Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Robert763]

My mystery PC arrived just before lunch so had quick play. Seems to work fine, boots Win 7 Pro took 2 trys to crack the password, the hint helped

Bit bigger than expected 9.5" trouchscreen, Quad core Intel proc, wireless, external ethernet & USB, internal barcode reader.
Not bad for £20 inc shipping. I've actually ordered a second one, from a different seller without PSU for similar cost. Think I'll wait until that one arrives and see how it looks before tearing one down. Seen them on sale for their original use at 100 times what I paid but its not a market that really buys second hand.

[beanflying]

That was cheap, I've got more than that for just a lead. Maybe people were put off by the PCI card.

Good improvement over my couple of very average 3 1/2 digit DMM's I use now when not on the Coffee Roaster doing Temperatures. The really good thing for me will be zero bench used and I can just plug in the I/O box as needed. Seems most of them on evilbay are going for more without the extra box.

Not sure what was the more popular but there is plenty of PXI versions out there too. 

[mnementh]

Abducted?

Come on, they are aliens, but not that crazy.
- no one needs this amount of bickering in his abductee holding cells
- no one likes to have his flying saucer partially dismantled and vital components misappropriated
- no one likes to hear all the 'this is not a proper probing, must I show you how it is done' comments, etc.

Why is everyone looking at Cerebus right now...? 

mnem

[mnementh]

   Still feeling like crap, so doing nothing interesting - thus nothing to report.

I'm not even actively following anything on eBay outside of the bundle of Tek literature - and not looking at anything on Amazon, Banggood, Aliexpress or Gumtree. What I have done, though, is lash up my hot air gun to my microphone boom arm and running at at minimum temp to introduce some warm air in the vicinity of my nose. I have to make sure I keep the air stream below my eyes as it can dry them out pretty quickly.

Ugghhh... "superflu" is no fun. I used to get that almost every summer/fall in Tejas; when it dried out and the wind whipped the dust in off the plains.

Hope you feel better soon and the accompanying bronchitis doesn't turn into pneumonia.

mnem
grr. arrg.

[mnementh]

Abducted?

Nah! "The Rapture!" Now we who weren't the "chosen ones" can get some work done!

Not been doing much I thought, then made a list:
1/ Metalwork and power supply intial testing on the FRK atomic clock.
2/ Buying stuff on ebay. "not much on there" but managed to grab (A) a couple of little medical units that look like they are based on a small touch screen PC, more to follow when they arrive. (B) a home made scintillation counter with bicron probe. (C) a 80mm 4 jaw independent chuck for the lathe.
3/ One of the neighbours is moving so keeping a eye on their skip (with permssion) so far have retrieved (i) collection of parallels and lathe tools (promted to buy chuck above and determination to finish setting up the ML2) (ii) Snap-on LED work light / flashlight. (iii) Various leads and adptors, mains, HDMI, network and audio (iv) airline and fittings.
4/ Checked out the electrical testers that came with the 8022B and resistive load. All work so have gone back on ebay.

I should've known y'all were "just busy working"... 

mnem
Silence is GOLDEN. Unless you have children engineers. Then it is suspicious...

[URI]

Yep, I second the Ebay thing, not only has been quiet on anything fascinating, but the prices are going through the roof especially on non-working shit 

Yes, I can second that, too.
Prices (auction-end wise and buy-now-wishes) for those TE items I set up ebay-searches for have clearly risen in the last year. Inflation for used TE..? 

But it's not all hopeless, one must search and wait longer for finding used TE for a good price.
The HP 6033A 20V/200W autorange (=switching) system power supply I bought recently came from a professional seller from ireland for 285€ incl. shipping. Not a jammy git award winning price -but ok for a fully functional unit from 1996.
Packing was very good -as I said: professional- so no hassle there. 

And for you US-folks: Yes, prices tend to be higher here in Europe -cheap offers for used TE inside the US don't help us over here, we have to take shipping costs and  customs into account.  :'(

[mnementh]

   eBay auction: #143996606527
 
     One for the Germans in the group. Might be worth making an unreasonable offer at least

Is it wrong that I just got wood looking at that...? 

mnem

[SoundTech-LG]

I just had a quick look inside.
The dallas chip seems to be 1992, funny, as S/N of scope says 1989.
More funny that there is no RAM fail during self test. and no start up message addressing an RAM error.

There is no capacitor leakage inside the power supply either.

No Visible leakage... but, it could still be there.
When the PS leakage begins, it is a clear liquid that can easily travel distances on the board. I have seen at least one of these supplies with damage to the transformers from wicking action up into the windings, and proven by removal, and measuring primary to secondary leakage, and cure by transformer replacement. This also blows the power switching transistor, as it warms up, depending on how bad things are...

Another thing I found, and also read about later, is the adjustment pots may get a nice dose of electrolyte and become intermittent, causing big time voltage issues. The one closest to the heat sink seems to be most affected. I doubt there is much limit to the destruction the electrolyte can cause.

[25 CPS]

Ok, here are the photos as promised, after I got myself badly burnt getting these, despite covering myself in blocking lotion, it was just that darned hot in the capital yesterday and looking around me, I saw that I was not alone and that others were suffering far worse. All the usual spots for photographers were rammed solid, so we hunted around for another suitable spot and found one, but by the time AirForce 1 was due, so had many others also found the same spot, and it too became packed.

When AF1 arrived, there was much jockeying for position and unfortunately the photos suffered by being caught up in web a web of lenses and I was forced to try a different tack for AF2 when it arrived a few minutes later.

Here they are.

Both are still very nice photos.  One favour to ask:  Could you guys arrange to lock Trudeau up in a shitty bed and breakfast in Skegness?  Thank you.

Anyways, test equipment, three pieces need to go on the bench for evaluation in addition to most of the large Tek scopes I got a while back.  They're at home, I'm at work, the usual problem.  Honestly, I know what my step-grandmother says about retirement about how she doesn't know how she had time to work with all the stuff she has (had - pandemic has curtailed a lot of it) on the go.

Edit:  I just saw on the news that Justin "Now is not the time to travel" Trudeau has moved on to the party in Brussels.  I guess it's a day late for the shitty bed and breakfast in Skegness idea.

[Saskia]

The one with bars covering the windows I presume ...

[Robert763]

Decided not to wait on the medical device / PC teardown and got the leatherman and Torx drivers out. Leatherman to remove the plugs over the screws. Nothing photo worthy, just a small PC with a couple of PIC's, ADC, FTDI USB-serial chip, two serial isolators and a medical grade 5V/5V DC-DC converter.
And
A Cybermed T10 medical grade semi-rugged 9.7" windows tablet 

Might need a new battery but for £5 + £15 postage I'm very happy. One appliction is running some gamma spectroscopy software for an ethenet connected detector. The software is currently on a large and clunky touch screen unit. Software runs OK but haven't tried connecting to sensor yet. It needs a touch screen to run so won't work on most laptops.   

[Cerebus]

Both are still very nice photos.  One favour to ask:  Could you guys arrange to lock Trudeau up in a shitty bed and breakfast in Skegness?  Thank you.

What's Skeggie done to deserve that? We can do you a deal on a deposit in a disused Cornish tin mine, BUT we're going to need a quid pro quo on leaving Boris in a tumbledown cabin somewhere in the middle of the Northwest Territories or Nunavut in exchange. There might even be a bit of cash in it for you lot if you can arrange to dump Dominic Cummings in the same cabin at the same time too. Thinking about it, if you do a good job we've got a long list of politicians that it would do the country no end of good to 'lose' somewhere, there might be a decent business in it for you. However, we wouldn't be so crass as to lumber you with Piers Morgan no matter how much we'd like to be permanently shot of him - just thought I'd mention that in case you thought of it on your own and it soured the deal for you.

[25 CPS]

Both are still very nice photos.  One favour to ask:  Could you guys arrange to lock Trudeau up in a shitty bed and breakfast in Skegness?  Thank you.

What's Skeggie done to deserve that? We can do you a deal on a deposit in a disused Cornish tin mine, BUT we're going to need a quid pro quo on leaving Boris in a tumbledown cabin somewhere in the middle of the Northwest Territories or Nunavut in exchange. There might even be a bit of cash in it for you lot if you can arrange to dump Dominic Cummings in the same cabin at the same time too. Thinking about it, if you do a good job we've got a long list of politicians that it would do the country no end of good to 'lose' somewhere, there might be a decent business in it for you. However, we wouldn't be so crass as to lumber you with Piers Morgan no matter how much we'd like to be permanently shot of him - just thought I'd mention that in case you thought of it on your own and it soured the deal for you.

I know of some abandoned diamond mines outside Yellowknife we can dump Boris and others in, and the mosquitos out there are both ferocious and voracious.  They'll suck them dry in not time.  Don't worry, once you get outside of Yellowknife, it's beautiful, it's quiet, there's no cellphone reception, there's nobody around to call for help to, it's subarctic Canadian shield, scrawny vegetation, the local wildlife, and clouds of mosquitoes in every direction as far as they eye can see.

[tggzzz]

Both are still very nice photos.  One favour to ask:  Could you guys arrange to lock Trudeau up in a shitty bed and breakfast in Skegness?  Thank you.

What's Skeggie done to deserve that? We can do you a deal on a deposit in a disused Cornish tin mine, BUT we're going to need a quid pro quo on leaving Boris in a tumbledown cabin somewhere in the middle of the Northwest Territories or Nunavut in exchange. There might even be a bit of cash in it for you lot if you can arrange to dump Dominic Cummings in the same cabin at the same time too. Thinking about it, if you do a good job we've got a long list of politicians that it would do the country no end of good to 'lose' somewhere, there might be a decent business in it for you. However, we wouldn't be so crass as to lumber you with Piers Morgan no matter how much we'd like to be permanently shot of him - just thought I'd mention that in case you thought of it on your own and it soured the deal for you.

I know of some abandoned diamond mines outside Yellowknife we can dump Boris and others in, and the mosquitos out there are both ferocious and voracious.  They'll suck them dry in not time.  Don't worry, once you get outside of Yellowknife, it's beautiful, it's quiet, there's no cellphone reception, there's nobody around to call for help to, it's subarctic Canadian shield, scrawny vegetation, the local wildlife, and clouds of mosquitoes in every direction as far as they eye can see.

That sounds like a perfectly acceptable alternative to staking him/them out on an anthill.

[mnementh]

*makes mental note to develop grizzly bear antacid some time before the next election*

Ummm... guys... I need some advice on marketing a new product...?

mnem
Oh, wait... we can fund development and production bootstrap capital with a simple tax on Perrier... Cerebus, you ready to run for office...?   

[Specmaster]

Both are still very nice photos.  One favour to ask:  Could you guys arrange to lock Trudeau up in a shitty bed and breakfast in Skegness?  Thank you.

What's Skeggie done to deserve that? We can do you a deal on a deposit in a disused Cornish tin mine, BUT we're going to need a quid pro quo on leaving Boris in a tumbledown cabin somewhere in the middle of the Northwest Territories or Nunavut in exchange. There might even be a bit of cash in it for you lot if you can arrange to dump Dominic Cummings in the same cabin at the same time too. Thinking about it, if you do a good job we've got a long list of politicians that it would do the country no end of good to 'lose' somewhere, there might be a decent business in it for you. However, we wouldn't be so crass as to lumber you with Piers Morgan no matter how much we'd like to be permanently shot of him - just thought I'd mention that in case you thought of it on your own and it soured the deal for you.

You nailed it, this all day long 

[mnementh]

I just had a quick look inside. The dallas chip seems to be 1992, funny, as S/N of scope says 1989. More funny that there is no RAM fail during self test. and no start up message addressing an RAM error. There is no capacitor leakage inside the power supply either.

No Visible leakage... but, it could still be there. When the PS leakage begins, it is a clear liquid that can easily travel distances on the board. I have seen at least one of these supplies with damage to the transformers from wicking action up into the windings, and proven by removal, and measuring primary to secondary leakage, and cure by transformer replacement. This also blows the power switching transistor, as it warms up, depending on how bad things are...

Another thing I found, and also read about later, is the adjustment pots may get a nice dose of electrolyte and become intermittent, causing big time voltage issues. The one closest to the heat sink seems to be most affected. I doubt there is much limit to the destruction the electrolyte can cause.

Good lord, would you look at that engineering... Those two high-power rectifiers on heatsinks essentially boxing in  those two capacitors, with potting between the heatsinks and the caps. It's like they deliberately designed an ovenized capacitor array that would cook them to death... 

mnem
  were they thinking?

[AVGresponding]

I just had a quick look inside.
The dallas chip seems to be 1992, funny, as S/N of scope says 1989.
More funny that there is no RAM fail during self test. and no start up message addressing an RAM error.

There is no capacitor leakage inside the power supply either.

Meant to reply to this the other day but got distracted...

All the chips with visible date codes seem to be 1991/1992

[AVGresponding]

Good lord, would you look at that engineering... Those two high-power rectifiers on heatsinks essentially boxing in  those two capacitors, with potting between the heatsinks and the caps. It's like they deliberately designed an ovenized capacitor array that would cook them to death... 

mnem
  were they thinking?

At least they are 105°C Nippon Chemicons, and the thermal conductivity of silicone sealant is shite, but yeah, it could/should have been designed better...

[mnementh]

Still aboot 10x that of air, tho IIRC. OTOH, it may block more radiated heat.    Thinking again aboot it tho... I really have no idea how hot those rectifiers actually get. Those heatsinks may be more grenade-proofing/deliberate over-engineering than absolutely necessary heat management; I've seen a fair bit of that in stuff from that era.

mnem
*currently nuking something it was illegal for me to buy*   

[Robert763]

The PSU is 3rd party IIRC. Not that HPAK have never designed self-cooking electronics.

Talking of hot rectifiers, I actually used my newly aquired resistive load bank yesterday. Having finished the raw DC supplys for the FRK atomic clock, I loaded them up. They gave expected voltages and ripple. The 9V raw is for the HDSP08060 LED display 5V and if at the top of the spec could be running about 1.1A. To allow for this I'm using a L7805 which can supply up to 2A depending on conditions. With myinput voltage and heatsinking it will b good for 1.5A output. I always over-size bridge rectifiers and put a 2A one in this design. It gets surprisingly hot, >70degC, even at 2A.

[Saskia]

I kinda like the idea of frisian slippers.
Dunk into fast setting cement and put out into the wadden sea at low tide.

[ch_scr]

I kinda like the idea of frisian slippers.
Dunk into fast setting cement and put out into the wadden sea at low tide.

That would finally allow a meeting about rising waters taken serious by all participants.
They might even agree on taking action before 2050...

[med6753]

Very slow progress on the Type 547 repair/recap due to other non-TEA stuff and some lack of ambition. All the epoxy tubular capacitors in the PSU have been replaced. There are 2 electrolytic cans left to do. As I pulled the old capacitors I tested them and so far none have been defective. So while I have eliminated them as a possible cause of the failure if I were to power it up as it stands right now there will be smoke. And I don't expect to 2 remaining cans to be defective either.

Here's the PSU with new tubular caps (yellow). I did miss one .047uf/400V on the original BOM but it tests OK so it will remain in place.



Replacing the cans behind the power transformer was a real challenge. And there's another capacitor behind these 2 that isn't visible. And I also determined that the C642A/B mentioned the other day as possibly mis-wired is indeed correct.



So what's next? After the capacitors are done I'll be testing tubes in the Type 535A that are common to both. The unique tubes I have purchased spares and I will swap them out. At that point I will attempt a power up with a fire extinguisher handy. 

[mnementh]

...So what's next? After the capacitors are done I'll be testing tubes in the Type 535A that are common to both. The unique tubes I have purchased spares and I will swap them out. At that point I will attempt a power up with a fire extinguisher handy. 

All I ask is that you keep that kit of alignment tools safely on a distant shelf until you're certain there will be no fireworks. PLA and cardboard tube are somewhat flammable; let's keep them far away from things that flamm.

mnem