Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 14555038 times)

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Offline Martin.M

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47950 on: January 26, 2020, 07:46:26 pm »
med , it is very amazing to see how busy you are with the Tek 535A.

You are a perfect adress for a 517..
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47951 on: January 26, 2020, 08:00:30 pm »
med , it is very amazing to see how busy you are with the Tek 535A.

You are a perfect adress for a 517..

Thanks. I figure if you're going to spend the time on a piece of equipment get it working as best you can. And stay with it until it's done.

I even got the CA plug-in perfectly DC balanced on both channels with absolutely minimal drift.
An old gray beard with an attitude.
 

Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47952 on: January 26, 2020, 08:13:38 pm »
@mnem. Indeed. Need lots of cheap threads here. I’d rather like a 32-core 4GHz SPARC64 with 128 hardware contexts and optimised Clang and Go compilers myself but they don’t exist  :-DD

Yeah, but gamer punks with nothing but disposable income are what drive the market in consumer PCs; what's considered "current" for everything "mainstream" trickles down from that market. For the last couple decades, consumer laptop hardware has been driven by the "mobile" versions of those same processors, to the point that rubrik has taken over the laptop PC market as well; nowadays there are essentially "content creator" machines, "gaming" machines, and "corporate/education fleet" machines with very little crossover between the breeds, except for cases where market-wankery has gone completely off the deep end. :-//

It is that factor which creates so much confusion for the average buyer; half of mobile-computing sales is driven by a completely inane/ignorant/incompetent "let's throw shit at the wall and see what sticks" mentality that makes you look at half the stuff out there and say a) "Who the FUCK kept their job long enough to think up this utterly unmitigated POS...?" and 2) Who the fuck signed off on this POS instead of firing that incompetent fuckwit on the spot...?" and ‰) Please, for the sake of all that is good in the world, please tell me everyone responsible has been fired... inside a rocket directly into the sun.  |O

mnem
« Last Edit: January 26, 2020, 08:16:44 pm by mnementh »
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47953 on: January 26, 2020, 08:18:26 pm »
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NASA-ARTIFACT-VPI-Vehicle-Power-Interface-Rack-Console-Hubble-Space-Telescope/261090432601

Oh yeah; I totally have an application for THAT... :-DD

mnem
I prepared EXPLOSIVE RUNES today.
so what do you think he paid for that and did he buy it to sell on ebay?  really?

I'm not even going to consider it; that way lies madness.  :-DD

mnem
"...and little kids with spoons."
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Offline 0culus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47954 on: January 26, 2020, 08:21:28 pm »
@mnem. Indeed. Need lots of cheap threads here. I’d rather like a 32-core 4GHz SPARC64 with 128 hardware contexts and optimised Clang and Go compilers myself but they don’t exist  :-DD

Yeah, but gamer punks with nothing but disposable income are what drive the market in consumer PCs; what's considered "current" for everything "mainstream" trickles down from that market. For the last couple decades, consumer laptop hardware has been driven by the "mobile" versions of those same processors, to the point that rubrik has taken over the laptop PC market as well; nowadays there are essentially "content creator" machines, "gaming" machines, and "corporate/education fleet" machines with very little crossover between the breeds, except for cases where market-wankery has gone completely off the deep end. :-//

It is that factor which creates so much confusion for the average buyer; half of mobile-computing sales is driven by a completely inane/ignorant/incompetent "let's throw shit at the wall and see what sticks" mentality that makes you look at half the stuff out there and say a) "Who the FUCK kept their job long enough to think up this utterly unmitigated POS...?" and 2) Who the fuck signed off on this POS instead of firing that incompetent fuckwit on the spot...?" and ‰) Please, for the sake of all that is good in the world, please tell me everyone responsible has been fired... inside a rocket directly into the sun.  |O

mnem


My plan is to get a dedicated workstation for my lab off of Dell's refurb outlet. If you are patient you can get some truly screaming deals on really high end workstation hardware with ECC RAM, Quadro graphics, and everything for about the same price as a lot of consumer gear. Then I'll probably build me a new "regular" PC for gaming to finally replace the one that died on me some years back (I just got a PS4 Pro in the meantime, mainly because my friends have that system now).
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47955 on: January 26, 2020, 08:29:06 pm »
I'm just thinking of all the money I SAVED over the years by not being a gamer.  :P :-DD
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47956 on: January 26, 2020, 08:36:22 pm »
Ehhhh... it depends on how you ultimately use it. My last gaming rig was a AMD Phenom II 1055T back when it was still bleeding edge. That machine gamed well for almost 4 years, then became a dependable daily driver for another 6 years before becoming a backup machine. I'd say that's quite good value for money, plus I still got my "bleeding edge fix". ;) I expect no less from my Ryzen7 3rd gen build.

@Oculus: With Ryzen 9 & Threadripper 39xx now actually in stock, recycled 29xx Threadrippers are looking pretty tasty bang/buck-wise for content creation right now. Just sayin'. ;)

mnem
};=)~~~~<
« Last Edit: January 26, 2020, 09:14:43 pm by mnementh »
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Offline 0culus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47957 on: January 26, 2020, 08:40:00 pm »
Not wanting a lab workstation for content creation, but rather to have horsepower for EM simulations and other heavy duty compute workloads.  :-+ Xeon, lots of RAM, and Quadro for GPU compute.
 

Offline Wolfgang

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47958 on: January 26, 2020, 08:57:08 pm »
Well, I'm starting down the deepest and heaviest rabbit hole yet for my lab...I'm looking at 8510C VNA systems.  :palm:

The 8510C is seriously badass though. I personally know of several still in professional service, and it can do a lot more than just traditional network analysis. [1] Radar cross section testing, on wafer probing (using a third party test apparatus that probably cost as much as or more than the VNA to procure), dialectric constant analysis, antenna pattern testing, etc.


[1]: http://hpmemoryproject.org/an/pdf/hp8510c_datasheet.pdf

Now when you got yourself an anchor, do you have a boat as well ?  >:D
 

Offline 0culus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47959 on: January 26, 2020, 08:58:23 pm »
Boat? Who said anything about a boat??? I'm gonna need a ship!  :-DD
 

Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47960 on: January 26, 2020, 09:10:23 pm »
Not wanting a lab workstation for content creation, but rather to have horsepower for EM simulations and other heavy duty compute workloads.  :-+ Xeon, lots of RAM, and Quadro for GPU compute.


Awww... come on over to the AMD side; we have cookies.    >:D

mnem
Also bagels.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2020, 09:13:58 pm by mnementh »
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Offline Wolfgang

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47961 on: January 26, 2020, 09:14:53 pm »
Boat? Who said anything about a boat??? I'm gonna need a ship!  :-DD

Ship ? You need a *barge*.  :-+
 
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47962 on: January 26, 2020, 09:20:48 pm »
Not gonna touch that with a 10-foot pole.

mnem
And we don't hardly ever grow that long...
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Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47963 on: January 26, 2020, 09:21:09 pm »
Not wanting a lab workstation for content creation, but rather to have horsepower for EM simulations and other heavy duty compute workloads.  :-+ Xeon, lots of RAM, and Quadro for GPU compute.
(Attachment Link)

Awww... come on over to the AMD side; we have cookies.    >:D

mnem
Also bagels.
We had cookies. I regret nothing.
 
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Offline 0culus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47964 on: January 26, 2020, 09:21:50 pm »
Not wanting a lab workstation for content creation, but rather to have horsepower for EM simulations and other heavy duty compute workloads.  :-+ Xeon, lots of RAM, and Quadro for GPU compute.
(Attachment Link)

Awww... come on over to the AMD side; we have cookies.    >:D

mnem
Also bagels.

Chocolate chip?  :-DD
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47965 on: January 26, 2020, 09:49:46 pm »
If I want some compute, hire it hourly. AWS z1d.metal 48 xeon cores, 384gb RAM, 900Gb nVME SSDs = $5.23 an hour. If you buy a top end Xeon or threadripper and use it to run shit rarely it’s a total waste of cash and electricity.

They do GPU instances as well if that’s what you need.

Big advantage: speed scaling. If you need something that takes X then you can do it in an hour with 100 instances or 100 hours with 1 instance for the same price.

Edit: planning radio rally visits this year and going through YT and checking out the reviews from last year to jog my memory of which ones were shit and I found myself in one of the videos  :-DD (and no I'm not linking it  :-DD)
« Last Edit: January 26, 2020, 10:26:45 pm by bd139 »
 

Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47966 on: January 26, 2020, 10:26:03 pm »
@bd: I am SOOO glad I don't have to think in those terms anymore.  :palm:

mnem
Pants are highly overrated.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2020, 10:32:04 pm by mnementh »
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47967 on: January 26, 2020, 10:32:50 pm »
Not wanting a lab workstation for content creation, but rather to have horsepower for EM simulations and other heavy duty compute workloads.  :-+ Xeon, lots of RAM, and Quadro for GPU compute.
   Awww... come on over to the AMD side; we have cookies.    >:D

mnem
Also bagels.

Chocolate chip?  :-DD

And oatmeal-raisin.  >:D

mnem
Vern is working on a recipe that has both... *wibble*
« Last Edit: January 26, 2020, 10:37:35 pm by mnementh »
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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47968 on: January 26, 2020, 10:33:04 pm »
Hahaha.

Ok so I felt sorry for that cute HM307 and bought it :palm:



Totally useless 10MHz single channel scope but it has CT and XY features. It'll probably end up as a display for various simple low frequency analogue things i build.

Edit: did i say it was cute. It's cute. That's the excuse  :-DD

Yes, tiny scopes are cute. 10 MHz bandwidth with X-Y mode isn't totally useless. You can use it to adjust internal clock references. ;D
TEA is the way. | TEA Time channel
 
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Offline Neomys Sapiens

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47969 on: January 26, 2020, 10:41:37 pm »
Well, I'm starting down the deepest and heaviest rabbit hole yet for my lab...I'm looking at 8510C VNA systems.  :palm:

The 8510C is seriously badass though. I personally know of several still in professional service, and it can do a lot more than just traditional network analysis. [1] Radar cross section testing, on wafer probing (using a third party test apparatus that probably cost as much as or more than the VNA to procure), dialectric constant analysis, antenna pattern testing, etc.


[1]: http://hpmemoryproject.org/an/pdf/hp8510c_datasheet.pdf
I knew it!  :palm:
 

Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47970 on: January 26, 2020, 10:45:27 pm »
The input problem I was having with my 53310A turned out to be operator error. HP put the external trigger connector on the far left and it looks just like the other channel inputs. Off by one error! ;D

Fixed that and both offset and gain calibrations went just fine for A and B channels. Happy, happy, joy, joy!
TEA is the way. | TEA Time channel
 
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Online BU508A

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47971 on: January 26, 2020, 10:49:54 pm »
Hello TEA fellows,

last Thursday I've received a brand new DER EE DE-5000 which I've ordered in Japan via ebay mid of December.
It is a nice meter but one thing what annoys me is the so-called "backlight". A dim blue light which doesn't make
any difference between turning it on or not.  :palm:  :-//
It came with the tweezer and this box with the crocos. I did a little teardown before I've turned it on and here are some photos:



I have some precision capacitors (100nF, 0,5%; 10nF, 0,3%; 1nF +/-5pF; 1µF, 5%) and a precise 10kOhm resistor, which I've built in 2016. Here is the link to the thread with some details: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/my-first-10kohm-reference-resistor/msg958651/#msg958651

Measurements with the DE-5000:
(order of the measurements: 1nF, 10nF, 100nF, 1µF, 10kOhm)



And for comparison reasons, I did some more measurements with various meters.
Let's start with the Agilent U1252B:
(order of the measurements: 1nF, 100nF, 1µF, 10kOhm)



Next is the Brymen BM869s:
(order of the measurements: 1nF, 100nF, 1µF, 10kOhm)



Now the famous EEVBlog 121GW:
(order of the measurements: 1nF, 100nF, 1µF, 10kOhm)



This meter (EEVBlog BM235) is what I'm using, when I'm repairing stuff. I like it's size and handling and the backlight is not as ridiculus as with the BM869s:
(order of the measurements: 100nF, 1µF, 10kOhm - forgot to do the measuring with the 1nF  :palm: )



And the last one is my Schätz-O-Mat, a tester for transistors, diodes, LCR, whatever comes between the three crocos. I'd run the calibration procedure first before I did the measurements.
(order of the measurements: 100nF, 1µF, 10kOhm - forgot to do the measuring with the 1nF  :palm: )



I'm quite impressed about those russian capacitors. They are amazingly precise and are doing a good job. I'm planning to assemble a testbox for checking test gear on hamfests and those capacitors will surely go into this box.

Hope you've enjoyed this little comparison.

Best regards,

Mounty

Edit: some typos

« Last Edit: January 26, 2020, 11:04:36 pm by BU508A »
“Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order, because it is better organized.”            - Terry Pratchett -
 
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Online Mortymore

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47972 on: January 26, 2020, 11:12:45 pm »
@BU508A

Just curious. Did you had to pay any income tax for the DE-5000?

Suspecting that I'll have no luck, and latter proven to be right, I bought just the meter to one seller, and the TL-22 to another one.
Thing is, for now they don't charge taxes for things costing less than €22, the case for the leads, but for the meter that costed around €75, was charged €31 of taxes.  :--

Offline 0culus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47973 on: January 26, 2020, 11:21:20 pm »
Not wanting a lab workstation for content creation, but rather to have horsepower for EM simulations and other heavy duty compute workloads.  :-+ Xeon, lots of RAM, and Quadro for GPU compute.
   Awww... come on over to the AMD side; we have cookies.    >:D

mnem
Also bagels.

Chocolate chip?  :-DD

And oatmeal-raisin.  >:D

mnem
Vern is working on a recipe that has both... *wibble*

Both...and some ganja?  :-DD
 

Online BU508A

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #47974 on: January 26, 2020, 11:33:28 pm »
@BU508A

Just curious. Did you had to pay any income tax for the DE-5000?

Suspecting that I'll have no luck, and latter proven to be right, I bought just the meter to one seller, and the TL-22 to another one.
Thing is, for now they don't charge taxes for things costing less than €22, the case for the leads, but for the meter that costed around €75, was charged €31 of taxes.  :--

No, I didn't. Probably this is due to the JEFTA (Japan-EU Free Trade Agreement). There was a green sticker on it from the customs which said, that this packet has to be delivered to me directly. And that was it.

Edit: I have taken a picture of the dispatch note which was visible from the outside.
Perhaps this is the reason, why the customs let it go without asking for taxes and additional fees.
It says "Plastic toys" with a given value of 6000 JPY (ca. 50 Euros)  :-//

« Last Edit: January 27, 2020, 12:03:23 am by BU508A »
“Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order, because it is better organized.”            - Terry Pratchett -
 
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