Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[duckduck]

Somewhat off-topic:

Got sick of waiting on my little Hakko for heavy jobs so I bought a vintage Weller soldering gun (200-ish Watts) off of ePay. The seller wrapped it in a single layer of thin bubble-wrap, dropped a couple of tissues in the box, and then dared USPS to "do your worst!" Well, they did and I received the gun in pieces. Luckily, the buyer has given me a refund and it looks like the gun will glue back together nicely with some epoxy.


Very on-topic:

Here's another used-TE online marketplace for you Yanks:

https://swap.qth.com/c_test.php

An occasional deal to be had here. I imagine these waters to be infested with morons and scammers. Check out the safe trading tips: https://chat.qth.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12

I bought a couple of radios off of this site and it worked out. I also "passed" on a piece of HP TE with a too-good-to-be-true price and a "cash only" seller.

EDIT:

You can look up a US amateur radio operator's home address by their callsign at qrz.com or https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchLicense.jsp .

[Neomys Sapiens]

The R&S UDL44 is in and it shows sufficient precision to be regarded as fully working.

Against the DMMcheck:
VDC: 5.001V
VAC(100Hz): 5.004V
Frequency(100Hz): 100.01Hz
VAC(10kHz): 4.984V
Frequency(10kHz): 10.000kHz
ADC: 1001.1µA
AAC(100Hz): 1000.9µA
AAC(10kHz): 953.6µA
100.53Ohms
999.7Ohms
9.988kOhms
100.01kOhms

And yes, a backlight would do it good. But honestly, at that time, only very few instruments had such a feature.

[Neomys Sapiens]

I'd love to get a Commodore M55, big beast with 55 buttons and are rare, like hens teeth.

You might be on to something here: that '=' key makes as much sense on a calculator as a sabertooth hen in the chicken shack!
 

[wolfy007]

The R&S UDL44 is in and it shows sufficient precision to be regarded as fully working.

Against the DMMcheck:
VDC: 5.001V
VAC(100Hz): 5.004V
Frequency(100Hz): 100.01Hz
VAC(10kHz): 4.984V
Frequency(10kHz): 10.000kHz
ADC: 1001.1µA
AAC(100Hz): 1000.9µA
AAC(10kHz): 953.6µA
100.53Ohms
999.7Ohms
9.988kOhms
100.01kOhms

And yes, a backlight would do it good. But honestly, at that time, only very few instruments had such a feature.

So project backlight is a go...   

[BU508A]

There is a new scope from Rohde & Schwarz in town:



Source:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-killer-scope-a-true-game-changer-from-rs-rtb2002-rtb2004/msg4437895/#msg4437895

[tinker357]

This listing started out at $2500 for "Huge lot of 70 Vintage Oscilloscopes and Test Equipment".  Every few days another $100 is chopped off the asking price. It is now down to $500.
https://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/ele/d/san-diego-huge-lot-of-70-vintage/7530631471.html

[TERRA Operative]

Wow.

There's a few bits I'd buy there.... Ask if they'll sell the J16 Photometer seperately.

I'd be inclined to snap up the lot and sell them off on ebay, if I were local.

[aspisys]

Nice to see you here Chris! Sotiris from aspisys Greece...

[TERRA Operative]

Got PCB's delivered today, so the Tek AFG5101 is now sporting a CR2032 battery for the RAM backup, and I built some extender cables to let me evicerate the thing so I can reach the inner boards to let me calibrate and adjust it.

Just gotta get a couple SMB male-female cables and I'll be set.
I'm also planning on making my own 0-100kHz precision 50ohm terminator (Tek part number 011-0129-00) to help me adjust this unit, next project.......


Also, finally got approval from the wife to buy a Siglent SSA3021X-Plus Spectrum Analyzer, and I'll probably spring for an RB3X25 'reflect bridge' too for fun.
Once it arrives, it'll be hacked up to a VNA as is tradition.

[DC1MC]

Got myself a Tek Scopemeter THS710 for a very acceptable price, does anybody know, or has available a (USB to) serial cable for it ? I can build one but laziness made me ask around first .
Also, at 10 eurocentavos a piece, some STM32 Nucleo boards.

 Cheers,
 DC1MC

[capt bullshot]

Got myself a Tek Scopemeter THS710 for a very acceptable price, does anybody know, or has available a (USB to) serial cable for it ? I can build one but laziness made me ask around first .

I've got this, though it's not USB. You'd need an additional standard USB to RS232, and I don't think "original" USB ones exist. It's kind of surplus to me, so it's free for you if you want it.



BTW, IIRC the THS710 models can be converted to 720 by changing an internal jumper. I believe it has to be a THS7x0A (not the "blank") for that hack to work. One can also convert them into a 730A or 720P. You don't get the 730's bandwidth, but at least the sample rate increases to 1GS/s, and the additional capabilities of the 720P are rather poor for todays standards.

[Vince]

Hmmmmmmm.....

3+ months ago, June 18th, I posted this, for reminders :

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg4246831/?topicseen#msg4246831

A guy on leboncoin.fr selling a half dozen pieces of TE for 70 Euros, local pickup only. The lot included a cool compact really nice spec niksee DVM, a Schneider MN 124.
As is, electrical condition unknown, only one pic of the front, very low res.

I tried to convince him to sell me the DVM only, and ship it anyway, as it was very small and light, for 35 Euros. He didn't even reply.

His ad didn't find any taker but all of a sudden now it's finally gone... and oh "coincidence", at the same time today appears..... "another" MN 124 DMM.... can't remember the name of the first seller, but it's got to be the same... too rare a TE, and too strange a timing/coincidence...

https://www.leboncoin.fr/collection/2228862792.htm

So, now he sells it standalone, good. And this time he is willing to ship it looks like, good again !
And  this time we get more than one ultra low res pic, we have half a dozen, very decent pics.
We also see it powered up, it's alive. All the digital tubes work. He even went through the trouble of using a battery and resistor to demonstrate that the thing works fine in Volts and ohms mode....
In short, a very nice ad that wets my appetite. If only every ad could be like that.

So what's wrong you say ? Why haven't you already bought it ?

Well.... before he was selling 6 TE for 70 Euros, but now for this meter alone he wants.... 100 Euros !!! 
My wallet can't afford that. So I added his ad to my "favorite" bookmarks and will watch it every now and then to see if the price drops at some point.

Problem is that he included the dreaded buzz word in the ad title : " Nixie " !    So it will attract a lot of attention and the price is unlikely to drop, it will sell quick for a lot of money.... it's game over for me 

Will monitor the ad anyway of course, but not holding my breath 

[factory]

There is a possibly borked one in Italy for less €, anybodies guess if the circuits are in the instruction manual. 

https://www.ebay.it/itm/115364848006

Edit: manual is here: https://www.aef.se/Matteknik/Matteknikportal/Dokument/Manualer/MN%20124_%20Digital%20Multimeter-8215.pdf

I suspect my HP 132A will be delivered tomorrow, probably won't get a chance to unbox it, as I will be in hospital most of the day. 

David

[Neper]

Problem is that he included the dreaded buzz word in the ad title : " Nixie " !    So it will attract a lot of attention and the price is unlikely to drop, it will sell quick for a lot of money.... it's game over for me

Who said life is fair? Or, to quote German football coach Otto Rehhagel: "Sometimes we lose, sometimes the others win."

[DC1MC]

Got myself a Tek Scopemeter THS710 for a very acceptable price, does anybody know, or has available a (USB to) serial cable for it ? I can build one but laziness made me ask around first .

I've got this, though it's not USB. You'd need an additional standard USB to RS232, and I don't think "original" USB ones exist. It's kind of surplus to me, so it's free for you if you want it.


BTW, IIRC the THS710 models can be converted to 720 by changing an internal jumper. I believe it has to be a THS7x0A (not the "blank") for that hack to work. One can also convert them into a 730A or 720P. You don't get the 730's bandwidth, but at least the sample rate increases to 1GS/s, and the additional capabilities of the 720P are rather poor for todays standards.

Hi capt, want because I have al the DB9 "gender fluid" adapters evar !!!

[tautech]

Also, finally got approval from the wife to buy a Siglent SSA3021X-Plus Spectrum Analyzer, and I'll probably spring for an RB3X25 'reflect bridge' too for fun.
Once it arrives, it'll be hacked up to a VNA as is tradition.

And once it becomes a SVA you'll most likely never use it again, I didn't.

RB3X25 best feature is it fits directly onto the ports, TG and RF In so no additional cables or adapters are required and RB3X25 directivity is nothing flash so should that bother you find a better spec bridge.

[Vince]

There is a possibly borked one in Italy for less €, anybodies guess if the circuits are in the instruction manual. 

https://www.ebay.it/itm/115364848006

Edit: manual is here: https://www.aef.se/Matteknik/Matteknikportal/Dokument/Manualer/MN%20124_%20Digital%20Multimeter-8215.pdf

I suspect my HP 132A will be delivered tomorrow, probably won't get a chance to unbox it, as I will be in hospital most of the day. 

David

Thanks for that !  Well within my "old junk impulse buy " budget 

and it needs fixing as well, cool, something to play with !

schematic seems to suggest that the instrument uses several custom chips, however looks like they contain nothing but very basic logic elements, flip-flops, which they could have implemented using regular TTL chips for all I see.... maybe doing so would have required too much board space though, and would have made it impossible to achieve the super compact form factor they targeted here.
So worse case if need be, I could design replacement boards that use normal TTL chips instead, and if indeed they don't fit, I could try to get round this problem by using modern, much smaller SMD packages, or even where that might help, tiny single or double gate packages. Or I could go even go and do what they probably did here, and program some PAL/GAL. Love these old things and want to play with them, so that could be an excellent excuse to do so, and would look much more period correct in this instrument, so double win. 

I am very tempted.... but need to know how much he charges for shipping.... used Google Translate to understand what it says and... it's not looking good : at the bottom where you look for the shipping options, it says it won't ship to Ukraine or Belarus or Russia.... so I thought OK so France should be fine then... so I click on the drop down menu to select France and... uh.... this "list" is not a list.... it allows you to chose only between Italy, Italy and Italy !! 

Might be why I fail to find this ad when I search for it from French Ebay, even when I extend the search worldwide, and even if I type the item number in the search box !

Dave how did you find this ad then ?! Using a VPN ? till, that would require knowing beforehand that it was located in Italy, so it's chicken and egg...

Might try my chance and ask the seller any way, if he can ship to France.

Where is Zucca when you need him !

[DC1MC]

<...>
BTW, IIRC the THS710 models can be converted to 720 by changing an internal jumper. I believe it has to be a THS7x0A (not the "blank") for that hack to work. One can also convert them into a 730A or 720P. You don't get the 730's bandwidth, but at least the sample rate increases to 1GS/s, and the additional capabilities of the 720P are rather poor for todays standards.

I can confirm that also the THS710 -> THS720 conversion works like a charm, SPC worked also as well after conversion.
Now I'm wondering if the P variants have some special stuff inside, because is tempting to try it  .

 Cheers,
 DC1MC

 

[Neepa]

Currently enduring shipping hell with GLS for a HP4145A Semiconductor Parameter Analyzer.

Already had the package diverted to a paketshop only to have it not delivered to it due to "Closed. Due to vacation." Either the shop hadn't opened when the guy tried to deliver it or he didn't want to haul the heavy thing to it. Because I went there after work and it is open.

No the joke is on him. Used delivery while absent and now he can haul it up four floors to my flat's door.
Really hoping it isn't stolen while im at work.

Yes it was that HP4145A that sold on ebay recently.

[DC1MC]

<...>
BTW, IIRC the THS710 models can be converted to 720 by changing an internal jumper. I believe it has to be a THS7x0A (not the "blank") for that hack to work. One can also convert them into a 730A or 720P. You don't get the 730's bandwidth, but at least the sample rate increases to 1GS/s, and the additional capabilities of the 720P are rather poor for todays standards.

I can confirm that also the THS710 -> THS720 conversion works like a charm, SPC worked also as well after conversion.
Now I'm wondering if the P variants have some special stuff inside, because is tempting to try it  .

Well, no 730 with or 720P with the 710 Standard, but a solid 720: 100MHz and 50ns/div, good enough for the money paid. The SPC works OK and afterwards just the slightest overshot on its calibration signal with the previously calibrated original probe, it could have been that when I calibrated first time was not hot enough. Anyway it was minimal and there was no strange DC offset at all, as I've seen on other conversions, so I'll say mission completed successfully  . Next stop is the LED conversion, but the tube still have some life in it, so I'm in no hurry.

Cheers,
DC1MC

[factory]

There is a possibly borked one in Italy for less €, anybodies guess if the circuits are in the instruction manual. 

https://www.ebay.it/itm/115364848006

Edit: manual is here: https://www.aef.se/Matteknik/Matteknikportal/Dokument/Manualer/MN%20124_%20Digital%20Multimeter-8215.pdf

I suspect my HP 132A will be delivered tomorrow, probably won't get a chance to unbox it, as I will be in hospital most of the day. 

David

Thanks for that !  Well within my "old junk impulse buy " budget 

and it needs fixing as well, cool, something to play with !

schematic seems to suggest that the instrument uses several custom chips, however looks like they contain nothing but very basic logic elements, flip-flops, which they could have implemented using regular TTL chips for all I see.... maybe doing so would have required too much board space though, and would have made it impossible to achieve the super compact form factor they targeted here.
So worse case if need be, I could design replacement boards that use normal TTL chips instead, and if indeed they don't fit, I could try to get round this problem by using modern, much smaller SMD packages, or even where that might help, tiny single or double gate packages. Or I could go even go and do what they probably did here, and program some PAL/GAL. Love these old things and want to play with them, so that could be an excellent excuse to do so, and would look much more period correct in this instrument, so double win. 

I am very tempted.... but need to know how much he charges for shipping.... used Google Translate to understand what it says and... it's not looking good : at the bottom where you look for the shipping options, it says it won't ship to Ukraine or Belarus or Russia.... so I thought OK so France should be fine then... so I click on the drop down menu to select France and... uh.... this "list" is not a list.... it allows you to chose only between Italy, Italy and Italy !! 

Might be why I fail to find this ad when I search for it from French Ebay, even when I extend the search worldwide, and even if I type the item number in the search box !

Dave how did you find this ad then ?! Using a VPN ? till, that would require knowing beforehand that it was located in Italy, so it's chicken and egg...

Might try my chance and ask the seller any way, if he can ship to France.

Where is Zucca when you need him !

I used google to search for "Schneider MN124", one of the search results was for "picclick.it" (I use "picclick" regularly to get round the search geo-blocking by ePay  mostly for the .com site): https://picclick.it/Strumento-Vintage-Di-Misura-Della-Schneider-Mod-MN124-115364848006.html

Then I click on the "get details on ePay" button and on ePay I normally change the web address back to .co.uk to see it translated into English, that tells me the seller in this case "May not post to United Kingdom (or France in your case). Read item description or contact seller for postage options."

You should be able to ask this seller a question about postage, there is no communication blocking in this case (but most of the time there is  ).

Not sure Zucca could help, as he relocated to the USA.

David

[TERRA Operative]

Currently enduring shipping hell with GLS for a HP4145A Semiconductor Parameter Analyzer.

Already had the package diverted to a paketshop only to have it not delivered to it due to "Closed. Due to vacation." Either the shop hadn't opened when the guy tried to deliver it or he didn't want to haul the heavy thing to it. Because I went there after work and it is open.

No the joke is on him. Used delivery while absent and now he can haul it up four floors to my flat's door.
Really hoping it isn't stolen while im at work.

Yes it was that HP4145A that sold on ebay recently.

Got floppy disks for it?
I might have a spare....

[Neepa]

The previous owner already had it converted to SD card booting so floppies are no longer required.
Now that I think about it I wanted to ask if he still had the old drive and would be willing to include it.....damn.

Gotta buy two additional trivial cables too. Thankfully I've got a source for em.

[Vince]

I used google to search for "Schneider MN124", one of the search results was for "picclick.it" (I use "picclick" regularly to get round the search geo-blocking by ePay  mostly for the .com site): https://picclick.it/Strumento-Vintage-Di-Misura-Della-Schneider-Mod-MN124-115364848006.html

Then I click on the "get details on ePay" button and on ePay I normally change the web address back to .co.uk to see it translated into English, that tells me the seller in this case "May not post to United Kingdom (or France in your case). Read item description or contact seller for postage options."

You should be able to ask this seller a question about postage, there is no communication blocking in this case (but most of the time there is  ).

Not sure Zucca could help, as he relocated to the USA.

David

Oh OK, thanks for the tip... will have to remember that.

Zucca is not in the US but he said he had long arms reaching in Germany where he used to livel, so probably also has even longer arms in his home country ! 

The 100 Euros French one, I se, is already sold this evening !!! 

https://www.leboncoin.fr/collection/2228862792.htm

Wow... I honestly didn't think it would sell so fast at THAT price !
Guess I am not the only one who liked it very much then !

hmmm... so this defective cheap Italian one is now not only a cheap option, but the only option... so even more tempted.

I will try to contact the seller, hope he  speaks English. At least Zucca could being a native Italian he could maybe help me out communicating with the seller...

[Vince]

Oh no, it looks like even that cheap Italian one has already been sold now or what ?! 

Oh well......