Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[0culus]

Another Brick in The Wall (Of Test Equipment)



 

[xrunner]

Another Brick in The Wall (Of Test Equipment)

 

LOL - I'm working on it right now, it coming together. 

[Cubdriver]

Pic of the little NanoVNA mod (and a calculator  )

(Attachment Link)

I approve of this gratuitous RPN porn.   

now you did it.  gotta' go back and stare at cubs nixie pictures to get my bp under control.

To help allay the freqq's hypertension:







And what could be better than nixies?  Nixies + kittehs, of course!




And that's it for gratuitous glowie orange pr0n for now...

-Pat

[xrunner]

And that's it for gratuitous glowie orange pr0n for now...

-Pat

Oh you just gave me inspiration for my new lyrics with those pics! 

[Kosmic]

After quickly putting together a component tester (octopus) with a transfo and a resistor, I decided to build a proper one with spare parts I had laying around. Only had to buy the enclosure and transformer.




Got 4 different voltages (1,5,10,13V) and current is limited at 1ma.



The transformer is external so the box can be smaller.



Testing an old zener diode



At 1V


At 5V


Funny how the reverse breakdown voltage is gradual and not super sharp.

[xrunner]

Nice work Kosmic. 

[tautech]

Another Brick in The Wall (Of Test Equipment)

Boat anchors have made me scream a bit over the years and Great Gig in the Sky seems a perfect anthem for them. 

https://youtu.be/T13se_2A7c8?t=68

[xrunner]

Another Brick in The Wall (Of Test Equipment)

Boat anchors have made me scream a bit over the years and Great Gig in the Sky seems a perfect anthem for them. 

https://youtu.be/T13se_2A7c8?t=68

Really.

Here's the re-do of

"Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)"

Contributions by certain members are obvious. 



We don't need no crappy test leads
We don't need no broken probes
No burned-out nixies in our counters
Kitty, leave them scopes alone

Hey, kitty, leave them scopes alone!

All in all it's just another stack that's too tall
All in all another scope with a hair ball

[Chorus by members of the Test Equipment Anonymous forum thread]

We don't need no crappy test leads
We don't need no broken probes
No burned-out nixies in our counters
Kitty, leave them scopes alone

Hey, kitty, leave them scopes alone!

All in all it's just another stack that's too tall
All in all another scope with a hair ball

[Spoken:]
Wrong! Solder it again!
Wrong! Solder it again!
If you don't own any Tektronix, you can't have any pudding!
How can you have any pudding if you don't own hp!
You! Yes, you, behind the equipment rack, stand still, laddy!

[tautech]

If you don't own any Tektronix, you can't have any pudding!
How can you have any pudding if you don't own hp!

Got some of each and all are busted in some way !   

[BravoV]

If you don't own any Tektronix, you can't have any pudding!
How can you have any pudding if you don't own hp!

Got some of each and all are busted in some way !   

Don't be shy of long repair queue ... brother/sister-hood of TEA here surely understand you. 

[worsthorse]

speaking of repair queues... i put the second 191 on the bench yesterday, did a quick mechanical and visual check, then powered it up. it worked more or less but it clearly had, um, issues.  besides finding that it was way out of calibration and the amplitude control was wonky, i noticed a problem with the peak detector board:



the dielectric disks in C60 and C64 were pushed almost all the way out from under the clip, which might have contributed to the amplitude control problem. that was an easy fix. then it appeared that a 1KOhm custom tektronix pot with many mechanical doodads had dead spots and linearity problems.    here's the culprit:



but the TE gods smiled upon me. dripping deoxit into the pot where the front and back plastic case mated and patient rotation seemed to do the trick. after fixing the peak detector and cleaning the pot, the amplitude control circuit started working as intended.

it was far enough out of voltage cal that i started from step one. i had to loop through the reference voltage, amplitude tracking, and amplitude calibration three times to get it back to spec.

after that, a quick check of the frequency output in each of the bands suggests that i have to go through the full frequency calibration procedure, too. that's for tomorrow, as it has already been a long day and here are the first two adjustments, tucked under a wafer switch   

[med6753]

Another Brick in The Wall (Of Test Equipment)

Boat anchors have made me scream a bit over the years and Great Gig in the Sky seems a perfect anthem for them. 

https://youtu.be/T13se_2A7c8?t=68

Really.

Here's the re-do of

"Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)"

Contributions by certain members are obvious. 



We don't need no crappy test leads
We don't need no broken probes
No burned-out nixies in our counters
Kitty, leave them scopes alone

Hey, kitty, leave them scopes alone!

All in all it's just another stack that's too tall
All in all another scope with a hair ball

[Chorus by members of the Test Equipment Anonymous forum thread]

We don't need no crappy test leads
We don't need no broken probes
No burned-out nixies in our counters
Kitty, leave them scopes alone

Hey, kitty, leave them scopes alone!

All in all it's just another stack that's too tall
All in all another scope with a hair ball

[Spoken:]
Wrong! Solder it again!
Wrong! Solder it again!
If you don't own any Tektronix, you can't have any pudding!
How can you have any pudding if you don't own hp!
You! Yes, you, behind the equipment rack, stand still, laddy!

Papa Smurf approves. 

[URI]

Another Brick in The Wall (Of Test Equipment)

Boat anchors have made me scream a bit over the years and Great Gig in the Sky seems a perfect anthem for them. 

https://youtu.be/T13se_2A7c8?t=68

A great song with a great performance of Clare Torry who performed it for only 30 Pounds and had to sue Pink Floyd for co-authorship with Richard Wright (and most likely part of the royalties) later.

[URI]

[..]
If you don't own any Tektronix, you can't have any pudding!
How can you have any pudding if you don't own hp!
[..]

No Tektronix in my wall of TE -so, no pudding for me.      

[Martin.M]

my new PC goes on the ride to me.
It`s a Hewlett Packard No 85
I hope it can sniff something the Oldies are talking on the HPIB bus..
what is the drive there, a tape recorder? And can I find tapes anywhere?

[mansaxel]

Both Tek, hp and Avo and Evershed & Vignoles and Hartmann & Braun and some Fluke (plus ABB-branded Gossen) here. I can have me puddin'.

So am covered.

I was just going to yank a USB memory stick for a larger one in my file server, so went out in the machine room, did the appropriate magic (zpool offline tank da5; zpool remove tank da5 ; #yank and plug ; zpool add tank cache da5) and then the workbench started to look irresistible.

My hp 428b, bought as "For parts" but with a probe (the most often missing part) has been waiting for its delivery check (triage/damage assessment/whatever) for some time. I had done an initial analysis showing that I needed new 500mAT 1/4" x 1 1/4" fuses (in Europe, that would normally be a 5x20mm fuse which is why I had none) and they've been delivered for some time.

So. On top of a work day that started 04:45 with the taxi arriving and ended 21:15 with another taxi dropping me off at home again I just was going to check for magic smoke. Did what I thought would be a thorough resistance check and some highly irregular bodge-wiring of my open-frame Variac to be able to ease my DUT up from 0V. (yes, I really ought to put my round tuit supply towards building a Variac box with plugs, jacks and meters. And some protection against touch..)

Anyway:

I, with the eager assistance of my 30mA RCCB, have discovered what looks like a near-short to PE ground from at least one of the mains poles. So much for "thorough" resistance check. 7,5 Ω where MΩ would be appropriate apparently can be missed after a long (and then some) work day.

I survived the bodge-Variac.

My UPS again proved its worth.

I have an evening project for tonight.

Will try to get some pics as well.

[Martin.M]

actually I am watching what my friend Matt have done yesterday,
that looks extremly fast 

https://www.wellenkino.de/557/viewtopic.php?f=5&p=1245#p1245

[tautech]

Another Brick in The Wall (Of Test Equipment)

Boat anchors have made me scream a bit over the years and Great Gig in the Sky seems a perfect anthem for them. 

https://youtu.be/T13se_2A7c8?t=68

A great song with a great performance of Clare Torry who performed it for only 30 Pounds and had to sue Pink Floyd for co-authorship with Richard Wright (and most likely part of the royalties) later.

Yeah that was shit sad.
Tis one of my all time favs and for a while had her in mid screaming as a ringtone on my cellphone.
Funny how that turned heads. 

That girl's got great lungs !

But hey, it's a bit of a toss up between Great Gig in the Sky and Roxy Music's Avalon for the top slot sheila screaming solo.
https://youtu.be/bpA_5a0miWk?t=2

[tggzzz]

my new PC goes on the ride to me.
It`s a Hewlett Packard No 85
I hope it can sniff something the Oldies are talking on the HPIB bus..
what is the drive there, a tape recorder? And can I find tapes anywhere?

They were remarkable machines for their time.

Have a look for problems with rubber components in the tapes and/or drives.

[tggzzz]

Another Brick in The Wall (Of Test Equipment)

Boat anchors have made me scream a bit over the years and Great Gig in the Sky seems a perfect anthem for them. 

https://youtu.be/T13se_2A7c8?t=68

A great song with a great performance of Clare Torry who performed it for only 30 Pounds and had to sue Pink Floyd for co-authorship with Richard Wright (and most likely part of the royalties) later.

And she made it up on the spot during recording. The "requirements specification" from Pink Floyd were spectacularly inadequate

[nfmax]

Another Brick in The Wall (Of Test Equipment)

Boat anchors have made me scream a bit over the years and Great Gig in the Sky seems a perfect anthem for them. 

https://youtu.be/T13se_2A7c8?t=68

Really.

Here's the re-do of

"Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)"

Contributions by certain members are obvious. 



We don't need no crappy test leads
We don't need no broken probes
No burned-out nixies in our counters
Kitty, leave them scopes alone

Hey, kitty, leave them scopes alone!

All in all it's just another stack that's too tall
All in all another scope with a hair ball

[Chorus by members of the Test Equipment Anonymous forum thread]

We don't need no crappy test leads
We don't need no broken probes
No burned-out nixies in our counters
Kitty, leave them scopes alone

Hey, kitty, leave them scopes alone!

All in all it's just another stack that's too tall
All in all another scope with a hair ball

[Spoken:]
Wrong! Solder it again!
Wrong! Solder it again!
If you don't own any Tektronix, you can't have any pudding!
How can you have any pudding if you don't own hp!
You! Yes, you, behind the equipment rack, stand still, laddy!

Dis you know you can it is possible to sing the chorus lyrics to the 'Ode to joy' theme from the finale of Beethoven's 9th symphony? They have exactly the same scansion. Once heard, never forgotten.

[McBryce]

Speaking of barriers and Walls and RPN comes up. Coincidence? - I think not

Just need to put it somewhere now. First one looks good and up to the job so a second is underway. Time to empty one of my cable drawers.

But first several Coffees ......

edit - first one installed. Not an ideal location as the PC sits under it so the leads need to be doubled over. Sort of my everyday driver leads.

You don't need a 3D printer to make test lead holders (and I'm not just saying that because my printer hasn't arrived yet ).

You buy a few meters of PVC cable ducting like this. Throw away the lid, cut it down the middle (along it's length) and attach where you need it. Because it's PVC, it can take an aweful lot of weight without breaking and it cost only pennies.

McBryce

[beanflying]

Speaking of barriers and Walls and RPN comes up. Coincidence? - I think not

Just need to put it somewhere now. First one looks good and up to the job so a second is underway. Time to empty one of my cable drawers.

But first several Coffees ......

edit - first one installed. Not an ideal location as the PC sits under it so the leads need to be doubled over. Sort of my everyday driver leads.

You don't need a 3D printer to make test lead holders (and I'm not just saying that because my printer hasn't arrived yet ).

You buy a few meters of PVC cable ducting like this. Throw away the lid, cut it down the middle (along it's length) and attach where you need it. Because it's PVC, it can take an aweful lot of weight without breaking and it cost only pennies.

McBryce

Good life hack. I have seen it done before, the PVC doesn't break but it flexes when you load it up. Wait until you get your printer then you can do 'kwality' hacks unlike a certain fan hack that will remain nameless

[URI]

Another Brick in The Wall (Of Test Equipment)

Boat anchors have made me scream a bit over the years and Great Gig in the Sky seems a perfect anthem for them. 

https://youtu.be/T13se_2A7c8?t=68

A great song with a great performance of Clare Torry who performed it for only 30 Pounds and had to sue Pink Floyd for co-authorship with Richard Wright (and most likely part of the royalties) later.

And she made it up on the spot during recording. The "requirements specification" from Pink Floyd were spectacularly inadequate

..and the reaction of the floyds to her performance is said to be so inadequate that she didn't consider it would get onto the record.
Her vocal part in that song still touches me deeply.

[tautech]

Another Brick in The Wall (Of Test Equipment)

Boat anchors have made me scream a bit over the years and Great Gig in the Sky seems a perfect anthem for them. 

https://youtu.be/T13se_2A7c8?t=68

A great song with a great performance of Clare Torry who performed it for only 30 Pounds and had to sue Pink Floyd for co-authorship with Richard Wright (and most likely part of the royalties) later.

And she made it up on the spot during recording. The "requirements specification" from Pink Floyd were spectacularly inadequate

..and the reaction of the floyds to her performance is said to be so inadequate that she didn't consider it would get onto the record.
Her vocal part in that song still touches me deeply.

Yep it's bloody good. When it comes up on the CD player in my wagon it always gets a replay or 2 or 3 or 4.......... 
We got a tribute band downunder call the Pink Floyd Experience that I've been to see a couple of times and the girl they have doing Great Gig in the Sky is just as good Clare Torry and gets the hairs up on the back of your neck just the same.

Anyways, The Wall was the first show I went to see and they built all the wall with boxes too !
It was bloody fantastic and I couldn't speak for a day or so such was the throat from singing along.