Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[beanflying]

Can you get into the BIOS and upgrade it or does the MB have flashback facility?

Check the memory is on the MB Vendors list? Check or even increase the timings and or drop the speed back to 3200 and try again? Even if you have some sluggy DDR4 on your current box then fit it.

At least that is where I would start based on what I have seen and read.

If that fails Bedtime slug of Alcohol and sleep and start fresh in the morning

[worsthorse]

I couldn't resist... I bought the hundred buck 485 on ebay and it arrived today.  I wish everything that got shipped to me was packed this well:







It came with some goodies, too... a 50 ohm feed-through, a 93 ohm feed-through, and a couple of 50 ohm terminations along with two scope probes and two copies of the original operators manual.



And after looking it over, I decided to plug it in and see what happened. Here's the calibration output of the scope, running to both channels:



And here's a 2Vpp 100MHz signal from my 6061, also running to both channels:



On first blush, it works pretty well but there are a few issues: the vertical input switch deck is a little wonky and the vertical position pot on channel a is both hard to turn and a little loose in the mounting. I am guessing the scope was dropped, or something dropped on it, at some point. The fan sounds like it is had a rough life. I have a note in to the seller to see how he'd like to address them.

I don't know what the intended market was but I'd guess field service. I like the scope layout and features. I don't like the switching power supply or custom ICs, which make it harder to fix. I may just address the problems, clean it up, and see if I can sell it for a reasonable price.

[mnementh]

Can you get into the BIOS and upgrade it or does the MB have flashback facility?
Check the memory is on the MB Vendors list? Check or even increase the timings and or drop the speed back to 3200 and try again? Even if you have some sluggy DDR4 on your current box then fit it.

At least that is where I would start based on what I have seen and read.

If that fails Bedtime slug of Alcohol and sleep and start fresh in the morning

No boot, no BIOS, only a memory error beep code. As I said... confirmed memory part number on MB QVL list before I bought it. Annoying as fuck when you do everything like you're supposed to, buy all the right parts and not the cheap stuff but THE GOOD stuff, and STILL can't even get past the first stage.

Flashing to latest BIOS using Q-Flash+ process. This is done with no CPU, no RAM. Will take several minutes... pray for it's wicked little heathen soul.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Q-flash appears to have completed successfully; board read from USB, powered up fully, operated for a couple minutes while blinking the little Q-Flash LED, then shut down.

Still no joy. Looking through my stuff, the only machines I have right now using DDR4 are laptops. 

Trying to decide whether to buy RAM or MB to swap out... no overt reason; just my gut and a little niggle saying MB fault. 

mnem
*toddling off to ded*

[beanflying]

It will be worth it in the end Mnem  Test fitting of my new box to the bench. Shelf to the rear of the monitor needs to go elsewhere (bigger monitor in a month or two) and can where the current PC is mounted to the wall on brackets. TEA Jenga to follow 

Time to roast some beans on the old box for the last time......

[Specmaster]

Done it again. Thanks to half a bottle of wine reducing inhibitions, some regret at selling the two that I had before and a thread that prompted me and just being paid for contract, I now own a Philips PM3217 

Ergo I am not going for Tek stuff any more but that doesn't mean I'm not going for the scopes. That's s a Hameg and Philips this month 

Nice one

Traitor. 

Philips make scopes and don't forget that Philips and Fluke became one and although I have had a Philips PM3217 myself in the past, I currently have a Fluke PM3390B Combiscope which I love. There are 4 makes that I would rate as being really good of that era, Tek, Philips, HP and Hameg.

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[Specmaster]

Yes it is but anything will have better single threaded FP than this turd. I can shift it to AWS and get a nice E7 Xeon but it's not worth it for a cheap arse like me

Edit: apparently it's not single threaded but the usual simulations I do are sequential so it is of no benefit.

AMD offer the best value in CPU's for cheap arses, I have a FX8350 in my tower and a Intel i7 in my laptop and FX8350 pisses all over the i7 in the laptop.

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[Specmaster]

Hahaha I will take a stick and shove them away with it. Brunettes from Eastern Europe it is next time 

So an hour on ebay and not bought anything yet 

Be like ned this time, burrow and don't buy, less painful and of course as med will testify, he's master in his own house[emoji23][emoji23]

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[Mr. Scram]

grr.

Got all my cabling sleeved up and tidied literally just as the new processor arrived.

New CPU installed; no boot. "Memory Error" beep code. Memory is BALLISTIX/MICRON, checked part # on MB QVL before I bought. Cleared CMOS... removed cooler, checked CPU; installed flush & tight & good coverage. Still same.  Stripped down to MB, RAM, & Processor... still no boot.    Gonna step back, go play with my son and get the eff away from this monster for a little bit. Will probably come back after the wee beasties are in bed and go through all the obvious troubleshooting step by step. I know it's something STUPID.

mnem
"You know it's bad when you annoy yourself..."  

At least your brick looks pretty. 

[Specmaster]

So bottle of wine now empty. What remains in the cupboard is a bottle of smirnoff ice  . What shall be obtained next shall be decided by that 

That you'll need once you discover how inferior any other scope is compared to a Tek.

You need to try other scopes more often, you'll be surprised. [emoji83]

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[mnementh]

meh.

The price of being on the bleeding edge is... sometimes you bleed.  Ordered a a kit of Vengeance DDR4-3000, also on the X570 Elite MB's QVL, from Amazon because they sed it'll be here today. We'll see what it does then.

Fuckit; 'tis only money.

mnem

[Ice-Tea]

 

[Black Phoenix]

Airing the Equipment to remove the fungus and mould? 

[Ice-Tea]

No respect for the elders, this one 

No, new batch of gear.

[Black Phoenix]

No respect for the elders, this one 

No, new batch of gear.

Yes I know, just playing around a little. Nice score I must say... That 1GHz one on the top then...

[tggzzz]

I couldn't resist... I bought the hundred buck 485 on ebay and it arrived today.
...
I may just address the problems, clean it up, and see if I can sell it for a reasonable price.

Before you do that, use it and compare it with your other scopes 

Use (or make) some resistive divider Z0 probes, and look at some modern logic.

Make sure you understand just how useful the 50ohm input attenuator is for logic and RF work.

Then sell your other scope instead.

[bd139]

So bottle of wine now empty. What remains in the cupboard is a bottle of smirnoff ice  . What shall be obtained next shall be decided by that 

That you'll need once you discover how inferior any other scope is compared to a Tek.

Despite my acquisition of Tektronix stuff I can't agree with. Shocking perhaps but from my experience, the Philips higher end units are much better scopes. This seems to be from all perspectives: they are far more reliable, the service manuals are actually better than the Tek ones, they're less difficult to service, they use bog standard parts, the industrial design is much much better and the performance is pretty much the same across the board as the equivalent Tek.

This is my favourite example of their engineering... PM3310. Honestly a bit of a weird scope but it was a very early DSO. Whole thing is an 8085 with a scope strapped to it.

I couldn't resist... I bought the hundred buck 485 on ebay and it arrived today.  I wish everything that got shipped to me was packed this well:

.....

.....

.....

It came with some goodies, too... a 50 ohm feed-through, a 93 ohm feed-through, and a couple of 50 ohm terminations along with two scope probes and two copies of the original operators manual.

.....

And after looking it over, I decided to plug it in and see what happened. Here's the calibration output of the scope, running to both channels:

.....

And here's a 2Vpp 100MHz signal from my 6061, also running to both channels:

.....

On first blush, it works pretty well but there are a few issues: the vertical input switch deck is a little wonky and the vertical position pot on channel a is both hard to turn and a little loose in the mounting. I am guessing the scope was dropped, or something dropped on it, at some point. The fan sounds like it is had a rough life. I have a note in to the seller to see how he'd like to address them.

I don't know what the intended market was but I'd guess field service. I like the scope layout and features. I don't like the switching power supply or custom ICs, which make it harder to fix. I may just address the problems, clean it up, and see if I can sell it for a reasonable price.

I'm glad you got it and we get to hear what happened here  . I'll wait for tggzzz to chip in on any experiences as this particular model has eluded me so far

grr.

Got all my cabling sleeved up and tidied literally just as the new processor arrived.

New CPU installed; no boot. "Memory Error" beep code. Memory is BALLISTIX/MICRON, checked part # on MB QVL before I bought. Cleared CMOS... removed cooler, checked CPU; installed flush & tight & good coverage. Still same.  Stripped down to MB, RAM, & Processor... still no boot.    Gonna step back, go play with my son and get the eff away from this monster for a little bit. Will probably come back after the wee beasties are in bed and go through all the obvious troubleshooting step by step. I know it's something STUPID.

mnem
"You know it's bad when you annoy yourself..."  

This is why I tend to buy ex corporate workstations and laptops now. I find it too worrisome integrating a PC now. I used to build everything myself up until about 2005 but I had a bad experience which cost me £400 in the end as the retailer refused to honor their warranty and the machine was never stable enough for my requirements. I sold it and bought an HP desktop and never looked back.

[med6753]

Philips scopes definitely look interesting. But alas they are not that common this side of the pond. And yes, I realize Fluke scopes are actually Philips under the covers.

[med6753]

Hahaha I will take a stick and shove them away with it. Brunettes from Eastern Europe it is next time 

So an hour on ebay and not bought anything yet 

Be like ned this time, burrow and don't buy, less painful and of course as med will testify, he's master in his own house[emoji23][emoji23]

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Finding a woman who DOESN'T want to take over and change your personal space is rare indeed. I am a lucky man.  The only thing she insists upon is that when I'm with her I don't dress like a hobo, which I don't even when I'm alone. But I do get a verbal tongue lashing when she discovers my socks have holes in them. 

[tggzzz]

I'll wait for tggzzz to chip in on any experiences as this particular model has eluded me so far

The usual suspects on the PSU board, plus this little known and accurately numbered C911.



That 15V tant bead on a 13V line goes short circuit and takes out R965. That 13V isn't a PSU voltage line, oh no, never.

Just for fun, find the other tant beads on that voltage rail, on the other schematics but the same board.

Apart from that, search for C911 and the 485 threads are few and succinct - unlike the 24x5 threads

[tggzzz]

But I do get a verbal tongue lashing when she discovers my socks have holes in them. 

How times change.

When my mother met my father, she darned the holes in his socks for him. I can still recall the mushroom-shaped device used to aid that.

Ah, the old times were golden. Weren't they?

[med6753]

I'll wait for tggzzz to chip in on any experiences as this particular model has eluded me so far

The usual suspects on the PSU board, plus this little known and accurately numbered C911.



That 15V tant bead on a 13V line goes short circuit and takes out R965. That 13V isn't a PSU voltage line, oh no, never.

Just for fun, find the other tant beads on that voltage rail, on the other schematics but the same board.

Apart from that, search for C911 and the 485 threads are few and succinct - unlike the 24x5 threads

This is good to know for when I decide to dive into my dead 485. 

[bd139]

Some more philips love / fanboyism. They put all the damn caps on the same sheet as the power supply on the schematic 

[med6753]

Some more philips love / fanboyism. They put all the damn caps on the same sheet as the power supply on the schematic 

That certainly makes the inventory and ordering of bastard tants a lot easier. 

[tautech]

Some more philips love / fanboyism. They put all the damn caps on the same sheet as the power supply on the schematic 

For any caps on the rails exactly as good schematics should be.