Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Sorry, but I wanted to publicly acknowledge your service. You deserve it. 

[Inverted18650]

Sorry, but I wanted to publicly acknowledge your service. You deserve it. 

Thanks mate. I am so used to be around other Vets that sometime I forgot that its less than 0.01% that serve nowadays (U.S. not sure about the other nations represented here)

[Inverted18650]

The printer has to stay within reach of SWMBO.  It's the workhorse of her business.  Moving it a few inches closer to her is the ONLY up side.  Besides, terminals of the 3456A are on the right and using it as a printer stand would have the terminals too far away - and right next to someone's left elbow.

Yes I am an enabler and can handle the flack from Mrs Brumby from 1000km away 

You would be out of range, but I would not .... not even at ten times that distance.

Have you checked out printers that have a smaller footprint yet? Everything can be networked, maybe it can go under the desk, I need some help here beanflying, we almost had him...I couldn't have gotten hurt at a worse time, we may have missed it*. Bean  if I just send it, you have the goody-basket for Mrs. Brumby covered right?

*it= the impulsive nature that all T.E.A. members have to continually work at full speed to get the next item they want to fit in places it shouldn't and the willingness to upset those we love to make it happen.

[Inverted18650]

No words can explain this joy, so I will not try

edit* this 731B is insanely stable!! even topless..

[Neomys Sapiens]

HP for power supplies as well.

You know my favourite thing though? The TDS210. Sure it's crap by modern standards but it just feels right, doesn't make any noise and doesn't take any room.

Late DPO3054 and I'm totally sold.


Well, it's the Belzer/Leica/Tektronix-Problem-complex. BLT anyone?

[The Soulman]

No words can explain this joy, so I will not try

=> SHOW US THE 10V!! <= 

[Neomys Sapiens]

No words can explain this joy, so I will not try

Congrats - a deserved prize. And ouch - take it easy!

(the best kind of rats, despite the alliterations)

[Inverted18650]

No words can explain this joy, so I will not try

=> SHOW US THE 10V!! <= 

Ask and 'ye shall receive! No filtering just 10 PLC's to slow it down a bit. (thanks out to "zucca" for his videos on the unit)

[beanflying]

Have you checked out printers that have a smaller footprint yet? Everything can be networked, maybe it can go under the desk, I need some help here beanflying, we almost had him...I couldn't have gotten hurt at a worse time, we may have missed it*. Bean  if I just send it, you have the goody-basket for Mrs. Brumby covered right?

*it= the impulsive nature that all T.E.A. members have to continually work at full speed to get the next item they want to fit in places it shouldn't and the willingness to upset those we love to make it happen.

I think he is well and truly infected with the TEA virus and now just needs to accept the disease and the side effects of Mrs Brumbies ire and or pan to the head 

[Inverted18650]

If *he is not upset, I'll pull the listing and send it to him for nothing but shipping. Can't beat that right? Let us see if he returns

[Neomys Sapiens]

that`s it    with the X : = 0,1 Ohms 

I had to trace back - it's that Wandel+Goltermann SPM11.
So I'm rather happy for you that it is still in one piece. Nobody likes to chase the 'Aetzkonfetti'.

[Inverted18650]

I am going to plot the deviations on each range, with temp overlay, and this beautiful little standard is headed to Australia as well ( i think hes an Aussie). AS a DC volt-nut, I feel like this meter completes me...go ahead, make your jokes, I can take it, but I only played with it for a couple hours and it is insanely versatile. On that note, THANKS to DOC (toastycrumpets) and others for getting me away from the 3458A. It cannot touch the functionality built into this unit.

[syau]

No words can explain this joy, so I will not try

edit* this 731B is insanely stable!! even topless..

The one I got stable at 10.00000347 on my 3458A. Thanks @Inverted18650 

[0culus]

No words can explain this joy, so I will not try

edit* this 731B is insanely stable!! even topless..

Wow that is nice. Worth the 4 large?

[0culus]

Good point about repairability. That Tek SA is probably trash if it goes wrong.

On VNA front, as I'm sure tautech will pop up and say, Siglent do a reasonably affordable option. For me, I'm not sure I'd extract the full value from it so I went with the slightly crappy option. I only care about simple cases of VSWR / return loss, power gain and some classes of input matching problems up to VHF so I built a simple power meter and use an MFJ-259B impedance analyser (second hand). Seems to do enough and allows me to produce sound designs which is the main thing. That cost 12% of Siglent's offering 

It would be rude if I didn't. 

SVA1015X, a fully fledged SA and capable VNA for the price of a DSA815.....what's not to like ? 

OK, you have my attention now. I am going to need a VNA in the not so distance future for some projects I have in mind and I really can't afford a boat anchor VNA system, even an old one.

[Kosmic]

HP for power supplies as well.

You know my favourite thing though? The TDS210. Sure it's crap by modern standards but it just feels right, doesn't make any noise and doesn't take any room.

I need to consider getting a digital scope at some point. While I strongly prefer analog instruments to use, I recognize the usefulness of features like one shot captures.

If I had the money, I'd consider getting one of these too:

https://www.tek.com/spectrum-analyzer/rsa306

Unfortunately, it's $4k to start and the options I'd want add 1k here and another 1k there.  I think I will instead get a hackrf and use the variety of open source software available for interfacing with it and providing spectrum analysis capabilities.

edit:

Checkout the Agilent E4406A. 7Mhz to 4Ghz, 10Mhz realtime span. Up to 0.1Hz resolution bandwidth. No pre-selector though. Got mine for less than 400$

I heard the sensibility of the hackrf is not that good. I think you are better off with a adalm-pluto . 70Mhz to 6Ghz tx + rx, 56Mhz bandwidth no pre-selector and not calibrated though (output power in dbfs).

[tautech]

Good point about repairability. That Tek SA is probably trash if it goes wrong.

On VNA front, as I'm sure tautech will pop up and say, Siglent do a reasonably affordable option. For me, I'm not sure I'd extract the full value from it so I went with the slightly crappy option. I only care about simple cases of VSWR / return loss, power gain and some classes of input matching problems up to VHF so I built a simple power meter and use an MFJ-259B impedance analyser (second hand). Seems to do enough and allows me to produce sound designs which is the main thing. That cost 12% of Siglent's offering 

It would be rude if I didn't. 

SVA1015X, a fully fledged SA and capable VNA for the price of a DSA815.....what's not to like ? 

OK, you have my attention now. I am going to need a VNA in the not so distance future for some projects I have in mind and I really can't afford a boat anchor VNA system, even an old one.

Find the thread on them OK ?
Also check my topics for the antenna project I did with mine.

[Brumby]

I think he is well and truly infected with the TEA virus and now just needs to accept the disease and the side effects of Mrs Brumbies ire and or repeated pan to the head 

FTFY

If *he is not upset, I'll pull the listing and send it to him for nothing but shipping. Can't beat that right? Let us see if he returns

Your generosity exceeds my wildest desires, but I'm feeling the pain at the back of the head already...

I did have some funds available for shipping - but someone told me to spend it on TEA, which was my intent.  Then SWMBO came across some power tool gear going cheap and I felt it appropriate to acknowledge her efforts by purchasing it.  That took out all those funds and a little bit more.  No more budget until next month (hopefully).



You two are going to be the death of me.

[kj7e]

No words can explain this joy, so I will not try

=> SHOW US THE 10V!! <= 

Ask and 'ye shall receive! No filtering just 10 PLC's to slow it down a bit. (thanks out to "zucca" for his videos on the unit)

With the DMM7510, 5PLC is less noisy than 10PLC.  For ultra precise measurements I use 5PLC with 10x repeating filter, AutoZ and run a autocal about 20 min prior.

[Inverted18650]

No words can explain this joy, so I will not try

edit* this 731B is insanely stable!! even topless..

The one I got stable at 10.00000347 on my 3458A. Thanks @Inverted18650 

Both of them were incredible, having a hard time saying goodbye to this one. And all thanks to you my friend.

If you all don't know, Syau is the reason I am not on the forum complaining every day and was able to get my new meter. He bought a bunch of the gear and saved me from total failure on this venture. I am stoked to have a new friend in China and wanted to say a proper and public "thank you" to my new friend.

[0culus]

HP for power supplies as well.

You know my favourite thing though? The TDS210. Sure it's crap by modern standards but it just feels right, doesn't make any noise and doesn't take any room.

I need to consider getting a digital scope at some point. While I strongly prefer analog instruments to use, I recognize the usefulness of features like one shot captures.

If I had the money, I'd consider getting one of these too:

https://www.tek.com/spectrum-analyzer/rsa306

Unfortunately, it's $4k to start and the options I'd want add 1k here and another 1k there.  I think I will instead get a hackrf and use the variety of open source software available for interfacing with it and providing spectrum analysis capabilities.

edit:

Checkout the Agilent E4406A. 7Mhz to 4Ghz, 10Mhz realtime span. Up to 0.1Hz resolution bandwidth. No pre-selector though. Got mine for less than 400$

I heard the sensibility of the hackrf is not that good. I think you are better off with a adalm-pluto . 70Mhz to 6Ghz tx + rx, 56Mhz bandwidth no pre-selector and not calibrated though (output power in dbfs).

10 MHz real time span is kind of low for what I'd want, unfortunately. Not a whole lot when you have 802.11ac routers are using 80 MHz wide channels in some cases.

[nixiefreqq]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Local-Pickup-from-Erie-PA-LOT-OF-THREE-Fluke-8375A-Digital-Multimeters/362546242891?hash=item546970a54b:g:-dgAAOSwWrdbnwni:rk:6:pf:0

tempting......BUT.....local pickup only.

5 hours and over 300 miles one way according to google maps.  thats a long way to go for nixie meters i don't need.

i don't want them......i don't want them......i don't want them.

(damn....do not have any fluke nixie meters....maybe i do want them?  what would neo do?)

[beanflying]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Local-Pickup-from-Erie-PA-LOT-OF-THREE-Fluke-8375A-Digital-Multimeters/362546242891?hash=item546970a54b:g:-dgAAOSwWrdbnwni:rk:6:pf:0

tempting......BUT.....local pickup only.

5 hours and over 300 miles one way according to google maps.  thats a long way to go for nixie meters i don't need.

i don't want them......i don't want them......i don't want them.

(damn....do not have any fluke nixie meters....maybe i do want them?  what would neo do?)

'I don't Need' - What the 

If the weather was better it would be a great few days tour around the Lake and even a side trip to Niagara with the bonus of Nixie pickup on the way 

[Inverted18650]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Local-Pickup-from-Erie-PA-LOT-OF-THREE-Fluke-8375A-Digital-Multimeters/362546242891?hash=item546970a54b:g:-dgAAOSwWrdbnwni:rk:6:pf:0

tempting......BUT.....local pickup only.

5 hours and over 300 miles one way according to google maps.  thats a long way to go for nixie meters i don't need.

i don't want them......i don't want them......i don't want them.

(damn....do not have any fluke nixie meters....maybe i do want them?  what would neo do?)

Im on it, my wife has family near Erie, I will try to arrange a pickup! WOOHOO!

Also:
Anyone know how to contact one of those companies that you can pay for views on your YouTube channel so it skyrockets to the top of the recommended list? If so please contact me ASAP. I have some business to attend too...

[nixiefreqq]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Local-Pickup-from-Erie-PA-LOT-OF-THREE-Fluke-8375A-Digital-Multimeters/362546242891?hash=item546970a54b:g:-dgAAOSwWrdbnwni:rk:6:pf:0

tempting......BUT.....local pickup only.

5 hours and over 300 miles one way according to google maps.  thats a long way to go for nixie meters i don't need.

i don't want them......i don't want them......i don't want them.

(damn....do not have any fluke nixie meters....maybe i do want them?  what would neo do?)

'I don't Need' - What the 

If the weather was better it would be a great few days tour around the Lake and even a side trip to Niagara with the bonus of Nixie pickup on the way 

thanks for reminding me.  there was an item on the news just a couple of days ago about the falls being frozen solid and erie being buried to the rooflines with lake effect snow.  but swmbo grew up in ny so maybe she would want to go.

nope.  just ran it through my head.  "hey sweetie....aren't the falls beautiful.  oh we need to make a side trip to erie to pickup some nixie gear".  i would probably ride home horizontal in the bed of the truck.

hopefully some west ny or canadian tea addict will snipe them and save me the pain.