Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

O-o-okayyyy...

Well, if Robert gets them mixed up too, I guess a mere mortal tinkerdwagon like me stands no chance of getting it right first time.   

The thread I linked to above makes mention of using a skinned TM501  single-bay mainframe as a standalone troubleshooting platform; is there anything similar for these...?

mnem
 

[factory]

Sorry I got it wrong too.
Thanks to Factory for the spot and data sheet.
To be clear it's the amphenol 26-15-16S or P on TeK 500 scopes. The 26-4100 is used on some HP kit. I should have known better

Good thing he was able to cancel the order in time  , easy mistake to make, had to correct someone last month on the other forum, who said the exact same thing about the barrier type.

David

[AVGresponding]

The broken-ass inline image system on this forum pisses me off even more than IDC connectors. I resent having to spend so much extra time editing after I've made a post in order to get the pictures where and how I want them.   

[0culus]

On the subject of tools, I've been building out my off roading toolkit that I keep in the back of my truck. Got a nice Black Friday deal on the 1/2" drive mid torque impact on the right, to go with my existing 3/8" drive compact impact on the left. This should bust any nut I need to.  I gotta say the new design Milwaukee fuel impacts are super nice, and along with a scissor jack modified with a 1/2" drive socket to spin it, they make short work of the job when you stop to help someone change a shredded tire on a forest road. 

The belt hook on the handle, is it (both specific to this machine and in general) movable to the other side for my left-handed operation needs? 

I'm more of a pressurised air type when it comes to impacts but knowing the alternatives is always good.

Also, I'm a Bosch/AEG/Makita person around battery drills/drivers, but brands being layers of paint on generic constructions way too often these days, I'm probably fooling myself..
[snip]

Indeed, it is designed to be ambidextrous. You can move the clip to the other side with just a screwdriver.

Really, as long as you stay away from the cheap big box home store brands like Ryobi, they are all pretty good. Milwaukee is really nice stuff, and their battery technology probably has an edge over everyone else. and that is probably the most important part. I purposely bought a two pack of the high output batteries for these. Expensive, but worth it for run time. The mid torque is really a sweet spot in the lineup too...it has enough power to bust semi truck (lorry for you folks on the other side of the pond  ) lug nuts. A friend of mine has the high torque model too and it is totally overkill for most applications...he's broken wheel studs with it.

I like air tools as well, but these are meant to go with me on offroading trips. Easier to carry than a big air compressor when you need to do a trail fix. And my 4Runner has a built in inverter so I can charge batteries while I drive if need be.

Similar here.  Ryobi is known across the GWN as cheap, but suitable for single small project as a disposable tool.  I agree Milwaukee is very good, but I find the tools are heavy (which means strong).  Again, Bosch is very good, especially their drill bits, but a bit heavy and on the expensive side.  RIGID are rather impressive in performance with a leading warranty, but again a bit heavy and quite expensive.  I have been giving good reviews on Makita as being not quite so heavy while still being almost as good as the heavier tools, but at a much better price point.  However, I have proved to myself that Makita bought at a tool store is not the same as Makita bought as a big box store.  I have two of the same Makita tool, except the Rona/Lowes version has plastic gears and the other from the professional shop has metal gears.

I like air tools, but it becomes a PITA working away from the garage.  For high-power tools away from the garage, I still prefer corded tools, even if it means dragging an extension cord or using a generator.  Generally, if I have a corded tool, I do not spend additional funds on an air tool version.  For most outdoor work or quick jobs, battery tools are so much more convenient.

Basically, you get what you pay for like anything else. Air is king if you are in the shop, but if you need to go portable....modern battery tools are super good now.  I have a couple of older Makita tools (a drill and 1/4" hex impact) that don't have brushless motors. They are ok, but brushless is a massive improvement.

Not always, airlines on the floor are a hazard and with heavy gear always at risk of getting damaged and you can't have overhead drop lines everywhere that's needed.
The better grades of battery tools are taking over especially rattle guns. Trip into any tire shop these days and it's very rare to see an air rattle gun in use.

Yes, but it depends on how big of equipment you're working on.  Battery tools aren't yet replacing 1" and 1.5" drive pneumatic impacts for the REALLY big stuff. I've seen even bigger impact wrenches that require two men to operate.  Those are for people who work on bulldozers. 

[tautech]

Old school torque multipliers can negate the need for huge gear. 

[Zucca]

R E D   A L A R M ! ! ! !



May all the Ferengi be with me.

 

I see now that scope on the top of pile trash... We are pretty soon to the black magic moment....

Those bastards...

Not too easy. They have implemented a four eyes principle where the stuff will be collected and disposed by an external company.
Not sure what to do. I will try to contact that company afterwards.

I can't risk to be fired because I wanted to save a scope.

Only you TEA brothers can understand me, this is such a sad story.

mnem can I use it?

[xrunner]

The broken-ass inline image system on this forum pisses me off even more than IDC connectors. I resent having to spend so much extra time editing after I've made a post in order to get the pictures where and how I want them.   

I complained a few months ago about the mod not working right in another section. I basically got my arse chewed out just for the mere suggestion that Dave get a knowledgeable SMF person from the forum to fix it. Yes there are people here that know how because they are experts. But the mere indication of someone's DMM being off by a millivolt will get you 10 pages of engineers telling them they need to dive right in and correct it. Sometimes this place mystifies me. 

[tautech]

The broken-ass inline image system on this forum pisses me off even more than IDC connectors. I resent having to spend so much extra time editing after I've made a post in order to get the pictures where and how I want them.   

I complained a few months ago about the mod not working right in another section. I basically got my arse chewed out just for the mere suggestion that Dave get a knowledgeable SMF person from the forum to fix it. Yes there are people here that know how because they are experts. But the mere indication of someone's DMM being off by a millivolt will get you 10 pages of engineers telling them they need to dive right in and correct it. Sometimes this place mystifies me. 

The inline image capability was added in as a patch to SMF and worked well for a while until another SMF patch fucked it over well and proper and also kindly gave us the first attachment clusterfuck which to this day I avoid use of and use 2nd and followings.
Bean has offered to get onboard as he has quite some SMF experience but of course Dave is rightly resistant to hand over forum maintenance to anyone but his most trusted inner circle of contacts.

So until a patch properly fixes the imagery mess we just keep doing it the old way transferring image URL's into IMG flags. 
Still, it's simple enough once you've done it a few times.....upload thumbnails and have a IMG flag in the post then Edit and copy/paste IMG to anywhere you need an image then drop the URL's one by one between each of the flags. Edit and maybe with a duplicate tab works very well to get posts sorted.

[mansaxel]

I like air tools, but it becomes a PITA working away from the garage.  For high-power tools away from the garage, I still prefer corded tools, even if it means dragging an extension cord or using a generator.  Generally, if I have a corded tool, I do not spend additional funds on an air tool version.  For most outdoor work or quick jobs, battery tools are so much more convenient.

I have always thought so, but a small, cheap (because used and quite old) Atlas Copco air pistol drill has made me a convert. It's fast, light, small and nimble. Perfect for those small holes (up to say 8mm but best around 4 and below, in sheet metal or wood) that benefit from lots of rpms. Drilling out pop rivets is a particularly satisfying experience.

I agree on the cord not being a major issue for me. Most power tools I use have one, either a hose or a cable.

[mansaxel]

The broken-ass inline image system on this forum pisses me off even more than IDC connectors. I resent having to spend so much extra time editing after I've made a post in order to get the pictures where and how I want them.   

I've given up. If the image is available online (using https) I'll link to it, other than that it's end-attachment, period.  And skipping the first upload slot. Load of crap, that is.

I really oughta get my act together and put a https server online.

I know that it is contextually and coherence-ly beneficial to upload the images, but when shit's so broken, who can be arsed?

[Specmaster]

The broken-ass inline image system on this forum pisses me off even more than IDC connectors. I resent having to spend so much extra time editing after I've made a post in order to get the pictures where and how I want them.   

I complained a few months ago about the mod not working right in another section. I basically got my arse chewed out just for the mere suggestion that Dave get a knowledgeable SMF person from the forum to fix it. Yes there are people here that know how because they are experts. But the mere indication of someone's DMM being off by a millivolt will get you 10 pages of engineers telling them they need to dive right in and correct it. Sometimes this place mystifies me. 

The inline image capability was added in as a patch to SMF and worked well for a while until another SMF patch fucked it over well and proper and also kindly gave us the first attachment clusterfuck which to this day I avoid use of and use 2nd and followings.
Bean has offered to get onboard as he has quite some SMF experience but of course Dave is rightly resistant to hand over forum maintenance to anyone but his most trusted inner circle of contacts.

So until a patch properly fixes the imagery mess we just keep doing it the old way transferring image URL's into IMG flags. 
Still, it's simple enough once you've done it a few times.....upload thumbnails and have a IMG flag in the post then Edit and copy/paste IMG to anywhere you need an image then drop the URL's one by one between each of the flags. Edit and maybe with a duplicate tab works very well to get posts sorted.

While I can understand Dave's reluctance to allow just anyone to interact with the forum, but at the same time, maybe neither Dave or the team are fully aware of the fact this is still causing issues in the way people use the forum. Or may under the impression that because they don't get that many reports that is broken, they think everyone is happy with the situation and working around the issue.

We really do need it to be fixed properly, after all there is a reason why magazines etc use such a format, it greatly helps the reader to grasp what the writer is on about, if the illustration / photo is right there with the text so that you can read and refer to the illustration at the same time without having scroll down and then back up, and losing you place in the text in the process.

Maybe it might best if the request / report came from a long term user of the forum and one who is respected by the admin team, is it possible that that person might be the OP of the thread, Bitseeker himself?

[AVGresponding]

[vk6zgo]

Last of the items from the auction for tonight, hp 745A & home-made amplifier that uses bits from the 746A tomorrow.

hp 181A 181T oscilloscope (actually spectrum analyzer frame) with 1801A four channel input & 1825A delaying timebase plug-ins (no tunnel diodes in these), all rear feet present for a change.



This was sold as a 181A, the 181T is probably more useful if I end up with some SA plug-ins (didn't win the spares lot with some in).


David

We used to travel all over Western Australia with these as part of our kit-------always with the SA plugin.
It never was the "arm stretcher" that the 141 was!

I remember one with normal "CRO" plugins, but that was a "Depot queen", & never left.
It wasn't used much for general purpose "scoping", either -------pro Tektronix bias?

Dunno!

[med6753]

I remember one with normal "CRO" plugins, but that was a "Depot queen", & never left.
It wasn't used much for general purpose "scoping", either -------pro Tektronix bias?

Dunno!

There was definitely a pro Tek bias at IBM. Our test area initially had hp 180's and I thought they were a good scope. I never had any issues but many of the techs hated them and thought they were junk. Could never figure out why but it was a moot point because they were eventually replaced with 475/DM44's.

[vk6zgo]

Had a Hazet 1/2" drive socket set for nigh on 40 years until it got badly annealed in a workshop fire. 
Bloody good stuff !

Stahlwille rings are good stuff too and open enders nice and slim but a little weak for heavy stuff.
Look at Dowidat too.....beautifully fine rings for tight spaces.

I'm not sure I agree with the need for power driven stuff for things like wheel nuts, though.

I've almost always found that my relatively puny "upper body strength" is enough, aided sometimes by a length of galvanised water pipe to obtain more leverage.

On the odd occasion that it wasn't, the Spaghetti Monster has endowed me (& most everybody else) with a pair of considerably stronger appendages which can be used to supply more force.

This, of course, may be one of the reasons I now have a "pretend" left knee!

[srb1954]

I can probably get it a bit more accurate by prodding and poking at the stupid IDC connectors until I get the results I want, but honestly I think I'd rather replace them with something a bit more reliable.
I don't understand why they'd use high quality multiturn pots, then connect them using the shittiest IDC they could find.

The problem might not be with the IDC connectors themselves but the manufacturer using the incorrect wire gauge for the specific IDC connector. To me the wire slots in the unused connector positions look relatively large compared to the small size of the wire used. IDC connectors only cater for a small range of wire gauges and if the wire used is too small there won't be sufficient pressure in the wire slots to maintain a good gas-tight connection over time.

Check if there is a colour stripe on the side of the connector body: that would indicate the required wire gauge for that model of connector.  A plain white connector body usually indicates 24AWG sized contacts but the ribbon cable is probably only 26AWG or 28AWG. 

[NCG]

I used to think, that it was bad with boat anchors... Yea right. It appears, that there is a urgent personal need for NASA optical table now. Resisting... yet. 

[tautech]

Had a Hazet 1/2" drive socket set for nigh on 40 years until it got badly annealed in a workshop fire. 
Bloody good stuff !

Stahlwille rings are good stuff too and open enders nice and slim but a little weak for heavy stuff.
Look at Dowidat too.....beautifully fine rings for tight spaces.

I'm not sure I agree with the need for power driven stuff for things like wheel nuts, though.

I've almost always found that my relatively puny "upper body strength" is enough, aided sometimes by a length of galvanised water pipe to obtain more leverage.

On the odd occasion that it wasn't, the Spaghetti Monster has endowed me (& most everybody else) with a pair of considerably stronger appendages which can be used to supply more force.

This, of course, may be one of the reasons I now have a "pretend" left knee!

Well remember having this argument with my now dear departed pop not long after we got our first truck, a 8 stud 900/20 wheeled TK Bedford. We'd just done some tire work on it and he'd tightened the 1 5/16" wheel nuts with just a 18" 3/4" drive ratchet which he insisted would be quite tight enough rather than use bodily weight on an additional 3 ft length of heavy waterpipe.
Having done nearly a year in a logging workshop bouncing on 6 ft lengths of pipe on wheel nuts I let him have his say and do it his way due to the discussion becoming heated and left next day for a day in the truck well knowing wheel nuts would need tightening again at close of day.
Pop, can you check those wheel nuts I asked come the end of the day and buggered off and left him to it. 
Needless to say when I checked the extender pipe for the ratchet was not exactly where I'd left it previously. 

The subject never was given air again. 
Still, nearly 30 years on I still miss the old bugger. 

[vk6zgo]

Also: eBay auction: #223811718800

https://groups.io/g/TekScopes/topic/extender_for_servicing_tm500/7656330

Alternatively, if you're willing to spend some time wiring it yourself (cutting the harness down to shorter length then resoldering if needed due to noise, or if you want heavier wires than 20ga which most of these extenders are), the TM500x series are pin compatible with pretty much any 56-pin JAMMA EXTENDER cable, which can be bought from most Arcade Game hobbyist shops for $10-20, depending on whether in the US or slow boat from China:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2510209.m570.l1313&_nkw=jamma+extender&_sacat=0



You may have a local arcade game supplier where you can buy this over the counter; just ask for a JAMMA extender harness.

Good hunting, old friend!

mnem
 

It's an Amphenol "blue ribbon" connector, not  PCB header.
Med needs a Amphenol 26-4100-16PS like this
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143661607450 (GWN)  Or
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254274095274 (USA)

EDIT the plug-in side is a 26-4100-16SP
EDIT, Got it wrong, its amphenol 26-159-16P & 26-159-16S
Thanks to Factory for the correction.

Back in the day, "everybody & their cat" had one (or more) of those connectors in their "odds n' sods box".
AWA in Oz used them for their audio line amplifiers, so they were pretty much mainstream in the '60s.

One TV station I worked at had a real extension, but another had a "home made" one.

[Kosmic]

Med, I got 2 x 26-159-16 and 2 x 26-190-16 I'm never going to use.

They are yours if you want them.

[cyclin_al]

Had a Hazet 1/2" drive socket set for nigh on 40 years until it got badly annealed in a workshop fire. 
Bloody good stuff !

Stahlwille rings are good stuff too and open enders nice and slim but a little weak for heavy stuff.
Look at Dowidat too.....beautifully fine rings for tight spaces.

I'm not sure I agree with the need for power driven stuff for things like wheel nuts, though.

I've almost always found that my relatively puny "upper body strength" is enough, aided sometimes by a length of galvanised water pipe to obtain more leverage.

On the odd occasion that it wasn't, the Spaghetti Monster has endowed me (& most everybody else) with a pair of considerably stronger appendages which can be used to supply more force.

This, of course, may be one of the reasons I now have a "pretend" left knee!

Well remember having this argument with my now dear departed pop not long after we got our first truck, a 8 stud 900/20 wheeled TK Bedford. We'd just done some tire work on it and he'd tightened the 1 5/16" wheel nuts with just a 18" 3/4" drive ratchet which he insisted would be quite tight enough rather than use bodily weight on an additional 3 ft length of heavy waterpipe.
Having done nearly a year in a logging workshop bouncing on 6 ft lengths of pipe on wheel nuts I let him have his say and do it his way due to the discussion becoming heated and left next day for a day in the truck well knowing wheel nuts would need tightening again at close of day.
Pop, can you check those wheel nuts I asked come the end of the day and buggered off and left him to it. 
Needless to say when I checked the extender pipe for the ratchet was not exactly where I'd left it previously. 

The subject never was given air again. 
Still, nearly 30 years on I still miss the old bugger. 

My issue has always been with getting wheel nuts back off afterwards.
I just switched to winter wheels on the truck.  To remove the nuts, the 1/2" drive air rattler was useless.  It did not even budge the nuts.  It takes a good heave with a 4 foot 3/4" breaker bar to loosen them off.  After that, the ratter is ideal to spin the nuts off and then back on.  Final tightening is done with a proper hand torque wrench.

In previous years, I have actually broken a 32" breaker bar with 1/2" drive.  However, I have learned cold breaker bars are prone to fracturing.  To be honest, I am not sure if the larger breaker bar or keeping breaker bars in the house contribute to no further breakages.  The obvious part is that SWMBO wants to break something when she finds breaker bars in her space (ie. anywhere inside the house) ...

[mansaxel]

So your new-old wiggle-meter is proper wiggly...? 

I'd say it wiggles very little, and instead goes quickly and properly to display the (false) reading. Quite behaved as wigglyness goes.

mnem
don't read this.

I did.

[mansaxel]

I'm not sure I agree with the need for power driven stuff for things like wheel nuts, though.

I've almost always found that my relatively puny "upper body strength" is enough, aided sometimes by a length of galvanised water pipe to obtain more leverage.

On the odd occasion that it wasn't, the Spaghetti Monster has endowed me (& most everybody else) with a pair of considerably stronger appendages which can be used to supply more force.

This, of course, may be one of the reasons I now have a "pretend" left knee!

I only use the air impact to loosen nuts and screws. Tightening is by some times first snug'ing the nut with a puny spin-faster-device, like  my 6Nm battery drill. Then I get the torque wrench and do a controlled tightening. Sometimes I also have to do angle tighten after torquing, which of course is not made with the torque wrench, but most often using Reason:



That's 600mm of torque amplification ending up in a ¹/₂" square drive. Makes for easy disassembly too, and always lives in the boot, together with a impact rated socket.

[tautech]

Had a Hazet 1/2" drive socket set for nigh on 40 years until it got badly annealed in a workshop fire. 
Bloody good stuff !

Stahlwille rings are good stuff too and open enders nice and slim but a little weak for heavy stuff.
Look at Dowidat too.....beautifully fine rings for tight spaces.

I'm not sure I agree with the need for power driven stuff for things like wheel nuts, though.

I've almost always found that my relatively puny "upper body strength" is enough, aided sometimes by a length of galvanised water pipe to obtain more leverage.

On the odd occasion that it wasn't, the Spaghetti Monster has endowed me (& most everybody else) with a pair of considerably stronger appendages which can be used to supply more force.

This, of course, may be one of the reasons I now have a "pretend" left knee!

Well remember having this argument with my now dear departed pop not long after we got our first truck, a 8 stud 900/20 wheeled TK Bedford. We'd just done some tire work on it and he'd tightened the 1 5/16" wheel nuts with just a 18" 3/4" drive ratchet which he insisted would be quite tight enough rather than use bodily weight on an additional 3 ft length of heavy waterpipe.
Having done nearly a year in a logging workshop bouncing on 6 ft lengths of pipe on wheel nuts I let him have his say and do it his way due to the discussion becoming heated and left next day for a day in the truck well knowing wheel nuts would need tightening again at close of day.
Pop, can you check those wheel nuts I asked come the end of the day and buggered off and left him to it. 
Needless to say when I checked the extender pipe for the ratchet was not exactly where I'd left it previously. 

The subject never was given air again. 
Still, nearly 30 years on I still miss the old bugger. 

My issue has always been with getting wheel nuts back off afterwards.
I just switched to winter wheels on the truck.  To remove the nuts, the 1/2" drive air rattler was useless.  It did not even budge the nuts.  It takes a good heave with a 4 foot 3/4" breaker bar to loosen them off.  After that, the ratter is ideal to spin the nuts off and then back on.  Final tightening is done with a proper hand torque wrench.

In previous years, I have actually broken a 32" breaker bar with 1/2" drive.  However, I have learned cold breaker bars are prone to fracturing.  To be honest, I am not sure if the larger breaker bar or keeping breaker bars in the house contribute to no further breakages.  The obvious part is that SWMBO wants to break something when she finds breaker bars in her space (ie. anywhere inside the house) ...

1/2" breaker bars just won't cut it on truck wheel nuts. Period. You'll ring the 1/2" square off or break the yoke.

There's a few schools of thought on truck wheel nuts and studs, some just ensure everything is clean and barely lubricated more to keep them from rusting and ensuring relatively easy removal.
I rather like to see a good dose of oil or antiseize on the threads and yet others insist the tapers be lubricated too so to get max tightening torsion with minimum effort.
On high loads like rear duals on heavy trucks and the need to get things really tight I believe there is some merit in lubing tapers and threads especially for off road work where everything is placed under considerably more stress than on highway work.
For years we ground over hilly country with heavy loads and it sure tested if wheel nuts were tight enough.

[TERRA Operative]

On my car I used a bit of nickel anti-seize on the threads and tapers. Mainly to help prevent them scratching and galling the mating tapers on my $4000 rims.
The McGuard/TRD nuts I used have a cool feature where they have a 'floating' taper that can rotate on the nut, to further help prevent scratching and galling.