Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[capt bullshot]

this milivolt meter goes up to 1200V according to its sticker. on the bottom..

Ah, Keithley 177. Keep it in a dry air place, the PCB material has a tendency to absorb humidity resulting in all kinds of drift and inaccuracies. Had some fun with one of these until I found out there's nothing wrong with it. One just had to dry from the absorbed moisure.

[AVGresponding]

this milivolt meter goes up to 1200V according to its sticker. on the bottom..

Ah, Keithley 177. Keep it in a dry air place, the PCB material has a tendency to absorb humidity resulting in all kinds of drift and inaccuracies. Had some fun with one of these until I found out there's nothing wrong with it. One just had to dry from the absorbed moisure.

Does this affect the 197 series as well?

[tonyalbus]

this milivolt meter goes up to 1200V according to its sticker. on the bottom..

Ah, Keithley 177. Keep it in a dry air place, the PCB material has a tendency to absorb humidity resulting in all kinds of drift and inaccuracies. Had some fun with one of these until I found out there's nothing wrong with it. One just had to dry from the absorbed moisure.

Does this affect the 197 series as well?

moist and water never seems a good idea on any electronics i would think

[tonyalbus]

this milivolt meter goes up to 1200V according to its sticker. on the bottom..

Ah, Keithley 177. Keep it in a dry air place, the PCB material has a tendency to absorb humidity resulting in all kinds of drift and inaccuracies. Had some fun with one of these until I found out there's nothing wrong with it. One just had to dry from the absorbed moisure.

Does this affect the 197 series as well?

yours is drifting?

[Neomys Sapiens]

bloody hell.

Hubby in hospital with heart issues. Undergoing angio right now.

Why does my life always kick me in my nonexistent balls ? 

Was absent. Good luck to you both. However good the medical technology and personnel are, it is bloody, it is scary and Murphy looks over their shoulder.

[Robert763]

A point as well: the honeycomb cardboard is actually ridiculously strong. The Kallax units we've got are made out of that stuff and it takes one hell of a beating.

... provided all parts are intact. Saw off an edge and the remainder isn't much better than a chocolate teapot.

But overall I like the way Ikea does more with less; it is good engineering.

And in that vein, don't buy an "engineered wood" door for use where it might get wet, since it is lots of little bits glued together.

For honeycomb laminate panels like doors, assuming the core is actually bonded to the skins, the edges provide no strength. For example aircraft floor panels are often made from thin fibreglass skins and Nomex paper honeycomb core. No other structural parts. The edges are filled with lightweight filler just to protect the thin edges and stop contamination getting in. If the core is not bonded to the skins it's not honeycomb composite. I've not seen a door that wasn't bonded but the really cheap ones may not be. Proper bonded ones with thin plywood skins are very rigid. At my last place I built a L shaped bench out of two (cheap becuase the had slight damage on one side) with a 19" rack under one end nd the only other support a 50 mm x 50 mm wood batten along the wall and the doors screwed and glued to it. No legs or diagonal braces. I took my weigit without moving. Only issue is if you put something heavy with a sharp corner on it it could puncture the skin but a rubber anti-static mat took care of that. Lasted 15 years and took a lot of work to get it out.
 

[BU508A]

Which Brymen does have a 15V test mode for diodes?
This is one of the features I'm finding very useful.
And the low burden is also a feature which can be rarely found in handheld DMMs.

Nice features for sure, but these are a little too much for me.

In every complex instrument one can find a lot of issues.
I've attached the revision history of the Keithley DMM7510 for comparison. 
It is from the latest firmware revision 1.7.0 (Nov. 2019)

Edit:

Thanks to HighVoltage   
The current firmware revision is 1.7.3   

Attached the newer revision history as well. Sorry for that.

[HighVoltage]

In every complex instrument one can find a lot of issues.
I've attached the revision history of the Keithley DMM7510 for comparison. 
It is from the latest firmware revision 1.7.0 (Nov. 2019)

The latest firmware revision of the DMM7510 is V1.7.3 (7/25/2020)

https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm7510-software/model-dmm7510-firmware-revision-173-and-release-notes

[mansaxel]

Ikea is all about making stuff the cheapest they can get away with at every price tier. It's all crap; pick a layer and dive in. 

mnem
*poot!*

No, it's about making things as cheap as possible to manufacture and ship, while maintaining a sense of quality.

It works, and yes, there are tiers in it; choose wisely and you'll have things for life. I've got IVAR and BILLY shelves from last century. Our kitchen is 25yo FAKTUM, with original fronts. Does it show? Yes. Does it work? Yes. Will we swap it? Yes, in 10 years or so.

One thing I won't buy from IKEA again is plumbing. Non-standard, and marginal spares support. I exchanged the maze of drain pipe under the sink when it was 20 years old, and had to buy IKEA again to get things that fit. OTOH I installed it right this time (we bought the house with it) and now we don't have clogging problems every 6 months anymore.

The tier above, if it's going to be good looking and functional, means at least an order of magnitude in price.  It simply is unrealistic, except if you make flea market or garage sale bargains. We've got a few pieces like that, mostly from other Swedish manufacturers. Of course they're better; probably their lowest tier is level with the most expensive IKEA stuff.

[BU508A]

In every complex instrument one can find a lot of issues.
I've attached the revision history of the Keithley DMM7510 for comparison. 
It is from the latest firmware revision 1.7.0 (Nov. 2019)

The latest firmware revision of the DMM7510 is V1.7.3 (7/25/2020)

https://www.tek.com/digital-multimeter/dmm7510-software/model-dmm7510-firmware-revision-173-and-release-notes

Thanks for that! 
Below there is a screenshot 10 minutes ago from their website, showing 1.7.0 as the newest version.   

Edit:
Found it after scrolling down and looking closely. 
I'm blaming it to the heat. 

[HighVoltage]

Thanks for that! 
Below there is a screenshot 10 minutes ago from their website, showing 1.7.0 as the newest version.   

The Tek Website is not the best to find things.
Why listing old FW versions first?


I updated my two DMM7510 yesterday to the FW V 1.7.3 and they work really well.

[capt bullshot]

this milivolt meter goes up to 1200V according to its sticker. on the bottom..

Ah, Keithley 177. Keep it in a dry air place, the PCB material has a tendency to absorb humidity resulting in all kinds of drift and inaccuracies. Had some fun with one of these until I found out there's nothing wrong with it. One just had to dry from the absorbed moisure.

Does this affect the 197 series as well?

Don't know. Got a 196 here that is drifting, couldn't be bothered yet to investigate the root cause. Of course tried to "dry" it, but no change. I guess one of the many
JFETs in the input circuitry might be leaky.

For the 177, found that issue after it's been stored for some months in the sometimes rather damp cellar. Bringing it to another place and keeping it "warm" for a week or two was the final cure (after washing the PCB with IPA and replacing one or two rather suspicious looking TI branded IC sockets but no success).
Many other instruments that "lived" for a longer time in the very same cellar weren't affected by the humidity at all.

[nixiefreqq]

hey dragon is that real or did you photopaste it?

if real.......that is great.....a hell of a lot better than a tetris game i played for 30 seconds and then almost forgot about. am now looking sideways at my 54601 and thinking......hmmmmmm............54645?

Just for you, freqq... cuz you asked so nice. 

Actually now that I think of it, I'm not sure that's how they draw this image; that's how the process was described in an article I read forever ago about how Tek drew the Wizard of Id on a skateboard.  Obvi, that is not necessarily how HP did it on these scopes.

I couldn't find the Tetris game on mine, OR the Centipede game that the 54645A supposedly came with. This discussion suggests that whichever game, it was actually stored in the Printer/GPIB/Math module, which mine doesn't have. I can't complain given the price I paid.

mnem
 

THANKS FOR THE VIDEO!

watched it half a dozen times.

is there a backstory?   did management above the project team level know about the badger?

[tggzzz]

Today's "disappointment guaranteed" fleabay sale: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-Oscilloscope-High-Voltage-Probe-P6015/114353264295

Listed as "used" and " 100% Working", but can you spot two or more reasons that ain't so?

[0culus]

Today's "disappointment guaranteed" fleabay sale: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-Oscilloscope-High-Voltage-Probe-P6015/114353264295

Listed as "used" and " 100% Working", but can you spot two or more reasons that ain't so?

Likely has zero freon left, like the two I have. Only mine are in much better shape and can still be used at the stated deratings for no dialectric fluid.

[AVGresponding]

this milivolt meter goes up to 1200V according to its sticker. on the bottom..

Ah, Keithley 177. Keep it in a dry air place, the PCB material has a tendency to absorb humidity resulting in all kinds of drift and inaccuracies. Had some fun with one of these until I found out there's nothing wrong with it. One just had to dry from the absorbed moisure.

Does this affect the 197 series as well?

yours is drifting?

I haven't given it a proper test against my other meters/references as yet.

I don't have a cellar to store things in, but this is Yorkshire, we have rain, lots of rain, and it's an old building ~100 years or so.

I still haven't cased my references yet, haven't found the right case. Maybe I should bite the bullet and buy one.   

[tggzzz]

Today's "disappointment guaranteed" fleabay sale: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-Oscilloscope-High-Voltage-Probe-P6015/114353264295

Listed as "used" and " 100% Working", but can you spot two or more reasons that ain't so?

Likely has zero freon left, like the two I have. Only mine are in much better shape and can still be used at the stated deratings for no dialectric fluid.

Mine contains visible fluid, which I presume is freon.

Mine also has an earth strap, now that I've taken one off my P6013. Fortunately earth straps are trivial to make, if you have a little phosphor bronze sheet available.

[tonyalbus]

I still haven't cased my references yet, haven't found the right case. Maybe I should bite the bullet and buy one.   [/color][/size][/b]

for me this one works great and better then expected. : https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/32722959699.html
at least it agreed with most of my meters 

[bd139]

Great. DPD Local have fucked up here delivering my 6205b. Apparently no one in! There has been someone in all day every day for the last 4 months. The door bell works.

So now I have to get it redirected to a local shop, which isn't happening until after 17:00 tomorrow and the shop is closed on Sunday so not getting it until Monday. And I have to drive there as it's a fucking mile away and I'm not carrying an HP power supply in the pissing rain a mile on foot.

Wankers!

[BU508A]

@bd139:

Cup of tea? (pun intended)   

[Ice-Tea]

@bd139:

Cup of tea? (pun intended)   

Only when it's ice-cold.

[bd139]

 

To add insult to injury I just caught the fucker up the road and asked him about it and he says he's already dropped it off at the damn shop. But I can't get it until DPD message me a delivery pass 

[Saskia]

water. soap. sponge. clamps & cable. Battery. Go for it.

[med6753]

To add insult to injury I just caught the fucker up the road and asked him about it and he says he's already dropped it off at the damn shop. But I can't get it until DPD message me a delivery pass 

 

[McBryce]

To add insult to injury I just caught the fucker up the road and asked him about it and he says he's already dropped it off at the damn shop. But I can't get it until DPD message me a delivery pass 

Our local GLS guy ALWAYS claims you weren't home (even when there was a stay at home order!) and NEVER leaves a delivery pass, but the local pickup point (newsagent) will give you the parcel if you bring ID, because he knows that the delivery guy is a twat.

McBryce.