Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 14562373 times)

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Offline 0culus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25775 on: February 20, 2019, 04:26:56 am »
So I got my HP 3245A today ladies and gents. I actually got out of bed a bit earlier and opened it up, powered it up, and played with it just long enough to post a couple pics on the forum. (been depressed again and struggling) But this unit is much more than I expected. Not cheap, but damn, its so packed full of features and just the ARB GEN functionality sent my brain into happy mode.

Wow, that's a pretty nifty little box. Nothing like a little therapeutic TEA!  :-+

In other news, I've decided *no more boat anchors* till I move and can set up a more permanent lab space in a couple months time. Let's see how long I last.  :-DD
 

Offline Inverted18650

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25776 on: February 20, 2019, 05:49:14 am »
Indeed. I am already working on some .csv code that I can use to generate some unique wave forms that I can store in the unit for later reference. I like the HP logo they designed into the DEMO mode and and want to also create my own log in .csv for future use. Having a little fun, but I will also upload some usable waves to test some of these Tek plug-ins I have here that need to be examined.

Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25777 on: February 20, 2019, 06:02:33 am »
I could say that Inverted has a Leader function gen with my name on it - but there's always room for another .....

...... OMG.  It's happening !

Finally! :-DD
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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25778 on: February 20, 2019, 06:03:29 am »
Finally got around to cleaning up my other auction score, another HP 3455A. This one is much cleaner and in better shape than my other one, which will now be relegated to parts mule. I really like these meters because (1) they are cheap (I got this one for less than $50!) (2) for boat anchors they aren't particularly heavy and (3) they stack with my other HP boat anchors.

If I remember correctly, the 3455 also has a larger display than the 3456.
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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25779 on: February 20, 2019, 06:06:42 am »
Had an idea for an Arduino project and pulled it back out of the drawer, and ordered some OLED displays and other sensors. I told a friend I was playing with it again, and he said he didn't want any of his Arduino parts anymore, and he gave them all to me. So now I have plenty I think LOL.  :-DD



Wow, that's a nice way to get back into it. Is that a sign of AAS (Arduino Acquisition Syndrome)?
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Offline 0culus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25780 on: February 20, 2019, 06:12:55 am »
Finally got around to cleaning up my other auction score, another HP 3455A. This one is much cleaner and in better shape than my other one, which will now be relegated to parts mule. I really like these meters because (1) they are cheap (I got this one for less than $50!) (2) for boat anchors they aren't particularly heavy and (3) they stack with my other HP boat anchors.

If I remember correctly, the 3455 also has a larger display than the 3456.

Huh, I didn't know that. I think the 3456 does more things too, but I also like the simpler, straight up no nonsense functionality of the 3455. It measures DC, AC, and ohms (plus a few math functions) and does those things very well with all the controls on the front panel. Perhaps lack of current measurements is a weakness, but for the price I'm not complaining.

I  also like that this one has the dark-on-light controls. My other one is the all dark front panel and, as nice as it looks, it makes the control labels much harder to read.
 

Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25781 on: February 20, 2019, 06:26:35 am »
So I got my HP 3245A today ladies and gents. I actually got out of bed a bit earlier and opened it up, powered it up, and played with it just long enough to post a couple pics on the forum. (been depressed again and struggling) But this unit is much more than I expected. Not cheap, but damn, its so packed full of features and just the ARB GEN functionality sent my brain into happy mode.

Wow, that is a nifty machine. I need to close my eyes now and try to forget I saw that. :-DD
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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25782 on: February 20, 2019, 06:38:21 am »
If I remember correctly, the 3455 also has a larger display than the 3456.

Huh, I didn't know that. I think the 3456 does more things too, but I also like the simpler, straight up no nonsense functionality of the 3455. It measures DC, AC, and ohms (plus a few math functions) and does those things very well with all the controls on the front panel. Perhaps lack of current measurements is a weakness, but for the price I'm not complaining.

They can both measure any magnitude of current...with an appropriate current shunt. No worries. ;)

If you prefer pushing buttons and choosing current ranges, grab yourself a Fluke A90 (shunts in a box).

Quote
I  also like that this one has the dark-on-light controls. My other one is the all dark front panel and, as nice as it looks, it makes the control labels much harder to read.

Yeah, it seems that back in those days, accessibility wasn't a major factor. Some of the labels on the 3456 are white text on gray/tan background. :o
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Offline Inverted18650

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25783 on: February 20, 2019, 07:01:22 am »
These arrived today and I had an a ground leg issue so I wanted to tear one down to see what the problem is and if I can fix it. The fix to pull the shielding up and over the end of the white separating plastic to ensure it gets good contact with the inside of the male end. The 3rd to last pick titled "ground flaw" shows how they plastic extends out and above the metal lip, just push the plastic insert down until the metal lips expand and click around the housing. The last two are the lip back inside the housing. $13 from China, $55 from Fluke.
« Last Edit: February 20, 2019, 07:12:21 am by Inverted18650 »
 

Offline 0culus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25784 on: February 20, 2019, 07:10:13 am »
If I remember correctly, the 3455 also has a larger display than the 3456.

Huh, I didn't know that. I think the 3456 does more things too, but I also like the simpler, straight up no nonsense functionality of the 3455. It measures DC, AC, and ohms (plus a few math functions) and does those things very well with all the controls on the front panel. Perhaps lack of current measurements is a weakness, but for the price I'm not complaining.

They can both measure any magnitude of current...with an appropriate current shunt. No worries. ;)

If you prefer pushing buttons and choosing current ranges, grab yourself a Fluke A90 (shunts in a box).

Quote
I  also like that this one has the dark-on-light controls. My other one is the all dark front panel and, as nice as it looks, it makes the control labels much harder to read.

Yeah, it seems that back in those days, accessibility wasn't a major factor. Some of the labels on the 3456 are white text on gray/tan background. :o

Heh, good point on the shunt.  :-+ Yeah, must have been intended to be in an automated setup where no one actually looked at it.
 

Offline beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25785 on: February 20, 2019, 07:15:32 am »
Heh, good point on the shunt.  :-+ Yeah, must have been intended to be in an automated setup where no one actually looked at it.

I think modern meters have made us all lazy ;)

On my to do list make a 50A (and 100A too) shunt. I brought a couple of these below a while back to transfer a known current to my intended home brew ones. Home brew would be multiple 1mm^2 Kanthal bars. About 10 bits @ circa 50mm long in parallel from memory. I already have low accuracy gear to 200A from my R/C gear but lack anything better than a few %.

https://au.element14.com/arcol/crs1050-r0005-f-75ppm-tr/current-sense-res-0r0005-1-5-w/dp/2531014?scope=partnumberlookahead&ost=CRS1050+R0005+F+75PPM+TR&searchref=searchlookahead&exaMfpn=true&ddkey=https%3Aen-AU%2FElement14_Australia%2Fw%2Fsearch
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25786 on: February 20, 2019, 07:18:03 am »
Old beast 1055T in new case is almost finished; doing a live test  with the new PSU and approx 90% sleevening done. Still need to install & test the AIO liquid cooler; that's a job for later. After I wake up.

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25787 on: February 20, 2019, 07:54:15 am »
Today looks alright as I take in some caffeine but yesterday was a real bitch.........our main water pump broke, really broke.  :palm:
Castings smashed and gunna be a quite involved welding job that I really don't need right now.  :rant:
Much smaller backup pump installed.
Damn Murphy !
A little bit that and a little bit "I know I need 12" but all I can get is 10" on the SATA cables. Went to plug it into the MB, the other end broke.  |O So now i have some 18" cables in there until my 12" ones arrive and I can sleeve 'em up.

I remember in my youth, we had a jet pump in the barn freeze up; cracked right up the threading for the inlet nipple. After working the casting shut using a rosebud and the bench vise, I welded it up using 6013 rod on DC reverse. Had to do it about 3/8" at a time; weld a little, heat everything around the weld to relieve the stress, let it cool to "tsssst" hot and then weld another 3/8" or so. Got right up to the edge of the threads with my weld, then stitched back over itself for 1"; again, 3/8" at a time... but when it was done, I assembled with silicone RTV and it held water and drew up against a 22 foot head. For another 15 years.  :-+

Amazing what you'll do on a Sunday afternoon when you're faced with schlepping water for a barnfull of animals via 5 gallon buckets.

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Well the busted pump was a locally made one a MacEwans H3 doing 1500gph and exactly why I won't use 5 gallon buckets.
Twas a mess, the pump head (reciprocating type) had busted off the gearing and was flogging back and forth along the pump house floor until it busted the piping and dumped 3000 gals from the full tank 300yds away into the pump house.  :palm:
Good thing the 3 phase supply and control 'trics and 'tronics are designed and engineered to cope with such an event.  ;)

A pic showing the busted off flange pieces on the floor and the (now rusted) breaks from where they used to be.
Got the cast rods needed to fix it and the welding experience required but will probably need to make a small furnace to preheat it.
Backup pump flogging way faithfully in the foreground.

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Offline beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25788 on: February 20, 2019, 08:05:13 am »
Ouch poor little piston pump.

Are you sure on the flow rate? The Ajax version of that was only around 10 GPM not 25?
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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25789 on: February 20, 2019, 08:14:47 am »
Ouch poor little piston pump.

Are you sure on the flow rate? The Ajax version of that was only around 10 GPM not 25?
Nuthing little about that piston pump. Needed the tractor front end loader to place it there and built the pump house around it.
3 phase 3hp needed to push that 1500 gph vertical 175 ft to the tank.
 4 1/2" bore and 5" stroke driven @ 200rpm through a 5:1 gearing so ~80 stokes/min
At zero head it filled my 1000L (1m3) spray tank in 8 minutes.

Aint half pissed it's broke.  >:(

Edit
Pump specs corrected.
« Last Edit: February 20, 2019, 08:56:11 am by tautech »
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Offline beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25790 on: February 20, 2019, 08:28:57 am »
Way back into the Arc of my work life stock replacement was CR2-130 for 1 or 1/4" pipe or CR4-120 (1 1/2-2") Grundfos or in your case the Lowara (SV2 or 4) equivalent. Were I grew up we had 150-300' as fairly normal static heads over 3-600m.

The Ajax (just checked) AH3 was 10-12 GPM and were A4 gearboxes with a reduced piston 300kg'ish. If you were getting 1500 GPM at pressure you were pushing beyond. https://pistonpumps.com.au/documents/Ajaxpistonpumpsbrochure1969.pdf
« Last Edit: February 20, 2019, 08:32:20 am by beanflying »
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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25791 on: February 20, 2019, 08:42:29 am »
Way back into the Arc of my work life stock replacement was CR2-130 for 1 or 1/4" pipe or CR4-120 (1 1/2-2") Grundfos or in your case the Lowara (SV2 or 4) equivalent. Were I grew up we had 150-300' as fairly normal static heads over 3-600m.

The Ajax (just checked) AH3 was 10-12 GPM and were A4 gearboxes with a reduced piston 300kg'ish. If you were getting 1500 GPM at pressure you were pushing beyond. https://pistonpumps.com.au/documents/Ajaxpistonpumpsbrochure1969.pdf
Nah, got the original MacEwans docs and done the pipe homework, it's all good.
Wanted to use a 2" delivery line to get the pipe friction to nuthing but in normal density alkathene 2" wouldn't handle it so 1 1/2" was used for the first 200m then 2" up near the tank were pressures were much less.

BTW, the little Lowara is a 7 stage single phase unit and not far behind the H3 with zero head but prob only 20% @ working head.
I'll email you the MacEwans docs.
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Offline beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25792 on: February 20, 2019, 08:51:07 am »
Last time I worked on a Piston Pump was 25 and more like 30 years ago ::). The first place I worked for actually made spares including gears for them as Ajax had more or less stopped or were OTT on price even then. We used to run Class 9 for the lower sections on the really high heads then back to Rural B for top end.

It was a battle at the time to re educate the old dairy farmers that their 3/4" or 1" Poly wasn't going to cut it and there Rusty Gal Iron wasn't helping either  :palm:
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Online tautech

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25793 on: February 20, 2019, 09:03:13 am »
Last time I worked on a Piston Pump was 25 and more like 30 years ago ::). The first place I worked for actually made spares including gears for them as Ajax had more or less stopped or were OTT on price even then. We used to run Class 9 for the lower sections on the really high heads then back to Rural B for top end.

It was a battle at the time to re educate the old dairy farmers that their 3/4" or 1" Poly wasn't going to cut it and there Rusty Gal Iron wasn't helping either  :palm:
This thing of mine was quite unusual in that the piston had been modded in that it doesn't use the leather cups, instead a stiff hollow nitrile piston ring a bit like an inverted V on each end but with cross drillings so that water pressure on each stroke expands the ring onto the bore and the grove in which it runs.
Quite clever and gives excellent durability.  :)
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Online tautech

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25794 on: February 20, 2019, 09:20:20 am »
So Bean, do the calcs on 200m of 40mm poly and 1500gph and tell me I'm wrong.  :P
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Offline beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25795 on: February 20, 2019, 09:43:05 am »
Last time I worked on a Piston Pump was 25 and more like 30 years ago ::). The first place I worked for actually made spares including gears for them as Ajax had more or less stopped or were OTT on price even then. We used to run Class 9 for the lower sections on the really high heads then back to Rural B for top end.

It was a battle at the time to re educate the old dairy farmers that their 3/4" or 1" Poly wasn't going to cut it and there Rusty Gal Iron wasn't helping either  :palm:
This thing of mine was quite unusual in that the piston had been modded in that it doesn't use the leather cups, instead a stiff hollow nitrile piston ring a bit like an inverted V on each end but with cross drillings so that water pressure on each stroke expands the ring onto the bore and the grove in which it runs.
Quite clever and gives excellent durability.  :)

Sorted the confusion too yours is 4 1/2" Bore in spite of being lablled H3 to confuse us Aussies  :-DD

We were using Nitrile Buckets on them locally here too as an option. Leather still worked better on the more worn liners.

Pipe Friction depends on how your pipe is measured our Rural B was still a 'nominal bore measurement' os 1 1/2 or 2" :palm: and Class 9 (300' head rated) was 40 or 50mm OD  :palm: but you will be in the ball park at 25GPM
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Online bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25796 on: February 20, 2019, 09:49:17 am »
I love how this thread has a new topic surprise every day  :-DD

 

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25797 on: February 20, 2019, 09:56:44 am »
I love how this thread has a new topic surprise every day  :-DD
We won't bore you with the tractor gearbox or engine recon done over the last few years or the emergency welding job done last night after fitting the standby pump..........never a dull moment around here......then another email from Bean arrives.  :scared:
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Offline beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25798 on: February 20, 2019, 09:58:18 am »
We are a diverse (to us) or perverse (to others) mob ;)
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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #25799 on: February 20, 2019, 10:12:41 am »
It's interesting. I think the "engineers mindset" is the same for most of us. Everything is a problem to solve and that's cool  :-+
 
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