Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

OK, who has erased an old posting? 

[med6753]

More capacitor replacements on the 535A. The objective this time is to replace these 3 cans by the vertical amplifier. The objective didn't quite work out as planned.

BTW...those 4 short tubes are all 6DJ8/ECC88 “Bugle Boys”. Must be on guard at all times for audiophool tube raiders.



Getting the old cans out proved to be a lot more difficult than anticipated. Very limited and difficult access to the rear hold down screw. But finally got 2 out and new capacitors installed as shown. Before moving on to the 3rd can I wanted to do a check and power up. And that's when things went into the toilet. The scope powered up fine and all B+ voltages were at nominal but the vertical amplifier had only ¾ of gain it should have. WTF. About an hour and half of troubleshooting and I found that I had forgot to restore a ground to a voltage divider feeding the grids of the 1st vertical amp. D'OH. Repaired and now vertical gain is correct.



Calling it a day on this and that 3rd can will be changed out another time. That plus these 2 more behind the power transformer are the remaining to do. Those 2 cans will remain in place. It's tight down there but there's enough room to install the replacement caps on the backside as I did in the PSU.


The heatsink grease will arrive today so tomorrow is the vertical board swap on the 485. 

[bd139]

Are you sure you have spotted all Mr Smith's aliases?

I have four eBay accounts so probably no

Only the test gear and radio bits one is easy to identify

[BU508A]

Getting the old cans out proved to be a lot more difficult than anticipated. Very limited and difficult access to the rear hold down screw. But finally got 2 out and new capacitors installed as shown. Before moving on to the 3rd can I wanted to do a check and power up. And that's when things went into the toilet. The scope powered up fine and all B+ voltages were at nominal but the vertical amplifier had only ¾ of gain it should have. WTF. About an hour and half of troubleshooting and I found that I had forgot to restore a ground to a voltage divider feeding the grids of the 1st vertical amp. D'OH. Repaired and now vertical gain is correct.

This may be a stupid question: Wouldn't it be a good idea to hide the electrolytic caps behind some heatshield?
Protect them against the IR radiation coming from the tubes?   

[Brumby]

Ah yes, page 2001 (for normal non adjusted paging members)

Seems we made it through without any millennial bug issues.   

[Cerebus]

Just in the region of Germany I live in (NRW) there are almost 3,000 WWII Bombs found per year (2018 was 2,811). The time needed to remove them tends to depend on the condition of the bomb (how rusted it is) and the position and angle of the bomb. Some are gone within an hour or two and some take an entire day to remove.

McBryce.

The rate for the UK is around 5000 items a year according to the Construction Industry Research and Information Association (whose members are most likely to be the first people to encounter a UXB when it is first unearthed).

[xrunner]

Sorry but I have to put this on page 2001 -

[med6753]

Getting the old cans out proved to be a lot more difficult than anticipated. Very limited and difficult access to the rear hold down screw. But finally got 2 out and new capacitors installed as shown. Before moving on to the 3rd can I wanted to do a check and power up. And that's when things went into the toilet. The scope powered up fine and all B+ voltages were at nominal but the vertical amplifier had only ¾ of gain it should have. WTF. About an hour and half of troubleshooting and I found that I had forgot to restore a ground to a voltage divider feeding the grids of the 1st vertical amp. D'OH. Repaired and now vertical gain is correct.

This may be a stupid question: Wouldn't it be a good idea to hide the electrolytic caps behind some heatshield?
Protect them against the IR radiation coming from the tubes?   

They are 105C caps and it's deceiving from that view but they are an adequate distance from the tubes.

[tggzzz]

Ding!

And there's the summary...  50k posts, 1001st page, and slightly more than one view for every mile between the earth and the moon.

Well ...   

Doh! <expletive deleted>

What's an order of magnitude between friends? 

[med6753]

Sorry but I have to put this on page 2001 -

(Attachment Link)

"Open the outer doors HAL" 

[Specmaster]

Are you sure you have spotted all Mr Smith's aliases?

I have four eBay accounts so probably no

Only the test gear and radio bits one is easy to identify

Keep em guessing 

[mansaxel]

...bombs with chemical time delay fuzes are the usual culprit.

So that must be tant or rifa fuses

Mostly an acetone vial that gets crushed by the spinning arming propeller threading a plunger into it, and the acetone gets to work on the celluloid discs that block the spring which pushes on the firing pin. Celluloid capacitor with acetone dielectricum ;-)  Apparently the detonator in part relies on the bomb falling correctly and staying pointy end down, fins up. Only then will the discs get drenched and dissolve. If the bomb ended up 180° turned, pointy end up, the celluloid was kept dry and delay is "extended". To 70-80 years or so. More stable than a RIFA, then.

[nixiefreqq]

The heatsink grease will arrive today so tomorrow is the vertical board swap on the 485. 

we have waited patiently.

AND now you tell us that it will arrive today BUT we have to wait 'till tomorrow?

(was gonna' call you a "lyin' dog faced pony soldier", but could not for the life of me figure out wtf that means) 

[med6753]

The heatsink grease will arrive today so tomorrow is the vertical board swap on the 485. 

we have waited patiently.

AND now you tell us that it will arrive today BUT we have to wait 'till tomorrow?

(was gonna' call you a "lyin' dog faced pony soldier", but could not for the life of me figure out wtf that means)

Keep it up and I may delay until Wednesday...or perhaps Thursday.....Saturday? 

[nixiefreqq]

The heatsink grease will arrive today so tomorrow is the vertical board swap on the 485. 

we have waited patiently.

AND now you tell us that it will arrive today BUT we have to wait 'till tomorrow?

(was gonna' call you a "lyin' dog faced pony soldier", but could not for the life of me figure out wtf that means)

Keep it up and I may delay until Wednesday...or perhaps Thursday.....Saturday? 

noooooooo!  i promise to behave.

[mnementh]

   

Sorry but I have to put this on page 2001 -

We've really come a long... way....? 

mnem

[BU508A]

   

Sorry but I have to put this on page 2001 -

We've really come a long... way....? 

mnem

Not long enough. The thigh bone ist still at hand.

[Wolfgang]

   

Sorry but I have to put this on page 2001 -

We've really come a long... way....? 

mnem

Not long enough. The thigh bone ist still at hand.

In fact, not really such a long way. Look at Banksy's English parliament, they are all there.

[Villain]

Recently got an agilent 81130A pulse generator with 2x 81132A 660MHz modules installed, fully working. Also got a Rohde & Schwarz URE 3 RMS Voltmeter. Both for free. Pretty happy with that. Can post pictures soon if any interest is there.

[mnementh]

Yep Self Calibration initially using my pair of 6 1/2's and depending on how stable the Fluke is and how I think it will be used look at having it Calibrated  But the costs of keeping it in Cal along with my current Cal'd meters is really 

Across the board the specs for it are only marginally if any better than the 34401A and 34461A so it is not really up to calibrating them or being calibrated by them strictly but for 4 or 5 1/2 digit gear or even in shack use well up to the task.

If the cost of keeping a pair of 6 1/2's is less than keeping the Fluke in Cal then the meters win in my case for current use.

I guess my question would be...  who the fòck can you get that is A) knowledgeable enough in this prehistoric boat-anchorage (aside from a few weirdos and greybeards, most of whom frequent this board ) and 2) laboratory sufficiently equipped to calibrate that chunk of Godzilla Tech for you; and ╠) how the fsck are you gonna get it to/from said laboratory...?

I love you man... and I do eagerly await your journals of this odyssey you are about to undertake...  

mnem

[mnementh]

I'm flogging some stuff on fleabay, and a potential purchaser contacted me. He has chosen to make all his feedback "private", which means I can see that they are all positive, but the comments and items bought are hidden.

So, what's the benefit to hiding feedback?

Folk who do that are real arseholes, and I like you can see no benefit from doing it. In fact, I think it's a negative as it does nothing to help other buyers decide if you're a good seller and equally sellers can't see if he is a good buyer or not, so why do it? 

With a seller, they're typically hiding an assumed or hijacked account, or someone who deals in "unmentionable products"; you can tell a lot about a vendor the nature of their product. Once upon a time eBay didn't allow such things, just as they didn't allow "private listings" where a seller is able to pick & choose his bidders. THAT NOIZE.

With a buyer, they're typically hiding a similar history of buying nebulous goods; folks who deal in armaments and semi-illegal gun parts also often do this to keep themselves shrouded in eBay's privacy policy. Or, they may be an overseas buyer hiding one or more negative or neutral feedback with detailed and acrimonious comments that were well-earned. Again... THAT NOIZE.

If they're hiding something on eBay, they're hiding shit IRL too. Do business elsewhere.

mnem

[bd139]

I am telling myself I don't need any TM500 equipment. Someone buy it quick: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114118338675

[mnementh]

I'm flogging some stuff on fleabay, and a potential purchaser contacted me. He has chosen to make all his feedback "private", which means I can see that they are all positive, but the comments and items bought are hidden.

So, what's the benefit to hiding feedback?

I hate that. It's usually the guy who wants a return sorted almost immediately after receiving stuff as I found out recently. In my case it turned out to be some idiot CB'er who couldn't work out how to operate the equipment that he had been sent despite the availability of a manual.

Honestly as an ebay seller, it has got pretty bad. But it's the only market at the moment so you have to take the rough with the smooth. I plan to lose about 10% of my returns either through idiots or post.

Edit: on top of asshat above, I got this strike on my seller account despite actually resolving it properly!!!

Yes, but cases like that you can call eBay customer support and speak to a person; they will review the feedback & revise or simply delete it. I had to do this with that jagov who sold me a "tampered after photos taken" 189 and posted hateful comments guised in positive feedback when I returned it.  This is something that is repeatedly warned against in both buyer and seller TOS.

mnem

[mnementh]

Finally, I've found out, why the guys from UK are so shy  using discord.



https://www.zdnet.com/article/uk-police-distance-themselves-from-poster-warning-parents-to-report-kids-for-using-kali-linux/

Yeah; let's worry that your kids are showing some signs of intelligence and STEM-related competency.

This shows just how fucking clueless law-enforcement is as a whole regarding cyber-security in general; they're just now responding the the widespread and visible threats of a decade ago. I remember similar warnings about SUSE, FFS.    And RedHat before that...



At least the guys at Kali have a sense of humor about it all...

mnem
*starts digging a bunker in the back yard*

[Specmaster]

Yep Self Calibration initially using my pair of 6 1/2's and depending on how stable the Fluke is and how I think it will be used look at having it Calibrated  But the costs of keeping it in Cal along with my current Cal'd meters is really 

Across the board the specs for it are only marginally if any better than the 34401A and 34461A so it is not really up to calibrating them or being calibrated by them strictly but for 4 or 5 1/2 digit gear or even in shack use well up to the task.

If the cost of keeping a pair of 6 1/2's is less than keeping the Fluke in Cal then the meters win in my case for current use.

I guess my question would be...  who the fòck can you get that is A) knowledgeable enough in this prehistoric boat-anchorage (aside from a few weirdos and greybeards, most of whom frequent this board ) and 2) laboratory sufficiently equipped to calibrate that chunk of Godzilla Tech for you; and ╠) how the fsck are you gonna get it to/from said laboratory...?

I love you man... and I do eagerly await your journals of this odyssey you are about to undertake...  

mnem

Thats actually a good point, remember I could only find 1 cal lab (arguably the largest in the UK, RS),  that said that they could calibrate my HP3478A, and in the end they admitted defeat and shipped it back to me untouched, leaving it to me to do what they couldn't