Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 14549849 times)

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Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22950 on: January 17, 2019, 05:34:51 pm »
I second that thought, can never have too many meters can you??? I use all of mine from time to time to keep them all gainfully employed  :-DD
I'm not too worried about how useful it is or isn't for me. I just want to make sure I gift something the recipient can really put to good use. I think I'll take one of my own meters by sometimes soon, and see what kind of reaction I get. If it's the same vibe as last time, I'll get something else instead.
 

Offline GregDunn

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22951 on: January 17, 2019, 07:08:51 pm »
The question is what I'm going to do now. I originally purchased the meter as a gift, as earlier conversations suggested interest. Since I bought it I've been prying the mind of the intended recipient some more and it's clear that a multimeter isn't as high on the list as I'd hoped, or possibly not even on the list at all. I really don't want to give something for my own gratification, only for it to end up on a shelf. It's not quite the meter I would have bought for myself, though.

I actually did that a few weeks ago; a friend was struggling with an ancient el-cheapo meter and I sent him one of the local pawn shop Fluke 115 units that I found for $20.  He was delighted, and I have hopefully helped him stay safe while working on house wiring.  (I tested it and as expected, it was well within spec.  Not sure why the locals are selling all their Flukes, but at least they're finding good homes)
 

Offline Specmaster

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Who let Murphy in?

Brymen-Fluke-HP-Thurlby-Thander-Tek-Extech-Black Star-GW-Avo-Kyoritsu-Amprobe-ITT-Robin-TTi
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22953 on: January 17, 2019, 07:36:35 pm »
I actually did that a few weeks ago; a friend was struggling with an ancient el-cheapo meter and I sent him one of the local pawn shop Fluke 115 units that I found for $20.  He was delighted, and I have hopefully helped him stay safe while working on house wiring.  (I tested it and as expected, it was well within spec.  Not sure why the locals are selling all their Flukes, but at least they're finding good homes)
That was exactly my main concern, providing a solid and safe meter with not too many bells and whistles to a novice. I picked this one because Flukes have limited but quite well chosen feature sets in general, and this one specifically because of the excellent autohold feature not available on many other models. That was the main reason for this fairly extravagant pick. Another requirement was the ability to turn on the backlight indefinitely. Both should reduce the cognitive load while poking around. Of course, the model has a good reputation and should last someone for a considerable portion of his life. All that isn't very useful if the meter is politely accepted and put on a shelf, of course.

Nice catch, by the way. $20 is pocket change compared to what a Fluke 115 costs new.
« Last Edit: January 17, 2019, 07:50:37 pm by Mr. Scram »
 

Offline med6753

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Offline Mr. Scram

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Offline Martin.M

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22956 on: January 17, 2019, 07:42:42 pm »
that HP 141s Restoration...  :box:



 8)















 
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22957 on: January 17, 2019, 07:50:59 pm »
nice TEA porn
Who let Murphy in?

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Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22958 on: January 17, 2019, 07:51:48 pm »
Now you see it....



Now you don't....


 
The keyboard for the Test Equipment PC I installed Tuesday. I adapted standard drawer slides to the keyboard and it works well. Much better than taking up valuable bench space.

In other news.....it has been an unusually mild and snow less winter so far. The only major snowstorm we had was back in November and it wasn't officially winter. That is about to change. The weather service has posted a winter storm watch for Saturday afternoon into Sunday. Right now total snow amounts are all over the place. We'll get what we'll get I guess. But after the storm the temperatures are going to take a nose dive. Could be as much as -18 to -20 C. The coldest it got last winter was -22 C. This is where retirement really pays off. I can keep my bony pale ass inside and stay warm.  :-DD   
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22959 on: January 17, 2019, 07:54:51 pm »
A little bit extra to the side and you could have hidden the mouse as well?
Who let Murphy in?

Brymen-Fluke-HP-Thurlby-Thander-Tek-Extech-Black Star-GW-Avo-Kyoritsu-Amprobe-ITT-Robin-TTi
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22960 on: January 17, 2019, 07:57:58 pm »
A little bit extra to the side and you could have hidden the mouse as well?

The mouse is wireless and it's off to the side of the bench and out of the way.
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Offline GregDunn

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22961 on: January 17, 2019, 07:59:00 pm »

Nice catch, by the way. $20 is pocket change compared to what a Fluke 115 costs new.

There has been a glut of them this past year, all in fine working condition if a little worn.  I keep a 115 and a 179 on my bench at all times.   :)
 

Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22962 on: January 17, 2019, 08:10:21 pm »
I second that thought, can never have too many meters can you??? I use all of mine from time to time to keep them all gainfully employed  :-DD
I'm not too worried about how useful it is or isn't for me. I just want to make sure I gift something the recipient can really put to good use. I think I'll take one of my own meters by sometimes soon, and see what kind of reaction I get. If it's the same vibe as last time, I'll get something else instead.

Really thick, koooshy, oversized 100% cotton bath towels. It is impossible for anyone to have too many of them. And they're not cheap no matter where you get them, so they know you didn't cheap out on the present.  :-+

mnem
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Offline beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22963 on: January 17, 2019, 09:56:11 pm »
When Beanflying looked over my proposed 190mV, 1.9V, and 19V references he recommended for greater stability to reduce the size of the trim pot and add any required fixed resistor to achieve the desired output. I decided to test that on the 190V reference and results have been spectacular. Here's the results. Initially I had an over all drift of approx +/- 30mV. That has been reduced to less than +/- 20mv.

After 30 minute warmup and setup.

45 minutes later

Here's the original schematic. The trim pot was 10K. It's now 1K. An additional 1K fixed resistor has been added so the total fixed on the adjust pin is now 440K. I'm seriously considering replacing those 3 resistors in series with 1 - 0.1% of approx 440K. I may be able to get this reference close to lab grade!  :o I have totally fallen into that volt-nut rabbit hole.  :-DD

Tomorrow I'm going to start building up the low voltage references.

Good Result :)

What you really need to do about the rabbit hole is get @EdwinPettis to make you 'sets' of custom matched tempco 0.005% resistors from here for your reference :-DD
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Offline VK5RC

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22964 on: January 17, 2019, 11:04:45 pm »
that HP 141s Restoration...  :box:



 8)
















Any problems or just dirt?
Change filter caps?
Mine is quite tricky to get a good trace, balancing 'intensity' vs 'duration'.
Yours looks in good shape. +++
Whoah! Watch where that landed we might need it later.
 

Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22965 on: January 17, 2019, 11:38:48 pm »
While I love a good pr0nfest stuffed full of huge sexy hollow-state centerfolds as much as the next guy... when you quote such a post; please for the love of all things warm & glowy, PLEASE, either delete the images or resize them to thumbs by adding height=n pixels to the existing img tag like so: [img height=80]

If you're unsure of the syntax, just quote this message and look at the tags on the boat anchor symbol above.

Cheers,

mnem
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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22966 on: January 18, 2019, 12:01:59 am »
I have to tell yeh all that I have just come across someone really genuine on evilbay.... what that you say...Never  :-DD

...snip...

Now how many people would A) Bother to contact me later and say that they had found the remote and offer to send it to me and B) also decline to accept any money for it or the postage so I fully expect that after he pays the selling fees and postage that he'll be lucky to have made £1 on the sale. He said he was glad that the DAB module brought my unit back to life and that was reward enough for him... how sweet.

That has really cheered me up knowing that there some really nice people out there  :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

Guess I'm not the only one who's ever done this. Mostly because when I was younger and did the B/S/T flea market trade in recycled electronics, the biggest PITA was remotes; I was constantly rummaging the yard sales and household sale tables to find the one I needed for a TV, VCR, DVD player, etc. I know the pain of trying to find the right remote. It's right up there with athlete's foot.  :palm:

I know... an eBayer with empathy. Go fig.  :-// (But I probably would have accepted the offer to cover postage) ;)

I've also sent a seller a "bonus" when I got more than was listed in an auction. Nothing crazy... a few bucks and a "Thanks for the extra... have a brew on me." in the PP transaction or similar.  :-+

@Spec, thanks for sharing. Always good to hear about things going right for a change. "Normal" people are still on eBay, but they do seem to be getting more scarce every year.

Last year, I ran into a seller who was surprised when, instead of chewing him a new one when I found that the item I bought wasn't as described, I asked for a reasonable partial refund to apply toward repairs. In return, he took care of it immediately. Such a breath of fresh air.

@mnem, yeah, tell me about it. Last year, I rescued a bookshelf stereo system and discovered that most of the functionality required the (missing) remote control. A used one on evilBay was $30! Fortunately, it worked so I don't have to look at it blinking 12:00. ^-^
TEA is the way. | TEA Time channel
 

Offline Kosmic

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22967 on: January 18, 2019, 12:02:16 am »
When Beanflying looked over my proposed 190mV, 1.9V, and 19V references he recommended for greater stability to reduce the size of the trim pot and add any required fixed resistor to achieve the desired output. I decided to test that on the 190V reference and results have been spectacular. Here's the results. Initially I had an over all drift of approx +/- 30mV. That has been reduced to less than +/- 20mv.

After 30 minute warmup and setup.

45 minutes later

Here's the original schematic. The trim pot was 10K. It's now 1K. An additional 1K fixed resistor has been added so the total fixed on the adjust pin is now 440K. I'm seriously considering replacing those 3 resistors in series with 1 - 0.1% of approx 440K. I may be able to get this reference close to lab grade!  :o I have totally fallen into that volt-nut rabbit hole.  :-DD

Tomorrow I'm going to start building up the low voltage references.

This is great med, good job  :-+ I might have to build one of those myself !  :)

Edited: stupid autocorrect + removed the pictures for mnem
« Last Edit: January 18, 2019, 12:16:22 am by Kosmic »
 

Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22968 on: January 18, 2019, 12:23:59 am »
that HP 141s Restoration...  :box:



...

A thing of beauty. Added to the POI. I wouldn't mind having one. Maybe one day I'll have space for boat anchors.

Gotta love that :box: fan!
TEA is the way. | TEA Time channel
 

Offline Kosmic

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22969 on: January 18, 2019, 12:56:43 am »
Since testing caps appear to be my new hobby, I was looking for a full blown LCR meter to replace the cheap component tester I was using.

I found this Philips PM6303 waiting for me on ebay. I didn't had to fight over it since it was listed as "Buy-it-now" at a reasonable price (less than a DE-5000).

The unit arrived in pristine condition and mostly working. After doing some test I realised that it was off a little bit when measuring caps. Ironically I had to use the cheap component tester one last time to test the caps inside the PM6303. I ended up changing all the small 1u and 22u electrolytic capacitors. The big one were fine. Also took the time to adjust the power supply.

The PM6303 is now fully operational and the improvement in measurement speed (over the cheap component tester) is really appreciated.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2019, 01:55:06 am by Kosmic »
 
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Online xrunner

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22970 on: January 18, 2019, 01:30:41 am »
Cool snag haven't seen that one before.
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Offline Inverted18650

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22972 on: January 18, 2019, 02:10:13 am »
Special thanks goes out to "bitseeker" for all his help with this lot. He is a gentleman and a scholar and will be rewarded handsomely!

Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22973 on: January 18, 2019, 02:21:00 am »
I think this seller has high hopes  :-DD

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fluke-113-114-115-116-117-True-RMS-Digital-HVAC-Multimeter-with-Test-Leads/183185400225?

Is this NOT a good deal?  >:(

If I take the first result on US Amazon for each of those five models, I end up with a total of US$689.46 or £530.85. Hopefully, UK sources aren't too much higher for UK residents.

Special thanks goes out to "bitseeker" for all his help with this lot. He is a gentleman and a scholar and will be rewarded handsomely!

Aw shucks! Just trying to put my TEAxpertise to good use for the community (and I'm too far to be able to help in person).
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Offline Inverted18650

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #22974 on: January 18, 2019, 02:24:54 am »
I was being ironical...with the fluke ebay thing, but thank you man, you've been a HUGE help..lets troubleshoot the nonworking 3456A. Ill get it up and take the pics.


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