Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Taking on a zSeries is like having two additional children. Walk away 

Only two children? 

Ok two teenagers?   

... rather some very care intensive senior citizens with a lot of progressive deficiencies. Sample: you need to talk JCL to me. 

No more mind-numbing than learning to speak teenager. 

mnem
"Fuck off and die old man!" transl: "I love you dad."

[bd139]

I’m fluent in British teenager. Very strange language. Definitely more difficult than JCL. More Brainfuck.

[Saskia]

now if you tempted me with a 9076 and a couple of nodes, ...

Or an old Onyx 2 ...

[mnementh]

Speaking of teenagers... I got a present for mine. 

mnem
"But your honor... mommy said I could!!!"

[bd139]

What is it? Looks like a self lobotomiser from here

[mnementh]

    tzzzzzzt! collar.   https://www.amazon.ca/PATPET-Training-Collar-Rechargeable-Vibration-Waterproof/dp/B07WCCCKJ9


 
         

Nice construction; all exposed metal is stainless, made of polycarbonate plastic and supposed to be fully immersion waterproof. Didn't get the remote; looks like a generic car alarm remote tho. Antenna inside looks aboot right for ~315mHz too.

I wonder if it's just a tone on a carrier, or rolling code like a car alarm.  Manual sez it pairs with transmitter, so must be digital packet connection of some form.

 Advert claims 50 days on a charge; that explains the tilt-switch so it knows when poochie sonny-boy stops wiggling aboot and goes to sleep. Also has a peizo micro-horn and vibrator for corrective reinforcement. Looks like the LiPo has a BMS board on it; probably still good as not puffy. Neato.


mnem
I figured for $3, worth getting to tease the boi with; getting to do a quick teardown here is just gravy.

[med6753]

Well it's about time. After dropping into a black hole for 6 days the vertical output transistors for the Type 547 have arrived at my local PO. So I should have them delivered tomorrow. 

[bd139]

Good luck.

My tek 475 and solartron are apparently sitting in a ParcelFarts van somewhere waiting to be delivered tomorrow too 

[med6753]

Good luck.

My tek 475 and solartron are apparently sitting in a ParcelFarts van somewhere waiting to be delivered tomorrow too 

Hopefully the van is parked in a secure area. 

[Specmaster]

Good luck.

My tek 475 and solartron are apparently sitting in a ParcelFarts van somewhere waiting to be delivered tomorrow too 

Don't forget, this thread is useless without photos     

[Robert763]

Had a look at the Rapco 1804 P"GPSDO I pcked up at the rally this morning. Not looking as good as the 8640B. I connected it to the antenna distribution amp plugged it into the mains. Alarm light on and external alarm relay clicking every 30s or so. Checked the antenna port for DC - zilch 
Opening it up revealed a mains toroid, control PCB and an old looking GPS board. Look like a Trimble SV8. Connections just power (12V) antenna and RS232 / 1PPS port. No sign of 5V on the board anywere. The regulator is a LT1172 in 8 pin SO. But the circuit is very weird, it seems to be floating or bootstrapped. Lots of Tant's but they and the diodes all seem ok 
I don't have a LT1172 to hand.
However while trying to trace the circuit out (not easy) I noticed ther was an un-occupied footprint that appeared to b for a 3 pin linear regulator connected after the DC input filter and to the 5V net on the logic chips. So I thought, what can I loose?
So I slapped a LM340T-5 (one happened to be lying on the bench) onto the PCB.
Got 5V on the board and antenna port. So connected up to the contol PCB. The Alarm light still on but relay not clicking. Twenty minutes later the alarm light is off and GPS light is green  An hour later and the control light is green and the output is pulling in towards 10MHz. 
I don't have a manual for this but there is some monitoring software available. I've got  copy, just need to get it installed. Photos to follow.
All in all a very good day.

[Cerebus]

Oooh, skanky :



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-TEKTRONIX-2236-OSCILLOSCOPE-N-wbr-OT-POWER-ON-/255071965685?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

"NOT POWER ON" - Really, you do surprise me. And they want $100 for it. I'd charge more to take it away.

[mnementh]

Oooh, skanky :



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-TEKTRONIX-2236-OSCILLOSCOPE-N-wbr-OT-POWER-ON-/255071965685?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

"NOT POWER ON" - Really, you do surprise me. And they want $100 for it. I'd charge more to take it away.

I'd offer them a for it; but afraid they might accept. 

mnem
Cally-fone-ya...? No wey in 'ell...

[med6753]

Oooh, skanky :



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-TEKTRONIX-2236-OSCILLOSCOPE-N-wbr-OT-POWER-ON-/255071965685?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

"NOT POWER ON" - Really, you do surprise me. And they want $100 for it. I'd charge more to take it away.

I'd offer them a for it; but afraid they might accept. 

mnem
Cally-fone-ya...? No wey in 'ell...

If the $100 USD included shipping from California to NY I'd consider it. Just like hp gear the VFD is known for going dim. It also is an SMS supply so no surprise it won't power up. It's all complete except for one knob but damn, it sure is filthy. 

[Vince]

I do fancy one of those to add to my ever growing collection of 2000 series Tek scopes but.... I don't think this will be the one !
If it were free or like 10 Euros, and the seller was no more than 30 minutes drive from home... might take it for part, or just for fun to see if I can revive it. But other than that.... 

[Neomys Sapiens]

In the hope of initiating a retrograde moment towards my recent spate of mishaps and  failures, I snagged the comparatively rare and seemingly complete set of extraction tools for UNWIRED contacts of all MIL-C-38999 sub-series connectors. Of course, unwired includes those that were wired, but lost their wire to simian activity. (With the normal release tools, one is supposed to exert a slight pull on the wire connected to the contact, as the normal release tool does only displace the locking tines and does not grab the contact).

Looking through the documentation, a moment of shock overcame me, when I saw the abovementioned attribute of completeness under threat, as the competing company's set does have 6 tips instead of the 5 included. But no - Astro tools lists exactly those tips and tells the user to apply the black one to both size 22M and 22D contacts. With Daniels there is another, green tip. Interesting. But as the plastic tipped, non-interchangeable MS tools have it the same way than astro, it should work. 

[Vince]

Just like hp gear the VFD is known for going dim. It also is an SMS supply so no surprise it won't power up. It's all complete except for one knob but damn, it sure is filthy. 

It's not just filthy... zooming on the picture it's clear there is physical damage to the VFD area, it's pushed in among other things. I don't see how that can be fixed...

[Neomys Sapiens]

I do fancy one of those to add to my ever growing collection of 2000 series Tek scopes but.... I don't think this will be the one !
If it were free or like 10 Euros, and the seller was no more than 30 minutes drive from home... might take it for part, or just for fun to see if I can revive it. But other than that....

Yes, I feel the same whenever seeing a 2236. It is on the list, but i'll pass too.

[tautech]

Looking good 

Mines a shit show at the moment. Unpacking everything today finally and playing Tetris.

I’d forgotten in a flurry of “I’ll worry about that later” I chucked all my bags of parts loose into a plastic box and they’re all mixed up now 

BTW there’s about 700 bags 

My parts are only sorted by component type (capacitors, resistors, etc) and no accurate inventory so every time I need something I have to physically sort through them. Maybe some day I'll take the time to do an inventory. 

Bit of a pity that the only existing software solution for that involves PHP, because that's not allowed on my computers.

I might get arsed to try to make something about it, but I'll probably build a CLI or curses interface for it instead.

For that 3270 ERP feeling.

Could Defpom's free My Parts Bin be an option ?
https://www.mypartsbin.com/
https://youtu.be/WTgrQkFsXbo

[Cerebus]

Just like hp gear the VFD is known for going dim. It also is an SMS supply so no surprise it won't power up. It's all complete except for one knob but damn, it sure is filthy. 

It's not just filthy... zooming on the picture it's clear there is physical damage to the VFD area, it's pushed in among other things. I don't see how that can be fixed...

It's not just filthy...  It looks like it's been soaking in horse piss for a year or two. My bet is that anything capable of corroding on that has corroded.

[Specmaster]

Oooh, skanky :



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-TEKTRONIX-2236-OSCILLOSCOPE-N-wbr-OT-POWER-ON-/255071965685?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

"NOT POWER ON" - Really, you do surprise me. And they want $100 for it. I'd charge more to take it away.

I'd offer them a for it; but afraid they might accept. 

mnem
Cally-fone-ya...? No wey in 'ell...

If the $100 USD included shipping from California to NY I'd consider it. Just like hp gear the VFD is known for going dim. It also is an SMS supply so no surprise it won't power up. It's all complete except for one knob but damn, it sure is filthy. 

Yeah, it's filthy, but the plastic will clean up real nice, new knob for the trig level pot and a coat of your nice blue paint will sort the cosmetics out real nice, but that valuation is miles off target.

[factory]

An update on the hp 180A I acquired last month.

The same weekend as the start of my computer malfunctions, the 180A decided it also wanted to play dead after I cleaned the beam finder switch. 


Luckily it turned out to be a simple problem, the CRT socket was loose and must have only just been making contact to power the heaters when it first arrived, also found the hose clamp not tightened at all. 


Onto changing the two leaking/corroded 40uF 30V wet tantalum capacitors (Sprague 109D) C327 & C328 in the 1821A timebase. 
The best I could find in my stock were some NOS Philips 030 aluminium electrolytics rated at 47uF at 40V, every tantalum I had was too big to fit in the available space. The Peak ESR was used to check them & they tested better than the original parts.


After changing those I re-tested the 180A with the 1801A/1821A it came with and finally had a chance to test the 203A bread warmer from a few weeks ago. 
The 203A is functional, but the coupler for the variable capacitor is broken, I wedged it in a fixed position to try it. Also the tuning dial mechanism needs a complete strip-down to be re-lubricated.



When I went looking for another signal source, to carry on with fault finding on the 180A trigger problems, I noticed a set of 1801A/1824A I had completely forgotten I'd bought. I gave those a test and found that they trigger OK, but only channel B is working on the 1801A from that set.
Radio Wrangler on the UKVRR forum kindly sent me the missing plastic CRT bezel for the 180A. 


Today I had a little time to carry on with diagnosing the trigger problem with the 1801A/1821A set the 180A came with. I went through part of the adjustment procedure for the main & delayed sweep using the external inputs, TP204 & TP404 were both out of spec at 1.6V & -0.4V, they were adjusted to within 15mV of 0V using R238/R422. There was nothing wrong with trigger symmetry and I stopped at this point as the other adjustments are not trigger related. Strange how the tests in the manual only use the external trigger inputs.

OK that leaves two more possibilities for the internal trigger problem, the internal trigger amplifier in the 1821A, or a lack of a sync signal from the 1801A. At this point I decided to swap the 1821A timebase for the known working 1824A, that now also displayed the same lack of internal trigger. Next weekend I will have to go through the sync board on the 1801A.


David

[mansaxel]

Could Defpom's free My Parts Bin be an option ?
https://www.mypartsbin.com/
https://youtu.be/WTgrQkFsXbo

Code: [Select]

unzip -l MyPartsBinOpenSource_V100.zip | grep -q php && echo "contains filth"
contains filth


[mnementh]

Oooh, skanky :   

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-TEKTRONIX-2236-OSCILLOSCOPE-N-wbr-OT-POWER-ON-/255071965685?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

"NOT POWER ON" - Really, you do surprise me. And they want $100 for it. I'd charge more to take it away.

I'd offer them a for it; but afraid they might accept. 

mnem
Cally-fone-ya...? No wey in 'ell...

If the $100 USD included shipping from California to NY I'd consider it. Just like hp gear the VFD is known for going dim. It also is an SMS supply so no surprise it won't power up. It's all complete except for one knob but damn, it sure is filthy. 

Yeah, it's filthy, but the plastic will clean up real nice, new knob for the trig level pot and a coat of your nice blue paint will sort the cosmetics out real nice, but that valuation is miles off target.

Naah... I'm with C on this one. There's visible dings/divots in the membrane plastic over the bezel, and visible corrosion on all exposed metal. I expect when it comes apart, there'll be more powder and crumblies than actual oscilloscope left. Much as I do love me some 2xxx series Tek iron, that is a Dead Scope Walkin'...

mnem

[BU508A]

Could Defpom's free My Parts Bin be an option ?
https://www.mypartsbin.com/
https://youtu.be/WTgrQkFsXbo

Code: [Select]

unzip -l MyPartsBinOpenSource_V100.zip | grep -q php && echo "contains filth"
contains filth