Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Robert763]

Incoming!
I was weak and clicked Buy It Now on a HP 8920A radio test set. I really don't need it. I sold my 8920B last year as a R&S CMU200 and a CMS33 more than covered my radio test needs. The 8920A isn't even working, dead PSU apparently. Pig of a repair job but I've fixed them before.
However at £75 I could not resist 

[Vince]

Buying something that doesn't even work and that you do'nt even need....  congratulations you just renewed your yearly TEA membership card !! 

[URI]

For those with unmodified page settings this is page 5359 and so it's time for the [hp] 5359A Time Synthesizer:

...it's the lower one of the two. 
(sorry, no better photo at hand, my 5359A is still somewhere in a heap/pile of TE waiting to be set up again after our move.)

[PA0PBZ]

Oh, something out of the ordinary just popped up here.

https://www.leboncoin.fr/cd_musique/2347368439.htm

Be careful: https://www.ricardo.ch/de/a/nixie-tube-clock-timer-1232178020/

[Vince]

Well he has every right to sell the thing on a different website...

What's strange is that this Ricardo site is in German but he wrote the description in English 

[McBryce]

Oh, something out of the ordinary just popped up here.

https://www.leboncoin.fr/cd_musique/2347368439.htm

A Neek-c clock. I mean, an actual one from back in the day.

Looks like a commercial kit unit to me. Cabinet wood work looks home made.
I don't know who is the manufacturer of this one. In the bottom left it says " PB DU1 ".

Maybe "PB" is the manufacturer and " DU1 " the model number...

Not for me and way too expensive, but if someone wants it I can be the middle man.

I doubt that's commercial. The alignment of the 5 LED's above "No touch" is terrible. Also, at what time were there commercial units that used Nixie tubes and LED's at the same time? That's two completely different era's.

McBryce.

[PA0PBZ]

Well he has every right to sell the thing on a different website...

What's strange is that this Ricardo site is in German but he wrote the description in English 

Yeah, and unless it's a creation of Schrödinger I find it strange that the apparatus is both in France and Switzerland 

[Vince]

Well he has every right to sell the thing on a different website...

What's strange is that this Ricardo site is in German but he wrote the description in English 

Yeah, and unless it's a creation of Schrödinger I find it strange that the apparatus is both in France and Switzerland 

That part actually did not intrigue me at all...  the guy probably has a stay in France, or friend sor family he visits there reguiarly, or does regular business trips there or whatever, so he could take the clok with him there if he found a buyer there.

I would say he lives in Switzerland because he can make very good money there, and has a stay, probably his childhood home, in France. Very common.
That would explain why he wrtoe the add in English on that Swiss website, because he probably doesn't speak German at all since he is only there for work, maybe recently at that who knows, so he uses a "universal" language instead.  His English text is clearly a direct translation of his French ad. I don't doubt that this is the same seller.... plus, who would still a picture to make a duplicate ad for something this niche....and for so little money (in the grand scheme of things. Makes no sense from a crook perspective..... more likely to scam people with a popular and expensive HP or Tek instrument...

[PA0PBZ]

Vince, you could be right of course, it just triggered a warning sign for me. Could be a good idea to ask the guy about the 2 listings before transferring any money still.

[Vince]

Well as I said I have no intention to buy this thing so I don't really have to carry out an investigation 

[Vince]

Oh, something out of the ordinary just popped up here.

https://www.leboncoin.fr/cd_musique/2347368439.htm

A Neek-c clock. I mean, an actual one from back in the day.

Looks like a commercial kit unit to me. Cabinet wood work looks home made.
I don't know who is the manufacturer of this one. In the bottom left it says " PB DU1 ".

Maybe "PB" is the manufacturer and " DU1 " the model number...

Not for me and way too expensive, but if someone wants it I can be the middle man.

I doubt that's commercial. The alignment of the 5 LED's above "No touch" is terrible. Also, at what time were there commercial units that used Nixie tubes and LED's at the same time? That's two completely different era's.

McBryce.

They look like neon bulbs to me, not LEDs.
But nevertheless I think you are right. Didn't notice the misalignment of these holes, bit odd indeed. so I zoomed on the picture and found other clues that holes and cutouts were done by hand....
the entire "Sync no touch ! "area of the front panel is odd for a commercial product. The tiny galvanomter to check battery voltage is a bit "too much"...

I got fooled a tfirst glance because of the engraved alu face plate that looks professional at first glance... but the cabinet clearly was home made. Hence my assumption it must have been a kit.

But yeah the more I look at it, the more it seems like a one-off home made project. Some guy tried to make vintage looking clock and overdid it....
The face plate either he spent an arm to get it done but could not afford the drilling and cutouts so had to do it himself, or the machine he had access to could only do the engraving but not the drilling.
Maybe he had access to a machine at work to get it done for free, or got a cheap hobby milling machine that could engrave but did not have the tools or grunt to do the cutouts and drillings.

He went to the trouble of fitting an obsolete '60s style power socket at the back, which helped in fooling me as well...

As for the " PB DU1 "marking iun the lower left corner, I guess he just made that up. I mean Google fails to find anything about this.

OK so it was just someone having fun doing a Nixie clock project, it looks like. Would help if we had pics of the insides of course, that would be a give away ! 

Still, was interesting seeing this thing listed, was out of the ordinary.

[McBryce]

PB DU1 is possibly something like: Peter B.... (ie: makers initials) Digital Uhr (Digital Clock) 1 ?

McBryce.

[Vince]

Maybe it was some kind of a school project or something...

[factory]

Timer for making an audio tape recording from a radio source? This would explain the dead tree casing that matches other 70s HiFi equipment, some of which had very cheap looking wood casings and the outlet socket for a fully energy star compliment vacuum bulb based, sticky tape & rust recorder device. 
I'm probably completely wrong.

David

[factory]

I doubt that's commercial. The alignment of the 5 LED's above "No touch" is terrible. Also, at what time were there commercial units that used N1x1e tubes and LED's at the same time? That's two completely different era's.

McBryce.

Early to mid 1970s... we have N1x1e bulbs with LEDs and bonus CRT.



Some other TE brands were still using N1x1e bulbs into the 1980s.

David

[PA0PBZ]

Well as I said I have no intention to buy this thing so I don't really have to carry out an investigation 

I know, but someone else might be interested 

[Swainster]

Incoming!
I was weak and clicked Buy It Now on a HP 8920A radio test set. I really don't need it. I sold my 8920B last year as a R&S CMU200 and a CMS33 more than covered my radio test needs. The 8920A isn't even working, dead PSU apparently. Pig of a repair job but I've fixed them before.
However at £75 I could not resist 

That's a great deal for a lot of instrument!

One of my old (Singapore) employers dumped a bunch of these and other old RF test equipment when they downsized the office. I only found out a few days after they had been scrapped - the boss said I could have taken the lot . Luckily I had already 'diverted' one of these old test sets years ago (to be fair, they crated it up and shipped it over to me when I was living in Japan, then never bothered to get it shipped back when I moved back to the UK, so I put it in with my personal belongings). Since then it blew its power supply (possibly user abuse). I have an IRF840 mosfet in my travel bag waiting for when I get back to the UK this summer, which will hopefully get it running again... if I can remember how to reassemble it, as I took it apart last summer...

[McBryce]

I doubt that's commercial. The alignment of the 5 LED's above "No touch" is terrible. Also, at what time were there commercial units that used N1x1e tubes and LED's at the same time? That's two completely different era's.

McBryce.

Early to mid 1970s... we have N1x1e bulbs with LEDs and bonus CRT.



Some other TE brands were still using N1x1e bulbs into the 1980s.

David

Interesting. I didn't know they crossed paths. I assumed that anything Nixie would be using covered bulbs.

McBryce.

[Specmaster]

@Vince, I really don't think that cabinet is homemade, that was how many cabinets looked back in the day. I had some proper hi-fi gear that was a commercial product and it looked exactly like that, same colour, everything. Look at it, all the corners are nicely mitred etc, IIRC most cabinets were either in that style and finish or teak, those were the in vogue styles.

[vk6zgo]

@Vince, I really don't think that cabinet is homemade, that was how many cabinets looked back in the day. I had some proper hi-fi gear that was a commercial product and it looked exactly like that, same colour, everything. Look at it, all the corners are nicely mitred etc, IIRC most cabinets were either in that style and finish or teak, those were the in vogue styles.

My feeling is that it is somewhere "in between" homemade & commercial.
Maybe something built up "in house" by some organisation or other.

My employer in the early 1970s built a lot of stuff up like that----for years we had a digital clock in the control desk of the TV site I worked at.

It had large LED displays, & provision for timed switching of external circuitry, & such devices were used elsewhere to turn unattended AM Broadcast transmitters on & off (before the onset of 24-hour operation).

When the "powers that be" decided that they wanted to extend TV transmissions beyond the original closing & starting times (& attended hours), they "wanted it yesterday".
The first iteration of automation used a bunch of Post Office relays, switched by the (then) 14 year old desk digital clock.

One small problem was that the clock, for some unknown reason, didn't like switching at even times like 0030 WAST, & would sometimes close the station down at 2330 WAST instead.------OOOPS!
The quick fix was to set the closedown at something like 0037 WAST instead.

Ultimately, we built up an "in house" automatic control using, initially, a cheap irrigation controller, for the timer, & ultimately by a device which switched the Tx on & off, depending upon the presence of field sync signals on the Studio to transmitter link.

The LED clock went back to just being a clock!

[m k]

They look like neon bulbs to me, not LEDs.
But nevertheless I think you are right. Didn't notice the misalignment of these holes, bit odd indeed. so I zoomed on the picture and found other clues that holes and cutouts were done by hand....
the entire "Sync no touch ! "area of the front panel is odd for a commercial product. The tiny galvanomter to check battery voltage is a bit "too much"...

Top left of the face is screaming a logo, otherwise predicted main display position would be higher.

Maybe sync lights have hours lifted for better visibility.

I'd say it's a commercial entity made almost commercial something.

Place for serial number is missing.
Maybe original power trannys were TO-220 style with smaller heatsinks.
Then top part of the back can have some covered texts.

Sold for CHF 121, still available in France.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Magnetic T&M Gear Part 1

[/b]

Here you see some of my instruments for the measurement and indication of magnetic phenomena.

1.) The fairly modern Gaussmeter from Lake Shore Cryotronics, which is now completed with axial and transversal probe and a Zero Gauss chamber for zeroing. Also a detail picture of the probes. This instrument measures DC and AC fields, the latter from 20Hz to 10kHz. It already had it's first actual use in determining whether our RF circulator is safe for shipping as airfreight without a screen.

2.) The rather strange Feldmeter BPM1003 from Bio-Physik Meersmann. The 'Volts' ranges apply to a input for an auxiliary electrode.

3.) Two mechanical indicators. The one on the left is a magnet needle in a cardanic fixture and is free to move in all axis. The one on the right has a rotating disk to indicate the poles of a magnet.

- more to follow -

[Vince]

Maybe someone can help....

A friend needs me to repair a 1/4" jack plug on an audio cable.

I know squat about audio. The connector looks broken. The negative tab broke off of the plug.
this tab serves both to solder the the wire to it, but also acts as the strain relief, as it bites into the cable.

Does someone know where to buy this particular model of connector ? Is it some well known / standard type ?

Or should I give up on the idea of finding an identical one, and rather resort to fitting a different type ?
Any recommendation on places to buy decent plugs ? With a decently robust strain relief system ?

Thank you very much....

[tautech]

Common as mud 1/4" mono audio plug, guitars, mics, keyboards.....everything used them.

[Vince]

Don't think it's that common, first time I see one like  that. 

The common type I see in consumer products looks cheaper.

Well if it's that common maybe you can point me to a website that sells them ?

EDIT : I just checked on RS website, they have 18 types and none of them look identical to the one I have got here 

https://fr.rs-online.com/web/c/connecteurs/connecteurs-audio-et-video/connecteurs-jacks/?applied-dimensions=4294562142,4294221506,4294461197,4294564354,4293089034,4294547651