Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[worsthorse]

I have to say that I'm blown away by the internal construction of the 585A....the obvious care and attention to detail is superb. No one makes things like this anymore, outside of maybe space program hardware. 

I just can't go over how clean it is. Like it just left the factory. As opposed to my 561B and 535A which looked like they were dragged thru the dirt. 

Yeah, it seems to be a common theme with these scopes too. No surprise Stan Griffiths devoted an entire chapter to cleaning them. I count myself fortunate that I don't need to do that...

That is a beautiful piece of gear. Nice find.  Are you getting a good response to your questions over on the tekscope list?

[AVGresponding]

The seller has counteroffered £150 + shipping.

 

Someone is bidding on it, currently at £53 + £2.85 p&p.

Can't imagine the packing will be very good at that price...   

In any case, I don't need the thing so it'll be very easy to resist bidding past, oh idk £70 or so?

[Specmaster]

Well the offer I made on the Tek 220 was basically £50 shipped. The seller has counteroffered £150 + shipping.

I'm too polite to laugh in his face.

You are far to nice for your own good, I'd have told them that it at the least needs a replacement knob and a screen which are not cheap items and offered no more than £55 top whack. It doesnt even have any add on modules or probes with it and that screen is likely to get worse very quickly. But that is just typical of what we are seeing on the bay of evil lately. It is not as if it has been through the hands of one us here on the forum and has had some added value added to it.

Quite frankly if that was mine, I'd have cleaned it up and put it right with a new knob and screen before listing it 

[bd139]

LOL I paid £60 for mine which was fully working and had a wobbly BNC. As featured here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/tektronix-tds210-teardown-and-bnc-replacement/

£150 is fuck off territory. I might offer £51 

[AVGresponding]

Can the screen surface be resurrected with T-Cut or something similar? It looks like surface damage caused by a contaminant.

I have another item I'm bidding on, and if I win that I'll not be bidding again at all on it anyway.

[Specmaster]

Can the screen surface be resurrected with T-Cut or something similar? It looks like surface damage caused by a contaminant.

I have another item I'm bidding on, and if I win that I'll not be bidding again at all on it anyway.

Looks like liquid damage to me and the real question is, just where is it? Is it on the back of the clear window on the front or is it on the LCD screen itself, or even worse inside the LCD screen?

[0culus]

I have to say that I'm blown away by the internal construction of the 585A....the obvious care and attention to detail is superb. No one makes things like this anymore, outside of maybe space program hardware. 

I just can't go over how clean it is. Like it just left the factory. As opposed to my 561B and 535A which looked like they were dragged thru the dirt. 

Yeah, it seems to be a common theme with these scopes too. No surprise Stan Griffiths devoted an entire chapter to cleaning them. I count myself fortunate that I don't need to do that...

That is a beautiful piece of gear. Nice find.  Are you getting a good response to your questions over on the tekscope list?

Indeed, they've been most helpful with some potential trouble spots to watch out for once I can run it. First things first is to get the diodes from digikey and replace the two shorted ones. I guess it's good that the minimum order for 1N4007s is 25, since I'm operating under the assumption that more will likely eventually go short. 

[Neomys Sapiens]

One for the Neomys Sapiens: 392844275567
If not already in the heap...
Shipping outside Germany is prohibitive.

No, not really. The only Metrawatt that I ever bought without the practical aspect of the multimeter being prevalent to or at least on a par with a collection idea was the Metravo 4D. All others have their niche from 'another indicator for voltage/current to pack into the smallest space' (Metratester 3),
'electrical installations and related' (Unigor A41, Metravo 4S)
'high sensitivity MM without being active and Zin >20kOhm/V and <1MOhmV' (Metravo 4H) and, with the added benefit of capacitance measurents, the Unigor A43.
to Instruments which I rate as bridging the divide between field and lab instruments, like the Unigor6e or the M2036.
In this one, I can't see anything appealing. But thanks anyway.

[xrunner]

Can the screen surface be resurrected with T-Cut or something similar? It looks like surface damage caused by a contaminant.

I have another item I'm bidding on, and if I win that I'll not be bidding again at all on it anyway.

Looks like liquid damage to me and the real question is, just where is it? Is it on the back of the clear window on the front or is it on the LCD screen itself, or even worse inside the LCD screen?

That scope isn't "Used" for damn sure, it's for parts or not working per the definition -

Used

An item that has been used previously. The item may have some signs of cosmetic wear, but is fully operational and functions as intended. This item may be a floor model or store return that has been used. See the seller's listing for full details and description of any imperfections.

For parts or not working

An item that does not function as intended and is not fully operational. This includes items that are defective in ways that render them difficult to use, items that require service or repair, items that are locked or can't be activated, or items missing essential components. See the seller's listing for full details.

[tggzzz]

Well the offer I made on the Tek 220 was basically £50 shipped. The seller has counteroffered £150 + shipping.

I'm too polite to laugh in his face.

Just quote the fleabay definition of "used" to him. Ask him what he will do when a purchaser uses that against him.

[bd139]

Best for folk to learn the lesson the hard way sometimes. Hence why my PL330QMD ended up free...

[SilverSolder]

I once managed to get eBay to authorize a return on a "for parts" unit! 

The item (a DMM) was missing major parts internally (not disclosed by seller)...   I argued that if an item is sold "for parts", there should actually be parts inside it!  -  I won.

Basically, seller has an obligation to describe the item accurately whether it is "used" or "for parts".

[med6753]

I have yet to run into a dirtbag seller on Ebay but I have encountered a seller who shocks and surprises you in a good way.

Several years ago purchase a Fluke 8800A. Advertised as working. Receive it and it's not working. I send the seller an email indicating that it was not working. I didn't make any demands about a refund or anything else. Just that it wasn't working. The seller responded within an hour and apologized, thanked me for being civil, and instantly refunded me the cost except approx $10 USD.

Later I opened up the 8800A and replaced the shorted capacitor in the PSU and it worked. It's one of the two 8800A's I have today.   

[Neomys Sapiens]

So far the weekend hasn't been bad TEA-wise. It yielded a Tek P6601 temperature probe for 15.- and a Tek PG502 advertised as completely working for 46.- . I would have preferred to lay my hands on a PG503 and I did not score with the other TM500 modules on offer today, which included a PG508. Not that I did not try, but the competition was fierce.

Anyway, if this turns out to be true, I can postpone work on the dubious/damaged PG502 or relegate it to parts mule status. That would already lighten the load. While seeing Worsthorse's incredible heist is, even when gladly sharing his deserved enjoyment, a bit disheartening for us over here, the story of the TVC501 shows that it is not impossible to score nicely in the TM500 area even in Europe. I am convinced that the lack of comments on this aquisition was due to the fact that no one of the other TM500 aficionados can call one his own to at least the same degree than the somewhat obscure capabilities of the device.

This returns me to the bigger quest to solve which means looking at even more Tek scopes. And to my terrible company, where things got a bit agitated last week when the senior management discovered the consequences of the middle management's failure to act on some of my warnings months' ago.

[mnementh]

I once managed to get eBay to authorize a return on a "for parts" unit! 

The item (a DMM) was missing major parts internally (not disclosed by seller)...   I argued that if an item is sold "for parts", there should actually be parts inside it!  -  I won.

Basically, seller has an obligation to describe the item accurately whether it is "used" or "for parts".

Same here with my FIRST Fluke 189. I showed with photos that it had been disassembled and parts robbed AFTER the listing photos were taken. Looking at the seller's history, I'm pretty sure he took pictures of it working, then robbed the mainboard out of it to fix another unit and reassembled the KNOWN junk parts for sale as a meter "as-is for parts, works sometimes". If ALL the parts are KNOWN fucked-up, where is the "for parts" part of the deal...? 

I mean, yeah... I get that this is supposedly "well-known" on fleaBay; that "Untested" = "Known Borked". But I didn't even get the parts I bid on; the parts in the photos. NOT gonna put up widdat shit. 

mnem
 

[SilverSolder]

I have yet to run into a dirtbag seller on Ebay but I have encountered a seller who shocks and surprises you in a good way.

Several years ago purchase a Fluke 8800A. Advertised as working. Receive it and it's not working. I send the seller an email indicating that it was not working. I didn't make any demands about a refund or anything else. Just that it wasn't working. The seller responded within an hour and apologized, thanked me for being civil, and instantly refunded me the cost except approx $10 USD.

Later I opened up the 8800A and replaced the shorted capacitor in the PSU and it worked. It's one of the two 8800A's I have today. 

It is very rare to find a bad seller, I agree.  I would say it is something less than 0.5% of all transactions that cause significant disappointment.

[Neomys Sapiens]

I have yet to run into a dirtbag seller on Ebay but I have encountered a seller who shocks and surprises you in a good way.

Several years ago purchase a Fluke 8800A. Advertised as working. Receive it and it's not working. I send the seller an email indicating that it was not working. I didn't make any demands about a refund or anything else. Just that it wasn't working. The seller responded within an hour and apologized, thanked me for being civil, and instantly refunded me the cost except approx $10 USD.

Later I opened up the 8800A and replaced the shorted capacitor in the PSU and it worked. It's one of the two 8800A's I have today. 

It is very rare to find a bad seller, I agree.  I would say it is something less than 0.5% of all transactions that cause significant disappointment.

I agree with those numbers.

[SilverSolder]

[...]

I mean, yeah... I get that this is supposedly "well-known" on fleaBay; that "Untested" = "Known Borked". But I didn't even get the parts I bid on; the parts in the photos. NOT gonna put up widdat shit. 

[...]

I have bought lots tons of stuff marked "Untested" that actually worked fine! - so it isn't always "known borked"...  (Some of it has been, though...   luck of the draw!)

[0culus]

So I tried to power up the 585A with the time delay relay tube removed, and it popped the fuse after almost starting. Gotta delve into the 100V rail now, as that is always on whether or not the time delay has tripped or not.

[Brumby]

Philips ... Televisions ... I'm suddenly thinking K9.
Am I showing my age...?   

Yes, you are skipping K6, K7 and K8.

NOW who's showing their age?   

[mnementh]

Philips ... Televisions ... I'm suddenly thinking K9.
Am I showing my age...?   

Yes, you are skipping K6, K7 and K8.

NOW who's showing their age?   

K-9...?

mnem
 

[SilverSolder]

Philips ... Televisions ... I'm suddenly thinking K9.
Am I showing my age...?   

Yes, you are skipping K6, K7 and K8.

NOW who's showing their age?   

The oldest Philips I've worked on was the K70...  it was an antique even back in the day!  It featured a shunt regulator in the high voltage section...  a big tube basically bled the high voltage...  and acted as an aspirational X-ray machine at the same time! 

[med6753]

So I tried to power up the 585A with the time delay relay tube removed, and it popped the fuse after almost starting. Gotta delve into the 100V rail now, as that is always on whether or not the time delay has tripped or not.

I haven't looked at the 585A schematic but if the 100V rail is always on it sounds like it's the reference for all the other supply voltages, correct? Try to isolate it from all the other supplies to see if it stays up by itself. If yes then you have to determine which supply is drawing excess current when it's sequenced up.

[med6753]

[...]

I mean, yeah... I get that this is supposedly "well-known" on fleaBay; that "Untested" = "Known Borked". But I didn't even get the parts I bid on; the parts in the photos. NOT gonna put up widdat shit. 

[...]

I have bought lots tons of stuff marked "Untested" that actually worked fine! - so it isn't always "known borked"...  (Some of it has been, though...   luck of the draw!)

Same here.

[beanflying]

Philips ... Televisions ... I'm suddenly thinking K9.
Am I showing my age...?   

Yes, you are skipping K6, K7 and K8.

NOW who's showing their age?   

You guys have this all screwed up. The K9 is the sleeping Furry thing the K8 is the grinder in front and the K10 is the grinder at the rear  The Coopers Beer just happened to be there