Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Wishing you better luck than my 8070A! Also a wee bit jeally if you got it for a sane price and fix it without massive contortions/distortions/extortions required...

mnem
*punt*

200 Euro plus 5 Euro shipping. And I've asked the seller nicely for a good packaging.    Pics will follow ...

Oklay... considering I got my 8070A for barter equivalent of 50 Canoodlian Pesos, I will not complain; especially as I still have hope of resurrecting it.   

That said... probably not what I'd call a Jammy-worthy acquisition, even if it turns out to just be a RIFA victim; just a fair deal for excellent gear. 

mnem
This pandemic-induced market weirdness really has changed our standards of what is a good deal, hasn't it...?

[mnementh]

   Also, I received a recent impulse shopping, another microphone... A beyerdynamic M80.  It arrived in the cutest package yet. I immediately swapped the DIN plug for a XLR. Haven't tried it yet, except by driving a 400H VTVM and "eye-listening" to the meter. The connection did not match any of the standard Schaltschema für Diodenstecker, so wiring it to a XLR is sort of experimental. Which is why I got some motivation for fixing the mixer...

Ooooh... shiny. I remember those from my days working AV crew in high school. You got the chrome one; most of ours were the slightly cheesy brushed aluminum look.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

*used to drive over "Woman Hollering Creek" twice a day*

Why didn't you just step out of bed like any reasonable man. Oh, hold on, you were in Texas at the time weren't you?

For my sins, yes...

mnem
*currently catching a bit of chill from an open door, and loving it*

[mnementh]

mnem
just to tease med.

[AVGresponding]

The cast contains half the best British comic actors of my generation (and several from earlier generations, not least Peter Cook), not a dud among them.

Nice pun. Am I the only one that spotted it?


EDIT: Here's a clue for anyone that still can't see it:

[mnementh]

By the time I was old enough to appreciate such things, Dudley had become a garish caricature of himself; despised in many circles and little which I saw did not reinforce that.

It wasn't until I saw his performance in Bedazzled that I was able to appreciate him in any way, and to forgive him for inflicting the world with Liza Minelli's return to movies in Arthur.

mnem
*poot!*

[AVGresponding]

For the second day in a row I've had to towel off TE parcels left on my doorstep. This despite the fact I leave a bright blue IKEA bag, weighed down with a length of Unistrut, on my doorstep, for the purpose of protecting my parcel from the weather.

Yesterday was the Agilent 54621D. Well packed and dry, despite the outer box turning into papier-mâché. Nice little scope, very short form factor for a CRT.
I like the UI much more than Tek scopes.

Today was the HP 6633B. This came in some of the best packing I've ever seen. Outer heavy duty black plastic bin-liner type stuff, then outer box, then various packing materials and also the wrecking ball, then an inner box, then more packing, and finally the prize.
Wouldn't have made a good pass-the-parcel game though, it weighs in at 12.2kg, with the packing adding a couple of kilos on top of that!
It's currently acclimatising, I'll give it a brief test in a couple of hours.



Looks like I'll be working this weekend; the vaccination station we put in a supply for needs more work.
They wanted a genset, and changeover contactor; we're now fitting that, with a trench having had to be re-dug to accommodate the extra armoured cables.
Oh, and they need some more lights for the walkways around the cabins, you can throw 20 or 30 of those up in no time I expect?
Then they decided they need an extra cabin for the security guards, as they don't want them in the medical areas. That's no problem, right?
Yes, it is a fucking problem, now we have to re-dig the goddam trench again, no doubt scraping even more cables and exposing the armourings, and pull another cable from the damn substation (where our main panel board is). This also means the marginally rated genset won't be big enough, but they're ignoring that problem, presumably gambling on it not having to be used, and consequently no-one noticing.
They are in for a shock, as we will most certainly do a proper test once we have everything wired in. Can't wait for the genset to fall over when we do a manual changeover...

At this rate the vaccination station should be operational by the time the covid crisis is over.

[Robert763]

Oh, that's interesting. You can tell at a glance what it's for. That has me immediately wondering how hard it would be to build up something like that with guts based on off-the-shelf SDR stuff.

I've heard, in circumspect ways, that that (SDR) is what they're doing these days. The original customers, that is.

"I could tell you, but I'd have to shoot you"  Where do you think the research funding for SDR came from?
It's also popular with the military. You can have a completely new, never been heard modulation scheme and when the war starts just upload it to the existing hardware.
I've used an SDRplay www.sdrplay.com RSP2 and a Toughbook CF19 to track down EMI and dodgy signals, it works really well. Their UK made receivers are used here https://hfalerting.com/ too.
 I've had mid generation WJ intercept kit and the SDRplay is much better. It will run on a RaspberryPi and there is even a decent SA application.

[Robert763]

Another skanky 'scope on ebay www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Oscilloscope/265016735606 This one isn't even cheap 

[mnementh]

I'd be afraid to get close enough to that to hit it with car-wash on a garden hose; much less handle it to take pics. 

mnem
Desperation is a cruel taskmistress.

[Robert763]

For the second day in a row I've had to towel off TE parcels left on my doorstep. This despite the fact I leave a bright blue IKEA bag, weighed down with a length of Unistrut, on my doorstep, for the purpose of protecting my parcel from the weather.

Yesterday was the Agilent 54621D. Well packed and dry, despite the outer box turning into papier-mâché. Nice little scope, very short form factor for a CRT.
I like the UI much more than Tek scopes.

Today was the HP 6633B. This came in some of the best packing I've ever seen. Outer heavy duty black plastic bin-liner type stuff, then outer box, then various packing materials and also the wrecking ball, then an inner box, then more packing, and finally the prize.
Wouldn't have made a good pass-the-parcel game though, it weighs in at 12.2kg, with the packing adding a couple of kilos on top of that!
It's currently acclimatising, I'll give it a brief test in a couple of hours.
<SNIP>

The 54621D is a great little scope. I had one at my last job and it's older sibling, 54645D at home. Did you get the LA lead and probes? At least the probes are just resistive if you didn't. 

[Robert763]

I'd be afraid to get close enough to that to hit it with car-wash on a garden hose; much less handle it to take pics. 

mnem
Desperation is a cruel taskmistress.

Thankfully he declined my offer of £1. I was  for a bit

[mnementh]

 

One of those "I immediately regret this decision..." moments, ehhhh...?

mnem
Parenthood is a roller-coaster ride of those... interspersed with moments of utter delight.

[mnementh]

For the second day in a row I've had to towel off TE parcels left on my doorstep. This despite the fact I leave a bright blue IKEA bag, weighed down with a length of Unistrut, on my doorstep, for the purpose of protecting my parcel from the weather.

Yesterday was the Agilent 54621D. Well packed and dry, despite the outer box turning into papier-mâché. Nice little scope, very short form factor for a CRT.
I like the UI much more than Tek scopes...

Agreed on all of the above here... I looked at several 5462xDs, but held out for the much larger memory depth of the 54645x family. I love that 1000-line SXGA display, and as I've said before... the UI is so intuitive, especially on Auto-Everything mode... it knows what I'm looking for before I do half the time.

Did you get the LA probe-paks...?

mnem
 

[AVGresponding]

The 54621D is a great little scope. I had one at my last job and it's older sibling, 545645D at home. Did you get the LA lead and probes? At least the probes are just resistive if you didn't.

Unfortunately not, probably one reason it went so cheaply.

[bd139]

The LA pods show up occasionally. Keep an eye out. Nice scopes.

[mnementh]

Oh yes, also *mumbles* I also bought a 54621D for just under £75 shipped...   

That's aboot what I paid for my smashed 54645A, before the current market insanity; also without probes.   

mnem
Eat it in good health.

[Cerebus]

The cast contains half the best British comic actors of my generation (and several from earlier generations, not least Peter Cook), not a dud among them.

Nice pun. Am I the only one that spotted it?

Probably.

"You can tell a good nude painting by the way the bottom follows you around the room."

[Robert763]

The 54621D is a great little scope. I had one at my last job and it's older sibling, 54645D at home. Did you get the LA lead and probes? At least the probes are just resistive if you didn't.

Unfortunately not, probably one reason it went so cheaply.

If you keep it short normal ribbon cable and a 250R, 90.9k+8.2pF network is all you need. See
Woven or Twist-N-Flat cable is better for longer lengths. Apparently the 16Ch LA probes work OK too.

[mnementh]

   $199.95US $159.96 BIN Save 20%: eBay auction: #393057089037

Tripped over this while trying to find that guy selling aftermarket 546xxD probes.

@Tautech, do you know who that was...?

mnem
*punt*

[Robert763]

I asked the seller of this www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174597314017 multiplexer, sold as "tested 100% working" how many cycles were on the relays. I got two replies (marks for effort I suppose) "I've no idea" and then "there are twenty relays"  This guy sells mostly TE and dispite the "tesed assurance either has not put this in a logger at all or/and has no idea how to run the diagnostic routine.

[mnementh]

If you keep it short normal ribbon cable and a 250R, 90.9k+8.2pF network is all you need. Woven or Twist-N-Flat cable is better for longer lengths. Apparently the 16Ch LA probes work OK too.

That's awesome to know. As I don't speak German and I didn't see while scanning the vid any shot of the full length of his finished probes... any idea how short is short enuf...?

To clarify: I mean the overall length; did he actually use that entire 1m+ length of ribbon...? Or are you saying that it should be okay as long as you keep the individual pigtails short...?

mnem
 

[tautech]

   $199.95US $159.96 BIN Save 20%: eBay auction: #393057089037

Tripped over this while trying to find that guy selling aftermarket 546xxD probes.

@Tautech, do you know who that was...?

mnem
*punt*

Nope, not a furking clue but it certainly looks to be heavily built and enough so to be tank proof ! 

Oh my back twinges just looking at it ! 

[mnementh]

   $199.95US $159.96 BIN Save 20%: eBay auction: #393057089037

Tripped over this while trying to find that guy selling aftermarket 546xxD probes. @Tautech, do you know who that was...?

mnem
*punt*

Nope, not a furking clue but it certainly looks to be heavily built and enough so to be tank proof ! 

Oh my back twinges just looking at it ! 

Agreed on the military-grade Scope-a-saurus. But I was asking if you knew who it was who was making those HP DataPods; I'm almost positive it was a fellow eevBlog user.

mnem
 

[AVGresponding]

If you keep it short normal ribbon cable and a 250R, 90.9k+8.2pF network is all you need. Woven or Twist-N-Flat cable is better for longer lengths. Apparently the 16Ch LA probes work OK too.

That's awesome to know. As I don't speak German and I didn't see while scanning the vid any shot of the full length of his finished probes... any idea how short is short enuf...?

To clarify: I mean the overall length; did he actually use that entire 1m+ length of ribbon...? Or are you saying that it should be okay as long as you keep the individual pigtails short...?

mnem
 

I would imagine the length limits the bandwidth, and so the shorter you keep them the better your bandwidth.

Just had a quick play with the 6633B after making up a quick set of temporary leads. Seems on the button, with a nice bright display. Winner winner, chicken dinner, apparently.

I'm too knackered to muck around with pics today, and tbh I think this warrants a proper teardown post, if only so we can marvel at the size of the trafo used for a mere 2 ampere output PSU. May be next weekend when I have the time though.