Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

You're all a bunch of dirty old men! 

Welcome to the club! 

[beanflying]

Who us we are perfect really 

[beanflying]

So I opened up the back on my new up to 5kV insulation tester. Anyone see how many issues it has or may have  Think it and the so called Cat3 leads supplied might get a thread/

[bd139]

Shitty coax dielectric withstand is only about 1.5-2KV for a start!

Looks like they cleaned the board with spit.

And that termination is just crap.

[beanflying]

and the splodge of solder on the coax rubbed off with my thumb (not nail even) 

Disappointing as I have used two DMM's as loggers from the same brand on my coffee roasters for years and internally they were really good and have worked perfectly through XP-7-10.

[bd139]

Oooh didn't see that as I was too busy being disgusted at other things  . That would have been interesting if it landed on the board.

I actually had that on a Sanyo genuine branded Eneloop charger a few years back. I have a habit of shaking new things I buy. This rattled. Opened it up and there was a massive solder blob knocking around inside the case  .  Shitposted that straight onto amazon.

[beanflying]

I am fairly impressed with the second IC up, lower row second pin in think they must had had Ray Charles on the soldering line

[Specmaster]

I am fairly impressed with the second IC up, lower row second pin in think they must had had Ray Charles on the soldering line

The others don't too good either.

[bd139]

I found the iron they used 

[Specmaster]

I found the iron they used 

Yep, that's the one and it's still smoking too [emoji23]

[beanflying]

I could think of a place to insert it including the Pony but it would be a little hard to pin down the actual worker 
I think a full board rework is needed and I really can't think of I worse board I have owned or seen in the flesh including the ones I did as a 10 year old with a full size Superscope Iron.

Picture is for those to young or who have not had the displeasure. Circa 80W controlled by sliding the generally sticky ring on the handle with your thumb 3 seconds to heat up or 5 seconds to remove the tracks from the board 

[bd139]

Rework sounds like a good idea. Does look "Chinese toy factory" quality assembly that. Hand soldered lead free as well - you can tell by the grey. Far easier for low skilled workers to screw up lead free solder.

My aunt uses something that old and scary to do stained glass work 

[beanflying]

The ring pushes a shaft with a carbon rod against a spring to contact the back of the tip. Being so heavy on the thumb you tended to push the iron away from where you started. The back of the tips got pitted to hell an needed to be removed and filed smooth fairly regularly ....

Must pull mine (my Dad's) out and see if it still works still have spare Carbons and tips somewhere

[Specmaster]

I still remember my apprenticeship and I had to use a huge great big 240W Salon iron to solder on the big battery terminals on bus batteries and they were big cables that took a lot of heat. Those tips were always getting pitted and needed frequent filing to get a smooth flat surface to transfer the heads more effectively.
I later was allowed to use an oxy acetylene set to do the soldering with, so much better, especially when working in the confines of a tight battery box under the bloody stairs on double deckers.

[beanflying]

Actually found mine 3.3V @ 30A so more like 100W for soldering through hole what could go wrong  . Front side of the tip needed regular dressing too as they were unplated.

[med6753]

Today is the day.  Major bench renovation done and I'm very pleased with it. And here it is.....


First the old bench. Major rework and renovation done here too. Much more room to work and for the first time the 2465/465B are at the proper angle for easy viewing.


The laptop remains in the same relative location as before.


The far end of the new bench. The 2465 DMS out of storage and now back on duty.


And here's the entire new bench. All 8 feet (2.44 meters) of it. It more than doubles the work space and equipment is much more accessible. Plus room for expansion. 

 

[xrunner]

Nice job - need a few more scopes though. 

[med6753]

Nice job - need a few more scopes though. 

There's an old RCA scope in the TEA closet in the repair queue. Probably get to it early next year. Beyond that...the sky's the limit. 

[Zucca]

I just find out that under the keyboard of my used Lenovo, they installed just 16BG RAM in just one stick. I was so sure they were 2x8GB 'cause dual channel hello? McFly? I already bought 2xGB sticks to get the 32GB I needed. Oh well I have to return those sticks and buy another 16GB RAM stick.

Ok, I have room for the 64GB in the future but how many times should we correct the junk of the previous moron? That's the life of us, Ebay used gear parasites. 

[bd139]

@med6753: nice job. That was well worth the effort. Looks awesome! Lots of room (for now) for things you don't have yet   

@zucca: lucky you. My old Lenovo T440 had 1x 4Gb soldered onto the board and one slot. That limited me to 12Gb because the chipset and BIOS only support 8Gb sticks max ffs 

I've just gone through a massive IT reorg here actually which is why I've been pretty quiet for a week or so. I have one new laptop now and an external SSD for offline backup and that's it! Much simpler than the pile of shit I had before.

[med6753]

@med6753: nice job. That was well worth the effort. Looks awesome! Lots of room (for now) for things you don't have yet   

Thanks. I'm also going to post it in  the "What Does Your Bench Look Like" thread but I don't want it to look like I'm trying to show you up because of your recent post there. 

[bd139]

Hahaha - fire away. It's all about the gear porn

Edit: I am impressed at the ebay dude I bought the 2235 multiplier off so far. Sent him an email on 9th, he extracted it, I bought it on 10th and it landed in UK yesterday. Hope it works. 1990 date code on it 

[med6753]

Hahaha - fire away. It's all about the gear porn

Edit: I am impressed at the ebay dude I bought the 2235 multiplier off so far. Sent him an email on 9th, he extracted it, I bought it on 10th and it landed in UK yesterday. Hope it works. 1990 date code on it 

I think you mentioned it was coming from over here, right? If so, where was the seller located? If he was within 100 miles or so of JFK mail to the UK goes real quick. I've sent stuff to the UK before and the receiver has it within 3 or 4 days...faster than USPS typically sends stuff domestically coast to coast.

[bd139]

Ay yeah it was really close - New Jersey so not far from JFK at all. Need to get myself out there one day for a few days - it's on the bucket list

Edit: the stupid bit is I actually live close enough to the Heathrow approach that you can see the half frozen people clinging onto the landing gear as the planes fly over my house. But it'll take 5 days for it to get from Heathrow to here and probably go via some warehouse 200 miles away. 

Edit 2: so I hit Google maps and drop the pin randomly in NJ then hit street view and what do I land on? Someone letting their dog piss up a mail box 

[mnementh]

You're all a bunch of dirty old men! 

Welcome to the club! 

mnem
My wife is a pervy little dwagon fancier.    };=)~~~~<

No, some of us are pervy little dwagons. 

So I opened up the back on my new up to 5kV insulation tester. Anyone see how many issues it has or may have  Think it and the so called Cat3 leads supplied might get a thread/

mnem
Words fail me.