Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[0culus]

I want to take a shower, but I can't. I could, but I know I'll find a "didn't find you home" slip as soon as I exit the bathroom. Of course, waiting it out means not seeing anyone all day. That's how it works.

The sacrifices we make for TEA... 

[ArthurDent]

Uri (reply #22901) – “The standard oscillator comes nowhere near being spot on.”

My 53132A came with the high stability time base and 3Ghz channel (options 010 and 030). One design flaw of the HP53132A, in my opinion, was having the caps on the power supply right against heat generating components especially where the power supply is always on. The caps in my power supply were starting to bulge so I replaced them all with new high temp ones. Where I normally use an ext ref and don’t need the internal ref powered 24/7, I installed a toggle switch in one of the unused holes in the back that allows me to reach behind and kill all power going to the counter if I’m not going to be using it for some time.

I had used my Pendulum CNT-81 (Fluke/Philips PM6681) with the math function and 10 second gate time to get 12 digit resolution but the HP53132A does it neater and in a smaller package.

[URI]

I want to take a shower, but I can't. I could, but I know I'll find a "didn't find you home" slip as soon as I exit the bathroom. Of course, waiting it out means not seeing anyone all day. That's how it works.

That's just another description of Murphies law..   

[Mr. Scram]

The sacrifices we make for TEA... 

The sacrifices others make for my TEA. Oof! Luckily, the meter has arrived. Time to get some hot water and make some Scram Tea. It's an acquired taste.

[mnementh]

And a cordial "Fuck you too, med." 


" *~Good mo-o-ornin-n-ng!!!~* " is what med would say if... ummm... err... Oh, who the fuck am I kidding? med would NEVER say that... and certainly NOT in that tone of voice.   


mnem
"The more people I meet, the more I like my dog. BTW... my dog's a complete asshole." ~me

Hey, you wanna hear some Quaker?

Fuck thee. 

Right back atcha with a side of toast, old friend. Dry, of course... Just like Elwood. 

mnem
Current mood: 60.7 Hz

[bd139]

I want to take a shower, but I can't. I could, but I know I'll find a "didn't find you home" slip as soon as I exit the bathroom. Of course, waiting it out means not seeing anyone all day. That's how it works.

Time to recycle the old Viz board game (right click, open in new tab):

[mnementh]

I want to take a shower, but I can't. I could, but I know I'll find a "didn't find you home" slip as soon as I exit the bathroom. Of course, waiting it out means not seeing anyone all day. That's how it works.

I thought I smelled something rank. 

I think that's whatever I just stepped in... 

mnem
"Awww, man... it got under my scales and e'e'ythang..."

[Mr. Scram]

Time to recycle the old Viz board game (right click, open in new tab):

I was thinking of that one earlier.

[med6753]

When Beanflying looked over my proposed 190mV, 1.9V, and 19V references he recommended for greater stability to reduce the size of the trim pot and add any required fixed resistor to achieve the desired output. I decided to test that on the 190V reference and results have been spectacular. Here's the results. Initially I had an over all drift of approx +/- 30mV. That has been reduced to less than +/- 20mv.

After 30 minute warmup and setup.




45 minutes later



Here's the original schematic. The trim pot was 10K. It's now 1K. An additional 1K fixed resistor has been added so the total fixed on the adjust pin is now 440K. I'm seriously considering replacing those 3 resistors in series with 1 - 0.1% of approx 440K. I may be able to get this reference close to lab grade!  I have totally fallen into that volt-nut rabbit hole. 



Tomorrow I'm going to start building up the low voltage references.

[tggzzz]

I want to take a shower, but I can't. I could, but I know I'll find a "didn't find you home" slip as soon as I exit the bathroom. Of course, waiting it out means not seeing anyone all day. That's how it works.

Have you tried undressing, dipping your foot in the bath, and waiting a second or two?

That actually worked for me, a couple of weeks ago

(Yes, I did have a large towel nearby )

[neo]

I want to take a shower, but I can't. I could, but I know I'll find a "didn't find you home" slip as soon as I exit the bathroom. Of course, waiting it out means not seeing anyone all day. That's how it works.

Have you tried undressing, dipping your foot in the bath, and waiting a second or two?

That actually worked for me, a couple of weeks ago

(Yes, I did have a large towel nearby )

See i don't have problems with them not delivering. They always leave it, sometimes in the yard because their too lazy to drag the overweight box to my door but they always leave it logic be damned.

[Specmaster]

I have to tell yeh all that I have just come across someone really genuine on evilbay.... what that you say...Never 

Monday I spied a Teac CR-H250 receiver just been listed with a BIN price for spares / repair and contacting the seller it seems that it just stopped recently mid way through a track but he claimed that unit worked perfectly OK prior to that including the DAB section. Many of you will know that I've been looking for 2 DAB modules to fit inside of another H250 and also a H300DABmkII tuner.

I offered a low figure, way below £10 because it sounded that it could be terminal as it was completely dead in every way. The seller said that he did not have anything other than the unit, no aerials or remote etc.

My offer was accepted and drove to London N1 to collect it that afternoon and when got it home, extracted the DAB and fitted it in the other receiver and it worked perfectly. I then set about finding out was wrong with the unit, in case it was an easy fix, and it transpires that the power transformer has had the embedded thermal cutout in the primary operate and of course the transformer is unobtainium.

Last night, totally out of the blue, the seller emailed me saying that he has found the remote for and if gave him my address he would post it to me. I replaied of course and took him up and offered to sent via PayPal a few quid for it to which he declined the offer and that he would post today. So I mentioned to him what I had found and asked if he had used with anything covering the ventilation holes in the top (these do run warm) and he replied yes, he had his laptop resting on the top so he could plug it into AUX input and play some music and thats when it stopped working.

Now how many people would A) Bother to contact me later and say that they had found the remote and offer to send it to me and B) also decline to accept any money for it or the postage so I fully expect that after he pays the selling fees and postage that he'll be lucky to have made £1 on the sale. He said he was glad that the DAB module brought my unit back to life and that was reward enough for him... how sweet.

That has really cheered me up knowing that there some really nice people out there 

[Fungus]

Heads up:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/173711610060

[Mr. Scram]

The question is what I'm going to do now. I originally purchased the meter as a gift, as earlier conversations suggested interest. Since I bought it I've been prying the mind of the intended recipient some more and it's clear that a multimeter isn't as high on the list as I'd hoped, or possibly not even on the list at all. I really don't want to give something for my own gratification, only for it to end up on a shelf. It's not quite the meter I would have bought for myself, though.

[neo]

The question is what I'm going to do now. I originally purchased the meter as a gift, as earlier conversations suggested interest. Since I bought it I've been prying the mind of the intended recipient some more and it's clear that a multimeter isn't as high on the list as I'd hoped, or possibly not even on the list at all. I really don't want to give something for my own gratification, only for it to end up on a shelf. It's not quite the meter I would have bought for myself, though.

Could always send it to me.  I may have a dozen already but like any true TEAr i swear i use all of them. 

[med6753]

Heads up:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/173711610060

Interesting piece. And it's definitely from the early 1930's. Dead give away is it can only socket the older 4 and 5 pin tubes. It can't do octals (8 pin) which came out in the late 1930's.

[Martin.M]

As announced, here are the photos of my newly arrived HP 53132A:
Checked with my naked but working Trimble 57963-D against itself it's spot on showing a nice 12 digit resolution:   

this unit is perfect to built the TEA-Meter, connect it to a stable VCO  and subtract the 0V Offset

[med6753]

The question is what I'm going to do now. I originally purchased the meter as a gift, as earlier conversations suggested interest. Since I bought it I've been prying the mind of the intended recipient some more and it's clear that a multimeter isn't as high on the list as I'd hoped, or possibly not even on the list at all. I really don't want to give something for my own gratification, only for it to end up on a shelf. It's not quite the meter I would have bought for myself, though.

Could always send it to me.  I may have a dozen already but like any true TEAr i swear i use all of them. 

What kind of "meter" is it? 

[mnementh]

Okay... Brain-picking time:

Y'all know I've been looking for a video card. I have a counteroffer of $145 shipped on an XFX Radeon RX 580 GTS XXX Edition 8GB card. Appears to have not been used for mining but actually used for gaming, as I can see seller also listing pretty much his whole gaming rig. With retail box & paperwork.

Take it or not?

mnem
 

[Mr. Scram]

Could always send it to me.  I may have a dozen already but like any true TEAr i swear i use all of them. 

I like you guys, but not quite *that* much.  It would definitely be useful to have around, but I'd have picked something different for myself. Not that I really need any more meters, really.

[Mr. Scram]

Okay... Brain-picking time:

Y'all know I've been looking for a video card. I have a counteroffer of $145 shipped on an XFX Radeon RX 580 GTS XXX Edition 8GB card. Appears to have not been used for mining but actually used for gaming, as I can see seller also listing pretty much his whole gaming rig. With retail box & paperwork.

Take it or not?

mnem
 

Although I'm not familiar with your local market, it sounds like a good deal to me.

[med6753]

I have to tell yeh all that I have just come across someone really genuine on evilbay.... what that you say...Never 

Monday I spied a Teac CR-H250 receiver just been listed with a BIN price for spares / repair and contacting the seller it seems that it just stopped recently mid way through a track but he claimed that unit worked perfectly OK prior to that including the DAB section. Many of you will know that I've been looking for 2 DAB modules to fit inside of another H250 and also a H300DABmkII tuner.

I offered a low figure, way below £10 because it sounded that it could be terminal as it was completely dead in every way. The seller said that he did not have anything other than the unit, no aerials or remote etc.

My offer was accepted and drove to London N1 to collect it that afternoon and when got it home, extracted the DAB and fitted it in the other receiver and it worked perfectly. I then set about finding out was wrong with the unit, in case it was an easy fix, and it transpires that the power transformer has had the embedded thermal cutout in the primary operate and of course the transformer is unobtainium.

Last night, totally out of the blue, the seller emailed me saying that he has found the remote for and if gave him my address he would post it to me. I replaied of course and took him up and offered to sent via PayPal a few quid for it to which he declined the offer and that he would post today. So I mentioned to him what I had found and asked if he had used with anything covering the ventilation holes in the top (these do run warm) and he replied yes, he had his laptop resting on the top so he could plug it into AUX input and play some music and thats when it stopped working.

Now how many people would A) Bother to contact me later and say that they had found the remote and offer to send it to me and B) also decline to accept any money for it or the postage so I fully expect that after he pays the selling fees and postage that he'll be lucky to have made £1 on the sale. He said he was glad that the DAB module brought my unit back to life and that was reward enough for him... how sweet.

That has really cheered me up knowing that there some really nice people out there 

You'll get the remote and it will be destroyed since the batteries leaked.  Just kidding. It is amazing but every once in a while you DO encounter an honest person. But don't let you guard down because the next person will take you to the cleaners. 

[Mr. Scram]

What kind of "meter" is it? 

It's a Fluke 179.

[mnementh]

I have to tell yeh all that I have just come across someone really genuine on evilbay.... what that you say...Never 

Monday I spied a Teac CR-H250 receiver just been listed with a BIN price for spares / repair and contacting the seller it seems that it just stopped recently mid way through a track but he claimed that unit worked perfectly OK prior to that including the DAB section. Many of you will know that I've been looking for 2 DAB modules to fit inside of another H250 and also a H300DABmkII tuner.

I offered a low figure, way below £10 because it sounded that it could be terminal as it was completely dead in every way. The seller said that he did not have anything other than the unit, no aerials or remote etc.

My offer was accepted and drove to London N1 to collect it that afternoon and when got it home, extracted the DAB and fitted it in the other receiver and it worked perfectly. I then set about finding out was wrong with the unit, in case it was an easy fix, and it transpires that the power transformer has had the embedded thermal cutout in the primary operate and of course the transformer is unobtainium.

Last night, totally out of the blue, the seller emailed me saying that he has found the remote for and if gave him my address he would post it to me. I replaied of course and took him up and offered to sent via PayPal a few quid for it to which he declined the offer and that he would post today. So I mentioned to him what I had found and asked if he had used with anything covering the ventilation holes in the top (these do run warm) and he replied yes, he had his laptop resting on the top so he could plug it into AUX input and play some music and thats when it stopped working.

Now how many people would A) Bother to contact me later and say that they had found the remote and offer to send it to me and B) also decline to accept any money for it or the postage so I fully expect that after he pays the selling fees and postage that he'll be lucky to have made £1 on the sale. He said he was glad that the DAB module brought my unit back to life and that was reward enough for him... how sweet.

That has really cheered me up knowing that there some really nice people out there 

Guess I'm not the only one who's ever done this. Mostly because when I was younger and did the B/S/T flea market trade in recycled electronics, the biggest PITA was remotes; I was constantly rummaging the yard sales and household sale tables to find the one I needed for a TV, VCR, DVD player, etc. I know the pain of trying to find the right remote. It's right up there with athlete's foot. 

I know... an eBayer with empathy. Go fig.  (But I probably would have accepted the offer to cover postage)

I've also sent a seller a "bonus" when I got more than was listed in an auction. Nothing crazy... a few bucks and a "Thanks for the extra... have a brew on me." in the PP transaction or similar. 

mnem
eBay's a bitch; but I have a lot of Karma to burn off.

[Specmaster]

The question is what I'm going to do now. I originally purchased the meter as a gift, as earlier conversations suggested interest. Since I bought it I've been prying the mind of the intended recipient some more and it's clear that a multimeter isn't as high on the list as I'd hoped, or possibly not even on the list at all. I really don't want to give something for my own gratification, only for it to end up on a shelf. It's not quite the meter I would have bought for myself, though.

Could always send it to me.  I may have a dozen already but like any true TEAr i swear i use all of them. 

I second that thought, can never have too many meters can you??? I use all of mine from time to time to keep them all gainfully employed