Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Mr. Scram]

There's enough cunts to be a dick to, no need to do that to decent sellers too. Just tell him you think you got two items and see what he says. Maybe he's fine with it too.

[med6753]

Do what you would want a buyer to do if you shipped him two of something and he paid for one.

I have to believe this was no accident. These extensions are only good for 560 series. They won't work with 500 series. Very limited usefulness and I suspect he had the two and just wanted to get rid of them.

Edit, but I will contact the seller and see what he says.

[Mr. Scram]

I have to believe this was no accident. These extensions are only good for 560 series. They won't work with 500 series. Very limited usefulness and I suspect he had the two and just wanted to get rid of them.

I was contemplating something along those lines. There's been more people around who care more about the kit going to a good home than profit.

[mnementh]

Do what you would want a buyer to do if you shipped him two of something and he paid for one.

I have to believe this was no accident. These extensions are only good for 560 series. They won't work with 500 series. Very limited usefulness and I suspect he had the two and just wanted to get rid of them.

Edit, but I will contact the seller and see what he says.

Yeah, I agree with wh here. But you knew better already; I think you just asked in here to get a nudge in the right direction.

mnem
"Be the change you want to see in the world."

[0culus]

Do what you would want a buyer to do if you shipped him two of something and he paid for one.

I have to believe this was no accident. These extensions are only good for 560 series. They won't work with 500 series. Very limited usefulness and I suspect he had the two and just wanted to get rid of them.

Edit, but I will contact the seller and see what he says.

If both he and yourself don't want the second one, I know a guy locally who has a 561S. He might be interested. [edit] your package should be delivered today.

[BU508A]

"Be the change you want to see in the world."

You got that from Michael Jackson I reckon? 

[med6753]

Do what you would want a buyer to do if you shipped him two of something and he paid for one.

I have to believe this was no accident. These extensions are only good for 560 series. They won't work with 500 series. Very limited usefulness and I suspect he had the two and just wanted to get rid of them.

Edit, but I will contact the seller and see what he says.

If both he and yourself don't want the second one, I know a guy locally who has a 561S. He might be interested. [edit] your package should be delivered today.

And I received an answer from the seller. Yes, it was his intention to send both even though I paid for one.

Ask your friend if he wants one.

[tonyalbus]

Some more pics....
No unboxing of this one - but I think you'll be able to work out what's here....


The lock in amplifier:


Rechargeable power pack - and the grundge


... and a couple of other nice bits.....

you have some beauty's

[tonyalbus]

psu today: .     qty = qty -3. 

[capt bullshot]

Got a phone call in the morning, from my father, his central heating system not working. Never mind in summer, but no hot water too. In Germany the usual way is a burner heating both the central heating and the hot water tank through a shared water circulation system.

Anyway, when I arrived, I found the controller dead, no display, no power on LED. It's a quite modern one, so no way to run it in emergency mode (the older ones can work on an electromechanical thermostat and near to none electronics involved).

So we call the service, because my father would like to have hot water asap again. The guy arrived later, checked the system, phoned the manufacturers hotline (they're quite good at that, one can reach them 24/7 with the correct SLA). Diagnose: Controller defective, have to order a new one. Will arrive on monday (for more money involved, one can get spares within hours). Agreed on that, but I mentioned, I might be able to repair on component level, it's just electronics. The repair guy agreed, if I can't fix it, we should call him on monday, and he'll have the spare part on tuesday.

So I took the controller home, and found this cause for the malfunction:



and this poor resistor.



Lucky enough, nothing else was damaged, the thing works again and my father has hot water again since an hour ago.

It was an easy fix, but I'm a bit concerned about the quality of stuff thats supposed to last 10 to 20 years (this unit is around 4 years old). Carbonization shouldn't happen here, since creeping clearance was fine for the applied voltage.

[BU508A]

Flying drones are very common these days. Even our TEA-dwagon has some of them.   

This nice thing, a friend of mine sent me some minutes ago, is playing in a different league:

an underwater drone made with Lego and some magnetic couplings:

[Ice-Tea]

Bit of a dilemma...



HP SA. Works well enough, bit inaccurate as can be expected (even though that may just as well be the RF gen) but the display is really dim. This picture makes it look decent because there wasn't much ambient light but it's really no good. So.. ship it of to eBay in an auction or spend some time with the display. May be as simple as dust on the front plastic shield (wouldn't be the first time). I'm leaning to leave it as it is and let the eventual buyer have some fun with it...

[Specmaster]

You seem to have nailed the method for receiving multiples of whatever you order! Teach us!

McBryce.

Step 1 is to select quantity 2. Step 2 is to pay two items.

Yes, except Tony didn't order or pay for 2 Spectrum analysers, nor two HP3478A's yet he now has 2 SA's and a second 3478A on its way to him.

McBryce.

ehh.. Tony is such a dumb ass he tell the seller it just arrived....
this seller was very sesponsive keeping in touch and stuff... i felt bad about it..
like to do honest business...
the SA..other story... they tried to scre.. me, then i dont mind.

Honestly, recalibrating the 3478A is not too bad at all. I sent mine off to RS to do for me and they returned it saying that it couldn't be done and needed extensive repairs and offered me a discount against any similar meter in stock. I saw that a challenge and also a crass way of drumming up more sales.

I actually sat down and read the calibration procedure and then set about doing myself, using what they call the front option, and it was my first attempt at doing anything like this and I found it really quite easy to do once you learnt the sequence. Please pm me with your email address and I'll send you the service manual for the meter.

[Specmaster]

Do what you would want a buyer to do if you shipped him two of something and he paid for one.

I have to believe this was no accident. These extensions are only good for 560 series. They won't work with 500 series. Very limited usefulness and I suspect he had the two and just wanted to get rid of them.

Edit, but I will contact the seller and see what he says.

I think that you will find that these are not the same items, but are a set, look at the part numbers printed on them, one has 013-0034-00 as the part no., the other has 013-034 and the plug looks different to my eyes.

[capt bullshot]

Bit of a dilemma...

HP SA. Works well enough, bit inaccurate as can be expected (even though that may just as well be the RF gen) but the display is really dim. This picture makes it look decent because there wasn't much ambient light but it's really no good. So.. ship it of to eBay in an auction or spend some time with the display. May be as simple as dust on the front plastic shield (wouldn't be the first time). I'm leaning to leave it as it is and let the eventual buyer have some fun with it...

I've read somewhere about CRT cathode degrading, and how one can regenerate this. Involves kind of deliberately overheating the emitter without breaking the filament, and maybe some other magic to "break crust off the cathode". Won't last too long, but will give some useful time if the unit isn't running all day long.

[Robert763]

Do what you would want a buyer to do if you shipped him two of something and he paid for one.

I have to believe this was no accident. These extensions are only good for 560 series. They won't work with 500 series. Very limited usefulness and I suspect he had the two and just wanted to get rid of them.

Edit, but I will contact the seller and see what he says.

I think that you will find that these are not the same items, but are a set, look at the part numbers printed on them, one has 013-0034-00 as the part no., the other has 013-034 and the plug looks different to my eyes.

Don't think so, just a change in partnumbering system to cover an extended range while keeping compatability with the old system.

[0culus]

Do what you would want a buyer to do if you shipped him two of something and he paid for one.

I have to believe this was no accident. These extensions are only good for 560 series. They won't work with 500 series. Very limited usefulness and I suspect he had the two and just wanted to get rid of them.

Edit, but I will contact the seller and see what he says.

If both he and yourself don't want the second one, I know a guy locally who has a 561S. He might be interested. [edit] your package should be delivered today.

And I received an answer from the seller. Yes, it was his intention to send both even though I paid for one.

Ask your friend if he wants one.

Just asked him! I'll let you know.

[0culus]

Bit of a dilemma...

HP SA. Works well enough, bit inaccurate as can be expected (even though that may just as well be the RF gen) but the display is really dim. This picture makes it look decent because there wasn't much ambient light but it's really no good. So.. ship it of to eBay in an auction or spend some time with the display. May be as simple as dust on the front plastic shield (wouldn't be the first time). I'm leaning to leave it as it is and let the eventual buyer have some fun with it...

I've read somewhere about CRT cathode degrading, and how one can regenerate this. Involves kind of deliberately overheating the emitter without breaking the filament, and maybe some other magic to "break crust off the cathode". Won't last too long, but will give some useful time if the unit isn't running all day long.

Yes, these tubes can be rejuvenated. Assuming the tube isn't too far gone already, this will provide plenty of life for the hobby user. Also, shift+g turns the beam off and shift+h turns it back on. Use it!!! The crt does not need to be on all the time the instrument is on, especially if you want to do a long running measurement using GPIB. All displayed data is internally digitized.

[tggzzz]

Bit of a dilemma...

(Attachment Link)

HP SA. Works well enough, bit inaccurate as can be expected (even though that may just as well be the RF gen) but the display is really dim. This picture makes it look decent because there wasn't much ambient light but it's really no good. So.. ship it of to eBay in an auction or spend some time with the display. May be as simple as dust on the front plastic shield (wouldn't be the first time). I'm leaning to leave it as it is and let the eventual buyer have some fun with it...

Check the voltages. The EHT carbon composition resistors can drift over time.

There are some LCD kits to replace the CRT in some HP SAs.

[worsthorse]

Do what you would want a buyer to do if you shipped him two of something and he paid for one.

I have to believe this was no accident. These extensions are only good for 560 series. They won't work with 500 series. Very limited usefulness and I suspect he had the two and just wanted to get rid of them.

Edit, but I will contact the seller and see what he says.

If both he and yourself don't want the second one, I know a guy locally who has a 561S. He might be interested. [edit] your package should be delivered today.

And I received an answer from the seller. Yes, it was his intention to send both even though I paid for one.

Ask your friend if he wants one.

That's an ebay seller I would be happy to be doing business with.  Very cool.   

[mnementh]

"Be the change you want to see in the world."

You got that from Michael Jackson I reckon? 

https://youtu.be/PivWY9wn5ps

No, I was quoting Ghandi. I beleive he was quoting the Hindu texts of the Bhagavad Gita, or rather paraphrasing  a lesson which doesn't directly translate into English. "Start with the man in the mirror" is something Muhammad Ali was known to have said in numerous interviews after converting to Islam; I suspect that is where Jackson heard it.

mnem
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

[Mr. Scram]

Got a phone call in the morning, from my father, his central heating system not working. Never mind in summer, but no hot water too. In Germany the usual way is a burner heating both the central heating and the hot water tank through a shared water circulation system.

Anyway, when I arrived, I found the controller dead, no display, no power on LED. It's a quite modern one, so no way to run it in emergency mode (the older ones can work on an electromechanical thermostat and near to none electronics involved).

So we call the service, because my father would like to have hot water asap again. The guy arrived later, checked the system, phoned the manufacturers hotline (they're quite good at that, one can reach them 24/7 with the correct SLA). Diagnose: Controller defective, have to order a new one. Will arrive on monday (for more money involved, one can get spares within hours). Agreed on that, but I mentioned, I might be able to repair on component level, it's just electronics. The repair guy agreed, if I can't fix it, we should call him on monday, and he'll have the spare part on tuesday.

So I took the controller home, and found this cause for the malfunction:



and this poor resistor.



Lucky enough, nothing else was damaged, the thing works again and my father has hot water again since an hour ago.

It was an easy fix, but I'm a bit concerned about the quality of stuff thats supposed to last 10 to 20 years (this unit is around 4 years old). Carbonization shouldn't happen here, since creeping clearance was fine for the applied voltage.

There's always a chance your dad had that one dud, but it's good to keep an eye on it.

[mnementh]

Got a phone call in the morning, from my father, his central heating system not working. Never mind in summer, but no hot water too. In Germany the usual way is a burner heating both the central heating and the hot water tank through a shared water circulation system.

Anyway, when I arrived, I found the controller dead, no display, no power on LED. It's a quite modern one, so no way to run it in emergency mode (the older ones can work on an electromechanical thermostat and near to none electronics involved).

So we call the service, because my father would like to have hot water asap again. The guy arrived later, checked the system, phoned the manufacturers hotline (they're quite good at that, one can reach them 24/7 with the correct SLA). Diagnose: Controller defective, have to order a new one. Will arrive on monday (for more money involved, one can get spares within hours). Agreed on that, but I mentioned, I might be able to repair on component level, it's just electronics. The repair guy agreed, if I can't fix it, we should call him on monday, and he'll have the spare part on tuesday.

So I took the controller home, and found this cause for the malfunction:

   and this poor resistor.   

Lucky enough, nothing else was damaged, the thing works again and my father has hot water again since an hour ago.

It was an easy fix, but I'm a bit concerned about the quality of stuff thats supposed to last 10 to 20 years (this unit is around 4 years old). Carbonization shouldn't happen here, since creeping clearance was fine for the applied voltage.

That carbonization is from something carrying the ignitor voltage from the flyback xfmer right there to a place where it doesn't belong. Could be a wire in the harness got too close, could be condensate formed a bridge which allowed an arc to make a permanent path.

Now that the HVAC tech has disturbed the wiring, no telling for sure where this happened; you should inspect all the wires carefully for arc burns lest it happen again. Usually when you see a ballast resistor toasted like that other one, it's a indicator that the driver transistor has shorted or gone leaky, so inspect that as well before you go through the assache of installing the board. Another possibility; that resistor is a symptom of the arc having damaged something in the flame sensor. Modern controllers do this through the igniter gap by flame rectification.

Good hunting!

mnem
 

[capt bullshot]

Got a phone call in the morning, from my father, his central heating system not working. Never mind in summer, but no hot water too. In Germany the usual way is a burner heating both the central heating and the hot water tank through a shared water circulation system.

Anyway, when I arrived, I found the controller dead, no display, no power on LED. It's a quite modern one, so no way to run it in emergency mode (the older ones can work on an electromechanical thermostat and near to none electronics involved).

So we call the service, because my father would like to have hot water asap again. The guy arrived later, checked the system, phoned the manufacturers hotline (they're quite good at that, one can reach them 24/7 with the correct SLA). Diagnose: Controller defective, have to order a new one. Will arrive on monday (for more money involved, one can get spares within hours). Agreed on that, but I mentioned, I might be able to repair on component level, it's just electronics. The repair guy agreed, if I can't fix it, we should call him on monday, and he'll have the spare part on tuesday.

So I took the controller home, and found this cause for the malfunction:

   and this poor resistor.   

Lucky enough, nothing else was damaged, the thing works again and my father has hot water again since an hour ago.

It was an easy fix, but I'm a bit concerned about the quality of stuff thats supposed to last 10 to 20 years (this unit is around 4 years old). Carbonization shouldn't happen here, since creeping clearance was fine for the applied voltage.

That carbonization is from something carrying the ignitor voltage from the flyback xfmer right there to a place where it doesn't belong. Could be a wire in the harness got too close, could be condensate formed a bridge which allowed an arc to make a permanent path.

Now that the HVAC tech has disturbed the wiring, no telling for sure where this happened; you should inspect all the wires carefully for arc burns lest it happen again. Usually when you see a ballast resistor toasted like that other one, it's a indicator that the driver transistor has shorted or gone leaky, so inspect that as well before you go through the assache of installing the board. Another possibility; that resistor is a symptom of the arc having damaged something in the flame sensor. Modern controllers do this through the igniter gap by flame rectification.

Good hunting!

mnem
 

Sorry dwagon, you're completely wrong. This is the SMPS snubber (RCD type), supposed to catch the flyback as you said, but contained within a plastic box within a sheet metal box, so it's good enough protected from the installing gorillas hands and wiring harnesses and won't collect dust nor get wet while running. It's well engineered and protected, my guess it's just a dud, some mishap at the manufacturers SMT / THT assembly line. The carbonized path formed between said snubber circuit and a well defined GND potential on the PCB, nothing random, and there's been well defined creepage distance applied by the layouter.

[mnementh]

Do what you would want a buyer to do if you shipped him two of something and he paid for one.

I have to believe this was no accident. These extensions are only good for 560 series. They won't work with 500 series. Very limited usefulness and I suspect he had the two and just wanted to get rid of them.

Edit, but I will contact the seller and see what he says.

If both he and yourself don't want the second one, I know a guy locally who has a 561S. He might be interested. [edit] your package should be delivered today.

And I received an answer from the seller. Yes, it was his intention to send both even though I paid for one.

Ask your friend if he wants one.

Good on ya for doing the right thing, buddy.

mnem
"Nice pants."