Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

Yesterday on ebay Kleinanzeigen here: a HP 34401A (all red input jacks) for 190.- Euro. Gone within minutes.

[capt bullshot]

About 350... From which 324 cells went into a battery charging from solar power and discharging into some "IT" equipment (DSL router, server, ...) Works for about 1 1/2 years now.

Jeebus... you must've gotten them nearly free to be worth that kinds of assache. Care to regale us with the tale, or point us to where you already told and I missed it...?   

mnem
 

Found them in the scrap garage at my former job. Seeing the janitor dismantling them for proper disposal, I just asked if I could take them home. I guess he wasn't too disappointed saving him from this work
Nearly all of them were discharged state and most wouldn't accept charging the intended way. So cobbled together a simple means to charge them at low current through their regular charging port. Charged all of them and the sorted out the ones that had a rapidly dropping voltage. The rest went into the battery pack and a few leftovers.

[bd139]

Yesterday on ebay Kleinanzeigen here: a HP 34401A (all red input jacks) for 190.- Euro. Gone within minutes.

Good price although I wouldn’t buy one until I’ve had the firmware version confirmed. I’d rather pay more for something clearly described and versioned out.

There are certainly bargains to be had out there. And I intend to get them all 

I have noticed a complete void of reasonably priced HP power supplies recently on eBay here. Slightly depressing 

[med6753]

Well eBay prices have gone bananas 

The cheaper one wasn’t even shown working to any reasonable degree.

Same here. Inflation, wishful thinkers, and just plain greed.

[tggzzz]

Well eBay prices have gone bananas 

The cheaper one wasn’t even shown working to any reasonable degree.

Excellent I don't think I'll take any treasures to Rugby on Sunday!

[mansaxel]

I have noticed a complete void of reasonably priced HP power supplies recently on eBay here. Slightly depressing 

There's an irritating lack of 6209 at my place.

I suppose having the beefy TTi CPX200 (was free to a good home) helps with everything else (below 35V), even though I always tend to reach for the 6200 series first.

[bd139]

Well eBay prices have gone bananas 

The cheaper one wasn’t even shown working to any reasonable degree.

Excellent I don't think I'll take any treasures to Rugby on Sunday!

You may have to deal with some completion on the obtaining stuff side of the fence though 

Keeping an eye on weather though. Could be a 50/50

[Specmaster]

I can't remember who was after the Texas Instruments calculator charger (was it Specmaster ?), turns out we haven't got any TI calculators here, I've now checked it works today, PM me if you want it.


David

Ni it wasn't me, I'm after Commodore some 12 digit bubble LED displays.

[Specmaster]

I have the DCA55. Very confident little bugger that. I like it a lot. Does one thing, does it well, and gives clear, exploitable results.

(And for L/C/R I've got the DE-5000, so don't see the need for a Peak device at the moment. )

Last time I looked, a DCA55 was a Peak device and competes with the DE-5000

Ehm, the DCA55 is a transistor checker (and other semiconductors too), while the DE-5000 concerns itself with L/C/R as noted. They complement each other. Competition to the DE-5000 from Atlas would for instance be the aptly named "LCR40".

Oh yeah, bd has already pointed that to me  , but it is still a device made by Peak, which was the point I was attempting to make 

[Specmaster]

Well eBay prices have gone bananas 

The cheaper one wasn’t even shown working to any reasonable degree.

Maybe all the chatter on here helps to inflate the prices even more, maybe we need some sort of code to help keep prices low?

[tggzzz]

Well eBay prices have gone bananas 

The cheaper one wasn’t even shown working to any reasonable degree.

Excellent I don't think I'll take any treasures to Rugby on Sunday!

You may have to deal with some completion on the obtaining stuff side of the fence though 

Keeping an eye on weather though. Could be a 50/50

Hmmm. Maybe it is worth taking some really worthless junk to sell, so I can get in early and don't have to carry stuff far.

That bloke at FRARS (best described as an amorphous blob) who bought the HP calculator clearly isn't concerned about throwing his bulk around. I'm know you are better behaved[1].

Weather will be changeable; the best way of assessing just how changeable to keep an eye on how fast/frequently the forecast is changing.

[1] what is the sound of (one) card being marked

[Zenith]

Hmmm. Maybe it is worth taking some really worthless junk to sell, so I can get in early and don't have to carry stuff far.

That bloke at FRARS (best described as an amorphous blob) who bought the HP calculator clearly isn't concerned about throwing his bulk around. I'm know you are better behaved[1].

Weather will be changeable; the best way of assessing just how changeable to keep an eye on how fast/frequently the forecast is changing.

[1] what is the sound of (one) card being marked

The hot spell has ended. The forecast for Rugby for Sunday is cloudy and breezy with a couple of showers and 5mm of rain. Of course, only a fool would believe a UK weather forecast for five days ahead was something to bank on.

For my part, it would take more than that not to go, such as continual thunderstorms and downpours.

It will be worth searching out the wet weather gear and maybe a change of clothes, and making sure it's put in the car.

[Zenith]

Well eBay prices have gone bananas 

The cheaper one wasn’t even shown working to any reasonable degree.

Maybe all the chatter on here helps to inflate the prices even more, maybe we need some sort of code to help keep prices low?

That's an interesting thought. There can't be that many potential buyers of some of these things.

I look but I haven't bought a used piece of TE off ebay for years. The prices have generally become far too high, especially for anything small and neat, such as those little RF sig gens which were rebranded by all sorts of people.

If you want something specific, the established dealers are worth a try. Very often they are cheaper than ebay, they offer a short guarantee, and they'd really rather not sell a load of rubbish, unless it really is spares or repairs.

[tggzzz]

Hmmm. Maybe it is worth taking some really worthless junk to sell, so I can get in early and don't have to carry stuff far.

That bloke at FRARS (best described as an amorphous blob) who bought the HP calculator clearly isn't concerned about throwing his bulk around. I'm know you are better behaved[1].

Weather will be changeable; the best way of assessing just how changeable to keep an eye on how fast/frequently the forecast is changing.

[1] what is the sound of (one) card being marked

The hot spell has ended. The forecast for Rugby for Sunday is cloudy and breezy with a couple of showers and 5mm of rain. Of course, only a fool would believe a UK weather forecast for five days ahead was something to bank on.

For my part, it would take more than that not to go, such as continual thunderstorms and downpours.

It will be worth searching out the wet weather gear and maybe a change of clothes, and making sure it's put in the car.

Continuous rain/drizzle is a pain for an outboor event where the interesting TE and components aren't sheltered. I can tolerate thunderstorms/showers since they will soon be over and the components/TE can be temporarily hidden.

With modern multiple "statistical" forecasts, 5 days ahead isn't as unreasonable as it used to be.

One trick is to look at
https://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=en&CONT=ukuk&MODELL=gfs&MODELLTYP=1&VAR=pr06&WMO=&ZOOM=0&RES=0&PERIOD=&PANEL=0&ARCHIV=0&BASE=202208160600%26HH%3D126
select the relevant metric and time, then fiddle with the "Base" at the top left of the map.

Currently the 6-hour precipitation forecast for Sunday morning varies considerably between the latest, 6hr ago and 24hr ago forecasts. Not surprising when looking at the other indicators!

(Strangely the last of the .png screendumps had to be uploaded as a .jpg, since the .png reliably caused "cannot verify" errors when uploading. Oh well).

[david77]

I have noticed a complete void of reasonably priced HP power supplies recently on eBay here. Slightly depressing 

There's an irritating lack of 6209 at my place.

I suppose having the beefy TTi CPX200 (was free to a good home) helps with everything else (below 35V), even though I always tend to reach for the 6200 series first.

There's an irritating lack of any reasonably priced HP supplies here, too. That deficiency got so pronounced once I made my own copy of the 6237.

[Zenith]

The hot spell has ended. The forecast for Rugby for Sunday is cloudy and breezy with a couple of showers and 5mm of rain. Of course, only a fool would believe a UK weather forecast for five days ahead was something to bank on.

For my part, it would take more than that not to go, such as continual thunderstorms and downpours.

It will be worth searching out the wet weather gear and maybe a change of clothes, and making sure it's put in the car.

Continuous rain/drizzle is a pain for an outboor event where the interesting TE and components aren't sheltered. I can tolerate thunderstorms/showers since they will soon be over and the components/TE can be temporarily hidden.

With modern multiple "statistical" forecasts, 5 days ahead isn't as unreasonable as it used to be.

One trick is to look at
https://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-bin/expertcharts?LANG=en&CONT=ukuk&MODELL=gfs&MODELLTYP=1&VAR=pr06&WMO=&ZOOM=0&RES=0&PERIOD=&PANEL=0&ARCHIV=0&BASE=202208160600%26HH%3D126
select the relevant metric and time, then fiddle with the "Base" at the top left of the map.

Currently the 6-hour precipitation forecast for Sunday morning varies considerably between the latest, 6hr ago and 24hr ago forecasts. Not surprising when looking at the other indicators!

(Strangely the last of the .png screendumps had to be uploaded as a .jpg, since the .png reliably caused "cannot verify" errors when uploading. Oh well).

There are localised storms, which can miss completely, or as you say, are soon over. There are also prolonged thunderstorms with hail and heavy rain for hours.

According to the Daily Express, "UK storm warning: Britain faces 10-DAY lightning blitz - new maps show 'absolute deluge'".  They've predicted 34 of the last 3 extreme weather events, so it will probably be a warm and pleasant day with no more than a light shower.

[mnementh]

you should be able to free any blocked tube with multitudes of 50 grams ...

If I have blocked drains, I talk to the wife, or get the plunger. Wife is really good at drain unblocking, but I'm the king of plungers...

bd139... paging the Duke of Pervs... perfect setup awaits your attention... 

mnem
mansaxel, you married well.

[factory]

I can't remember who was after the Texas Instruments calculator charger (was it Specmaster ?), turns out we haven't got any TI calculators here, I've now checked it works today, PM me if you want it.


David

Ni it wasn't me, I'm after Commodore some 12 digit bubble LED displays.

Are you sure  , I couldn't think of the right words, for the forum search last night.

Postman has been and left me a parcel that was only posted yesterday, so that's a result. In it was another calculator (no not an RPN one either) but a rather complicated one nonetheless, this HP 10bii+ has a steep learning curve, no manual came with it, but have downloaded one, all 187 pages of it 

In other news, the parts for the monitor power supply repair have all now arrived as well, so will be cracking on with that soon. In the meantime, I have been working on a Texas TI58 programmable old school calculator that had suffered the rechargeable battery clusterfuck that these early calculators suffered when they built the batteries into the plastic compartment door in the back. That meant you had to buy new packs from Texas  . This is a project that I started sometime ago and then shelved awaiting a suitable solution, which I now have, some battery packs for old BT cordless phones.

I show photos of this now working, but still some refinements to do yet, one of which is sourcing some of the power sockets that plug in the side of the Calc to recharge the battery, can anyone identify the cable mounted socket that I need?

Would this TI thingy work? It's hard to make out some numbers, but looks to read 6.2V AC output.




David

I do believe that is the right power brick for it as it runs on 3 rechargeable AA cells connected in series so 6.2V would be about the right voltage for charging.

David

[mnementh]

I have the DCA55. Very confident little bugger that. I like it a lot. Does one thing, does it well, and gives clear, exploitable results.

(And for L/C/R I've got the DE-5000, so don't see the need for a Peak device at the moment. )

Last time I looked, a DCA55 was a Peak device and competes with the DE-5000

Ehm, the DCA55 is a transistor checker (and other semiconductors too), while the DE-5000 concerns itself with L/C/R as noted. They complement each other. Competition to the DE-5000 from Atlas would for instance be the aptly named "LCR40".

Oh yeah, bd has already pointed that to me  , but it is still a device made by Peak, which was the point I was attempting to make 

Yeah... which part I really didn't get.    Were you bitten by a rabid ESR60 or summat? As I answered yesterday:

Of the "lets abuse a microprocessor to do what a real piece of TE should do" Chinesium testers out there, the PEAK/ATLAS brand is probably one of the best product lines out there. It was the ESR60 in particular that I wouldn't touch, as I know from experience its inputs are unprotected.

Cheers,

mnem
 

[mnementh]

(Strangely the last of the .png screendumps had to be uploaded as a .jpg, since the .png reliably caused "cannot verify" errors when uploading. Oh well).

My guess would be that it triggered a pr0n filter, and the fuzzy noise added by converting to .jpg was enuf to make said filter stand down...   

mnem
or SMF just doesn't like .png, and you got lucky... 

[factory]

I have noticed a complete void of reasonably priced HP power supplies recently on eBay here. Slightly depressing 

There's an irritating lack of 6209 at my place.

I suppose having the beefy TTi CPX200 (was free to a good home) helps with everything else (below 35V), even though I always tend to reach for the 6200 series first.

There's an irritating lack of any reasonably priced HP supplies here, too. That deficiency got so pronounced once I made my own copy of the 6237.

There was a reasonably priced 6205B a few days ago, it sold before I got round to posting it, presumably that price would have been less without ebay automatically adding the export tax to listings.


Same seller has a nice looking 419A null meter (from the outside at least, inside who knows if it suffered from battery leakage), but price is not cheap and they don't want to include the mains cord. 
https://www.ebay.de/itm/225119916195


David

[Specmaster]

I can't remember who was after the Texas Instruments calculator charger (was it Specmaster ?), turns out we haven't got any TI calculators here, I've now checked it works today, PM me if you want it.


David

Ni it wasn't me, I'm after Commodore some 12 digit bubble LED displays.

Are you sure  , I couldn't think of the right words, for the forum search last night.

Postman has been and left me a parcel that was only posted yesterday, so that's a result. In it was another calculator (no not an RPN one either) but a rather complicated one nonetheless, this HP 10bii+ has a steep learning curve, no manual came with it, but have downloaded one, all 187 pages of it 

In other news, the parts for the monitor power supply repair have all now arrived as well, so will be cracking on with that soon. In the meantime, I have been working on a Texas TI58 programmable old school calculator that had suffered the rechargeable battery clusterfuck that these early calculators suffered when they built the batteries into the plastic compartment door in the back. That meant you had to buy new packs from Texas  . This is a project that I started sometime ago and then shelved awaiting a suitable solution, which I now have, some battery packs for old BT cordless phones.

I show photos of this now working, but still some refinements to do yet, one of which is sourcing some of the power sockets that plug in the side of the Calc to recharge the battery, can anyone identify the cable mounted socket that I need?

Would this TI thingy work? It's hard to make out some numbers, but looks to read 6.2V AC output.




David

I do believe that is the right power brick for it as it runs on 3 rechargeable AA cells connected in series so 6.2V would be about the right voltage for charging.

David

I've PM'd you, yes it was me after all. I'd forgotten about that one.

[Specmaster]

I have the DCA55. Very confident little bugger that. I like it a lot. Does one thing, does it well, and gives clear, exploitable results.

(And for L/C/R I've got the DE-5000, so don't see the need for a Peak device at the moment. )

Last time I looked, a DCA55 was a Peak device and competes with the DE-5000

Ehm, the DCA55 is a transistor checker (and other semiconductors too), while the DE-5000 concerns itself with L/C/R as noted. They complement each other. Competition to the DE-5000 from Atlas would for instance be the aptly named "LCR40".

Oh yeah, bd has already pointed that to me  , but it is still a device made by Peak, which was the point I was attempting to make 

Yeah... which part I really didn't get.    Were you bitten by a rabid ESR60 or summat? As I answered yesterday:

Of the "lets abuse a microprocessor to do what a real piece of TE should do" Chinesium testers out there, the PEAK/ATLAS brand is probably one of the best product lines out there. It was the ESR60 in particular that I wouldn't touch, as I know from experience its inputs are unprotected.

Cheers,

mnem
 

Nope, I have nothing against any of the Peak products, its British, and it has a good standing in the industry, just that I don't need any more ways of testing at the moment, I have all the testers for my level of use that I need. Should that change, then I'd be happy to look at their gear again, it is after all in keeping with my love of TTi gear, British made, just like AVO's 

[mansaxel]

There was a reasonably priced 6205B a few days ago, it sold before I got round to posting it, presumably that price would have been less without ebay automatically adding the export tax to listings.

Yeah, the 6205 is nice, but I'm not looking for one, since I already got the 6237b.

Now, IF I was a insane collector, I might need to get another supply if I got the 6209, and then the 19" brackets to mount them, since the brackets expect an even amount of supplies..

I'd probably go for a 6203b then; as the ultimate 5V logic supply..

[BU508A]

I have noticed a complete void of reasonably priced HP power supplies recently on eBay here. Slightly depressing 

There's an irritating lack of 6209 at my place.

I suppose having the beefy TTi CPX200 (was free to a good home) helps with everything else (below 35V), even though I always tend to reach for the 6200 series first.

There's an irritating lack of any reasonably priced HP supplies here, too. That deficiency got so pronounced once I made my own copy of the 6237.

What would be a reasonable price for a HP 6237B in good shape? 100 Euro?