in 2a and later.

Apologies for the crap description, due to tiredness and a 25 year gap

It was the rear differential gear, that "splits" and "turns" the power through 90 degrees, and allows the rear wheels to rotate at different speeds.

Can't blame the Land Rover in my case: the 4.2l Perkins diesel engine was far more powerful with far more torque

[tautech]

4 speed, high/low, overdrive. Had one myself. Ate wheel bearings once a quarter.

Yup, a series 2 (not even 2a) Land Rover.

• the gear between the halfshaft and the rear axles disintegrated. Even the mechanics commented on the noise as that entered the workshop

Transfer case idler, right ?
Yeah they beefed the shaft they ran on up in 2a and later.

Apologies for the crap description, due to tiredness and a 25 year gap

It was the rear differential gear, that "splits" and "turns" the power through 90 degrees, and allows the rear wheels to rotate at different speeds.

Can't blame the Land Rover in my case: the 4.2l Perkins diesel engine was far more powerful with far more torque

Gotcha.
They're inside the diff crown-wheel carrier and called bevel or spider gears.
Yep and they beefed them up too, for 2a maybe but definitely in Series 3.

[Cubdriver]

This one's for Pat, especially, but any HP gear owners with missing badges. Tomorokoshi posted in a recent thread about HP badges, the following listing by someone who got some NOS badges:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Agilent-Keysight-Label-Logo-lot-of-3-Approx-size-13mm-X-7-5mm/183244639135

$15 for three badges seems a bit much, but if you really need some, this is an opportunity.

GREAT find - thanks for the tip, bitseeker!   

I just grabbed some.  There's probably a pallet of the damned things buried in a warehouse somewhere, and some day a space probe will find all those that have gone missing from old gear orbiting a distant planet in a huge clump, tangled up with the trillions of single socks that have vanished without a trace from washing machines and dryers down through the years.

-Pat

[bd139]

Anyone in the UK going to Newbury Radio Rally?

Might head down there next Sunday and see if I can wangle some TEA bargains. Bargains as "not power tested so I'm not paying that" bargains

[med6753]

4 speed, high/low, overdrive. Had one myself. Ate wheel bearings once a quarter.

Yup, a series 2 (not even 2a) Land Rover.

• the gear between the halfshaft and the rear axles disintegrated. Even the mechanics commented on the noise as that entered the workshop

Transfer case idler, right ?
Yeah they beefed the shaft they ran on up in 2a and later.

Apologies for the crap description, due to tiredness and a 25 year gap

It was the rear differential gear, that "splits" and "turns" the power through 90 degrees, and allows the rear wheels to rotate at different speeds.

Can't blame the Land Rover in my case: the 4.2l Perkins diesel engine was far more powerful with far more torque

Gotcha.
They're inside the diff crown-wheel carrier and called bevel or spider gears.
Yep and they beefed them up too, for 2a maybe but definitely in Series 3.

Can anyone explain to me why Rovers typically have an offset rear differential? In other words the rear gear is offset to the left when view from the rear rather than in the center which is usual for other RWD vehicles.

[bd139]

The prop shafts dont come out of the middle of the box. They come out on one side. Wears the UJs less then. Also makes them easier to get to!