Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Zucca]

As long you are fixing stuff, you are doing the right thing.

There is no business case, before it was not working and after it works and it will work well.
The question here is not if, but when.

Welcome to the this place, here people see treasures when others see only BER devices.

[mansaxel]

BTW, Saskia here

https://diysolarforum.com/

the guys are helping me a lot to design my system.
After posting there, I declare this EEVBlog SMF forum is light years behind what a forum should be in 2022.

https://xenforo.com/ 

Hey, CoSY from the 1980s beats the pants off of SMF. It's not hard.

Or Usenet, with a decent threading reader. M'self, I prefer "slrn" but those who suffer from Windows might prefer "Agent" which is not free but not expensive either. Besides, running Windows means that one loves to be a customer, so paying should fit right in. 

[mansaxel]

Hello, my name is David and I am NOT a test equipaholic.

<snip>

Am I doing it right?

Yes, but keep in mind that you need one working scope to fix the broken scope too.

[Cubdriver]

Hello, my name is David and I am NOT yet a test equipaholic.

I love this and it is not bad for me.

I have just started my journey.  Began by scrounging the local university surplus center for enclosures to house a dim bulb tester and isolation transformer.  Got some gigantic electrolytics from inside one of 'em.

I had zero test equipment beyond a no-name handheld multimeter.

Now I also own a (possibly broken) EICO signal generator, a (possibly broken) HeathKit capacitor checker and a (possibly broken) Tektronix 7603 with two amplifiers and timebase plugin.

Tomorrow I will probably own a (possibly broken) Tektronix tm506 mainframe.  And a DMM for it by the end of next week.

I still have to buy wire to build the dim bulb tester.

Then fix the probably-broken mainframe.
Then fix the probably-broken scope.
Then fix the probably-broken signal generator.

Then fix the RCA amp that started all this.

Am I doing it right?

Sounds like it.  I got started down this rabbit hole after a reignited interest in tube audio around twelve years ago.  Discovered DIY audio forums, which led to the purchase of an HP dynamic signal analyzer, which led to the HPA (now HPAK) mailing list, which led to buying a nixie counter, which led to…

One of these years I’ll start playing with amplifier design…. 

Welcome to the nut house - sounds like you’ll fit right in!

-Pat

Oh, and I fixed your original post for you.

[m k]

Hello, my name is David and I am NOT a test equipaholic.

<snip>

Am I doing it right?

Yes, but keep in mind that you need one working scope to fix the broken scope too.

And for that one direction is Nicolet.

[vk6zgo]

Weird the D.A.T.A. Digest transistor 1994 book (size of an ancient telephone directory) I have, puts the 2N3347 under the "low power silicon PNP" section, TO-77 package, but it doesn't have the pinout.

Suggested replacements are IT137, NTE82, SK9115 and 2N3726.

David

Yep! They do that!
I remember burning mucho hours chasing replacements, that when you find them, are not the same at all.
Most of the time they are OK for very common transistors, but anything a bit different, & they are prone to errors.

I usually ended up going with my default:- "What does Philips (or Sony) use in a similar application?"
Most times they turned out to quite close equivalents.

[vk6zgo]

There is one 2465B, too. For those interested: shipping by Purolator from Dartmouth to west coast is ~CAD157, so the rest of Canada should be the same or cheaper.

Every time I hear the name Purolator my first thought is that it's some peculiar electric kitchen appliance that I've never heard of, and then it's only after a few seconds do I remember that it's a US courier company.

"Honey, if we put the Sunday leftovers through the Purolator it'll make a swell mid-week meal!".

I think of an old brand of US oil filters.
It was the same company!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purolator_Filters

[DH7DN]

And now for something completely different: A Gossen Konstanter!

Helped that sweet baby to not be thrown into the garbage bin. Last checkup is not long ago, so I plugged it in and ... it was dead. No meter movement when turning the knobs. A quick check indicated the
primary fuse was not blown and the fan was shuffling some air through the innards.
It had some scratches and needed some cleaning, so I undressed it and gave it a wash. Brushed all the dust away and inspected the boards. Nothing blown, no caps leaking. At a second test, all was fine: voltage regulates, current limits OK, a test with a 30R resistor was successful (and gave quite some smell of hot components). So I assembled everything and it seems to be ready for laboratory use.

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing 

[tggzzz]

BTW, Saskia here

https://diysolarforum.com/

the guys are helping me a lot to design my system.
After posting there, I declare this EEVBlog SMF forum is light years behind what a forum should be in 2022.

https://xenforo.com/ 

Hey, CoSY from the 1980s beats the pants off of SMF. It's not hard.

It isn't the software that makes a forum, it is the people and content.

Nonetheless, some software (and I don't know about that particular one) make it difficult. The killers are lack of decent multi-level quoting to preserve context, new replies to you threads you've contributed to, new replies, ease of complex editing, math formulae. Yes, I've seen those. In the worst case (e.g. stackexchange) they are killed by design.

Having said that, this topic is raised occasionally, and always ends up a rathole. I suspect there is a better section of this board for it.

[tggzzz]

Hello, my name is David and I am NOT a test equipaholic.

I love this and it is not bad for me.

I have just started my journey.  Began by scrounging the local university surplus center for enclosures to house a dim bulb tester and isolation transformer.  Got some gigantic electrolytics from inside one of 'em.

I had zero test equipment beyond a no-name handheld multimeter.

Now I also own a (possibly broken) EICO signal generator, a (possibly broken) HeathKit capacitor checker and a (possibly broken) Tektronix 7603 with two amplifiers and timebase plugin.

Tomorrow I will probably own a (possibly broken) Tektronix tm506 mainframe.  And a DMM for it by the end of next week.

I still have to buy wire to build the dim bulb tester.

Then fix the probably-broken mainframe.
Then fix the probably-broken scope.
Then fix the probably-broken signal generator.

Then fix the RCA amp that started all this.

Am I doing it right?

Welcome to this thread, the rathole, and the forum

If you are enjoying it and not harming anybody, then you are doing it right. Except if you set out to rape working equipment for parts like valves

Quick word of caution. Don't use a dim-bulb tester on anything with an SMPS, i.e. much big "modern" equipment. SMPSs act to keep the output power constant; if you lower the input voltage they suck more input current, and the semiconductors don't like that.

Oh yes, learn about RIFA capacitors prefereably before they teach you they exist. We've all had that done to us

[tggzzz]

Or Usenet, with a decent threading reader. M'self, I prefer "slrn" but those who suffer from Windows might prefer "Agent" which is not free but not expensive either. Besides, running Windows means that one loves to be a customer, so paying should fit right in.

Nice snark

I used to use tin on a glass tty, but now use seamonkey on a widescreen.

[Zenith]

Hello, my name is David and I am NOT a test equipaholic.

I love this and it is not bad for me.

I have just started my journey.  Began by scrounging the local university surplus center for enclosures to house a dim bulb tester and isolation transformer.  Got some gigantic electrolytics from inside one of 'em.

I had zero test equipment beyond a no-name handheld multimeter.

Now I also own a (possibly broken) EICO signal generator, a (possibly broken) HeathKit capacitor checker and a (possibly broken) Tektronix 7603 with two amplifiers and timebase plugin.

Tomorrow I will probably own a (possibly broken) Tektronix tm506 mainframe.  And a DMM for it by the end of next week.

I still have to buy wire to build the dim bulb tester.

Then fix the probably-broken mainframe.
Then fix the probably-broken scope.
Then fix the probably-broken signal generator.

Then fix the RCA amp that started all this.

Am I doing it right?

No, you are on a slippery slope. Denying you have a problem makes it impossible to solve. Throw it all away now.

To fix that lot you need a working scope, a function generator, a true RMS voltmeter, an RF sig gen, an AF sig gen, a distortion analyser, a frequency counter, and a spectrum analyser is always nice to have. One handheld multimeter is hopeless, four is a more sensible number. And so it goes on. The more you have the more you want.

Accumulating and fixing TE and other electronics, is a nerdy interest a lot of people really can't see the point of. Understanding and fixing complicated things engages the brain. It's not that expensive as leisure activities go. It beats watching TV, which a lot of people spend their time doing.

I'd say you are going about it the right way.


 

[AVGresponding]

This is an odd one, it screams "scam", but they've put a lot more effort in than usual:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325309887614

[Zenith]

I don't believe it is a scam. It looks as if he has no intention of selling it on ebay but he's listing it there to advertise it. It's for collection and I'd guess if someone was interested  and it was close enough, they could go with the money and see it working.

[david77]

...

One handheld multimeter is hopeless, four is a more sensible number. And so it goes on. The more you have the more you want.

...

You mean it's possible to live with only four multimeters? I can hardly imagine that!

[Ice-Tea]

This is an odd one, it screams "scam", but they've put a lot more effort in than usual:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325309887614

Entirely worthless (and they go for cheap) without modules...

[bd139]

So if there is still interest in TEK 465 there are about 5 or so on GCSurplus.  (with shipping available.)

Hope this doesn't drive the prices up.

No interest from me. I have two 465B's which are superior in function and construction to the original 465. Plus shipping across the border would be a nightmare.

Completely agree with this. The 465B I have is now my goto scope. Mostly because it's not in a box at the moment unlike the Siglent but also because quite frankly it's the best of the 465B and plain 465.

[bd139]

WAF Improvement Project: FINAL UPDATE

Excellent work. I am impressed  . Now it needs some scopes on it

[bd139]

Just got some good news. It's A-level results day here. Results through. Eldest got her first university choice so day of celebrations  . She's off to study biochem. No soldering irons there but good luck to her 

Waitaminnit... yer daughter is going into biochem...? 



Why am I imagining this scenario in the near future...? 

mnem
welcome to Jurassic World. 

Yep. Biochem and bioinformatics basically. So fingers crossed she'll do something good rather than something evil  . I actually know three biochemists. One makes detergent perfumes and the other two are operations engineers now. Will see where it goes...

Also, such a good film if you remove all the stupid bits from it. This one gets me every time  .

[med6753]

I got the 2235. And there's a surprise. No pictures yet. Have patience. 

[bd139]

bd139
I hope you don't mind and please correct me if my memory is shot but I dropped your little Brymen BM22s HV capability into Joe Smiths DMM thread:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hear-kitty-kitty-kitty-nope-not-that-kind-of-cat/msg4366615/#msg4366615

Yeah no worries there. The more people get to see the sick and twisted things I do the better 

Reminder in here as well 



It made crackling noises at 2Kv. Still works.

[BU508A]

WAF Improvement Project: FINAL UPDATE

Excellent work. I am impressed  . Now it needs some scopes on it

And some soldering irons. With brandmarks nearby.   

[bd139]

Yeah it’s weird. It’s definitely NPN. I buzzed out a few with diode tester. All the same. These are TI 1970 stamped ones. Will see if there’s a catalogue on bitsavers…

I suppose it’s a good excuse to buy a DCA55 or something 

Could it be a counterfeit part?

I think this was just a Friday afternoon labelling job and murphy doing his thing to me today by handing me the one duff one to play with . I tested all the others and they are all PNP. Just one part was wrong. It does work quite happily as a dual NPN transistor though!

One inconsistency remains. Yesterday you wrote:

Yeah it’s weird. It’s definitely NPN. I buzzed out a few with diode tester. All the same. These are TI 1970 stamped ones. Will see if there’s a catalogue on bitsavers…

So the few were always the same one?
 
Now bd, you don't have to make up an excuse to get a DCA55! But my advice would be to get a DCA75+ instead.
 

Resolved that inconsistency. So there was 1 out of 34 which was an NPN. And of course that's the turd I stood in 

As for the DCA75 comment, that is EXACTLY the kind of enablement I expect from this thread.

Alas I can't buy anything at the moment as I'm moving on Friday next week so risk not actually being at home when it arrives.

[bd139]

The Anniversary Project Table is encouraging all sorts of family fun; tonight after dinner we played Exploding Kittens for the first time. I led with Catomic Bomb right out the gate to take out MIL. Son got to wear the Cone of Shame, and wifey had to hit me with 2 Nope/Directed Attack combos in a row to win.

This game is perversely addictive; the basic strategy is be a dick to everybody to win.

mnem

We do exploding kittens here. A strategy tip: save ALL your skip and see the future cards and attack cards to the end, then burn them on the remaining player. Literally haven't lost a game now. I suspect it's flawed.

[tautech]

bd139
I hope you don't mind and please correct me if my memory is shot but I dropped your little Brymen BM22s HV capability into Joe Smiths DMM thread:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hear-kitty-kitty-kitty-nope-not-that-kind-of-cat/msg4366615/#msg4366615

Yeah no worries there. The more people get to see the sick and twisted things I do the better 

Reminder in here as well 



It made crackling noises at 2Kv. Still works.

Oh,  then it certainly wouldn't have liked a D83 EHT at 2750 V !!

Never worried the 3kV AVO !