Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[URI]

Ooh this is interesting: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233507852253

10M to 15Ghz sig gen for a not too scary price.

Expect severe spectral impurity...   
There must be some difference to HP/R&S/Marconi/Fluke siggens that do less in a much bigger form factor with densely filled housings...   

I am actually considering an FA-2 at the moment.

Saw that a while ago and was quiet impressed.
Is there a teardown somewhere or information how it is built?

edit: found a thread just here in the eevblog forum:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/bg7tbl-fa1-frequency-analyzer/
Lady heather works with it, too.  Might be worth considering then...      

[tggzzz]

Ooh this is interesting: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233507852253

10M to 15Ghz sig gen for a not too scary price.

Expect severe spectral impurity...   
There must be some difference to HP/R&S/Marconi/Fluke siggens that do less in a much bigger form factor with densely filled housings...   

In my ignorance, I was impressed with the accuracy and phase noise of my LMX2954 eval board.

But the "square" wave output is likely to contain a few harmonics If that matters, look on it as a reason to understand and implement YIG filters, or notch filters, or ...

[bd139]

That's surely an excuse to buy an old HP 141T/8555A crate and play with distributed element filters though isn't it which surely can't be bad

[Kosmic]

Ooh this is interesting: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233507852253

10M to 15Ghz sig gen for a not too scary price.

Expect severe spectral impurity...   
There must be some difference to HP/R&S/Marconi/Fluke siggens that do less in a much bigger form factor with densely filled housings...   

I am actually considering an FA-2 at the moment.

Saw that a while ago and was quiet impressed.
Is there a teardown somewhere or information how it is built?

edit: found a thread just here in the eevblog forum:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/bg7tbl-fa1-frequency-analyzer/
Lady heather works with it, too.  Might be worth considering then...      

I posted some pictures last December https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg2826930/#msg2826930

[bd139]

Just scrolled down a bit to see if I actually picked up the FA-2 postings before and discovered this post from me:

After much reflection this morning, I have decided to stay put. I'm going to sell up, cash in all of my investments and dig through some impending shit, then buy a small house somewhere semi-remote but accessible, attempt to get energy self-sufficient, dig a fucking moat and forget the human race exists.

Should have started back then 

[mnementh]

"A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step."   

mnem
And, uhh... don't let the screen door hit ya on yer way out.

[mnementh]

[Brumby]

Poked a meat thermometer through the cardboard box to get an idea of the actual air temp inside ... only 50ºC - but I am happy enough with that.  Ready to call it a night, so I have turned it off and will leave it alone overnight.  Will check it in the morning.

[grizewald]

@mansaxel



I was sure I'd got myself three standard resistors for 150kr there!

Grrrr....












 

[URI]

Ooh this is interesting: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233507852253

10M to 15Ghz sig gen for a not too scary price.

Expect severe spectral impurity...   
There must be some difference to HP/R&S/Marconi/Fluke siggens that do less in a much bigger form factor with densely filled housings...   

I am actually considering an FA-2 at the moment.

Saw that a while ago and was quiet impressed.
Is there a teardown somewhere or information how it is built?

edit: found a thread just here in the eevblog forum:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/bg7tbl-fa1-frequency-analyzer/
Lady heather works with it, too.  Might be worth considering then...      

I posted some pictures last December https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg2826930/#msg2826930

Ah, thanks!
Faded memories slowly come back again..   

[Neomys Sapiens]

Can't stand back here!

To comment on the matter of the day; I have always admired the Romans for the degree of standardisation and consequential application of those in military as well as judicial matters. They should have used SPAX.

[bd139]

Found the X201 charger finally in the shite cupboard. It actually powers up. Battery is completely hosed. No disk in it. It's an i5 and has 4Gb of RAM and I had forgotten how amazingly good the keyboard is. It's a unit I custom built a few years ago with no touchpad and IPS display. Now trying to find an SSD. Sure I had a spare one around.

This variety but no horrible touchpad ... (it's buried already under more crap. Photos later if I get around to it):

[AVGresponding]

SOS: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-222PS-Oscilloscope-New-Batteries-Calibrated-Case-Excellent/324127770720

Clearly this should be purchased by med immediately and rescued from, I mean, wtf? Someone thinks its a Fluke or something?!?
 

[mnementh]

I like it; it's cheerful. VERY season-appropriate. 

mnem
 

[grizewald]

... Now trying to find an SSD. Sure I had a spare one around.

I've got an Intel 160GB that was originally installed in my X220 if you don't find one.

[mnementh]

Found the X201 charger finally in the shite cupboard. It actually powers up. Battery is completely hosed. No disk in it. It's an i5 and has 4Gb of RAM and I had forgotten how amazingly good the keyboard is. It's a unit I custom built a few years ago with no touchpad and IPS display. Now trying to find an SSD. Sure I had a spare one around.

This variety but no horrible touchpad ... (it's buried already under more crap. Photos later if I get around to it):

Win10 should install and authenticate with the key burned into the BIOS on that one. Usually even get Pro/64-bit.  Win10 will automatically optimize the file structure for SSD and enable TRIM too. Just make sure you enable AHCI mode in BIOS before you start the install and you should be golden. 

mnem
*current mood: diabetic coma-y*

[bd139]

... Now trying to find an SSD. Sure I had a spare one around.

I've got an Intel 160GB that was originally installed in my X220 if you don't find one.

Found a 128 gig Samsung 840 pro in the cupboard so no need. Thanks for the offer though 

Found the X201 charger finally in the shite cupboard. It actually powers up. Battery is completely hosed. No disk in it. It's an i5 and has 4Gb of RAM and I had forgotten how amazingly good the keyboard is. It's a unit I custom built a few years ago with no touchpad and IPS display. Now trying to find an SSD. Sure I had a spare one around.

This variety but no horrible touchpad ... (it's buried already under more crap. Photos later if I get around to it):

Win10 should install and authenticate with the key burned into the BIOS on that one. Usually even get Pro/64-bit.  Win10 will automatically optimize the file structure for the SSD and enable TRIM too. Just make sure you enable AHCI mode in BIOS before you start the install and you should be golden. 

mnem
*current mood: diabetic coma-y*

Yeah. It had windows 8.1 on it I think last time I used it. Should be fine. It may however get centos on it. Haven’t decided yet.

Nothing like an old thinkpad 

[Neomys Sapiens]

I like it; it's cheerful. VERY season-appropriate. 

mnem
 

It's another Pikachu in disguise.

[Saskia]

*looking at ebay offer*
*must resist*
*voice booming RESISTANCE IS FUTILE*
the scope will be assimilated ---

[grizewald]

"Like a lot of PHP code, this code wasn't written. It happened."

This is the canonical design review of PHP. Now on its tenth year and still most relevant.

I remember looking at some PHP code a long time ago. The code which implements the IPBoard forum software. I looked for about 30 minutes until blood started dripping from my nose and retreated in horror vowing never, ever to get involved with anything which involves PHP. Reading the article you linked explains the blood and confirms the wisdom of my vow.

Seriously, why would anyone use such a cesspool of a language for anything?

[edavid]

I don't know what a lot of that stuff is either.  I did a sort of adapters that fit the probes (rear) and all the stuff that doesn't or is unknown. That's the pile in the foreground. I'm going to bag them up and put it in the TEA closest with the rest of the loose Tek parts.

The white things are probe hangers.

The red things are BNC to spring hook adapters (stick into a BNC female, then clip your probe to them).

The funky banana plugs screw onto the probes, then plug into a banana jack or SO239.

[mansaxel]

I was sure I'd got myself three standard resistors for 150kr there!

Grrrr....

Excellent. Saves me from gloating about them.   Seller actually didn't have an idea what it was; he messaged me and wondered WTF he'd sold, since the bidding was so fierce. It wasn't only you and me, though. There were at least 3 active  bidders. So, if there's lurkers about, step out and post.

Pics coming as I've received them. Because Easter is, I don't think they will start travelling until Tuesday.

[med6753]

SOS: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-222PS-Oscilloscope-New-Batteries-Calibrated-Case-Excellent/324127770720

Clearly this should be purchased by med immediately and rescued from, I mean, wtf? Someone thinks its a Fluke or something?!?
 

Tempting but it looks like Saskia already has her eye on it so I'll let it go.

[grizewald]

I was sure I'd got myself three standard resistors for 150kr there!

Grrrr....

Excellent. Saves me from gloating about them.   Seller actually didn't have an idea what it was; he messaged me and wondered WTF he'd sold, since the bidding was so fierce. It wasn't only you and me, though. There were at least 3 active  bidders. So, if there's lurkers about, step out and post.

Pics coming as I've received them. Because Easter is, I don't think they will start travelling until Tuesday.

You ended up paying way more than I was prepared to pay for that lot, even though it's quite a haul. I was amazed at your fast fingers when you got outbid in the closing second there!

Great lot title though: "Things"

 

(You wouldn't have recognised me in the list of bidders though. I'm "mpj001" there.)

[med6753]

Successful probe compensations for the Type CA plug-in.

First up was the P6017 probe. It has a conventional trimmer screw adjustment. It was a little over compensated but fell right into place.

Before



After




The P6000 probes are a funky design and even after RTFM it still took a while to figure out how to adjust them. But once figured out one was over compensated and another under compensated. Both finally adjusted perfectly. The 3rd P6000 is indeed open. Going to try to get it apart and either fix it or gut it and make it a X1 probe.



And finally. Another tube porn shot to get bd all flustered.