Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

That's almost what I was thinking. Actually from that manufacturer. The PM3295 has modularised display units which is what was in my head:

It's what I was thinking of too, but I couldn't find a picture (not having the model number didn't help).

[mnementh]

AAAARRRGGH and a HALF!!!

    While checking on the progress, I discovered that sometime around the time I first got up, the print had a Y-axis layer shift. 

It's possible I bumped it sometime, it's also possible there was fluctuation in power... or that there is a fault in the model and this is in the gcode, or it's possible that the stepper current is off and it skipped a step or two. This printer has never been adjusted, as so far, no printer-related faults of any sort, but the Y-axis driver is the one that had a heat-sink knocked off. It's possible it was damaged operating without the heat-sink (not likely; these are pretty durable and current limit appears to be set on the low side of normal on all 4) or that I changed the setting while I was fixing the heat-sink.

And those are just the possible causes I can think of off the top of my head...

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

I've always liked those Philips 3000 series of scopes, nice and neat, orderly lay out of the controls and with the backlit LCD display , it looked pretty cool in my mind at least. Trouble was though they were always so expensive, even on Ebay. They also seemed to suffer with the dreaded Philips plastic disease as most of those did come up on ebay that were affordable always had massive damage to the fascia at least. 

[mnementh]

Isn't that pretty much what they did with the T-12 OLED controller and the DPS-xx-xx series CC/CV power supply modules? 

Where the value in such a thing would come would be in the form of an easily-understood setup script that permits an editable definition on the screen, editable voltage range, and editable scale for the output. Maybe have a % of full-scale bar graph simultaneously.  One of the bi-color OLED displays would be ideal.

Good point.  Not sure I trust OLED to last very long. That is a proper power supply you have there. Could do with something like that here

Exactly what I was thinking with the editable parameters. It'd have a programming port you could load min, max, fast, slow steps and units unto it before installing it. Give it an 8 character LCD module and sorted. Available in SPI or analogue format

    AAAARRRGGH!!!    I just realized... now that I have some coffee in me... that I don't have a workbench for the next 2 days.   

This is my biggest fear of 3d printing. Then it fucking up the last 10 minutes of the print

Some of the old Philips 'scopes have encoders with an LCD next to them for things like timebase or vertical sensitivity. I always rather liked that. The difficulty with a pre-built control with encoder and display in one would be finding a form factor that didn't need a custom front panel punch to make a cutout for it.

    Found a picture:

   That's almost what I was thinking. Actually from that manufacturer. The PM3295 has modularised display units which is what was in my head:

OLED are NOT as bad as people make them out to be. You CAN crank the drive current down and they last a LOT longer. The problem is folks expecting to be able to be lazy and hide it all behind a sheet of 80% tint Perspex instead of making a proper screen-printed display. Then you HAVE to crank the drive current up, and they die quick.

The plus side is they're cheap as chips, will greatly facilitate your $10-15 BOM, and the fact they lend themselves to a custom legend that can easily be programmed via a text config file. Being so cheap, they're pretty painless to replace if they fail.  The problem with your LCDs above is that each one is custom-etched; a single OLED could configured to do every one of those displays AND look good doing it. There ARE similar 128x64 LCDs, but they're monochrome and expensive, and BL versions are even more expensive. But still might be possible to bring it in under your $10-15 BOM.

YOU JINXED ME, BEEEYOOTCH!!!   

mnem
I'm all out of "pithy".

[Ero-Shan]

Never knew Philips produced plug-in scopes, but stumbled upon this on the bay:

  https://www.ebay.de/itm/123348496335

A PM8330 that looks like it wants to compete to Tektronix' 500 series.

[Ice-Tea]

Hou want a link to my ebay, don 't you?

DONT YOU?

Of course ! 
You must wear it like a TEA enablers badge of honor embedded somewhere in your profile info. 
Do it, do it now !

Done. DONE!

[Specmaster]

Never knew Philips produced plug-in scopes, but stumbled upon this on the bay:

  https://www.ebay.de/itm/123348496335

A PM8330 that looks like it wants to compete to Tektronix' 500 series.

Wow its a beast and it has that oldie worldie round CRT.

[mnementh]

Dude... my groin aches just from LOOKING at that .   

mnem
Objects in rear view mirror may appear heavier than they are.

[tautech]

Hou want a link to my ebay, don 't you?

DONT YOU?

Of course ! 
You must wear it like a TEA enablers badge of honor embedded somewhere in your profile info. 
Do it, do it now !

Done. DONE!

Only visible when examining your profile page.......OK I guess. 

[Ice-Tea]

Heh. Figured it would be too advertisy otherwise but, hey, here we go!

[mnementh]

In Other news:




Hour 24...

mnem
*zoop*

[bitseeker]

AAAARRRGGH!!!



I just realized... now that I have some coffee in me... that I don't have a workbench for the next 2 days.   

Hmm, maybe a 3D printer cart in the future?

[bitseeker]

Hou want a link to my ebay, don 't you?

DONT YOU?

Of course ! 
You must wear it like a TEA enablers badge of honor embedded somewhere in your profile info. 
Do it, do it now !

Done. DONE!

Nicely done!

[bitseeker]

Hou want a link to my ebay, don 't you?

DONT YOU?

Of course ! 
You must wear it like a TEA enablers badge of honor embedded somewhere in your profile info. 
Do it, do it now !

Done. DONE!

Only visible when examining your profile page.......OK I guess. 

His eBay link is in his sig.

[Brumby]

AAAARRRGGH!!!



I just realized... now that I have some coffee in me... that I don't have a workbench for the next 2 days.   

Hmm, maybe a 3D printer cart in the future?

I think anything that could move - like a cart - would not be my first choice.  I have come to observe that stiffness, rigidity and lack of undesired movement are preferred characteristics surrounding 3D printing.

[tautech]

Hou want a link to my ebay, don 't you?

DONT YOU?

Of course ! 
You must wear it like a TEA enablers badge of honor embedded somewhere in your profile info. 
Do it, do it now !

Done. DONE!

Only visible when examining your profile page.......OK I guess. 

His eBay link is in his sig.

'Tis now, wasn't before.

[mnementh]

AAAARRRGGH and a HALF!!!  Hour 27...

    While checking on the progress, I discovered that sometime around the time I first got up, the print had a Y-axis layer shift. 

It's possible I bumped it sometime, it's also possible there was fluctuation in power... or that there is a fault in the model and this is in the gcode, or it's possible that the stepper current is off and it skipped a step or two. This printer has never been adjusted, as so far, no printer-related faults of any sort, but the Y-axis driver is the one that had a heat-sink knocked off. It's possible it was damaged operating without the heat-sink (not likely; these are pretty durable and current limit appears to be set on the low side of normal on all 4) or that I changed the setting while I was fixing the heat-sink.  And those are just the possible causes I can think of off the top of my head...

mnem
 

Okay.... so I'm doing my first big print; this is also my first 100% from scratch design.

In case you're wondering, it is a wedge-base stand for my 3 most-used digital multimeters; the hole in the top is to insert a 13mm sq tube for a T-bar with lead hangers.
Printer 100% stock aside from replacing a bent Z coupler and doing the Lowes 12"x12" mirror print surface mod.
Sliced in Cura 3.4.1; Using the included CR-10 Printer Template, FINE Profile at 0.1mm layer height, 20% infill.

Hour 1: Just starting 2nd layer
Hour 5: It appears I've printed an envelope. 🤣
Hour 5.5: Printer infested with Tholian Web disease 😉
Hour 14: Holy Crap; it made it through the night! 👍
Hour 15: Notice minor Y-Axis Shift. Hope I just bumped it.🤞
Hour 24: Starting to Look like something...





Hour 27: FAIL. Massive Y-Axis Shift. ☠️

Observed for approx. 15 min; no abnormal sounds, belts feel tight.
Troubleshooting: Tighten all belts a little bit, adjust driver currents per other post. Try again...?
Trying to decide if I should reslice at 0.15mm layer height, maybe with Tornado ultra-fine profile. Or maybe try a draft-quality print to make sure it isn't an artifact in the GCode...

Yes, I noticed the small Y-Axis shift at around hour 15. I considered aborting when I noticed, but also considered that I might have bumped the printer fumbling around at 0:Dark:Thirty in the AM before my first cup of coffee. Of course it printed without incident all day afterwards until I went to cook dinner. 😤

Sitting here listening to it pop loose from the bed as it cools; thinking about all the fun tinkering I could've been doing at my workbench for the last two afternoons. 

mnem

[med6753]

Wow, that sucks. FUBAR. 

[mnementh]

Learning curve; got to crawl before you can fly, etc...   

Fuck that. I'm vapor.

mnem
*Heeds the call of his comfy bed already populated with a loving wife*

[Cubdriver]

A large box containing my latest 'fix' arrived today...


I must give credit where credit is due - the guy did a really nice job of packing it up - wrapped in stretch wrap, then multiple wraps of ethafoam sheet and fitted nicely in the box, with the side gaps willed with additional ethafoam blocks


Ta-daa!


Other than some dust on the knobs, this thing looks like someone time traveled back and got it straight from the factory - externally at least, it's practically pristine


I haven't had a chance to do more than unbox it at this point; I had a nice little t-storm go through at about 5 PM.  A little wind, a bit of rain....  ...and one close strike that resulted in a 'Zzzt!' from under my desk...  Cable modem fried, wireless router went 'poof', and I think the ethernet port on my work computer has gone bye-bye, too.  Got a new modem and have gotten back online, but still have some resetting and reconfiguring to do.  Feh.  Stoopid lightning!

More later.

-Pat

[Brumby]

I was going to say that is a nicely presenting bit of kit.

Full credit to the guy for the packaging! 


I take it your quality control inspector was satisfied...?

[med6753]

That counter IS pristine.  Hopefully the inside is the same.   

[bd139]

That’s pretty damn excellent for the age. Lucky to get stuff half as old in half as good condition.

@mnem: you have throughly put me off 3d printing now 

[Cubdriver]

I was going to say that is a nicely presenting bit of kit.

Full credit to the guy for the packaging! 


I take it your quality control inspector was satisfied...?

Yes, he seemed to approve of the care taken to ensure its safe journey.   

That counter IS pristine.  Hopefully the inside is the same.   

That is my hope as well.  I may have time to dig further in to it Friday night, failing that I will poke and prod over the weekend.  I was pleasantly surprised by its condition.  Based on the serial number it is at earliest a late 1961 model (139 serial prefix, so no earlier than the last week of September).  I hope there will be some dated components in it to more accurately establish its age.  It was listed in the 1967 catalog, but gone for the 1968 issue, so it would seem that it's at least 51.

And as an aside - I just realized that this smiley:  has a screwdriver.  I never noticed the thin line coming from the bottom, and always thought it was a bat or a club! 

-Pat

[bitseeker]

...

Other than some dust on the knobs, this thing looks like someone time traveled back and got it straight from the factory - externally at least, it's practically pristine

That looks like new! What a score.

And allow me to add the obligatory

I haven't had a chance to do more than unbox it at this point; I had a nice little t-storm go through at about 5 PM.  A little wind, a bit of rain....  ...and one close strike that resulted in a 'Zzzt!' from under my desk...  Cable modem fried, wireless router went 'poof', and I think the ethernet port on my work computer has gone bye-bye, too.  Got a new modem and have gotten back online, but still have some resetting and reconfiguring to do.  Feh.  Stoopid lightning!

Wow, did you see joeqsmith's posts about lighting that hit the tree by his house? Blew out lots of TE. Lighting is not TEA-friendly. Glad you were able to get back online quickly.