Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cubdriver]

Ahh, ok.  I use my job for that, and if there's anything left over after SPEED and METH then it goes towards food, mortgage, electricity, etc...  You know - the secondary stuff.   

(I hope these posts are never taken without proper context - they do not reflect well in isolation!)

-Pat

[bitseeker]

That might require an isolation transformer to protect the guilty.

[Cubdriver]

Hi. My name's Wilfred, and it has been nearly five hours since I bought a multimeter. I couldn't help it, it was blue. I didn't have a blue one.

  That literally made me laugh loudly enough to startle the cats.

Dammit, don't be giving me a new reason to buy things!!    



-Pat

[bitseeker]

Everything I know about buying more test equipment, I learned from my wife.

Top 10 reasons for buying this:

10. it's a different color
9. it's a different brand
8. it's a different style
7. it's a different vintage
6. it goes with _________
5. I returned the other one
4. I lost the other one
3. one is for keeping in the car
2. I need a backup
.
.
.
1. It's on sale!

[VK5RC]

My wife and I have this unwritten contract - I don't ask about her shoes and she doesn't ask about test gear.

I had several hearty laughs - as I was reading the earlier posts re donor units and - "sell"    I  thought - what's that.

My rather blunt but observant 15yo daughter, who has seen the unfortunate demise of 3 grandparents with dementia, came out into my 'shed' about a year ago and said "Dad you have too much stuff, what are we going to do with this all when you get demented".   The emphasis was hers!

I don't see anything wrong with different colour multimeters - now you say that I don't have red!   MMMMMust fix that!!!!!!!     Not seen a purple.

[PA0PBZ]

Not seen a purple.

Here you go:

[TerraHertz]

Hello, my name isn't actually TerraHertz, and I once thought it would be safe to dabble in test equipment in a small way. Then I tried racks, and everything changed. Once you've tasted the sweet ecstasy of rack-mounting, you can never go back. I blame Hewlett Packard, for tempting me with their innocent looking early solid aluminium models, that seemed so harmless and cool. The first five were free and I thought I could handle it. Now I have severe GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) and even TEA can't help. Eleven full racks and still going.

I don't know where my life went. I've even gone so far as driving Sydney to Ballarat and back, just to pick up one piece of old test gear. I told everyone it was mainly to have a holiday fossicking in the goldfields, but no, really it was all for the gear.

It's hopeless. I'm about to do it *again* - drive Sydney to Melbourne and back, for some more gear and not even a holiday as excuse. Completely shameless. Kids, this is what GAS does to people.

[Berni]

There is also the fun story of buying a used server rack only to discover later how damn big and heavy these things are.

Getting it on a tailor completely empty is already almost a three man job. As a result the first thing once it was unloaded was to unscrew every single thing possible on it, leaving just a bare metal frame with rack rails. Even then it was a 2 person job to move it up any sort of stairs. Half way there you find out that the turn and door on the stairway is too narrow to turn it properly. To fix that the wheels also had to be removed and the rack had to be turned while il the air while simultaneously fitting trough the door.

Finally it was where it needed to be so it has taken forever to again reassemble it. At this point you now truly realize how damn heavy these old HP boat anchors are when you have to lift one above your head while trying to mount it in to the rack.

But hey now you have more room to put equipment in...for now.

[ModemHead]

I don't have a pink DMM.  However, if Big Clive does his own multimeter branding deal, I'm on it like yellow on a Fluke overmold.

There are somewhere north of 100 digital multimeters within 12 feet of this chair, but I've used all of them at *least* once.

I have only one DMM dedicated to checking the charge level of my cordless vac.

I drove all the way across the county once to get a free Harbor Freight DMM because everyone was talking about them. But I had to go there anyway since the cable ties were on sale for $1.99.

When I log onto eBay, the front page shows nothing but parts-or-repair multimeters. Must be a glitch in their algorithms. I'm fairly sure I bought a NASCAR ball cap on eBay once, so the least they could do is show me a couple of die-cast Budweiser 88s.

I carry a spare multimeter to every fix-it job. Just in case the primary multimeter gets dirty.

I bought this NLS just because I thought it was cute.  I don't even own a single mini banana plug so I can't hook anything up to it.  But I still let out a little "squee!" every time I turn it on, so it's a very useful non-alcoholic method of attitude adjustment.

Yeah, uh no, no problems here.

[PartialDischarge]

Everything I know about buying more test equipment, I learned from my wife.

Top 10 reasons for buying this:

10. it's a different color
9. it's a different brand
8. it's a different style
7. it's a different vintage
6. it goes with _________
5. I returned the other one
4. I lost the other one
3. one is for keeping in the car
2. I need a backup
.
.
.
1. It's on sale!

Witty!  know the enemy ....

[LaserSteve]

Hi, I'm Steve and I'm a Testaholic...
I have it worse then most of you guys, because I like full size milling machines,  microwave sweepers from 2 to 18 Ghz,  tunable  lasers, and high vacuum...
Voltnutism is cheap crack  compared to my hobby... Price working Turbopumps and pure Krypton some time...

Part number for the purple DVM please?  Gotta have one of those next to the Green, Blue,  Yellow, Red, Grey, and Black ones...

Steve

[daqq]

Gotta have one of those next to the Green, Blue,  Yellow, Red, Grey, and Black ones...

Gotta catch 'em all?

[PA0PBZ]

Part number for the purple DVM please?  Gotta have one of those next to the Green, Blue,  Yellow, Red, Grey, and Black ones...

http://www.starmeter.cn/ST830L-Pocket-size-Digital-Multimeter-p44703507.html

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NKTECH-NK51E-Auto-Range-Digital-Multimeter-AC-DC-V-A-Cap-Hz-Res-VS-UNI-T-UT136B-/262696593559

Can't go wrong for $14.77

[Berni]

...

I bought this NLS just because I thought it was cute.  I don't even own a single mini banana plug so I can't hook anything up to it.  But I still let out a little "squee!" every time I turn it on, so it's a very useful non-alcoholic method of attitude adjustment.

Yeah, uh no, no problems here.

That is the cutest DMM i ever seen. Makes me want to type it in to ebay, but i won't on purpose since i know where this leads me.

[Cubdriver]

I don't have a pink DMM.  However, if Big Clive does his own multimeter branding deal, I'm on it like yellow on a Fluke overmold.

There are somewhere north of 100 digital multimeters within 12 feet of this chair, but I've used all of them at *least* once.

I have only one DMM dedicated to checking the charge level of my cordless vac.

I drove all the way across the county once to get a free Harbor Freight DMM because everyone was talking about them. But I had to go there anyway since the cable ties were on sale for $1.99.

When I log onto eBay, the front page shows nothing but parts-or-repair multimeters. Must be a glitch in their algorithms. I'm fairly sure I bought a NASCAR ball cap on eBay once, so the least they could do is show me a couple of die-cast Budweiser 88s.

I carry a spare multimeter to every fix-it job. Just in case the primary multimeter gets dirty.

I bought this NLS just because I thought it was cute.  I don't even own a single mini banana plug so I can't hook anything up to it.  But I still let out a little "squee!" every time I turn it on, so it's a very useful non-alcoholic method of attitude adjustment.

Yeah, uh no, no problems here.

You need a set of these:

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/pomona-electronics/72914-02/501-1192-ND/1196326

[CJay]

pfft, weak willed the lot of you.

I've not got a test equipment addiction, there's only the Hameg 'scope.

And the Tek 485.
Oh and the R&S CMU200.
And umm, four multimeters, the Fluke 77, 179, the TTi bench meter, the oddball but surprisingly nice British Gas branded one...
There's the Aeroflex sig gen...
The Sayrosa 257 modulation meter.
The Racal frequency counters
And, ermm, the vintage round CRT 'scope and the Farnell power supplies and the Kikusui one and the other unbranded one and the Levell R-C oscillator and the two rubidium standards and the GPS standard and the AD584 standard and the...

Damnit, OK,you got me

[Cubdriver]

pfft, weak willed the lot of you.

I've not got a test equipment addiction, there's only the Hameg 'scope.

And the Tek 485.
Oh and the R&S CMU200.
And umm, four multimeters, the Fluke 77, 179, the TTi bench meter, the oddball but surprisingly nice British Gas branded one...
There's the Aeroflex sig gen...
The Sayrosa 257 modulation meter.
The Racal frequency counters
And, ermm, the vintage round CRT 'scope and the Farnell power supplies and the Kikusui one and the other unbranded one and the Levell R-C oscillator and the two rubidium standards and the GPS standard and the AD584 standard and the...

Damnit, OK,you got me

Meh...  Sounds like an ok start, but you've got some work to do.   

I see only three scopes in that lot...   

-Pat

[CJay]

Meh...  Sounds like an ok start, but you've got some work to do.   

I see only three scopes in that lot...   

-Pat

'Oh Lord won't you buy me a Micsig o'scope,
My friends all have HP's, I must make amends'

[KhronX]

I'm a bit of a "freshman" in this field, but my GAS is a bit more pronounced in the area of audio / music gear 

Despite that, on my workbench next to me, we have:
- Tektronix 2230 (bought dead, had a few toast protection components)
- Tektronix 2225 (ditto, bought at the same time, turned out to work fine, in fact)
- Tektronix 2235 (i gotta put it up for sale, i have no need for it, and i could use the space & $$$ - blasphemous, i know  )
- HP 3314A arb-gen (fan's pretty effin' loud though)
- Keithley 2015 (i blame Dave's teardown, coupled with my audio passions)
- Thurlby-Thandar PL330QMT triple power supply
- DER-EE DE-5000 LCR-meter
- 700VA isolation transformer + distribution panel
- Tenma 72-7730 DMM

I've had my eye on some Brymen meters for some time now, but have yet to pull the trigger...

And i'll raise you a collection of 50-something microphones, several hundred feet of various audio cables, an extensive-enough drum kit, a bunch of mic stands, several mic clips, two pairs of reasonable studio monitors, three computer audio interfaces (one of which is capable of 26-channel recording)... 

Does luthier tooling count? 

[lowimpedance]

 After reading through 2 pages of confessions introductions it seems TEA is actually a collective of historians and not just people with shed space to fill.
So look at it as if we are all museum curators making sure our collections are kept in good condition and when we like to share, (just like touring collections from those 'bigger museums'  ), we will trot out our prize piece for a virtual public tour.
 And when we find that old neglected fossil gem we will also show how it was restored to be able to be put back on display. So of course that restoration also requires lots of associated support like manuals/parts and heaven forbid other gems that will never be display quality. Not to mention all the ancillary equipment/space required to perform the quality restoration.
 Thus we are all historians and custodians of test equipment history which if it was not for us would be long buried. ......... so dammit I still have some space to fill with that next gem.
.
.
Enjoy your collections while you can chaps.

[neil t]

After reading through 2 pages of confessions introductions it seems TEA is actually a collective of historians and not just people with shed space to fill.
So look at it as if we are all museum curators making sure our collections are kept in good condition and when we like to share, (just like touring collections from those 'bigger museums'  ), we will trot out our prize piece for a virtual public tour.
 And when we find that old neglected fossil gem we will also show how it was restored to be able to be put back on display. So of course that restoration also requires lots of associated support like manuals/parts and heaven forbid other gems that will never be display quality. Not to mention all the ancillary equipment/space required to perform the quality restoration.
 Thus we are all historians and custodians of test equipment history which if it was not for us would be long buried. ......... so dammit I still have some space to fill with that next gem.

.
.
Enjoy your collections while you can chaps.

That's it just another little taste you won't get hooked I promise

[KhronX]

... Or at least that's the "official" story, ie. for spouses and whatnot, isn't it?   

After reading through 2 pages of confessions introductions it seems TEA is actually a collective of historians and not just people with shed space to fill.
So look at it as if we are all museum curators making sure our collections are kept in good condition and when we like to share, (just like touring collections from those 'bigger museums'  ), we will trot out our prize piece for a virtual public tour.
 And when we find that old neglected fossil gem we will also show how it was restored to be able to be put back on display. So of course that restoration also requires lots of associated support like manuals/parts and heaven forbid other gems that will never be display quality. Not to mention all the ancillary equipment/space required to perform the quality restoration.
 Thus we are all historians and custodians of test equipment history which if it was not for us would be long buried. ......... so dammit I still have some space to fill with that next gem.
.
.
Enjoy your collections while you can chaps.

[lowimpedance]

... Or at least that's the "official" story, ie. for spouses and whatnot, isn't it?   

After reading through 2 pages of confessions introductions it seems TEA is actually a collective of historians and not just people with shed space to fill.
So look at it as if we are all museum curators making sure our collections are kept in good condition and when we like to share, (just like touring collections from those 'bigger museums'  ), we will trot out our prize piece for a virtual public tour.
 And when we find that old neglected fossil gem we will also show how it was restored to be able to be put back on display. So of course that restoration also requires lots of associated support like manuals/parts and heaven forbid other gems that will never be display quality. Not to mention all the ancillary equipment/space required to perform the quality restoration.
 Thus we are all historians and custodians of test equipment history which if it was not for us would be long buried. ......... so dammit I still have some space to fill with that next gem.
.
.
Enjoy your collections while you can chaps.

   completely official .... of course!. 

[Brumby]

It's hopeless. I'm about to do it *again* - drive Sydney to Melbourne and back, for some more gear and not even a holiday as excuse. Completely shameless. Kids, this is what GAS does to people.

Need a co-driver?

[Brumby]

Oh-oh.

I just got "the look" ........