Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

@tonyalbus:

Do you need another counter? Meteor 100? 5 - 100MHz? Cheap?   

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133473292799

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133473292726

[tonyalbus]

@tonyalbus:

Do you need another counter? Meteor 100? 5 - 100MHz? Cheap?   

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133473292799

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133473292726

Thanks, nice prized indeed, think i bought mine for 35,-
sold mine.... to have money for other TE
nice you remembered.. i, do have a 'thing' for counters... hmmm...may it is cheap

[tonyalbus]

next thursday iám driving 500KM to :
1. sell car allumium winterwheels, to have money for TE
2. pickup lots of TE   ,spent immidiate ;-)
3. pickup a cheap cable lenght analizer or something.. guys sells it as a scope... for 25,- .. so lets see ;-)

excited allready

[BU508A]

next thursday iám driving 500KM to :
1. sell car allumium winterwheels, to have money for TE
2. pickup lots of TE   ,spent immidiate ;-)
3. pickup a cheap cable lenght analizer or something.. guys sells it as a scope... for 25,- .. so lets see ;-)

excited allready

It is Aluminium.   
No idea, what allumium could be. 

[tonyalbus]

next thursday iám driving 500KM to :
1. sell car allumium winterwheels, to have money for TE
2. pickup lots of TE   ,spent immidiate ;-)
3. pickup a cheap cable lenght analizer or something.. guys sells it as a scope... for 25,- .. so lets see ;-)

excited allready

It is Aluminium.   
No idea, what allumium could be. 

its very light weight ;-) very special.. only Kia ..

[BU508A]

next thursday iám driving 500KM to :
1. sell car allumium winterwheels, to have money for TE
2. pickup lots of TE   ,spent immidiate ;-)
3. pickup a cheap cable lenght analizer or something.. guys sells it as a scope... for 25,- .. so lets see ;-)

excited allready

It is Aluminium.   
No idea, what allumium could be. 

its very light weight ;-) very special.. only Kia ..

I see ... 

Good luck with your haul. Good and safe journey. 

[Zucca]

Today gossip

I did not know that Rohde and Schwarz had something to do with pfSense, see here.

...and for sure more stable than a CrapsberryPI

[med6753]

I've got a huge parts order arriving today and then I will be busy ripping into stuff and re-capping. 

[bd139]

Lucky. RS delivered half my 8060a recap compliment today. Rest coming on 3rd August  . Both were in stock same day dispatch.

[med6753]

Lucky. RS delivered half my 8060a recap compliment today. Rest coming on 3rd August  . Both were in stock same day dispatch.

I always use Mouser. They may be a little more expensive then the others but 3 things are always consistent: If it's in stock I get the part, and it's the right part, and in 2 days. 

[mansaxel]

Today, I'm taking a short break from my usual recapping of Studer input modules, and am trying to find out whether a vintage BSS AR113 DI box that was noisy and weak last time I used it is faulty in a way I can correct.

To do this, I'm applying a tone from my Fostex TT15 generator on the unbalanced input, and monitoring the balanced output with my ScopeMeter. Easy as pie, until you think about the fact that it's phantom powered, and that it's not unlikely that the powering circuit is involved. Of course, we can power it with a mixer input channel, but I'd like to eliminate unknowns. Thus, the Phantominator^{(no TM)} was born:



(that's http://vvv.besserwisser.org/Public/Bilder/phantominator.jpeg if the forum still is buggy)

It is a XLRF for the DUT, with pins 2 and 3 duplicated on binding posts and connected to a center-tapped transformer (from a modem, so allegedly shite audio-wise, but OK for 1KHz sine, and apparently, since that's what I'm running here, 15KHz sine.) with the center tap, also on a binding post so that I can inject +48VDC there. On the other side of the transformer, two binding posts are provided, giving a galvanically isolated output that has no trace of DC and also is safe to use with grounded scopes. Rounding out this is a ground binding post connected to pin 1 on the XLRF and thus providing the 0V injection point for phantom power.

Here, the Scopemeter measures output, the ABB-branded Gossen DC mA, and the tone generator, well, generates.

Now, the sine is a bit fuzzy, so I'll have to dig out my good specimen AR113 and compare.

[med6753]

Aren't the traces on those early scopemeters a little fuzzy anyway? 

[bd139]

Lucky. RS delivered half my 8060a recap compliment today. Rest coming on 3rd August  . Both were in stock same day dispatch.

I always use Mouser. They may be a little more expensive then the others but 3 things are always consistent: If it's in stock I get the part, and it's the right part, and in 2 days.

Yeah I would have gone Mouser too but needed a large amount of lever arch files for my eldest and they are dirt cheap on RS for decent quality ones. Ordered some caps, more solder wick, transistors and some film caps at the same time to push it over the free delivery line 

Next order is coming from Mouser for sure.

[Specmaster]

Some of you UK airplane nerds will enjoy this: https://www.reddit.com/r/WarplanePorn/comments/hwdxt6/burr_01_returning_from_a_mission_this_afternoon/

It's a U-2 equipped with the ASARS-2 synthetic aperture radar package.

Its on assignment over here at RAF Fairford and apparently flies a daily mission and often is equipped with a different array of sensors to suit its mission.

[mansaxel]

Aren't the traces on those early scopemeters a little fuzzy anyway? 

Of course they are, but with some practice you can tell whether it is ScopeMeter fuzz or DUT fuzz  .  Actually I used the ScopeMeter because I wanted to stay fully isolated, just in case. But, since the transformer in the Phantominator helps with that, I should be OK with a grounded scope too, so  I'll take a peek at the wave with the 465 and see if it's OK there. Have to feed the children first, though.

Edit: Just to clarify; the first attempts late Thursday evening were powered by putting 9VDC from the bench PSU (where 0V is chassis connected) onto the 9V battery button connectors instead of using the phantom power circuit, and without the Phantominator measurements on the PCB are subject to galvanic contact in funny ways, thus the ScopeMeter became necessary to get sensible readings. Then, it remained on the bench. That's why I didn't fire up the 465 from the start.

[mnementh]

It's alive and kicking now:      (OK, cheated, that's not the internal oscillator)

At least it's counting; who cares if it uses borrowed fingers to do it...? 

mnem
 

So the repair report is completed so far:
https://wunderkis.de/pm6654/
and
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/philips-pm6654/

Ice-Tea has got one more of them in his shop, just in case

Good writeup. Jeez, Cap'n... that smells like a week plus of diag on this beast. Extra kudos for sticking it out!

mnem
"...look dad, it's half a metric ton of ECL gates!"

[AVGresponding]

Aren't the traces on those early scopemeters a little fuzzy anyway? 

Like any DSO, you might have to muck around with persistence settings. Other than that, mine isn't and it's older than that one (PM99 series 2).


Missed out on a nice 1/2 rack Philips counter, made the winning bidder pay for it though.   

Missed a 3468A but with any luck it'll be relisted as it went unsold (no bids).   

Missed that Luxo anglepoise magnifier.   

Had an offer accepted on a TDS210 that was clearly not low enough, I really need to learn to be more ruthless.   

Probably will get outbid on an 8060A due to forgetting to check when it's ending.   

[Specmaster]

There a few videos of this U2 spy plane at RAF Fairford on YT, here a couple of them, one in the figuration shown in the photo and the other without anything attached. Very interesting to see how it has to chased down the runway talked down and the attachment of the wheels to allow it to taxi and the way it jettisons those wheels on take off.





I might take a drive down there and see if I can grab a few shots of it myself.

[capt bullshot]

Good writeup. Jeez, Cap'n... that smells like a week plus of diag on this beast. Extra kudos for sticking it out!

mnem
"...look dad, it's half a metric ton of ECL gates!"

Thanks.
Yes, it took more than a week to complete, that's the kind of repair I like. You always find something new in these old beasts, whether it's the 30Vpp / 40MHz discrete transistor output stage of a FG504 that still beats a lot of the modern ones, or this bunch of ECL with various questionable level converting "tricks" here, or the manifold nested PLLs in that Anritsu Signal Gen ...

The 500MHz multiplier stage isn't as nice as the Tek one using nuvistors someone posted here some time ago.

[Cerebus]

next thursday iám driving 500KM to :
1. sell car allumium winterwheels, to have money for TE
2. pickup lots of TE   ,spent immidiate ;-)
3. pickup a cheap cable lenght analizer or something.. guys sells it as a scope... for 25,- .. so lets see ;-)

excited allready

It is Aluminium.   
No idea, what allumium could be. 

its very light weight ;-) very special.. only Kia ..

Made from onions...

[Specmaster]

next thursday iám driving 500KM to :
1. sell car allumium winterwheels, to have money for TE
2. pickup lots of TE   ,spent immidiate ;-)
3. pickup a cheap cable lenght analizer or something.. guys sells it as a scope... for 25,- .. so lets see ;-)

excited allready

It is Aluminium.   
No idea, what allumium could be. 

its very light weight ;-) very special.. only Kia ..

Made from onions...

They actually feel to be almost as thick as a coke can. A friend of mine once had an early Kia Sportage and the panels on it could be easily dented just by leaning on the wheel arches etc, very flimsy indeed, doors felt very light by comparison to mine, which close with a reassuring clunk.

[tggzzz]

A friend of mine once had an early Kia Sportage and the panels on it could be easily dented just by leaning on the wheel arches etc, very flimsy indeed, doors felt very light by comparison to mine, which close with a reassuring clunk.

With my second car I used to climb over the bonnet so I could sit/stand on the roof. I got a much better view from up there.

[Specmaster]

A friend of mine once had an early Kia Sportage and the panels on it could be easily dented just by leaning on the wheel arches etc, very flimsy indeed, doors felt very light by comparison to mine, which close with a reassuring clunk.

With my second car I used to climb over the bonnet so I could sit/stand on the roof. I got a much better view from up there.

What car was it then?

[mnementh]

tzzzt.

mnem
Nice welder. How many amps...?

You mean this thick wire on the transformer? That's for the heating of the tubes.    *brzzzzl*

Well, not just that. The whole thing has a "wartime manufacturing enigmatic grey box" feel to it... like many old stick welders I've owned. 

Speaking of which...



I'm watching this... and yeah, okay. So maybe it IS really only good for 125-150A instead of 250A. As this vid shows, it'll sit there burn rods for as long as you can stand it.



And I can get it for approx USD$57 delivered RIGHT NOW.

I've seen articles saying it's been available for as little as $38; what I've been able to find indicates those are all bait/switch ads with the leads offered separately at that price, while the welder itself is $70-90 depending on amperage/whether it has LED display. Personally, I like that it is offered separately from the leads; they are heavy and cost a lot in shipping, and are often something you already have or can source/make cheaper locally.

If I weren't moving, I'd probably have one on the way right now.

mnem
*tzzzt!* indeed.

[Wolfgang]

Anybody in need of a noise source from HP? 10MHz - 18GHz. NAWTS

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133473253993

An old model long out of calibration. Seems to have been pushed around a bit much and has a lot of scars and dents.
Is the connector still OK ?