Hi! I am a fellow TEA sufferer, with a focus on the voltnuttery side of things. A particularly deep
I thought I should say hello!
Must be an ePay thing then.
I'm many times too far from Japan, or something like that.
I always thought it was some kind of error. But I also saw a lot of listings with free shipping from Japan. I Never tried to buy one though.
I was also surprised when I saw free shipping from Japan. I needed a programmable, high precision current source and I saw an Advantest R6144 in mint condition from a Japanese seller for a reasonable price a couple of months ago on eBay. It was sent with FedEx at no extra cost and it arrived very quickly. It works perfectly. I was charged import VAT and the FedEx service charge of course, but that was quick and painless.
So if there is something in Japan that interests you, these free shipping deals seem to be genuine. These free shipping deals make US sellers very expensive option now if you are in the EU. I noticed that shipping prices from the US seem to have nearly doubled recently.
I thought people might like to hear from someone who has taken advantage of free shipping from Japan. Just make sure that what you buy can be reconfigured for 230V operation if you are in Europe! It cannot be taken for granted.
I've learned that ePay is money safe, checkout price is stone carved.
Over the zone border can be different.
ePay checkout price includes export part, but import part only if total price is low enough.
(for a moment it used to be easier)
selling price - VAT - toll - export - tax free - import - toll - VAT - you
(placing shipping costs is difficult)
(but paid it is before cargo moves)
With VAT number the first VAT may go away.
(country specific)
If you pay local VAT it must be visible somewhere.
You can also ask customs how the actual border crossing has happened, here the queue is around 10 months.
If you leave everything to forwarder be exact.
Importer (and exporter) is the justified VAT deductee and it's forwarder who fills the papers.
E,
a shipping example.
If you buy a car from far away and forget some nuances it's totally possible that you have a major problem when it arrives.
For example it can be in a container and unloading is on you, including the container.
Anybody want a Simpson 260 multimeter.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/126423684492Always funny when they take a picture of a women with random product. Wonder if it's really working. That seller might know something I don't.
So we have a local radio rally tomorrow so I sorted some stuff out and loaded SWMBO's car today.
Then from a casual comment to a frient tonight I found it's been cancelled
Waterlogged field aparently.
At least I didn't get up at 6AM and drive there to find no-one there that would have been
Anybody want a Simpson 260 multimeter.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/126423684492
Always funny when they take a picture of a women with random product. Wonder if it's really working. That seller might know something I don't.
The top is cracked, it looks like a good candidate for a retro-lamp mod
As for the ladies, a smile always helps to sell... There must be a story behind it though. Wife and daughter: "Either your pile of old junk is going or we are!"
So we have a local radio rally tomorrow so I sorted some stuff out and loaded SWMBO's car today.
Then from a casual comment to a frient tonight I found it's been cancelled Waterlogged field aparently.
At least I didn't get up at 6AM and drive there to find no-one there that would have been
Was this the one at Foxton near Cambridge? I vaguely remember a post about it on the vintage radio forum. Worse still I googled Foxton and it decided to show me one nearer to me in Leicestershire.
I was surprized the sale (not electronic/radio related) I went to yesterday (to help my Dad) wasn't cancelled, at Woodford Northamptonshire, everything had been moved up the hill a bit though, very cold as a result. Of course no TE for sale, but I've ended up with more load resistors than I'll ever need. There seemed to be a lack of buyers in general.
If I wasn't completely knackered I would have gone to the sale at Blackpool today.
David
Yes Cambridge repeater Group rallly. Only a small one. Not worth travelling any distance for.
Yes too far for me, nearly 3 hours each way, more if the motorway is blocked with wreckage like yesterday. Norbreck Blackpool would have been nearer at nearly 2 hours, but looking at pictures of previous years there hasn't been much TE on offer, but this can vary depending on how many people are clearing relatives & their own equipment.
David
I wonder if all the resistors are still inside though
How else would you dim the light bulb?
I wonder if all the resistors are still inside though
How else would you dim the light bulb?
That would be a nice touch.
A recent arrival was a HP 432C power meter, there are plenty of 432A about, some 432B but very few 432C, maybe the extra cost of the auto-ranging function put most buyers off at the time, or they had no reason to replace a 432A, or analog meters were preferred.
I had a look inside, as the 432 series is known to contain two wet tantalum capacitors.
These have leaked in my 1969 432A, seems a shame to disturb this.
Thankfully no signs of leakage in the 432C, they seem to have used a different brand in this one.
And a quick check with the calibrator for these power meters, seems to work OK on the higher ranges, but is drifting a bit on the lower ranges, exactly as described by the seller, it was very nicely packaged for a change too.
David
Very strange, the seller hasn't got anything else listed
or sold with smoke damage.
David
A quick revisit to the HP 6920B, the output indicator lamp had stopped working once I performed the re-capicde, this part was missing when I acquired it, probably fell out & got run over by a tank.
I didn't have the correct lamp assembly, a random one marked 61 had been fitted by me, I had re-stuffed it with a lamp I had in my spares years ago, it worked but was always quite dim, after replacing the capacitors it wasn't lighting at all, turned out there isn't enough voltage to light that lamp any-more.
Some new #1738 lamps arrived from Mouser this morning, this is the part listed in the manual, a 2.7V lamp. I cleaned off the number by sanding & polishing it, I've restuffed the lamp assembly again with this one and now have a working & much brighter output indicator.
David
Anyone got 3D files of the feet for a HP 427A?
I need to get some 3D printed....
Hi
I have made my own piece of test equipment. It is a GPIB breakout board. It plugs directly into the HP Logic Analyser cable so no messing around with individual probes. Just plug and play. It would be easy to make up a cable to adapt the GPIB breakout connector to another make/model of LA.
In addition, the signals are also exposed on a separate header.
I have made the first GPIB breakout board and updated the pcbway share project, available for ordering your own board (
).
Hi,
Nice PCB.
Was there a reason you didn't include the tip isolation network?
[ Specified attachment is not available ]
Just a 91k resistor on each line would get the DC levels correct. Even a 100k which is easily available as 8 in a single package would be better than nothing.
Information on LA probing is available from Keysight.
https://www.keysight.com/gb/en/assets/7018-06707/data-sheets/5968-4632.pdfSee page 47.
Robert.
Hi,
Nice PCB.
Was there a reason you didn't include the tip isolation network?
(Attachment Link)
Just a 91k resistor on each line would get the DC levels correct. Even a 100k which is easily available as 8 in a single package would be better than nothing.
Information on LA probing is available from Keysight. https://www.keysight.com/gb/en/assets/7018-06707/data-sheets/5968-4632.pdf
See page 47.
Robert.
I read the reference a while ago, but I didn't think the extra complexity was required in this case. My use case is to connect the adapter between the test equipment and the gpib-usb adapter, looking for software related problems. I looked at the specs for my scope and the GPIB signal levels are inside the scope specs.
If I am wrong, I will try something else.
Well it will work for what you were doing but there are some issues.
The loading on the GPIB bus will be much higher. About 10k plus a fair bit of capacitance instead of 100k and <10pF
The logic thresholds will be incorrect.
It's technically exceeding the input voltage specification of the 'scope. The specification is +_40V at the probe tip. As the probe network is a 10:1 divider that is +_ 4V at the 'scope digital input. Now 5V is unlikely to cause damage but any overshoot, ringing or higher logic levels than TTL could damage the comparators in the 'scope.
Adding a pair of 100k 8 way resistor packages is not too much extra work.
Robert.
Well it will work for what you were doing but there are some issues.
The loading on the GPIB bus will be much higher. About 10k plus a fair bit of capacitance instead of 100k and <10pF
The logic thresholds will be incorrect.
It's technically exceeding the input voltage specification of the 'scope. The specification is +_40V at the probe tip. As the probe network is a 10:1 divider that is +_ 4V at the 'scope digital input. Now 5V is unlikely to cause damage but any overshoot, ringing or higher logic levels than TTL could damage the comparators in the 'scope.
Adding a pair of 100k 8 way resistor packages is not too much extra work.
Robert.
All good points. I didn't spot it was a 10:1 divider. I am going to revisit the design. I suspect it will be easier and less work to insert discrete smd resistors to the existing track layout.
Hi
I have modified the design to include the probe networks. I decided to implement the full terminator/probe networks. Two resistors and one cap on each probe are now fitted to the bottom layer.
I used discrete components because using arrays would have required a major pcb design change.
There wasn't room for the capacitors without a significant increase in pcb size, so I will stack them with the 91k resistors. The caps are probably not needed for my use case, but easy and cheap to include in the design.