Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[beanflying]

This is from beanflying's thread on replacement feet and stuff. Who would be willing to print me up 4 of these? Needed for the 475A. Of course I'll pay. Ebay sellers want $25 USD which is a bit excessive.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1410827

There are a couple of "print my thing" links on thingiverse. Never tried one but surely they'd be cheaper than the ebay sellers who rpobably use that.

Oh OK, didn't realize that. I'll check it out. 

I may need to change my cataloguing system if it gets to unwieldy 

Plenty of us with Printers. The plastic costs are minimal so offer some postage/graft and corruption should get it done in house. Bit expensive from my end for post and would be nearly $20 USD. I work for BEER   

Pretty sure I can do this if PLA is strong enough. I'm thinking 1.5mm walls and 40% infill, printed on the flat as shown. Whaddayoothink b?

I'm pretty sure PLA can handle typical loading in compression plane; what I'm worried about is breaking that first fin off the "bottom" two feet with lateral loading when somebody tries to lever the scope up onto its feet from horizontal by lifting up on the bail.

med, I can do this in Lord Vader Black, Purple Nurple, or Meh Grey. Choose wisely.

mnem
*poit!*

There is also ReRouters version of the feet here to look at https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/replacement-knobs-feet-and-fittings-for-test-equipment/msg2255157/#msg2255157

PETG would be a better option for the feet IMO layer. 6 layers and 40% infill should get a tough result as @mnem suggested. Nylon would be better but most of us won't be setup or have a roll to do this.

[mnementh]

Can i ask you lot a tube question?



Coming out of pin 3 it says max 150, i'm wondering just what the hell means? I'm almost certain it isn't a voltage rating. Maybe i should just stick to SS rectification 

What is that from? That's a indirectly heated full wave rectifier that has a 6.3V filament and separate cathode. Very unusual. Most rectifier tubes are 5V filament with directly heated filament functioning as the cathode. And I don't recognize that basing. Does it say "B9A" ? Not in my RCA Receiving Tube Manual. Need more info. What is the tube type? 

Edit.....Looks like a 6X4 Rectifier. Max load on that tube is 90ma.

2nd edit, Nope...not a 6X4. The basing doesn't match.

B9A is the pinout standard, commonly used for small signal and preamp drivers. Evidently, triodes can be used as rectifiers ( I knew that part) but can be configured to regulate the DC output as well.  (Did not know that, but should have guessed it) Hence, the 150VDC label on your circuit, I'd wager.
NM... brain fart. That's the cathode, not a grid.  Ignore me.

https://www.edaboard.com/showthread.php?364413-Using-triode-tubes-as-diode-tubes-for-rectification

mnem
I learned something today!
*Yeah... that I'm a dumbass who can't read a hollow-state schematic!*

[neo]

Can i ask you lot a tube question?



Coming out of pin 3 it says max 150, i'm wondering just what the hell means? I'm almost certain it isn't a voltage rating. Maybe i should just stick to SS rectification 

What is that from? That's a indirectly heated full wave rectifier that has a 6.3V filament and separate cathode. Very unusual. Most rectifier tubes are 5V filament with directly heated filament functioning as the cathode. And I don't recognize that basing. Does it say "B9A" ? Not in my RCA Receiving Tube Manual. Need more info. What is the tube type? 

Edit.....Looks like a 6X4 Rectifier. Max load on that tube is 90ma.

2nd edit, Nope...not a 6X4. The basing doesn't match.

6CA4, sorry i should have specified.

https://www.radiomuseum.org/tubes/tube_6ca4.html

[mnementh]

This is from beanflying's thread on replacement feet and stuff. Who would be willing to print me up 4 of these? Needed for the 475A. Of course I'll pay. Ebay sellers want $25 USD which is a bit excessive.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1410827

There are a couple of "print my thing" links on thingiverse. Never tried one but surely they'd be cheaper than the ebay sellers who rpobably use that.

Oh OK, didn't realize that. I'll check it out. 

I may need to change my cataloguing system if it gets to unwieldy 

Plenty of us with Printers. The plastic costs are minimal so offer some postage/graft and corruption should get it done in house. Bit expensive from my end for post and would be nearly $20 USD. I work for BEER   

Pretty sure I can do this if PLA is strong enough. I'm thinking 1.5mm walls and 40% infill, printed on the flat as shown. Whaddayoothink b?

I'm pretty sure PLA can handle typical loading in compression plane; what I'm worried about is breaking that first fin off the "bottom" two feet with lateral loading when somebody tries to lever the scope up onto its feet from horizontal by lifting up on the bail.

med, I can do this in Lord Vader Black, Purple Nurple, or Meh Grey. Choose wisely.

mnem
*poit!*

There is also ReRouters version of the feet here to look at https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/replacement-knobs-feet-and-fittings-for-test-equipment/msg2255157/#msg2255157

PETG would be a better option for the feet IMO layer. 6 layers and 40% infill should get a tough result as @mnem suggested. Nylon would be better but most of us won't be setup or have a roll to do this.

Agreed, but A) I have 3 kinds of filament (listed above), and exactly ZERO of them are PETG.  And 2) I also have ZERO experience with printing in PETG. I'm more than willing to print out a pair in PLA and abuse test them on my 454, I just wanted to know if you thought those settings would be a good starting point. 

Looking at the two, I don't see anything obvious to recommend ReRouter's version over the one on ThV... what am I missing?

mnem
*Let's see if I can get something right today*

[DC1MC]

Can i ask you lot a tube question?



Coming out of pin 3 it says max 150, i'm wondering just what the hell means? I'm almost certain it isn't a voltage rating. Maybe i should just stick to SS rectification 

What is that from? That's a indirectly heated full wave rectifier that has a 6.3V filament and separate cathode. Very unusual. Most rectifier tubes are 5V filament with directly heated filament functioning as the cathode. And I don't recognize that basing. Does it say "B9A" ? Not in my RCA Receiving Tube Manual. Need more info. What is the tube type? 

Edit.....Looks like a 6X4 Rectifier. Max load on that tube is 90ma.

2nd edit, Nope...not a 6X4. The basing doesn't match.

6CA4, sorry i should have specified.

https://www.radiomuseum.org/tubes/tube_6ca4.html

That is the maximum load current, the tube is a "steroids" version of the EZ80. And the circle on the flament circuit is the filament current.

 Cheers,
 DC1MC

[beanflying]

Agreed, but A) I have 3 kinds of filament (listed above), and exactly ZERO of them are PETG.  And 2) I also have ZERO experience with printing in PETG. I'm more than willing to print out a pair in PLA and abuse test them on my 454, I just wanted to know if you thought those settings would be a good starting point. 

Looking at the two, I don't see anything obvious to recommend ReRouter's version over the one on ThV... what am I missing?

mnem
*Let's see if I can get something right today*

As he is a forum member you can flog him with a wet lettuce leaf if it goes wrong 

You really 'need' to get a roll of PETG to play with the hammer heads I made are holding up well to repeated use and the other items I have made with it are too. Higher Nozzle temps, hotter beds and a bit more retraction are the rough setting changes and Glu Stick on glass works well.

[ArthurDent]

post #26999

"Can i ask you lot a tube question?"

The circle with the 6.3 is the winding voltage for the 6.3V 1A heater of the 6CA4. The H.V. winding is 700VAC or 350 each side of CT max. The capacitor is 50 uF max and 150ma output. This data is on page 2 of the RCA manual here.

https://www.datasheet4u.com/datasheet-pdf/RCA/6CA4/pdf.php?id=1043329

[Specmaster]

I had the same thought and decided to change it full range speakers. The bass response still sucks. 

I did talk to my bro about the speakers he had connected. The factory speakers that came with it and connected properly.

Yes, the ESR should be lower but it works and I ain't changing them.

When it comes to audio, most caps in the circuit can and will have some effect on the frequency response in particular those in the feedback and tone circuits, have you checked those in the bass circuit for drift?

[tautech]

Speaking of this POS Sony. It's back together and burning in. So far no issues but my Brother said sometimes it will go for hours before going into protect. We'll see.

And it is truly a POS. It has almost NO bass response. Perhaps that's deliberate because most folks connect a sub but still compared to my older stuff it sounds terrible.

Same unit as my shed stereo and have 5 speakers connected to 'er.
You have to go through the Modes to get the right sound that suits you.

Mine goes into Protect mostly in damp weather that has me thinking it needs a damn good cleaning huck out.

[mnementh]

Agreed, but A) I have 3 kinds of filament (listed above), and exactly ZERO of them are PETG.  And 2) I also have ZERO experience with printing in PETG. I'm more than willing to print out a pair in PLA and abuse test them on my 454, I just wanted to know if you thought those settings would be a good starting point. 

Looking at the two, I don't see anything obvious to recommend ReRouter's version over the one on ThV... what am I missing?

mnem
*Let's see if I can get something right today*

As he is a forum member you can flog him with a wet lettuce leaf if it goes wrong 

You really 'need' to get a roll of PETG to play with the hammer heads I made are holding up well to repeated use and the other items I have made with it are too. Higher Nozzle temps, hotter beds and a bit more retraction are the rough setting changes and Glu Stick on glass works well.

I know, I know... it's on the "To Do" list. 

But I have a trial pair of feet printing up already at 0.2mmLH-60/30mmSPD and the above 1.5mm all walls & 40% Infill. Should be done in a couple hours. If, after my own abuse testing, I think reasonable care is all that's required to keep them from disintegrating under normal use, I'll make a full set. I don't think med will complain at the price of "Donate what you feel is fair to BAMA/KO4BB". 

mnem
Pay It Forward.

[med6753]

Can i ask you lot a tube question?



Coming out of pin 3 it says max 150, i'm wondering just what the hell means? I'm almost certain it isn't a voltage rating. Maybe i should just stick to SS rectification 

What is that from? That's a indirectly heated full wave rectifier that has a 6.3V filament and separate cathode. Very unusual. Most rectifier tubes are 5V filament with directly heated filament functioning as the cathode. And I don't recognize that basing. Does it say "B9A" ? Not in my RCA Receiving Tube Manual. Need more info. What is the tube type? 

Edit.....Looks like a 6X4 Rectifier. Max load on that tube is 90ma.

2nd edit, Nope...not a 6X4. The basing doesn't match.

6CA4, sorry i should have specified.

https://www.radiomuseum.org/tubes/tube_6ca4.html

That is the maximum load current, the tube is a "steroids" version of the EZ80. And the circle on the flament circuit is the filament current.

 Cheers,
 DC1MC

Yep, it's 6CA4 full wave rectifier. And that 150 is indeed max current. 150ma.

Edit, didn't see ArthurDent's post before I responded. He nailed it.   

[mnementh]

Just checked in on the print and "DAMN!!!" I need to leave larger allowances when making copies. Even with what I thought were large margins, the brim on copy 1 is literally one line away from that on copy 2 in several places. 

mnem
"A miss is as good as a mile."

[med6753]

Speaking of this POS Sony. It's back together and burning in. So far no issues but my Brother said sometimes it will go for hours before going into protect. We'll see.

And it is truly a POS. It has almost NO bass response. Perhaps that's deliberate because most folks connect a sub but still compared to my older stuff it sounds terrible.

Same unit as my shed stereo and have 5 speakers connected to 'er.
You have to go through the Modes to get the right sound that suits you.

Mine goes into Protect mostly in damp weather that has me thinking it needs a damn good cleaning huck out.

This one's been running several hours now with no complaints. My Brother said that sometimes it will go into protect even with no signal. Real odd. I think later I'll just let it idle for a few days with no signal and see what happens. 

[ArthurDent]

post #26976

"don't overlook used telco gps timing modules.

the down side with them is that they usually require 24 or 48 volt supplies, and they often have smb inputs/outputs."

I modified the ones I've sold to have an internal power supply and TNC for antenna and BNC for 10Mhz out so they were easy to use. There are quite a few variations of these and I actually got a fairly recent one that had a rubidium oscillator instead of the common OCXO. It's the only one of these I've seen but the same board was used with a OCXO version and I got one of those as well.

Here's a couple of photos of the Symmetricom sa22c rubidium and a Trimble OCXO version showing the connectors I added on the back.

[tautech]

Speaking of this POS Sony. It's back together and burning in. So far no issues but my Brother said sometimes it will go for hours before going into protect. We'll see.

And it is truly a POS. It has almost NO bass response. Perhaps that's deliberate because most folks connect a sub but still compared to my older stuff it sounds terrible.

Same unit as my shed stereo and have 5 speakers connected to 'er.
You have to go through the Modes to get the right sound that suits you.

Mine goes into Protect mostly in damp weather that has me thinking it needs a damn good cleaning huck out.

This one's been running several hours now with no complaints. My Brother said that sometimes it will go into protect even with no signal. Real odd. I think later I'll just let it idle for a few days with no signal and see what happens.

Don't remember mine ever doing that, this one just goes into Protect on power ON sometimes. Generally with cycling the power once or twice it comes on but as I mentioned only gives these issues when it's damp weather and as it's in a 4 car garage with zero insulation or any wall linings it's not really the climate a normally 'inside' appliance would like. I accept that and just live with it.
I was given this by a guy that used to do DJ work with it and I reckon its had a good beating  and burn in before I got it. 
Looked for a remote for it a while back but was too mean to fork out the $40 for it. Might get one sometime when I'm feeling flush.

[nixiefreqq]

I'm considering doing that actually. I've seen some Agilent/HP GPSDO units appear on auctions on and off here as well. Not sure if they're any good these days though.

Got itchy spendy fingers at the moment. Managed to shift some radio gear already. Looking at LCR meters. Any suggestions welcome. I'm sure I'm asking in the right place 

Looked at Peak LCR45 which is about right but the damn thing doesn't do ESR. You have to buy another box to do ESR.

have no personal experience with the hp Zbox.  but know of others who have them and are happy with them.

used to have and ancient gps frequency receiver (telecom solutions?) that was pretty good, but about every 30-40 minutes the 10 Mhz output would drift .025-.05 uSec (in about a minute) compared to my rubidium or my loranC frequency receiver.  it would then slowly drift back over about 10 minutes.  so its long term average was fine.  guess you could call that behavior jitter?  always assumed that it was somehow related to a handoff between satellites as they appeared/disappeared over the horizon.

the newer Nortel box does not have noticeable drift/jitter.  you get bored watching for it and give up after a couple of hours.  watching satellites come and go via lady heather can become addictive however.  sort of wish they had chosen a different icon for that software.  swmbo still does not believe its not my link to some kinky adult site.

http://www.ke5fx.com/heather/readme.htm

AND Obama killed the loranC transmitters with an executive order back in 2010, so I lost interest in attempting automated long term comparison, statistical analysis, and measurements.  that path leads to serious time nuttery……..and I am on the wagon.

 

[mnementh]

I'm considering doing that actually. I've seen some Agilent/HP GPSDO units appear on auctions on and off here as well. Not sure if they're any good these days though.

Got itchy spendy fingers at the moment. Managed to shift some radio gear already. Looking at LCR meters. Any suggestions welcome. I'm sure I'm asking in the right place 

Looked at Peak LCR45 which is about right but the damn thing doesn't do ESR. You have to buy another box to do ESR.

have no personal experience with the hp Zbox.  but know of others who have them and are happy with them.

used to have and ancient gps frequency receiver (telecom solutions?) that was pretty good, but about every 30-40 minutes the 10 Mhz output would drift .025-.05 uSec (in about a minute) compared to my rubidium or my loranC frequency receiver.  it would then slowly drift back over about 10 minutes.  so its long term average was fine.  guess you could call that behavior jitter?  always assumed that it was somehow related to a handoff between satellites as they appeared/disappeared over the horizon.

the newer Nortel box does not have noticeable drift/jitter.  you get bored watching for it and give up after a couple of hours.  watching satellites come and go via lady heather can become addictive however.  sort of wish they had chosen a different icon for that software.  swmbo still does not believe its not my link to some kinky adult site.

http://www.ke5fx.com/heather/readme.htm

AND Obama killed the loranC transmitters with an executive order back in 2010, so I lost interest in attempting automated long term comparison, statistical analysis, and measurements.  that path leads to serious time nuttery……..and I am on the wagon.

Changing the icon for an executable is actually pretty easy; though like with everything Winblows, what once was right out in the open is now obfuscated to death.   

Find yourself a graphic you like ( or one you hate, if you like ) of approximately the right size in .jpg, .tif, or .png format. Google "Icon converter" and you'll find oodles of websites that will happily convert it to .ico format, and even resize. Not sure anymore, but I think max used to be 64 x 64 pixels. You may find you need to edit to simplify the image in PAINT or some photo editor to get something that doesn't look like utter drecht once converted; this is the only real PITA part.

Save your newly-minted .ico file in a safe place like a dedicated folder on the root of your HDD or in DOWNLOADS.

Find the executable, open it's properties, then click on the "ICON" dialog. From there, browse to your ICONS folder and select your icon. If the executable's name changes names, you'll have to do this again; or sometimes if it updates itself.

Cheers!

mnem
*iconic*

[bd139]

I wrote program once that turned all the icons to turds when I was bored. That cost me a windows 2000 reinstall that one.

Basically frigged all the lnk and registry entries. 

[worsthorse]

I was sitting at my desk, quietly reading the 3478A service manual and trying to remember where I stashed the 11x17 paper because I need to print schematics, when the doorbell rang. Was it my imagination or did the mail guy look even crazier than usual as he handed me a slightly battered box wrapped in duct tape?

I opened it, well, gingerly and found this:



A Hot Water Eight, the beloved four band CW QRP transceiver of yore, complete with both the original kit manual (about forty pages) and the Hot Water Eight Modification Compendium (about four hundred).  This is a storied rig and has been pretty much continuously in use since it was built; I am the fourth owner.

My 3478A (and other rehab projects) are officially on hold until I write a thank you note to my dear friend and mentor, W7NET, and get this on the air.

[bd139]

HW8. Nice 

Quick one for TEA people. Trade-off:

1. Watching nice thing ending soon.
2. Seller is using Hermes / Herpes for delivery.

Trading off "want" as point 1 with "want in one piece" which point 2 may ruin.

I supposed if it's smashed I can get my cash back.

Edit: cancel that - was outbid already  (£370 for an E3631A?!?!?!)

[0culus]

Man, I found another HP Voyager calculator on ebay. HP 15c, with the sleeve and the manual. Do I, or don't I... 

[bd139]

The answer is either yes or do what I did and buy an HP 35s for less than the 15c and live with the idiosyncrasies

[0culus]

Already have one of those...and while I like it ok, it's just not the same as a classic HP calculator.

[tggzzz]

The answer is either yes or do what I did and buy an HP 35s for less than the 15c and live with the idiosyncrasies

Or go down the calculator hole, é.g.
British Thornton AA010
Sinclair Scientific
HP35
2*HP32S special edition
A couple of early Mac's
HP15 emulator on WINE
And a spreadsheet or proper language for everything else.

Summary: RPN or a full programming environment; half-RPN monstrosities and restricted programming environments are banned.

[0culus]

RPN for life!  I turned it on on the 35s and I have no idea how to turn it off, nor would I want to.