Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Exactly. Although I don't go above 20m here

[tggzzz]

For fun, tell us which country this field is in: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4488068,4.9419341,21z

The Haskell Free Library in Derby Line, VT is an interesting place as well. We need more places like this. Check it out at these coordinates 45.005760,-72.097688

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskell_Free_Library_and_Opera_House

There are many large farm buildings on the Eire / Northern Ireland border. They were notoriously "handy" for smuggling.

[tggzzz]

Hahaha 

This weekend's stupid project. How many watts of RF power can I get out of the large bag of 2N3904's I found clearing out the cupboard 

Easy: exactly as much as you put in.

Would you care to rephrase your question including time intervals and usefullness of said power output?

[nfmax]

Canada

Canada it's my secret dream tooo...

Oh, what the hell; you too Z... I'll just go sleep on the porch. I like the cold and I have 6 inches of blubber to keep me warm anyways...

mnem

Live the dream - I can walk to Canada from where I live in less than half an hour!

[bd139]

Hahaha 

This weekend's stupid project. How many watts of RF power can I get out of the large bag of 2N3904's I found clearing out the cupboard 

Easy: exactly as much as you put in.

Would you care to rephrase your question including time intervals and usefullness of said power output?

You know what I mean 

So the brief is: I have 200x 2N3904's and about 6 hours to piss up the wall. Can I persuade a lot of them in parallel to act as a class C RF power amplifier and associated driver and generate a useful amount of gain, preferably 10dB at 10 watts out. Objectively some RF power transistors are a hell of a lot of smaller transistors on one die with some degeneration to prevent hot spotting so can we embiggen this silly idea?

I got 3 watts out of 5x motorola 2n2222a's. They got a bit toasty.

[FransW]

Here is another lucky owner.
Very nice piece of equipment.

Bought another frequency counter 

In general I appreciate the product made by BG7TBL (Chinese HAM ?). The Gpsdo, noise source and low freq upscaler I bought are all working fine and were really affordable. He recently created a high resolution frequency counter. Got 2 inputs (0-200Mhz and 30Mhz-6Ghz), 11 digits resolution, integrated power meter, switchable 50/1M  termination and USB (for data logging and automation). You can feed 10Mhz in the back or use the internal Ocxo. Best of all, it make absolutely no noise 





You can adjust the internal OCXO with a trimpot accessible at the back. The 6Ghz prescaler is on a different board.

[kj7e]

Here is another lucky owner.
Very nice piece of equipment.

I have one coming myself and will do some tests against my 53132a.

[kj7e]

Interesting bit of TEA;

[Carl_Smith]

The regular prices are lower than the coupon prices.   

[ArthurDent]

It always interests me how you can find some piece of equipment you can’t pass up but that you weren’t even looking for, sometimes in the oddest of places. I was at the Goodwill Thrift Store with my wife in the checkout line when I looked down on a nearby shelve and saw a large IEC power cord on top of what I first thought was a home entertainment center A/V receiver.

I tipped it up to inspect the front panel and found it weighed about 50 pounds. It was a 1000 VA APC J10 power conditioner with battery backup. The wall plug still had the protective plastic cover on the pins indicating that it was brand new, never used. It took me about 2 seconds to decide to buy the unit after figuring that it probably had been sitting in some warehouse for a few years and when they unboxed it to check it, it didn’t work because the SLA batteries had been flat for too long and were totally dead and would no longer take a charge. When I opened it at home I found the innards and fan were clean with no dust so it had never been used. The cost of the APC J10 was about the same as the price of the two 12V7A SLA replacement batteries I bought.

My wife has resigned herself to not question my purchases but I think I saw “that look” as I picked it up and put it on the sales counter. 

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/465424-REG/APC_J10BLK_J10_Home_Theater_Power.html

[Carl_Smith]

Found a PDF of the Hazard Fraught flyer.  There's more pages than just the one above.   

[drussell]

Found a PDF of the Hazard Fraught flyer.  There's more pages than just the one above.   

Yeah, I've seen that whole thing before...  You just beat me to finding a link.   

[Saskia]

just returned from my monthly Reichelt toor (German electronics distributor)
I found: 1 Rigol DS1054z, 1 HP 35s calculator, 4 3TB HDDs, 1 250GB SSD, 1 3D printer
I did not grab the Uni T 40000 counts bench meter (70€ after discount), because I'd rather grab a Keysight ...

Also got my E.A.R. 519 Tube Amps out of maintenance (400€ for the overhaul) and grabbed a configurable 3way crossover. Now I have to build a 400 Hz  low pass Bessel or Butterworth (whichever sounds better) by modifying the 100 Hz filter that is build it.

Finally I picked up my turntable. So I am back into audiophoolery

[mansaxel]

Ahem, now back to my original question... any suggestions on suitable cable?  Yes, thanks, I've seen that vendor and I am trying to avoid buying a roll of the stuff. I haven't found it in smaller chunks yet.

I'd try ordinary microphone cable as a second idea. Belden has or at least had one that is fairly large area and rubber, the Iggy Pop cable, as it's known.  Yes, here it is: https://catalog.belden.com/techdatam/1776.pdf EPDM insulation and jacket, cotton filler. Should stand some abuse while being not too stiff.

[nixiefreqq]

Ooh meant to say I just bagged a bargain (I hope).



Nixies and heathkit for £12. Who can moan at that 

It looks bodged and beat up. 

Front panel wears out on them. I know someone who has a vinyl printer so I can just make a new overlay. I might just leave it if it works.

Does up to 30 entire MHz. 

it looks fully functional....useful.....is imbued with nixieness......and cute. 

it gets the nixiefreqq stamp of approval.


don't know why med tried to piss in your corn flakes.  (he is usually such a warm and fuzzy kinda' guy)

[alextwin007]

Ooh meant to say I just bagged a bargain (I hope).



Nixies and heathkit for £12. Who can moan at that 

It looks bodged and beat up. 

Front panel wears out on them. I know someone who has a vinyl printer so I can just make a new overlay. I might just leave it if it works.

Does up to 30 entire MHz. 

it looks fully functional....useful.....is imbued with nixieness......and cute. 

it gets the nixiefreqq stamp of approval.


don't know why med tried to piss in your corn flakes.  (he is usually such a warm and fuzzy kinda' guy)

Oh cute nixie tubes,  I need to get something mini with nixies to add to my collection of mini oscilloscopes

[mnementh]

I swear haven't lost my mind; it's backed up on a USB here somewhere...

I have the impression, that you are developing a serious MRMRB¹ syndrome.      

Get well soon!


¹ Missing Really My Real Bench

Oh, in SO many ways... Thanks!

mnem
one can hide a multitude of sins under that declaration...

[mnementh]

Yeah; I guess I'm trying to understand the WHY here. They already ARE a 4-wire Kelvin connection right to the base of the alligator clip; that 15mm or so of metal means precisely squat. The DE-5000 is accurate to nF AS-IS, and is as accurate at sub-ohm resistance measurement as my 3478A, only it doesn't take a week to settle down to a final measurement.

    So why fuck widdit?

I mean... I could understand making an EXTRA set of longer leads with alligators; to test against the shorties and for convenience' sake. But I certainly would NOT assume that any modification of the clip leads from what the meter was designed with is an "upgrade".

mnem

I am quite aware of the capabilities and limitations of the DE-5000, sir. The test leads are too short for my needs. The alligator clips are shitty. I have an extra test fixture. And you are asking why someone would f**k widdit? In this thread? Are you kidding me? 

Ahem, now back to my original question... any suggestions on suitable cable?  Yes, thanks, I've seen that vendor and I am trying to avoid buying a roll of the stuff. I haven't found it in smaller chunks yet.

Fair dinkum... 

In that case, (and since I've had some time to think about just such a hack myself) my suggestion would be to get another of the "tweezer" attachments and use that to make your "extra long" clip leads or hardwire the cable from that to your test fixture. ~$22 last I checked, so probably as cheap as you're gonna get the cable anyways & the connector end is already wired. You know the device can compensate for the cable they used therein, and the tweezer you remove becomes a spare. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

mnem
*Current mood: splat*

[mnementh]

Just found out that the Hakko FM-203 is en route from Colorado. I should have it in a few days. I've pretty much shut down any activity here until after New Years but I will fire it up and try it out as well as show some porn. And then this comes flying across my screen:

...You're welcome in my home anytime as well, old friend. But just a warning; Papa Smurf already has a similar standing offer. You may have to put up with him AND ME if lady cop gets sick of his shit. . 

mnem

Wut???        Does this look like a cop who's tired of my shit and wants to arrest me? Do you see any handcuffs in this picture?

No my son, in case you have forgotten that look it is a come hither look and I want to give you a big fat kiss.   You see...I...yes, me.....bought that dress for her. All by myself. I make it my biz to know her size and what she likes. She often remarks how much I spoil her. You gotta keep them happy or she will toss my sorry arse in jail and throw away the key. Took me a LONG time to figure that out but I think I found the formula. 

Good for you on the Hakko. Hope you have much better fortune with it than I did my two. Odds are you will; soldering stations just seem to die around me unless they're built like a brick shithouse MetCal.

I never meant to impugn your current relationship with your dear lady cop. I was speaking in general terms; one guy to another. We all have shit, and guys' shit in general is worse and it tends to splatter.     Each and every one of us knows (at least we do if we have so much as a whit of common sense about us) that "the relationship" is a tightrope walk while juggling chainsaws, and any day any one of us could do "the one thing she just can't stand" one time too many and wind up in the doghouse. ¹

Good luck, and watch out for the red one... it's coming at you blade down.

Don't get cocky, my friend. 

mnem
¹ In Canada. 

[mnementh]

   
Interesting bit of TEA

Ahhhh.... gotta love the classics. That one's been circulating around the intardnet for over a decade.

mnem
*totally missing Horror Fraught/Horrible Friggit Tools now that I'm north of the border*

[25 CPS]

Christmas came a bit early. Here are a pair of recent Kijiji purchases.  Finding a spot for the function generator won’t be a problem but I’m still working on figuring out where a permanent home for that spectrum analyzer on my bench is going to be.

[worsthorse]

More first world problems: status of current fedex shipments

The first is confirmed lost; the seller is shipping a replacement, overnight, at their expense and will deal with Fedex.

The second (the one that circulated between two depots in NJ and PA for five days) is supposed to be delivered tomorrow but hasn't been seen since December 9th.

The third disappeared for five days, reappeared in the system on the day it was supposed to be delivered, is still in its origin city, and now has a new delivery date of December 23rd.

By the way, it is not like I have hundreds of packages in the Fedex system. I have, yes, exactly three.   

edit: In better news, the USPS carrier just dropped off my components order, so I can start fixing the 184 this evening.  And I just got a text message that leads me to believe that I am going to score a couple of Lambda linear power supplies.

[worsthorse]

Christmas came a bit early. Here are a pair of recent Kijiji purchases.  Finding a spot for the function generator won’t be a problem but I’m still working on figuring out where a permanent home for that spectrum analyzer on my bench is going to be.

How did you get that gear to stick to the ceiling? If I could figure that out, I could store a lot more TE around here! 

[med6753]

Christmas came a bit early. Here are a pair of recent Kijiji purchases.  Finding a spot for the function generator won’t be a problem but I’m still working on figuring out where a permanent home for that spectrum analyzer on my bench is going to be.

(Attachment Link)

How did you get that gear to stick to the ceiling? If I could figure that out, I could store a lot more TE around here! 

I was just about to ask the same thing.  Must be Canadian magic. 

[Kosmic]

Christmas came a bit early. Here are a pair of recent Kijiji purchases.  Finding a spot for the function generator won’t be a problem but I’m still working on figuring out where a permanent home for that spectrum analyzer on my bench is going to be.

How did you get that gear to stick to the ceiling? If I could figure that out, I could store a lot more TE around here! 

Hehe was about to ask the same thing