Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[TERRA Operative]

[squadchannel]

are there Easter eggs in modern TE?

[Peter_O]

@Peter_O You are aware of the wonderful Easter egg inside that wonderful beast? There is a pretty good story behind it as well - as the story goes - the HP engineer died and only released it in his Will! (If not true - sounds good anyway 😁)

Thx for bringing it up here! 
Yes, as an TEA guy, I've put "HP3314A" into every search prompt of the WWW before buying one. 

Mine initially would only work on 110V - someone had been mucking with the socket/voltage selector😒, fixed it eventually 👍

The two-switch configuration with that special labeling might mislead some people who then take special measures.  :d
To be honest, I went back to the manual to get assured before switching to 240V. 

[Peter_O]

>>snip:>>
I always wanted to play with a HP3314A function generator.

Here are two pictures of the insides.

[wkb]

merry christmas to all .

I am sitting on my HP8593A with a display problem.

Story. The hp arrived dead. The PSU was fail, and the storage battery empty.
I have done, the PSU , and the battery, all is now working.
But the screen have problem: seems to be no sync in both directions. I have a double or triple line vertical, and horizontal only a part of the pic.
I got a instruction how to adjust display blind, from hßp group. I can adjust it, but it dont save the problem, there is anything in the monitorbox to repair.
 Is there anywhere a application for this par?

Martin

I think I read somewhere that if the CMOS RAM battery had gone flat you need to get some sensible data in there before the monitor will sync.

But where did I read that, and, better yet, what was the fix?

[wkb]

For reference this might be of interest. Not what I refered to as far as the CMOS RAM goes though..

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/hp-8590l-no-display/

As a first check I would connect a monitor for composite video to the external monitor out to see what is shown there (or not).

[wkb]

And finally, Google played ball for me 

On the subject of the CMOS contents resulting in garbled display.
Although the original poster has a different HP859x series SA, the solution offered might work for you..

https://groups.io/g/HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment/message/111566

[tautech]

are there Easter eggs in modern TE?

Yes in some Siglent analyzers, discovered by another member a year or 2 back:

[m k]

Seems that HP 859x monitor setting is origin.
If data is 16 bit wide the picture can be pretty far away.

[salvagedcircuitry]

Alright guys, what do you think. Is this a great deal or what? 
On this episode of bat $hit crazy ebay sellers:   
https://www.ebay.com/itm/405438628857

$6k for a well loved msox4000 series scope! 
Condition:

• Has been sitting in a lake for an unknown amount of time
• Looks like it was dragged behind a truck for a few dozen feet
• Knobs missing and encoders look bent
• Front BNC connectors are bent and dented
• Tilting bale broken
• All external metal surfaces corroded
• Rear BNCs look like they are growing into an inorganic coral reef

I'm going to take a guess and say this was found outside in a heaping pile of junk in an open dumpster.
What's a reasonable offer here? $50? $100? I'm being generous here. I bet he has auto decline on too! 

[wkb]

Keysight engineering watching this are having a    day, no doubt.

But it does work! For some definition of work presumably...

[factory]

Seller is in India & has only 31 feedback left, but ebay claims they have sold 250+ items, something smells dodgy to me. Plus it says Keyshite on the front, the dumpster is where it belongs  (along with it's buddies from Siglol & Riglent  ).

David

[McBryce]

Alright guys, what do you think. Is this a great deal or what? 
On this episode of bat $hit crazy ebay sellers:   
https://www.ebay.com/itm/405438628857

$6k for a well loved msox4000 series scope! 
Condition:

• Has been sitting in a lake for an unknown amount of time
• Looks like it was dragged behind a truck for a few dozen feet
• Knobs missing and encoders look bent
• Front BNC connectors are bent and dented
• Tilting bale broken
• All external metal surfaces corroded
• Rear BNCs look like they are growing into an inorganic coral reef

I'm going to take a guess and say this was found outside in a heaping pile of junk in an open dumpster.
What's a reasonable offer here? $50? $100? I'm being generous here. I bet he has auto decline on too! 

The owner obviously misunderstood when they heard people calling scopes "boat anchors".

McBryce.

[Robert763]

From the sellers name and location this 'scope was probably found in some dark oily corner of a ship being scrapped.

On a related note has anyone else noticed that since ebay UK stopped charging fees for private sellers the selecion of TE has been terible and over-priced?
There also seem to be a lot of private sellers who look a lot like businesses. ebay UK have also changed the reporting system and no longer have an option for reporting that a seller is a business. I've not bought a single piece of TE on ebay since October.

[factory]

I've not noticed any difference since fees for private sellers ended, it's always been full of high priced stuff, that spends months & years cluttering the servers up with unnecessary noughts & ones. The low priced stuff disappears before we can find it.
Ebay probably don't need this part of the reporting system anymore, as there was ployticks created to have this data collected & shared with the relevant authorities. The reporting system is a waste of time anyway, as they never seem to act on anything.

David

[Hydron]

I thought terrible and overpriced was the norm for UK eBay TE already? Or has it gotten even worse?

Most of my stuff these days comes from when I make work trips stateside and get sucked in by brown-era Keithley deals.

[Martin.M]

https://youtu.be/li5Q5eANok4?si=xwUYeLNQNPj_vfOo

hard working battery tubes radio