Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

https://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2017/05/10/the-dish-how-many-calories-are-in-this-giant-chocolate-chip-cookie.html

mnem

[mansaxel]

Other weirdos in here are looking at that hand-lettered serial number 045 and sighing...

I know the feeling. Takes one to know one.

[Vince]

Strange, looks like a dick contest in reverse, the smaller it is the more one brags about it ?! 

[Cubdriver]

Strange, looks like a dick contest in reverse, the smaller it is the more one brags about it ?! 

Not low, but interesting nonetheless...


-Pat

[Vince]

Only ones and zeros, this must have been a prototype, an early digital scope in disguise !!! 

[Vince]

Why doesn't it start by ' B ' / Beaverton ? US scopes made it to Europe, but an European scope making it to the US sounds weird / backwards... hell I don't think I ever found out what the '0' plant code corresponded to ?! Was that US then ? But why not use B like all the others ?! I am lost...

Was there ANOTHER manufacturing plant in the US ?!

It's about time I learn about it !

[Cubdriver]

Why doesn't it start by ' B ' / Beaverton ? US scopes made it to Europe, but an European scope making it to the US sounds weird / backwards... hell I don't think I ever found out what the '0' plant code corresponded to ?! Was that US then ? But why not use B like all the others ?! I am lost...

Was there ANOTHER manufacturing plant in the US ?!

It's about time I learn about it !

The 'B' prefix must have come later - I just looked at a few of my older ones (310, 310A, 506, 531A, 545B, 561A, 575s) and all have straight numeric serial numbers.  The 561B has a 'B' prefix, as do the 434 and 465B at a glance.  FWIW.

-Pat

[cyclin_al]

Took over an hour to start the snowblower.  Carburator must have been partially gummed up.  Yes, there was some fuel so it did not dry out to a hard varnish during storage.  Yes, there was stabilizer in the fuel.  Yes, it was high octane fuel with no ethanol.  Tank was mostly filled with new winter fuel purchased this month.

Not much later, the snowblower found the stick that the dog had been playing with.  Okay, actually a 3" diameter firewood log.  Yes, shear pins work.  It is a PITA to replace a shear pin, especially outside far from the garage.

Finished snow clearing at 9:51pm, then still had to walk the dog...

Now time for 

Is it a Tecumseh "Snow King" engine? If yes I pity you. There's a reason they went under and out of business. Their carbs were total crap and even pampered the passages would clog up with the result you experienced. 

It looks like you might be bang on.  It is a Sears Craftsman with a Tecumseh engine...

So I can assume I did nothing wrong, but I can assume that when I get sufficiently frustrated I will be blowing (pun not intented, but left anyways) the TEA budget on a snowblower. 

No, you don't have to buy a new snowblower. But you do have to tear down the carb and clean out all the tiny passages and then rebuild it. I haven't checked but I'll bet there's some utube videos out there showing how it's done.

(Former owner of a Sears Craftsman snowblower with a Tecumseh engine) 

No time to play with carburetors for now ...  all the advice from a number of you will have to wait until later, when I have spare time 

FML, the septic pump is in rotor lock ...   

EDIT:  I have to go take care of a shitty job...

[med6753]

No time to play with carburetors for now ...  all the advice from a number of you will have to wait until later, when I have spare time 

FML, the septic pump is in rotor lock ...   

EDIT:  I have to go take care of a shitty job...

Yep, been there. Done that. Playing literally in shit is always a fun task. 

[cyclin_al]

Why doesn't it start by ' B ' / Beaverton ? US scopes made it to Europe, but an European scope making it to the US sounds weird / backwards... hell I don't think I ever found out what the '0' plant code corresponded to ?! Was that US then ? But why not use B like all the others ?! I am lost...

Was there ANOTHER manufacturing plant in the US ?!

It's about time I learn about it !

The 'B' prefix must have come later - I just looked at a few of my older ones (310, 310A, 506, 531A, 545B, 561A, 575s) and all have straight numeric serial numbers.  The 561B has a 'B' prefix, as do the 434 and 465B at a glance.  FWIW.

-Pat

Similar thing here.  The RM564 is s/n "001204".  The plug-ins all have similar numbers.
The units are labelled "Portland, Oregon", but I have not checked enough to know if that is an office address or a manufacturing plant.

-- exhibiting avoidance behaviour now, wrt that job that must be done

[tggzzz]

That actually looks very good!   You should try some $50 bills next? 

Maybe not that, but might try some BASIC programming. So many GOTOs in those instructions it brought back memories!

HP BASIC is actually kinda fun. I have the full programming manual for my 8566B and for my 8510C. It's interesting to sit down with just that and no search engines and write a program the old fashioned way.

That means without cut'n'paste from stack exchange?

[0culus]

That actually looks very good!   You should try some $50 bills next? 

Maybe not that, but might try some BASIC programming. So many GOTOs in those instructions it brought back memories!

HP BASIC is actually kinda fun. I have the full programming manual for my 8566B and for my 8510C. It's interesting to sit down with just that and no search engines and write a program the old fashioned way.

That means without cut'n'paste from stack exchange?

Could you even find that on stack exchange? 

[Vince]

A bit of fun again... was sorting some more... was into wire/electrical stuff... found this old 9V rechargeable battery !

A beautiful Varta. Yes I know the yanks shit on them, but in Western Europe they make good ones.. they only send you the crap ones.. or maybe Varta has a plant in the US or Mexico just for your market and has substandard quality control there, I don't know...

Anyway, there is not even a date on that battery, but no need : it's the only 9V rechargeable battery I ever bought, and I still vividly remember buying it, as a teen, in the local electronics shop. Had to save for a bit to buy it, was so thrilled... said on the tinu it can recharged 1000 times wow... I was in awe of this thing, was the future for sure.
So it's at least 30 years old, maybe 32 I don't know.

I think I used it... never, not even once. But I was happy to have it anyway !   

So, will I get my 1,000 cycles then, 30 years later ?

I measured voltage... can't believe it, it still registers something ! 2.5V !   
The wonders of electro-chemistry I guess... not my part.

OF COURSE I had to see if it would take a charge ! 

Because why not... just for fun, to see what would happen..

This is where I am starting to like my lab coming to shape, though I am nowhere near done at all, not even remotely.

1) Sit your butt on this comfy rolling chair.
2) in an eye blink, roll it to the right, to get to drawer unit.
3) Open relevant drawer
4) marvel at the fact that you have crocodile test leads right there, at your finger tips, easy to get to.
5) close drawer and roll chair back to the left where the lab supply is.
6) marvel at the fact that you can actually SEE the surface of the bench ! No longer covered by a thick entangled layer of various test leads, hand tools and soldering related equipment and supplies, among many other things.
7) in an eye blink, wire up the battery
8 ) sit back and enjoy.

Can't wait for the lab to be fully operational, I am already starting to like it a lot... 


Battery label says it's a 9V but back then that meant it really was 7.2V (6x1.2V cells).

Up to 10V charging voltage, it takes zero current.

At 11.5V here, it takes about 50mA.

I will leave it like that for a bit see what that does... will it revive it a bit ?
My bet is the 50mA aren't charging anything at all... must be just a DC leakage current due to the severe state of chemical decomposition this battery must be in ?! 

[Cerebus]

Up to 10V charging voltage, it takes zero current.

At 11.5V here, it takes about 50mA.

I will leave it like that for a bit see what that does... will it revive it a bit ?
My bet is the 50mA aren't charging anything at all... must be just a DC leakage current due to the severe state of chemical decomposition this battery must be in ?! 

Might be wise not to leave it on something flammable, like that OSB it's sitting on in the photo.

[Brumby]

This is where I am starting to like my lab coming to shape, though I am nowhere near done at all, not even remotely.

1) Sit your butt on this comfy rolling chair.
2) in an eye blink, roll it to the right, to get to drawer unit.
3) Open relevant drawer
4) marvel at the fact that you have crocodile test leads right there, at your finger tips, easy to get to.
5) close drawer and roll chair back to the left where the lab supply is.
6) marvel at the fact that you can actually SEE the surface of the bench ! No longer covered by a thick entangled layer of various test leads, hand tools and soldering related equipment and supplies, among many other things.
7) in an eye blink, wire up the battery
8 ) sit back and enjoy.

It is nice to be organised.

Can't wait for the lab to be fully operational, I am already starting to like it a lot... 

When you get there, item 6) will, typically, slide out the window pretty quickly .... unless you are OCD.

[Vince]

Up to 10V charging voltage, it takes zero current.

At 11.5V here, it takes about 50mA.

I will leave it like that for a bit see what that does... will it revive it a bit ?
My bet is the 50mA aren't charging anything at all... must be just a DC leakage current due to the severe state of chemical decomposition this battery must be in ?! 

Might be wise not to leave it on something flammable, like that OSB it's sitting on in the photo.

Wow I doubt the tiny litte bit of energy I managed to squeeze into that battery would manage to set the OSB on fire ! 
If the battery burst into flames it would be consumed in seconds I think, long before making a dent in the OSB ?!

But hey... I am sure you will find a YT video showibng otherwise ! 
Warning : a high capacity modern Lithium battery does not count, it's cheating !
Here 30 year old dead NiCd battery, and only 110mAH !  So not a power house
Of course I set the PSU to limit the current to those 50mA, so no chance the battery could draw amps if it decided to become a big short...

Anyway, of course I am not leaving this battery unattended... remember the lab and computer and everything is all in one room... living room does it all.
As I am typing this on my desktop PC I have the bench in sigh and am only 2 meters from it ! Yes, tiny house it is...

Plan was to leave it on only for an hour while I am sorting stuff on the bench... little battery was not meant to be left unattended ! 

Been over an hour I think, so I unplugged it, you can all relax !

Voltage went from 2.5V up to 10.0V ! 
A bit weird for  a 9V 7.2V battery ?!

Anyway, I loaded it slightly with a 5.6k resistor, so about 2mA draw, to see if the voltage would collapse immediately.
Was measuring voltage at the same time, to see in real time how it evolves...
To my surprise the voltage does not drop, this little bugger can sustain this 2mA current.. not much, but still, it's not dead at all.
See, Varta is not crap ! 30 years in storage and still can hold and deliver electrons ! 

End of experiment !

What next...

[Brumby]

See how close to original capacity it can actually deliver.  (It might take a couple of charging cycles.)

[Vince]

I don't know... charging it fully and properly, woudl tak e14 hours... like any NiCd battery.

At 50mA I was fast charging it, pushin it, just to give it a quick shot see if there was still life in it in some way...

But charging it completely, would need to do it properly, so 14 looong hours at C/10 ie at 110mAH that's 11mA for 14H.
That's also what's written on the battery itself.

So I would have to time it so as to not overcharge it... OK I guess I can make an effort an keep track of start and stop time.

Just dug out my old NiCd charger ! Maybe I can just that instead...

We are on EEVBlog so before doing anything I tore it apart of course ! 
Oh boy it looks middle age crude in there ! 
A transformer, single wave rectification and a current limiting resistor and that's it !

Plugged the battery in there and scoped the voltage across it... see for yourself.

Single wave indeed, and peaks at 12.5+ Volts ! 

this crude pulsating voltage, that's torture, should be illegal ! How did law back then allow for these things to be sold at all ?! 

so... looks like my lab power supply is two order of magnitude more refined than this charger eh ?
At least it's proper DC I am feeding the battery with, and I can control the current.
Well, kind of... it's a basic analog supply not a fancy HP/Agilent microprocessor haunted supply.
So I don't have great control over the current, in the low end. If I set the pot to the minimum, it will still give 40mA or so, or 75mA.. depends on the output voltage it appears.
I guess I can add a series resistor to get to the required 11mA.
Would be so nice to have fancy PSU where I could just set it to say 15Volts and limit current precisely to 11mA or whatever, trusting that it would stick to that no matter how the output voltage varies.
One day, one day....

EDIT : stupid me... there are two 9V slots in the charger. I plugged the battery in one, but was scoping the other/empty one ! 
So the waveform was for an open circuit condition !
Now I am scoping the proper slot and I see DC with negligible ripple, and it tops at 10.3V or something now, ie the battery voltage I measured prior. So all seems well... letting it charge overnight, wrapped in a fire resistant blanket, floating in a large bucket of water, and smoke detector next to it. Have an IR camera with AI monitoring activity. If anything fishy is going on, I will get a text message on my smartphone.

[TERRA Operative]

Yay, my 'Retro Chip Tester Professional' PCB's arrived today. Will help with testing dubious chips while restoring all this old test gear.
Now to order the parts and go warm up the soldering iron.

https://8bit-museum.de/sonstiges/hardware-projekte/hardware-projekte-chip-tester-english/

[Zucca]

My last sin

I have it in my hands now.... definitely addictive stuff Miniware, very dangerous company!

Moreover some crazy brothers are rev eng. almost everything...

very very dangerous stuff....

but... the DFU disk does not shows up in my unit, I have to return it...

[Vince]

Yay, my 'Retro Chip Tester Professional' PCB's arrived today. Will help with testing dubious chips while restoring all this old test gear.
Now to order the parts and go warm up the soldering iron.

https://8bit-museum.de/sonstiges/hardware-projekte/hardware-projekte-chip-tester-english/

Sounds like a useful device indeed... but I can't see pricing on the website ?! How much does it cost ??

Watched the video and I kept wondering why the hell he was saying "wet" "wet "wet" all the time... didn't make sense. Until I realized he must be saying " read" not "wet", and it all started to make sense ! 

[BU508A]

Yay, my 'Retro Chip Tester Professional' PCB's arrived today. Will help with testing dubious chips while restoring all this old test gear.
Now to order the parts and go warm up the soldering iron.

https://8bit-museum.de/sonstiges/hardware-projekte/hardware-projekte-chip-tester-english/

Sounds like a useful device indeed... but I can't see pricing on the website ?! How much does it cost ??

Watched the video and I kept wondering why the hell he was saying "wet" "wet "wet" all the time... didn't make sense. Until I realized he must be saying " read" not "wet", and it all started to make sense ! 

To get an idea:
in the UK a board costs £85.00 (plus shipping, I assume)
https://www.silicon-ark.co.uk/retro-chip-tester

[Vince]

OK thanks for the link.

So 100 Euros or so just for the bare board then you have to put together a BOM and source and buy all the components yourself on top of it...

[mnementh]

Yay, my 'Retro Chip Tester Professional' PCB's arrived today. Will help with testing dubious chips while restoring all this old test gear.
Now to order the parts and go warm up the soldering iron.

https://8bit-museum.de/sonstiges/hardware-projekte/hardware-projekte-chip-tester-english/

Aw, man... you're in for a world of shit. I mentioned that thing in here a while back and got dogpiled for suggesting such a expensive, limited-application tester/programmer... 

mnem

[Zucca]

A miracle....

I tried the /56 prefix DHCP Ipv6 on my WAN.
It seems to work.
I created two LAN /64 with prefix 0 and 1 as Tracking interface.

Did the ISP understood something about IPv6 in 2022?

Still trying to understand DHCPv6 Server/RA, do I need it in a Tracking interface? mah...

Next step DDNS with IPv6 holy cow it is a steep learning curve...