Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

In other news...

The control board in my window A/C unit took a giant shit.  It keeps cycling between modes all by itself and beeping. And won't respond to any inputs. It's 10 years old and been driven hard so I guess I can't be surprised. And luckily this happen at the end of the cooling season. I'm tempted to try to figure out how to pull the control board but it probably won't be worth the effort. I guess it's headed for re-cycle and I'll purchase a new one come next Spring.   

I bet that is because of failing caps, go on open it up and take a squiz inside, it really could be that simple.

[mnementh]

In other news...

The control board in my window A/C unit took a giant shit.  It keeps cycling between modes all by itself and beeping. And won't respond to any inputs. It's 10 years old and been driven hard so I guess I can't be surprised. And luckily this happen at the end of the cooling season. I'm tempted to try to figure out how to pull the control board but it probably won't be worth the effort. I guess it's headed for re-cycle and I'll purchase a new one come next Spring.   

Might be just one stuck button - IMO worth a quick check.

Come to think of it, didn't Dave do a video on a similar problem he had? Let me go find the vid...



EDIT: Here

I had the same issues with some TEAC audio units so I have plenty of those micro tactile switches in my parts rack now.

   Aaaand now we've gone recursive...   

https://www.amazon.com/Momentary-Tactile-Button-Switch-Assortment/dp/B07LCBLB8N/

mnem
ehhh... still beats pulling copper for a living.

[mnementh]

This thread diversion is quite funny.

I buy stuff to play with it. Play is an essential part of life and the generation of culture.

Tautech has mastered the art of getting to play with stuff and make a living out of it. I salute him 

I buy old stuff simply because I cannot afford anything else. I seriously doubt there is anyone here who, if money was not a problem, would not prefer to have a beautiful array of nice shiny new gear as their goto equipment when repairing / building / forward engineering something. But even then, that new equipment would still contain far more sophisticated capabilities than most of us would ever need or even know how to use. Someone like Shahriar from The Signal Path would be more likely to make far better use of those capabilities, but he is in the minority. 

Many of us would be using all "The New Hawtness" gear to fix our "Old Bust-Ass Hoopty" gear.

mnem
and bd will be right there, shamelessly flipping it all for fun & profit.

[mnementh]

Homebrew:   

The rings or forks are standard stranded wire terminations that match by chance the outer diameter of these nice tubes that have 4mm inner diameter. Don't ask me where to buy these, I found them lingering around in a long time forgotten box at work. Might be extra long crimp ferrules for 10mm² wires?

Turns out these brass tubes are ferrules indeed. Found a label in said box that says "Kabelendhülsen" ("Aderendhülsen" would be the correct German word, IMO) from a swiss company called "Vogt AG, CH-4654 Lostorf", but no other information.

So are they electrical/crimp ferrules or plumbing/tubing ferrules...? 

NM... did a quick Gurrgle Translate: cable end sleeves .

mnem
 

[med6753]

In other news...

The control board in my window A/C unit took a giant shit.  It keeps cycling between modes all by itself and beeping. And won't respond to any inputs. It's 10 years old and been driven hard so I guess I can't be surprised. And luckily this happen at the end of the cooling season. I'm tempted to try to figure out how to pull the control board but it probably won't be worth the effort. I guess it's headed for re-cycle and I'll purchase a new one come next Spring.   

I bet that is because of failing caps, go on open it up and take a squiz inside, it really could be that simple.

Yep, could be. The biggest issue is figuring out how to get it apart without destroying it. It's NOT like the unit in Dave's video.

[BU508A]

Related to this.

Today arrival:



Teardown will follow.
Btw, packaging was good.

[mnementh]

Result, all companies have nonsensical names that all look and sound similar so when you hear a name you have no idea what the company is/does, and you can easily mistake one for another.

There are still positive examples. How about the Société Momentanée pour le Démantèlement des outils de la phase à chaud d'ArcelorMittal à Liège.

Ralf

Gurrgle Translate falls down on the job yet again: Temporary company for the dismantling of tools for the hot phase of ArcelorMittal in Liège

I'm guessing it means something along the lines of Industrial/Commercial Electricians Team/Group...? Or is it a maker of electricians' tools?

mnem
*tzzzzzt*

[mnementh]

In other news...

The control board in my window A/C unit took a giant shit.  It keeps cycling between modes all by itself and beeping. And won't respond to any inputs. It's 10 years old and been driven hard so I guess I can't be surprised. And luckily this happen at the end of the cooling season. I'm tempted to try to figure out how to pull the control board but it probably won't be worth the effort. I guess it's headed for re-cycle and I'll purchase a new one come next Spring.   

I bet that is because of failing caps, go on open it up and take a squiz inside, it really could be that simple.

Yep, could be. The biggest issue is figuring out how to get it apart without destroying it. It's NOT like the unit in Dave's video.

Yeah, another consumer gadget designed to be assembled with the fewest human hands possible, and if that means you can't get it apart to fix it then BONUS!!!: Built-in turnover!!!

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

In other news...

The control board in my window A/C unit took a giant shit.  It keeps cycling between modes all by itself and beeping. And won't respond to any inputs. It's 10 years old and been driven hard so I guess I can't be surprised. And luckily this happen at the end of the cooling season. I'm tempted to try to figure out how to pull the control board but it probably won't be worth the effort. I guess it's headed for re-cycle and I'll purchase a new one come next Spring.   

Might be just one stuck button - IMO worth a quick check.

Come to think of it, didn't Dave do a video on a similar problem he had? Let me go find the vid...



EDIT: Here

I had the same issues with some TEAC audio units so I have plenty of those micro tactile switches in my parts rack now.

   Aaaand now we've gone recursive...   

https://www.amazon.com/Momentary-Tactile-Button-Switch-Assortment/dp/B07LCBLB8N/

mnem
ehhh... still beats pulling copper for a living.

That will be the phase locked loop effect than. 

[Specmaster]

In other news...

The control board in my window A/C unit took a giant shit.  It keeps cycling between modes all by itself and beeping. And won't respond to any inputs. It's 10 years old and been driven hard so I guess I can't be surprised. And luckily this happen at the end of the cooling season. I'm tempted to try to figure out how to pull the control board but it probably won't be worth the effort. I guess it's headed for re-cycle and I'll purchase a new one come next Spring.   

I bet that is because of failing caps, go on open it up and take a squiz inside, it really could be that simple.

Yep, could be. The biggest issue is figuring out how to get it apart without destroying it. It's NOT like the unit in Dave's video.

Liberal use of many splodges I think should do the trick.

[bd139]

This thread diversion is quite funny.

I buy stuff to play with it. Play is an essential part of life and the generation of culture.

Tautech has mastered the art of getting to play with stuff and make a living out of it. I salute him 

I buy old stuff simply because I cannot afford anything else. I seriously doubt there is anyone here who, if money was not a problem, would not prefer to have a beautiful array of nice shiny new gear as their goto equipment when repairing / building / forward engineering something. But even then, that new equipment would still contain far more sophisticated capabilities than most of us would ever need or even know how to use. Someone like Shahriar from The Signal Path would be more likely to make far better use of those capabilities, but he is in the minority. 

Stealing tggzz's sig line on the forum, it's sometimes more fun to do stuff with less.

If I was a professional and doing forward engineering I wouldn't go balls deep on kit either. It's mostly not necessary. I've seen a fine example of this before. Engineer 1 goes on strike until his PO is approved for a £3k bit of gear. Engineer 2 works out how to cobble something together in a Hammond box to make a good enough measurement for now. I am engineer 2

Spot the test gear floating inside the Saturn V IU under test. We can do better than that with a junk scope these days.



Incidentally if I could manipulate space and time I'd be in that photo 

[capt bullshot]

Result, all companies have nonsensical names that all look and sound similar so when you hear a name you have no idea what the company is/does, and you can easily mistake one for another.

There are still positive examples. How about the Société Momentanée pour le Démantèlement des outils de la phase à chaud d'ArcelorMittal à Liège.

Ralf

Gurrgle Translate falls down on the job yet again: Temporary company for the dismantling of tools for the hot phase of ArcelorMittal in Liège

I'm guessing it means something along the lines of Industrial/Commercial Electricians Team/Group...? Or is it a maker of electricians' tools?

mnem
*tzzzzzt*

Even with almost all French long time forgotten that've I've learned at school, some googling tells me: "phase a chaud" is some kind of hot material industrial processing, "ArcelorMittal" is a company doing this, but closing down the business in Liege. And the "Société Momentanée pour le Démantèlement" is a temporary company to handle that (closing down the business).

In Germany, we use the term "Auffanggesellschaft" when a company is closed down, but the employees can't be dismissed immediately - so they are kept employed for some time at this "Auffanggesellschaft" (basically getting paid for nothing but looking for new jobs).

Said "Société Momentanée pour le Démantèlement" might be something like that, but also might be a company to handle the physical teardown ("Démantèlement" would point to this). Nothing uncommon to found a company for just dismantling another one that was shut down.

Edit: The pictures should give you some imagination of what "phase a chaud" is:

https://belgium.arcelormittal.com/fr/environnement-de-travail/departements-industriels/

[wolfy007]

Another save from ewaste bin.

[capt bullshot]

Another save from ewaste bin.

Pretty good score, if it's working or at least if the probe isn't damaged.

[wolfy007]

Havent tried it yet, might open it up this weekend to see what state it is in and then see how we go.

[med6753]

In other news...

The control board in my window A/C unit took a giant shit.  It keeps cycling between modes all by itself and beeping. And won't respond to any inputs. It's 10 years old and been driven hard so I guess I can't be surprised. And luckily this happen at the end of the cooling season. I'm tempted to try to figure out how to pull the control board but it probably won't be worth the effort. I guess it's headed for re-cycle and I'll purchase a new one come next Spring.   

I bet that is because of failing caps, go on open it up and take a squiz inside, it really could be that simple.

Yep, could be. The biggest issue is figuring out how to get it apart without destroying it. It's NOT like the unit in Dave's video.

Yeah, another consumer gadget designed to be assembled with the fewest human hands possible, and if that means you can't get it apart to fix it then BONUS!!!: Built-in turnover!!!

mnem
 

Well I looked it over and it appears the only way to gain access to the electronics board is to pull the entire cooling unit out of the cabinet. Under normal circumstances that would be no issue. But it's heavy, very heavy. I won't risk it and injure myself.

That consumer gadget as you call it lasted 10 years under a harsh environment of heat, cool, and excess moisture. An environment where you wouldn't last 5 minutes. It owes me nothing. It more than paid for itself. 

[Zucca]

R E D   A L A R M ! ! ! !



Spotted this puppy Tek DPO 7254 in a corner at work collecting dust, wih a label "do not use need service".
Asked around:  "Don't know, needs repair and Tek support do not reply anymore..."

Me: "When you will scrap it?"
reply: "will see"

May all the Ferengi be with me.

 

[capt bullshot]

Stealing tggzz's sig line on the forum, it's sometimes more fun to do stuff with less.

If I was a professional and doing forward engineering I wouldn't go balls deep on kit either. It's mostly not necessary. I've seen a fine example of this before. Engineer 1 goes on strike until his PO is approved for a £3k bit of gear. Engineer 2 works out how to cobble something together in a Hammond box to make a good enough measurement for now. I am engineer 2

At my first job (and later ones, too) I did a lot of "engineer 2" stuff. It's still in my DNA, though I have (own or have access to) a lot of TEA now. Often enough I see others (colleagues) struggle because they're "engineer 1" type, or just aren't able to figure out how to cobble something together. Otherwise, one gets the feeling, cobbling something together is not wanted here (@work) because it's "not professional enough".

[AVGresponding]

The mini-chainsaw and precision scales arrived today.

The chainsaw has much potential for injury in the hands of stupid people, I will have to supervise carefully when I take it in to work...

The scale was sold for parts/not working, but has a January 2021 UKAS cal sticker. As near as I can tell it is missing 3 things; a good clean, a PSU, and a tray. Aside from that it works fine, so just need to find/make a tray/pan, the weight of which is quite important as it needs a certain amount in order to zero properly.

These things are not cheap, new: https://www.camlab.co.uk/a-d-balance-gx-model

[Specmaster]

In other news...

The control board in my window A/C unit took a giant shit.  It keeps cycling between modes all by itself and beeping. And won't respond to any inputs. It's 10 years old and been driven hard so I guess I can't be surprised. And luckily this happen at the end of the cooling season. I'm tempted to try to figure out how to pull the control board but it probably won't be worth the effort. I guess it's headed for re-cycle and I'll purchase a new one come next Spring.   

I bet that is because of failing caps, go on open it up and take a squiz inside, it really could be that simple.

Yep, could be. The biggest issue is figuring out how to get it apart without destroying it. It's NOT like the unit in Dave's video.

Yeah, another consumer gadget designed to be assembled with the fewest human hands possible, and if that means you can't get it apart to fix it then BONUS!!!: Built-in turnover!!!

mnem
 

Well I looked it over and it appears the only way to gain access to the electronics board is to pull the entire cooling unit out of the cabinet. Under normal circumstances that would be no issue. But it's heavy, very heavy. I won't risk it and injure myself.

That consumer gadget as you call it lasted 10 years under a harsh environment of heat, cool, and excess moisture. An environment where you wouldn't last 5 minutes. It owes me nothing. It more than paid for itself. 

Given your recent troubles, I don't blame you for tossing it away and getting a new one installed, just don't try and do it yourself, or you may regret it.

[Robert763]

Now a TDS224, is what I'd also like, but they seem to be as rare as hens teeth here 

I know a lot of folks sort of sneer at these low level scopes with their very basic capabilities, but the truth is that they complement our very fine Fluke/Philips PM33xx scopes very nicely, we're not going to fire one of those up just to grab a check for a signal, but a TDS 2xx is fine for that kind of function as is my TTi SM630 (20Mhz).

I like the old TDS2xx / TDS20xx scopes, too.
There's a TDS220, a TDS2024 and a TPS2024 in my stash.
Basically, I like their "one button per function / channel" UI, and (except for the TPS2024) the absence of fan noise. I use them as daily drivers.
Back in the days, the TDS220 was "everything that the big fucking 7603 does plus storage" in a small and lightweight form factor, and it's controls were super easy to use if you were used to analog scopes.

Of course I know, a modern Siglent (or Tek, HPAK, R&S) runs circles around these, but most probably I won't buy a NIB one.

At work, I have access to a SDM3055 DMM - no, I don't like it at all - I'd never switch from the 34401A to such one.
The same goes for the Rigol MSO1104Z @work - I really dislike it's UI and I'd always prefer an old TDS over this.
Had no opportunity yet to play with a Siglent scope, but I like that Siglent SA more than the R&S CMU200 ...

Have yet to see a TDS220 with four channels, a 18GHz SA, Logic Analyser or curve tracer 

[capt bullshot]

Spotted this puppy Tek DPO 7254 in a corner at work collecting dust, wih a label "do not use need service".
Asked around:  "Don't know, needs repair and Tek support do not reply anymore..."

Me: "When you will scrap it?"
reply: "will see"

May the luck be with you!

Here (my department @work) such a thing would be sitting in the corner forever, because one cannot decide to scrap it, even if it's unserviceable. Maybe in some 10yrs you'd get a lucky moment. Other departments would have thrown it into the scrap box once it's finally written off, just be there at the right moment.

[capt bullshot]

Now a TDS224, is what I'd also like, but they seem to be as rare as hens teeth here 

I know a lot of folks sort of sneer at these low level scopes with their very basic capabilities, but the truth is that they complement our very fine Fluke/Philips PM33xx scopes very nicely, we're not going to fire one of those up just to grab a check for a signal, but a TDS 2xx is fine for that kind of function as is my TTi SM630 (20Mhz).

I like the old TDS2xx / TDS20xx scopes, too.
There's a TDS220, a TDS2024 and a TPS2024 in my stash.
Basically, I like their "one button per function / channel" UI, and (except for the TPS2024) the absence of fan noise. I use them as daily drivers.
Back in the days, the TDS220 was "everything that the big fucking 7603 does plus storage" in a small and lightweight form factor, and it's controls were super easy to use if you were used to analog scopes.

Have yet to see a TDS220 with four channels, a 18GHz SA, Logic Analyser or curve tracer 

Of course, not. But back then the only 7000 I've seen was the bog standard 7603 with the standard plugins (the military version w/o readout and 1ch vertical amplifiers).

But I've seen and used a TDS220 with four channels (it's just called TDS224).

[bd139]

Now a TDS224, is what I'd also like, but they seem to be as rare as hens teeth here 

I know a lot of folks sort of sneer at these low level scopes with their very basic capabilities, but the truth is that they complement our very fine Fluke/Philips PM33xx scopes very nicely, we're not going to fire one of those up just to grab a check for a signal, but a TDS 2xx is fine for that kind of function as is my TTi SM630 (20Mhz).

I like the old TDS2xx / TDS20xx scopes, too.
There's a TDS220, a TDS2024 and a TPS2024 in my stash.
Basically, I like their "one button per function / channel" UI, and (except for the TPS2024) the absence of fan noise. I use them as daily drivers.
Back in the days, the TDS220 was "everything that the big fucking 7603 does plus storage" in a small and lightweight form factor, and it's controls were super easy to use if you were used to analog scopes.

Of course I know, a modern Siglent (or Tek, HPAK, R&S) runs circles around these, but most probably I won't buy a NIB one.

At work, I have access to a SDM3055 DMM - no, I don't like it at all - I'd never switch from the 34401A to such one.
The same goes for the Rigol MSO1104Z @work - I really dislike it's UI and I'd always prefer an old TDS over this.
Had no opportunity yet to play with a Siglent scope, but I like that Siglent SA more than the R&S CMU200 ...

Have yet to see a TDS220 with four channels, a 18GHz SA, Logic Analyser or curve tracer 

TDS224 has 4 channels.

curve tracer (have to add 1x 33120A and a resistor)





LA + SA ... oh you got me there but I did a scalar network analyser with one:



 

This neatly rolls into my comment about "type 2 engineers" earlier.

Edit: oh and I haven't finished building the SA yet that will work with digital scopes. Have built the 2nd LO and 2nd IF chain. Having trouble finding a decent VCO design for first LO.

[capt bullshot]

LA + SA ... oh you got me there but I did a scalar network analyser with one:



 

This neatly rolls into my comment about "type 2 engineers" earlier.

A swept function generator and a scope (triggered by sweep start) was the usual way to take frequency response plots. Engineer 2 knows how to do that. Once I did this here (@work), others were just baffled ...