Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Vince]

Did you send it via registered post?

For cases such as this, it gives the seller something to follow - and it will show you that it was delivered and when.

Fingers crossed it all works out!

No not registered, costs way too much money, not worth it for a 50 Euro check for some old junk on leboncoin.fr !

Plus, registered mail is SLOWER than regular mail, AND no, it does not provide any tracking information whatsoever (only for parcels, not mail).

So no, people never send checks via fancy registered mail, it's a waste of time and money, useless.

As you say... fingers crossed !

As for the check disappearing, no, not anytime soon ! It's been talked about for 20 years now... there is no law that I know of that will put an end to checks. All the government and banks are doing is hope people will use it less and less over time, that's all. Some banks charge you to use checks, to discourage you, mine doesn't.

Also, even if they got rid of checks 100% somehow, and forced people to switch to on-line payments, it won't solve anything at all I think !

1) Payment via Paypal, "between friends" that used to be free.... well Paypal will start charging for them now, once they know people have no choice any more but use their service !

2) If doing a direct bank to bank transfer, well some charge you money already for that. Mine doesn't, but for how long. PLUS, BEFORE you can transfer money to someone, you have to WAIT for a few days for the recipient's bank account to be "validated", for security reasons. ONLY once this is done, can you make instant transfers. However checks are used to buy old junk from random people, so every time, it's a new recipient, so every time.. .you have to wait a few days to be able to make the transfer... so might as well send a check by mail !    OK, wired is more secured, and there is traceability, I agree that's an improvement. However as I said, most people aren't comfortable enough with IT to use Paypal or bank to bank transfers, so they don't do it. Checks are simple, no IT involved. Any 80 year old knows how to write a check and post it in the mail... but not many people master computers and IT and have enough confidence in it to be willing to make the effort to begin with.

It's not all about the technical aspects and merits, it's more about human factors, real life, not ones and zeros.

[Vince]

He has already packed the scope, swiftly, and sent me a pic of it. He said he worked for 30 years packing industrial goods. He said he used very thick cardboard, paid extra attention to the front panel / knobs, and the parcel weights 24kg which is way more than the scope even with its plugins. So chances are, the scope will survive...

Sounds promising.  Let's pray La Poste fulfills their part efficiently.

The pic he sent me of the parcel.... at least with all that red tape, hopefully it won't get lost, people will spot it easily in the warehouse  !

[Specmaster]

An odd situation, to be sure. Let's hope it's simple stupidity, and not malice. Oh and let's hope the stupidity does not extend to the packing...

Yes, thats another thing that makes me very nervous about this whole thing. Over here you have to submit to the carriers the actual dimensions of the finished packed item (some of them have odd ways of charging you based on the measurements plus a factor), along with the finished weight of the parcel. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one, but my spider spidery sensors are tingling. 

[pcprogrammer]

No not registered, cost way too much money, not worth it for a 50 Euro check for some old junk on leboncoin.fr !
.....

Checks are simple, no IT involved. Any 80 year old knows how to write a check and post it in the mail... but not many people master computers and IT and have enough confidence in it to be willing to make the effort to begin with.

It's not all about technical aspect, it's more about human factors, real life, not ones and zeros.

And yet the seller is on leboncoin.fr and succeeded in sending you a picture of the package, so knows how to use a computer

[Vince]

Not really, he used his smart phone to send it to me in a text message. For some reason, I notice that most people old or kids, manage to take pics with their smartphone and send it in a text message / SMS / MMS.. but they can't manage using a dedicated camera and uploading the pics to their computers, rework them as required, and send an e-mail with the pics attached. Many people these days, "master" their smartphpone, but either do not even have a computer be it laptop or desktop, nor would know how to use it !  I am always baffled at how people assume that 100% of the population masters the basics of IT. It's just far, far from true. It's only true if you live in a restricted circle of IT literate people, which fools you into thinking/assuming that the general population is as literate as the group you frequent. Hell, even on this engineering forum, lots of people clearly don't master the basics of IT. Can't take a decent picture, cant rework it to be compatible and friendly to other readers, can't edit nested quotes to reduce the bloat, quote entire pages and series of large pictures just to add a one liner at the bottom..... so imagine what people who aren't nerds on EEVBlog, can (can't) do !   

However in this particular case, one could argue that he did manage to read the e-mail I sent him, containing the PDF file for the shipping label. However, checking/receiving an e-mail, is easier than actually sending one and attaching stuff to it. My old mum is an excellent example of that...

[Specmaster]

He has already packed the scope, swiftly, and sent me a pic of it. He said he worked for 30 years packing industrial goods. He said he used very thick cardboard, paid extra attention to the front panel / knobs, and the parcel weights 24kg which is way more than the scope even with its plugins. So chances are, the scope will survive...

Sounds promising.  Let's pray La Poste fulfills their part efficiently.

The pic he sent me of the parcel.... at least with all that red tape, hopefully it won't get lost, people will spot it easily in the warehouse  !

Could still be a scam, maybe that photo is not the actual item, maybe the photo has been sent to many other "buyers" as well? I had a similar situation recently with a seller of a calculator on Gumtree, didn't want me to collect it, they wanted to send it to me, didn't want me to pay via PayPal as a business transaction, but insisted that send money as "Friends and Family" which does not off me any protection. I even offered to cover the fees that PayPal charge business's, but they said no... I walked away from that seller, deemed it as to risky to proceed.

[Specmaster]

<snip>
However in this particular case, one could argue that he did manage to read the e-mail I sent him, containing the PDF file for the shipping label. However, checking/receiving an e-mail, is easier than actually sending one and attaching stuff to it. My old mum is an excellent example of that...

Can he manage to print the PDF off for the shipping label??

[Vince]

An odd situation, to be sure. Let's hope it's simple stupidity, and not malice. Oh and let's hope the stupidity does not extend to the packing...

Yes, thats another thing that makes me very nervous about this whole thing. Over here you have to submit to the carriers the actual dimensions of the finished packed item (some of them have odd ways of charging you based on the measurements plus a factor), along with the finished weight of the parcel. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one, but my spider spidery sensors are tingling.

Not so here. The transporter simply says what the maximum dimensions are, up to you to respect them, or risk the parcel being returned.
In this case the sum of all 3 dimensions must not exceed 150cm, and any one dimension can't exceed 120cm.

Now, the shipping company used to not be too strict about that, and I have sent and received numerous scopes so far, which exceeded a bit these criteria, as well as being slightly overweight... but they never complained, the parcel always got delivered and neither the seller or buyer got asked to pay a fee for being outside the limits...

However, the seller of this scope told me that the shipping company (We all use "Mondial Relay" here, a private company that's cheaper and overall better and more convenient than the French Post ), recently started being picky about the dimensions of the parcel. He said that recently he had a parcel returned to him because it exceed the size limits by only 5cm !
So I looked at the scopes dimensions in the service manual, looked like it was about 125cm including the handles, which left 25cm for the box to put it in... I told that to the seller, he said no worries he had already packed it and was able to make the box within the limits while still protecting the front panel...

I have never ever dealt with a seller that actually gave so much consideration to the packing/shipping... never. So I told him that to congratulate him.. that's where he confessed he spent 30 years of his professional life packing industrial goods, so he knew the drill....

[Vince]

<snip>
However in this particular case, one could argue that he did manage to read the e-mail I sent him, containing the PDF file for the shipping label. However, checking/receiving an e-mail, is easier than actually sending one and attaching stuff to it. My old mum is an excellent example of that...

Can he manage to print the PDF off for the shipping label??

I get the feeling he can.. otherwise he would just told me about it.

As I said he is used to sending stuff using this shipping company, which means he can handle their way of doing things...

Also, I told him he doesn't even need to  print the label and tape it to the parcel, he can just show the QR code on his smartphone screen, they will scan it and print the label themselves. I do that all the time, saves my printer/paper/ink/electricity/tape/time ... it's a no brainer.


So I think he will be just fine...

[pcprogrammer]

Not really, he used his smart phone to send it to me in a text message. For some reason, I notice that most people old or kids, manage to take pics with their smartphone and send it in a text message / SMS / MMS.. but they can't manage using a dedicated camera and uploading the pics to their computers, rework them as required, and send an e-mail with the pics attached. Many people these days, "master" their smartphpone, but either do not even have a computer be it laptop or desktop, nor would know how to use it !  I am always baffled at how people assume that 100% of the population masters the basics of IT. It's just far, far from true. It's only true if you live in a restricted circle of IT literate people, which fools you into thinking/assuming that the general population is as literate as the group you frequent. Hell, even on this engineering forum, lots of people clearly don't master the basics of IT. Can't take a decent picture, cant rework it to be compatible and friendly to other readers, can't edit nested quotes to reduce the bloat, quote entire pages and series of large pictures just to add a one liner at the bottom..... so imagine what people who aren't nerds on EEVBlog, can (can't) do !   

However in this particular case, one could argue that he did manage to read the e-mail I sent him, containing the PDF file for the shipping label. However, checking/receiving an e-mail, is easier than actually sending one and attaching stuff to it. My old mum is an excellent example of that...

For me a smartphone is basically a computer. It can do all the regular stuff most people need to do on a computer. Browse the internet, send emails, do banking, take pictures, etc.

But sure there are many people who don't master computers nor smartphones. My in-laws are a good example. This year they finally got a smartphone and internet, but we had a hard time teaching them, and still the only thing they can do now is answer the phone.

[TERRA Operative]

Well, I got the FG504 func gen working, but now I need a 500ohm multiturn trimpot and guess what it the only value I've run out of?..... 

Off to Akihabara tomorrow, again. It's a hard life...


On the acquisition front, I just won an auction on an old 460W ATX PSU, that includes the elusive -5V rail, so perfect for running the ISA bus, no matter what I plug into it.
Also, a cable for my 5 1/2" floppy disk drive too that I've fully rebuilt. New capacitors, new bearings in the motor, all lubed up and retrobrited. Should work well.

Currently I've got my eye on a DFI P2XBL motherboard to suit an Intel Slot1 CPU, with AGP, 4x PCI aaanndd 3x ISA slots. Perfect for installing an NI PCII/IIA GPIB card into for calibrating TDS scopes.

Yeah, I got a Dual CPU Dell Precision 410 and a Dell Dimension V400c both Intel Slot1 with ISA slots, but the Precision needs a special boot disk to mess with the IRQ settings (settings aren't just in the BIOS like normal, because Dell..) and the Dimension doesn't have an AGP slot for my Quadro GPU.

I might still use the Precision if I can figure out the IRQ boot disk business. Iif I get it to all work properly, it'll be perfect to use without building a system from scratch. And for playing Doom. 



But first step, trimpots, so I can finish adjusting and calibrating this FG504 and clear my bench (and maybe get the other older one working too).

[Brumby]

Off to Akihabara tomorrow, again. It's a hard life...

That's it .... rub it in.

[Martin.M]

the extremly old R decade, cal 

[TERRA Operative]

Manganin wirewound resistors, Those things will still be in cal for the next forever.

[Neper]

Oh no.... the seller of the scope just triggered me.... he wants to raise my blood pressure and go buy a shotgun and visit him....

Aka Vince's 3D - Daily Dose of Dramaqueen 

[Martin.M]

2 Timebase Plugins in a 7603 ? 

[Martin.M]

no IC inside 

[Vince]

2 Timebase Plugins in a 7603 ? 

Yes it had me worried at first, but apparently it causes no harm and is even a configuration that works and can be used to do useful things. So, there is no problem here.

Of course I am not into such esoteric stuff and I would want to revert back to a traditional setup with two vertical amps and only one time-base.... so need  to source a vertical amplifier for this scope.
Well, the good news is... seller did say he found a fourth plug-in for this scope, and put it in the parcel. He can't tell what kind of plug-in it is though, because he knows squat about scopes. It was his son's not his.  But I guess none of this will matter if he does not send me the scope..... 

[Vince]

Oh no.... the seller of the scope just triggered me.... he wants to raise my blood pressure and go buy a shotgun and visit him....

Aka Vince's 3D - Daily Dose of Dramaqueen 

Well it's not me making the drama, the seller is. I am only on the receiving end of it and really wish I weren't. 

[capt bullshot]

2 Timebase Plugins in a 7603 ? 

One can draw interesting patterns ...

[Vince]

Thanks for that Cap'tain !

Same scope model and exact same plugins as "mine" (if I ever do get it that is...), proves the point for sure ! 

OK so the guy who owned that scope clearly knew what he was doing, must have actually been using it to do stuff... which brings some level of confidence that this scope is not a turd and actually might be fine, or at least need only light maintenance like change a few tants here and there... that 's good.

[Vince]

It's vintage audiophile/phool time....

A local old man in my village, who likes to pay me unexpected visits to give me old electronics stuff as he clears decades worth of history from his sheds.... gave me 18 months a go a little Quad 33 pre-amp.
Made in England in Huntingdon. Brings back memories from where I was living nearby in Saint-Ives. At the time I had no idea that Quad existed (I am not at all into audio stuff, know squat), never mind that they were based in that village.

Back then I looked it up on Ebay and saw that it cost a fair bit of money (though this one is missing a knob so I guess price will take a hit ?).

Guy said it would be worth more if it came with the power amp that was designed to go with, model " Quad 303 " as they were designed as a pair / duo.

Well guess what.... the other day he paid me a visit and brought that power amp ! He thought he didn't have it any more, but finally he found it ! 

So he said my job is to get them working and try to sell them as a pair for as much money as vintage audio people will want to pay, then I can keep the money. He didn't even ask to split 50/50. He said he only wants a little of the money, whatever I am okay giving him ! How cool is that ! 

So I will try to get them going. It uses all sorts of weird ass connectors though : look at that mains power plug ?!  Lucky he still had the period cables that came with the amp, or else 
The pre-amp uses standard 5 pin DIN plugs at the back for all its inputs. He gave me a few plugs I can use for that. However the connectors that connect the pre-amp to the power amp, use a FOUR pin DIN, and apparently this configuration is not so common. He did find a cable with such plugs, however as you can see the plugs on both ends are falling apart ! 
Buyers won't like that very much I guess ! So I need to see if one can still buy these plugs from somewhere, so I can put new/fresh ones on this cable...
However for now, it still kinda "works" : I can grab the pin part of the plug, and shove it into the sockets, it's doable. It will be good enough to let me test these amps.

The power amp is a pain as well : the output connector uses 4mm jacks rather than the usual speaker connectors. Maybe I can hook up dummy loads, will see what I have in my power resistor collection...

I have no idea what the gain of this power amp is. There is no front panel / knob on this thing, it's a fixed amplification factor...

Will try to find manuals for these amps, to at least get basic specs so I don't blow them by accident....


Of course this will be relevant to TEA, since obviously there will be TE involved in testing these things.. .need a sig gen to supply a test signal, to the pre-amp input, then I need dummy loads to connect to the power amps outputs, then a scope to monitor waveforms at the output of the pre-amp and power amp. Stay tuned 

If anybody is into vintage audio and knows how much roughly this pair of amps is worth, and if I should just list them on ebay or if rather there is a specialized audio website (in Europe preferably...) where I could get a better audience willing to pay more money for them than the Ebay lurkers... let me know, greatly appreciate your advice ! 

[Martin.M]

that orange electrolytics are a possible way to destroy something, nothing else.
But when you sale them "untested" what will be the pay?

About vintage test gear:
My archive of service manuals is still growing, if you miss one look at wellenkino.de/manuals ,
I do scans, but only for owners of the instrument. And oftenly, when I have more the one of that manual, i send the original book to its instrument

Strictly excepting UPL audio analyzers, the are overloading in ebay, so I am asking for a nice $$$ to get this maps and softwares.

[Vince]

Oh, so these Orange cylnders are known to fail then  ?! Thanks for the warning... that's bad news as there are many of them...
If I replace them with modern general purpose caps, I am sure the audiophools will complain and say that tit's sacrilege, that the old caps sounded much better...
So my plan is to try to see if it works as is, hope it does, and then flog it as is. Crossing fingers nothing blows... stay tuned ! 

I just googled for the manuals, and found them !! 

Two of them. The main one, the user manual, covers both the Quad 33 and the 303 power amp that goes with it. So indeed ti was true, these two were designed as a pair...
Manual also gives all the schematics  ! 
Then I found another manual, a supplement, that gives a parts list for all the components, as well as board view that show you were all these components are located, how nice 

Found the specs for various inputs and outputs, so I shall not blow anything up, good !

[Neper]

There's a place in Antwerp for all things Quad, including spares:

https://www.dadaelectronics.eu/

I've bought a few spares from them and everything went smoothly. They even have your missing button. Older Quad amps are collectibles and such details can largely influence the price if you want to sell them.

The speaker outputs take ordinary banana plugs.