Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Corona is also a Mexican beer which comes with a slice of lime to kill the taste of piss. 

[kj7e]

Well it turns out there's a metric fuck ton of pulse noise and the noise floor is up at S7 suddenly over HF near me. I can't hear a damn thing. The K2's noise blanker reduces it a bit but it's nowhere near good enough to take on whatever is doing this. I am soooo pissed. 

I've hunted down noise sources a dozen or so times over the years.  When its a bad mercury vapor street lamp, nothing get them fixed faster than if they go out completely, how that happens is up to you.  Arcing high voltage overhead power line insulators are a bit harder, sometimes you have to trace them down for quite a ways.   Then there is the leaky cable tv feeds.  Arc welders in the neighbors garage, 1970's v8 hotrod with solid core plug wires... it goes on and on.

[koppel]

Well I felt after having a cursory look at EEVblog Forum Index and then more a look at the key posts in the TestGear Forum, and seeing this thread that I should at least contribute one or 2 posts to it.

10 years ago I got VERY ILL after contracting a severe case of eBAYitis, that resulted in my buying amongst other things 5 Tektronix's 7000 scopes + plugins from the USA along with other gear, that required me to visit Tucson, Az to buy and pack the lot into a crate to sea freight to Australia. But that's another story. Post that quick loss of sanity, I have NOT done similar.

However recently I was looking locally on Gumtree and came across an ad for an old Counter with 3 timber boxes of supposed associated bits. I made an offer of Aus$60 and got the lot. Some of what was in the boxes I won't likely use, however, the boxes are great for transit storage of smaller instruments. The 1968 Takeda Riken Counter was the icing on the buy, and I have started a forum thread on it. I will do separate threads on the items of each box in due course.

[mnementh]

Just HAD TO go for another pass at the CPU... I blame my errant balls.   

Reworking the CPU the first time seemed to make it boot; but it still kept flaking out after playing video for a minute or two, so I suspected RAM. Rework appeared successful there; chips sank visibly without losing alignment. Not so lucky with the CPU... I usually put a couple 12mm ball bearings in the socket to add a little more weight, but I couldn't find them. Evidently the difference was JUST enough for surface tension to win out. 
 
I am REALLY annoyed with myself for not at least trying it between the attempts.

Anybody here stateside with the gear to reball a CORTEX A53? PM me and I'll drop it in the post; it's a ROKU Ultra JUST old enough to be OOW.
Never mind; I just discovered I killed a pad getting the CPU loose. I was going to make it a gift for someone to tinker-ify... now it's just scrap. 

mnem

[med6753]

Oops!  Sorry, can't help. 

[mnementh]

Well, no... I wasn't looking for someone to do the job right for me; if I'd cared about that, I wouldn't have gone the "jackleg" route in the first place.  I was figuring there might be someone who'd like to have the unit for free to practice on and maybe resurrect, but it looks like I nuked pad S13 getting the CPU loose.

Never mind. 

mnem
 

[worsthorse]

Last week, @mnen posted photos of one of the two lovely old AMSCO surgical light controllers he owned, mentioning that he was going to offer one up.  Turns out I had, in a moment of thinking I'd never need one again, sold my variac at a hamfest, which I have since regretted.  And so, a few days ago, a box from the dragon's lair arrived...



If only the other TE that frequently lands on my front porch was packed with as much care.



Notice that cutout to protect the shaft of the variac?  Nicely done.



And my friend, aware that I need to be protected from myself, carefully labeled the bits...



Finally, look at that lovely General Radio variac. They don't make them like that any more:



Current status: disassembled, front panel and meter cleaned, case cleared of rust and primed. Tomorrow, first coat of new paint for the case, and off to the hardware store to replace a few screws and other bits. Hoping to have it assembled and tested by Sunday afternoon.

Talk about an upgrade from my mundane old variac!  Thanks again mnem. 

[mnementh]

You are indeed welcome, my friend. I'm glad to see it find a home where it will be properly appreciated. 

mnem
Now if I could only manage that with my hardwood-slat lawn chairs, or my project motorcycle, or (insert any of dozens of other similar millstones around my neck)...

[mnementh]

mnem
*going to go lie down before I fall down*

[tautech]

mnem
*going to go lie down before I fall down*

Big day mnem ?

Whadda ya get sorted today mate ?

[Specmaster]

@med I remember when Corona also meant a fizzy drink and they used deliver it round the estates like a milkman. 

Oh my word - the Corona van - with recyclable bottles. Also the rag and bone man on my estate with the horse. Balloons anyone?

I'm guessing you also got a Queens Silver Jubilee coin from a 1977 street party. I have no idea where my precious got lost in the intervening years but they sell them on ebay.

No jubilee coin, but I also remember horse drawn milk floats and coalman, even bakers. Then they slowly withdrew the horse and cart coalman, replacing them lorries and mechanised bag fillers with scales. Oh and those refundable bottles (we were greener back then then we are now) as kids we would pop round the back of the off license, knick a few of these empty bottles then take them  round the front and get the refunds on then and buy sweets with the money [emoji16]

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[bitseeker]

If I had hi-fi like that SWMBO would be mega pissed and I'd be sleeping with the neighbours dog 

Yeah, I was fortunate.  I was laid off my last job after 17 years, but went to work for a company that bought part of my old company the next week so had almost 6 months of full pay severance on top of my normal pay.  Bought me a new HiFi (and a new car for SWMBO).

Despite having been written as a parenthetical, surely that was a mission-critical component of the plan.

[bitseeker]

Well I felt after having a cursory look at EEVblog Forum Index and then more a look at the key posts in the TestGear Forum, and seeing this thread that I should at least contribute one or 2 posts to it.

10 years ago I got VERY ILL after contracting a severe case of eBAYitis, that resulted in my buying amongst other things 5 Tektronix's 7000 scopes + plugins from the USA along with other gear, that required me to visit Tucson, Az to buy and pack the lot into a crate to sea freight to Australia. But that's another story. Post that quick loss of sanity, I have NOT done similar.

However recently I was looking locally on Gumtree and came across an ad for an old Counter with 3 timber boxes of supposed associated bits. I made an offer of Aus$60 and got the lot. Some of what was in the boxes I won't likely use, however, the boxes are great for transit storage of smaller instruments. The 1968 Takeda Riken Counter was the icing on the buy, and I have started a forum thread on it. I will do separate threads on the items of each box in due course.

Welcome, koppel! That sounded like quite the TEAdventure. Definitely not something to be doing often.

Looking forward to learning about the various bits you scored.

[bitseeker]

Last week, @mnen posted photos of one of the two lovely old AMSCO surgical light controllers he owned, mentioning that he was going to offer one up.  Turns out I had, in a moment of thinking I'd never need one again, sold my variac at a hamfest, which I have since regretted.  And so, a few days ago, a box from the dragon's lair arrived...

If only the other TE that frequently lands on my front porch was packed with as much care.

Yep, I can also vouch for the dwagon's packing skillz.

[bd139]

Well it turns out there's a metric fuck ton of pulse noise and the noise floor is up at S7 suddenly over HF near me. I can't hear a damn thing. The K2's noise blanker reduces it a bit but it's nowhere near good enough to take on whatever is doing this. I am soooo pissed. 

I've hunted down noise sources a dozen or so times over the years.  When its a bad mercury vapor street lamp, nothing get them fixed faster than if they go out completely, how that happens is up to you.  Arcing high voltage overhead power line insulators are a bit harder, sometimes you have to trace them down for quite a ways.   Then there is the leaky cable tv feeds.  Arc welders in the neighbors garage, 1970's v8 hotrod with solid core plug wires... it goes on and on.

Yeah it’s not a street lamp. Ours are all LED now and the things are actually really quiet RF wise.

It’s still a wall of noise this morning. It goes up to 2m as well so I may be able to do some direction finding with a small yagi.

[bitseeker]

And now for something completely different...a little TEAutomation logging voltage references.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/usa-cal-club-round-2/msg2498784/#msg2498784

[bd139]

Well it turns out there's a metric fuck ton of pulse noise and the noise floor is up at S7 suddenly over HF near me. I can't hear a damn thing. The K2's noise blanker reduces it a bit but it's nowhere near good enough to take on whatever is doing this. I am soooo pissed. 

I've hunted down noise sources a dozen or so times over the years.  When its a bad mercury vapor street lamp, nothing get them fixed faster than if they go out completely, how that happens is up to you.  Arcing high voltage overhead power line insulators are a bit harder, sometimes you have to trace them down for quite a ways.   Then there is the leaky cable tv feeds.  Arc welders in the neighbors garage, 1970's v8 hotrod with solid core plug wires... it goes on and on.

Yeah it’s not a street lamp. Ours are all LED now and the things are actually really quiet RF wise.

It’s still a wall of noise this morning. It goes up to 2m as well so I may be able to do some direction finding with a small yagi.

Found the bastard. This turd was lurking after someone bought it to replace the one that died for her laptop    .

[Specmaster]

Well it turns out there's a metric fuck ton of pulse noise and the noise floor is up at S7 suddenly over HF near me. I can't hear a damn thing. The K2's noise blanker reduces it a bit but it's nowhere near good enough to take on whatever is doing this. I am soooo pissed. 

I've hunted down noise sources a dozen or so times over the years.  When its a bad mercury vapor street lamp, nothing get them fixed faster than if they go out completely, how that happens is up to you.  Arcing high voltage overhead power line insulators are a bit harder, sometimes you have to trace them down for quite a ways.   Then there is the leaky cable tv feeds.  Arc welders in the neighbors garage, 1970's v8 hotrod with solid core plug wires... it goes on and on.

Yeah it’s not a street lamp. Ours are all LED now and the things are actually really quiet RF wise.

It’s still a wall of noise this morning. It goes up to 2m as well so I may be able to do some direction finding with a small yagi.

Found the bastard. This turd was lurking after someone bought it to replace the one that died for her laptop    .

Yep, that'll do it OK, just discovered a plug in volt meter and USB adaptor for car also chucks out fecking noise and wipes out all but the strongest DAB and FM stations on the car radio, piece of shit 

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[med6753]

Here's where I'm at with the 7904. That thick red cable is the HV lead going to the bell of the CRT and carries full 21KV. If I disconnect it at that elbow the power supply comes up. So something is up with that cable. I checked for a high resistance short to ground and there is none. I disconnected the base of the CRT and reconnected the HV lead to make sure there was no path internal to the CRT and it still won't come up. So there's apparently a carbon track somewhere at the bell of the CRT and I'm going to have to pull the CRT to check it. Luckily per the manual pulling it isn't all that difficult. Wish me luck. 

[med6753]

Well it turns out there's a metric fuck ton of pulse noise and the noise floor is up at S7 suddenly over HF near me. I can't hear a damn thing. The K2's noise blanker reduces it a bit but it's nowhere near good enough to take on whatever is doing this. I am soooo pissed. 

I've hunted down noise sources a dozen or so times over the years.  When its a bad mercury vapor street lamp, nothing get them fixed faster than if they go out completely, how that happens is up to you.  Arcing high voltage overhead power line insulators are a bit harder, sometimes you have to trace them down for quite a ways.   Then there is the leaky cable tv feeds.  Arc welders in the neighbors garage, 1970's v8 hotrod with solid core plug wires... it goes on and on.

Yeah it’s not a street lamp. Ours are all LED now and the things are actually really quiet RF wise.

It’s still a wall of noise this morning. It goes up to 2m as well so I may be able to do some direction finding with a small yagi.

Found the bastard. This turd was lurking after someone bought it to replace the one that died for her laptop    .

Yep, I've had a cheap laptop supply do the same thing. 

[tggzzz]

Here's where I'm at with the 7904. That thick red cable is the HV lead going to the bell of the CRT and carries full 21KV. If I disconnect it at that elbow the power supply comes up. So something is up with that cable. I checked for a high resistance short to ground and there is none. I disconnected the base of the CRT and reconnected the HV lead to make sure there was no path internal to the CRT and it still won't come up. So there's apparently a carbon track somewhere at the bell of the CRT and I'm going to have to pull the CRT to check it. Luckily per the manual pulling it isn't all that difficult. Wish me luck. 

You may well be right, but have you cleaned the cable? That would be quick and simple, and might just help.

[tautech]

Here's where I'm at with the 7904. That thick red cable is the HV lead going to the bell of the CRT and carries full 21KV. If I disconnect it at that elbow the power supply comes up. So something is up with that cable. I checked for a high resistance short to ground and there is none. I disconnected the base of the CRT and reconnected the HV lead to make sure there was no path internal to the CRT and it still won't come up. So there's apparently a carbon track somewhere at the bell of the CRT and I'm going to have to pull the CRT to check it. Luckily per the manual pulling it isn't all that difficult. Wish me luck. 

Yeah, 21KV is hard to contain unless everything is spotless.
I had trouble with just 12KV in my D83 Telequipment intermittently arcing under the PDA grommet on the CRT. Got slowly worser and worser. 
Had to clean up the localized carbonizing and shave the grommet to clean material and re-bed on clean silicone sealant. Dielectric grease didn't work ! 
Gave zero further trouble while I had it. 

[mnementh]

mnem
*going to go lie down before I fall down*

Big day mnem ?   Whadda ya get sorted today mate ?

Been a rough week.... dad's flying in today, and I've been trying to finish the bulk of my back office (where most of my RC hobbyist tools and supplies/kits and my 3Dprinter are) before he gets here. Problem is, just when I have a week's worth of work to try and finish in 4 days, with the entire living room looking like a tornado ripped through a plastic bin factory for weeks, that's when Murphy decides to just pile it on. Of course. 

The last three day have been a perfect storm of kids' wants and needs, appointments, shopping that couldn't wait and friends in need of ferrying about town that I've gotten pretty much jack-shit done since Monday evening. So I stayed up til half-pack "oh fuck me..." in the morning to get a little bit knocked out before I HAVE TO cut my losses and just put lids on what I have done for the next week. 

And the best part is that I don't even get to freak out about all of the Murphy Pilōn, because right in the middle of all that they told my wife they needed to pull 3 teeth al at once; so she's been pretty much a medicated walking-wounded zombie, and I have to be extra-TeddyDwagon caretaker for her sake for the last 3 days... 

mnem
Yes, you read that right; I've been GOOD for 3 whole days. I'm about 2 minutes to midnight here... 

[mnementh]

Well it turns out there's a metric fuck ton of pulse noise and the noise floor is up at S7 suddenly over HF near me. I can't hear a damn thing. The K2's noise blanker reduces it a bit but it's nowhere near good enough to take on whatever is doing this. I am soooo pissed. 

I've hunted down noise sources a dozen or so times over the years.  When its a bad mercury vapor street lamp, nothing get them fixed faster than if they go out completely, how that happens is up to you.  Arcing high voltage overhead power line insulators are a bit harder, sometimes you have to trace them down for quite a ways.   Then there is the leaky cable tv feeds.  Arc welders in the neighbors garage, 1970's v8 hotrod with solid core plug wires... it goes on and on.

Yeah it’s not a street lamp. Ours are all LED now and the things are actually really quiet RF wise.

It’s still a wall of noise this morning. It goes up to 2m as well so I may be able to do some direction finding with a small yagi.

   Found the bastard. This turd was lurking after someone bought it to replace the one that died for her laptop    .

Yep, that'll do it OK, just discovered a plug in volt meter and USB adaptor for car also chucks out fecking noise and wipes out all but the strongest DAB and FM stations on the car radio, piece of shit 

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

A Wavetek SAM is awesome for that shit. The only reason I've kept mine all these years. 

Yeah, one thing I've discovered about the "Apple wank"... if you buy "Apple-Certified" accessories, they tend to be a lot quieter than their dollar a dozen counterparts. I have this dual-USB 12VA cigarette lighter power adapter that's quieter & cleaner power than the Bose Sound Dock I use as a boom box.    I think the low RFI is due to the entire shell being a single piece of AL extrusion for heat dissipation; but near as I can tell the circuit is a LM317 driving MOSFET pass transistors in linear mode. Fekkin' A-Diddy!

   Here's where I'm at with the 7904. That thick red cable is the HV lead going to the bell of the CRT and carries full 21KV. If I disconnect it at that elbow the power supply comes up. So something is up with that cable. I checked for a high resistance short to ground and there is none. I disconnected the base of the CRT and reconnected the HV lead to make sure there was no path internal to the CRT and it still won't come up. So there's apparently a carbon track somewhere at the bell of the CRT and I'm going to have to pull the CRT to check it. Luckily per the manual pulling it isn't all that difficult. Wish me luck. 

Here's hoping it's on the outside of the tube, NOT the inside.

Along with the meticulous cleaning of the cable and surrounds as suggested by tggzzz and tautech, you want to inspect the inside of that HV coupler VERY closely. I had intermittent arcing inside that on my 2230 after I replaced the tripler XFMR; I only caught it before it caused major damage because I had turned off the lights to look for corona issues around the just-rebuilt HV diode/capacitor stack.  Good luck, brother! 

mnem
*Back into house-sorting hell*

[med6753]

Here's where I'm at with the 7904. That thick red cable is the HV lead going to the bell of the CRT and carries full 21KV. If I disconnect it at that elbow the power supply comes up. So something is up with that cable. I checked for a high resistance short to ground and there is none. I disconnected the base of the CRT and reconnected the HV lead to make sure there was no path internal to the CRT and it still won't come up. So there's apparently a carbon track somewhere at the bell of the CRT and I'm going to have to pull the CRT to check it. Luckily per the manual pulling it isn't all that difficult. Wish me luck. 

You may well be right, but have you cleaned the cable? That would be quick and simple, and might just help.

It is my intention to do that in addition to checking the CRT itself. The cable does indeed have some black dirt on it.

Since my post earlier today I haven't accomplished jack. I didn't sleep well last night and after that post I decided to lay down and out I went for 4 hours. So now it's mid-day and here I sit. 

After I get the CRT and cable pulled will clean everything (carefully) with IPA then use a blow dryer. Then let it sit outside the scope for at least over night and continue to occasionally use a blow dryer to insure no embedded moisture. The problem is it that it's raining outside and the temp in here is 78 F  (26 C) with an R/H of 69%. I've got the A/C going on low in an attempt to pull some of that humidity. So...that's the plan.

Sometimes you don't realize how bad your addiction really is. Last year I had zero 7000 Series plug-ins. Now I have 11. 12 if you count the parts mule in the closet. Kinda creeps up on you.