Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Vince]

@Papa Smurf :

OK so now I understand PSU is fine and debugging is starting...

This huge fuzzy blob rather looks like low PDA voltage and/or focus problem, no ?!

At any rate, if I were in your shoes and I WILL be in your shoes as I have two 547 to restore... before wasting any time on random parts of the scope, I would first make sure that the CRT subsystem is indeed fine.. I would want to see a sharp fine bright dot on the CRT... if so then yeah I would know for sure that the problem has nothing to do with the HV and I would proceed to the amplifiers and plug-in.

So, to rule out any CRT subsystem issue, quick and easy test to do :

- At the CRT itself, disconnect the 4 wires that go to the H and V deflection plates/pins.  Short the H pins together and V pins together with alligator clips or whatever. This way the scope is not in control of where the spot might appear (off screen for example), but YOU are. With the deflection plates shorted, spot should appear in the center of the screen. If it does not, and/or is not bright and sharp as it should... then you know you have something to fix in the CRT subsystem before anything else. Once that is all working fine, then yeah I would start investigation the rest of the scope.. but only then.

It's such a quick and easy test to do it's not worth wasting time chasing red herrings not doing it !

FWIW of course !

[BU508A]

Good morning all. I finally return! Going to take a few days to catch up. Literally 63 pages of posts since I last looked.

Managed to get a few mins to get Dave to sort out the account issue. Still no email delivery working unfortunately but he managed to reset enough of the account to get back in 

What happened?  I’ll keep it short but most of the details are on discord. One death, house and job shenanigans and some social events. Normal service shall be resuming shortly but will be spotty while I clean up the tail end of some of the other crap.

Missed you all and glad to be back 

What do my overtired eyes see there? bd139 is back! How nice, there is also some good news. 

As for the 63 pages: I'm sure there would have been far more if you had been here. 

Good to see you back here.  Welcome.

[Vince]

Good morning all. I finally return! Going to take a few days to catch up. Literally 63 pages of posts since I last looked.

Managed to get a few mins to get Dave to sort out the account issue. Still no email delivery working unfortunately but he managed to reset enough of the account to get back in 

What happened?  I’ll keep it short but most of the details are on discord. One death, house and job shenanigans and some social events. Normal service shall be resuming shortly but will be spotty while I clean up the tail end of some of the other crap.

Missed you all and glad to be back 

Hello BD ! Not much on Discord as I just can't keep up with the traffic there, I am not made for it. Can barely keep up with the traffic on this thread so a real time and much faster paced version that is discord, is not in my league I am afraid. No idea how you lot can handle it.... I guess that just means my brain is running too slow, probably..

Anyway, thanks for the news, looking similar my end in the past few weeks, minus the death !

Hoping you can sort out this e-mail problem, if you can't solve it then who the hell can...

[Cerebus]

Good morning all. I finally return! Going to take a few days to catch up. Literally 63 pages of posts since I last looked.

Managed to get a few mins to get Dave to sort out the account issue. Still no email delivery working unfortunately but he managed to reset enough of the account to get back in 

What happened?  I’ll keep it short but most of the details are on discord. One death, house and job shenanigans and some social events. Normal service shall be resuming shortly but will be spotty while I clean up the tail end of some of the other crap.

Missed you all and glad to be back 

There goes the neighbourhood!

[vk6zgo]

Had a little time to look at the "yellow" Avo a bit more and discovered that I was the first person to open it up. It was still sealed with the factory seals intact and inside it looks to be in very good condition, switch tracks show it has been used, and I gave it a quick wipe over the circuit board to remove any debris from the switch contacts and judging by the markings, I think it dates back to 1980 when it rolled off the production line.

I think, mnementh, you got it about right with your comments ref swapping the case over, so I plan to leave it in the current case but need to remove that dreadful yellow paint. Just need to find a way of removing it without damaging the plastic case itself. I could just paint it black again, but I'd rather remove the yellow first as the front should be textured and in parts the yellow is so thick it filled in the texture relief lines.

Yes I agree it looks like hell but I think you're likely to run into problems trying to remove the yellow paint. If it were mine I'd just leave it as is.

As it is one of the later ones, it is possibly hard polystyrene or some other stuff, so paint strippers may be a "no-no".
The old ones were bakelite, which is pretty impervious to solvents.

[BU508A]

Good morning all. I finally return! Going to take a few days to catch up. Literally 63 pages of posts since I last looked.

Managed to get a few mins to get Dave to sort out the account issue. Still no email delivery working unfortunately but he managed to reset enough of the account to get back in 

What happened?  I’ll keep it short but most of the details are on discord. One death, house and job shenanigans and some social events. Normal service shall be resuming shortly but will be spotty while I clean up the tail end of some of the other crap.

Missed you all and glad to be back 

There goes the neighbourhood!

Says the one, who is wearing occasionly stockings. 

[McBryce]

Good morning all. I finally return! Going to take a few days to catch up. Literally 63 pages of posts since I last looked.

Managed to get a few mins to get Dave to sort out the account issue. Still no email delivery working unfortunately but he managed to reset enough of the account to get back in 

What happened?  I’ll keep it short but most of the details are on discord. One death, house and job shenanigans and some social events. Normal service shall be resuming shortly but will be spotty while I clean up the tail end of some of the other crap.

Missed you all and glad to be back 

Quick summary of the last (or any) 63 pages of this thread:
- Old test gear got fixed.
- People made fun of other people.
- Things got painted Tek blue.
- New test gear was acquired.
- People suggested using explosives to solve some simple issue.
- People got some serious bargains and got compared to a jam filled biscuit.
- 30% of posts were completely off topic and had nothing to do with TEA.
- People started talking about religion / politics and (rightly) got shot down immediately.
- People gave far too much details about their latest medical ailment.
- Pictures of rabbits looking down holes and people stirring tea got posted.

McBryce.

[bd139]

Hahahaha that has probably saved me a week of reading 

Also when I wasn’t looking, photonicinduction is back! 

[Specmaster]

Good morning all. I finally return! Going to take a few days to catch up. Literally 63 pages of posts since I last looked.

Managed to get a few mins to get Dave to sort out the account issue. Still no email delivery working unfortunately but he managed to reset enough of the account to get back in 

What happened?  I’ll keep it short but most of the details are on discord. One death, house and job shenanigans and some social events. Normal service shall be resuming shortly but will be spotty while I clean up the tail end of some of the other crap.

Missed you all and glad to be back 

Glad to have you back buddy, we have missed you and your daily inputs, 63 pages is a lot to catch up on 

[Specmaster]

Good morning all. I finally return! Going to take a few days to catch up. Literally 63 pages of posts since I last looked.

Managed to get a few mins to get Dave to sort out the account issue. Still no email delivery working unfortunately but he managed to reset enough of the account to get back in 

What happened?  I’ll keep it short but most of the details are on discord. One death, house and job shenanigans and some social events. Normal service shall be resuming shortly but will be spotty while I clean up the tail end of some of the other crap.

Missed you all and glad to be back 

There goes the neighbourhood!

Says the one, who is wearing occasionly stockings. 

Its the rocky horror show all over again 

[Saskia]

Departing Westland Sea King SAR chopper, underbelly shot

[Vince]

 

[nixiefreqq]

just stuck my nose in for a quick sniff.......an wadda' ya' know........bd is back!

(no doubt someone will now try to chase him off with a stick.)

[tggzzz]

Its the rocky horror show all over again 

That's the Rocky Horror Picture Show. There are similarities, but the movie's final act is awful.

[xrunner]

just stuck my nose in for a quick sniff.......an wadda' ya' know........bd is back!

(no doubt someone will now try to chase him off with a stick.)

Yea I noticed he changed his perfume too. 

Welcome back bd. 

[nixiefreqq]

over the weekend attended my first hamfest in a year and a half.  took a pledge not to purchase anything.

but the damn hobo's were selling meters for 5 bucks a piece.  (and the calculator was just too damn ugly to resist).

was in the truck heading home before it hit me.........fecking 22-1/2 volt batteries.  where am i gonna' find those?

[tautech]

just stuck my nose in for a quick sniff.......an wadda' ya' know........bd is back!

(no doubt someone will now try to chase him off with a stick.)

Yea I noticed he changed his perfume too. 

Welcome back bd. 

He had to !
Old one only attracted those that batted for the other team ! 

How's the girls holding up BD ?

[beanflying]

over the weekend attended my first hamfest in a year and a half.  took a pledge not to purchase anything.

but the damn hobo's were selling meters for 5 bucks a piece.  (and the calculator was just too damn ugly to resist).

was in the truck heading home before it hit me.........fecking 22-1/2 volt batteries.  where am i gonna' find those?

Nice shiny battery here  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3590046/#msg3590046

Couple of cheapish 3S Lipo's wrapped in a fake box would do it for not a lot of $. Nice low self discharge for occasional use and adding a cheap LiPo/mixed charger if you don't have one in the kit is a good toy to have.

[kj7e]

Dumped 24,500lbs (just over 6 cu yards) of 4000psi mud down the hole.  Should have the big stick vertical maybe as soon as late next week.  Deputy inspector took 5 samples, going to test at 7 days and 28 days.  The inspector expects the 7 day test to yield over 3000psi and since the spec calls for 3000psi, Ill be good to mount the tower.

[nixiefreqq]

over the weekend attended my first hamfest in a year and a half.  took a pledge not to purchase anything.

but the damn hobo's were selling meters for 5 bucks a piece.  (and the calculator was just too damn ugly to resist).

was in the truck heading home before it hit me.........fecking 22-1/2 volt batteries.  where am i gonna' find those?

Nice shiny battery here  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3590046/#msg3590046

Couple of cheapish 3S Lipo's wrapped in a fake box would do it for not a lot of $. Nice low self discharge for occasional use and adding a cheap LiPo/mixed charger if you don't have one in the kit is a good toy to have.

not sure 2 lipo's will fit in the meter.  this is like the dead one that came out of the 269.

https://brooklynbatteryworks.com/eveready-412-22-5v-140mah-carbon-zinc-battery/

[Saskia]

WB bd!

[bd139]

just stuck my nose in for a quick sniff.......an wadda' ya' know........bd is back!

(no doubt someone will now try to chase him off with a stick.)

Yea I noticed he changed his perfume too. 

Welcome back bd. 

He had to !
Old one only attracted those that batted for the other team ! 

How's the girls holding up BD ?

Yeah doing good thanks. Fingers crossed it stays that way 

Well this is good. They changed the eBay iOS app in the last few weeks as well. It’s all weird now. 

[beanflying]

over the weekend attended my first hamfest in a year and a half.  took a pledge not to purchase anything.

but the damn hobo's were selling meters for 5 bucks a piece.  (and the calculator was just too damn ugly to resist).

was in the truck heading home before it hit me.........fecking 22-1/2 volt batteries.  where am i gonna' find those?

Nice shiny battery here  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3590046/#msg3590046

Couple of cheapish 3S Lipo's wrapped in a fake box would do it for not a lot of $. Nice low self discharge for occasional use and adding a cheap LiPo/mixed charger if you don't have one in the kit is a good toy to have.

not sure 2 lipo's will fit in the meter.  this is like the dead one that came out of the 269.

https://brooklynbatteryworks.com/eveready-412-22-5v-140mah-carbon-zinc-battery/

Ok baby one. Plenty of baby indoor R/C ones if you have a bit of a search. Hyperion are generally way better than the average swill on offer. eBay auction: #324673897656 maybe a pair of these?

[nixiefreqq]

over the weekend attended my first hamfest in a year and a half.  took a pledge not to purchase anything.

but the damn hobo's were selling meters for 5 bucks a piece.  (and the calculator was just too damn ugly to resist).

was in the truck heading home before it hit me.........fecking 22-1/2 volt batteries.  where am i gonna' find those?

Nice shiny battery here  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3590046/#msg3590046

Couple of cheapish 3S Lipo's wrapped in a fake box would do it for not a lot of $. Nice low self discharge for occasional use and adding a cheap LiPo/mixed charger if you don't have one in the kit is a good toy to have.

not sure 2 lipo's will fit in the meter.  this is like the dead one that came out of the 269.

https://brooklynbatteryworks.com/eveready-412-22-5v-140mah-carbon-zinc-battery/

Ok baby one. Plenty of baby indoor R/C ones if you have a bit of a search. Hyperion are generally way better than the average swill on offer. eBay auction: #324673897656 maybe a pair of these?

oh......hey.....that might just work

will have to make some measurements of the battery space.

thanks!

[Cerebus]

Quick summary of the last (or any) 63 pages of this thread:
- Old test gear got fixed.
- People made fun of other people.
- Things got painted Tek blue.
- New test gear was acquired.
- People suggested using explosives to solve some simple issue.
- People got some serious bargains and got compared to a jam filled biscuit.
- 30% of posts were completely off topic and had nothing to do with TEA.
- People started talking about religion / politics and (rightly) got shot down immediately.
- People gave far too much details about their latest medical ailment.
- Pictures of rabbits looking down holes and people stirring tea got posted.

McBryce.

... - I'm still slowly battering my way through the GPSDO prototype.

Things go slowly when a test run is, at the very minimum \$60 + \sum\limits_{n=0}^{9} 2^n \$ seconds. I've had hassles with noise on the analogue side of things, and signal integrity issues but I think I have those all licked. I'm just running up a board with just the analogue bit on (and nice coaxial test points) to give me one last confirmatory pass at the analogue side before I get the full mixed signal board spun up. It also will give me a chance to easily try all the OCXOs I've got sitting around  and grade them (I've got some discrete single pin sockets that I'm fabricating a socket for the OCXO out of).

Currently looks like this. I'm just in the middle of converting it from two layers at £1.43 to four layers at £5.73, because at those prices why wouldn't you go 4 layer?