Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bitseeker]

An HP 5245M counter (the 5245L's 'smarter' brother, with a high stability (for the 1960s) ovenized oscillator) incremented my counter count by one today.  Found it relatively locally on everyone's favorite wallet vacuum, and was able arrange to meet the seller for pickup, thus saving shipping the cost normally associated with the acquisition of such weighty things.  I haven't gotten to fire it up yet, but it was shown lit up in the listing, so it's at least partially operational.

Should I say congrats or condolences? I guess it's congrats to you and condolences to your floors.

[kj7e]

An HP 5245M counter (the 5245L's 'smarter' brother, with a high stability (for the 1960s) ovenized oscillator) incremented my counter count by one today.  Found it relatively locally on everyone's favorite wallet vacuum, and was able arrange to meet the seller for pickup, thus saving shipping the cost normally associated with the acquisition of such weighty things.  I haven't gotten to fire it up yet, but it was shown lit up in the listing, so it's at least partially operational.

-Pat

I think the 5245M was basically the same as the 5245L but with a fast warm up OCXO and a bit better stability.  I've had a few 5245L's, always wanted the M version.

[Cubdriver]

I think the 5245M was basically the same as the 5245L but with a fast warm up OCXO and a bit better stability.  I've had a few 5245L's, always wanted the M version.

Yes, it's basically the same as the 'L', but with the better oscillator.  I've been on the lookout for one for some time now, but the few that appeared were priced too dearly and/or had insane shipping costs listed.  The one was from a few towns away; I messaged the guy and he was fine with pickup.  He was even nice enough to bring it part way here as he was heading past a few miles south enroute to somewhere.  Met him in a commuter lot this morning - worked out perfectly!

-Pat

[mnementh]

The mnem-ories complete the pub-like atmosphere in the TEA house.

There's a joke about the noise floor in there.

Just cover it with saw dust.

You wound me, sir!!! 

But such is the burden of the "Comic Relief"; for all humor is borne of someone else's pain.

mnem
*currently being pwned by furmark*

[Cubdriver]

An HP 5245M counter (the 5245L's 'smarter' brother, with a high stability (for the 1960s) ovenized oscillator) incremented my counter count by one today.  Found it relatively locally on everyone's favorite wallet vacuum, and was able arrange to meet the seller for pickup, thus saving shipping the cost normally associated with the acquisition of such weighty things.  I haven't gotten to fire it up yet, but it was shown lit up in the listing, so it's at least partially operational.

Should I say congrats or condolences? I guess it's congrats to you and condolences to your floors.

 

My floors hate me.

-Pat

[med6753]

Hey gang. My work here is done and I'll be heading home later today. All the removal of the overgrown brush and carpentry is done as I had planned. This despite losing one whole day to rain and the carpentry turned out to be more complex due to the original construction method used. And also over coming the wicked heat and avoiding getting sunburnt....which I did successfully. As I predicted not enough time to start the painting so that will have to wait until she's on vacation again in August. But I am so glad this portion of the work is done. It hasn't been fun at times. 

On the TEA front. Just before I left to come here I stumbled across a Tek 485 and Type 191 of unknown condition and no price on local CL. It appears to be still available. Going to be following up on those items pronto as soon as I get home.   

[Kosmic]

On the TEA front. Just before I left to come here I stumbled across a Tek 485 and Type 191 of unknown condition and no price on local CL. It appears to be still available. Going to be following up on those items pronto as soon as I get home.   

Also someone is selling 2 Tektronix mainframes with bunch of modules near Albany. Almost 4 hours drive for me so a bit too far.

https://albany.craigslist.org/ele/d/troy-vintage-tektronix-test-equipment/6911579435.html

[ArthurDent]

"Just cover it with saw dust. "

Will surface acoustic wave dust help? 

[nixiefreqq]

An HP 5245M counter (the 5245L's 'smarter' brother, with a high stability (for the 1960s) ovenized oscillator) incremented my counter count by one today.  Found it relatively locally on everyone's favorite wallet vacuum, and was able arrange to meet the seller for pickup, thus saving shipping the cost normally associated with the acquisition of such weighty things.  I haven't gotten to fire it up yet, but it was shown lit up in the listing, so it's at least partially operational.

Should I say congrats or condolences? I guess it's congrats to you and condolences to your floors.

 

My floors hate me.

-Pat

congratulations!  my pair of 5245M's both came from the norfolk naval slipshod.  they have rf screening over the display, have big ass mil connectors on the back, and are equipped with a 5Mhz output from the ocxo.  am curious if yours are similar or if all that extra stuff was just a navy thing?

my latest loss of sanity was an hp 3403c.  wanted a meter that would measure rf, and they claim the thermocouple in this one will give useful results to 100 Mhz.

something inside was rattling upon arrival. (and the measurements displayed on all ranges were wonky).  there is a 3.9pf 500v cap in the front end attenuator that others have reported as often bad.  mine had snapped off both its leads and was flopping around loose.  am guessing that the leads were spot welded originally because the end tabs would not take solder to reattach new ones.  only had 4 pf 50V caps in my parts box.  the temporary fix was to grab some 24 AWG telephone wire and twist a gimmick cap.  it worked so well that it may become permanent.  did the zero procedure in the manual and now it is good enough for my purposes on all ranges.

would also like to say that the guy who did the industrial design on this thing was a freakin' class act!  the can that contains the input attenuators, input amps, and thermocouple opens like a clam shell.  then you use a couple of screws to fasten the halves together in open position, plug in the connector board and stick it back in the chassis.  its a beautiful sight.....the entire guts of the thing right out there bold, naked and proud.  it is brilliant.

[bd139]

Added to the "I really need one of them" list 

Not much TE activity from me at the moment McMichael rally tomorrow so hopefully that will change. Going to disappear for the afternoon after that and set up radio covertly somewhere in the middle of nowhere and try and make some contacts.

[mnementh]

Hey gang. My work here is done and I'll be heading home later today. All the removal of the overgrown brush and carpentry is done as I had planned. This despite losing one whole day to rain and the carpentry turned out to be more complex due to the original construction method used. And also over coming the wicked heat and avoiding getting sunburnt....which I did successfully. As I predicted not enough time to start the painting so that will have to wait until she's on vacation again in August. But I am so glad this portion of the work is done. It hasn't been fun at times. 

On the TEA front. Just before I left to come here I stumbled across a Tek 485 and Type 191 of unknown condition and no price on local CL. It appears to be still available. Going to be following up on those items pronto as soon as I get home.   

NORM!!!   

mnem
"Sometimes you wanna go...
where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came..."

[mnementh]

  @nixiefreqq - Tasty!    


In other News... I Have a Little TEA to Share!!!

eBay auction: #133017269362   My LAMBDA LQ-532s arrived on Thursday; aside from shooting a few quick pix as I unpacked it, haven't had a chance to do anything with 'em til today.

               

1) Just as I found them when I lifted the nice, heavy double-wall carton full of HDPE foam off the top; aside from not having anything between the two units, they were definitely packed with plenty of heavy duty stuffing. 

2) Damn. I REALLY wish they had put something between the two. All those little scars are new from their trip to my home. Good thing these things are built literally like a tank. 

3) Both these units are unbelievably clean, inside & out. Aside from the sticker residue that was shown in the auction photos, no dirt or blems except a little shelf wear. One of them actually has the feet & HP-style prop kit!

4) A close-up of all that delicious heavy metal. Look at that lovely map of all the POIs.  I did some quick continuity tests to make sure no dead shorts where there obviously shouldn't be any; all negative both units. 

5) The voltage pot is a 10-turn; no idea why they didn't do the same on the current limit, but oh well. I can always add that at a later date; I have oodles in numerous sizes from my homebrew PSU project.
Not bad for two little piggies right out of the poke; and $66 for the pair is definitely a NICE price!  For this deal on THESE juiceboxes, I'll MAKE room... If I have to put them under my feet all the way to Toronto.


mnem
Hey, it happens every one in a while.

[Kosmic]

Looking Good 

[bd139]

Those are a bit sexy those are. Nice haul for the cash

[mnementh]

Looking Good 

Those are a bit sexy those are. Nice haul for the cash

Thanks.  Yeah, they look really nice inside & out. I'm going to check the oodles of electrolytics in there with my DE-5000; if they all come up within 20% of rated and ESR/D-Tan aren't completely out to lunch, I'm gonna just check the ripple and deploy them once I get my bench cleared off and can get to my 1054Zed. I'll play nurse with them later, once I'm in the new digs. 

mnem
"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." ~ Grandmomma Katherine

[bitseeker]

eBay auction: #133017269362   My LAMBDA LQ-532s arrived on Thursday; aside from shooting a few quick pix as I unpacked it, haven't had a chance to do anything with 'em til today.

1) Just as I found them when I lifted the nice, heavy double-wall carton full of HDPE foam off the top; aside from not having anything between the two units, they were definitely packed with plenty of heavy duty stuffing. 

That's good to see.

2) Damn. I REALLY wish they had put something between the two. All those little scars are new from their trip to my home. Good thing these things are built literally like a tank. 

Uh, yeah. A bit of an oversight.

3) Both these units are unbelievably clean, inside & out. Aside from the sticker residue that was shown in the auction photos, no dirt or blems except a little shelf wear. One of them actually has the feet & HP-style prop kit!

Those models have feet and tilting bails? What do they look like?

4) A close-up of all that delicious heavy metal. Look at that lovely map of all the POIs.  I did some quick continuity tests to make sure no dead shorts where there obviously shouldn't be any; all negative both units. 

5) Not bad for two little piggies right out of the poke; and $66 for the pair is definitely a NICE price!  For this deal on THESE juiceboxes, I'll MAKE room... If I have to put them under my feet all the way to Toronto.

That's quite a deal considering they were listed for $50 each. Nice score!

[Kosmic]

Looking Good 

Those are a bit sexy those are. Nice haul for the cash

Thanks.  Yeah, they look really nice inside & out. I'm going to check the oodles of electrolytics in there with my DE-5000; if they all come up within 20% of rated and ESR/D-Tan aren't completely out to lunch, I'm gonna just check the ripple and deploy them once I get my bench cleared off and can get to my 1054Zed. I'll play nurse with them later, once I'm in the new digs. 

mnem
"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." ~ Grandmomma Katherine

On my unit I only replaced the smaller red top capacitor (left front side). All the other one were fine.

[med6753]

On the TEA front. Just before I left to come here I stumbled across a Tek 485 and Type 191 of unknown condition and no price on local CL. It appears to be still available. Going to be following up on those items pronto as soon as I get home.   

Also someone is selling 2 Tektronix mainframes with bunch of modules near Albany. Almost 4 hours drive for me so a bit too far.

https://albany.craigslist.org/ele/d/troy-vintage-tektronix-test-equipment/6911579435.html

I'm home and unpacked but exhausted. I'm getting old. That amount of physical labor is hard on the muscles and bones. 

Anyway, I sent an inquiry about that 485 and 191. Do they work (not important) and how much (sorta important).

Kosmic, I saw that CL ad. It's mostly 5 series plug-ins. I have to get a mainframe. And it is kinda far for me too. About 1.5 to 2.0 hours.

Well....back to trying to catch up. 

[mnementh]

Welcome home, buddy. We missed ya. 

mnem

[bitseeker]

Hear, hear.

[mnementh]

3) Both these units are unbelievably clean, inside & out. Aside from the sticker residue that was shown in the auction photos, no dirt or blems except a little shelf wear. One of them actually has the feet & HP-style prop kit!

Those models have feet and tilting bails? What do they look like?

            
HAH!!! I KNEW you were gonna ask, and I was ALREADY taking pix!
Also, I think I figured out why these were so unusually clean; it appears they've been serviced/tested sometime in the last few years. Both units have these service tags on the back.

5) Not bad for two little piggies right out of the poke; and $66 for the pair is definitely a NICE price!  For this deal on THESE juiceboxes, I'll MAKE room... If I have to put them under my feet all the way to Toronto.

That's quite a deal considering they were listed for $50 each. Nice score!

I've watched these several times since my old LAMBA died; anything that looked likely working has been $120-150 plus shipping. I've seen "as-is project examples" at $90 plus shipping.
These were listed at $50 ea plus $57 shipping each; I really didn't expect him to even respond to my lowball offer, much less accept.  Needless to say, I'm dead chuffed to have them on my bench. 

mnem
*Juicy*

[ArthurDent]

Lambda power supplies from that time period are extremely well built and should last forever. Here is another similar one that outputs up to 36 volts at up to 14.5 amps. The middle photo is a much older 0-18 volt/8 amp supply 19" rack mount supply that weighs twice as much as the newer supply despite the lower output capabilities. These supplies just don't die.

[Specmaster]

@mnem Thats a great score you got there buddy, plenty of bang per buck there for sure, only real problem with them is the real estate they occupy, on my tiny bench that's almost 50% of it gone straight of the bat 

Its why too hot in my small box room / lab for any TEA its been over over 30C every day this week so I've been enjoying the fact the BBC have on the iPlayer the first series of Porridge with Ronnie Barker, even though they are very old, the humour is still as good today  https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b006m9kn/porridge

[Specmaster]

@med, welcome back, I expect the lady cop was well pleased with your labours of love, not to mention the decking  Well done getting all of that done in the heat as well, I just don't like heat so I couldn't have done it.

[bitseeker]

3) Both these units are unbelievably clean, inside & out. Aside from the sticker residue that was shown in the auction photos, no dirt or blems except a little shelf wear. One of them actually has the feet & HP-style prop kit!

Those models have feet and tilting bails? What do they look like?

   

HAH!!! I KNEW you were gonna ask, and I was ALREADY taking pix!

Thanks! They look just like the ones Power Designs used, just in beige. This is the first time I've seen these Lambda supplies with feet.

I've watched these several times since my old LAMBA died; anything that looked likely working has been $120-150 plus shipping. I've seen "as-is project examples" at $90 plus shipping.
These were listed at $50 ea plus $57 shipping each; I really didn't expect him to even respond to my lowball offer, much less accept.  Needless to say, I'm dead chuffed to have them on my bench.

I guess it depends who's manning the eBay messages that day or they had massive margins on them. I've made them offers on some stuff a number of years ago and they refused despite being nowhere near the deal you got. You just never know.

It's also good to see they were in such good condition. Most of the stuff I see from that vendor isn't in such good nick. Their rating system seems to be reasonably accurate, it seems, as many things I've seen were scored lower than your Lambdas.