Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Quick update on the Hacker Radio Amp, replaced all the Ge transistors and replaced with Si ones and it is working, reasonable volume as well and no heat-sinks, however on some stations it distorted especially if I turn the Bass up. Strange because the indications of simulation done on the circuit with LTSpice was that it showed pretty good clarity throughout the audio spectrum. I have to get ready now for 60th Birthday bash so I'll have to get the scope and audio generator out tomorrow sometime and investigate where this distortion is originating from and kill the beast. I still have a trimmer resistor to replace when that arrives, I don't think will make much difference, it doesn't on the simulation. 

[bd139]

Might be oscillating. Those transistors are a lot faster than the old ones. Put 22pf ceramic cap across collector/base junction and see if it goes away.

[Specmaster]

Might be oscillating. Those transistors are a lot faster than the old ones. Put 22pf ceramic cap across collector/base junction and see if it goes away.

Yeh, thought might be the reason, try it out tomorrow assuming I get time with my nurses appoint in the morning and followed by the hospital scan in the afternoon, how I hate getting old, wish I turn the clock back a few years.

You look like you got a good haul there but you didn't just flip a HP power supply recently?

[bd139]

Fingers crossed you get it sorted. Getting old sucks. Agreed. I've got more holes than I should have and they all appeared when I was young. I'm hoping that I have had my fair share now!

I flipped a TTi one, my PL310 I never use and a 6237B. This stuff might not stick around. I'm generating some cash to pay for an Elecraft KXPA100 at the moment 

I've got a 6284A, 6236B and this one now. Plus a PL154. That's enough supplies!  (oh and about 10 Meanwell switchers)

[bd139]

475 is pretty clean inside. The horzontal fine position pot is broken (when isn't it?) and it's pretty clean but the feet and screws are missing off the back and the case is dinked. I'll swap that for the 465 case which is good.

I can see what happened though. The seller had a shitty firestick or something and tried to fix it. He was on the right track but clearly lacked the competence to carry it off.

Looks like typical power supply problems.

Got a War of the Worlds vibe going on here:



So will ESR check the power caps, check the bridges out for shorts and then the power rails for shorts and write up a shopping list. This one doesn't look too bad yet.

[med6753]

475 is pretty clean inside. The horzontal fine position pot is broken (when isn't it?) and it's pretty clean but the feet and screws are missing off the back and the case is dinked. I'll swap that for the 465 case which is good.

I can see what happened though. The seller had a shitty firestick or something and tried to fix it. He was on the right track but clearly lacked the competence to carry it off.

Looks like typical power supply problems.

Got a War of the Worlds vibe going on here:



So will ESR check the power caps, check the bridges out for shorts and then the power rails for shorts and write up a shopping list. This one doesn't look too bad yet.

WTF? One of the AC legs of that bridge isn't even connected. 

Clearly.....Gorilla work. 

Edit...Yes, the hard copy manuals are tits! The only ones I have is for the 465B and DM44. All the others are softcopy PDF's.

[bd139]

He managed to burn up a couple of pads fixing tants as well 

I’ve repaired worse! Still hopeful.

[med6753]

He managed to burn up a couple of pads fixing tants as well 

I’ve repaired worse! Still hopeful.

That will suck if you have to pull that bottom board if the via's are destroyed too. 

[bd139]

Yeah they are fucked. Two so far. Fucking wanker.

I've got the 8012A out in low ohms mode chasing a -8V short which is where he got stuck by the looks.

@mnem taaaants required

[tggzzz]

475 is pretty clean inside. The horzontal fine position pot is broken (when isn't it?) and it's pretty clean but the feet and screws are missing off the back and the case is dinked. I'll swap that for the 465 case which is good.

I can see what happened though. The seller had a shitty firestick or something and tried to fix it. He was on the right track but clearly lacked the competence to carry it off.

Looks like typical power supply problems.

Got a War of the Worlds vibe going on here:



So will ESR check the power caps, check the bridges out for shorts and then the power rails for shorts and write up a shopping list. This one doesn't look too bad yet.

That bridge rectifier gets unpleasantly hot at the best of times.

[bd139]

Indeed. Looks like the -8v finished it off. The replacement is fit for purpose and isn’t blown up just it was craply installed.  I’m working my way through the tants now. Corrected a couple of other crimes. I’ve had to do some rework where the pads have been destroyed. Fortunately they’re all to ground and there’s a ground pad nearby on each!

Edit: found the tant. The gorilla actually put a duff tant in the -8V line ffs. The pad is quite knackered on that one but there's enough via for it to hold so I've just soldered an electrolytic in there instead.  Now done the resistance tests and everything is as expected! Woohoo. However the rectifier is not good that was tacked in so I'm ordering a new one from RS. No more fixing until Tuesday. This is looking hopeful though.

Edit 2: just ordered the part. RS PN 687-5835 ... 10x for £0.59 including delivery. Not sure how they make any money out of me 

[tggzzz]

Edit 2: just ordered the part. RS PN 687-5835 ... 10x for £0.59 including delivery. Not sure how they make any money out of me 

While they lose on the unit cost, they make up for it with the volume they sell you 

More seriously, RS were always good at selling a few components here and there.

[bd139]

Yeah they are damn handy. But I'm sitting at the checkout then I realised I had some lying around somewhere. Went digging, found one and installed it

And guess what....



Everything appears to be functional as well!

So: 475 = £5 ... service manual £5 .... parts cost £0 (already had them). Total £10 for a decent 200MHz analogue scope.

Not finished yet. Needs full check out, calibration, clean up, the case bashing out a bit and the arse end of my 465 installed on it.

[Specmaster]

Yeah they are damn handy. But I'm sitting at the checkout then I realised I had some lying around somewhere. Went digging, found one and installed it

And guess what....



Everything appears to be functional as well!

So: 475 = £5 ... service manual £5 .... parts cost £0 (already had them). Total £10 for a decent 200MHz analogue scope.

Not finished yet. Needs full check out, calibration, clean up, the case bashing out a bit and the arse end of my 465 installed on it.

That is a real bargain, well done. Been there with RS recently, ordered some 6.8uF caps then found some, also ordered from the bay some 2N3906, today I found loads in my parts bin [emoji849]

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[bd139]

One reason I've been getting rid of parts is most of the time it's easier to order new ones than find the old ones 

[med6753]

Yeah they are damn handy. But I'm sitting at the checkout then I realised I had some lying around somewhere. Went digging, found one and installed it

And guess what....



Everything appears to be functional as well!

So: 475 = £5 ... service manual £5 .... parts cost £0 (already had them). Total £10 for a decent 200MHz analogue scope.

Not finished yet. Needs full check out, calibration, clean up, the case bashing out a bit and the arse end of my 465 installed on it.

You beat the wanker gorilla! 

[med6753]

One reason I've been getting rid of parts is most of the time it's easier to order new ones than find the old ones 

While I'm sure my parts inventory isn't as extensive as yours I did take the time to categorize cables/parts/components as you see here in the TEA closet. Being a coffee addict made selection of containers easy.   

[bd139]

That's a lot of coffee  ... great idea though.

My parts stock is pretty low now I've cleared most of it out. It has been heavily organised into classified boxes with bags and dividers in each box. The bottom boxes are full of unsorted crap totalling about 20Kg of stock. They will be sorted into nice organised boxes or disposed of.







When I started, the cupboard was full from the floor to the ceiling with components.  Now there's room for test gear in the bottom half

[med6753]

Since we're doing "show and tell" 

Below the coffee containers is this. Those 2 big boxes are full of Tek boards/assorted parts. And the parts mules themselves on the floor. Currently a 465, 465B, and 2430.


To the right of the coffee containers is this. Vacant space! Not too worry, I have something coming via UPS this week to fill that up. 


To the right bottom....all sorts of stuff.

[bd139]

I think you’ve overtaken me now 

[mnementh]

I’ve got one of the ELM337 cables. Used it with multiecuscan on my horrid fiat. Not had to use it on the new one yet. Good investment generally in these modern times.

Yup... I also have the original ELMScanUSB from Scantool.net; I was one of their beta testers. Good tool, lame software devs never maintained... except the commercial version which again is ridiculously priced for casual use.

They can kiss my butt first 

Careful, you may have to kiss THEIR behind. Most vehicles use a separate diag and reset system for the airbag unit which is INDEPENDENT of the standard OBD-II system therefore a scan tool won't touch it. Both my Honda's are like that and I suspect most others are too. You need a specialized and usually dealer only tool to reset the airbag system....AND....disconnecting the battery WON'T clear it.

Yes, I covered that last night. Airbag subsystem is usually managed by the body computer or its own subsystem, which is not part of the OBDII gen(eric) data bus. Most of the ELM327-based scantools CAN communicate with the CAN and JAE-series busses that the body computer and/or  ABS/ADB resides on; some are not wired correctly. The primary problem is the diag software which usually they charge a small fortune for anything more than OBDII-gen support.

And again; it depends on the year and manufacturer. Some WILL reset that error code by removing and shorting the battery leads together; some store it in non-volatile memory.

I have a OBDII device and sees no error codes, so the Skoda Forum I belong to, the members there say I need to get myself a copy of VCDS Lite and suitable cable for around £125?

Sounds about right for a limited subscription. The site says $99 for the LITE subscription alone, for 2005 & older vehicles, and advises you to test in free shareware mode to see if your adapter will connect to the modules you need access to. $25 for a known-functional OBDII adapter on top of that is not unreasonable. But unless your vehicle is prehistoric like my Franken-Cruiser, none of the above apply and you'll need the full suite at $200 plus adapter.

And rather than spending the $160 USD for a cable you'll probably use once go to the dealer and fall on your sword and tell them what you did. If they're nice guys perhaps they will reset the ADU for free and send you on your way. Or they will be pricks and charge you the standard "diag fee" to connect up their tool to reset it.

Yes I think that might be the best advice. I have identified that Ross-Tech make a tool that will do it all, access all parts of the car that other devices and that includes airbags and the ABS system as well and costs £225 delivered. Handy if I'm expecting other problems to occur that I can fix myself, but then again are any problems going to occur. Also of course, if I did buy the unit, would it add anything to the resale value of the car if and when I sold it? 

The manual did say to disconnect the battery before doing the removal of the glovebox I should have remembered that when the battery swapped out with another fully charged one to enable me to drive home (electric steering) that I did not get any error codes and the battery was disconnected twice. I was in a rush to get to the doctors, and I got impatient and took a short cut, idiot that I am 

I told moo so.

Yeah they are damn handy. But I'm sitting at the checkout then I realised I had some lying around somewhere. Went digging, found one and installed it

And guess what...      Everything appears to be functional as well!  So: 475 = £5 ... service manual £5 .... parts cost £0 (already had them). Total £10 for a decent 200MHz analogue scope. Not finished yet. Needs full check out, calibration, clean up, the case bashing out a bit and the arse end of my 465 installed on it.

(SNIP)This stuff might not stick around. I'm generating some cash to pay for an Elecraft KXPA100 at the moment  I've got a 6284A, 6236B and this one now. Plus a PL154. That's enough supplies!  (oh and about 10 Meanwell switchers)

Good haul, buddy. Well and truly earned your today!    If you were stateside I'd be interested in that 6286A, even though I have a 35 gallon tote FULL of power supplies and VARIAC already packed up. 

One reason I've been getting rid of parts is most of the time it's easier to order new ones than find the old ones

   While I'm sure my parts inventory isn't as extensive as yours I did take the time to categorize cables/parts/components as you see here in the TEA closet. Being a coffee addict made selection of containers easy.  

I have to admit I'm also guilty of this sin... the number of times in the last 5 years that I've searched for 30 minutes then given up and bought a part I KNOW I have at least two of...  
I am guilty of this sin as well... but I don't know if I'd call THAT coffee.    

   Thanks to skills developed as I sort through an entire household and 3 lifetimes of sh... tuff, I AM getting better organized. At least with the shtuff in my work areas... 

mnem

[bd139]

...even though I have a 35 gallon tote FULL of power supplies and VARIAC already packed up. 

 

[bd139]

Well the power supply works too. I tested it up to 8A before I chickened out on losing myself an expensive Fluke fuse 



Edit: power supply is now named Mjolnir after my eldest tried to lift it up.

Edit 2: just had to do it:

[tggzzz]

Edit: power supply is now named Mjolnir after my eldest tried to lift it up.

You might like to invest in some toetector shoes Plus some shinpads incase it swings towards shins.

[0culus]

Those power supplies all look nice. I'd to find me some in that condition.  And they do weight a ton...