Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[pcprogrammer]

There must be something. This is what I see.

Am Dutch, but live in France, to avoid confusion

Edit: the blue underlined text does nothing when clicked on. Maybe it is Firefox on Linux that causes the problem.

[capt bullshot]

Remembering the video stuff, I just stumbled upon this one:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/385091710534



It's digital only, wonder if one can abuse its guts for some kind of vectrex display

[Vince]

There must be something. This is what I see.

Am Dutch, but live in France, to avoid confusion

Edit: the blue underlined text does nothing when clicked on. Maybe it is Firefox on Linux that causes the problem.

Problem solved ! Well, kinda.

It's Firefox on my Linux Desktop that doesn't like it ! I tried another browser (" Chromium " whatever that is... ) and the site shows up and works just fine ! 
It also works fine on Firefox on my Linux/Android Smartphone.....

Now it would be interesting to understand why it fails on Firefox Desktop...

[BU508A]

This is a screenshot from my Firefox running on KDE-Ubuntu Linux desktop:

[factory]

...
Thank you for those hints, I've spent the afternoon (1/2 day off work*) working on the PCB layout, need to double check pinouts & spacing at the bottom before thinking about ordering anything, plus learn the panelize thingy. Current version is 27.4mm by 22.6mm.


...
David

Looks great; good job ; it clearly shows that you've enjoyed it 
Personally, I would add one 0.1µF MLCC to each IC for decoupling , and ground fill on both sides; for the text just change layer to silkscreen/add keep-out zone around it. Other thing to check&edit: the pin header holes/pads. Originally 1mm holes, is lose for the 0.8mm and very loose for the 0.5mm headers.

Panelize is the very last step to do before generating the Gerbers. Panel size: JLCPCB(which I use, don' know about the other PCB houses) has free V-scoring for exactly 100X100mm panels, so that's why I'm using that size, if I need multiple boards.

The V-scoring restrictions(special thanks to Vince, he paid to find out): under 15mm spacing between cuts costs extra, and the minimum cut spacing is 5mm. Of course, you can ask the PCB house directly about the V-scoring rules/restrictions.

(One of)The panelizing procedure(s): finish the single board, check, DRC, have a good night sleep  , check again, then start:
1. Move the board "Move exactly"(Shift+M) in a place where the left top corner is in a nice, round location(50,50 or 100,50 or whatever you choose; it will help when restoring the edge cuts)
2. Remove the edge cuts(left in for multiplication will result in overlapping edge cuts, and I'm not curious to find out how the PCB house will react).
3. Select the whole board; "Create Array"(Ctrl+T) add the desired spacing and counts; add the edge cuts, add filling space on the edges, if needed. The panel will fail DRC(that's normal) because of the multiple copies of the same items.
4. Create Gerbers.

One lesser known fact: If you place an order to JLCPCB, LCSC will give you a shipping discount(=free Global Direct Standard Line or a bit more, but shipping only), if you place an order during the PCB manufacturing.

A little fun: https://www.rocelec.com/part/REI74141PC ; brand new ones.

Attached is the single panel with the Hirose pins(.stp provided by Hirose); I didn't had the patience to build a second footprint with a properly oriented/moved .stp.

Thank you, that worked perfect for the panellizing  , makes a big difference in price to do it prior to going to JLC, I noticed they can do the panellize for you, but add extra $$$ for doing it. 

Glad I didn't order them straight away, as I've just noticed the headers aren't lined up, somehow they got slighty staggered, when I moved one to the back layer, in the PCB editor. 

And yes I quite enjoyed creating the adaptor board.

David

[syau]

New toy day! 

Nice, I thought those DCA75 were hard to find ATM, something to do with a redesign because of the chip shortages. 

David

It's shelf stock from one of my favourite stores in Akihabara. Latest firmware and all, so it's a late model, probably from just before the chip shortages.

https://akizukidenshi.com/catalog/default.aspx

This is also my favour store in Akihabara which I always visit when I made myself in Tokyo. Only issue is need to put my wife somewhere while I wondering around in Akihabara 

[Black Phoenix]

This is also my favour store in Akihabara which I always visit when I made myself in Tokyo. Only issue is need to put my wife somewhere while I wondering around in Akihabara 

Same problem I have in Huaqiangbei. Lucky there is 2 big shopping centres close by, one with a ballpark for kids (that I got the membership for exact that reason), so both her and the kid go there while I spend my time around checking stuff.

Been In Akihabara back in 2010 but didn't gone to this store, probably next time I go to Japan.

[TERRA Operative]

Well, if anyone comes here to Japan and needs a tour of Akihabara.... here I am!

[Black Phoenix]

I will keep your PM page in my short list.

[Brumby]

Well, if anyone comes here to Japan and needs a tour of Akihabara.... here I am!

Oh hell.  That's one offer I DON'T need!!!!!     (but I would take up given half a chance)

[TERRA Operative]

Exchange rate is really good right now. 

Good for buying up cheap gear and parts. Have a holiday! Feeeeed the addiction!

[Brumby]

Enablers!  Enablers everywhere!!!!

Bean just helped me part with a four figure sum ... and I dare not think how much Akihabara would absorb from my wallet! 

[Black Phoenix]

I would go today, but then coming back home would be a PITA or even almost impossible with the current policies of China.

I have a German friend that it gone to Germany for personal stuff and coming back is almost impossible. While his kid and wife are in Mainland...

[KG7AMV]

Just added another Xeltek Superpro 6100N this week to the programmer farm. It should help on the thruput on devices that take a few min to program.

Programmer Farm.
Left to Right
6100N, 6100N(New), 5000, 5000E
Center 3000U
Not Included in photo are the few drawers of Chip adapters and Specific ISP programmers lol.

[BU508A]

What on earth is a "Minimet Polisher"? 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134224940538

[PA0PBZ]

What on earth is a "Minimet Polisher"? 

That's device to polish your minimet of course 

Or it's a polisher from the Buehler Minimet series...

[McBryce]

What on earth is a "Minimet Polisher"? 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134224940538

It's a surface polisher. We have used them at work, for example to examine terminal crimp quality. The crimped terminal gets cut through its cross-section and then polished to examine the crimp.

McBryce. 

[TERRA Operative]

Hnnnnnn... Do I need a second P6015 HV probe? One is currently at 12000 yen, no bidders and 30 minutes to go...

But I just bought the TM5003 mainframe with AFG5101 Arb Func Gen the other day...

[xrunner]

What on earth is a "Minimet Polisher"? 

The small version of the Maximet?

Something that polishes Minimets?

 

[Brumby]

  You can take a break now.

Come back in 10 minutes.

[TERRA Operative]

Work on the AFG5101 has commenced.

A new 16x2 LCD has been ordered. I went with black text on white rather than the old black on blue, to make it look a bit nicer and more modern.
The original LCD has a blue (sooooo 2000's!) electroluminescent backlight, and it is reallllly dim, to the point it's basically unusable. Luckily, it's a standard 16.2 LCD, so an ebay sourced part is a drop-in replacement once I've removed the EL inverter module and wired the LED backlight of the new LCD module to the supply lines to the now-deleted inverter..

I tested all the Philips axial electrolytic capacitors on the PSU PCB, they test perfect, better than the datasheet says (low single digit uA of leakage!), so they will stay. No need to replace them.

I updated the firmware from v1.2 to v1.4 too. I dug out the UV chip eraser, wiped the EPROM chip and reprogrammed it with the newer firmware using my TL822II programmer.

And I just now finished the design of a replacement backup battery. The one in my unit was as dead as dead can be, causing the unit to throw a RAM error on boot. I tested both the RAM chips in my 'Retro Chip Tester Pro' and they passed, so it's definitely just the battery.
The original battery is a Renata made part, part number 125-1, it has decoupling diodes built-in and is a smaller version of the seemingly once more common larger 1000-1. Both are no longer made, of course.
Luckily (again) the Tek engineers included a dual footprint on the PCB, so the 1000-1 will fit, and it's big enough that I was able to make a little PCB design that holds a CR2032 cell plus the two needed 1N4148 diodes to slot right in its place.



Next step, start looking at building an Option 02 frequency locked synthesizer to give me enhanced frequency stability...

[factory]

Almost forgot the TE for this page. 


David

[Neomys Sapiens]

Phew, I got lucky yesterday and avoided another encounter with a Rifa skunk.
As I mentioned, the young lady which is into physics was visiting and one of the topics was the usage of a stroboscope for measurement and observation. I have two nearly identical stroboscopes (Movistrob/Picostrob). of which we used the Picostrob, just because it was in the first layer of storage. Halfway through our experiments, it ceased to function. When I opened it up later, I saw a massive Rifa cap, which was already cracked but not yet exploded. Although I have still to locate the actual defect, skunk averted!
 
It is in the repair queue now and we continued with the other one. So if anyone needed an incentive for redundancy, here it is!
In other topics, the vise which I did show you has arrived and it is more massive than I thought. It is about double the size of my Bernstein Spannfix (1.5x the size of the larger Bernstein variant). Well, in combination with the robust jaws that does actually fit me well.

My company demands proof of a suitable workplace from everyone who wants to work at home from now on, so I have to clear my desk for a photo. The things I found there - most amazing!
 

[Brumby]

* scans own desk *

 

[BU508A]

Xantrex XHR 600 - 1.7

I got the other day a new (used) power supply unit: a 600V / 1.7A / ca. 1000W Xantrex XHR 600 - 1.7
I was looking for such a psu since quite a while. Their origing country is Canada, the manuafcturer is Xantrex, formerly known as Sorensen.
They are known for building high quality power supplies that need not fear comparison with TDK Lambda or delta electronica.
Usually they are sold in the GWN and they are going for ca. 700 Dollar or more per unit. But last weekend I had some luck.
I've found a seller here in Germany, which were selling those for a reasonable price (475 Euro, incl. VAT and shipping). But, guess what? I tried to find the page again and it is gone!    Wow, seems, these devices are probably quite sought after.

However, I think, you want to see some pictures, so here we go.

I got my unit with a power cord, two cables attached to the unit with 4mm banana plugs, a test protocol and test certificate.

From left to right:
First owner, I guess - Labexchange sticker - a missing screw (screw, not shrew!  ) - backside - banana plug cables - ferrules  - test protocol - test certificate



I've lifted the top cover and under the hood there is a lot of control circuitry. The people at Xantrax are really serious about their products!

From left to right:

overview (sorry for the blurry picture) - GPIB interface - weird optocouplers - DAC daughter board



top left: sensing circuit with Phoenix connector on the left - middle part - some LM317 - a dirty fan - display pcb



Now let's have a glance to the power section:
overview with shield for the air flow - air flow shield removed - mains input - massive chokes and 470µF Nichicons - UC3854N power factor preregulator



UC3875N phase shift resonant controller - front panel PCB with multiturn potentiometers - front output PCB - overview with fan - 24V fan (it is loud!)



rear output (green Phoenix connector) - output filtering - the Nippon Chemicon gang - filter and damping circuits for the output MOSFETs -



Ok, now let's have a look at the voltage output (I haven't performed yet some real load tests):

0V - 100V - 300V - 600V
It seems a little bit off with the higher outputs. But since I'm planning to use this guy for some vacuum tube projects I think it doesn't really matter, if I'm applying 612V or 614V to the anode.





Hope, you've enjoyed this teardown of a relatively rare unit.

@Vince: I think, the 30A rating is due to the Banana connectors being used