Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Woke up to empty the bladder and happen to check outside temp. Yep, 0 degrees F. I suppose by daylight it will be minus something. Coldest since last January where it hit -8 F. They say we be in a "Polar Vortex" for the next few days. I say no shit, it's freaking cold. 

Yes, the clock is one hour fast. It's set for daylight savings time. It's too much of a hassle to change.

Going back to bed.   

[Inverted18650]

Its 8 degrees here and I am 1000 miles away from you. This shit is the reason birds flight WAY south. My Fl friends are teasing me saying, "oh its 50, better stay inside today"...bastards


***I am adding a bunch of shit to the list on pg 7 of the sale thread. Take a minute and check it out, looks of goodies.****

[beanflying]

Woke up to empty the bladder and happen to check outside temp. Yep, 0 degrees F. I suppose by daylight it will be minus something. Coldest since last January where it hit -8 F. They say we be in a "Polar Vortex" for the next few days. I say no shit, it's freaking cold. 

Yes, the clock is one hour fast. It's set for daylight savings time. It's too much of a hassle to change.

Going back to bed.   

Lucky you don't have an outside Loo you would have to break the stream off instead of a shake unless something else was to break off instead You can keep your cold too. Very pleasant +28C at 6pm.

Thanks to the power of Beer for inspiration and some tools part way into 'making' a BNC-5mm Oscilloscope adapters. Filed off the 1/4-36 thread from the BNC-SMA, the brass part is a long 6mm knurl nut from the stash to solder to the SMA end then just need to add some brass springs to keep the probe ground connected and centered.

[Inverted18650]

Lovin' it.
 

[tggzzz]

Dude... TE is every bit as expensive as most cars sold on eBay. Also a lot more portable. USUALLY. 

Cars ought to be self portable, like the "self-loading freight" on aircraft.

Texas farmer: "I can drive all day, and not cross my farm"
Vermont farmer: "I have a car like that, too"

[VK5RC]

Hewlett Packard Rear Feet - Suits Aluminum Cased 5300 series instruments and a bunch of others.

No where else to place it in particular so here it is. I already had an old 5381A 80Meg counter missing the rear foot......

Still a little more cleanup to so on it but it fits and does what it needs to. Also interesting it is the rear that fails not the fronts would be more stressed because of the bail

STL File is in the ZIP

I have just spent many hours doing just what you have done - I suspect mine is not as good a result.
I think the reason for the rear foot failure is that it is made of a rubber like material where the front foot is a harder plastic. I made mine with PLA, but I recall there was a softer material you could get - quite a good 3D printing shop in Adelaide. Photos below and of 3D printed battery cover for TI 58C calculator.

[Specmaster]

Woke up to empty the bladder and happen to check outside temp. Yep, 0 degrees F. I suppose by daylight it will be minus something. Coldest since last January where it hit -8 F. They say we be in a "Polar Vortex" for the next few days. I say no shit, it's freaking cold. 

Yes, the clock is one hour fast. It's set for daylight savings time. It's too much of a hassle to change.

Going back to bed.   

Ha, and I thought it was really cold here last night, 14F

[beanflying]

I have just spent many hours doing just what you have done - I suspect mine is not as good a result.
I think the reason for the rear foot failure is that it is made of a rubber like material where the front foot is a harder plastic. I made mine with PLA, but I recall there was a softer material you could get - quite a good 3D printing shop in Adelaide. Photos below and of 3D printed battery cover for TI 58C calculator.

Mine sort of follows the contours of the original fairly faithfully but not identical. Yours with the flat centre is a cleaner look without the layering. It is a strange semiflex plastic from HP and the hollow bits won't have helped. Mine are from PLA as I had it loaded on the printer and it should be fine, the other filiments that get used are generally PETG (coke bottle material) or ABS which has some other issues. PETG would have been used if it was loaded as it handles heat better and is a bit tougher.

All three done now just need to tidy up and fit up the third.

[tggzzz]

I made mine with PLA, but I recall there was a softer material you could get - quite a good 3D printing shop in Adelaide.

Possibly a nylon such as https://www.shapeways.com/materials/versatile-plastic .

I've made a scope-probe tip in PLA, nylon and SLA. The SLA had the shiny finish and is slightly flexible, the nylon has a matte finish and more flexible, the PLA is good for comparison
https://entertaininghacks.wordpress.com/2015/04/23/scope-probe-accessory-improves-signal-fidelity/

[bd139]

Nice to see some 3D printed parts for test gear. Ironically at an orthotic appointment at the moment so it’s all about feet today

[beanflying]

Keen to have a go at Nylon when I have a decent project to use some on as it sucks moisture like all get out so opening a roll to casually play with would be a pain to then keep dry until it was needed. I have got one of my Ender Pros fitted with a direct drive extruder ready when needed If it was a commercial shop more likely to be ABS or PETG as there alternates.

[VK5RC]

Thanks for the comments, I have just got into 3D printing (Flashforge) , I have found it a bit easier than I thought it would be.
Very helpful for TEA repair of 'old classics' minus some critical part - what do people do with battery doors FFS! Or there is a discontinuity in space-time full of equipment battery compartment lids.

[med6753]

Woke up to empty the bladder and happen to check outside temp. Yep, 0 degrees F. I suppose by daylight it will be minus something. Coldest since last January where it hit -8 F. They say we be in a "Polar Vortex" for the next few days. I say no shit, it's freaking cold. 

Yes, the clock is one hour fast. It's set for daylight savings time. It's too much of a hassle to change.

Going back to bed.   

Ha, and I thought it was really cold here last night, 14F

Currently 05:45 here and it looks like it bottomed out at -3 F (-19 C). The sun will be up soon.

[tggzzz]

Nice to see some 3D printed parts for test gear. Ironically at an orthotic appointment at the moment so it’s all about feet today

Here's a larger part, in SLA. The screw thread was perfect, and a good reason for choosing SLA.

https://entertaininghacks.wordpress.com/2016/09/11/renovating-a-tektronix-p6013a-12kv-100khz-scope-probe/

[beanflying]

SLA is just such a mess if you are wanting it for occasional use. Using it from a service you supply files to makes sense if you need the better quality finish however. Give the technology another year or two at the consumer end and it may change in particular if the resin prices come down.

Nice thing with having your own gear and FDM in particular is I decided after lunch to make that foot it was on the printer in under an hour and by the end of the day I had three done and fitted and as they are mine layer lines don't matter at all. As I mentioned earlier I could have improved the look by dropping the layer height it just would have doubled the print time.

[beanflying]

Any Aussie TEA members or those browsing and want a reasonable cheap tested Oscilloscope (and a few Supplies too) keep an eye on this seller. https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/m.html?ssPageName=&_ssn=davidp8764&_sac=1&_sop=15

My last weeks one came from him very well packed and shipping was sensible if you are out of the way like me.

[tggzzz]

SLA is just such a mess if you are wanting it for occasional use. Using it from a service you supply files to makes sense if you need the better quality finish however. Give the technology another year or two at the consumer end and it may change in particular if the resin prices come down.

So far I have printed in PLA, brass, nylon and SLA. I don't know what I will use next; paper?

Hence there's no point in my getting a printer.

Nice thing with having your own gear and FDM in particular is I decided after lunch to make that foot it was on the printer in under an hour and by the end of the day I had three done and fitted and as they are mine layer lines don't matter at all. As I mentioned earlier I could have improved the look by dropping the layer height it just would have doubled the print time.

If I need latency above all else, my local hackspace has just got a new PLA/etc printer which is giving much better results than the original one. If that's out of order there are plenty of printer-in-a-spare room people locally.

[beanflying]

My nearest thing resembling a hackerspace is nearly 4 hours drive away

For the sake of the few $ it can be done for these days for a reasonable printer it made sense for my first one. The next two are the result of seeing the need for speed with multiple parts and one for running special flex and hot materials.

That probe to BNC adapter I started on today is likely to get a PLA barrel tomorrow to hold the brass ground contacts in place and make it a bit more solid on the holding the probe but I am going to make the first without and see how it sits. Like todays job it is over my shoulder and that job is 30 minutes of Cad and 30-40 minutes to print each one maybe.

And it's fun learning and playing with new toys 

Bloody USA Weather       Jan 30, 2019  09:06am    In transit - Exception - Processing Exception, Regional Weather Delay  CINCINNATI, OH 45234

[med6753]

More Tek 7000 series plug-in pron. This is the 7A16A. Single channel, 225MHz B/W. During initial testing yesterday had some noise and drop outs on the attenuator switch deck.



Not surprised. It was very dusty. Pulled off the covers and cleaned them up. Then sprayed the contacts with 100% IPA and then used a blow dryer. It's now solid contact through out it's range. Also Deoxit'ed the position pot.



Going to be busy today with other things. Tomorrow I plan on functional tests on all 3 plug-ins. 

[Brumby]

Any Aussie TEA members or those browsing and want a reasonable cheap tested Oscilloscope (and a few Supplies too) keep an eye on this seller. https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/m.html?ssPageName=&_ssn=davidp8764&_sac=1&_sop=15

My last weeks one came from him very well packed and shipping was sensible if you are out of the way like me.

Hmmm....  Location is given as Kirrawee.  That's about an hour's drive each way for me.  Could be worth it for a nicely priced boat anchor.

Their B.I.N. prices of $130 - $150 for sub 50MHz analogue scopes isn't unreasonable (for Australia) but they aren't bargains.

[Martin.M]

I have some nos Tek Atten in the spares box, if you need tell me the Tek No.
or I put a list here
Martin

[beanflying]

Hmmm....  Location is given as Kirrawee.  That's about an hour's drive each way for me.  Could be worth it for a nicely priced boat anchor.

Their B.I.N. prices of $130 - $150 for sub 50MHz analogue scopes isn't unreasonable (for Australia) but they aren't bargains.

Most of last weeks went for well under $100 each the 3502 I got for $66+ postage. He obviously got a job lot from a TAFE auction at some stage.

[med6753]

I have some nos Tek Atten in the spares box, if you need tell me the Tek No.
or I put a list here
Martin

.
Martin, thanks for the offer but I have spares. 

[mnementh]

SLA is just such a mess if you are wanting it for occasional use. Using it from a service you supply files to makes sense if you need the better quality finish however. Give the technology another year or two at the consumer end and it may change in particular if the resin prices come down.

Nice thing with having your own gear and FDM in particular is I decided after lunch to make that foot it was on the printer in under an hour and by the end of the day I had three done and fitted and as they are mine layer lines don't matter at all. As I mentioned earlier I could have improved the look by dropping the layer height it just would have doubled the print time.

Get out of my head, you freak!!! 

No, seriously... I was just about to launch into a whole long diatribe ( and probably a little snarky too, since I just sat down with my first cuppa  ) saying precisely this. 

With FDM, we are already at the stage where it handily beats whittling a part out of wood (yes, even on a lathe, for the most part). It won't be long before we learn to adapt our design and engineering principles to make its inherent graininess a feature of the product, just as thousands of years of experience taught us to do with wood. At the same time, new technologies like nested multiple printheads and better drive mechanics will increase speed while driving the grain finer and finer.

We are literally at the "carving with flint knives" stage with FDM. Things can only get better. 

mnem
*Currently nuking a Prius*

[Martin.M]

about the picture from the killed Fet Probe,
I have that in the collection, complete is like this.