Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Next project....the RCA WO-505A scope. Here's the power supply board removed and the capacitors inventoried for replacement. Those 2 cans are going bye-bye and discrete capacitors in their place. I'm going to rebuild this board and then reinstall and check function before pulling the vertical and horizontal boards and performing a re-cap.
        Here's the HV section. I checked all the resistors as they have a habit of drifting high due to voltage stress. Sure enough...a 220K reads 275K. Even with 20% tolerance it's too high. It's gonna go. The other resistors as well as the diodes are OK. At this point I see no reason to suspect those .1uf, 1.6KV poly caps as they are pretty reliable. If they were paper/wax I'd replace them.

Still haven't found a manual or even a schematic except for some bandit who want's $25 USD for it. He can shove it. So I have no idea what those 2 pots on the supply are for. Once I get it back together I'll twiddle with them and find out.

Radio Era Archives? Yeah, that's the correct word allright; I've been at their door myself more than a few times. 

Of course you've looked at BAMA, I'm sure; they have some of the WO series and the WT series, so a body might be able to figure out the WT-505 by osmosis if they were to pore over those diagrams for a while.      But still, not the same as having the right schematic.   

mnem
moo?

[tkamiya]

I wonder where all the display section go, and more importantly, cables??

the CRTs were hopelessly burned-in and by now crapped out. The top units were probably tossed long ago. 

That's what I would guess. 

What about cables then??  Made friends with snakes and worms and went out on a date?   

[tkamiya]

I wonder where all the display section go, and more importantly, cables??

the CRTs were hopelessly burned-in and by now crapped out. The top units were probably tossed long ago. 

That's what I would guess. 

What about cables then??  Made friends with snakes and worms and went out on a date?   

Got married and the snake got pregnant.  Gave birth to whole bunch of little probes, and lived happily ever after!

[xrunner]

What about cables then??  Made friends with snakes and worms and went out on a date?   

Same place as all the missing hp feet. Where do they all go? Quite a few of the used hp kit I buy from Ebay hve no feet. I think they are all partying in some secret location laughing. 

[bd139]

Literally got something stolen from me on ebay while I was doing the checkout 

Unbuilt Howes DC2000 receiver kit as new with enclosure and all hardware. Been after one of them for about 2 flipping years as I've got the LM2000 audio filter kit already.

[Specmaster]

Literally got something stolen from me on ebay while I was doing the checkout 

Unbuilt Howes DC2000 receiver kit as new with enclosure and all hardware. Been after one of them for about 2 flipping years as I've got the LM2000 audio filter kit already.

How the hell can that happen, once you click to buy it is removed from the listing, chat to the seller and Ebay about this happened.

[mnementh]

You mean stolen, as in seller unlisted, or bought out from under you by someone who was a few seconds quicker with payment?

I've been there both ways... on some items, you literally go through the 5 stages... LOL 

mnem
De-Nile; not just a river in Egypt anymore. 

[mnementh]

Literally got something stolen from me on ebay while I was doing the checkout 

Unbuilt Howes DC2000 receiver kit as new with enclosure and all hardware. Been after one of them for about 2 flipping years as I've got the LM2000 audio filter kit already.

How the hell can that happen, once you click to buy it is removed from the listing, chat to the seller and Ebay about this happened.

Nope. It's not really sold, doesn't come off the 'bay until payment actually clears. Has been that way since eBay started taking e-Payments; back when they thought they could "roll their own" instead of doing PayPal. That's why they warn you that immediate payment is required.

mnem
Now how much would you pay?

[neo]

I opened up the Mena tube tester looking for a date code and to my surprise i found it was made the 25th week of 1951 and the Joplin one was made in the 44th of 1952. I intend to fix both and then, given their identical nature and only if both work, i may consider selling one.

Feel free to PM me if you want one, i make no promises to sell but if i do sell TEA members would be first in line.

[med6753]

Next project....the RCA WO-505A scope. Here's the power supply board removed and the capacitors inventoried for replacement. Those 2 cans are going bye-bye and discrete capacitors in their place. I'm going to rebuild this board and then reinstall and check function before pulling the vertical and horizontal boards and performing a re-cap.
        Here's the HV section. I checked all the resistors as they have a habit of drifting high due to voltage stress. Sure enough...a 220K reads 275K. Even with 20% tolerance it's too high. It's gonna go. The other resistors as well as the diodes are OK. At this point I see no reason to suspect those .1uf, 1.6KV poly caps as they are pretty reliable. If they were paper/wax I'd replace them.

Still haven't found a manual or even a schematic except for some bandit who want's $25 USD for it. He can shove it. So I have no idea what those 2 pots on the supply are for. Once I get it back together I'll twiddle with them and find out.

Radio Era Archives? Yeah, that's the correct word allright; I've been at their door myself more than a few times. 

Of course you've looked at BAMA, I'm sure; they have some of the WO series and the WT series, so a body might be able to figure out the WT-505 by osmosis if they were to pore over those diagrams for a while.      But still, not the same as having the right schematic.   

mnem
moo?

Nope, the schematics I found were for the RCA vacuum tube scopes. This guy is all solid state. Not even close.

[mnementh]

Oh, I figured even so it was old enough to have some cousin in their archives. 

That's what I get for thinkin'...

mnem
 

[factory]

And I got myself in trouble today at the radio museum swap meet - the Jeep is a bit down by the stern.  Grabbed some old HP gear in unknown operational condition

Between You and Neo I can't keep up and don't even try. Other than parts and other assorted items I haven't made a major TEA purchase in almost a month. I feel so inadequate. 

Nice haul, did the 428 come with the probe? (those seem to cost more than the meter as they are often missing like the feet).

Also not bought any large TEA items since the HP counter a month ago, was hoping to find something at the vintage rally I went to today, but only came back with couple of packs of banana plugs, one of those modern safety compliant BNC to plug leads & a few small parts (all from the military surplus stall).

Last year I rescued a slightly crusty Tek 502A scope that had been left out in the rain all day on the Saturday, still not completely fixed that one yet (it worked better before I fixed the PSU  ).


David

[URI]

I continued my repair of the HP 6114A precision power supply by beginning to retrofit new caps into original caps cups (see my repair thread).

On Friday my new toy arrived:


It's an Agilent 4338B milliohmmeter.   
Seems to be working ok but also seems to be a bit off spec.
More pics later..   

_{Need some sleep now, the night ends at 5PM tomorrow..}

[Specmaster]

Literally got something stolen from me on ebay while I was doing the checkout 

Unbuilt Howes DC2000 receiver kit as new with enclosure and all hardware. Been after one of them for about 2 flipping years as I've got the LM2000 audio filter kit already.

How the hell can that happen, once you click to buy it is removed from the listing, chat to the seller and Ebay about this happened.

Nope. It's not really sold, doesn't come off the 'bay until payment actually clears. Has been that way since eBay started taking e-Payments; back when they thought they could "roll their own" instead of doing PayPal. That's why they warn you that immediate payment is required.

mnem
Now how much would you pay?

Well now, as far as I know there only four ways you can get through to the checkout section,1st is when you win an auction and you are requested to complete the transaction, 2nd is by clicking on the BIN tab, 3rd is you have a offer accepted and 4th you actually win the auction.

I have never had this happen to me nor have I heard it before and when I've sold something and the buyer hasn't paid immediately, it has appeared in my sold folder with a notice next to the item saying "awaiting payment". In fact this happen just last week and I was waiting for the buyer to make payment all weekend and I sent the buyer a message saying that I was awaiting payment and on Monday morning he replied saying that he had paid it via PayPal. I had to replay and tell him that both Ebay and PayPal showed it as waiting for payment. I suggested that he contact them and sort it out otherwise I was moving to cancel the sale.

A while later I got a message saying that the payment had been made and to post the item off to the buyer. This was followed a little while later with a message from the buyer thanking me for my patience and saying that he had resolved the problem.

Hence why I suggested that bd139 should contact the seller and Ebay regarding it because it seemed to me that something had gone wrong with his purchase.

[mnementh]

And so it continues...

   

Precision Resistor Array

Here it is earlier today, almost done.... and here it is completed with some stick-on feet in place. Deliberately assembled all copper side to not have to worry about the bottom shorting out, and to make any knock-around damage obvious. In case you're wondering, it's configured as 50Ω:100/2 and 106K3Ω: 5K315*20.

Pics below:

        50Ω: 100/2             100Ω: 100*1              200Ω: 100*2
 183.26Ω: 5K315/29    531.5Ω: 5K315/10    265.75Ω: 5K315/20
26K575Ω: 5K315*5    53K15Ω: 5K315*10     106K3Ω: 5K315*20

[Specmaster]

Nice and that 189 cleaned up a real treat, almost new looking 

[bitseeker]

Off to the mountains in search of enlightenment... and by enlightenment I mean

Enheavyment?

We need to add that to the glossary of terms: Enheavyment : TEA-speak; ironic term for enlightenment as quantified by curb weight of latest acquisition(s). Also, qualified as inverse function thereof.

Added.

[bitseeker]

I'm joining the club with 14 HP8568B, R&S SMIQ 03, and a set of mystery piece that is supposed to be an automated VNA.  Got them on a pallet sale from a local business.

Wow! That's a lot of 8568's. Talk about

I wonder where all the display section go, and more importantly, cables??

I concur with xrunner. The CRTs are probably burned out. However, the display units aren't too rare. Cable sets, though, are much harder to come by and are pretty pricey. Maybe they got thrown own with the display units. Sad.

[mnementh]

Well now, as far as I know there only four ways you can get through to the checkout section,1st is when you win an auction and you are requested to complete the transaction, 2nd is by clicking on the BIN tab, 3rd is you have a offer accepted and 4th you actually win the auction.

I have never had this happen to me nor have I heard it before and when I've sold something and the buyer hasn't paid immediately, it has appeared in my sold folder with a notice next to the item saying "awaiting payment". In fact this happen just last week and I was waiting for the buyer to make payment all weekend and I sent the buyer a message saying that I was awaiting payment and on Monday morning he replied saying that he had paid it via PayPal. I had to replay and tell him that both Ebay and PayPal showed it as waiting for payment. I suggested that he contact them and sort it out otherwise I was moving to cancel the sale.

A while later I got a message saying that the payment had been made and to post the item off to the buyer. This was followed a little while later with a message from the buyer thanking me for my patience and saying that he had resolved the problem.

Hence why I suggested that bd139 should contact the seller and Ebay regarding it because it seemed to me that something had gone wrong with his purchase.

BIN requires immediate cleared payment.

EVERY PP purchase not covered by a pre-existing PP balance is processed as an "e-check"; it will sit there as "payment pending" until such time as the linked account (be it checking or credit card) tells PP they can have the money. Customers with good banking/credit history and adequate balance will have these requests approved immediately; if a customer has a lousy history with frequent overdrafts, etc, they will not authorize PP immediately and you will not see it as paid until the e-check transaction completes which may take several days.

Auction sales are of course yours immediately, unless the seller takes action. They can cancel a winning bid for a number of reasons; including local sale of item in question. While unlikely, it is possible this happened while bd139 was checking out. It is also possible the seller had seller's remorse or wasn't happy with the closing price of an auction, and made up an excuse; though that will come back to bite a seller in the arse if it becomes habitual practice. Which, if you're skeevy enough to deal that way in the first place, is a virtual certainty.

But RARELY will a single such incident cause any harm to a seller, no matter what the reason.

mnem
*Back to the grind*

[Specmaster]

Hmm, so I see, I have gained what neo was seeking...enlightenment 

Well all I can say to that then is I must be one of PP prefered customers as I can buy with immediate payment to the seller without it costing me a single penny till a couple of weeks later as I have built up a good credit score with them over many years and over 1,000 transactions, it's almost like a trade account 

[xrunner]

I concur with xrunner. The CRTs are probably burned out. However, the display units aren't too rare. Cable sets, though, are much harder to come by and are pretty pricey. Maybe they got thrown own with the display units. Sad.

These LCD replacements are nice for those -

https://youtu.be/OT8pfr4a2K8

[mnementh]

Nice and that 189 cleaned up a real treat, almost new looking 

Yup; I'm dead chuffed with both the 189 and the resistance array  project. I'm glad I carried through with my plan to go double-row on the jumpers  (need 4 total to be able to stagger pairs so you can make parallel blocks); it was a lot more soldering, but I trust it a lot more.

The 3DP project is not annoying me nearly so much now; I've started moving crap in the back office and I already have a path to where it will be set up. Then I'll have another go at the stand... but now I'm fighting time; I need to go get my gear ready for a work order early tomorrow AM.

Cheers,

mnem
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor

[xmo]

So...

Both of the ZVB8 network analyzers were purchased today.  Anyone here going to fess up?

[Cubdriver]

And I got myself in trouble today at the radio museum swap meet - the Jeep is a bit down by the stern.  Grabbed some old HP gear in unknown operational condition

Nice haul, did the 428 come with the probe? (those seem to cost more than the meter as they are often missing like the feet).

David

My 'down by the stern' comment was slightly exaggerated, but the after comartment had a pretty solid layer of stuff in it.





And yes, the 428 does have the probe - you're correct, it seems all to often they get snagged by the 'wire recyclers' when gear is surplussed, rendering what's left useless in cases like this.   In a very pleasant surprise, it seems that ALL of the HP stuff has its feet - the small analog meters and the RF generator and vector meter too.  Nice for a change!!

-Pat

[GregDunn]

Pretty good-sized haul.  My Saturday 'fest acquisitions all fit in a large plastic bag; but then there wasn't much to see.  I manfully resisted an HP 6920B which I'll probably regret some day, and a Fluke 8920A; but didn't have any real reason to buy either one (I know, I know, reasons.... pffft!).

The rest of the stuff was either plastic crap home electronics, RF parts, and of course a bunch of radios.  Some of you might have been interested in a couple of ancient military field transceivers (with massive steel guards on all the switches)...  Oh, and one guy brought his antenna tower (collapsed, of course) to sell.