Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tonyalbus]

On its way, next week ;-))

PM2522 Broken, according to seller did switch-on gave funny readings and then switched off and stayed off.
i paid 20,- hoping it is the power supply

PM2527 Fully working... bit more then double the prize of PM2522..

i say pretty nice deal ... now we wait )

[med6753]

My first law is simply: time is the only currency worth considering.

Probably you are a more wiser man than me.

A good friend of mine died this week at the consequences of a cerebral haemorrhage.
He was an EEVBlog forum member here as well and was around 40 years old.

Only HE knows, how much time you have left. (Except Rincewind)

I am so sorry to hear this. I know how you feel. About 8 years ago I lost a good friend of many, many years to brain cancer. Funny thing is the guy was an absolute wizard with numbers. Tell him once a date or phone number and he would never forget it.

[Kosmic]

A good friend of mine died this week at the consequences of a cerebral haemorrhage.

My condolences BU508A 

[Kosmic]

Today I did the hot air gun repair to the 4503 meter and I'm very pleased to report that it worked a treat, suspect joints that under a microscope appeared to be flawed on the component side of the board (2 layer board) where perfect on the solder side and after treating the top of those joints with rosin and gently warming with the hot air gun, the joints flowed nicely. However, there were 2 slight casualties, 2 polyester caps 22nF each used as HF filters had their outer cases slightly blistered, but still work OK. I'll get these replaced soon with new ones arrive.

The residual 9Meg that resistance ranges were seeing has now completely been cured and the meter calibrated and is in complete agreement my other meters, "winner winner chicken dinner" as Dave would say. The photos below show it in resistance range with open leads and also measuring 4 x 10M resistors soldered together quickly to test the meters capability.

You can use Kapton tape to shield surrounding components.

[Mr. Scram]

Apply with my third law and that problem is solved: "Always have an exit plan"

I haven't figured out how that works for having children, other than going for a pack of fags.

[Specmaster]

Incoming, hopefully arriving soon is another AVO model 8, Mk5, complete with all leads, manual and also a clamp on amp probe, a bit grubby but it will clean up nicely. Seller is a retired electrical engineer having a clear out to save his son from having it to do when the time comes, in other words a pre SK sale. This will bring my tally of Avo model 8's upto 3. It wont get used all that much, but at the price it would be rude not to and I'm sure that one day these fine lovable meters will escalate in value.

The attached photo is not actual meter, but it is however the same.

[Brumby]

A good friend of mine died this week at the consequences of a cerebral haemorrhage.

My condolences also.

[Specmaster]

Today I did the hot air gun repair to the 4503 meter and I'm very pleased to report that it worked a treat, suspect joints that under a microscope appeared to be flawed on the component side of the board (2 layer board) where perfect on the solder side and after treating the top of those joints with rosin and gently warming with the hot air gun, the joints flowed nicely. However, there were 2 slight casualties, 2 polyester caps 22nF each used as HF filters had their outer cases slightly blistered, but still work OK. I'll get these replaced soon with new ones arrive.

The residual 9Meg that resistance ranges were seeing has now completely been cured and the meter calibrated and is in complete agreement my other meters, "winner winner chicken dinner" as Dave would say. The photos below show it in resistance range with open leads and also measuring 4 x 10M resistors soldered together quickly to test the meters capability.

You can use Kapton tape to shield surrounding components.

Yes I could, I have some but the caps were some of the suspected bad joints that I needed to reflow from the top side and no way of getting on iron tip in there without actually touching them and other items.

[mansaxel]

Incoming, hopefully arriving soon is another AVO model 8, Mk5, complete with all leads, manual and also a clamp on amp probe, a bit grubby but it will clean up nicely. Seller is a retired electrical engineer having a clear out to save his son from having it to do when the time comes, in other words a pre SK sale. This will bring my tally of Avo model 8's upto 3. It wont get used all that much, but at the price it would be rude not to and I'm sure that one day these fine lovable meters will escalate in value.

The attached photo is not actual meter, but it is however the same.

Yeah, one has to have an Avo.

I'm going for sortakinda per-country coverage, at least when it comes to electromechanical meters. One German, (H&B Elavi 3) one UK, Avo 8 MOD style (AVO Test Set Multirange No. 1 (High Sensitivity) ), and looking for a Simpson 260 and some Metrix to get USA and  France into it too. I know where a unloved 260 just stands waiting; next to an Oltronix, a 465 and an Avo 7, so am biding my time.

[tonyalbus]

A good friend of mine died this week at the consequences of a cerebral haemorrhage.

My condolences BU508A

[med6753]

Yes, it's Saturday. I'll be on Discord at approx 2130 UTC.

[Ero-Shan]

Taking stock of my newest acquisition, I couldn't resist ...

A picture for all you Tant lovers out there - fifteen hundred shorts waiting to happen!



To be fair, if they're not abused they are probably rather good.

And for those thinking that those drawers contained nothing but crap, one held these gems inside:



I even have an idea where to store the remaining 6 cabinets.

[tonyalbus]

The Fluke 8125A .. looks pretty nice for age...
not sure but from the 70's like me... omg that 50 years??



Yes i did open it.. )

[Mr. Scram]

My first law is simply: time is the only currency worth considering.

I've found that having some other currencies massively helps with having a say over the ultimate currency, although you can easily get lost gathering those other currencies.

[Mr. Scram]

For those interested, SpaceX and NASA are attempting their first crewed launch once more tonight at 19:22 GMT. That's 15:22 furlongbushels customary time.

https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

[tggzzz]

My first law is simply: time is the only currency worth considering.

I've found that having some other currencies massively helps with having a say over the ultimate currency, although you can easily get lost gathering those other currencies.

I've always remembered and applied a concept from James Clavell's "Noble House". A character in that novel, a lady executive has the objective to have “drop dead money”. The “drop dead money” is that amount of money that she calculates she needs so that she would have the freedom and the luxury to tell anyone to “drop dead” without worrying about her financial security.

[med6753]

OK smart guys, how do you test those 2 HV diodes on the secondary side of the HV transformer? Apparently the diode test on the Fluke 87 doesn't provide enough voltage to forward bias them. Both read open regardless of polarity.

[bd139]

Bench power supply / supplies and a Suitable current limiting resistor. They can have 20v drop across them easily.

Measure V across diode to get voltage drop and measure V across R to get whether or not the diode is fucked.

[mnementh]

[...] Currently installing W7 Ultimate and downloading about 1.8 GB patches. [...]

Microsoft does a couple of "Convenience Rollups" that take you to about 2016,  which can be applied offline in one go like a service pack.  Then the rest of the updates are not so bad.

Good lord, you guys haven't just always been using something like WSUS offline updates so you only just download things once for all your "windoze" <shudder> machines?!

You're nuts! 

Modifications in version 12.0

- Support removed for Windows 7 and Server 2008(R2) since Microsoft discontinued support for it on January 14th, 2020
- Support removed for Microsoft Security Essentials, Windows 7 Defender, Service Packs, Remote Desktop Client and Silverlight (download switches /includemsse and /excludesp, update switches /instmsse, /instmssl and /updatetsc)
- Support removed for Windows 10 version 1703 since Microsoft discontinued support for it on October 8th, 2019

mnem

[bd139]

Hence windows 10 is the new roll up. Path of least resistance. QED. Yadda yadda etc 

[mansaxel]

@BU508A, I'm sorry for your loss.

[Cerebus]

And for those thinking that those drawers contained nothing but crap, one held these gems inside:



I even have an idea where to store the remaining 6 cabinets.

Fuuuuuuu... That's a £1000 worth of AD549s!  (Where's the gobsmacked emoji?)

[med6753]

Bench power supply / supplies and a Suitable current limiting resistor. They can have 20v drop across them easily.

Measure V across diode to get voltage drop and measure V across R to get whether or not the diode is fucked.

OK, what size current limiting resistor should I start with?

[bd139]

Bench power supply / supplies and a Suitable current limiting resistor. They can have 20v drop across them easily.

Measure V across diode to get voltage drop and measure V across R to get whether or not the diode is fucked.

OK, what size current limiting resistor should I start with?

I would work on current first so stick a 1k resistor and ammeter in series and slowly ramp up the supply voltage until it reads 2mA or so in the right direction. It probably won’t do a lot until at least 10-20V.

Try it on a good diode first to make sure it works.

[mnementh]

umm, no, have not done so. I am not setting up that many Windose thingies these days.   BTW it's running now, VS2019 and VSCode installed.   need to grab one cheap stick of ddr4 2133 to bring it to 64GB 4way which should help big time.  Decent Home Computer eet eeez.

The biggest problem is finding all those drivers. I have no intention to toss my bloody expensive scanners, cameras, and stuff.

That, unfortunately, is precisely where "the devil is in the details" makes its bailiwick. 

I'll cast a prayer to Ifni for your sanity, my dear. 

I will admit one thing... once you get used to the "shades of grey" color scheme and loss of 3D radio buttons (YES, I know this DOES take some getting used to); the improvement in contrast & clarity over Win7 makes it so that I cringe a little when I have to go back to my old ToughBook.

Add that to the complete Charlie-Foxtrot later Service Packs made of Win7's HAL... let's just say there's a REASON I bit the bullet (okay, in part because I HAVE TO BE familiar with the current versions of Windoze, as knowing how to fix it is my stock-in-trade) and learned how to, as bd says, "Tie it's feet together so it can't kick me in the balls all the time".

I don't know how much of the frontend is in your job description... but Win8 & up interact differently with the EU and with the domain... this MIGHT be something you need to bite the bullet on as well.

Good luck,

mnem