Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 14552783 times)

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Online tautech

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14675 on: August 15, 2018, 08:32:54 pm »

Wow! That is quite a haul! Congrats!  :-+ :-/O 8)

Edit....how did you manage to get all that stuff into your lab and not get the stink eye from the SWMBO?  :-//

haha good question. I have a separate entrance for the basement. So when I came in I just had one of the Keithley 181 and HP 39506a in my arms. I went downstairs and used the other entrance to get the rest  ;D
Good move !  :-+
Yes you are an addict !

For the UV gun you could start you own dentistry as they use them for curing those fancy 2 pot fillings.
Got a dremel and a hammer ? Hammer for anesthetics.  :-DD
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14676 on: August 15, 2018, 09:19:36 pm »

Wow! That is quite a haul! Congrats!  :-+ :-/O 8)

Edit....how did you manage to get all that stuff into your lab and not get the stink eye from the SWMBO?  :-//

haha good question. I have a separate entrance for the basement. So when I came in I just had one of the Keithley 181 and HP 39506a in my arms. I went downstairs and used the other entrance to get the rest  ;D
Good move !  :-+
Yes you are an addict !

For the UV gun you could start you own dentistry as they use them for curing those fancy 2 pot fillings.
Got a dremel and a hammer ? Hammer for anesthetics.  :-DD
Yes, indeed, your addict as witnessed by the use of another entrance, TBH though, I'd only came in the normal way with just the one thing, keep the rest quiet because if SWMBO is in the mood for stink eye I'd rather only cop for one load than two loads.  :-DD
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Offline Neomys Sapiens

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14677 on: August 15, 2018, 09:59:14 pm »
I'm working on a repair to a inverter board for the battery charging system on a Solartron 7045 meter and the board has has some suspect capacitors and other items which I can identify easily from the service manual. .......
If you need any comparisons or pictures taken, I could offer to break mine open sometimes during the next days (weekend or before).
 

Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14678 on: August 15, 2018, 10:03:08 pm »
I'm working on a repair to a inverter board for the battery charging system on a Solartron 7045 meter and the board has has some suspect capacitors and other items which I can identify easily from the service manual. .......
If you need any comparisons or pictures taken, I could offer to break mine open sometimes during the next days (weekend or before).
Yes please if you could, it be useful, thanks.
Who let Murphy in?

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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14679 on: August 15, 2018, 10:13:34 pm »
Neat. There's a 3D file for the bracket that holds the analog meters in old HP bench supplies.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:225449

Excellent!  That was one of the things on my list to come up with when I finally get my FDM printer.  I have several with broken meter retention brackets.

Someone else made a rear bezel for 344xxA, 33120A, 53xxxA, etc. But those are still available from Keysight. I suppose once you have a printer, it's cheaper to just print them.
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14680 on: August 16, 2018, 12:49:51 am »
This is one of the many reasons I got into 3D Printing; I've already made up some sets of custom feet so I could rearrange my stereo equipment with hot, large-vented surround receiver on top of Blu-Ray player that's 120mm shallower and tidy up gaming gear with all its oddball profiles. The nicest part is that you can't even see the parts I made.



Of course I'm not the first to have this idea; Thingiverse has oodles of .stl files for Tektronix parts. And even if they don't have exactly what you need, with over 4,000 different kinds of feet, there has to be SOMETHING in there close enough to start with that you can make it work.

Those claws are pretty neat!

OK, I'll take a look at Thingiverse. If they don't have anything to fit, I guess a worst case scenario would be to learn to use a 3D design program and reproduce the 6114A feet, since I have a fully working and complete 6114A to use as a model.

Another question is whether PLA or some other filament could stand up to the stress of the steel tilting bail being rotated into and out of position.

Quote
Remember that many 3D printers can do MUCH finer detail work than what you see as examples; the default settings a lot of people use are pretty coarse, as they're optimized for a middle ground between speed and precision. Personally, I'd put up with a 3-hour print for something I'm going to handle all the time like a knob, for example. Or you can go the opposite route by printing quick then sanding and painting to make it shiny.

Ah, that's good to know. Most examples I've seen weren't very fine at all.

PLA+ is the easiest for beginners to get good results, and it is quite strong; very close to ABS if the layer bond is good. It isn't AS heat-stable; melt temp is ~190-200 degrees C. Obviously, you don't want to put it down on a hot iron... but for anything you're going to use anywhere it won't kill a human being, it'll be fine, particularly in a compression-load situation.

Give you some idea; a lot of the knobs you'll see on Thingiverse either have crude threads, or have a set-screw hole sized so that you can force-thread a long grub-screw direct into the plastic. Yes, they do hold.


Wow! That is quite a haul! Congrats!  :-+ :-/O 8)

Edit....how did you manage to get all that stuff into your lab and not get the stink eye from the SWMBO?  :-//

haha good question. I have a separate entrance for the basement. So when I came in I just had one of the Keithley 181 and HP 39506a in my arms. I went downstairs and used the other entrance to get the rest  ;D

Man I read myself and I really sound like a addict  :-\

Welcome to the rabbit hole!

You should put a sign over your basement entrance that says that...  :-DD

Is that a CNC controller and stepper drivers? Sheeit... you're 3/4 of the way to your own CNC Milling machine... talk about a rabbit hole; that's a machine that makes them automatically and repeatedly out of nothing, where sanity once used to reign.  :-DD

Neat. There's a 3D file for the bracket that holds the analog meters in old HP bench supplies.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:225449

Excellent!  That was one of the things on my list to come up with when I finally get my FDM printer.  I have several with broken meter retention brackets.

Someone else made a rear bezel for 344xxA, 33120A, 53xxxA, etc. But those are still available from Keysight. I suppose once you have a printer, it's cheaper to just print them.

https://youtu.be/rN09nj2Vu8g

Rule of thumb is generally if it isn't specifically cosmetic, you can probably print it. If you have sanding/painting skills, you can print cosmetic crap too. If it needs to be metal, you can print a lost PLA original. This video gives you a good idea what's involved in doing it with conventional moldmaking; it also shows what you can expect to have to do in prep and finishing to get a good part whether in plastic or to turn into metal.

https://youtu.be/kgakfi8Ibjc

This is a good example of lost PLA done "quick & dirty" as a hobbyist might engage in. Not as shiny as Brian's work, but a lot less involved process-wise.

Lost PLA is done in investment plaster, and the PLA part is burned out; there are some new processes that use a converted microwave oven. Otherwise, pretty similar process to conventional foundry and finishing work. Does give you a little more respect for the folks in China who do this shit every day for slave wages so we don't have to.  :palm:


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Offline Kosmic

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14681 on: August 16, 2018, 02:28:25 am »
For the UV gun you could start you own dentistry as they use them for curing those fancy 2 pot fillings.
Got a dremel and a hammer ? Hammer for anesthetics.  :-DD

Yeah that what I thought. I think I saw something like that last time I went to the dentist.

Guess I need to find a shady dentist nearby to sell my probably not so clean UV gun  :P
 

Offline Kosmic

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14682 on: August 16, 2018, 02:43:46 am »
Is that a CNC controller and stepper drivers? Sheeit... you're 3/4 of the way to your own CNC Milling machine... talk about a rabbit hole; that's a machine that makes them automatically and repeatedly out of nothing, where sanity once used to reign.  :-DD

Yeah I was interested in CNC machines sometimes ago but was never able to really do anything good with the 3d software at the time. these days, 3D printing is tempting thought.
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14683 on: August 16, 2018, 02:45:25 am »
I seem to have a bad streak when it comes to TE. I'm missing out on a number of nice deals, in part due to miscommunication and unlucky timing. Nothing worthwhile has materialized for a bit now.
 

Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14684 on: August 16, 2018, 02:48:01 am »
In Other News...




I Have HOT SHINY BALLS!!!

No idea how hot this stuff got inside my big black mailbox out in the sun... but that's how hot they still were when I plopped 'em on the bench and noticed they were EFFING HOT!!! Since I also received this spiffy new insta-read thermometer to replace one that met a melty demise inside my grill due to my forgetful nature, I decided to capture the temp for posterity.

I could buy a small lot of just the size I wanted for $7 and wait a week to get them... or I could buy this assortment from 1/8"-1/2" for $9 and get them in 2 days. And then, because I was buying a Prime item, that top-rated thermometer was only $8 as an "add-on".

Fucking Bezos, man... just reaches down your shorts, grabs hold and squeezes.  :-DD


mnem
Now comes the fun part; sorting them all into a little divider box so I can file them away...
« Last Edit: August 16, 2018, 02:49:59 am by mnementh »
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Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14685 on: August 16, 2018, 03:38:20 am »
That's 70 degrees science, if anyone is wondering.
 

Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14686 on: August 16, 2018, 04:19:22 am »
Hmm, is that was auto-correct calls Celsius these days? ;D
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14687 on: August 16, 2018, 05:02:46 am »
In OTHER Other News...

My Fluke 189 now shows in USPS possession with an ETD on Friday.

SQWEEEEEEEE!!!


Also waiting on the front porch for me in the dark, to make sure I stubbed my pinkie toe on it, was the package with my Dell 870W Server Power Supplies in it. Yes, you read right; as in plural. I guess the guy must want to get rid of them; he still has 500+ to get rid of. Either that, or he mixed up my order with someone else's.

Cool. Now I have a spare... or I can experiment with series-modding them. Not like I don't already have enough in my que...  :palm:


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Offline Ero-Shan

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14688 on: August 16, 2018, 07:27:29 am »
I'm currently waiting for my HP 6114A power supply from the US.

Speaking of which, what's a good way to find other HP equipment of the era that have the same bar-style feet as the 6114A/6115A? That style of enclosure was used with equipment of different widths and, hence, would have different length feet.

My bargain-bin 6114A didn't come with feet.

Same problem here. My first 6114A came without feet.  :(


I saw some that were $25+shipping. For a similar cost, or slightly more, I'd rather get an entire parts unit of something less desirable, but having the same feet.

Oh, you found feet only?
Glad one! I haven't found sets of feet matching the 6114A/6115A yet.
Hence I looked for HP gear with enclosures of the type of the 6114A/6115A. Used old HP-catalogs for that.   ;)
But nothing really bargain-type-wise, since shipping over the pond makes that too expensive for me, over all.  :(

As is common knowledge, I have nine 6114A. As of yet, only 1 is checked for its proper function. (Most of them should be good, apart from the slimy appearance of the housing when touched - back in their heydays there were lots of smokers in the factory.) I think I might part with a dud as parts mule and even a good one, provided the destination is in Germany. But then I'd need to check them all ...  |O
 

Online Berni

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14689 on: August 16, 2018, 07:47:34 am »
Dang nine of just HP 6114A. And i thought i had too many PSUs.
 

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14690 on: August 16, 2018, 08:38:38 am »
Ero-Shan give me a call if you want to sell a 6114A, I am in Germany too.
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Offline VK5RC

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14691 on: August 16, 2018, 10:15:51 am »



When you say "strong" this is where I start. These are warehouse "pallet racks" and I've seen them used to hold up cars and trucks. As in multiple. They're available from 30" to 52" deep in standard sizes, and standard sizes start in 4' wide up to 12' wide. They are fully modular; you can add onto either end with just a set of rungs and another frame piece. You can often find them for scrap metal prices at liquidation auctions; otherwise pretty much any large city will have a "warehouse supply" with used ones for about 1/4- 1/8 the price of new, depending on how ugly you can put up with.

Yep, that looks like what holds up Rob's shack. :-+
Absolutely! Not only can they take many hundreds of kilos of boatanchors, ie 'Holy Shitballs!' machines but also a hundred kilo or so of me, climbing up the bugger to get something down.
Price of them is unbeatable.
Rob
Whoah! Watch where that landed we might need it later.
 

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14692 on: August 16, 2018, 12:17:26 pm »
Unfortunately, those old-style black HP ones that lock with the spring loaded metal button tend to be something of a rarity; the 'bar' types used in the 1/3 and 1/2 rack width enclosures even more so.  It's to the point where if I see something with those feet, I'm often willing to shell out $15-20 more than I would without.

As it turns out, the feet that I saw aren't for the 6114/5 (5060-0728). Very similar looking, but it's one digit different (5060-0727) and is for an HP 432A power meter. Oh, well.

Oh, and buying things with the intent of turning them into 'parts mules' is one reason I have so many things - once I get the 'parts mule', I can't bear to kill it.   :horse:

Yeah, I know. Slippery slope. :palm:

Was it these you found; https://www.ebay.com/itm/Agilent-HP-Keysight-5060-0727-Foot-Assy-for-Older-HP-Equipment-/361891326183

The sellers picture doesn't look right for the 1/3 size cases, should be more like this.

David
 

Online factory

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14693 on: August 16, 2018, 01:03:25 pm »



When you say "strong" this is where I start. These are warehouse "pallet racks" and I've seen them used to hold up cars and trucks. As in multiple. They're available from 30" to 52" deep in standard sizes, and standard sizes start in 4' wide up to 12' wide. They are fully modular; you can add onto either end with just a set of rungs and another frame piece. You can often find them for scrap metal prices at liquidation auctions; otherwise pretty much any large city will have a "warehouse supply" with used ones for about 1/4- 1/8 the price of new, depending on how ugly you can put up with.

Yep, that looks like what holds up Rob's shack. :-+
Absolutely! Not only can they take many hundreds of kilos of boatanchors, ie 'Holy Shitballs!' machines but also a hundred kilo or so of me, climbing up the bugger to get something down.
Price of them is unbeatable.
Rob

Looks like you could get two benches out of that rack, there are many benches made like that where I work (sadly none used for anything TEA or electronics related), don't know if they bought them like that or cut down some old pallet racks.

I went to Manchester yesterday to pick up HP 5248M counter I won last week, it needs quite a bit of work but it came with all the manuals so that shouldn't be a problem. I had a quick rummage through my used nixies box at 9:30pm ish and found two B59917A's to replace the two cracked ones in it.
Unfortunately it didn't come with any feet, so I know have three items of HP gear in need of some.

David
« Last Edit: August 31, 2018, 07:25:58 pm by factory »
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14694 on: August 16, 2018, 02:06:31 pm »
Nice one. I keep seeing those going past on ebay and think "hmm I'd like to get my hands dirty in one of them". Followed by the thought of the likely comments from SWMBO as my bench is in the living room :-DD
 

Online factory

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14695 on: August 16, 2018, 02:25:20 pm »
Indeed, 1960's (late in this case) HP counters aren't known for being compact, or quiet.
I should really try & get a picture of all the modules together, I have far too many, especially as I only have the two counters to use with them (when the 5248M gets fixed of course). The 5245L being one of the first items of test gear I bought about ten years ago.

David
« Last Edit: August 16, 2018, 02:28:07 pm by factory »
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14696 on: August 16, 2018, 02:31:42 pm »
Yes indeed. I had a much later fully populated HP 5328A for a bit. That was unbearably noisy as well. Much to SWMBO's delight I swapped it for a 5315A with OCXO / option C in the end which was really nice. Not sure why I sold that. I'm clearly an Idiot!
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14697 on: August 16, 2018, 04:24:06 pm »
Holy shitballs! What is this??  :-// :-DD






Received in good shape and as advertised. The "B" trigger switch is bent. Damage to the DM44. Handle on case missing. It powers up. There is considerable ripple on the traces. The focus does not work at all. And the CRT bias is turned up way too high. All fixable. So far thumbs up!  :-+ :-+


Look at all the goodies that came in the scope bag. This 465B was originally owned by Iowa State University. Gotta go get some sleep...have to work tonight. Looks like an interesting project ahead.  :-+
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14698 on: August 16, 2018, 04:30:00 pm »
Thats nice and it was nicely protected in bubble wrap as well  :-+
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #14699 on: August 16, 2018, 04:35:32 pm »
That's a proper haul. Nice one  :-+
 


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