Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 14405975 times)

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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30300 on: April 28, 2019, 10:23:10 am »
@Ero-Shan, Yes yours is far easier than the Plus model as you will see in the photos, my stiff cables come all the way through to the front panel, attached to a clip on the panel and then terminated on a multipole push switch that switches between front and rear sockets, which in itself is difficult to handle as the switch cannot be removed from the front panel until the panel is disconnected from power board. The switch must be removed in order to split the display from the panel as it mounts through the display board to the panel.

Once done and the whole assembly laid out like you show it, is fairly easy to work on but I don't have cables on sockets  :palm:, being careful of the ribbon cable connecting display board to the panel.

The traces are extremely thin and the pads very small I agree but that said, I had no trouble in de-soldering the LEDs using my de-soldering station (worth its weight in gold I think) however as you said, the LEDs don't like to give up their spot on the diffuser without a real struggle. I was scared of either breaking the LCD, bending the connecting pins on the display board or damaging the ribbon cable as you really have pull hard with long nose pilers to wrestle those LEDs out. Getting new ones in was equally challenging so that they snapped back into location in the diffuser.

There are quite a few subtle changes between the boards as well because the Plus model also has a temperature scale and is switchable via the front panel between C/F units. I also noticed that yours was made in 1987, a year older than mine.

Did you use standard white LEDs or ultra bright ones? I notice on the schematic that the LEDs are fed via a resistor for each end R404 and R405 which are 270ohms and tweaking these slightly may result in a brighter LED or even replacing the LEDs with these ones https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100Pcs-5mm-White-Ultra-Bright-LED-Light-Lamp-Bulb-Emitting-Diodes-15000MCD-UK/264279659845?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

These meters can also be self calibrated via the front buttons if you have the references required.

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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30301 on: April 28, 2019, 10:25:35 am »
Got tek 2235A  :-DD  :palm: edit: good condition. May explode knowing my luck. Will thoroughly inspect it and test it first.

Edit: also got an HP attenuators switch box. Don’t need it but it has a full complement of feet and was only £2  :-+
Trip to Andover seems like it was worth while then, lets wait till you get back home with it and see what horrors if any you got with this one, fingers crossed for you.
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30302 on: April 28, 2019, 10:36:07 am »
Yeah was pretty good. There was some ancient tek stuff there but it was external plugin tube stuff which I have no use for. Am home now. Going to check the 2235A over throughly. It’s in really nice condition. Not sure it won’t explode yet.  Sold as working but you never know with hamfests. Paid 75 for it which is on the high end for unknown but I have a spare 2235 here for parts.
« Last Edit: April 28, 2019, 10:38:20 am by bd139 »
 

Offline Ero-Shan

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30303 on: April 28, 2019, 11:27:39 am »
@Ero-Shan, Yes yours is far easier than the Plus model as you will see in the photos, my stiff cables come all the way through to the front panel, attached to a clip on the panel and then terminated on a multipole push switch that switches between front and rear sockets, which in itself is difficult to handle as the switch cannot be removed from the front panel until the panel is disconnected from power board. The switch must be removed in order to split the display from the panel as it mounts through the display board to the panel.

Once done and the whole assembly laid out like you show it, is fairly easy to work on but I don't have cables on sockets  :palm:, being careful of the ribbon cable connecting display board to the panel.

The traces are extremely thin and the pads very small I agree but that said, I had no trouble in de-soldering the LEDs using my de-soldering station (worth its weight in gold I think) however as you said, the LEDs don't like to give up their spot on the diffuser without a real struggle. I was scared of either breaking the LCD, bending the connecting pins on the display board or damaging the ribbon cable as you really have pull hard with long nose pilers to wrestle those LEDs out. Getting new ones in was equally challenging so that they snapped back into location in the diffuser.

There are quite a few subtle changes between the boards as well because the Plus model also has a temperature scale and is switchable via the front panel between C/F units. I also noticed that yours was made in 1987, a year older than mine.

Did you use standard white LEDs or ultra bright ones? I notice on the schematic that the LEDs are fed via a resistor for each end R404 and R405 which are 270ohms and tweaking these slightly may result in a brighter LED or even replacing the LEDs with these ones https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100Pcs-5mm-White-Ultra-Bright-LED-Light-Lamp-Bulb-Emitting-Diodes-15000MCD-UK/264279659845?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

These meters can also be self calibrated via the front buttons if you have the references required.



Seems I got lucky.  ;) With that front/rear switch you have twice the cables running to the analog board. I see now how it complicates things.

To be honest, I don't know what my LEDs are, exactly. I just pulled them out of my 'White LED' drawer. Before I really start with the next 7150, I'll have to order some.

I did check the other 4 (VDC, Resistance). 2 seem OK, but one of them shows resistances by a factor of 10 low when under ≈100 kΩ.
The next one worked fine for Resistance, but when switched to DCV and a voltage was applied, the device made a reset. As soon as it was booted up, it reset again. And so on. With manually choosing the range, it didn't reset, but measured always 0 volts.
The last of the lot did not work at all: display was off. When I wanted to put it away, I heard a rattling sound inside. So I opened it up and found this loose inside:



I just tried again and now it works like the other 2. Since I already had it open, I did a quick check on the caps. What can I say? The exactly same caps (C302, C305 and C306) dead as in the other. Those are the small ones in the lower right of your second picture. Are they really OK on yours?

According to the stickers, all 5 are out of spec for AC. Without a stable AC reference, I will not have much luck getting them back in spec.

A 'good-enough-for-me' calibration on DC should be doable.

But that'll have to wait until I have new LEDs. Without them, you need a torch/flashlight to read the display.

The reset-lusty one might end up as a parts mule, but there's still hope.
 

Online med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30304 on: April 28, 2019, 11:30:36 am »
Heading out to first local hamfest of the year in a few minutes.  :-+
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Offline Ero-Shan

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30305 on: April 28, 2019, 12:01:09 pm »
With the 7150s done for now, and still in a Solartron-y mood, I remembered the A200 and put it on my desk.



When I looked at it one and a half years ago, it didn't work. It showed something like 0.4000 and "WAIT". It wouldn't measure anything. As there was not even the slightest trace of a manual to be found, I reluctantly had set it aside as probably FUBAR. (Back then that was my only Nixie meter.)

Once again searching for a manual, I found a thread on the EEVblog about the A211. In that case, cleaning the contacts of all the plug-in boards did help. Now that I could try, too!

For a DC-Volts only meter this is an amazingly complex design.

A-to-D cage, still dusty:


Without the cover. There's room for additional AC voltage and resistance measuring boards:


Digital section and PSU:


First I looked at all the electrolytics capacitors, as is now my wont. Most were not just fine, but very close to the marked capacity. But not those from a certain manufacturer. All of them were completely gone (500 pF instead of 220 µF).

If you ever see these caps, immediately replace them!


After that, the DVM came to life, but was ticklish when touching the boards - those contacts actually needed the cleaning. After that and some hoovering, the machine already written off worked rather nicely.

With my 10.00000 V reference:


It still needs some cleaning, but I'm quite happy with the result.

All in all, that has been a good TEA repair weekend for me.  :-DMM
 
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30306 on: April 28, 2019, 12:01:27 pm »
@med: Good luck  :-+

Tek 2235A here checks out fine. No damage, no repairs, no mods. All caps good. There’s a Schaffner filter in it which I will replace. This has a huge number of the design problems with the 2235 non A fixed in it. Powering up in a minute  :-+
 

Offline beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30307 on: April 28, 2019, 12:07:50 pm »
With the 7150s done for now, and still in a Solartron-y mood, I remembered the A200 and put it on my desk.

When I looked at it one and a half years ago, it didn't work. It showed something like 0.4000 and "WAIT". It wouldn't measure anything. As there was not even the slightest trace of a manual to be found, I reluctantly had set it aside as probably FUBAR. (Back then that was my only Nixie meter.)

Once again searching for a manual, I found a thread on the EEVblog about the A211. In that case, cleaning the contacts of all the plug-in boards did help. Now that I could try, too!

For a DC-Volts only meter this is an amazingly complex design.

A-to-D cage, still dusty:


Without the cover. There's room for additional AC voltage and resistance measuring boards:


Digital section and PSU:

First I looked at all the electrolytics capacitors, as is now my wont. Most were not just fine, but very close to the marked capacity. But not those from a certain manufacturer. All of them were completely gone (500 pF instead of 220 µF).

If you ever see these caps, immediately replace them!


After that, the DVM came to life, but was ticklish when touching the boards - those contacts actually needed the cleaning. After that and some hoovering, the machine already written off worked rather nicely.

With my 10.00000 V reference:

It still needs some cleaning, but I'm quite happy with the result.

All in all, that has been a good TEA repair weekend for me.  :-DMM

This A210 has been hanging around in Oz for over a year now  :horse: the knob selling has actually raised the price from what it was not selling at some time ago  :palm: eBay auction: #122271040245

Because Nixie old and a little crusty and no guarantee of working properly makes it worth heaps ........
Coffee, Food, R/C and electronics nerd in no particular order. Also CNC wannabe, 3D printer and Laser Cutter Junkie and just don't mention my TEA addiction....
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30308 on: April 28, 2019, 12:37:15 pm »
@med: Good luck  :-+

Tek 2235A here checks out fine. No damage, no repairs, no mods. All caps good. There’s a Schaffner filter in it which I will replace. This has a huge number of the design problems with the 2235 non A fixed in it. Powering up in a minute  :-+

Powers up fine. Appears to work perfectly well. Going to leave it now for a bit as I need to go and do some shopping before everything shuts.

Going to replace the mains filter an Y caps at the very least!
 

Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30309 on: April 28, 2019, 12:53:55 pm »
@Ero-Shan Good work there with your 7150's and A200 and to think that all of that TEA goodness was just dumpster fodder makes me sick that anyone could do that, even if it was cutting in the work place it would be someone else's pride and joy. If it was deemed to be dangerous OK, but otherwise it could have been advertised as free to a good home etc.

TBH I never checked the caps on mine beyond a through visual inspection and replacing the Schaeffer filters as they were showing signs of distress with the casing bulging on one side. I could see nothing that would me to suspect anything else was wrong with the caps or other parts TBH, no signs of leakage, deforming, over heating etc anywhere so I took the plunge and powered on. Sure enough my suspicions about the Schaefer filters proved to right when after an hours use one let go. Ordered new filters and LEDs for both and when they arrived fitted and switched on, no problems.

Yes they are slow and are very basic when compared against your 34401A, but hey look at the massive price difference and if the Military use them then that's good enough for me and it's a 6.5 digit meter, and it's not a huge boat anchor, what's not to like  :-+ :-DMM
« Last Edit: April 28, 2019, 12:59:26 pm by Specmaster »
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30310 on: April 28, 2019, 12:57:36 pm »
@med: Good luck  :-+

Tek 2235A here checks out fine. No damage, no repairs, no mods. All caps good. There’s a Schaffner filter in it which I will replace. This has a huge number of the design problems with the 2235 non A fixed in it. Powering up in a minute  :-+

Powers up fine. Appears to work perfectly well. Going to leave it now for a bit as I need to go and do some shopping before everything shuts.

Going to replace the mains filter an Y caps at the very least!
Ssssshhhh maybe you have found yourself a keeper at last eh  :-+
Who let Murphy in?

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Offline tggzzz

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30311 on: April 28, 2019, 12:58:30 pm »
Got tek 2235A  :-DD  :palm: edit: good condition. May explode knowing my luck. Will thoroughly inspect it and test it first.

I know someone that is disappointed if his "hunter-gatherer finds" work, because that means he misses out on repairing them :)

Quote
Edit: also got an HP attenuators switch box. Don’t need it but it has a full complement of feet and was only £2  :-+

Drat. I'd have nabbed that since I have a remote HP attenuator that needs such things. But then it also needs a cable with those connectors and I'd prefer to flog the attenuator - so (perhaps) I'm glad I didn't see it :)

In other news, I picked up my 5th Tek portable TDR for more than I wanted to pay; I seem have a fetish for them. This was my first 1502B, my previous ones being plain old 1502s. I knew this would be a gamble, because they have notoriously grotty LCDs. So I plugged it and yes, the display showed all the faults seen elsewhere. Bugger.

I came back to it a couple of days later, ripped it apart, twiddled the internal contrast pot, and saw a trace. Good trace, still bloody awful LCD: couldn't reliable see the cursor. Followed the service manual's LCD setup procedure, without much luck.

Came back lated and tweaked it in a different way, and bingo - winner winner chicken dinner. But that brings the next problems: do I want to replace the 9mm thick flat lithium thionyl chloride battery that stores the front-panel's config, and can I force myself to sell it?

There are quite a few on fleabay, mostly broken, one claimed working for $1000 but without a picture showing it working - but the same vendor sold another for $200 so perhaps it is working. So, why would it be worth $1000? I hear they are specified for some aerospace tests, and aerospace is notoriously conservative when it comes to test procedures. There is also a company making new replacements for 1502Bs.

Anyway, a pic is in order. The UUT is a 50ohm load on the end of a 3ft cable, with a BNC barrel connector between them. It shows the cable as 50.4ohms, the load as 50.0ohms, and the connector as 52ohms and 28mm long.

« Last Edit: April 28, 2019, 01:04:59 pm by tggzzz »
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Offline tggzzz

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30312 on: April 28, 2019, 01:02:17 pm »
With the 7150s done for now, and still in a Solartron-y mood, I remembered the A200 and put it on my desk.
...
It still needs some cleaning, but I'm quite happy with the result.

And you didn't have to buy a £50 connector for that lead. Yup, that connector/lead is probably worth more than the DVM! (And you could reclaim the nixies :) )
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".
Having fun doing more, with less
 

Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30313 on: April 28, 2019, 01:29:02 pm »

And you didn't have to buy a £50 connector for that lead. Yup, that connector/lead is probably worth more than the DVM! (And you could reclaim the nixies :) )

Nah...the 7150 isn't a one trick pony or a boat anchor  :-DD :-DD
Who let Murphy in?

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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30314 on: April 28, 2019, 01:40:42 pm »
Got tek 2235A  :-DD  :palm: edit: good condition. May explode knowing my luck. Will thoroughly inspect it and test it first.

I know someone that is disappointed if his "hunter-gatherer finds" work, because that means he misses out on repairing them :)

Yes indeed. This one does need some work of course. It needs the Schaffner filter and 3 RIFAs evicting and a few new caps on the secondary side. Plus a new oscillator cap as it's whining in the audible range at the moment and this is annoying as hell. This will replace the 2225 sitting on my shelf at the moment if it doesn't explode violently or try and murder me.

Now the shopping is done, I am doing the parts spreadsheet. Turns out I actually have most of the parts in already, probably from the 2235, which is good. So on top of the initial cost, about £11 for preventative maintenance. Not too bad.

Quote
Edit: also got an HP attenuators switch box. Don’t need it but it has a full complement of feet and was only £2  :-+

Drat. I'd have nabbed that since I have a remote HP attenuator that needs such things. But then it also needs a cable with those connectors and I'd prefer to flog the attenuator - so (perhaps) I'm glad I didn't see it :)

You didn't want this one. It has seen better days. I bought it for the chassis, feet and binding posts on the rear (to fix a couple of cracked ones on the 6236B). The rest is in a bad way. Some corrosion and exploded RIFA guts all inside it. I'll post pictures later. I wanted the chassis to build my SSB transceiver into if I'm honest. When asking "how much is this?" and being told £2 I was on it like a seagull on chips.

In other news, I picked up my 5th Tek portable TDR for more than I wanted to pay; I seem have a fetish for them.

Good outcome. I rather like those but I haven't had an excuse for one yet. I think when I get my house sorted and some antenna space sorted and associated feed lines out that will be a good excuse to start hoarding TDRs as well :D
 

Offline tggzzz

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30315 on: April 28, 2019, 02:02:55 pm »
In other news, I picked up my 5th Tek portable TDR for more than I wanted to pay; I seem have a fetish for them.

Good outcome. I rather like those but I haven't had an excuse for one yet. I think when I get my house sorted and some antenna space sorted and associated feed lines out that will be a good excuse to start hoarding TDRs as well :D

If you get a good short range one, you'll use them for more than that, e.g. what's that "50ohm" cable's real impedance, is that load good, what's that connector going to do to my VSWR, what's that PCB track's impedance, how do those protection diodes/etc affect the signal.

Plus, portable TDRs can get you brownie points diagnosing relatives' TV aerial woes (even if it isn't needed, they look impressive).
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
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Offline Ero-Shan

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30316 on: April 28, 2019, 02:03:51 pm »
This A210 has been hanging around in Oz for over a year now  :horse: the knob selling has actually raised the price from what it was not selling at some time ago  :palm: eBay auction: #122271040245

Because Nixie old and a little crusty and no guarantee of working properly makes it worth heaps ........

It does look kinda impressive, with 5.5 digits of large Nixies, doesn't it? But that's all there is. Nobody in his right mind would use this boat anchor for measuring DCV nowadays. Nostalgia, keeping (once) fine instruments alive is the only motivation I can see. I'd give 50 € for it.

@spec:
Those 7150s are certainly fine, I'd be happy with them also. One more nagging point is with their power switch at the back. This was OK with my first computers, as there was a little room on both sides, and the switch, close to the edge, could easily be found. But if you have your 7150s in a stack of meters, that can get very inconveniant.
And no, I don't leave everything running - my electricity bill is way too high already.  :P
 

Offline Ero-Shan

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30317 on: April 28, 2019, 02:14:03 pm »
With the 7150s done for now, and still in a Solartron-y mood, I remembered the A200 and put it on my desk.
...
It still needs some cleaning, but I'm quite happy with the result.

And you didn't have to buy a £50 connector for that lead. Yup, that connector/lead is probably worth more than the DVM! (And you could reclaim the nixies :) )

Alas, I have only one cable/connector. It comes from my Solartron 7061. Coming to think of it ... we had several 7061s at the company. One is at a colleague's, the others disappeared without a trace. And this is the only cable I ever saw.
That connector is really hard to get and painfully expensive.

(Of course, if it were beyond repair, I would loot it not just for the Nixies. :))
 

Offline tggzzz

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30318 on: April 28, 2019, 02:57:10 pm »
@med: Good luck  :-+

Tek 2235A here checks out fine. No damage, no repairs, no mods. All caps good. There’s a Schaffner filter in it which I will replace. This has a huge number of the design problems with the 2235 non A fixed in it. Powering up in a minute  :-+

So you'll be ready in time for the Ramco Tek 2430s on 7th May :)

I think I'm bored with scopes, unless they offer me something I can't already do, or are excessively cheap, or are 485s :)
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
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Online med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30319 on: April 28, 2019, 03:21:18 pm »
Heading out to first local hamfest of the year in a few minutes.  :-+

I came, I saw, I was unimpressed. Not much in the way of test equipment. Mostly radio related equipment, of course. But I did notice one curious thing. Being a Ham is dying activity. I thought I was old. These guys are OLD.  :scared: Many in wheelchairs, canes, and crutches. And the ones not disabled are dressed like hobos and look like in need of a good bath. If this particular radio club doesn't get some new members within a short time it's all gonna be SK. But at least they are a friendly bunch.

So did I buy anything? Yep, my FIRST HP. 6215A 0-30V/500ma power supply. Little pip squeak. Paid a budget busting $15 USD for it. Seems to work fine. Nice addition to the bench.   :-+

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Offline Neomys Sapiens

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30320 on: April 28, 2019, 03:38:20 pm »
With the 7150s done for now, and still in a Solartron-y mood, I remembered the A200 and put it on my desk.
..
..
..
All in all, that has been a good TEA repair weekend for me.  :-DMM
So you have earned the title 'Serial Resurrector' now.
 

Offline Neomys Sapiens

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30321 on: April 28, 2019, 03:47:24 pm »

You didn't want this one. It has seen better days. I bought it for the chassis, feet and binding posts on the rear (to fix a couple of cracked ones on the 6236B). The rest is in a bad way. Some corrosion and exploded RIFA guts all inside it. I'll post pictures later. I wanted the chassis to build my SSB transceiver into if I'm honest. When asking "how much is this?" and being told £2 I was on it like a seagull on chips.

When in HAM circles totally incredulous messages appear, like 'I just saw a guy with a SSB transceiver made by Hewlett-Packard, did you know that they made this?' we will know what happened!
 :popcorn:
 

Offline worsthorse

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30322 on: April 28, 2019, 04:03:42 pm »
Heading out to first local hamfest of the year in a few minutes.  :-+

I came, I saw, I was unimpressed. Not much in the way of test equipment. Mostly radio related equipment, of course. But I did notice one curious thing. Being a Ham is dying activity. I thought I was old. These guys are OLD.  :scared: Many in wheelchairs, canes, and crutches. And the ones not disabled are dressed like hobos and look like in need of a good bath. If this particular radio club doesn't get some new members within a short time it's all gonna be SK. But at least they are a friendly bunch.

So did I buy anything? Yep, my FIRST HP. 6215A 0-30V/500ma power supply. Little pip squeak. Paid a budget busting $15 USD for it. Seems to work fine. Nice addition to the bench.   :-+

Nice find on the PSU. It is much the same here. At sixty, I appear to be at least two standard deviations left of the hamfest attendee mean age.  It is, generally, a friendly group and I've met some very experienced builders there, which I enjoy. There are usually a few good equipment bargains (I got a working 6061A sig gen for $100) because there are still a few retired Tek guys getting tables but even that's changed over the last two years. My local radio club is run by the same crew that's been in charge for the last three decades. It took me a year to convince them that holding the monthly meeting at 8PM on Friday night might be an impediment to attracting younger members.  :-DD
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Online med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30323 on: April 28, 2019, 04:04:17 pm »
Here's a peak inside the 6215A. As soon as I opened it up the smell of vintage electronics.  :-+

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #30324 on: April 28, 2019, 04:13:11 pm »
This A210 has been hanging around in Oz for over a year now  :horse: the knob selling has actually raised the price from what it was not selling at some time ago  :palm: eBay auction: #122271040245

Because Nixie old and a little crusty and no guarantee of working properly makes it worth heaps ........

It does look kinda impressive, with 5.5 digits of large Nixies, doesn't it? But that's all there is. Nobody in his right mind would use this boat anchor for measuring DCV nowadays. Nostalgia, keeping (once) fine instruments alive is the only motivation I can see. I'd give 50 € for it.

@spec:
Those 7150s are certainly fine, I'd be happy with them also. One more nagging point is with their power switch at the back. This was OK with my first computers, as there was a little room on both sides, and the switch, close to the edge, could easily be found. But if you have your 7150s in a stack of meters, that can get very inconveniant.
And no, I don't leave everything running - my electricity bill is way too high already.  :P
Yep, you're not wrong about that power switch, they could've put it on the front if they thought a bit more about it I'm sure. I got around that problem with them being in a stack by placing them both at the top of a stack each so if I want to use them as opposed to say the 8840, 8842, 3478, 3468 or the 3466 with front switches, I can reach their rear switches with ease over the top of the meter.

I also have the entire power supply to the rack as a whole controlled by a single switch so I can be certain that nothing is left on, like you electric bill is already big enough, but the 7150s only draw 16W according to my watt meter so its not to bad anyway, but I like to keep my hours run low to extend the life of the gear.
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