Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 14548587 times)

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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62775 on: July 08, 2020, 05:57:18 pm »
Some carnage to report. XBox One S “tea spill”. I’m not even going to bother with this  :palm:. Situation means SWMNLBO pays the money to replace it fortunately as she did it during a fleeting visit :-DD

(Attachment Link)
Hmmm, good luck with that, reckon you might stand a better chance of tax refund than her paying for it  :palm:

I was surprised. She ordered a new one from Argos. Arriving this evening.  £249  :-DD


Sure she doesn't know what your credit card pin is  :scared:

Nope. Everything has been replaced or closed since.
 
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62776 on: July 08, 2020, 06:05:30 pm »


So... yesterday's post brought this enigmatic grey baggie from downtown...  :wtf:




Ahh... Okay. It's my order from Bang-em-good; guess they had to relabel downtown for last-mile delivery. $69 for a 105mm wheelbase Brushless FPV NanoQuad kit, COMPLETE with VTX, camera, and 5 sets of props. All you have to add is a nano receiver to match whatever RC transmitter you're using. What's not to love about this deal...? I added a spare set of hardware and upgrade TPU camera pod as they were only a few dollars each.




Hmmm... VERY iPackaging, replete with QR code.  :o  EACHINE has come a long way since the plain brown boxes and Ziplok baggiezz of a few years ago.




Mhmmm... TPU camera pod is squishy... but not too squishy. I like it.




A bit furry tho. Interesting to see hobbyist-grade 3DP being used for production quantity manufacturing; I wonder how many of these kits BG actually moves in a quarter...?




It will def need a wee bit of touchup.  :o  Well, they're not gonna do a lot of detailing for $4 delivered.  :P




This is what they say it's SUPPOSED TA look like on the quad. A bit nicer than what came in the box.  :-DD




In Da Box: One TPU camera pod, a little carbon fiber cross frame (sorry... pic of that was fuzzy as hell) and a bunch of boring little crack baggies with the individual parts inside. There's the EACHINE feel we all know & love.  >:D




The TPU camera Pod fits a 20mm stack to a nano mountless FPV Cam/VTX as  are commonly used on brushed "Tiny Whoop" type ducted-fan quadcopters. These cam kits are typically very light (2-4 grams total) and very cheap ($15-25)




The camera lens will pop into the round slot; the tiny VTX board will go across the flat on the back with the little protrusion supporting the antenna. Typically they mount with uber-sticky foam emblem tape or get glued down with clear silicone RTV sealant.




Here's a quick mock-up so you can see what the general layout is; I was in the middle of another problem with my son and his vidiot games so I had to forego taking pics of each individual part and the usual "ooohing and ahhhing". I may follow up with more pics later.  ;)

On the left is a similar 120mm wheelbase build on a custom frame from some friends of mine in the trade; when I got that frame the whole idea of a stack of 20mmx20mm boards was still very new as almost everything was still 30mmx30mm. Now 20mm is "huge" and we have "toothpick" frames based on a 16mmx16mm stack.  :o  In the back is my antique (~2.5 years old) TAROT TL130 FPV MicroQuad; technology has advanced to the point that the only thing I can really use from it is the motors & props, and they're still "fat pigs" by today's standards.  :o

All these tiny quads are a direct result of the crazy 250 gram limitation imposed by the US FAA; they're trying to kill old-school model aviation by requiring full telemetry and transponder and registration on any model aircraft heavier than "two sticks of butter".  :palm: Other nations have adopted this limit without any real consideration of how ridiculously small it is.    |O

But there's still a lot of fun to be had with the tinies, and tiny quads means tiny LiPos and motors; this translates into smaller, cheaper everything which reduces cost-of-entry greatly. I'm loving it.  ;D

mnem
« Last Edit: July 08, 2020, 06:33:40 pm by mnementh »
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Offline Ice-Tea

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62777 on: July 08, 2020, 06:07:26 pm »
I was looking for some cheap spectrum analyzers and found these two:
- an Anritsu boat anchor for audio stuff: 10Hz - 30MHz
- an Anritsu portable one 100kHz - 3GHz

The boat anchor:


The portable one:


I need a cheap SA for doing some basic RF stuff (checking signals of transmitters etc.)
and this portable one looks nice. But I'm not really impressed about the specs. what do you think?

Regarding the audio boat anchor: there was this discussion about using soundcards for audio purposes,
but some people had the opinion, that a dedicated SA is much better than these soundcards.
So I thought it could be interesting for some folks here. No affiliations with the sellers.

What if I told you... you could have your cake ans eat it?

https://www.ebay.de/itm/HP8922S-0-01-1GHz-Spectrum-Analyzer-RF-Gen-Audio-Gen-Analyzer-400kHz-Oscope/143514324785?hash=item216a1ecf31:g:pskAAOSwUrxeLslh

Totally affiliated with the seller. Not portable in the least. Forget about 3Ghz.

But it WILL stand out on the desk.... cool!

....provided your desk, floor and back are strong enough!

IKEA not recommended. Industrial flooring not mandatory but suggested.

€600 for a 8922x, Bit much methinks, even with the SA option. Take care when buying, they don't all have it. Addtionally the 'scope is audio only and the signal generator has no usable modulation capability. A 8924C, thats a different story.

A SDRplay SDR actually makes a usable spectrum analyser especially with the latest software.

In case that wasn't 100% clear: that's my shop and my gear. Folks that trust me and that I trust can get the special 'screw eBay' price but in all honnesty, I don't get why it hasn't sold already for this price. I've sold 1GHZ HP SA's for roughly that amount, and this does RF gen, SA and then some other stuff.

Eh, well. People are strange.

Offline BU508A

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62778 on: July 08, 2020, 06:24:35 pm »
In case that wasn't 100% clear: that's my shop and my gear. Folks that trust me and that I trust can get the special 'screw eBay' price but in all honnesty, I don't get why it hasn't sold already for this price. I've sold 1GHZ HP SA's for roughly that amount, and this does RF gen, SA and then some other stuff.

Eh, well. People are strange.

I do know, that you are selling good stuff to very reasonable prices. Imo.
And I think the reason why people don't buy it for that price is, because it is not a HP/Agilent/Keysight/Fluke/Tektronix or Rohde & Schwarz.  :-//

I do like this machine but I don't want another boat anchor.
But I was tempted. for about 0.7s :)

Quote
    Data: She brought me closer to humanity than I ever thought possible, and for a time...I was tempted by her offer.
    Jean-Luc Picard: How long a time?
    Data: Zero-point-six-eight seconds, sir. For an android, that is nearly an eternity. [source]
“Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order, because it is better organized.”            - Terry Pratchett -
 
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Offline Ice-Tea

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62779 on: July 08, 2020, 06:29:56 pm »
That was mostly aimed at Robert, I guess. I'm not trying to push it down your throat. I've dangled it in front of you, if you don't bite I'm not gonna chase you  :-DD

Not sure why you think the reason it's not being bought is the heritage. I agree that's a big reason people don't buy stuff, but this *is* an HP machine  :-//

Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62780 on: July 08, 2020, 06:54:21 pm »
Excuse me for a moment....   I think I'm going to crawl into a dark corner and have a nervous breakdown.

Blame BU508A... he started it.    >:D

mnem


Well, technically it was med who started it.   :-DD

???   *goes and looks*  Jeebus dude; that was a WEEK and... 112 FUCKING PAGES back in the crawl!!!  That was like... a LIFETIME ago.  :-DD

mnem
 :popcorn:
« Last Edit: July 08, 2020, 06:56:35 pm by mnementh »
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Offline mansaxel

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62781 on: July 08, 2020, 07:31:40 pm »
Some carnage to report. XBox One S “tea spill”. I’m not even going to bother with this  :palm:. Situation means SWMNLBO pays the money to replace it fortunately as she did it during a fleeting visit :-DD

(Attachment Link)

Bah; that'll buff right out!

Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62782 on: July 08, 2020, 08:03:17 pm »
Some carnage to report. XBox One S “tea spill”. I’m not even going to bother with this  :palm:. Situation means SWMNLBO pays the money to replace it fortunately as she did it during a fleeting visit :-DD

(Attachment Link)

Bah; that'll buff right out!

Well I spent some time on it and it definitely won’t  :-DD

New unit arrive and is installed. I am quite surprised if I’m honest that it was sorted efficiently and without hassle.
 
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Offline worsthorse

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62783 on: July 08, 2020, 08:16:32 pm »

who's the precision resistor nerd in this group? i've got the alan attenuator apart and i am ordering parts. i found a supplier for switches that match (eight bucks each  :scared:) so now i am trying to figure out what to use to replace two resistor networks. the ones in place look like this:

 

i am guessing they are 0.1% or 0.01% precision resistors. interesting values like 869.6 and 5.768 ohms.  any preferred vendors or, within vendors, product lines? i'm hoping for the cheaper end of the price spectrum, of course.

specialization is for insects.
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62784 on: July 08, 2020, 08:16:49 pm »
It's done, finally. The Type 106 Square Wave Generator project is a wrap.  :-+

An old gray beard with an attitude.
 
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Offline worsthorse

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62785 on: July 08, 2020, 08:18:46 pm »


So... yesterday's post brought this enigmatic grey baggie from downtown...  :wtf:

But there's still a lot of fun to be had with the tinies, and tiny quads means tiny LiPos and motors; this translates into smaller, cheaper everything which reduces cost-of-entry greatly. I'm loving it.  ;D

mnem


that looks like fun. i know even less about copters and drones than i do 3DP which i know is hard to imagine but true. where would a man wanting to get started in a hobby like that find a rabbit hole in which to peer?
specialization is for insects.
 

Offline Saskia

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62786 on: July 08, 2020, 08:53:51 pm »
I would be interested in that boat anchor, but the page does not open because my 4G has dropped down to edge and the page does not open :(

Got into a major run in with my ex this morning while picking up my daughter. Bloody hell.


In other news I think I have gotten that high end audio streamer to work by shoving a 250€ audio card into it and setting the attenuation to -7 db. With lower settings I had shitloads of clipping.
Audio quality is now good. 192 kHz upsampling.

In even other news I stumbled across a Creality Ender Pro today for the incredibly expensive amount of 110€ (new). Could not walk past. Me bad.

The machine translation - oh yes, I did not have time to dig up proper electrical engineering translation models even though they exist, albeight not in my repository. With a specialized corpus the quality would have been better, but I am sure you all got quite some chuckles out of it.
 
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62787 on: July 08, 2020, 08:58:08 pm »
Good deal on the ender  :-+

Can anyone come up with a good excuse to buy a 20v 10a supply that isnt for RF PA supply because I’m not doing that shit any more. It weighs 15kg and is rack mounted and blessed with an H and a P and happens to be not terribly far from here and buyer collects thus will probably not go too expensive.
 

Offline Saskia

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62788 on: July 08, 2020, 09:00:43 pm »
the excuse would be: want to have.
 
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Offline mendip_discovery

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62789 on: July 08, 2020, 09:03:02 pm »
 >:D >:D >:D >:D >:D




Not the best unit, but it allowed me to do a basic cal of the 121GW, Excel Sheet here > https://1drv.ms/x/s!AoQU31lH3_fGhZYbBYfjV4rT4dbQgA?e=y5CBGT
Motorcyclist, Nerd, and I work in a Calibration Lab :-)
--
So everyone is clear, Calibration = Taking Measurement against a known source, Verification = Checking Calibration against Specification, Adjustment = Adjusting the unit to be within specifications.
 
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Offline xrunner

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62790 on: July 08, 2020, 09:04:06 pm »
Can anyone come up with a good excuse to buy a 20v 10a supply that isnt for RF PA supply because I’m not doing that shit any more. It weighs 15kg and is rack mounted and blessed with an H and a P and happens to be not terribly far from here and buyer collects thus will probably not go too expensive.

Can anyone come up with a good excuse? Yea - "blessed with an H and a P"

Now get it.  :-DD

I told my friends I could teach them to be funny, but they all just laughed at me.
 
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Offline Ice-Tea

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62791 on: July 08, 2020, 09:30:01 pm »
Which boat anchor? The one Tony linked to or this one ->



If you're talking about mine, the TL;DR is that it listed for 600€. This included eBay and Paypal, so outside eBay 525€ through a bank transfer. 500€ round would be OK for me. Still includes 21% belgian VAT so if you are VAT registered ex VAT price is 425.

Offline BU508A

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62792 on: July 08, 2020, 10:21:27 pm »
That was mostly aimed at Robert, I guess. I'm not trying to push it down your throat. I've dangled it in front of you, if you don't bite I'm not gonna chase you  :-DD

Not sure why you think the reason it's not being bought is the heritage. I agree that's a big reason people don't buy stuff, but this *is* an HP machine  :-//

 :palm:
My bad, I was biased by the two Anritsu.

Quick update regarding the R&S NGB 32/10:
Today I pulled out the power module and checked the semiconductors. All good, except for D203. This one should be a 1N4006 but for some reason I've found a GI826  :-//
I measured the Uf and found a value of around 0.25V, reverse was okay. Checked the datasheet and found that the Uf is starting at around 0.6V (as usual for a silicone semiconductor) and 1.05V@5A. I removed the GI826 and replaced it with a 1N5408 which is imo the much better replacement for a 1N4006.

I will put it together tomorrow and see, if the fuses will blow again. Will also check the capacitors but I need to order the replacements.

Pictures will follow.

Anyway, bed time....
« Last Edit: July 08, 2020, 10:23:21 pm by BU508A »
“Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order, because it is better organized.”            - Terry Pratchett -
 
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Offline BU508A

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62793 on: July 08, 2020, 10:25:02 pm »
Good deal on the ender  :-+

Can anyone come up with a good excuse to buy a 20v 10a supply that isnt for RF PA supply because I’m not doing that shit any more. It weighs 15kg and is rack mounted and blessed with an H and a P and happens to be not terribly far from here and buyer collects thus will probably not go too expensive.

Yes, because I have a Rohde & Schwarz 30V / 10A PSU.  ;D
“Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order, because it is better organized.”            - Terry Pratchett -
 
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Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62794 on: July 08, 2020, 11:14:28 pm »
Some carnage to report. XBox One S “tea spill”. I’m not even going to bother with this  :palm:. Situation means SWMNLBO pays the money to replace it fortunately as she did it during a fleeting visit :-DD

(Attachment Link)
Surely that's not the result of the spill? That looks nasty.
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62795 on: July 08, 2020, 11:40:25 pm »
Some carnage to report. XBox One S “tea spill”. I’m not even going to bother with this  :palm:. Situation means SWMNLBO pays the money to replace it fortunately as she did it during a fleeting visit :-DD

(Attachment Link)
Surely that's not the result of the spill? That looks nasty.

Yeah it didn’t explode immediately. The tea spill to explosion took around an hour. So I assume it was sitting there performing milky electrolysis until it went up. I was not informed of the spill other than being told it was cleaned up :palm:. It was possibly avoidable if dealt with immediately.
 
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Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62796 on: July 08, 2020, 11:59:52 pm »
Yeah it didn’t explode immediately. The tea spill to explosion took around an hour. So I assume it was sitting there performing milky electrolysis until it went up. I was not informed of the spill other than being told it was cleaned up :palm:. It was possibly avoidable if dealt with immediately.
Some stewing might do the trick indeed, especially if there's milk or sugar involved. A rinse with distilled water may have saved the day.
 

Offline Cerebus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62797 on: July 09, 2020, 12:05:58 am »
Some carnage to report. XBox One S “tea spill”. I’m not even going to bother with this  :palm:. Situation means SWMNLBO pays the money to replace it fortunately as she did it during a fleeting visit :-DD

(Attachment Link)
Surely that's not the result of the spill? That looks nasty.

Well it's in the middle of what looks like 3 SMPSs, and the 2.5V rating on the capacitor suggests that at least one of them is low voltage - which in modern computer equipment implies "lots of amps". Add a conductive polar solvent with some solutes in it and ... you get to do some impromptu welding. In fact the end of one of the ceramic caps looks like someone's been at it with an arc welder.
Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 
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Offline 0culus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62798 on: July 09, 2020, 04:24:11 am »
Some carnage to report. XBox One S “tea spill”. I’m not even going to bother with this  :palm:. Situation means SWMNLBO pays the money to replace it fortunately as she did it during a fleeting visit :-DD

(Attachment Link)
Surely that's not the result of the spill? That looks nasty.

Yeah it didn’t explode immediately. The tea spill to explosion took around an hour. So I assume it was sitting there performing milky electrolysis until it went up. I was not informed of the spill other than being told it was cleaned up :palm:. It was possibly avoidable if dealt with immediately.

How the hell does that even happen??? Kids.  :-DD  :palm:
 

Offline AVGresponding

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #62799 on: July 09, 2020, 05:01:50 am »
Quick question for you, on your Thurlby 1905a, did you ever update the input sockets for shrouded ones at all? I'm thinking about doing that but also slightly worried about the membrane panel getting damaged in the process of enlarging the 8mm holes to 12mm to accept the three sockets?

Nope, aside from a few age related marks and some dust, mine is as it left the factory.

I do hope you're talking about some bit of test equipment and not some part of your body.

The same pretty much applies   :-//


In even other news I stumbled across a Creality Ender Pro today for the incredibly expensive amount of 110€ (new). Could not walk past. Me bad.

Good deal on the ender  :-+

A good deal indeed, I can't even find a used one for less than £150   :(
nuqDaq yuch Dapol?
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