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Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

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bitseeker:

--- Quote from: bd139 on July 03, 2018, 02:29:47 pm ---Tek didn’t put a lot of thought into fixing it once it was built.

--- End quote ---

Tek was ahead of their time. Most things these days aren't designed to even last, let alone be fixed. Fortunately, not everything is crap, but so much certainly is. :palm:

mnementh:

--- Quote from: med6753 on July 03, 2018, 05:12:28 pm ---
--- Quote from: Cerebus on July 03, 2018, 04:20:15 pm ---
--- Quote from: med6753 on July 03, 2018, 10:04:25 am ---I would have thought that since my latest Ebay order originated in New Hampshire that it would go directly to a UPS depot in New York. But no.....it's bouncing all over New England. First to another depot in NH, then to Masshole, and now it just departed a depot in Rhode Island. I figured even with the holiday on Wednesday that I'd get it no later than Friday. Now I'm not so sure and who the hell knows where it will go next.  |O

--- End quote ---

If it was later in the year you could put it down to it wanting to do what much of New York does, take a tour to see the fall leaves.  Rhode Island? If it goes via Quahog it's probably screwed - Giggity. :)

--- End quote ---

I don't have to "take a tour" to see the fall leaves. All I have to do is look out my window. Got plenty of leaves. Along with apple orchards. So every Fall the city folk invade us "leaf peeping" and picking apples. Clog up the roads and in general be a PITA. I realize it's important to our local economy but I sure am glad when Oct 31 arrives and the orchards close and the city horde goes home.

--- End quote ---

I've ordered enough stuff China-Direct that this is still a "meh" for me. I've had packages come from ShenZhen spend weeks with no update then show up in Dew Delhi, Azerbaijan, then bounce around between Bucharest, Sarajevo and Zurich before getting on a plane in Antwerp on its way here. I could imagine the damn thing traveling tied to the back of a yak through the Tibetan mountains or somesuch thing during that 2 weeks of silence, I tell you what.  :-DD

Then the REAL higgledy-piggledy starts; the USPS sorting centers here in the Midwest are positively sociopathic.  |O


mnem
If only I could take that trip for US$2.25 ePacket...

mnementh:
In other news...



While looking for parts PCBs hoping to fix my new Surround receiver for free, what did I come across? The baggie filled with "bits o' remote" which belonged to my OLD surround receiver, that had accidentally gotten curb-stomped by a dropped couch years ago. Damn... now I HAVE to try and fix it, of course... but I don't have an IR module for my 'scope, nor any of the nifty testers from fleaBay. I used to have a little photochemical card from Radidio Shack that would show you the IR if you charged it up under UV light; but that got lost forever ago, and I never replaced it.


[Tool Time]

     

So... a little rummaging around in the PCB bin yields a front button bar pulled from an old TV with IR sensor; upon closer inspection, I find the I/O pins are not only neatly labeled, it also has the pullup resistor, etc already on the board to be fully functional with just application of 5V. A little Dremeling yielded a nice little sub-board to which I soldered a BNC adapter direct; then a 10K buffer resistor plugged into that and addition of a USB pigtail and it was ready to rock!

Then I just had to notice... there's a red/green LED on the board too.  :palm:

A little trial/error "empirical engineering" nets me a combination of resistors that allows the green side to drive at ~3mA, yet easily shunted with a PNP to drive the red side at approx 15mA whenever the base is pulled low by the IR sensor. Some epoxy to pot the resistors and transistor and cable, and it's ready to go!

This gives me a decoder with green power indicator that blinks red (actually appears orange in most cases, which is still fine) with application of IR signal from a remote, AND plugs direct into the BNC & USB ports on my good ol' wRigol.

Not only that, but it's ALSO usable as a standalone go/no-go IR Remote tester just by plugging into any live USB port!

Easy-peasy, and useful as hell!


[/Tool Time]


mnem
More POWER!!! Waugh! Waugh! Waugh!!!

Cerebus:

--- Quote from: mnementh on July 03, 2018, 09:17:07 pm ---More POWER!!! Waugh! Waugh! Waugh!!!

--- End quote ---

So now you just have to shoehorn a small block V8 in there and you're golden.

tautech:
Nice little hack mnem.  :-+
Yeah I 'spose that's easier than trying to connect to the pins of an IR LED but for just a 'does it work' check a cellphone camera works pretty well to see if a remote IR LED is working.
Found the odd dud one like that.

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