Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[TERRA Operative]

@Vince
Make sure to measure the physical size, and also the pitch of the legs of the capacitors to make sure you get ones that fit!

[salvagedcircuitry]

Debating selling my two agilent 3034a oscilloscopes to fund other lab purchases. I know, I know, sacrilege  .

Does anyone have any experience selling oscilloscopes to alltest, testequity or similar?

Thanks!

[Brumby]

I haven't sold any scopes - but I have given one or two (sub 25MHz) away.

[tautech]

Debating selling my two agilent 3034a oscilloscopes to fund other lab purchases. I know, I know, sacrilege  .

Does anyone have any experience selling oscilloscopes to alltest, testequity or similar?

Why not eBay or even here ?
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/

[Neomys Sapiens]

Yeah but you don't want them enough to pay the 150 Euros  + shipping to Japan, I bet !

You are too used to having local supplies of dirt cheap plugins, everything at 20 bucks + 5 bucks shipping ! 

That said, I will be your middle man of course, if you REALLY want them ! 

You don't want the 5006 frame and the fancy current probe amplifier ?!

I would take the mainframe off your hands if Terra Operative wants the plugins.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Geez looks like that one has ALSO been sold now ! 

I mean I wasn't interested in that particular one but still, what's going on in the TE world.... some people are harvesting Nixie stuff...

Not limited to the Nixie stuff - the prices for Tek 22xx scopes(except the crappy ones) are steadily rising!
 

[Neomys Sapiens]

And I got a supposedly working HP437B RF power meter, but without detector head and/or detector cable. But at 137€ it was decidedly below the other HP powermeters on offer without detector heads, so it seemed a good idea to grab it.
Unhurriedly looking for those items now. I don't need the most sensitive heads or the ones with the highest frequency coverage. I would prefer a baseline model like the HP 8481A.

[TERRA Operative]

Yeah but you don't want them enough to pay the 150 Euros  + shipping to Japan, I bet !

You are too used to having local supplies of dirt cheap plugins, everything at 20 bucks + 5 bucks shipping ! 

That said, I will be your middle man of course, if you REALLY want them ! 

You don't want the 5006 frame and the fancy current probe amplifier ?!

I would take the mainframe off your hands if Terra Operative wants the plugins.

I'm currently in the process of ordering a Siglent Spectrum Analyzer, so unfortunately have to pass up on the TM500 modules.

It hurts! It hurts!

[Zoli]

Yeah but you don't want them enough to pay the 150 Euros  + shipping to Japan, I bet !

You are too used to having local supplies of dirt cheap plugins, everything at 20 bucks + 5 bucks shipping ! 

That said, I will be your middle man of course, if you REALLY want them ! 

You don't want the 5006 frame and the fancy current probe amplifier ?!

I would take the mainframe off your hands if Terra Operative wants the plugins.

I'm currently in the process of ordering a Siglent Spectrum Analyzer, so unfortunately have to pass up on the TM500 modules.

It hurts! It hurts!

I think you guys should have a chat about:
1. Who needs what
2. Who should invest
3. When everybody should pay his dues
4. Agree and apply ASAP
5. Optional: chew some nails

[TERRA Operative]

Well, I got 75 euro with no current purpose burning a hole in my paypal account, so there's that......

[Neomys Sapiens]

Yeah but you don't want them enough to pay the 150 Euros  + shipping to Japan, I bet !

You are too used to having local supplies of dirt cheap plugins, everything at 20 bucks + 5 bucks shipping ! 

That said, I will be your middle man of course, if you REALLY want them ! 

You don't want the 5006 frame and the fancy current probe amplifier ?!

I would take the mainframe off your hands if Terra Operative wants the plugins.

I'm currently in the process of ordering a Siglent Spectrum Analyzer, so unfortunately have to pass up on the TM500 modules.

It hurts! It hurts!

Silly you! It's the Siglent that hurts! I'm not surprised - keep away from dubious T&M gear and women with riding crops, as both are going to hurt you!

[Vince]

Vince, try Tedss for the caps:
https://www.tedss.com/

Too bad they are in the US, they look like they have nice caps for my old stuff.... lots of Silver Mica caps, and even can caps that look like the very same that Tek used in their hollow state scopes, Mallory branded, same for factor and look, same mounting system and footprint, there "twist lock" tabs or something like that they call it.... at 15/30 bucks a pop though !
Can't believe these are still being manufactured today, I am stunned.... so must be old stock so not much good. Or does Mallory still exist and still makes these 60 year old caps ?! 
Too expensive for me of course, never mind with shipping and import duties etc, but if I win the lottery one day, it's nice to know I could  buy these caps....

[Vince]

@Vince
Make sure to measure the physical size, and also the pitch of the legs of the capacitors to make sure you get ones that fit!

Oh boy, simply ordering all these caps is a chore.. adding a verification of package size to the mix would make that chore exponent 3, and lead only to one thing : me taking a drive with my car and snedng it full speed into a big bridge pillar.

All these caps are for stuff from the '60S, 1972 at best (for the Tek 7603), so for stuff this old, I just take it for granted that the new caps are bound to be smaller than the old ones, and the lead spacing bound to be narrower, but it's not difficult to bent leads, is it. If for some strange reason the new caps were to be larger than the old one, strange but..... well, I would rather cope with the one in 50 caps that doesn't fit, special case it, rather than waste hours taking into account the package size each and every of dozens of caps. My time is precious to me....

However when I recapped the PSU for my Tek 2467B, I measured diameter and height of every cap because it's a more modern design and most caps had zero margin for error, either touching each other, or touching some other components of mechanical bit or what have you... so it was critical to look into that...

But I won't order them today... it's already 21H00 here and I am tired. So tomorrow maybe...

[tautech]

Vince, try Tedss for the caps:
https://www.tedss.com/

Too bad they are in the US, they look like they have nice caps for my old stuff.... lots of Silver Mica caps, and even can caps that look like the very same that Tek used in their hollow state scopes, Mallory branded, same for factor and look, same mounting system and footprint, there "twist lock" tabs or something like that they call it.... at 15/30 bucks a pop though !
Can't believe these are still being manufactured today, I am stunned.... so must be old stock so not much good. Or does Mallory still exist and still makes these 60 year old caps ?! 
Too expensive for me of course, never mind with shipping and import duties etc, but if I win the lottery one day, it's nice to know I could  buy these caps....

Yup. Some I looked for some years back Tedss was the only place I could find them at a reasonable price so crowds like them sorta stick in ya mind. 

[capt bullshot]

Oh boy, simply ordering all these caps is a chore.. adding a verification of package size to the mix would make that chore exponent 3, and lead only to one thing : me taking a drive with my car and snedng it full speed into a big bridge pillar.

Not that I'd encourage you to do so, but at least you suggest a bridge pillar (which is human made) instead of a big tree (which is nature). It's a good idea to not punish or blame nature for human made issues.

SCNR
(for the records, this is meant to be ironical or sarcastic, please make your choice and don't commit suicide)

[TERRA Operative]

Vince won't go anywhere, he still needs to get the TDS scope from me first...

[Vince]

Yes exactly ! I want my TDS 784D full options and retrobrighted. Unpack it, play with it for an evening. THEN, I can go for a drive ! 

[factory]

Been a strange day, another small fire at work, this time involving an industrial size oven, few weeks back some antique electrics expired.  Today's incident held me up leaving for my half day off. 

When I eventually managed to escape work, I took a few things down to the storage room and bought back the pair of HP 5327B counters, the Wayne Kerr B900 LCR bridge and another RIFA madness  infused device.







Luckily I had two 2200pF caps left from the 24xx scope repairs, still needs some work as I have no vertical deflection, will check for dead caps on the CRT board tomorrow.





And this evening the HP 132A finally arrived, it seems to have survived the trip from the US too. 



David

[Robert763]

I decided to try and fix the IFR 2395 display properly. The ebay seller had a couple of other IFR 23xx SAs with missing bits. I put an offer on a 2399 with no PSU module.  It was accepted and arrived last week. Pleased to fing it came with the proper IFR front panel cover- bonus. Finally got around to looking at it and it is complete apart from the PSU and RF input cable. I even has the Tracking Generator option so I can flip that.  I pulled the whole front panel off and slaved it on to the 2395. Ther is just the LCD cable and a 40w 0.1" ribbon cable. Powered uop and the LCD looks good. Swapped the LCD and CCFL inverter into the the 2395, put it all back together and it works 
I have a modern portable 26.5 GHz SA with all the options (except CDMA I didn't enable that as it's no use) including Quasi-peak and EMI measurement receiver. Total cost £995 plus I have a bunch of spares and some bits to flip.
Happy bunnie.

[tautech]

What's the 10dB step at ~2GHz ?

[TERRA Operative]

Package delivery!

I finally got them!
Sensors for my J16 Digital Photometer, and a second photometer...
Additionally, my first J16 is in mostly imperial units (Foot Candles, Foot Lamberts and μWatts/sq cm) and this new one is in metric units (lm/mm² (LUX), cd/m² (NITS) and mW/m²)

For the sensor heads I got a J6502 which reads in mW/m² and a J6503 which reads in cd/m²

They seem to work, so I'll adjust them against my i1Display Pro screen calibrator as it is the best reference I currently have for this stuff.

[Peter_O]

There is an Tektronix 475A offered nearby. It woult be a 10 min drive to pick it up.     
It shows square signals on both channels. Owner says, it's faulty, because it does not react to all switches etc., and will need some refurbishment.

Is this one a manageable rabbit hole, or more kind of a black hole I will never get out again before it is running reliably? 

[tggzzz]

There is an Tektronix 475A offered nearby. It woult be a 10 min drive to pick it up.     
It shows square signals on both channels. Owner says, it's faulty, because it does not react to all switches etc., and will need some refurbishment.

Is this one a manageable rabbit hole, or more kind of a black hole I will never get out again before it is running reliably? 

Which switches etc?
Is the seller competent to understand how to operate it, e.g. used it successfully in the past?
How much time do you have?
How much does it cost?

Probably worth getting. There are many explanations how to renovate 4x5 class machines. Be careful not to bugger the gold finger cam switches. Might need to get new attenuator sections.

[Robert763]

What's the 10dB step at ~2GHz ?

It's the change from baseband to down converted coverage at about 3GHz and the Pre-amp is on below 3GHz.

[tautech]

What's the 10dB step at ~2GHz ?

It's the change from baseband to down converted coverage at about 3GHz and the Pre-amp is on below 3GHz.

Is it normal for such a step to be visible ?