Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

I deserve a good smack off the side of my head or an arse kicking. I violated one of the cardinal rules of basic troubleshooting and I've been chasing my tail. Instead of checking all DC voltages FIRST I was chasing the sweep ramp waveform first. And the basic waveform seemed OK but the final horizontal output was completely out of balance which is why the trace was barely showing on the left.

See schematic. Q564 has got -25V not only on the collector but the base and emitter too. It's obviously an inert chunk of germanium. Luckily I have one and have 2 more on order. But this transistor is in a socket buried way up behind the horizontal deck switch. Can't be seen but can feel it. So once I get it removed from the socket I'll never get the new one in. So the replacement will be soldered in top side on the ceramic strips. More later. I suspect this may fix the issue and if so someone give me a good swift kick in the arse. 

     

[med6753]

You know, that little transistor MIGHT be the source of the mystery power on only PSU short that I chased for weeks until blasting it to kingdom come with the external 100V supply. I wonder........

[AVGresponding]

Maybe you did not push down towards the board and twist at the same time, in the same way as you would remove a BC light bulb? There is a topic somewhere on this forum regarding the removal of these caps, and it seems that a lot of people do use the push and twist method very successfully.

Don't be confusing the north americans with terms like BC light bulb, Canadians probably think that means you bought it in British Columbia. They all use those silly Edison Screw cap lamps instead of Bayonet Caps. I say silly, because repeated on/off heat cycles make the damn things unscrew themselves.

Oh, and bulbs are what you plant in the garden, lamps are what you use in light fittings/luminaires.   

 

[0culus]

I have no real problem with Carlson and I usually enjoy his videos in spite of his repetition. I understand why because he realizes many beginners view his videos.

But him and I work together? No way, it would be like Clash of the Titans. 

I don't get the hate for him myself. He has his own schtick, and I think it works. I enjoy him because he tends to work on older stuff that Shahriar (my other favorite youtuber) tends to not bother with.

...as to other posters talking about magic boxes...you can get into his patreon for $1 and get the schematics and all that. Build it yourself, test it, see if it's reproducible. Unlike a lot of the crap that passes for science these days, he actually does provide access to everything you need to reproduce his work.

I don't think anyone has expressed "hate for him myself". No one has said that he sacrificed babies, is secretly behind undermining the world's financial system, or anything like that. All people seem to have expressed is a dislike for his presentation style and the whole secret magic box thing. Except Med, Med's simply recognised that if the two had to work together there would be a severe personality clash - that sounds more like self awareness than hatred.

I've only watched a handful of his videos, or rather tried to watch. I don't think I've got to the end of any because the s-l-o-w, repetitive, "For god's sake man, get on with it!" presentation style really grates after 10 minutes. But even in that brief engagement with his stuff I've heard about the super secret capacitor tester way too many times. The constant plugging  gets annoying, especially when combined with the fact that a capacitor leakage tester is a very ordinary instrument for one to design and one shouldn't sound super pleased with oneself every bloody time you mention it. I've designed and built a prototype GPSDO, it produces an rms output error of [checks overnight run] 61 uHz on a 10 MHz signal - [sarcasm] whoop de do, clever me [/sarcasm]. But would you want to hear about it in every bloody message I posted here - I think not.

Whether the secret squirrel capacitor tester works properly or not isn't really what gets peoples' goat, it's the perceived smugness about it. Combine that smugness with the fact that, on first examination, it can't work properly "because physics" and that smugness begins to sound like hubris. That, I suspect is what moves people from "He's not for me." to "Oh. Him!".

[emphasis mine] Come on, that's ridiculous hyperbole and you know it. The "hate", as it were, is coming across like "he didn't doing it the way I'd do it so he must be an idiot". THAT gets tiresome too, just as tiresome as his presentation style seems to be to you lot. 

See, I don't see him coming across as smug.  It comes across to me more like he is catering to a less experienced audience than say, The Signal Path, and he certainly would be remiss about not warning new viewers who may have just discovered the channel that yes, that All American Five radio you want to fix can kill you and you should be careful. I rather enjoy the long format videos because I can play them in the background while I'm doing something else. YMMV.

[Kosmic]

Maybe you did not push down towards the board and twist at the same time, in the same way as you would remove a BC light bulb? There is a topic somewhere on this forum regarding the removal of these caps, and it seems that a lot of people do use the push and twist method very successfully.

Don't be confusing the north americans with terms like BC light bulb, Canadians probably think that means you bought it in British Columbia. They all use those silly Edison Screw cap lamps instead of Bayonet Caps. I say silly, because repeated on/off heat cycles make the damn things unscrew themselves.

Never heard of anything like that. I'm afraid the light bulb will long be dead before he successfully unscrew itself.

[AVGresponding]

Never heard of anything like that. I'm afraid the light bulb will long be dead before he successfully unscrew itself.

We get it a lot with the E27 festoon we use for temporary lighting. Worst are the incandescents, then the compact fluorescents, and even bloody LED's do it, because the shitbag manufacturers overdrive them to make them fail.

[med6753]

Yep.

Old 2N2207



Replacement 2N2207

[bd139]

Ah yea you got a germanium fuse now 

On subject of transistors I’m considering buying a huge bag of 2N series TO39 GP medium power jobbies at the moment for £20 “just in case”. Insane or not?

[Kosmic]

Never heard of anything like that. I'm afraid the light bulb will long be dead before he successfully unscrew itself.

We get it a lot with the E27 festoon we use for temporary lighting. Worst are the incandescents, then the compact fluorescents, and even bloody LED's do it, because the shitbag manufacturers overdrive them to make them fail.

If it's temporary installation might also be due to vibration? I got those bulbs in the whole house and only touch them when they are dead.

I also noticed that the new LED bulb don't last particular long. I dissected some and it's always the power supply failing somehow. I should probably buy better one.

[med6753]

Ah yea you got a germanium fuse now 

On subject of transistors I’m considering buying a huge bag of 2N series TO39 GP medium power jobbies at the moment for £20 “just in case”. Insane or not?

I had a feeling in my gut which is why I went ahead and ordered 2 more even though I had one on hand. Besides, this guy uses a shit load of the 2N2207 and as you recall I did have one with a tin whisker short. So we gots some spares. 

I'd buy the TO39's.

[tooki]

At school a few weeks ago, my teacher announced that they had some test gear to get rid of, and we could take anything we wanted for free. I ended up scoring 3 things  

1. Hioki 3520 LCR meter

It's 30 years old and only 4 digits, but that's 4 digits more than I had before! (It can test at 40Hz–100KHz, so it's still a serious piece of gear, methinks.)

They also had a couple of giant demonstrator analog VOMs: we're talking movements probably a foot (30cm) wide. I'd have taken them for curiosity's sake, if not for the fact that I am already cripplingly short on space…


2. Leader LFG-1310 signal generator
It's a fairly standard purely analog gen (10MHz; sine, triangle, square waves; sweep; modulation). I still plan to get an arb generator at some point, this is still an upgrade from what I had before, which was no signal gen at all! One pot needed a clean and lube to get rid of scratchiness, now it's perfect.

3. Hameg 407 oscilloscope (it's a hybrid analog and digital storage scope). Its digital storage side isn't anywhere near as useful as the Rigol DS1054Z I already have, but it's nice to have an analog scope finally!

[Cerebus]

I have no real problem with Carlson and I usually enjoy his videos in spite of his repetition. I understand why because he realizes many beginners view his videos.

But him and I work together? No way, it would be like Clash of the Titans. 

I don't get the hate for him myself. He has his own schtick, and I think it works. I enjoy him because he tends to work on older stuff that Shahriar (my other favorite youtuber) tends to not bother with.

...as to other posters talking about magic boxes...you can get into his patreon for $1 and get the schematics and all that. Build it yourself, test it, see if it's reproducible. Unlike a lot of the crap that passes for science these days, he actually does provide access to everything you need to reproduce his work.

I don't think anyone has expressed "hate for him myself". No one has said that he sacrificed babies, is secretly behind undermining the world's financial system, or anything like that. All people seem to have expressed is a dislike for his presentation style and the whole secret magic box thing. Except Med, Med's simply recognised that if the two had to work together there would be a severe personality clash - that sounds more like self awareness than hatred.

I've only watched a handful of his videos, or rather tried to watch. I don't think I've got to the end of any because the s-l-o-w, repetitive, "For god's sake man, get on with it!" presentation style really grates after 10 minutes. But even in that brief engagement with his stuff I've heard about the super secret capacitor tester way too many times. The constant plugging  gets annoying, especially when combined with the fact that a capacitor leakage tester is a very ordinary instrument for one to design and one shouldn't sound super pleased with oneself every bloody time you mention it. I've designed and built a prototype GPSDO, it produces an rms output error of [checks overnight run] 61 uHz on a 10 MHz signal - [sarcasm] whoop de do, clever me [/sarcasm]. But would you want to hear about it in every bloody message I posted here - I think not.

Whether the secret squirrel capacitor tester works properly or not isn't really what gets peoples' goat, it's the perceived smugness about it. Combine that smugness with the fact that, on first examination, it can't work properly "because physics" and that smugness begins to sound like hubris. That, I suspect is what moves people from "He's not for me." to "Oh. Him!".

[emphasis mine] Come on, that's ridiculous hyperbole and you know it. The "hate", as it were, is coming across like "he didn't doing it the way I'd do it so he must be an idiot". THAT gets tiresome too, just as tiresome as his presentation style seems to be to you lot. 

See, I don't see him coming across as smug.  It comes across to me more like he is catering to a less experienced audience than say, The Signal Path, and he certainly would be remiss about not warning new viewers who may have just discovered the channel that yes, that All American Five radio you want to fix can kill you and you should be careful. I rather enjoy the long format videos because I can play them in the background while I'm doing something else. YMMV.

You're the one who chose the word hate and used the phrase "hate him for himself". Hate is a strong word, especially if you're saying that people are directing hate at him personally. The  hyperbole was deliberate to highlight how strong a word hate is and how inappropriate it was to direct at his critics, who merely at worst dislike him - those with some historical perspective might recognise my examples as classic hate speech.

[Cerebus]

Today's XKCD: 

[bd139]

Hahahaha I rather like that 

[Specmaster]

Today's XKCD: 

WTF is that a real thing or someone's idea of a joke 

[Cerebus]

WTF is that a real thing or someone's idea of a joke 

It's  joke. I can't believe that there is still someone around here who doesn't know XKCD, let alone immediately recognise the cartoon style. Go here: https://xkcd.com, we'll see you in few days....

[DH7DN]

More important: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

I don't get all of XKCD's comic strips. Some of those are very cryptic (or even about encryption) - others are very philosophical with 2^N - 1 possible interpretations... my mind hasn't been broadened enough by Lysergic acid diethylamide 

[AVGresponding]

Malkonkordo vivas - Uenighet er live - Mae Discord yn fyw

Never heard of anything like that. I'm afraid the light bulb will long be dead before he successfully unscrew itself.

We get it a lot with the E27 festoon we use for temporary lighting. Worst are the incandescents, then the compact fluorescents, and even bloody LED's do it, because the shitbag manufacturers overdrive them to make them fail.

If it's temporary installation might also be due to vibration? I got those bulbs in the whole house and only touch them when they are dead.

I also noticed that the new LED bulb don't last particular long. I dissected some and it's always the power supply failing somehow. I should probably buy better one.

No, it's not really subject to heavy vibration; the festoon is not rigidly mounted.

[Specmaster]

WTF is that a real thing or someone's idea of a joke 

It's  joke. I can't believe that there is still someone around here who doesn't know XKCD, let alone immediately recognise the cartoon style. Go here: https://xkcd.com, we'll see you in few days....

Nope, can't say that I'd seen any before, that plug had all the hallmarks of a quick artist sketch up for a mock-up of a new catalogue page layout for a new product, of which I have seen quite a few over the years.

[AVGresponding]

Specmaster you need to come to Discord and defend the honour of Mr C.

Disparaging remarks have been made.

[tautech]

Maybe you did not push down towards the board and twist at the same time, in the same way as you would remove a BC light bulb? There is a topic somewhere on this forum regarding the removal of these caps, and it seems that a lot of people do use the push and twist method very successfully.

Don't be confusing the north americans with terms like BC light bulb, Canadians probably think that means you bought it in British Columbia. They all use those silly Edison Screw cap lamps instead of Bayonet Caps. I say silly, because repeated on/off heat cycles make the damn things unscrew themselves.

Never heard of anything like that. I'm afraid the light bulb will long be dead before he successfully unscrew itself.

All old style incandescent fittings have issues, bayonet as well. 
Heat is the killer where the metal holder bonding to the fitting can let go so it won't even hold a bulb or the plunger pin springs weaken with repeated heat cycling over the years resulting in insufficient contact pressure which you could liken to trying to power a bulb via a miniscule spark gap. 
Result = bulbs that don't last long vs bulbs in good bayonet fittings that seemingly last for years and years.

[Cerebus]

Specmaster you need to come to Discord and defend the honour of Mr C.

Disparaging remarks have been made.

That'd better not be this Mr. C. [Sound of cutlery draw rattling.] 

On a separate note, is it strange that I've started to take personal offence if I spot the GPSDO output I'm keeping an eye on wander even slightly over 100 ppt error? A few weeks back I'd have been happy for it to average 1 ppb error, let alone never wander anywhere near it.

What's that Mr. Cottontail? Yes, of course I'd like to hear how to reduce my measurement's confidence interval by \$\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\$.

[Specmaster]

Someone having a pop at Mr C, really, why is that then 

Sorry but I can't at the moment, upto my neck in things here, not least of all trying to repair my glasses, I really should go and get my eyes tested, I'm overdue for an eye test as SpecSavers keep on reminding me, but I'm reluctant to go and do that why this Johnson variety is so rampant. On top of that, I found myself chewing on my crown at the same as chewing a date, the sticky date pulled it off  and I have my youngest having a crisis as his squeeze has gone and dumped him  Middle son has had the Moderna Covid vaccine and is also a bit down and with a sore arm, which apparently is common with that vaccine.

Hopefully next week I shall be able to join on discord once again, fingers crossed.

[Specmaster]

Specmaster you need to come to Discord and defend the honour of Mr C.

Disparaging remarks have been made.

That'd better not be this Mr. C. [Sound of cutlery draw rattling.] 

On a separate note, is it strange that I've started to take personal offence if I spot the GPSDO output I'm keeping an eye on wander even slightly over 100 ppt error? A few weeks back I'd have been happy for it to average 1 ppb error, let alone never wander anywhere near it.

What's that Mr. Cottontail? Yes, of course I'd like to hear how to reduce my measurement's confidence interval by \$\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\$.

Well I suppose you could be the Mr C being mentioned, but I rather suspect it's more likely Mr Carlson, so for now at least, close the cutlery draw, your ceremonial cutlery is not yet required 

[mnementh]

Here ya go med... have a little PTSD flashback!





mnem
*juicy*