Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

Meanwhile at Starfleet:

[AVGresponding]

Well what a shit week at work. Freezing and soaked to the bone most of the time, this pic doesn't really do the conditions justice:





Here's one of Technically Still an Apprentice, loving his job:



He's technically still an apprentice because he can't complete his AM2 as the college keeps postponing it due to covid. At this rate he'll still be an apprentice when he's drawing his pension...



I picked up the PM3335 from the PO yesterday, here's a trio of pics of the obligatory comedy packaging:



Despite this it arrived intact, and I had a bit of a play yesterday, after taking the lid off and shaking out the rattlers.

The display of the TTi is way too bright for my phone camera, had to turn it down to 10%!



That 20MS/s rate limits the digital side quite a bit; you can actually see it joining the dots at 1MHz:



Despite its limitations, I rather like it.

[med6753]

Meanwhile at Starfleet:

"Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life here" 

[AVGresponding]

Meanwhile at Starfleet:

Ugh, the merch wankers know no limits of taste nor decency

[tautech]

Discord anyone ? 

[Cerebus]

I cant help it but commercial audio stuff always looks like gook inside, especially when compared to T&M stuff from a good company. The only exception is Revox, but that is long ago. Dangling parts on the PCB, rats nest wiring all over the place, brown cardboard PCBs ... Yuck.
Where are the good old days ...

No, consumer audio gear looks like shit inside; the professional stuff was/is mostly well built (prosumer, not so much). You can't get away with the appalling mess shown above if you try and stick it in flight case or an OB truck and take it on the road - MTTF would be one gig/broadcast.

My only real professional (as in getting paid for it) experience in designing and building electronics was in professional audio gear and you just can't afford to make the stuff anything other than tough. Having stuff break down in that world is expensive, you end up burning artistes time and studio time  - you can have dozens of people standing around on the clock while something gets replaced/fixed.

Worse still of course is stuff that packs up on-air/in the middle of a show. I've had the latter happen to me once (with Lenny Henry on stage acting like a petulant child, not like an entertainment professional) and I didn't want to repeat the experience. (The cause was an IEC mains cable that pulled out - very next day everything got fitted with cable retaining clips.)

[Ice-Tea]

That 20MS/s rate limits the digital side quite a bit; you can actually see it joining the dots at 1MHz:



Despite its limitations, I rather like it.[/color][/size][/b]

Have one too. Was wondering of the LCD display is supposed to have a backlight?

Accidently: RIFA inside. Might wanna replace it before it goes.

EDIT: this fella:



On a slightly different note: need to find a housemate to do some testing.

[nfmax]

I cant help it but commercial audio stuff always looks like gook inside, especially when compared to T&M stuff from a good company. The only exception is Revox, but that is long ago. Dangling parts on the PCB, rats nest wiring all over the place, brown cardboard PCBs ... Yuck.
Where are the good old days ...

No, consumer audio gear looks like shit inside; the professional stuff was/is mostly well built (prosumer, not so much). You can't get away with the appalling mess shown above if you try and stick it in flight case or an OB truck and take it on the road - MTTF would be one gig/broadcast.

My only real professional (as in getting paid for it) experience in designing and building electronics was in professional audio gear and you just can't afford to make the stuff anything other than tough. Having stuff break down in that world is expensive, you end up burning artistes time and studio time  - you can have dozens of people standing around on the clock while something gets replaced/fixed.

Worse still of course is stuff that packs up on-air/in the middle of a show. I've had the latter happen to me once (with Lenny Henry on stage acting like a petulant child, not like an entertainment professional) and I didn't want to repeat the experience. (The cause was an IEC mains cable that pulled out - very next day everything got fitted with cable retaining clips.)

Some domestic audio equipment was built with quality - QUAD. I remember hearing tales of how Pink Floyd would go on tour with a whole bunch of - I think - 303 power amplifiers which would come back scraped and dented but still working. They used to send them back for a total refurb after each tour. Hammer out the dents and resprayed and all and good as new. I don't know what they used them for, a bit low powered for main PA even then. Before my time. That would be about Ummagumma, when I was still at school.

[mnementh]

A rather nice waveform from inside an HP5315, plus an amusing explanation of what it means: https://groups.io/g/HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment/message/113099

Without having read the explanation   I recognize the foul language of Mordor where ever I see it ...

"Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul"

here:
One Scope to rule them all, One Scope to find them,
One Scope to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

Bear in mind it is an HPAK group. The explanation starts "It is the language of Tektronix scope hoarders, which I will not utter here.  Loosely translated, it reads, ..." where the ... is more TEA-related than your translation.

I'm a Tek Hoarder and I have no clue as to what is going on here.     Maybe I don't want to know. 

This whole exchange makes me wonder... is there some genetic tendency to loathe clicking on links in a post... or perhaps tendency towards selective blindness that one does not see them at all... which is endemic to the specific breed of geek who frequent these sorts of technically-oriented user groups?

This is by far not the first time I've seen multiple posts and exchanges speculating on the content of something... which is instantly clarified by clicking on a link provided with that thing people are speculating on...

IME, this affliction seems to strike the species of geek/nerd/born with the knack user who frequent memespaces like eevBlog with unerring accuracy.

mnem
 

Maybe I'm just too fucking busy or lazy, take your choice, to read through 75 posts to catch the meaning that really holds no interest to me and I won't get that part of my life back. 

*blows razzberry in the general direction of upstate New York*

If it were only you, med, I'd not have made the comment. I'd have said to myself "Oh, that's just med for ya, go on aboot my business." It is a thing that seems endemic to the breed.

mnem
"Prickly much...? Oh, that's just med for ya, go on aboot my business."

[Specmaster]

I cant help it but commercial audio stuff always looks like gook inside, especially when compared to T&M stuff from a good company. The only exception is Revox, but that is long ago. Dangling parts on the PCB, rats nest wiring all over the place, brown cardboard PCBs ... Yuck.
Where are the good old days ...

Agreed, but at least the bottom panel can be removed and it's completely serviceable. Today's audio trash is anything but. If you watch some of the you tube videos the guys who service this stuff either as a living or a hobby hate working on the modern stuff because in most cases you have to completely disassemble the unit to gain access to the bottom side of the circuit boards. 

That is so true, I used to have amplifiers and tuners that had a wooden top cover that was completely removable after the removal of a handful of screws at each end that provided total access to the top side of the board, and a plate on the bottom, attached to a ring of steel that everything else was screwed to and all TTH parts made servicing so easy. Then came the desire to screw as much profit from things as possible, machine assembly, metal everything, all sprayed black and then along came the final straw, surface mounted parts and CPU control making it almost impossible to service without special hi-tech equipment, which meant that the high cost of said equipment heralded in the age of service replacement of boards. Diagnosing and replacement of the faulty parts became uneconomical and so began the rising tide of E Waste that today is rapidly becoming so toxic to the environment. Time I think to start going backwards to learn how to things with more THH discrete parts so that we can once again just replace the faulty part and help to save the planet. Man is just so dammed destructive in his pursuit of the maximum number green backs in the bank. 

[AVGresponding]

Have one too. Was wondering of the LCD display is supposed to have a backlight?

Accidently: RIFA inside. Might wanna replace it before it goes.

EDIT: this fella:



On a slightly different note: need to find a housemate to do some testing.

Yep, it is meant to be backlit, using a tiny filament lamp.

Discord wooo! Some really disgraceful behaviour on there atm, mansaxel is naked and pretending it's a sauna, tautech is carving an oscilloscope out of coffee beans, and Saskia just launched an ICBM at Reichelt

[Specmaster]

That 20MS/s rate limits the digital side quite a bit; you can actually see it joining the dots at 1MHz:



Despite its limitations, I rather like it.[/color][/size][/b]

Have one too. Was wondering of the LCD display is supposed to have a backlight?

Accidently: RIFA inside. Might wanna replace it before it goes.

EDIT: this fella:



On a slightly different note: need to find a housemate to do some testing.

Yes, I have seen many photos of these scopes with the LCD backlit, not very bright though but enough to make it obvious.

[Specmaster]

As regards to discord, I'll have to forego all the excitement that AVG reports , afraid I have been watching a film called "The Day after Tomorrow" (very good by the way) and now I have too much to catch up on, I'm getting really rubbish at this discord thing lately, and for that I apologise and hopefully I'll be back next week 

[Robert763]

A while ago I mentioned that my Farnell G series based 360 W bench supply was destroying mains switches and the went bang after I fitted a 0.5R in sresies with the switch  . I suspected a RIFA.
So dug it out of the stack today and got stuck in unfortunalty it's hard to get at the suspect. The G360 is squeezed into a 1/2 rack 3U Vero bench case with panel meters aux supply, fan etc. Even with the PSU out it's still another 21 screws to get to the PCB.
So confirmed RIFA'd but no smoke or black gunge see photo. Replaced with a Philips 0.1yuF plastic X2 all back together and working. Just 3 hours work.

One thing that is not commonly known about the Farnell G series (switchers of 30, 60, 120, 240, 360 and 600W with nominal voltages 6, 12, 15, 24, 30 and 48V) is that while the built in adjustment is only about +10 -20% of nominal , they will all go down to a bout 1.5V at full rated current with an external control. Apart from adjustable current limit (not too hard to add) they make a good basis for an adjustable supply. They are generally reliable. I gave three 5V 60A ones to a repeater group on the south coast to use in series (allowed by design) as a 14V supply for a repeater. They were going strong after 20 years of 24/7 operation when the repeter was upgraded. They were not even new when I aquired them! There a couple of big RIFAs in the G series output circuit but these do not fail as they are not seeing full mains voltage or spikes.

[Brumby]

Well, I made the effort to get myself up and in front of the computer in time to take my shot at the 1900A.  Tossed in a bid near the end and didn't win - and, in fact, I suspect I might have needed to dig a lot deeper to have had a chance.

The winning bidder had put in two bids and my effort didn't pass their first, let alone their second (higher) bid.

Thought I'd drop in on Discord, too...

[Cerebus]

I cant help it but commercial audio stuff always looks like gook inside, especially when compared to T&M stuff from a good company. The only exception is Revox, but that is long ago. Dangling parts on the PCB, rats nest wiring all over the place, brown cardboard PCBs ... Yuck.
Where are the good old days ...

No, consumer audio gear looks like shit inside; the professional stuff was/is mostly well built (prosumer, not so much). You can't get away with the appalling mess shown above if you try and stick it in flight case or an OB truck and take it on the road - MTTF would be one gig/broadcast.

My only real professional (as in getting paid for it) experience in designing and building electronics was in professional audio gear and you just can't afford to make the stuff anything other than tough. Having stuff break down in that world is expensive, you end up burning artistes time and studio time  - you can have dozens of people standing around on the clock while something gets replaced/fixed.

Worse still of course is stuff that packs up on-air/in the middle of a show. I've had the latter happen to me once (with Lenny Henry on stage acting like a petulant child, not like an entertainment professional) and I didn't want to repeat the experience. (The cause was an IEC mains cable that pulled out - very next day everything got fitted with cable retaining clips.)

Some domestic audio equipment was built with quality - QUAD. I remember hearing tales of how Pink Floyd would go on tour with a whole bunch of - I think - 303 power amplifiers which would come back scraped and dented but still working. They used to send them back for a total refurb after each tour. Hammer out the dents and resprayed and all and good as new. I don't know what they used them for, a bit low powered for main PA even then. Before my time. That would be about Ummagumma, when I was still at school.

Stage monitoring probably. We used to use them in the studio for driving near field monitors.

QUAD weren't what I'd call consumer electronics - QUAD's lifetime output of everything rolled together was probably less units than Sony, or Technics, or whoever, made of a single model of one of their consumer amplifiers. A QUAD 303 cost £55 when they were introduced in 1967 (The average UK wage for tax year 64-65 was  £15.60 a week before tax. So that quad represents 3 1/2 weeks average gross earnings).

[0culus]

Anyone have any advice on search filters to find the AVX caps I want for the 7904 project on digi-key? I'm mired down in non stock and milspec parts that cost way too much.

[bd139]

Today's victory: cupboard of doom empty  . Unfortunately it's all stacked up everywhere now . Dividing everything into three piles: keep, sell, tip. The piles are rather large 

Managed to shift some stuff on ebay (AVGresponding help there appreciated    )

Someone offered me a full 42U rack the other day and I did consider it for a few minutes. I'm not sure how that would help with things at the moment

[nixiefreqq]

this reminded me of a TE delivery about 2 years ago.  mixed in with the crumpled newspaper was an assortment of hard candy mints.  (a lot of them!)

wtf?  still not sure if it was deliberate or the result of some kind of accidental spillage.

[bd139]

Perhaps it was a form of apology for the packaging 

Newspaper works for most things to be fair, but rarely delicate TE.

[med6753]

Anyone have any advice on search filters to find the AVX caps I want for the 7904 project on digi-key? I'm mired down in non stock and milspec parts that cost way too much.

Why are you beating your head against the wall insisting on sticking with AVX only? Kemet's will work just fine.

And I suspect you may be having trouble finding 100uF tants in stock or at a reasonable price. Been there. Ref this pix. See those doubled up yellow tants on the right? Perfect substitute for the rare 100uF......2 - 47uF in parallel.

[0culus]

Anyone have any advice on search filters to find the AVX caps I want for the 7904 project on digi-key? I'm mired down in non stock and milspec parts that cost way too much.

Why are you beating your head against the wall insisting on sticking with AVX only? Kemet's will work just fine.

And I suspect you may be having trouble finding 100uF tants in stock or at a reasonable price. Been there. Ref this pix. See those doubled up yellow tants on the right? Perfect substitute for the rare 100uF......2 - 47uF in parallel.

Dude, I'm just trying to see what's out there. Haven't bought anything yet.   

I have no issues putting two smaller ones in parallel if needed...I'm just trying to figure out which ones to get from either brand right now.

[med6753]

Anyone have any advice on search filters to find the AVX caps I want for the 7904 project on digi-key? I'm mired down in non stock and milspec parts that cost way too much.

Why are you beating your head against the wall insisting on sticking with AVX only? Kemet's will work just fine.

And I suspect you may be having trouble finding 100uF tants in stock or at a reasonable price. Been there. Ref this pix. See those doubled up yellow tants on the right? Perfect substitute for the rare 100uF......2 - 47uF in parallel.

Dude, I'm just trying to see what's out there. Haven't bought anything yet.   

I have no issues putting two smaller ones in parallel if needed...I'm just trying to figure out which ones to get from either brand right now.

Oh. Nevermind. 

[0culus]

Anyone have any advice on search filters to find the AVX caps I want for the 7904 project on digi-key? I'm mired down in non stock and milspec parts that cost way too much.

Why are you beating your head against the wall insisting on sticking with AVX only? Kemet's will work just fine.

And I suspect you may be having trouble finding 100uF tants in stock or at a reasonable price. Been there. Ref this pix. See those doubled up yellow tants on the right? Perfect substitute for the rare 100uF......2 - 47uF in parallel.

Dude, I'm just trying to see what's out there. Haven't bought anything yet.   

I have no issues putting two smaller ones in parallel if needed...I'm just trying to figure out which ones to get from either brand right now.

Oh. Nevermind. 

It looks like digikey doesn't even have Kemet radial tantalums in stock anyway. Where'd you get yours from for your 7904?

[med6753]

Anyone have any advice on search filters to find the AVX caps I want for the 7904 project on digi-key? I'm mired down in non stock and milspec parts that cost way too much.

Why are you beating your head against the wall insisting on sticking with AVX only? Kemet's will work just fine.

And I suspect you may be having trouble finding 100uF tants in stock or at a reasonable price. Been there. Ref this pix. See those doubled up yellow tants on the right? Perfect substitute for the rare 100uF......2 - 47uF in parallel.

Dude, I'm just trying to see what's out there. Haven't bought anything yet.   

I have no issues putting two smaller ones in parallel if needed...I'm just trying to figure out which ones to get from either brand right now.

Oh. Nevermind. 

It looks like digikey doesn't even have Kemet radial tantalums in stock anyway. Where'd you get yours from for your 7904?

Mouser. And yes, as you go up in value the prices go nuts as well as availability.