Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Earlier today, I alluded to a deal that I was putting together, well the deal has been done and I shall soon hopefully be taking delivery of these fine specimens.


It is a scopemeter, LCD screen with backlight (failed, hopefully easy fix like brilliant LEDs) but otherwise fully working (2 knobs missing) and the function generator works.

Was asking £60 for the pair but because of the issues above, offered £50 and that was accepted. Found these on Shpock and with delivery and also buyer protection included, it came to I think a reasonable £60.70.

[cyclin_al]

No, I have it set up on my browser that it goes directly to the TEA thread. It says that goes to page 1701, so thats a lie, it goes directly to current page.

I keep a browser tab permanently open with the TEA thread.  In general, I am always behind, so all I ever have to do is to click 'next'

[med6753]

I was going to buy it as well, but bd beat me to it, cant win them all, I expect that this one will be a keeper though.

Who are you kidding? Chris never hangs on to anything.    A year from now it will be a distant memory.

And you watch. One day he'll get pissed at the 475 he just bought and it will be gone. 

[cyclin_al]

My oscilloscope is taking a few days off to watch the Olympics.   I'm sure it is having a good time, but I wish it would hurry up and get here.      Narita is near Tokyo and Sennan is near Osaka.

Based on my limited experience travelling to Japan, that does not look promising.
Narita is the main international airport, so I would have thought a departure from there would be on an international flight...

The other possibility is that it is on its way to Kansai airport, which Nippon Cargo flies out of.
In that case, your package is making progress and patience is needed.

[med6753]

So while I'm waiting for the parts to show up for the Type 547 this bench 2 remains a torn apart mess. All the equipment normally occupying the bench is on the floor. There's no sense to restoring anything until I get the Type 547 completely fixed. So it sits there mocking me again. And damn USPS is gonna fail with supposed delivery tomorrow. Ain't gonna happen. But the question is....what am I going to do after it's fixed?

Here's the plan: Once the Type 547 is fixed it will go back into the corner that used to be occupied by the Type 535A. The Type 535A was put on the cart that was occupied by the 7904, which is now on the floor behind the cart. That cart is specifically for the 7904 so it will go back. So what to do with the Type 535A? I'm going to build another cart. I ordered the casters today. I haven't priced #2 shit pine boards lately so I'm sure I'm in for a shock. Just to get started I'm going to need one 6 inch by 8 foot, one 10 inch by 8 foot, and two 2 inch by 8 foot. Can't wait to see what the arse rape charge is.

But that raises another issue. Where to put this new cart? There's no room anywhere to conveniently get it out of the way. The only option is the TEA closet. I'm going to have to do a major clean out which is needed anyway. A lot of stuff can go into totes which can go into the garage. Mucho lifting and moving which is something I need to be real careful about.     

[bd139]

I was going to buy it as well, but bd beat me to it, cant win them all, I expect that this one will be a keeper though.

Who are you kidding? Chris never hangs on to anything.    A year from now it will be a distant memory.

And you watch. One day he'll get pissed at the 475 he just bought and it will be gone. 

[med6753]

I was going to buy it as well, but bd beat me to it, cant win them all, I expect that this one will be a keeper though.

Who are you kidding? Chris never hangs on to anything.    A year from now it will be a distant memory.

And you watch. One day he'll get pissed at the 475 he just bought and it will be gone. 

Exactly. I rest my case. 

[Cubdriver]

So while I'm waiting for the parts to show up for the Type 547 this bench 2 remains a torn apart mess. All the equipment normally occupying the bench is on the floor. There's no sense to restoring anything until I get the Type 547 completely fixed. So it sits there mocking me again. And damn USPS is gonna fail with supposed delivery tomorrow. Ain't gonna happen. But the question is....what am I going to do after it's fixed?

Here's the plan: Once the Type 547 is fixed it will go back into the corner that used to be occupied by the Type 535A. The Type 535A was put on the cart that was occupied by the 7904, which is now on the floor behind the cart. That cart is specifically for the 7904 so it will go back. So what to do with the Type 535A? I'm going to build another cart. I ordered the casters today. I haven't priced #2 shit pine boards lately so I'm sure I'm in for a shock. Just to get started I'm going to need one 6 inch by 8 foot, one 10 inch by 8 foot, and two 2 inch by 8 foot. Can't wait to see what the arse rape charge is.

But that raises another issue. Where to put this new cart? There's no room anywhere to conveniently get it out of the way. The only option is the TEA closet. I'm going to have to do a major clean out which is needed anyway. A lot of stuff can go into totes which can go into the garage. Mucho lifting and moving which is something I need to be real careful about.     

Make sure to bring your Kentucky Jelly when you go to the lumber yard.

-Pat

[cyclin_al]

I'd have bought it, were it not for the horrendous shipping across the pond. And the fact I have a massive order of sh...tuff on the way to make that old monoblock amp into a 3-output PSU.

And the shipping. 

mnem
 

Same here, it is always the shipping to the GWN.  Would have been a nice complement to my E3610A....

[med6753]

Make sure to bring your Kentucky Jelly when you go to the lumber yard.

-Pat

It will be Lowe's with their "Indoor Lumber Yard" so two tubes of KY will be required. 

[bd139]

I was going to buy it as well, but bd beat me to it, cant win them all, I expect that this one will be a keeper though.

Who are you kidding? Chris never hangs on to anything.    A year from now it will be a distant memory.

And you watch. One day he'll get pissed at the 475 he just bought and it will be gone. 

Exactly. I rest my case. 

To be fair the problem is I don’t have enough space in my house for my attention and aspirations 

Anyway has to be a record for me. In two weeks:

1. Fluke 87
2. Tek 475
3. Farnell TOPS1
4. Agilent E3631A
5. Solartron 7150+
6. HP 5381A

 

[Specmaster]

I was going to buy it as well, but bd beat me to it, cant win them all, I expect that this one will be a keeper though.

Who are you kidding? Chris never hangs on to anything.    A year from now it will be a distant memory.

And you watch. One day he'll get pissed at the 475 he just bought and it will be gone. 

Exactly. I rest my case. 

Well, I plan to hang onto the scopemaster once fixed up, just need to find user and service manuals for that now. So far, drawn a complete blank on both.

Judging from Dave's latest video, he also seems to rate TTi gear as well worth getting if you can find it, so I think I'm in good company. I still have my TTi TF930 3GHz counter, which Dave also commented on in Tony's bench, which was featured as his backdrop.

[Robert763]

My two instruments from the latest Ramco Auction turned up. Smashed beyond repair  . Crap packing. I was thinking about keeping one but now they will both be broken for parts. They are high precsion liquid dispensers. Parts count for each is:
Small linear piston pump
Small daiphram pump
precsion diaphram liquid valve
Small air valve
precsion linear variable flow air valve (current operated).
60VA 18V toroid
Stepper motor
linear slide
leadscrew and nut
Pressure sensor
And a bunch of electronics. It's worth what I paid but would have liked them unsmashed.
Thats a 75% smash rate from Ramco since they stopped collection....

[Specmaster]

My two instruments from the latest Ramco Auction turned up. Smashed beyond repair  . Crap packing. I was thinking about keeping one but now they will both be broken for parts. They are high precsion liquid dispensers. Parts count for each is:
Small linear piston pump
Small daiphram pump
precsion diaphram liquid valve
Small air valve
precsion linear variable flow air valve (current operated).
60VA 18V toroid
Stepper motor
linear slide
leadscrew and nut
Pressure sensor
And a bunch of electronics. It's worth what I paid but would have liked them unsmashed.
Thats a 75% smash rate from Ramco since they stopped collection....

You should have either complained bitterly about them or sent them back demanding a full refund, otherwise they will continue with their crap packing 

There is no defence that they could put up for the lack of proper packing, they do after all sell direct from their warehouse and also send out items on hire.

[bd139]

Will ESR check the other capacitors as well, pop a replacement for that one in and do a check out before refurb.

Curious, what the ESR of thing would be ...

 

Sorry meant to reply to that earlier. It was possibly unsurprisingly completely open circuit 

Clearly every last particle of magic smoke had been ejected.

[bd139]

My two instruments from the latest Ramco Auction turned up. Smashed beyond repair  . Crap packing. I was thinking about keeping one but now they will both be broken for parts. They are high precsion liquid dispensers. Parts count for each is:
Small linear piston pump
Small daiphram pump
precsion diaphram liquid valve
Small air valve
precsion linear variable flow air valve (current operated).
60VA 18V toroid
Stepper motor
linear slide
leadscrew and nut
Pressure sensor
And a bunch of electronics. It's worth what I paid but would have liked them unsmashed.
Thats a 75% smash rate from Ramco since they stopped collection....

This is one reason I never go for stuff from their auctions. Genuinely they're in Lincolnshire and will be paying the lowest in the area to get people to pack that shit up and send it to you. I know what the lowest salary gets you in Lincolnshire

[tggzzz]

My two instruments from the latest Ramco Auction turned up. Smashed beyond repair  . Crap packing.

Ramco can be a bit hit and miss. I've had stuff well wrapped and stuff that was a bit dented, but easily straightened. I wouldn't trust them to package a CRT scope well enough.

If you don't tell them, they will assume their packing is fine, and continue

[tggzzz]

There is no defence that they could put up for the lack of proper packing, they do after all sell direct from their warehouse and also send out items on hire.

Ramco's pack&send is cheap and looks like it is done by their non-expert warehose staff. You get what you pay for.

Sometimes it would be nice to pay more for good expert packing, but I don't think that is possible.

[Wolfgang]

Your approach is fundamentally flawed. Instead of building a house AROUND you scopes, you need to built a house where all the walls are made FROM scopes. That would help. 

[tautech]

This is USPS speak for "we don't know where the fuck your package is". 

This package is the vertical output transistors for the Type 547.

Had a similar thing with FedEx last week with a SDM SC model sent from Siglent as a special order for a customer.
After a few days of it sitting in Singapore rang them and apparently they had a Covid incident and their facility was on go slow. 
Arrived 5 days late.

[Robert763]

There is no defence that they could put up for the lack of proper packing, they do after all sell direct from their warehouse and also send out items on hire.

Ramco's pack&send is cheap and looks like it is done by their non-expert warehose staff. You get what you pay for.

Sometimes it would be nice to pay more for good expert packing, but I don't think that is possible.

I did tell them with a "just so you know" approach. They asked for photo's which I have supplied. We will see what they say.
I always collected before Covid. The staff do try but have no idea what is fragile and what isn't.

[mansaxel]

Are you sure that thing hasn't spent some time at the bottom of the English Channel? 

What a mess of corrosion. 

Some north american must have mistaken it for a crate of tea.

[mansaxel]

I was going to buy it as well, but bd beat me to it, cant win them all, I expect that this one will be a keeper though.

For all of three changes of mind, i.e. 6 months tops.

I've got some few things local that I'm contemplating, a counter, a function generator, and a DMM. The DMM is a no-brainer, it's just about winning it with a sensible snipe. FG, yes, maybe; it's a 8904A. I'd be more in need of a RF gen than another FG, because although my current FG is the shittiest kind of FeelTech ever built, it still does waves and is, as the Fat Controller would say, a Really Useful Engine. But a new boat anchor function generator always is something extra.
Counter is a 5335A. It's collection only, that's the turn-down. I don't need Option Input C, which it lacks, but I need external reference and precision, which it's got.

OTOH, I've got no lack of repair queue, and no lack of newbuild projects.

[med6753]

Are you sure that thing hasn't spent some time at the bottom of the English Channel? 

What a mess of corrosion. 

Some north american must have mistaken it for a crate of tea.

Then obviously it belonged there. 

[Specmaster]

I was going to buy it as well, but bd beat me to it, cant win them all, I expect that this one will be a keeper though.

For all of three changes of mind, i.e. 6 months tops.

I've got some few things local that I'm contemplating, a counter, a function generator, and a DMM. The DMM is a no-brainer, it's just about winning it with a sensible snipe. FG, yes, maybe; it's a 8904A. I'd be more in need of a RF gen than another FG, because although my current FG is the shittiest kind of FeelTech ever built, it still does waves and is, as the Fat Controller would say, a Really Useful Engine. But a new boat anchor function generator always is something extra.
Counter is a 5335A. It's collection only, that's the turn-down. I don't need Option Input C, which it lacks, but I need external reference and precision, which it's got.

OTOH, I've got no lack of repair queue, and no lack of newbuild projects.

Yeah, I know, Chris does have these love / hate relationships with his TEA gear and also his 2m radio gear, I on the other hand do not, and I build long-lasting relationships with my gear and only flip them when I get something better. I don't do forward engineering, more retro than anything else.

I may later on think about thinning out some of my lower quality handheld DMM's as I certainly have so many of them that many never see the lights of day, including one I purchased new many years ago, a Robin OM840 which is in almost as new condition with original case, leads and instructions. I always love acquiring new ones but not so good at parting with anything, but thats why we're all here, its part of TEA and GAS