Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 21004525 times)

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Offline electron_plumber

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137150 on: January 16, 2025, 01:08:52 pm »
The Bode 500 has arrived!

2483731-0
 
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Offline m k

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137151 on: January 16, 2025, 06:35:31 pm »
No, it got lost in the 5th dimension, I will never see it again...  :-BROKE

Just in case, check the kaleidoscope.
The age of Aguarius can be magical.
Advance-Aneng-Appa-AVO-Beckman-Danbridge-Data Tech-Fluke-General Radio-H. W. Sullivan-Heathkit-HP-Kaise-Kyoritsu-Leeds & Northrup-Mastech-OR-X-REO-Simpson-Sinclair-Tektronix-Tokyo Rikosha-Topward-Triplett-Tritron-YFE
(plus lesser brands from the work shop of the world)
 

Online themadhippy

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137152 on: January 17, 2025, 12:37:42 am »
Quote
Quote from: Vince on January 14, 2025, 08:37:16 pm

    No, it got lost in the 5th dimension, I will never see it again...  :-BROKE


Just in case, check the kaleidoscope.
The age of Aguarius can be magical.

Or maybe the byrds took it
 

Online TERRA Operative

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137153 on: January 17, 2025, 04:26:11 am »
Just bought a busted TDS784D. It hangs on bood (led's on front panel lit, no display image) and the internal 7-segment display is alternating between 6 and 8.
I'll finally get my hands on a console adapter to see what is going on, but I have a suspicion I'll be replacing NVRAM chips. Hopefully it's that easy...

Also in the market for a 3458A, found an Agilent one locally for a good price, so will be making some inquiries.
Where does all this test equipment keep coming from?!?

https://www.youtube.com/NearFarMedia/
 

Online Vince

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137154 on: January 17, 2025, 05:26:45 pm »
Just bought a busted TDS784D. It hangs on bood (led's on front panel lit, no display image) and the internal 7-segment display is alternating between 6 and 8.
I'll finally get my hands on a console adapter to see what is going on, but I have a suspicion I'll be replacing NVRAM chips. Hopefully it's that easy...

Oh yeah another one ! That's good, I might need spares to maintain "mine" !!!  >:D
Good luck with that one, keep us posted on your progress ! A few piccies don't hurt either !  :)

« Last Edit: January 17, 2025, 09:57:57 pm by Vince »
 

Offline Robert763

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137155 on: January 18, 2025, 03:12:28 pm »
Unexpected TEA.
A friend dropped by last night and left some TE in exchange for a spare part.
The TE is a RF power meter. Not one of the usual HPAK or Boonton, a Krytar 9000B. This is a digital meter with diode based heads. 1990s vintage. The head covers -30 to +20 dBm (-39 with reduced accuracy) from 100kHz to 12.5 GHz.
Krytar's main business is microwave components including diode detectors. Looks like the power meter ws a market divergence. Krytar still exist but no longer sell meters. No manual but a "Contact us" message to them last night and ther was a PDF manual in my inbox this morning  :)
Meter all works and even the battery holds a bit of charge. makes a nice addition to my existing meters which are mostly thermal. The part I swapped it for owed me very little.

Robert.
 
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Online Vince

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137156 on: January 18, 2025, 03:16:12 pm »
I know squat about RF but that meter looks cute to me, I guess that's gotta count for something ?!   >:D
 

Online squadchannel

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137157 on: January 18, 2025, 03:30:26 pm »
Kind manufacturer to look for manuals for vintage TEs.
it makes me happy. :-[

R&S? I don't know. :=\
 

Online TERRA Operative

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137158 on: January 18, 2025, 04:28:29 pm »
Unexpected TEA.
A friend dropped by last night and left some TE in exchange for a spare part.
The TE is a RF power meter. Not one of the usual HPAK or Boonton, a Krytar 9000B. This is a digital meter with diode based heads. 1990s vintage. The head covers -30 to +20 dBm (-39 with reduced accuracy) from 100kHz to 12.5 GHz.
Krytar's main business is microwave components including diode detectors. Looks like the power meter ws a market divergence. Krytar still exist but no longer sell meters. No manual but a "Contact us" message to them last night and ther was a PDF manual in my inbox this morning  :)
Meter all works and even the battery holds a bit of charge. makes a nice addition to my existing meters which are mostly thermal. The part I swapped it for owed me very little.

Robert. (Attachment Link)

Ooh, you should upload it to the BAMA archive. :)
Where does all this test equipment keep coming from?!?

https://www.youtube.com/NearFarMedia/
 

Offline Robert763

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137159 on: January 18, 2025, 07:54:23 pm »
I've had very good technical support from R&S so no complaints here. Krytar were very good in this case.
I'll upload it to KO4BB's website when it's sorted out.

Robert.
 

Offline factory

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137160 on: January 18, 2025, 08:12:18 pm »
Quote
Post by Robert » Sat Jan 18, 2025 12:55 pm

    AVGresponding wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 6:09 pm

        Robert wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2025 8:12 pm

            AVGresponding wrote: ↑Wed Jan 15, 2025 6:37 pm
            Yeah I think the 8060A was aimed more at electronics guys, the rubber baby buggy bumper brigade are more a sparky thing.

            @Robert, identifying the connector on this seems the sort of thing you excel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdHZahEGn_8&lc=UgxrhKRMEO2H3zxcjyF4AaABAg.ADIDWCryxWpADJDMxpZBFm


        Alden connector. Single pole.
        The double pole polariss version is common on HENE lasers.
        Catalog:
        https://www.amphenolalden.com/sites/def ... CT2017.pdf

        One supplier: https://www.surplussales.com/wire-cable/hvwire-2.html
        Datasheet: https://www.surplussales.com/Wire-Cable ... 101set.pdf
        Che

        By the way the black thing on the front panel of the tester is a electronic sounder.

        Robert,
        The connector guy

    Ooops, I should have been more specific... I meant the three pole one on the back, for controlling the timer lockout

That is a Bulgin / Belling Lee minature 3 pole. Basically a reverse sex of the ones on the old Weller TCP soldering irons.
Old part number was P438-Plug and P438-Socket.
Now discontinued.

It's a 2.5A* Bulgin connector PX0649, which was also used for the Megger FT6/12 (for the low probe), never seen anything from Belling Lee of that type.

*or 3A according to the datasheet; https://www.mouser.comPX0649/catalog/specsheets/Bulgin_04212021_General Purpose Connectors.pdf

These Bulgin plugs seem very hard to find now they are discontinued, guessing not many things used them, whereas the opposite gender version was used as mains connectors for some Racal & Marconi TE.

No this one is not available, it's the only one I have.



David
« Last Edit: January 18, 2025, 08:32:16 pm by factory »
 

Offline tggzzz

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137161 on: January 18, 2025, 09:35:45 pm »


Before posting those photos, it would have been considerate to give a "trigger warning" :)

« Last Edit: January 18, 2025, 09:38:40 pm by tggzzz »
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".
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Offline AVGresponding

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137162 on: January 18, 2025, 09:46:47 pm »


Before posting those photos, it would have been considerate to give a "trigger warning" :)

 :-DD
nuqDaq yuch Dapol?
Addiction count: Agilent-AVO-BlackStar-Brymen-Chauvin Arnoux-Fluke-GenRad-Hameg-HP-Keithley-IsoTech-Mastech-Megger-Metrix-Micronta-Racal-RFL-Siglent-Solartron-Tektronix-Thurlby-Time Electronics-TTi-UniT
 

Offline rdenney

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137163 on: January 18, 2025, 10:19:13 pm »
I’m new here, but I feel at home in this thread. I fear I suffer from this disease, showing clinical symptomology in every parameter. It’s not just for electronics. Other hobbies, too. I bought an old South Bend lathe and my wife asked me what I was going to make with it. “Lathe parts.” If a hobby requires expensive apparatus designed to prevent me from retiring, and that gives me an excuse to conduct wholly unnecessary levels of exhaustive research, I’m all in. I just can’t resist. I keep telling myself I’m equipping myself for retirement, but who am I kidding? I’ll never be able to retire at this rate.

Case in point: these last two weeks, I’ve decided the audio junk fixit pile has grown too large and I either need to fix the stuff or destroy it the rest of the way trying to fix it so that I can sell it on eBay as “untested”. And a couple of Mend It Mark videos provided the trigger (this time).

I have a Fluke 115 handheld DMM that really does everything I’m smart enough to need. But nooooo. I decided I needed a bench DMM with 4.5 digits. So, I researched old bench DMMs that were $35 or less and well-made and came up with the highly regarded Fluke 8050, one of which I bought. While looking at that, I caught a glimpse of a Keithley 175, which I liked better (it has auto-ranging), and bought it, too. The Fluke didn’t work (the display turns on but no input or button pressing changes it) and the seller refunded me but told me to keep it. So, I bought another one. It also doesn’t work. The voltage it reads grinds its way over about a minute to the correct value.

Meanwhile, the Keithley 175 worked fine but the soft switches rarely worked. So I took it apart and cleaned those (very easy). That should be good enough, right? I have my new bench DMM, and it’s a good one.

Not hardly. I was still just building up a head of steam. I started researching 5.5-digit DMMs, because shut up that’s why. The Keithley 197 is compact and loved by a fan community here whose thread on that DMM  proved compelling. I found one for a reasonable price (but still considerably higher than my initial budget). It’s on the way.

Meanwhile, the dead second Fluke resulted in a partial refund and don’t bother sending it back. So, now I have two Fluke 8050’s on the fixit pile.

This is fun…the fixit pile is keeping pace with the bench equipment.

But in all the research into the dark forest of volt-nut land, the evil spirits lurking therein pulled me inexorably to the darkest corner wherein one is confronted with: HP. In the classes I teach, I use Bill Hewlett’s HP Way as an example of emergent needs-focused systems engineering (do as I say, not as I do), so I always have a soft spot for traditional HP equipment.

And I ran across one of Dave’s blog videos about affordable old 6.5-digit DMMs. He mentioned the HP 3457A as a sweet spot between used price, quality, and function. Why not the 3456A, which is cheaper, I ask? It avoids the proprietary HP parts coding that makes the 3457 harder to service!

Well, there’s the ROM rot issue. Forget that—just avoid the early 2015A serial numbers. Then, there was some issue that affected the 2201A serial numbers. I can avoid those! And up pops a very clean-looking 3456A for a pretty good price (only a little more—but still more—than I paid for the Keithley 197). It had the 2515 serial number, made at least in 1987. That’s downright recent!

And I bought it.

While waiting for delivery, I then found the many videos of people praising the innards of the 3456A…

….while having them apart because they were broken.

About that time, Norovirus struck down the occupants of Chez Denney and I spent a day of fever-ridden bathroom-constrained hallucination about just wanting to measure one more freaking digit! Can’t I just measure one more digit! The HP will be a failure and I’ll have a fixit job far beyond my skills and I’ll have to send it back. Oh, the disappointment!

It arrived today, zooming past the 197 in the postal service’s usual go-slow contest.

In Vizzini’s words, this thing is truly a hippopotamic land mass. My bench is three feet deep But I can see this is going to need an extension shelf. But it’s…

…beautiful. I plugged it in, powered it up, and It. Just. Worked. The self-test shows no errors, the readings are at least reasonable (I haven’t made it out to the shop to compare it to my other DMMs yet). The LEDs are bright and inviting. There are digits galore.

I had to invite my wife down to the basement to admire it. (She declined.)

So, now the bench will have an HP3456A, a Keithley 197, and a Keithley 175. And the two Fluke 8050’s? If I fix them, I’ll sell them.  :-DD

2485237-0

Rick “on to power supplies—got to have something to measure!” Denney
 
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Online Vince

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137164 on: January 18, 2025, 11:56:18 pm »
Well, welcome aboard Rick ! You indeed definitely belong here, please make yourself comfortable, have a seat !  >:D
 
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Offline tggzzz

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137165 on: January 19, 2025, 12:04:55 am »
Welcome indeed.

Would it be worth getting a mistress?

Then you could tell the wife you are with the mistress, the mistress you are with the wife - while you go off and have fun working on your machines in relative peace and quiet.

BTW, what references do you use to calibrate your meters?  >:D
« Last Edit: January 19, 2025, 12:08:26 am by tggzzz »
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".
Having fun doing more, with less
 
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Offline rdenney

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137166 on: January 19, 2025, 02:53:47 am »
Standards? The great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from. My current standard is the consensus method. But, as they say, a man with two watches never knows what time it is.

I’ve considered the cheapie Chinese voltage standards, but I have trust issues. Might be better than nothing. The DMMCheck doesn’t come as an inexpensive unmounted PCB any more, and the more finished product is spendy.

I’ll probably check with the ham club. I’ll bet someone has something and can help be calibrate the 3456A, which I can then use to calibrate the others.

Rick “would love to hear any alternatives” Denney
 

Offline tggzzz

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137167 on: January 19, 2025, 09:32:51 am »
Standards? The great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from. My current standard is the consensus method. But, as they say, a man with two watches never knows what time it is.

I’ve considered the cheapie Chinese voltage standards, but I have trust issues. Might be better than nothing. The DMMCheck doesn’t come as an inexpensive unmounted PCB any more, and the more finished product is spendy.

I’ll probably check with the ham club. I’ll bet someone has something and can help be calibrate the 3456A, which I can then use to calibrate the others.

Rick “would love to hear any alternatives” Denney

It is cheap and relatively easy to get all your meters to agree with each other. If you want to have them agree with other people's meters, then bend over and take your wallet out.

A ham club probably has a Weston standard cell >:D . If you are unlucky it will be an unsaturated cell which is almost certainly out of spec. If you are lucky it will be a saturated cell that can still be in spec but which can also be used as a limited range temperature sensor. I have some of the latter and have had one former (which was in spec!). More importantly, I also have a nicely aged transportable zener source.

More realistically, there are several threads on the subject in the metrology section, with some high-quality advice. My tl;dr is don't trust cheap AliExpress/fleabay devices, and note that they all have noticeable initial drifts. The better suppliers power them up for weeks before adjusting. HPAK and other reputable manufacturers take the best quality semiconductor standards, and select the best from them.

Don't forget you will become interested in metal-metal contacts, temperature differences, and the thermal mass and thermal conductivity of connectors.

Finally, don't forget your meters will also measure resistance >:D (We'll ignore AC since that isn't easy)

That's enough therapy for now. We'll save some for later.
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".
Having fun doing more, with less
 
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Offline Robert763

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137168 on: January 19, 2025, 11:20:32 am »
Welcome Rick.
A handheld Fluke 8060A is much better for audio work than the bench 8050A. It has high frequency response and dB measurement.
I'm Robert and I have 4 8060A's (and 11 other fluke meters) :-DMM
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137169 on: January 19, 2025, 01:17:10 pm »
Standards? The great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from. My current standard is the consensus method. But, as they say, a man with two watches never knows what time it is.

I’ve considered the cheapie Chinese voltage standards, but I have trust issues. Might be better than nothing. The DMMCheck doesn’t come as an inexpensive unmounted PCB any more, and the more finished product is spendy.

I’ll probably check with the ham club. I’ll bet someone has something and can help be calibrate the 3456A, which I can then use to calibrate the others.

Rick “would love to hear any alternatives” Denney

While my main interest is repair/restoration of Tek scopes I have done a "few" DMM's and of course you cannot have too many of them.





Like you my bench reference or standard if you will is an hp 3456A. BTW, 6.5 digit mode can be accessed by pressing 6, then STORE, then 9.



The AD584-M references can be a decent "standard" if you can find them with documented measurements on the backside. And while they do drift somewhat at room temperature they are reasonably stable.


« Last Edit: January 19, 2025, 02:12:57 pm by med6753 »
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Offline factory

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137170 on: January 19, 2025, 01:18:16 pm »


Before posting those photos, it would have been considerate to give a "trigger warning" :)

Is it better now? I've removed the manky connector found at a ham rally.
Or were you referring to the other trigger?  :-DD



David
 
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Offline tggzzz

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137171 on: January 19, 2025, 01:33:27 pm »


Before posting those photos, it would have been considerate to give a "trigger warning" :)

Is it better now? I've removed the manky connector found at a ham rally.
Or were you referring to the other trigger?  :-DD



Just the name "Bulgin" is sufficient to trigger me :( They were the Clive Sinclair of connectors.
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".
Having fun doing more, with less
 

Offline rdenney

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137172 on: January 19, 2025, 02:01:13 pm »
Thanks, I’ll look for one of those.

I have three scopes—a Hantek DSO5102P that was cheap, a B&K 1474 which works pretty well but could use a good cleaning, and a Tek T932A lunchbox portable. Both the latter are 30 MHz scopes, but I most play with audio stuff so that’s fine.

And I do also have a Trio VT-106 SSVM which I bought for measuring tape head audio levels. I was bringing back an old Teac A4300 open reel deck, and that meter trumps any digital meter for finding the dip in dB measurements against a 600-ohm load. That project was successful, which not all are. :)

Rick “knows enough to really screw up stuff good” Denney
 

Offline rdenney

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137173 on: January 19, 2025, 02:12:59 pm »
Welcome Rick.
A handheld Fluke 8060A is much better for audio work than the bench 8050A. It has high frequency response and dB measurement.
I'm Robert and I have 4 8060A's (and 11 other fluke meters) :-DMM
Thanks. (Just learning the quote button.) I have a Trio SSVM that works fine for measuring dB for audio stuff. I bought it when rebuilding a Teac R2R deck.

I was able to bring one of the 8050’s back to operation yesterday evening with a good cleaning. One switch was a bit reluctant but nothing four applications of Deoxit couldn’t fix. It has a DB mode like the HP, but for adjusting tape head bias the analog meter is hard to beat.

I might pick up an 8060A just because. They are neat handheld DMMs.

Rick “used to buy them for bench techs in a traffic signal shop” Denney
 

Online vk6zgo

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #137174 on: January 20, 2025, 08:28:52 am »


Before posting those photos, it would have been considerate to give a "trigger warning" :)

Is it better now? I've removed the manky connector found at a ham rally.
Or were you referring to the other trigger?  :-DD



Just the name "Bulgin" is sufficient to trigger me :( They were the Clive Sinclair of connectors.

But for some reason, the Brits of the day were inordinately fond of them!
The almost universal reaction amongst Australians was Yukk!!!
 


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