Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Berni]

I haven't been a Time-Nut long enough for the infection to reach that level.  I'd also have to move to a bigger place! 

Well guess being a Time nut is not really much cheaper than being a Volt nut after all. But still putting in 10 MHz reference clock distribution in to my rack is not that bad right?

   Danger, Will Robinson!!   

That's the first step on a very slippery slope.
Is it really 10 MHz?  How close to 10 MHz?  How do you know?  Are you sure?

 

Ed

Yeah it just keeps going on from there. Well maybe if i just use the internal OCXO in the spectrum analyzer or synthesizer just to keep them in sync.

But then id want to know witch one is more accurate and stable so that i use the better one as the master....dang it.

Berni, if the rack is full, that's a strong indication that you need another rack, too.   

-Pat

But that means i need to make space in my lab for another one of these giant things. Besides a empty rack would just encourage me to fill it with something!

[Cubdriver]

Berni, if the rack is full, that's a strong indication that you need another rack, too.   

-Pat

But that means i need to make space in my lab for another one of these giant things. Besides a empty rack would just encourage me to fill it with something!

Exactly!!!!  That's the idea! 

-Pat

[W8LV]

Can TGAS be cured?

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[SingedFingers]

Late addition here. Former sufferer and addict. Peak gear was 54 items. I spent the last two years cleaning my house and mind.

I've got down to one of each now: DMM, scope, LCR meter, frequency counter, soldering iron, sig gen. Parts have gone down from 120Kg of boxes to 1/4 of an Ikea Kallax and 7Kg. I think I made about £5k on eBay out of those sales.

However I found another addiction. I've got a completely unfinished homebrew VTVM, scope and frequency counter on the bench. Build is more fun than buy it turns out, even if the end result is technically inferior to a $10 Chinese piece of junk. Valves/vacuum tubes are great fun, especially after I found that RS sell new ones still.

[xrunner]

I received yet another DMM today. Sadly I think I will need to sell one, if I do can I still be part of this group?

 

Selling is allowed as long as it is done in order to fund another purchase AND as long as the other purchase is done first - then you sell .... maybe....

Yea if you don't downsize you can still be a member, but selling without buying another one is a sign your addiction is fading. One one leaves one or more must be added, two leave two or more must be added ... 

[madires]

However I found another addiction. I've got a completely unfinished homebrew VTVM, scope and frequency counter on the bench. Build is more fun than buy it turns out, even if the end result is technically inferior to a $10 Chinese piece of junk. Valves/vacuum tubes are great fun, especially after I found that RS sell new ones still.

I think we need a dedicated group for people who can't be satisfied by simply buying more T&M and have to build their own instead.

[SingedFingers]

Hahaha not a bad idea.

Is this the next phase? Is it evolution?

[Andreas]

I think we need a dediacted group for people who can't be satisfied by simply buying more T&M and have to build their own instead.

By the way,

did I mention that I have built (up to now) 24 ADCs with ~7 Digits resolution and 0..5V
 (/ 0..10V input range with capacitive divider)?

I will build 2 or 4 more in near future.
Only have to select the best out of some AD586LQ voltage references.

With best regards

Andreas

[Berni]

But that means i need to make space in my lab for another one of these giant things. Besides a empty rack would just encourage me to fill it with something!

Exactly!!!!  That's the idea! 

-Pat

This is so not helping my GAS.

Not everythyng i buy is boatanchors tho. I just got the parts to make a test cable for my SMU that consists of 5 triax cables and 4 coax cables bundled together along with a die cast shielding box for the DUT to go in to. Well the SMU it self is a huge rack mount boatanchor tho.

[bitseeker]

Triax cables. Oy! They immediately put a CAP (Costly Accessory Phobia) on my GAS.

[artag]

Late addition here. Former sufferer and addict. Peak gear was 54 items. I spent the last two years cleaning my house and mind.

I thought for a moment you were suggesting it was possible to recover, but I see you've just replaced it with something worse.

[xrunner]

Triax cables. Oy! They immediately put a CAP (Costly Accessory Phobia) on my GAS.

So many acronyms to learn! 

TEA (Test Equipment Addict)
TN (Time Nut)
GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome)
CAP (Costly Accessory Phobia)

and these -

SCOPE (Serious & Chronic Obsession with Personal Electronics)

DMM (Duplicate Meter Mania)

Keep this up and we could be the poster children for a whole new sub-specialty for the psychiatrists! 

[SingedFingers]

A genuinely true anecdote...

When my wife was out one weekend I slept with my Marconi 2019A RF generator. Neither of them will forgive me.

Incidentally this was because the dining table, kitchen sides were covered wth crap, the kids had wrecked the living room sofas, it was 2AM and I'd spent 5 hours trying to get a Telequipment D83 to trigger and the sig gen was already in the bed because there was nowhere else to stick it so I thought what the hell.

A lesson was learned as indicated by the scar on my arse crack: Remove the rack handles before sleeping with your test gear.

[tautech]

A genuinely true anecdote...

When my wife was out one weekend I slept with my Marconi 2019A RF generator. Neither of them will forgive me.

Incidentally this was because the dining table, kitchen sides were covered wth crap, the kids had wrecked the living room sofas, it was 2AM and I'd spent 5 hours trying to get a Telequipment D83 to trigger and the sig gen was already in the bed because there was nowhere else to stick it so I thought what the hell.

A lesson was learned as indicated by the scar on my arse crack: Remove the rack handles before sleeping with your test gear.

D83, ahhhh my first scope, gorgeous large and crisp CRT and the first to break my TEA addiction by selling it. 

Have you still got it SF ?

[VK5RC]

Could not resist the price on NOS U1252b,  despite having 2 U1253bs,  my rationalisation -  a parts unit.
Re tube gear -  lots of fun but needs a lot of room.
Space (or lack of it)  is attempting to cure me of TEA -  perhaps my eldest daughter could move out with her boyfriend and then her room.........

[SingedFingers]

D83, ahhhh my first scope, gorgeous large and crisp CRT and the first to break my TEA addiction by selling it. 

Have you still got it SF ?

It went about 8 years ago, to the tip unfortunately. I bought it for £10 off someone on gumtree about 3 years before that. Had no mains cable and this was before IEC connectors were around so I added one. Worked like a dream for about six months until one day, boom! One of the PSU caps blew its arse out suddenly. Due to apathy mainly it sat there for six months before I did anything. Replaced all the PSU caps. Oh noes; found a dead regulator transistor. Replaced that. Oh noes; found a resistor that had drifted and pulled a rail off.

After about six months of TLC tennis it had a trace and triggering working again. Then I moved house and the wankers who moved it, dropped the thing and the tube imploded. Lost my shit at them. I was shaking glass out of the plugins and just gave up

I'm going to buy another one off ebay I think when one turns up. Lovely scopes. Oh crap, there I go again

Edit: incidentally it was my first scope too. My father had one back in the early 1980s.

[tggzzz]

Space (or lack of it)  is attempting to cure me of TEA -  perhaps my eldest daughter could move out with her boyfriend and then her room.........

Lack of space saved me from excess purchases for quite a few years, but TEA has taken hold

You will have to consider that she may need to move back in at some stage.

[tautech]

D83, ahhhh my first scope, gorgeous large and crisp CRT and the first to break my TEA addiction by selling it. 

Have you still got it SF ?

It went about 8 years ago, to the tip unfortunately. I bought it for £10 off someone on gumtree about 3 years before that. Had no mains cable and this was before IEC connectors were around so I added one. Worked like a dream for about six months until one day, boom! One of the PSU caps blew its arse out suddenly. Due to apathy mainly it sat there for six months before I did anything. Replaced all the PSU caps. Oh noes; found a dead regulator transistor. Replaced that. Oh noes; found a resistor that had drifted and pulled a rail off.

After about six months of TLC tennis it had a trace and triggering working again. Then I moved house and the wankers who moved it, dropped the thing and the tube imploded. Lost my shit at them. I was shaking glass out of the plugins and just gave up

I'm going to buy another one off ebay I think when one turns up. Lovely scopes. Oh crap, there I go again

Edit: incidentally it was my first scope too. My father had one back in the early 1980s.

Mine needed lots of TLC too but after a period of time I got it quite reliable but spending time on it rather than projects was getting me down so it had to go. Of all the scopes I've had a D83 is still one that I would find some space for if another one came up as it had the largest and crispest display of any CRO I've ever seen. Still got the plugin extender cable I made for mine all those years ago. 
The trickiest thing to crack was the only NTC varistor in the scope, this one in the HT PSU that is in series with the unreg 30V supply. Mine had disintegrated with age and it wasn't until I happened to be in a surplus store in AK that I noticed they had a tray of exactly the one I was after. 
Needless to say a handful came home with me. 

I learnt a truckload of knowledge keeping her going and in many ways I'm still thankful to her for that. 

[SingedFingers]

The CRT on that was unbeatable. I learned a lot from that scope too. The lack of extender frustrated the crap out of me if I'm honest though. I had to tack wires onto the plugins and slide them back in, take measurements and slide them out again to fix. Must have done it a hundred times but no sign of contact wear!

[tautech]

The CRT on that was unbeatable. I learned a lot from that scope too. The lack of extender frustrated the crap out of me if I'm honest though. I had to tack wires onto the plugins and slide them back in, take measurements and slide them out again to fix. Must have done it a hundred times but no sign of contact wear!

I etched a piece of PCB to match the plugin fingers, used some old IDE drive ribbon cable and found the same pitch PCB socket at the surplus store I mentioned. 
That made working on the D83 eeeeeasy. 

[xrunner]

I'm going to buy another one off ebay I think when one turns up. Lovely scopes. Oh crap, there I go again

It's OK!

Oh I'm so glad I found this group because I know I'm not alone!

[bitseeker]

Could not resist the price on NOS U1252b,  despite having 2 U1253bs,  my rationalisation -  a parts unit.

Parts unit!?! The U1252B is the long-runtime unit for battery-operated logging. That's why you got the LCD version. Plus it's different. And it's better in direct sunlight.

Parts unit

[VK5RC]

@ bit seeker;  you are right I would never use it as a part unit (I think I may never need the parts anyway), but I am a real fan of the U1253b's OLED display - it has such a great viewing angle - it is my go to DMM. Also not big like the Fluke 289 or KS U1282A.
 

[Berni]

Triax cables. Oy! They immediately put a CAP (Costly Accessory Phobia) on my GAS.

Yeah all the cables with triax stuff to make it work cost more than the actual SMU. The only reason i bought the SMU is cause i scored it for 150 bucks and once i got it i found that the back of it is full of triax connectors. Okay fine il just get some of those on ebay... they cost HOW much?!

[xrunner]

What made you choose the 3468B vs. 3478A?

So here it is - just arrived via FedEx. Had some letters painted on the front which I have just removed with paint thinner. It has the battery option but the battery is not charging, as the seller said. Will be opening up and cleaning this weekend.

Ah, this has satisfied my need for a fix ... for a while.