Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

*Makes sign of warding against the horrific visage of a HAKKO FX-951*

"Back...! Back you fiend; back to the depths that spawned you!!!"

Seriously... of all the Txx-compatible models you could have chosen from, you HAD to pick the one designed by a sociopathic reject from the Doofenschmirtz School who clearly HATES anybody who has to actually USE the Ifni-accursed thing? 

The murrr-furrr who designed that thing needs his nutsack ground into a fine paste under the heel of a rhinoceros in heat. 

mnem
"Kill it! Kill it with FIRE!!! It's just going to catch fire by itself and burn down your workbench anyways!!!" ~ me

Is that the thing coloured like a sort of evil parrot?
Nevertheless: don't go postal.  Reptile, take your medicine!
(I deem it ok, for a Highland)

  P.s.: I was just waiting for any opportunity to throw this pic at you  p.s.2: Empty by now

Right back atcha   :


The evil parrot would be less worrisome. 

I don't do postal. I am a civilized reptile. 

I know the Dragon Blood liqueur looks amazing... alas, it pretty much tastes like a shot of flavored gin or a dry vodka (Think Grey Goose or Tito's) berry cocktail followed by a shot of cinnamon schnapps. 

mnem
*Currently very annoyed with his father's laptop*

[xrunner]

And now it makes sense! 

Yea and the cool thing is I have no SWMBO here to worry about! 

[0culus]

And now it makes sense! 

Yea and the cool thing is I have no SWMBO here to worry about! 

I do, but we have a deal. She doesn't question TEA and I don't question fabric purchases!

[Mr. Scram]

I do, but we have a deal. She doesn't question TEA and I don't question fabric purchases!

So now you have a nice oscilloscope but no house any more?

[0culus]

I do, but we have a deal. She doesn't question TEA and I don't question fabric purchases!

So now you have a nice oscilloscope but no house any more?

I can carry it with me dammit! 

Real talk though, still have the house. It's just not big enough for TEA...upgrades coming in the near future though! 

[Ero-Shan]

The transformer I use right now has two heater windings, but since the mains voltage was raised to 230 volts, they're a tad too high (7.1 volts) for my taste. And I prefer DC, of course. Alas, 7 volts AC doesn't leave enough headroom for regulation to 6.3 volts after full-wave rectification.
A third transformer  just for that? These are the reasons for my undecidedness. And I have plenty of lab supplies (remember the 9 HP E6114A).

That should not be an issue. As soon as you load the filament windings with tubes it will drop to closer to 6.3 volts. And tubes aren't real fussy with their filament voltage anyway as long as it isn't ridiculously high or low.

With just one or two filaments as load it won't drop much. But you're right, they certainly can take it, and even if they wear out sooner (can't even remember a tube with a broken filament; but that might just be my failing memory) I guess I wouldn't live long enough to see it.
At least I should have fuses to keep short circuits from damaging things. 

[Ero-Shan]

There's an Agilent 54641d (complete with probes!) on german fleabay. https://www.ebay.de/itm/302962251973 As I'm not at all happy with my Rigol's logic analyzer, that thing looks interesting to me. What do you think?

So? Did you get it? Even as I am not exactly a fan of this series (and manufacturer, when talking scopes), it should be much better that a Rigol and the end price seemed quite adequate.

Shame on me. I spent the afternoon baking bread and making an inventory of my transformers (even if they have some type numbers on them, that doesn't tell you much). After that, I've totally forgotten about the scope. Remembered it when I went to bed.
When I looked it up this morning, I was kinda glad to see that the price was way over my limit. With devices that I don't really want or need my limit is rather low.

On the topic of enclosures. for standard instrument needs (anything below 19" and not RF or environmental, and needing no special form factor) I can only recommend the range from Feltron Zeissler.
Especially the possibility to insert a mounting plate at mid-height lends itself to nice solutions.

I'll have a look at them, thanks!

[tggzzz]

I know the Dragon Blood liqueur looks amazing... alas, it pretty much tastes like a shot of flavored gin or a dry vodka (Think Grey Goose or Tito's) berry cocktail followed by a shot of cinnamon schnapps. 

A good rule of thumb is anything (not just alcohol) that looks like that has been twitted to appeal to youngsters/chavs/etc that think it is fun and cool (or is that kewl?). Fine for the tramsitory amusement factor, but no more than that.

[med6753]

More shenanigans with these damn Tek attenuators.   One of the 7A15A plug-ins has again developed intermittent operation .2 volts/div and below. But I finally found the cause. In the first pix the 5th contact from the right had high resistance. And I suspect I know why. This 7A15A was a separate Ebay purchase. I think it sat around for many years not being used. The contacts on the rear of the attenuator board are engaged firmly with the cam on the volts/div switch. The contacts on this facing side rely solely on their spring tension to make good contact with the board. I think this contact was held open (up) for years and lost some it's tension therefore making poor contact. The fix? A very slight and careful tweak with a pair of needle nose. It now makes excellent contact as verified with an ohm meter. 2nd pix shows the attenuator blocks reinstalled. And the last pix is the result. And so far solid operation when changing ranges. But if it acts up again I know exactly what to check.



   

[bd139]

Nice one. Those things are bastards and I’ve had enough of them! 

[Specmaster]

I do, but we have a deal. She doesn't question TEA and I don't question fabric purchases!

So now you have a nice oscilloscope but no house any more?

I can carry it with me dammit! 

Real talk though, still have the house. It's just not big enough for TEA...upgrades coming in the near future though! 

Maybe SWMBO make a tent out of the fabric for you?

[LapTop006]

Well it's taken a few months of spare time, but I've finally read all the backlog in this thread.

For my own contribution I finally got my Stanford Research collection all* in one place.



*: There's a parts-only DS345 elsewhere, of course that's the one with the GPIB & RS232 ports, so I'll probably attempt a recovery at some point.

[med6753]

Nice one. Those things are bastards and I’ve had enough of them! 

They are bastard tants 2nd cousin. 

[med6753]

Well it's taken a few months of spare time, but I've finally read all the backlog in this thread.

For my own contribution I finally got my Stanford Research collection all* in one place.



*: There's a parts-only DS345 elsewhere, of course that's the one with the GPIB & RS232 ports, so I'll probably attempt a recovery at some point.

Wow, volt nuttery to the max! 

[LapTop006]

Wow, volt nuttery to the max! 

Nah, there's nothing very volt-nutty about that part of the collection (it will be time-nutty soon enough, just out of shot is my Efratom FRK rubidium and Spectracom 8140 waiting to all be cabled up, sadly no GPS reception where I live, and I still haven't lugged my cesium clock home from the office). The resistance standard is decent enough, but the rest is all pretty standard.

The volt-nutty part is on the other side of the room.

[mnementh]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!

The transformer I use right now has two heater windings, but since the mains voltage was raised to 230 volts, they're a tad too high (7.1 volts) for my taste. And I prefer DC, of course. Alas, 7 volts AC doesn't leave enough headroom for regulation to 6.3 volts after full-wave rectification.
A third transformer  just for that? These are the reasons for my undecidedness. And I have plenty of lab supplies (remember the 9 HP E6114A)

That should not be an issue. As soon as you load the filament windings with tubes it will drop to closer to 6.3 volts. And tubes aren't real fussy with their filament voltage anyway as long as it isn't ridiculously high or low.

With just one or two filaments as load it won't drop much. But you're right, they certainly can take it, and even if they wear out sooner (can't even remember a tube with a broken filament; but that might just be my failing memory) I guess I wouldn't live long enough to see it.
At least I should have fuses to keep short circuits from damaging things. 

Use an 1156 or an 1157 bulb with both filaments in parallel as a "pilot light" across the filament winding. At 6-7V it'll last forever, and it'll give your front panel that cozy orange glow.

Nice one. Those things are bastards and I’ve had enough of them! 

They are bastard tants 2nd cousin. 

   TANTS!!!  

mnem
SNAUSAGES!!!

[mnementh]

[Bit of Random Over My Morning Cuppa Coffee Mode]

That Time The Windows Kernel Fought Gamma Rays Corrupting Its Processor Cache (microsoft.com)
Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday November 25, 2018 @10:34AM from the cosmic-coding dept.

Long-time Microsoft programmer Raymond Chen recently shared a memory about an unusual single-line instruction that was once added into the Windows kernel code -- accompanied by an "incredulous" comment from the Microsoft programmer who added it:

;
; Invalidate the processor cache so that any stray gamma
; rays (I'm serious) that may have flipped cache bits
; while in S1 will be ignored.
;
; Honestly. The processor manufacturer asked for this.
; I'm serious.
invd

"Less than three weeks later, the INVD instruction was commented out," writes Chen. "But the comment block remains.

"In case we decide to resume trying to deal with gamma rays corrupting the the processor cache, I guess."

[/Bit of Random Over My Morning Cuppa Coffee Mode]

mnem

[Cerebus]

OK, what does SWMBO mean? It's not in the glossary in post 1! 

She Who Must Be Obeyed. 

And now it makes sense! 

It only truly makes sense once you have learned to mentally hear Leo McKern playing Rumpole (of Rumpole of the Bailey ) saying "She, who must be obeyed" everytime you see SWMBO written.

[med6753]

SWMBO

[Cerebus]

SWMBO

Na, not Ridder Haggard's 'She', Rumpole's 'She', Hilda Rumpole:



Ob Fact: Leo McKern (who played the very English Rumpole in the long running UK TV series) was actually an Aussie. Educated at Sydney Technical High School in Bexley, the other side of Sydney from where Dave is in Baulkham Hills.

[bd139]

On topic for once. Managed to snag a sacrificial 7B53A plugin for £20. This will provide me with a replacement sweep IC (if it works) for the 465, a couple of CA3046 ICs, button surrounds, a nice bourns 5k 10 turn pot and knob and a ton of Tek numbered transistors as spares.

The 10 turn pots are usually about £15-16 a go so it makes sense.

I may be tempted to fix the 465 now. Just need to work on the attenuators.

[med6753]

SWMBO

Na, not Ridder Haggard's 'She', Rumpole's 'She', Hilda Rumpole:



Ob Fact: Leo McKern (who played the very English Rumpole in the long running UK TV series) was actually an Aussie. Educated at Sydney Technical High School in Bexley, the other side of Sydney from where Dave is in Baulkham Hills.

I'm not familiar with that ugly "She". But I am familiar with the good looking "She" (Ursula Andress) 

[med6753]

On topic for once. Managed to snag a sacrificial 7B53A plugin for £20. This will provide me with a replacement sweep IC (if it works) for the 465, a couple of CA3046 ICs, button surrounds, a nice bourns 5k 10 turn pot and knob and a ton of Tek numbered transistors as spares.

The 10 turn pots are usually about £15-16 a go so it makes sense.

I may be tempted to fix the 465 now. Just need to work on the attenuators.

Did I inspire you to tackle the attenuators one more time with my successful repair? If so, I take full credit. 

[bd139]

You did indeed and deserve the credit

I got it dismantled this far down last time so it would be a crime to give up too!

[med6753]

You did indeed and deserve the credit

I got it dismantled this far down last time so it would be a crime to give up too!

You got the damn thing all broken down. It should be an easy fix. I'll bet you have some contacts that have lost some of their tension too.