Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Bite me. 

Which bit, and before or after cooking?

(Where does that Merkinism come from?)

Google is your friend.

[med6753]

Here you go Euro boys.....choke on this. 
<Tek 503 parts list omitted>

Perhaps you would like to join the rest of us in the 21st century?

2060 is closer than 1960 (when the 503 was introduced).

We did. Didn't you get the memo? pF is now standard usage. But we still reject nF. 

[tggzzz]

Here you go Euro boys.....choke on this. 
<Tek 503 parts list omitted>

Perhaps you would like to join the rest of us in the 21st century?

2060 is closer than 1960 (when the 503 was introduced).

We did. Didn't you get the memo? pF is now standard usage. But we still reject nF. 

I discounted it as "an aspirational political statement", much like "ending poverty".

That was confirmed by all these "mils" that seem to have something to do with PCBs.

[mansaxel]

The text in red above is not correct! Modern 75 BNCs will mate with 50 ones without damage because they use the same center pin with reduced dielectric for matching - sort of.
TRUE 75 BNCs have reduced center contact diameter and will not mate correctly with 50 BNCs putting a 50 Male into a 75 Female will spread the contacts on the female. The other way round is likely to produce a poor contact depending on the exact type of Female contact design.

Thanks for the correction. No doubt did the nice people at Canford Audio know the facts and thus offered a properly pre-mutilated connector style to cater for this, which is why bumblefucks like yours truly could bask in ignorance such as displayed above 

[McBryce]

Just picked up a set of Keysight 34138A probes: https://www.ebay.de/itm/274606811785

For €11.50 I couldn't leave them there. For German/European members, there's still 7 sets available if you are quick.

McBryce.

They probes arrived today. They are original and brand spanking new (sealed). Extremely soft silicon cables... If you'll excuse me, I need to spend some time alone with these now....

McBryce.

[Kosmic]

General Radio  500µµF arrived from the bay,

(Attachment Link)

as reference for my Hickok Digital System.

(Attachment Link)

Funny, I recently got some too. I was scanning Ebay regularly for a good deal but they were just too expensive (I'm still not willing to spend 150$ on a capacitor). Found those two listed at 5$ each  Was expecting the seller to claim a listing error and cancel the transaction but I got them last week.





Look like they were acquired by Hughes Aircraft in 1969. With my good LCR meter (0.05% accuracy), I measured them at 2.0018nF and 2.0021nF.

[McBryce]

So, a question to our Americans... Are they 2000µµF or 2mµF?

McBryce.

[Specmaster]

And now, possibly thanks to all of those mainly young idiots that cannot manage to act sensibly, and / or those idiots who think this virus is a bleeding hoax, most of London and Essex are as of, Wednesday 00:01hrs are going into tier 3 for the first time.

Who didn't predict this happening? I'm off to Lakenheath tomorrow morning, as after Christmas we will be going straight into another massive Lockdown, possibly longer than the first one even, 

If only we were lead be some critical thinkers, we might have been able to have heeded all the warnings, listened to and used the advice of experts then we might have been able to avoid most of this shit show and clusterfuck that is about to wallop us even harder in another 17days time, who knew eh. 

[bd139]

Not bothered here. Another excuse that everyone can piss off and leave us alone this Christmas 

Honestly though you’re always at the mercy of the weakest link. That will be the downfall of the human race.

[Cerebus]

So, a question to our Americans... Are they 2000µµF or 2mµF?

McBryce.

Neither, \$\frac{1}{12}\$ Bushels.

[mnementh]

Just picked up a set of Keysight 34138A probes: https://www.ebay.de/itm/274606811785

For €11.50 I couldn't leave them there. For German/European members, there's still 7 sets available if you are quick.

McBryce.

They probes arrived today. They are original and brand spanking new (sealed). Extremely soft silicon cables... If you'll excuse me, I need to spend some time alone with these now....

McBryce.

Yeah, for that price I'd have jumped on 'em too... not so much with the +$28 GWN asshole tax.

mnem
Make sure you both take a bath afterwards... 

[0culus]

Well, I had me a very interesting TEA weekend. I picked up not one, but two 575 Mod 122C curve tracers and scope mobile carts. Exhausted so some pics tomorrow probably. The price you ask? Well the fellow wanted them gone so the price was right...free.

Two 575's for free?? You suck!  And "too tired" even for a teaser pix? 

All sorts of rules violations here.



That's one hell of a score! 

Just for you med, then I gotta go pass out. Long day.  The one on the right definitely has step generator issues; no step and there's a permanent +/-16V bias between the base and the collector or emitter just waiting to burn something up. Works fine with diodes though. Have not tested the one on the left but it is practically spotless with no dust at all inside.

Quick update. The one with the broken step generator turned out to be incredibly simple to fix...V233, a cathode follower in the step amplifier was missing! I rectified this problem and the step generator is functional. Even better it agrees almost perfectly with my 577.

[BU508A]

Just picked up a set of Keysight 34138A probes: https://www.ebay.de/itm/274606811785

For €11.50 I couldn't leave them there. For German/European members, there's still 7 sets available if you are quick.

McBryce.

They probes arrived today. They are original and brand spanking new (sealed). Extremely soft silicon cables... If you'll excuse me, I need to spend some time alone with these now....

McBryce.

Mine arrived today as well and because of this


here are some pictures of mine.
On a side note: the cables are very smelly...

overview, 2 probes:


unpacking one of the plastic bags:


the main probes:



clamps and a hook (the lonely black one):


the tips of the main probes. They aren't as sharp as the ones from Probemaster, but they'll do:


I've tried to get a sharp picture of the tiny probes but this is the best result I've achieved. Sorry.


For this price (ca. 12 Euro per set) this is a good deal imho.

[mansaxel]

410b update:

Mains cord replacement fitted. The insulation on the old conductors inside the original cord crumbles, so replacement was necessary. New cable has extra clear tubing on conductors to prevent repetition. It has to work in 50 years, innit?

The cable from the fuse holder to the power switch had a slight burn from a soldering iron, so was replaced too. 

I've started replacing the main filter capacitor. The old one is a bleeping bog roll! I'm thinking that I just might want to leave it in place mechanically and then fit the new one where there's room (not a problem, a 500V-rated 8,2 MilliMillifarad  capacitor is about 1/4 the volume of its grandfather), but I'm still unsure of how I'll do it.

[mnementh]

I'd be a lot more worried aboot that selenium-rectum-fryer smokebomb myself... and I always make it a habit to put heat-shrink covering the solder-tabs with that style of fuseholder. Either individually over each wire and the tab, or if workspace permits, a large diameter piece over both tabs and extending ~10-15mm past the tab on the end.

Reason being... these fuseholders have a tendency to work loose in the chassis, and too many times I've had to stop myself from grabbing the body with wrench in the other hand to tighten it up, and only then realizing that the damn thing is still plugged in. 

mnem
Murphy is the angry pixies' favorite gigolo...

[mansaxel]

I'd be a lot more worried aboot that selenium-rectum-fryer smokebomb myself... and I always make it a habit to put heat-shrink covering the solder-tabs with that style of fuseholder. Either individually over each wire and the tab, or if workspace permits, a large diameter piece over both tabs and extending ~10-15mm past the tab on the end.

Food for thought. I've got a stash of sensible diodes, but need to get a good resistor too.  Not bothering with more toobing, there's so much bare metal that's live already that I'd zap myself thrice before I got to the fuse holder... 

[Saskia]

try working on old pinball machines
*bsss* *zap*

[med6753]

410b update:

Mains cord replacement fitted. The insulation on the old conductors inside the original cord crumbles, so replacement was necessary. New cable has extra clear tubing on conductors to prevent repetition. It has to work in 50 years, innit?

The cable from the fuse holder to the power switch had a slight burn from a soldering iron, so was replaced too. 

I've started replacing the main filter capacitor. The old one is a bleeping bog roll! I'm thinking that I just might want to leave it in place mechanically and then fit the new one where there's room (not a problem, a 500V-rated 8,2 MilliMillifarad  capacitor is about 1/4 the volume of its grandfather), but I'm still unsure of how I'll do it.

Is that a selenium rectifier on the left? If so, must go. 

Edit....Yep....get rid of it. 100 ohm, 2 watt resistor in series with the sillycon diode.

[mnementh]

I'd be a lot more worried aboot that selenium-rectum-fryer smokebomb myself... and I always make it a habit to put heat-shrink covering the solder-tabs with that style of fuseholder. Either individually over each wire and the tab, or if workspace permits, a large diameter piece over both tabs and extending ~10-15mm past the tab on the end.

Food for thought. I've got a stash of sensible diodes, but need to get a good resistor too.  Not bothering with more toobing, there's so much bare metal that's live already that I'd zap myself thrice before I got to the fuse holder... 

LOL... Well, I was just tryin' ta pass on a lesson hard-learned.

mnem
"The devil... she never sleeps." ~ol' man Belmore

[cyclin_al]

I reactivated this project.

Now I more want than need a ethernet cable check device. It should be a high quality chinesum one... 
Jokes aside I do not want to go over 150€ for a Fluke one...

PS: I am sure you guys will convince me to bank out 500€ for a nice pro device... bastards... 

I have exactly such a device:  Sperry Instruments TT64202 Cable-Test plus.
The only thing it checks for is continuity, mis-wiring of individual wires and shorts between wires.
It does RJ-45 and Coax.  It does not offer any indication of communication speed capability.
However, you will spend most of your time wondering why all your perfectly good Ethernet cables are failing, eventually to discover that one of the RJ-45 receptacles on one end of the device is bad.
Available for the cheap price of $35 CAD.  Yes, it is very high quality chinesium; it says so in fine print on the back of the package, while proudly advertising on the front of the package that the company is American.

Best enjoyed by avoidance...

[mnementh]

First thing we need to know is what you want your tester to do. If simple continuity/short/reversed pair testing, there are oodles of cheap testers on bang-em-good; I've had a couple  from work and have been lucky enough to not have any of the problems Al recounts.

That said, I've had a Test-Umm LANRover LANRoamer (they had to change the name somewhere around 2000-something due to Leyland or whomever coprolite douchebaggery) TP500 for a couple decades and it has never let me down. Good for a year or so in standby mode on a 9V alkaline battery; some of the cheap ones you have to take the battery out or it'll die in a matter of weeks. Aboot $70-100 new depending on how many cable ID bugs & which case you get with it.

I believe they are now a Platinum Tools brand; I can't speak to the quality of their TP500 or TP600. You should be able to find an original lifejacket yellow one on fleaBay for $10-40; I've accidentally plugged mine into live Telco more than a few times, so probably the worst case you'd get a 9V battery clip torn off and need to replace it.

If you're looking for something that'll actually do sweep testing, you're gonna need to look into much more expensive stuff; best reputation in that arena is (or was, last I was in the field) still FLUKE.

EDIT:   Looks like they went through a couple hands... first JDSU, now Platinum Tools has a red version they call the LANSeeker. 

Still aboot the same price: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313&_nkw=LANSeeker&_sacat=0

mnem
 

[0culus]

Well, I had me a very interesting TEA weekend. I picked up not one, but two 575 Mod 122C curve tracers and scope mobile carts. Exhausted so some pics tomorrow probably. The price you ask? Well the fellow wanted them gone so the price was right...free.

Two 575's for free?? You suck!  And "too tired" even for a teaser pix? 

All sorts of rules violations here.



That's one hell of a score! 

Just for you med, then I gotta go pass out. Long day.  The one on the right definitely has step generator issues; no step and there's a permanent +/-16V bias between the base and the collector or emitter just waiting to burn something up. Works fine with diodes though. Have not tested the one on the left but it is practically spotless with no dust at all inside.

Quick update. The one with the broken step generator turned out to be incredibly simple to fix...V233, a cathode follower in the step amplifier was missing! I rectified this problem and the step generator is functional. Even better it agrees almost perfectly with my 577.

Happy 575!

[mnementh]

Since you already have a working 577... looks like some nice Christmas money if you can flip 'em on eevBlog real quick! KA-CHINGGGG!

mnem
Yeah... imagine that... 

[0culus]

Since you already have a working 577... looks like some nice Christmas money if you can flip 'em on eevBlog real quick! KA-CHINGGGG!

mnem
Yeah... imagine that... 

Hah! The thought had crossed my mind since I do have two of these behemoths now. Fix up real nice and flip, but only for local pickup. Not even going to dream about trying to ship one.

[mnementh]

Watch the guy you got 'em from find out, then try and schmooze you out of a working one...

mnem
Not like that's ever happened to me...