Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Trymon]

Good morning, day, evening my fellow test gear addicted.
I think I'm not that addicted than a lot of you but feel the urge to purchase more test gear. So there is already a addiction and the times between each shot become shorter.

It all began with this nice device.


Ok have to admit this can't really be seen as serious test gear. Especially if you consider the price compared with features and precision. So never mind, just keep it somewhere hidden in the basement. Still a lot of shops in Germany offer you this device together with a ISO17025 calibration. A certificate that will you cost more than the device itself.

Let's purchase something more precise and more serious. Guess I have to "blame" Dave vor this purchase ans he was there very influential.


Very trusty Brymen 869s. Was with me while building a phone preamp and learning/understanding electronics. But for such projects a DMM needs a team mate. Especially if you plan to recap a Amp and would like to know how good or bad the old caps are.
So we have here:


A nice DER EE DE-5000. For the price point a surprising good LCR meter.

But this is all child's play. I had the urge to have more digits, more precision. More everything.
So I had to welcome this Siglent SDM 3065X at home.


There I went full insane. Not just purchasing the  top of the line Siglent DMM but also investing into a ISO17025 calibration right after purchase. Not trusting the Siglent cal certificate I had to have a tracible calibration. Well the Lab showed me, everything perfectly fine and well in spec. But this device felt very lonely and needed a friend. Maybe a friend with some experience it can compete against.
So this fella joined it just recently and the best thing about this purchase. Customs didn't show interest in it and so I didn't have to pay anything additional. Expected this as I purchased in in Japan. Unfortunately eBay Germany isn't a good source for this kind of equipment. The prices are way higher than in US or Japan. Even with shipping and customs they are often cheaper than a device purchased from somebody in Germany.


Build in 1998 it has already 23 years of experience and after a brief cleanup it also looked nice. Luckily the looks didn't compromise the readings. But unfortunately Siglent and HP just can't agree on each other. There always has to be a one or two count difference between this two devices. But somehow I trust more the experienced HP than the young Siglent. Just because the Siglent is a little bit more jumpy in the least significant digit while the HP decides on one reading and then sticks to it.
But I think, just to complete my insanity, I will send the 34401A also to the calibration lab so it will get some nice paperwork. Would be a shame to have a calibrated Siglent DMM but then saving money and not grant also the HP this honor.
Yes I'm perfectly aware of the fact, that I don't need tracible lab equipment. I don't earn my money with this and no business would be in trouble if my readings are slightly off. But still I like such details.

Well there is another device and without such a device a growing lab wouldn't be a lab.


Guess would be a tough task to find a Lab without such a Rigol 1054Z in it.

And last, even if it was one of the first devices I purchased, a small lab power supply.


Nothing special but it delivers enough power for my current usecases. But there is the urge to have something nicer. Maybe even with sense lines.
There is a lot missing to really call it a lab but with the addiction growing I'm quite sure there will be more money spent in near future and more devices delivered. But before this happens for gear, I need to build a a nice lab in the basement. Currently there is no dedicated space but I need some.

Could somebody help me with this addiction? With all the ideas floating around in my head I see me falling into a rabbit hole that costs more and more money.

[tautech]

Not trusting the Siglent cal certificate I had to have a tracible calibration. Well the Lab showed me, everything perfectly fine and well in spec.

As expected, have you not read this:
https://www.siglenteu.com/service-and-support/calibration-certificate/

Welcome to the nuthouse.

[McBryce]

Ah, analog oscilloscopes aren't limited to just the usual wiggly traces, scope music, and clock faces.

https://github.com/schlae/scopetrex

oh. I still have the complete parts set, but never gotten around to throwing it together.
Fortunately I also have an original Vectrex, so no copyright infringement there ...
Eeeet eeees a fun console.
Had to repair the joystick, which works great now.

Hmm. Scopetrex and 212 should work. Unfortunately I only have a 211 ... (and a Hameg, thanks to Captn Bullshot).

If it's a "probably never going to be built" project, I'll take the kit from you, it's on my "want to build one" list.

McBryce.

[med6753]

Well Trymon, you are off to a great start.  We will encourage your addiction in any way we can. If you're looking for a cure you have come to the wrong place. Rabbit holes abound here and it seems you are starting to dabble into a few of them. Keep up the good work. 

My primary addiction is analog Tek scopes. I currently have 19 of them ranging from mini 212 to 2465 to boatanchor Type 547. Oh yes, one of them is a first generation DSO.....a CRT 2430. But I do wander into volt-nut and currently have approx 12 assorted DMM's. Mostly Fluke but my bench standard is an hp 3456A and also have a Siglent SDM 3055. Like you I was suspicious of the factory cal and just a few weeks ago I sent it to a cal lab. The cal lab stated that it was within spec on all parameters and nothing needed to be changed. And that's after 3 years of ownership. I was pleased with that.

Oh yes, we must have frequency counters too. I have at least 6. Included in that are two vintage nixie hp's. 

Bringing up the rear. A Siglent SDS1052DL DSO and assorted power supplies.

Gee, at least 14 various Tek plug-in's for all those scopes.

Give me time, I'm sure I forgot something.     

[Andrew_Debbie]

Ok then 

My father sold his V-12 E-type and bought a used Gremlin because he needed a reliable car.

He could afford the Jaguar but not being late.     During the Gremlin era he would get notes that he'd was parked in a Doctors only lot.   


As for ugly, I see your Pacer and raise you  a Multipla.

[med6753]

As for ugly, I see your Pacer and raise you  a Multipla.

Are there ANY Fiats that aren't fugly? 

[Trymon]

...

Oh yes, we must have frequency counters too. I have at least 6. Included in that are two vintage nixie hp's. 

...

Give me time, I'm sure I forgot something.     

You are absolutely right. At least one frequency counter is missing. But you can't mentioning a frequency counter without also mentioning a signal generator. The rabbit hole is way to big and doesn't matter in which direction I turn, I'm falling.
Regarding the cal lab, it has also a nice benefit. You get a lot of paperwork with a lot of data to look at. Think for the Siglent it were 10 pages of information.

[Trymon]

As for ugly, I see your Pacer and raise you  a Multipla.

Are there ANY Fiats that aren't fugly? 

Yes there are some indeed.
I had once a Alfa 147 and it was a beautiful car but it had also to be repaired constantly.
You might now say it was a Alfa and not a Fiat. Well according to the official paperwork I had a Fiat 937.

[med6753]

...

Oh yes, we must have frequency counters too. I have at least 6. Included in that are two vintage nixie hp's. 

...

Give me time, I'm sure I forgot something.     

You are absolutely right. At least one frequency counter is missing. But you can't mentioning a frequency counter without also mentioning a signal generator. The rabbit hole is way to big and doesn't matter in which direction I turn, I'm falling.
Regarding the cal lab, it has also a nice benefit. You get a lot of paperwork with a lot of data to look at. Think for the Siglent it were 10 pages of information.

See, I did forget some things. Tek Type 106, 114, and 191 generators. Plus a Heath RF generator. And there's more assorted stuff.

Yes, I got 8 pages of data from the cal lab for the Siglent SDM 3055. 

[med6753]

As for ugly, I see your Pacer and raise you  a Multipla.

Are there ANY Fiats that aren't fugly? 

Yes there are some indeed.
I had once a Alfa 147 and it was a beautiful car but it had also to be repaired constantly.
You might now say it was a Alfa and not a Fiat. Well according to the official paperwork I had a Fiat 937.

Well, you know what "Fiat" means? Fix It Again Tony. 

[Trymon]

Well, you know what "Fiat" means? Fix It Again Tony. 

Well in German it would be Fehler in allen Teilen or faults in all parts.

[Saskia]

there is an easy fix. 50 grams should do nicely.

[Neper]

Für Italiener Ausreichende Technik - technology sufficient for Italians

[Saskia]

Ah, analog oscilloscopes aren't limited to just the usual wiggly traces, scope music, and clock faces.

https://github.com/schlae/scopetrex

oh. I still have the complete parts set, but never gotten around to throwing it together.
Fortunately I also have an original Vectrex, so no copyright infringement there ...
Eeeet eeees a fun console.
Had to repair the joystick, which works great now.

Hmm. Scopetrex and 212 should work. Unfortunately I only have a 211 ... (and a Hameg, thanks to Captn Bullshot).

If it's a "probably never going to be built" project, I'll take the kit from you, it's on my "want to build one" list.

McBryce.

I do have a 2nd PCB set. I'll dig for it. The other one is a complete kit.

[McBryce]

Ah, analog oscilloscopes aren't limited to just the usual wiggly traces, scope music, and clock faces.

https://github.com/schlae/scopetrex

oh. I still have the complete parts set, but never gotten around to throwing it together.
Fortunately I also have an original Vectrex, so no copyright infringement there ...
Eeeet eeees a fun console.
Had to repair the joystick, which works great now.

Hmm. Scopetrex and 212 should work. Unfortunately I only have a 211 ... (and a Hameg, thanks to Captn Bullshot).

If it's a "probably never going to be built" project, I'll take the kit from you, it's on my "want to build one" list.

McBryce.

I do have a 2nd PCB set. I'll dig for it. The other one is a complete kit.

That would be excellent. I don't mind which one I get, I probably have most of the components lying about somewhere already.

McBryce.

[Andrew_Debbie]

Are there ANY Fiats that aren't fugly? 

Three or four and I've owned two of them.   



 I had a '74 and  a '76  124 Spyder for many years.    Not a reliable car for all sorts of reasons.   I would never buy another one, ever.

I also had an '86  X 1/9 TBH a pretty solid little car.   The only real issues were around grounding.     I added a few extra ground straps.     Well that and it just is not an easy car to work on but what compact mid-engine car is?  All of the scars and marks on my Beckman 310 are from the X 1/9.    I kept mine for about 12 years and don't regret it at all.



 In my opinion the current Mazda built 124 Spyder is the second best looking car to ever wear a Fiat badge.   







 
And there is of course, the Fiat  135 Dino.  I was never foolish enough to buy one but they are nice to look at.

[ch_scr]

Any opinions on UK-made (?) "Willow Technologies" MF-25T resistors? I might have gotten a few open boxes cheap...

[AVGresponding]

As for ugly, I see your Pacer and raise you  a Multipla.

Are there ANY Fiats that aren't fugly? 

EDITED to fix the stupid broken img links. I saw it wasn't working when I posted it, but I was at work and on my mobile and fixing it on that would have been a massive PITA.

[mnementh]

On the repair front, I opened up my recently acquired HP 334A Distortion Analyzer.

Looks like it's due for a full recap... Some of the Vishay Sprague 30D caps are well on their way to turning themselves inside-out... 
I think I might just replace them with radial United Chemicons, the 30D's aren't anything particularly special, just a general purpose cap, and for the amount of caps I need for this unit, I'd be spending over $150 on 30D caps alone... Even low ESR KY(x) series United Chemicons are almost an order of magnitude cheaper and the technology is much newer too...

While I'm at it, I might replace all the nasty drifty and noisy carbon composite resistors with equivalent 50/100ppm 1% metal film types as I can get them cheap in Akihabara.

Besides that, it looks almost as clean inside as the day it was made.

For the two big boys you may have trouble with height if you go with a radial replacement. But I'll bet if you upgraded to 3300uf axial rather than trying to go for that oddball 2600uf you could get them relatively cheap.

It looks like some of the others are 50uf. Run with 47uf, much cheaper.

Yeah, I think I might just do what I did with my 5065A, I extended one leg of a radial cap with some tinned copper wire, then bent it up to run to the top of the capacitor then heat shrunk the lot with clear heat shrink.
That way I effectively have an axial capacitor, it's a modern cap with modern technology, and the heat shrink keeps it all insulated and contained, but being clear I can still see the markings.

From experience trying to tame noise in all my little whirry flying things, which are a conglomeration of half a dozen or more microprocessors, multiple RF transmitters in the 2.4GHz/5.8GHz range, and 4 HF high-current 3-ph H-gate motor controllers/motors all in a package the size of a dinner plate...

When making a axial cap out of a radial, it is best to use heavier wire on the extension than that of the capacitor leg, and keep the leg length as short as possible. Also, usually best to extend the (-) rather than positive, especially if you can route it close to something at "GND" potential to minimize common-mode noise.

Modern caps and much of modern circuit design rely on the magic of ~2mm lead length going through a PCB to allow small diameter leads to act as if they were much larger than they are. When you go adding 20-40mm to one lead, size matters. My rule of thumb is to use wire at least 3x the diameter as the lead it is attaching to.

Now as to whether this is legitimate enginerdery or audiophoolery... I probably cannot prove adequately to the standards of this circle of peers. 

But this is what I consider "best practices" and at least on my little quadcopters, I've proven to myself with before & after testing that, at least IMO, it makes enough difference in measurable noise/ripple to be more than confirmation bias. As does the practice of using multiple smaller value caps as opposed to a single larger one with individual ESCs.

mnem
As always; take my advice with a grain of salt big enough to pickle a dragon. YMMV, DQMOT, IANAL, DILLIGAF...?

[mnementh]

Makes me wonder what the cal cost on top of that, for units that got it...

mnem
 

Leatherneck time. They make it themselves. As far as I can tell. Now, with the Corps as with any other US branch of directed violence, one never knows when The Contractor shows up and eats huge amounts of tax money.

I bet you a dollar that there's somebody whose job it is to keep track of that leatherneck's time, and the cost of his upkeep & training, such that he can tell you (well, he's not going to tell you, but he will prepare a report requiring a week's man-hours and present it to some Congressman's aid) to within a dollar or two exactly how much the (*pulls a random number out of his arse for example*) 41 minutes of that leatherneck's time spent cal-ing and documenting that meter cost the American taxpayer. And probably at least one more fellow just like him cross-checking his work.

Yet interestingly, they are completely unable to account for trillions thrown down "shadow budget" black holes under Homeland Security and the Patriot Act in the name of "National Security"... 

*sigh*

mnem
Financial Transparency is only for us poor working slobs.

[mnementh]

As for ugly, I see your Pacer and raise you  a Multipla.

Are there ANY Fiats that aren't fugly? 

https://images.app.goo.gl/gBR8XnUWentsndgn6

https://images.app.goo.gl/EGVTJsXQjFNgbDXe8

https://images.app.goo.gl/CD2bXm3sL1Sh7oQ28

SMF doesn't process images if it doesn't see a file extension. Simplest solution (at least for me) is to wrap those types of redirect URLs with italics and color them blue so SMF doesn't try to think aboot them and fuck the link up.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Good morning, day, evening my fellow test gear addicted.
I think I'm not that addicted than a lot of you but feel the urge to purchase more test gear. So there is already a addiction and the times between each shot become shorter.

It all began with this nice device...
(SNIP)
Could somebody help me with this addiction? With all the ideas floating around in my head I see me falling into a rabbit hole that costs more and more money.

Welcome to the nuthouse, Trymon.  The neverending taco truck in the corner is having a BOGO sale on sausage-egg-cheese breakfast tacos; they're great with a little garlic & herb boursin spread. bean's been perfecting his collection of holes, so new LASER-cut preversions should soon abound; Papa Smurf is on round 4 with his 212, so that's a match worth watching. bd139 is back at work, so I'm afraid things might be a little slow.      If you see Saskia shuffling papers and stuffing envelopes, look away. When she gets annoyed with paperwork, the pen really is more dangerous than the sword.  The crusty old Aardvark in the corner is mostly harmless, unless you see him with a Command Line open.

Oh, and the pervy little dragon fancier schtick is my character flaw; get your own!

mnem

[ch_scr]

I'd hazard a guess this gentleman qualifies; it's mostly mechanical so someone better hide Bean's wallet....

[mnementh]

Yeah, IIRC, I saw a video this fellow made aboot designing and building an air-bearing lathe. Freaky accurate stuff he deals with, where ambient temp changes well within the usual 10-ish degrees of "normal operating conditions" for human beings make a material difference in the product.

mnem
*happy with the accuracy of his 3DP for most projects*

[tonyalbus]

Good morning, day, evening my fellow test gear addicted.
I think I'm not that addicted than a lot of you but feel the urge to purchase more test gear. So there is already a addiction and the times between each shot become shorter.

It all began with this nice device.


Ok have to admit this can't really be seen as serious test gear. Especially if you consider the price compared with features and precision. So never mind, just keep it somewhere hidden in the basement. Still a lot of shops in Germany offer you this device together with a ISO17025 calibration. A certificate that will you cost more than the device itself.

Let's purchase something more precise and more serious. Guess I have to "blame" Dave vor this purchase ans he was there very influential.


Very trusty Brymen 869s. Was with me while building a phone preamp and learning/understanding electronics. But for such projects a DMM needs a team mate. Especially if you plan to recap a Amp and would like to know how good or bad the old caps are.
So we have here:


A nice DER EE DE-5000. For the price point a surprising good LCR meter.

But this is all child's play. I had the urge to have more digits, more precision. More everything.
So I had to welcome this Siglent SDM 3065X at home.


There I went full insane. Not just purchasing the  top of the line Siglent DMM but also investing into a ISO17025 calibration right after purchase. Not trusting the Siglent cal certificate I had to have a tracible calibration. Well the Lab showed me, everything perfectly fine and well in spec. But this device felt very lonely and needed a friend. Maybe a friend with some experience it can compete against.
So this fella joined it just recently and the best thing about this purchase. Customs didn't show interest in it and so I didn't have to pay anything additional. Expected this as I purchased in in Japan. Unfortunately eBay Germany isn't a good source for this kind of equipment. The prices are way higher than in US or Japan. Even with shipping and customs they are often cheaper than a device purchased from somebody in Germany.


Build in 1998 it has already 23 years of experience and after a brief cleanup it also looked nice. Luckily the looks didn't compromise the readings. But unfortunately Siglent and HP just can't agree on each other. There always has to be a one or two count difference between this two devices. But somehow I trust more the experienced HP than the young Siglent. Just because the Siglent is a little bit more jumpy in the least significant digit while the HP decides on one reading and then sticks to it.
But I think, just to complete my insanity, I will send the 34401A also to the calibration lab so it will get some nice paperwork. Would be a shame to have a calibrated Siglent DMM but then saving money and not grant also the HP this honor.
Yes I'm perfectly aware of the fact, that I don't need tracible lab equipment. I don't earn my money with this and no business would be in trouble if my readings are slightly off. But still I like such details.

Well there is another device and without such a device a growing lab wouldn't be a lab.


Guess would be a tough task to find a Lab without such a Rigol 1054Z in it.

And last, even if it was one of the first devices I purchased, a small lab power supply.


Nothing special but it delivers enough power for my current usecases. But there is the urge to have something nicer. Maybe even with sense lines.
There is a lot missing to really call it a lab but with the addiction growing I'm quite sure there will be more money spent in near future and more devices delivered. But before this happens for gear, I need to build a a nice lab in the basement. Currently there is no dedicated space but I need some.

Could somebody help me with this addiction? With all the ideas floating around in my head I see me falling into a rabbit hole that costs more and more money.

Great start, welcome!