Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Mr. Scram]

Well I was going to do a med on it, full recap but when everything checked out OK thought, well whats the point, it's a working bit of kit again that can be put to one side, so I can get on with the Avo 8 and then clear the bench down again, so I can get further into the jewel in the crown, the 9082. Maybe I'll get around the recapping the J2B later when I'm looking for something to do.

I'm going to need you to step away from the can of paint.

[Mr. Scram]

Bother. My neighbour is coughing like a seal and I don't think they're quite the sanitary type.

[mnementh]

*farts in your general direction to balance things out*

mnem
"It can always get worse."

[Mortymore]

Bother. My neighbour is coughing like a seal and I don't think they're quite the sanitary type.

Keep the distance. Keep safe.

My neighbour next door works for Oracle and returned 2 weeks ago from a trip to some city in Spain and he had fever, probably no Covid though, but he has been followed by phone by the national health care service. None of the family members had issues so far. But only the wife gets to the bedroom door to leave him food, just like if he was in jail. They have ben cautious.

[Mr. Scram]

Keep the distance. Keep safe.

My neighbour next door works for Oracle and returned 2 weeks ago from a trip to some city in Spain and he had fever, probably no Covid though, but he has been followed by phone by the national health care service. None of the family members had issues so far. But only the wife gets to the bedroom door to leave him food, just like if he was in jail. They have ben cautious.

I will, but I doubt they will. They had a party with people over last weekend. 

[Specmaster]

Well I was going to do a med on it, full recap but when everything checked out OK thought, well whats the point, it's a working bit of kit again that can be put to one side, so I can get on with the Avo 8 and then clear the bench down again, so I can get further into the jewel in the crown, the 9082. Maybe I'll get around the recapping the J2B later when I'm looking for something to do.

I'm going to need you to step away from the can of paint.

Don't worry, the rest of the case is already a nice TEK kind of light blue already, perhaps I'll take a photo tomorrow and post it, only I can't get far enough away from it in my little lab to show the case as well. My lab is only 1.5m from wall-to-wall hence why I don't like boat anchors, not having the space to have them in use, and they are to heavy to store in cupboard and get when you need them

[Specmaster]

......

Besides recaping, some resistors are not is great shape also.
Just working is good enough, or you intend to restore it?

No, I've seen resistors like this before, and disconnecting a leg, measured them, and they were right on the values. If any of these resistors had been suffering stress then they would have also surely drifted values and then the various voltages would also be out as well as the resultant output from the unit. This does not seem to the case, the output on a scope is nice and symmetrical and the various bands are within the specification according to the manual as is the output power 

[Brumby]

No, I've seen resistors like this before, and disconnecting a leg, measured them, and they were right on the values. If any of these resistors had been suffering stress then they would have also surely drifted values ...

I don't know I'd be that comfortable leaving them.  To me, they look like they're headed for oblivion - it's just a matter of when.

[Specmaster]

This should end the argument once and for all. As I have insisted all along the Siglent is off. This proves it. It may be in spec but I truly believe the factory cal was flawed.

Flukes rule, Siglents drool.     

I doubt that, more of  a case that each calibrator is going to be very slightly different, and they can only be as good as the calibrator that they were calibrated against. I have noticed that Flukes have always held they calibrations year after year. 

[worsthorse]

Try that with software 

It works, but only if the software is at least twenty-five years old.   

[worsthorse]

definitely not 7.5 digits.  or even 3.5, i guess...   

Three digits on the long scale I reckon. I can easily interpolate a final digit by eye on a scale like that. I wonder if this is a learned skill from only having analogue meters to work with at first, and is lost to the current generation who've only seen digital displays, or whether it is something that anyone can do and whether a millennial would get a 2 or 3 digits out of that scale?

It's a learned skill, but I am guessing that learning it when you are fourteen (as I did, in my voc-tech electronics class) and its the only kind of meter there is, it sticks with you in a way that learning it when you're thirty and haven't ever used analog doesn't.  I mean, I love my Fluke five point five digit DMMs but analog meters whisper details to you of which their digital brethren are clueless. 

[mnementh]

worsthorse likes it when they wiggle.   

mnem
 

[Cerebus]

Did somebody leave the childproof cap off the Dragon's happy juice?

[Neomys Sapiens]

FFS!

was away for a short time and return to find all the brits have turned into "statler and waldorf" from the muppet show!

and the dragon is now "the voice of reason".

screw this..........am going back down into my "fortress of solitude" and work some more on reducing noise in my 10 Ghz yig oscillator.  (actually managed to fry an lm317 yesterday.  did not expect it to fail short!)

ps  fortunately med is a never changing rock of stability.  (a blue assed NY bastard bitchin' about snow and the postal system).

LM317 is one of those devices with a lot of lore around it. Some of my favourites which I find terribly funny:

1. I can make a 1.2-30V regulator that will kick out an amp with one. Proceeds to then run it with a 40V input and 3.3V output with an inch across heatsink on it trying to absorb 25 watts or so. BOOM!
2. They automatically current limit if they get hot. BOOM!
3. They make a good charger IC for SLA batteries. Line power goes down, missing protection diodes. BOOM!
4. They are universally stable. Runs it with 30 foot of inductors between the regulator and load. BOOM!
5. They are short circuit proo.....BOOM!
6. You can strap a CC circuit behind a CV circuit and make a bench power supply. Oh it's oscillating like fuck. BOOM!
7. It fails open (a thing you found out isn't true). Nope the pass transistor goes C-E short almost always and dumps the entire input voltage across the load.

If you value anything that any linear regulator is connected to regardless of type or vendor or even if it's a commercial power supply from a big brand, you stick a crowbar in circuit.

My experiences were similar, but more costly, as I fell to the hype of it's big brother, the LM338. I got my fingers on it aged 15, wayyy before I understood thermal design. Whoa! 5A from 1.5 to 37V, and protected against everything. And in an early bout of entrepreneurship, I even sold one such unbuilt PS to my chemistry teacher. Those things cost about 30.- DM at that time. Oh my, that got ugly fast. They cooked off before I could even touch a control. Days of shame...
Then, much later, I understood what happened. I called myself a fool and thought that I am done with that topic. Until the Internet came. And with it, the incredulous tales of people which were doing exactly the same thing all over again.

[bitseeker]

The oval power connector is a PH-163.

If cables for it weren't close to unobtanium I'd be a lot warmer to them. As it stands, there probably is a landfill of them somewhere and a global TE community looking for it. (like the Atari video games in the desert story).

US eBay ~$15 (when not being sold by price gougers).

[Neomys Sapiens]

And don't get me wrong...that family of three-legged bastards is useful and dependable, if treated correctly with a bit of EE knowledge. And the LMx17 seems to be related to another very useful component, namely the LMx95! Not that NS told us about it. As shown in the enclosed document:

[beanflying]

FFS!

was away for a short time and return to find all the brits have turned into "statler and waldorf" from the muppet show!

and the dragon is now "the voice of reason".

screw this..........am going back down into my "fortress of solitude" and work some more on reducing noise in my 10 Ghz yig oscillator.  (actually managed to fry an lm317 yesterday.  did not expect it to fail short!)

ps  fortunately med is a never changing rock of stability.  (a blue assed NY bastard bitchin' about snow and the postal system).

So did you do an Essential road trip for that Fluke Calibrator in the end?

[mansaxel]

Let's see how international commerce works.

Mouser and Fedex now give a delivery date of March 31st for my component refill / project completion order. One of the posts is 1 off something that says "VISHAY RESISTOR" but hides one PTF561K0000TZBF. which is the central piece of coming project, a local 1KΩ reference.

Also, hope to take the plunge on a DE-5000 today.

@worsthorse: The 3400 is on my list, together with either 410B or 410C. If I find a sensor setup in working order for less than $SILLY I want a 435B, too. Before that, I'm going to practice building power dividers. A lot.

Edit: Listening to the morning program on the radio here. Their US correspondents carefully and with minimal sensationalism juxtapose the statements of for instance the MD state governor and the White House, but can't completely conceal their bafflement. You're in for a ride. Hold on.

Edit 2: Package has done a mnem, and escaped Texas. Now in Tennessee.

[beanflying]

Corona shut in Remedy #1

Alcohol because sanitizing all surfaces is important so make sure to take some internally too. Believe the Muppet @ 1600 Quinine will fix you up so add Tonic as a readily available source without the need to wait for pesky approvals. Add a splash of mystery Herbs surrounded by more Alcohol because Herbal Remedies are awesome too according to the magic Wizard on disreputable website www.dumbasspseudomedicine.com . Top it off with a little Citrus to keep the Scurvy at bay.

Repeat as required or until paranoia, anxiety and stress reduce to acceptable levels.

[capt bullshot]

My experiences were similar, but more costly, as I fell to the hype of it's big brother, the LM338. I got my fingers on it aged 15, wayyy before I understood thermal design. Whoa! 5A from 1.5 to 37V, and protected against everything. And in an early bout of entrepreneurship, I even sold one such unbuilt PS to my chemistry teacher. Those things cost about 30.- DM at that time. Oh my, that got ugly fast. They cooked off before I could even touch a control. Days of shame...
Then, much later, I understood what happened. I called myself a fool and thought that I am done with that topic. Until the Internet came. And with it, the incredulous tales of people which were doing exactly the same thing all over again.

That's just the way "real" engineers learned their profession. Nothing to compare with today's youth, just copying some shit from the internet (OK, I had a book), not knowing what they do (OK, we didn't either) and then complaining on the internet (Hmm, we couldn't for some reason I can't remember ). So we had to understand the stuff to be successful, while today they blame the supplier ...

[mansaxel]

Corona shut in Remedy #1

Alcohol because sanitizing all surfaces is important so make sure to take some internally too. Believe the Muppet @ 1600 Quinine will fix you up so add Tonic as a readily available source without the need to wait for pesky approvals. Add a splash of mystery Herbs surrounded by more Alcohol because Herbal Remedies are awesome too according to the magic Wizard on disreputable website www.dumbasspseudomedicine.com . Top it off with a little Citrus to keep the Scurvy at bay.

Repeat as required or until paranoia, anxiety and stress reduce to acceptable levels.

I usually divide the sanitizer into double servings, either with herbs or quinine. Otherwise, we're on the same track.

[med6753]

Since I don't have equipment racks and no room for them this is where the 8505A will reside. On top of the 535A.

Later today I'll do the tear down.

[grizewald]

Let's see how international commerce works.

Mouser and Fedex now give a delivery date of March 31st for my component refill / project completion order. One of the posts is 1 off something that says "VISHAY RESISTOR" but hides one PTF561K0000TZBF. which is the central piece of coming project, a local 1KΩ reference.

Edit 2: Package has done a mnem, and escaped Texas. Now in Tennessee.

Fedex normally put my Mouser deliveries in my hand no later than two working days after they escape Texas. It'll be interesting to hear when yours does actually turn up.
I just love Mouser's free Fedex shipping, and the fact that they collect VAT without anything having to disappear into Postnord's ransom system.

[Ice-Tea]

Fedex normally put my Mouser deliveries in my hand no later than two working days after they escape Texas. It'll be interesting to hear when yours does actually turn up.
I just love Mouser's free Fedex shipping, and the fact that they collect VAT without anything having to disappear into Postnord's ransom system.

Yup. Works like a charm, no hassle 

[Ice-Tea]

I'm guessing this isn't great...

Nope, not great at all...