Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mindcrime]

"Use"? What is this "use" you lot speak of? I thought we bought this stuff because we like blinking lights, knobs, multi-colored wire, and "things that get hot and/or explode"?

Use... Pffthhtffttthhhtttttttt....

[Carl_Smith]

Except when the things that get hot and explode are tantalum or electrolytic capacitors...

[mnementh]

Oh, who are you kidding? We hoard the things those evil things come in like... well... like dragons hoard gold. And we HOPE for the ones where those caps have died a smoky death, that we might find our prize on the bay of E-ville for a pittance.

mnem

[mindcrime]

bay of E-ville

Is that a Sluggy Freelance reference, or just coincidence?

[mnementh]

 

mnem
Bun-Bun is my spirit animal.

[beanflying]

1/2 Screwed unlike me I am about ...... 

Plugged myself into a 'safety' Beer to recharge 

[med6753]

You sure did make the switch from coffee to beer real quick. 

That roof must make one hell of a racket when it rains. 

[mindcrime]

mnem
Bun-Bun is my spirit animal.

Let me check my notes...

[med6753]

I thought British cops were a polite bunch?  Or is this "fake news"?

I worked with a Vietnamese gal who's name was "Mai Ho".  She was smoking hot too. 

[Ero-Shan]

In the meantime....how about some Tek 485 porn?

Added to POI. Seems we haven't had a 485 in there before. Not sure how that happened (or didn't).

I was so sure that the 485 already had had lavish pictorials that I didn't try myself. And my camera is also not really up to the job.
med to the rescue!

[mnementh]

mnem
Bun-Bun is my spirit animal.

Let me check my notes...

He's the scary one. 

mnem

[Ero-Shan]

Browsing the bay the other day I came across this little piece of equipment that I always wanted even before I had a soldering iron: A simple signal generator.

It was sold for parts only, but looked like even I could comprehend the circuit and repair it if necessary.



A quick test shows it is working:



(Yes, I used the 475 on purpose.  )

The only problems it has are scratchy potentiometers.

Some pics from the inside - even within the benign housing there's lots of spare room:




And all the 'lytics are still fine!
50 kΩ wire wound potentiometer. I just have to see that (the hair-like wire won't show up on the picture, I'm afraid):



No way to get at the second pot in front, no opening at all. I cleaned the inner wiper contacts as good as I could and reinstalled it.
Upon turning the signal amplitude doesn't stay constant, but there are no dead spots.

Cleaned up the case and am happy with a nice and easy low frequency generator.

[Ero-Shan]

Two out of three ain't bad ...

... but one out of four is lousy!

One seller had 4 different (of the simpler kind and slightly obscure) Nixie counters on auction. All of them "not working/for parts". Tried to get them all, of course. Succeeded just once.

Its another Philips. Couldn't find anything resembling a manual, but for less than 22 € including shipping you can't do much wrong:



The seller was right, though. It wouldn't count. Looking at the back showed that the reference switch was in the 'Ext' position. Flipped it to 'Int', and here we go:



There's actually more to that little counter than the front panel reveals. Two more inputs at the back:



Yesterday was too busy to to more than unpack it and do that quick test.

Nixiefreqq, here I come! 

[beanflying]

You sure did make the switch from coffee to beer real quick. 

That roof must make one hell of a racket when it rains. 

Now 6pm done water and wind proof - I am not 20 something so now it is Scotch and Brufen 

Cordless Headphones double as Earmuffs if needed

[bitseeker]

Two out of three ain't bad ...

... but one out of four is lousy!

One seller had 4 different (of the simpler kind and slightly obscure) Nixie counters on auction. All of them "not working/for parts". Tried to get them all, of course. Succeeded just once.

At first, I thought you bought four and only one came back to life.

Its another Philips. Couldn't find anything resembling a manual, but for less than 22 € including shipping you can't do much wrong:



The seller was right, though. It wouldn't count. Looking at the back showed that the reference switch was in the 'Ext' position. Flipped it to 'Int', and here we go:

Nice score!

[Ero-Shan]

Two out of three ain't bad ...

... but one out of four is lousy!

One seller had 4 different (of the simpler kind and slightly obscure) Nixie counters on auction. All of them "not working/for parts". Tried to get them all, of course. Succeeded just once.

At first, I thought you bought four and only one came back to life.

Since all were supposed to be duds, I would have accepted that fate. I'm missing the other 3. 

[tggzzz]

One seller had 4 different (of the simpler kind and slightly obscure) Nixie counters on auction. All of them "not working/for parts". Tried to get them all, of course. Succeeded just once.

Its another Philips. Couldn't find anything resembling a manual, but for less than 22 € including shipping you can't do much wrong:

I hate to say it[1], but my recent fleabay acquisition of a Fluke 8125a nixie DMM cost me a whacking £0.99 (plus £10 petrol and depreciation to fetch it).

Now that it is working, it is the only piece of test equipment I'm happy to store in an unheated garden shed

[1] that's a lie. I love to think and say it!

[bd139]

Oh great eBay has broken itself again today. Whenever you search for “oscilloscope” it includes “scope” in the search. So I got woken up this morning by rifle scopes suddenly appearing in my notification queue ffs. Now have to spend an hour adding term restrictions to that query to remove all the shite.

[tggzzz]

Oh great eBay has broken itself again today. Whenever you search for “oscilloscope” it includes “scope” in the search. So I got woken up this morning by rifle scopes suddenly appearing in my notification queue ffs. Now have to spend an hour adding term restrictions to that query to remove all the shite.

1: so, no change there, then In my experience there are more "-X" terms than "X" terms
2: I thought you weren't buying scopes, so why look for them

[bd139]

Yeah I’ve got 11 negative terms on my Hewlett Packard search as well to get rid of X horsepower generators  etc

I’m not buying tektronix analogue scopes. Anything else is fair game.

I’m after a crap 20Mhz or so analogue for X-Y display. No PDA, no multipliers, simple, nothing terrible to go wrong. HM203/HM204 Hameg would do the job.

[beanflying]

Yeah I’ve got 11 negative terms on my Hewlett Packard search as well to get rid of X horsepower generators  etc

I’m not buying tektronix analogue scopes. Anything else is fair game.

I’m after a crap 20Mhz or so analogue for X-Y display. No PDA, no multipliers, simple, nothing terrible to go wrong. HM203/HM204 Hameg would do the job.

Got one here I need to sell freight might kill it a bit 

[bd139]

Yeah it’d die! First aircraft loader would smash it.

There’s one down the road from me but it’s overpriced. I’m trying to knock him down 

[Ero-Shan]

One seller had 4 different (of the simpler kind and slightly obscure) Nixie counters on auction. All of them "not working/for parts". Tried to get them all, of course. Succeeded just once.

Its another Philips. Couldn't find anything resembling a manual, but for less than 22 € including shipping you can't do much wrong:

I hate to say it[1], but my recent fleabay acquisition of a Fluke 8125a nixie DMM cost me a whacking £0.99 (plus £10 petrol and depreciation to fetch it).

I hate you! 

I'm afraid for that price you won't even get a box of cat droppings over here.
How did you hide that auction from spec?

Now that it is working, it is the only piece of test equipment I'm happy to store in an unheated garden shed

My garden shed is already full with stuff (and tons of cobwebs!). And I have no use for a DMM there.

[1] that's a lie. I love to think and say it!

You just had to spoil my fine little counter! Sniff.

[beanflying]

Actually remembered I have two  I have a Dual Beam Philips (full refurb needed) and the Hung Chang in good nick. I got as far as bundling up the HC with a pair of cheapy probes and taking photos really need to do the deed for space reasons.

[med6753]

2: I thought you weren't buying scopes, so why look for them

Ditto.  <=====Edit....nevermind.

I'm now going to speak in terms of Fahrenheit. So if it bothers your sensitivities then keep it moving. 

My digital thermometer stores the highest and lowest temperature recorded until you either reset it or change the battery. The previous high recorded was from Summer 2017 and that was 96.9 degrees F. It now has a new high from yesterday. 97.1 degrees F. Today will also be hot but predicted to be a few degrees cooler so it looks like that new high will stand for a while.

Now while that's not the 110+ F some of you experience keep in mind that's with humidity levels in excess of 50 -60%. So you have "heat indexes" of 110 degrees F. Damn uncomfortable.

BTW....the lowest temp recorded is from January 2017. A balmy -8.4 degrees F.