Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

You pack like ebay GSP 

That's the INNER BOX, bitch.  

Double-walled and JUST enough room to shoehorn the 2230 in there with some Amazon bubble envelopes on the sides. Got additional foam & bubble-wrap and two more boxes overlapped for an outer layer. Will drop it off at the UPS Store tomorrow. 

mnem
I knew I shoulda just sent A2AT the fukkin' tracking... 

[bd139]

Hahaha I got karma’ed for that comment didn’t I hahaha

[mnementh]

Karma's a bitch.

mnem
And she loves to howl. 

[mnementh]

Here... let me help:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=Lenovo+e550+i7&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_sop=15&_osacat=0&_odkw=e550+i7

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=M471B1G73EBO-YK0&_sacat=0

Good hunting!!!

mnem
"Very helpful... very helpful indeed." Chibila thought to himself...

[mnementh]

I was looking for a new handheld multimeter. Was initially thinking of buying a Fluke 87 Since I wanted better accuracy and digits.

But since the Fluke 87 are still pretty expensive, I ended up finding a way better deal with a HP 974a. I didn't really know about those meter and found it on ebay by accident. Specs are pretty good (4.5 digits, 50000 counts, 0.05% accuracy) and it's in pretty good shape. The unit I have was calibrated in 2018 and is due in 2021. I'm pretty happy with my purchase.

I just searched evilBay for one and all that comes back are magenta pagewide ink cartridges 

eBay auction: #323899192921

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=HP+974a+multimeter&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_oac=1

mnem
That Chibila bitch needs to shut the fuck up.

[Kosmic]

I was looking for a new handheld multimeter. Was initially thinking of buying a Fluke 87 Since I wanted better accuracy and digits.

But since the Fluke 87 are still pretty expensive, I ended up finding a way better deal with a HP 974a. I didn't really know about those meter and found it on ebay by accident. Specs are pretty good (4.5 digits, 50000 counts, 0.05% accuracy) and it's in pretty good shape. The unit I have was calibrated in 2018 and is due in 2021. I'm pretty happy with my purchase.

I just searched evilBay for one and all that comes back are magenta pagewide ink cartridges 

eBay auction: #323899192921

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=HP+974a+multimeter&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_oac=1

mnem
That Chibila bitch needs to shut the fuck up.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Handheld-Voltage-Multimeter-974A-100-kHz-4-5-with-Protective-Case-Ori/323899192921?hash=item4b69e57659:g:svgAAOSwVGtdaRk5&redirect=mobile

Got mine from this seller. He should accept an offer at around 60$ us 

[bd139]

Here... let me help:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=Lenovo+e550+i7&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_sop=15&_osacat=0&_odkw=e550+i7

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=M471B1G73EBO-YK0&_sacat=0

Good hunting!!!

mnem
"Very helpful... very helpful indeed." Chibila thought to himself...

Ahh found it. It's not blown up just sick. I managed to get it up by pulling both batteries out and run it on mains on a spare power supply. Looks like it inhaled a windows 10 update this morning that I didn't notice. Now it refuses to fire up the CPU fan and is sitting throttled at 0.79GHz with event log pissing out information galore about this glorious mess. Inevitably it got a bit too hot earlier and just shut itself down and got stuck in a boot loop. So I installed TPfancontrol and it's quite happily spamming the fan and sitting at 44 oC now instead of the previous 78oC when idling 

Thus I now need to work out what the fuckity fuck windows 10 is playing at.

First we eliminate the hardware by bringing it up with Ubuntu which has a whoooole different power management situation.

Edit: ok we have a definite cause. Turns out that one of the recent rollup updates on windows 10 has completely fucked power management in the arse on my laptop. It's absolutely fine on a live Ubuntu stick playing two HD streams.

So looks like it's boot back into windows, run a mini backup then install ubuntu and fuck it.

[0culus]

Successfully miniaturized the power supply for the Jim Williams pulser and put it in a Pomona BNC project box (these things are very nice but expensive as hell). Opted not to install a battery inside with the power supply circuit...instead I'm going to make a third fitting with a battery and a switch so I can use either a battery or a power supply with minimal fuss.

Ignore the labelmaker fail... 

[bd139]

Pomona FTW. I notice the Pomona minigrabbers as well.

I like those Pomona boxes. I was lucky enough to get a few a year or so ago in an auction lot of junk for 6 GBP.

Edit: well I owe windows an apology. The laptop just blew up running Linux properly. Won’t even power up now. Have ordered a refurb T470 with niceties such as full HD and an SSD already in it and will use my HP PoopBook backup machine until Wed. Got nearly 3 years out of this POS. So that’s £7.20 a month it cost me. Can’t complain as I’m such a cheap ass.

I will be holding a funeral for it in due course. It will be given a short service and sent on it’s final voyage on eBay as a parts unit

[mnementh]

   Ahh found it. It's not blown up just sick. I managed to get it up by pulling both batteries out and run it on mains on a spare power supply. Looks like it inhaled a windows 10 update this morning that I didn't notice. Now it refuses to fire up the CPU fan and is sitting throttled at 0.79GHz with event log pissing out information galore about this glorious mess. Inevitably it got a bit too hot earlier and just shut itself down and got stuck in a boot loop. So I installed TPfancontrol and it's quite happily spamming the fan and sitting at 44 oC now instead of the previous 78oC when idling 

Thus I now need to work out what the fuckity fuck windows 10 is playing at.

First we eliminate the hardware by bringing it up with Ubuntu which has a whoooole different power management situation.

Edit: ok we have a definite cause. Turns out that one of the recent rollup updates on windows 10 has completely fucked power management in the arse on my laptop. It's absolutely fine on a live Ubuntu stick playing two HD streams.

So looks like it's boot back into windows, run a mini backup then install ubuntu and fuck it.

Uninstall the Lenovo ACPI driver; let Windoze manage ACPI. This is a known issue for like... over a year. No known cure to make it behave like it should, because Lenovo wants to sell batteries like Amazon and their Detergent button and Windoze sees that network connection tied to the ACPI driver as a suspicious process/security hole the size of a whale, which it is.

[EDIT]    Woops... just saw where you said it dropped below -10 HP. Sorry to hear that... glad to hear you're getting a new/used one, even if it is a butt-ugly T-series.    [/EDIT]

mnem
*ploop*

[bd139]

Butt ugly is how I like ‘em

Something properly went phut. I took it to bits and there’s a couple of burn marks around the internal battery port’s nearest ICs

It actually powers up and works normally if you don’t have any batteries in it and plug it into the AC. Any batteries in there, narp. I’m not going to bother to even look at what is toast. It’s all 0201’s and shit I can’t see.

Mostly annoyed because I put a new Full HD panel in the damn thing earlier this year

[xrunner]

A guy in Dallas has some of these Agilent E4406A VSA Transmitter Testers. 7 MHz - 4 GHz. They display a 10 MHz segment at a time as you choose. I don't need all the CDMA and other measurement packages it has but it can do the same things a spectrum analyzer can do - but I already have three of those. However they are only $379. Anyone ever use one?

[Kosmic]

I have one of those. Limited to 10Mhz bandwidth but it's real time (no sweep). Resolution bandwidth can be as low as 0.1Hz. You can do pretty accurate power measurement with that device. Also the input is tolerant to VDC (up to 26v).

Paid 375$ last year I think.

[Kosmic]

I use it with BG7TBL up converter to cover from DC to 7Mhz.

[xrunner]

I have one of those. Limited to 10Mhz bandwidth but it's real time (no sweep). Resolution bandwidth can be as low as 0.1Hz. You can do pretty accurate power measurement with that device. Also the input is tolerant to VDC (up to 26v).

Paid 375$ last year I think.

OK thanks. Have you looked inside? These units have the RF connector on the back. Can I move the rear N connector to the front i.e. is it just on a length of coax internally?

[Addicted2AnalogTek]

The 465B/DM44 is back together. Powered up first try no issues. The +55V reference is sitting at +55.04V which is perfect. No adjustment required. All supply voltages in spec. And best of all, no ripple on the traces. Nice and sharp. But there's still an issue. There's an identical roll-off on both channels as seen here. I didn't think replacing the PSU caps would fix this and that proved to be correct. The issue is not the attenuators, the B/W limit switch, nor the pre-amp board (It's been changed). So the prime suspect is the Vertical Output board. I do have a spare board and I could just change it out but I'd rather try to identify and fix the issue. So this will be an excellent opportunity to put the 485 to work. Which BTW has been on the torture rack for the past week and a half and running perfectly with no issues. So stay tuned, obviously I'll post what I find.

Watch out when tweaking those little ceramic trimmer capacitors!   I have a 475 and a 475A that I have to replace them in because I didn't "treat" them before trying to adjust them.

I actually forget what I need to do in order to minimize the chance of them breaking... can someone refresh my memory please?

[Kosmic]

I have one of those. Limited to 10Mhz bandwidth but it's real time (no sweep). Resolution bandwidth can be as low as 0.1Hz. You can do pretty accurate power measurement with that device. Also the input is tolerant to VDC (up to 26v).

Paid 375$ last year I think.

OK thanks. Have you looked inside? These units have the RF connector on the back. Can I move the rear N connector to the front i.e. is it just on a length of coax internally?

There is a thread about that somewhere on the forum. You can move the connector but you need to make a bracket to attach the N connector to the front panel.

The original bracket look like this:


I'm planning to do the operation on mine since the input is also on the back.

[xrunner]

I see thank you for your assistance. 

There is a thread about that somewhere on the forum. You can move the connector but you need to make a bracket to attach the N connector to the front panel.

The original bracket look like this:

[Kosmic]

Not super useful but you can also hack the device to unlock everything.

[xrunner]

Not super useful but you can also hack the device to unlock everything.

Yea - once you have it why not right? 

[0culus]

Pomona FTW. I notice the Pomona minigrabbers as well.

I like those Pomona boxes. I was lucky enough to get a few a year or so ago in an auction lot of junk for 6 GBP.

Edit: well I owe windows an apology. The laptop just blew up running Linux properly. Won’t even power up now. Have ordered a refurb T470 with niceties such as full HD and an SSD already in it and will use my HP PoopBook backup machine until Wed. Got nearly 3 years out of this POS. So that’s £7.20 a month it cost me. Can’t complain as I’m such a cheap ass.

I will be holding a funeral for it in due course. It will be given a short service and sent on it’s final voyage on eBay as a parts unit

That is a good deal. The minigrabbers are worth every penny. I have the bnc ones in both male and female and a pile of their rg58 coax. Super handy for wiring projects up. 

[McBryce]

For those that didn't learn a little German at school, in German the verb is at the end of the sentence, not between the subject and object. Yes, German is RPN

Eh, no. The verb is between the subject and object unless there is a tense or additional verb in the same sentence.

McBryce.

[mansaxel]

Got mine from this seller. He should accept an offer at around 60$ us 

Damn. I had the idea that I should linger on the buy button for a while. Now, I did not, for fear of the TEA stampede. WHAM there I bought one of them. The cc bill will be painful, with 2 birthdays coming up this month. And then some.

[mnementh]

A little light reading over my morning cuppa...

https://mpja.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2b09559a01d02ecc913387081&id=0f9dc3f72d&e=e1350e8c3c

This kit of m1.2/m1.4/m1.6 screws/nuts looks interesting: https://www.mpja.com/09-16-19.asp?r=00000&s=7

as does this dual 50W Peltier kit: https://www.mpja.com/DUAL-Peltier-Cooling-Assembly-12VDC/productinfo/36063%20MI/

and this 2S 18650 battery box: https://www.mpja.com/09-16-19.asp?r=00000&s=15

mnem

[bd139]

They look like those hair-legged shitsistors from China. The ones where they just paint random colours on them