Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Brumby]

Just let us know where to send the flowers before you do.

At least wait until he's dead before you start romancing the widow. Have some class. 

I was only thinking about the funeral.  Any ideas of romancing the widow would result in my own demise.

[Ero-Shan]

There's nothing like a Bernstein 3-069 for cutting finger nails! 

[BravoV]

The curse of diving into rabbit hole for toying RF in T&M for a noob, is never end isn't it ? 

Few new & used RF plumbing stuffs, converters for N type, SMA, BNC and also DC Blocks & Attenuator, as some I can't afford new ones for my SA.

Hope they don't rot overtime inside, especially on the DC block & attenuator.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Yep, it's tricky mainly because the cutters are so darn difficult to hold at the angles needed. I do have an attachment I designed and made for the bench grinder (modded since this photo was taken to allow quickly racking the workpiece in X-Y direction), and also another attachment I made out of a spare grinder I attached to the mill. That thing you have complete control over thanks to the mill table, and the swivelling dovetail slide the holder is bolted to. It uses diamond cup wheels to get into awkward corners. So yes, I can do it - but it takes longer to set up for the job than to do it (if you see what I mean)

Ok, I'm good - I did not have an idea of your capabilities and equipment.
So YOU are the EEV tool regrinding service?

[ChrisLX200]

Yep, it's tricky mainly because the cutters are so darn difficult to hold at the angles needed. I do have an attachment I designed and made for the bench grinder (modded since this photo was taken to allow quickly racking the workpiece in X-Y direction), and also another attachment I made out of a spare grinder I attached to the mill. That thing you have complete control over thanks to the mill table, and the swivelling dovetail slide the holder is bolted to. It uses diamond cup wheels to get into awkward corners. So yes, I can do it - but it takes longer to set up for the job than to do it (if you see what I mean)

Ok, I'm good - I did not have an idea of your capabilities and equipment.
So YOU are the EEV tool regrinding service?

LOL, not worth setting up unless I have several to do - which is why the Knipex remain knackered

[Berni]

The curse of diving into rabbit hole for toying RF in T&M for a noob, is never end isn't it ? 

Few new & used RF plumbing stuffs, converters for N type, SMA, BNC and also DC Blocks & Attenuator, as some I can't afford new ones for my SA.

Hope they don't rot overtime inside, especially on the DC block & attenuator.

These RF plumbing bits can be a slipery slope too.

Months later you suddenly have an entire drawer of the stuff along withh various RF building blocks and fancy microwave low loss cables

[bd139]

And at the same time never the right gender bender to connect them all how you need to.

Talking of which, currently window shopping for directional couplers. They turn out to be expensive so am considering being a cheap ass and making one.

[tggzzz]

And at the same time never the right gender bender to connect them all how you need to.

Talking of which, currently window shopping for directional couplers. They turn out to be expensive so am considering being a cheap ass and making one.

Hamfests can be good for cables and other bits. I'm getting a reputation for turning up with my Tek1502 TDR to test them before buying

BTW, Kempton on Sunday, and there isn't one in November. And SERF has been cancelled - again and permanently.

[bd139]

Ah yes aware of that one. unfortunately I’m baby sitting on Sunday. Have firmly booked Dunstable into the calendar though. Nothing will stop that. I’ve actually booked off a day either side of the weekend to absorb any turds that may appear

Edit: I saw a 1502 the other day on eBay. Did consider it.

I’ll have my U1241C with me

[tggzzz]

Ah yes aware of that one. unfortunately I’m baby sitting on Sunday. Have firmly booked Dunstable into the calendar though. Nothing will stop that. I’ve actually booked off a day either side of the weekend to absorb any turds that may appear

Edit: I saw a 1502 the other day on eBay. Did consider it.

I’ll have my U1241C with me

Babies like hamfests and have fun there.

Why didn't you go after the 1502, or what would make you go after one? They are sweet little things, even if you daren't operate them underwater any more! And that one had the more useful x-y plotter plugin.

Multimeters are of limited value with RF components

[bd139]

I fear for the other people with a 4 year old with the destructive power of a Davey Crockett.

Mainly skipped the 1502 because I just bought a £130 signalink interface for my radio so I figured I would be shot

DMM is fine. U1241C because IP67 and British weather ... Mainly for continuity/ resistance. You have to take a gamble with some things but a knackered primary, blown fuse, way out impedance, shorted capacitor, open heater etc can be picked up with a DC instrument. I like to poke a couple of things and evaluate the seller. That sounds dirty now I’ve said it.

[Neomys Sapiens]

And at the same time never the right gender bender to connect them all how you need to.

Talking of which, currently window shopping for directional couplers. They turn out to be expensive so am considering being a cheap ass and making one.

What is your exact need? Interested in a used Minicircuits DC which came back from the field and tested good on the VNA? Detailed type tomorrow, Connector is N, works at 1GHz.

[Berni]

I might also be interested in some directional couplers. Tho i tend to prefer SMA connectors.

[bd139]

And at the same time never the right gender bender to connect them all how you need to.

Talking of which, currently window shopping for directional couplers. They turn out to be expensive so am considering being a cheap ass and making one.

What is your exact need? Interested in a used Minicircuits DC which came back from the field and tested good on the VNA? Detailed type tomorrow, Connector is N, works at 1GHz.

I was looking at theirs. Has to be BNC connectors otherwise I have to buy more gender benders. I’ve built most of an SNA so was hoping to use it to measure antenna resonance and return loss.

Talking of which does anyone know of any active mixer ICs which are cheaper in volume than SA612’s? Mixing 120MHz ref with 120-220MHz sweep to get difference product so nothing particularly nice required. SA612s are getting expensive and near EOL I think.

[Ero-Shan]

A colleague donated me some tubes he'd been keeping in his home lab. That triggered me to get out my tube box and do what needed to be done long ago: sort them (and wipe the worst dust and crust of them along the way). I decided to empty a whole drawer for vacuum and glass. Alas, quite a few have lost their markings.  But then, the probability of me using them in the next couple of years is rather small. Well, I might play with the magic eyes, just love 'em.



While I cannot compete with your ex-NASA gear (they usually do not offer it on german flea-bay), I found something with a little history:



And now I'm going to eat way too much chili con carne.

[bd139]

Definitely some history there. That's a neat little collection actually. I've got a couple of Chinese 12AU7 tubes and that is it

[mnementh]

*tzzzzzt*


mnem
That is all.

[Specmaster]

*tzzzzzt*


mnem
That is all.

Well that's 2 more than me since when I started in electronics it was all valves, which I disposed of when I no longer had the time to indulge. Now they are rare and I had loads of them too.

From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

[bd139]

I love the things. Much easier to use than transistors and more forgiving.

Not exactly rare either - can buy new ones from RS! https://uk.rs-online.com/mobile/p/double-triode-valves/6784105/

And some weird ones from Korg https://uk.rs-online.com/mobile/p/double-triode-valves/1449016/ (looking data sheets 1.7mW anode dissipation is comedy)

[Ero-Shan]

I love the things. Much easier to use than transistors and more forgiving.

And they were easier to change. Just pop 'em out and put a new ones in. Overload could easily be seen when the plate started glowing. (We called it "rote Bäckchen".)

Not exactly rare either - can buy new ones from RS! https://uk.rs-online.com/mobile/p/double-triode-valves/6784105/

And some weird ones from Korg https://uk.rs-online.com/mobile/p/double-triode-valves/1449016/ (looking data sheets 1.7mW anode dissipation is comedy)

They might be for guitar amplifiers? And I have to admit they look very pretty. And pretty expensive.

I guess nostalgia is strong in me. 

[Cerebus]

I love the things. Much easier to use than transistors and more forgiving.

And they were easier to change. Just pop 'em out and put a new ones in. Overload could easily be seen when the plate started glowing. (We called it "rote Bäckchen".)

When transistors were relatively new it wasn't at all uncommon to find some or all of the transistors in sockets. Although undoubtedly sometimes done to make the transistors easy to replace it was also done because some early transistors were sufficiently sensitive to soldering that it was safer to socket tham.

I picked up something of circa 1972 vintage this week that has a pair of TO-18 output transistors in sockets (with push on heatsinks too).

[bd139]

Yes My Tek 453 I had many years ago had everything in sockets. Also had nuvistors on the front end. Cool little scope. Well not little but cool.

[Specmaster]

They are rare when you stop and think back to the 50s  and 60s when it was all valve and transisto radios had just trickling from Japan, those hateful fag packet sized ones. There was a few others around like Bush and Dansette IIRC. TV, hi - Fi record players etc all seemed to be valve based as was my Cossor oscilliscope and short wave comes receiver, octal and ba9 bases. These days it seems to be more very top end of Hi Fi that uses valves.

I must have spent a small fortune getting valves tested in one of the local electronics as well army surplas shops we used to have in the town.

It was a big old smoothing cap on a power amplifier I built the spilled it's guts all over the living room ceiling leaving black tentacles hanging from freshly foxed polystyrene tiles I spent the weekend before putting  up.

You right though about them being more forgiving . 

[bd139]

Ah polystyrene tiles. One of the worst things that the human race came up with. When I moved into my current place it had them in the kitchen (!) ready to rain napalm when the chips go up. Someone had just painted the things.

Something I found hilarious about the Japanese transistor radios is that they boasted about how many transistors they used. Turned out that they used the QA failed transistors as diodes where needed to up the transistor count. They were pretty crap actually especially the TRF ones. When I got them they were 5p at the jumble sale though

Edit: it was actually those damn things that taught me how to characterise transistors because I’d desoldered them all and then found that half of them didn’t work in my circuits.

[Specmaster]

Ah polystyrene tiles. One of the worst things that the human race came up with. When I moved into my current place it had them in the kitchen (!) ready to rain napalm when the chips go up. Someone had just painted the things.

Something I found hilarious about the Japanese transistor radios is that they boasted about how many transistors they used. Turned out that they used the QA failed transistors as diodes where needed to up the transistor count. They were pretty crap actually especially the TRF ones. When I got them they were 5p at the jumble sale though

Edit: it was actually those damn things that taught me how to characterise transistors because I’d desoldered them all and then found that half of them didn’t work in my circuits.

Yep, that was all the rage back then, "how many has yours got? Mine has xx", it was transistor trumps game. At least you could and can test transistors with a multimeter 🤣

From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]