Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

Before I dive into the 485. Another purchase showed up today. Back when I was removing the filter caps on the 465B I noticed that my 45 year old Ungar Imperial iron was struggling. The large surface areas on both the board and the capacitors themselves was causing the old Ungar to cool down. So much so that I had to wait a few minutes to let it heat up. So I decided to get a solder station.

It's not a Hako and it doesn't have automatic temperature compensation. It's simply variable temp (Probably a triac...haven't taken it apart). It got good reviews so I figured I'd give it try. If it doesn't work out then boo hoo on me I should have bought a Hako. Going to put to the test very shortly.

I'm sure you are aware that for large items (capacitors, ground planes etc) temperature is important - but having a bit with a large thermal mass and a large contact area is equally important.

[bd139]

I'm sure you are aware that for large items (capacitors, ground planes etc) temperature is important - but having a bit with a large thermal mass and a large contact area is equally important.

Very much this. The iron's ability to keep that bit at the same temperature is the killer feature as well which is why the best irons are the temperature controlled 80-120W units generally as they can keep that large bit hot and keep the dwell time low.

Or a Metcal which defies those laws and allows you to solder an 0402 or an M8 nut onto something with the tip that comes in the box 

[Martin.M]

As long as the front panel mechanisms aren't trashed, it works pretty well. However, the 8566A/B is a way better instrument to use.

...when it worx

[Martin.M]

"aged , oct. 31, 1962"

true 

[BU508A]

Traced it out with the 34401A. U300 True RMS converter is short 

Hp 1826-0421 which appears to be an AD536ADJ. Someone has one in the UK but I ain't paying £40 for it! Looks like this will be non True RMS!

Spot the mistake:



 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/223482281230

[Cubdriver]

Traced it out with the 34401A. U300 True RMS converter is short 

Hp 1826-0421 which appears to be an AD536ADJ. Someone has one in the UK but I ain't paying £40 for it! Looks like this will be non True RMS!

Spot the mistake:



 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/223482281230

Zap, zap!!   

-Pat

[med6753]

This 485 is proving to be a tough nut, but I'm not giving up.  Replacing that tunnel diode has indeed fixed the always on trigger light. But guess what? It STILL won't trigger. The sweep free runs and the trigger light now NEVER comes on.  So.......additional troubleshooting is required and I'm going to put the other 485 side by side again and trace it out. But not today.

BTW.....so far the new soldering station is working very well. And I totally understand the potential thermal mass issue.   

[bd139]

Traced it out with the 34401A. U300 True RMS converter is short 

Hp 1826-0421 which appears to be an AD536ADJ. Someone has one in the UK but I ain't paying £40 for it! Looks like this will be non True RMS!

Spot the mistake:



 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/223482281230

Zap, zap!!   

-Pat

Oh that pisses me off that. I have NO IDEA why the hell people use polystyrene. It's a religious thing I'm sure

[Martin.M]

I have provided that in the Classic Tek Tread, but for tubes ..

Martin

[Martin.M]

homebrew power LED experiment, special 10W chip for flowers, of coarse from China.

I have build Aluminium Schield for cooling.
The light output from 2pcs of 10W is higher then from one pcs. 20W


it looks PINK 

45°C on the 10x15cm shield, this size is useful. Powered by 12V in series with 3.3 Ohms

[med6753]

Traced it out with the 34401A. U300 True RMS converter is short 

Hp 1826-0421 which appears to be an AD536ADJ. Someone has one in the UK but I ain't paying £40 for it! Looks like this will be non True RMS!

Spot the mistake:



 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/223482281230

Zap, zap!!   

-Pat

Oh that pisses me off that. I have NO IDEA why the hell people use polystyrene. It's a religious thing I'm sure

Most people, even some techs, don't understand the important of ESD protection.

[Martin.M]

solutions.

1.) eat more chocolates.
2.) use the aluminium paper outside from the polystyrene and dont be afraid to put your sensitive cmos RAMs on that

[med6753]

The Mouser parts order suddenly dropped out of the black hole and appeared at my local PO at 1100 hours, too late to make today's delivery. So I took a trip down to the PO to get it. Advantage of a small town PO: They were willing to sort through the packages and find it.  I'm sure if it had been a busy and large PO they would have told me to go scratch. 

So now I can start on the re-cap on the B&K 3010 and 1801 in the AM rather than wait for delivery mid day.

The Tek Type 114 is still in transit from Pittsburgh. 

[Specmaster]

I must say that I quite like the fact that you paint you gear in Blue, why not, it looks nice and fresh, much better than some of the faded, smokey discoloured and scared gear that occupies space on some of our benches. If I knew that I was actually going to be keeping my gear for ever, I'd happily paint mine to give a coordinated appearance and thus make it a joy to look at as well use.

[Specmaster]

Ok last post on it.

It works absolutely fine now. What a complete fucking muppet who did that. So I'm poking my way round the thing I was tracing voltage drops from the power supply to find the short. Worked my way into the corner with the AD536 in it. I looked at it and though "hey that doens't look like it's in properly" followed by a quick SMM check and "that's in the bloody wrong way round". It's socketed in this unit.

Before repair 



After repair 



Works now.

DC volts check:



AC volts check against reference:



Pretty close!



Well that was the most "interesting" repair for a while 

Are you going to re-instate the battery option now? I find mine with the battery option fitted is great, it saves me having to turn on the entire bench feed if I just want to a quick and dirty ad hoc measurement, far quicker then getting a hand held DMM out.   

[Specmaster]

Before I dive into the 485. Another purchase showed up today. Back when I was removing the filter caps on the 465B I noticed that my 45 year old Ungar Imperial iron was struggling. The large surface areas on both the board and the capacitors themselves was causing the old Ungar to cool down. So much so that I had to wait a few minutes to let it heat up. So I decided to get a solder station.

It's not a Hako and it doesn't have automatic temperature compensation. It's simply variable temp (Probably a triac...haven't taken it apart). It got good reviews so I figured I'd give it try. If it doesn't work out then boo hoo on me I should have bought a Hako. Going to put to the test very shortly.

Save your money and buy a decent T12 instead, I'm very happy with my 2.

[tautech]

Before I dive into the 485. Another purchase showed up today. Back when I was removing the filter caps on the 465B I noticed that my 45 year old Ungar Imperial iron was struggling. The large surface areas on both the board and the capacitors themselves was causing the old Ungar to cool down. So much so that I had to wait a few minutes to let it heat up. So I decided to get a solder station.

It's not a Hako and it doesn't have automatic temperature compensation. It's simply variable temp (Probably a triac...haven't taken it apart). It got good reviews so I figured I'd give it try. If it doesn't work out then boo hoo on me I should have bought a Hako. Going to put to the test very shortly.

Save your money and buy a decent T12 instead, I'm very happy with my 2.

Handle isn't big enough to wrap the cord around !   

[BU508A]

Time for some TEA voltnuttery   

10 minutes ago: BU508A is surfing on the internet just looking here and there ...

Hmm, what is that? A Fluke 732A? Looking nice. What is the price?  ... What? 499.- Euros? plus 10 Euros shipping?   

Doing some cross-checking ...
Usually they go for 1100.- US Dollars or more .... whoa!   <set brain=offline>

*click* ... *click* ... *click* ... "Thank you for your order" *ignoring the moaning of the CC*

Wow!  I didn't expect to find a 732A for that price! Ok, the seller stated "untested" but I have a suspicion where it is coming from.

https://www.vebeg.de/web/en/verkauf/suchen.htm?DO_SUCHE=1&SUCH_MATGRUPPE=1150&SHOW_AUS=1937170&SHOW_LOS=20

Here is a sample photo from an ebay auction:


https://www.ebay.com/itm/283582495451

Didn't expect this, really ...   

[bd139]

Are you going to re-instate the battery option now? I find mine with the battery option fitted is great, it saves me having to turn on the entire bench feed if I just want to a quick and dirty ad hoc measurement, far quicker then getting a hand held DMM out.   

Unfortunately the internal battery measures a whole 206mV which means the cells are, to use a technical term, knackered. Thus I will look for something in the same form factor but it's going to come to about £40 after looking at RS. Not sure I can be bothered with that so might leave it disabled. I will do some research on suitable 6V 2.5Ah batteries over the next few days when I get some time.

Anyway calibration done and it's in situ now with its fellow emissive displayed friends (and other assorted cack)



Managed to fight the arduino and won by binning it and using vim + AVR-gcc + NT7S's Si5351 code. Also got the (cheap shitty) encoder connected to INT0/1 and run it on pin change interrupts as well. This only has one channel set up at the moment but I need two out of phase variable signals for a quadrature product detector and it's a pain in the arse doing it on the DG1022Z due to the randon phase alignment problems.



And on that note I'm going to turn it all off and go and watch Disenchantment in bed.

[neo]

Well I bought a 7A26 for the absurdly cheap price of $1 ($32 w/shipping but still) and it shows up and this  happens!



 Fucker! Scheisser! 

Can I swap an inductor from a parts mule or are they matched? After I trace the cause that is.

[BU508A]

Well I bought a 7A26 for the absurdly cheap price of $1 ($32 w/shipping but still) and it shows up and this  happens!



 Fucker! Scheisser! 

Can I swap an inductor from a parts mule or are they matched? After I trace the cause that is.

* BU508A is stealing inconspicuous this little "r" from "Scheisser"   

You're welcome.   

[Specmaster]

@bd139, There is a place in London (I think it's London) where I got mine from from for about £15, a new GEL battery, very slightly smaller with a different terminal positions. A small amount of packing round the battery holds it securely in its clamp and its simple enough to extend the leads from the interface board to the battery. I'll see if I can find a link to the company for you.

[neo]

* BU508A is stealing inconspicuous this little "r" from "Scheisser"   

You're welcome.   

I may just be dense, but I don't get the joke. My knowledge of german is limited but from what I know scheisse= shit scheisser = calling something a shit.

[mnementh]

....And on that note I'm going to turn it all off and go and watch Disenchantment in bed.

*Now hears everything bd says in Luci's voice*

mnem
 

[mnementh]

That POS firestarter needs to be Widlarized before it destroys the PCB in a piece of electronics that actually has some intrinsic value. 

*hands bd his favorite Thumb-detecting-nutfucker*

You do the honors, please; I'm busy loading a trailer...

   homebrew power LED experiment, special 10W chip for flowers, of coarse from China. I have build Aluminium Schield for cooling. The light output from 2pcs of 10W is higher then from one pcs. 20W

it looks PINK     45°C on the 10x15cm shield, this size is useful. Powered by 12V in series with 3.3 Ohms

Nice metal-fab work there.  I like to attach those form-factor LEDs to recycled stock Intel heatsinks after polishing the face with a Dremel.  Power the fan and the CC driver from the same source.

mnem
*nucking futs*