Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[GreyWoolfe]

Well I hope they do, because it looks like a pizza box so I would rather for ti to be still warm when it arrives, cold pizza doesn't taste as good  ! 

I like them with lots of goat cheese, bacon and mushrooms please ! 

Vince, have you really never had cold pizza for breakfast?  Nothing like a couple of double pepperoni pizza slices to start the day.  Just don't put them in the microwave!!

[TERRA Operative]

The thing about pizza is, good pizza is awesome, and bad pizza is still pretty good.

Just don't ruin it with nasty seafood!

[McBryce]

The thing about pizza is, good pizza is awesome, and bad pizza is still pretty good.

Just don't ruin it with nasty seafood!

Or Pineapple!!

McBryce.

[TERRA Operative]

You wat mate, come fite me. 

[McBryce]

You wat mate, come fite me. 

No problem, I have the entire Italian nation on my side!

McBryce.

[SoundTech-LG]

 

[Ice-Tea]

TCR 300S9. High voltage power supplies are always a bit easier to sell, so I was a bit bummed when it would always be stuck in CC mode. No voltage. So, popping the hood.



Easy enough to probe. Minor caveat: scares the shit out of me with all these exposed HV connections.



Oddly enough, while probing around nothing seemed out of line. Then my nickel dropped. The current sense is also patched on the backpanel. And a few screws were missing, disconnecting the current sense path. I'm not sure if I should pad myself on the back or kick me in the nuts (which might be a bit more challenging). But it works.

[TERRA Operative]

300V, 9A, 2700W

That's a chunky power supply.

[Specmaster]

The thing about pizza is, good pizza is awesome, and bad pizza is still pretty good.

Just don't ruin it with nasty seafood!

Or Pineapple!!

McBryce.

Pineapple is nice on a Pizza, mmmmmm

[Ice-Tea]

300V, 9A, 2700W

That's a chunky power supply.

Tell my table. Or the hole in it.

[capt bullshot]

300V, 9A, 2700W

TCR 300S9. High voltage power supplies are always a bit easier to sell, so I was a bit bummed when it would always be stuck in CC mode. No voltage. So, popping the hood.

Easy enough to probe. Minor caveat: scares the shit out of me with all these exposed HV connections.

That is powerful, indeed. The big caps are scary - but at 300V it's not an HV supply at all. By definition "High Voltage" is above 1000V.
Anyway, I'd be very careful probing, too.

[Ice-Tea]

300V, 9A, 2700W

TCR 300S9. High voltage power supplies are always a bit easier to sell, so I was a bit bummed when it would always be stuck in CC mode. No voltage. So, popping the hood.

Easy enough to probe. Minor caveat: scares the shit out of me with all these exposed HV connections.

That is powerful, indeed. The big caps are scary - but at 300V it's not an HV supply at all. By definition "High Voltage" is above 1000V.
Anyway, I'd be very careful probing, too.

Heh. I know there are other definitions of high voltage. Mine is "anything with even a minor chance of killing me".

[AVGresponding]

300V, 9A, 2700W

TCR 300S9. High voltage power supplies are always a bit easier to sell, so I was a bit bummed when it would always be stuck in CC mode. No voltage. So, popping the hood.

Easy enough to probe. Minor caveat: scares the shit out of me with all these exposed HV connections.

That is powerful, indeed. The big caps are scary - but at 300V it's not an HV supply at all. By definition "High Voltage" is above 1000V.
Anyway, I'd be very careful probing, too.

This is a (fairly) recent reclassification by the IET. HV used to be >10kV, 1kV-10kV was "intermediate voltage".

NB: 1kVAC. DC HV starts at 1.5kV.

NB2: ANSI are p*****s. Fight me.

[Zoli]

Get some heatshrink for the label maker and you might have something there.
Even print a paper label all fancy like and then clear heatshrink it on.

Clear heatshrink is overrated:
https://www.te.com/usa-en/product-1878658-4.html
This cover survive 5 years in the salt mine, and won't dry/come off; try to put clear heatshrink in the middle of a 300m cable.

[capt bullshot]

That is powerful, indeed. The big caps are scary - but at 300V it's not an HV supply at all. By definition "High Voltage" is above 1000V.
Anyway, I'd be very careful probing, too.

This is a (fairly) recent reclassification by the IET. HV used to be >10kV, 1kV-10kV was "intermediate voltage".

NB: 1kVAC. DC HV starts at 1.5kV.

NB2: ANSI are p*****s. Fight me.

You're correct, I remember 1kV and above as "Mittelspannung" (medium voltage), too. This definition (above 1kV) of "High Voltage" is new to me, so in retrospective I was wrong saying above 1kV is HV, but would be right according to that new definition 
Whatsoever, I think it's been enough of confusion for today

To me, even ELV at 48V can be very scary if the source is just powerful enough. It won't electrocute me, but might explode a spanner into my face 

[capt bullshot]

That's some electroboom style fun with capacitors:

[Neper]

Heh. I know there are other definitions of high voltage. Mine is "anything with even a minor chance of killing me".

It's volts that jolts, but mils that kills.

[Ice-Tea]

Oh, I know. But there's this fella "Ohm" that seems to think these two are somehow related.

[tautech]

Oh, I know. But there's this fella "Ohm" that seems to think these two are somehow related.

Yes, so I believe.

[Peter_O]

Finally I've got a HP3400A. 

Normally they are selling for 200 to 250 Euros over here. 

This one was some risk, as function 'was not checked' by the heir, who sold it. But I've got it for 85 Euros.



Looks fine with some dust and cat or dog hairs. Inside nothing seems to be missing.

It's from 1982 and has the 66512 A6 assembly, which is the newer opamp solution instead of the separate weird optocoupler.

I didn't expect it to run fine from the start. And so it is:
After switch on, the needle is mooving smoothly, but is running randomly all over the scale.
So there is some research and work to be done. 

[Vince]

Yeah uh.... I am not like that sadly, I do care about what's not to be seen... just like girls care about putting sexy underwear even when they don't intend to let anyone see it on that day. 

But yes, I agree with you anyway.... I just hope I can get get used to such bodges, since it's based on good technical and financial grounds.... I will try to make it look as good as you, to help ease the pain...

You will just have to get a lathe, spinning tools and mandrels and spin your own axial cases to hide modern capacitors in 

Nah, because I would know what's inside the can...
A radial bodge looks horrible, but a radial bodge trying to disguise / hide in a can, would worse, it would be a dishonest radial bodge....
Plus, it's more work, adds weight and labour ! 
Nah, as much as I dislike a radial bodge, I would at least prefer a honest one in clear tubing that's not trying pretend to be something it's not.

I do absolutely plan and want to have a mini lathe though ! 

[Vince]

Well I hope they do, because it looks like a pizza box so I would rather for ti to be still warm when it arrives, cold pizza doesn't taste as good  ! 

I like them with lots of goat cheese, bacon and mushrooms please ! 

Vince, have you really never had cold pizza for breakfast?  Nothing like a couple of double pepperoni pizza slices to start the day.  Just don't put them in the microwave!!

A pizza for Breakfast ?! Is that even legal at all ?! 
It's a cultural thing I guess....

To be honest I very rarely eat any pizza. I like a good pizza but it's too expensive and is too much work, you need to take the car and go out to get it. Takes time, money to burn petrol and wear the tires, you need to put your shoes on, waste precious time to drive there and back , wait at the restaurant to get your pizza, go back home, find a parking place, maybe pay for it... and endure the weather which might not be clement... for something that will get eaten in 5 minutes. ROI is not good to say the least...

No. I can't quite remember when I last bought a pizza for my own self. Eating one when going out with other people yes, but not just for me alone.

I think I remember the last time I ate pizzas. I think it was in june 2014, I was on a work trip abroad with a colleague for 2 weeks in northern Germany, in Bremen, to work on the A400M at the Airbus plant there. Every evening I would meet with that colleague and we would go in town center by the river, to eat a pizza, in a different restaurant every evening. I could not believe just how many pizza places there were in that town that's sooooooooooooooooo far away up north compared to Italy.

So it was like 8 years ago then.... time flies.

[AVGresponding]

That is powerful, indeed. The big caps are scary - but at 300V it's not an HV supply at all. By definition "High Voltage" is above 1000V.
Anyway, I'd be very careful probing, too.

This is a (fairly) recent reclassification by the IET. HV used to be >10kV, 1kV-10kV was "intermediate voltage".

NB: 1kVAC. DC HV starts at 1.5kV.

NB2: ANSI are p*****s. Fight me.

You're correct, I remember 1kV and above as "Mittelspannung" (medium voltage), too. This definition (above 1kV) of "High Voltage" is new to me, so in retrospective I was wrong saying above 1kV is HV, but would be right according to that new definition 
Whatsoever, I think it's been enough of confusion for today

To me, even ELV at 48V can be very scary if the source is just powerful enough. It won't electrocute me, but might explode a spanner into my face 

Pretty sure I've linked the BT 48VDC rack short vids here before but I'll redo it anyway. Even a car battery can kick out several hundred amps and cause serious ooops in the wrong (right?) circumstances.



EDIT:

NB 54V is the approximate VDC of a nominal 4x12V string

[tggzzz]

Oh, I know. But there's this fella "Ohm" that seems to think these two are somehow related.

No, volts ohms and amps aren't simply related. Exception: the special cases in which ohms law is valid.

Don't believe me? Consider the current in tunnelling devices, or where the voltage is outside a device's specifications, or a battery, or etc

[vk6zgo]

The thing about pizza is, good pizza is awesome, and bad pizza is still pretty good.

Just don't ruin it with nasty seafood!

Prawns aren't nasty, unless you have an allergy, but you can forget anchovies.

The best pizzas I've ever had were many years ago, from "Grumpy's Pizza" (motto:- Service with a snarl!").
I would order their "Vegetarian Pizza", then get them to put prawns on it.

(I was careful how I worded the last sentence, as last time I mentioned this, we burnt up a couple of pages on whether  "added prawns" meant the pizza already had some----too long ago, & too convoluted!)

What were we talking about?---that's right, TEA!
Not much to report, my pile of "to be fixed" stuff hasn't diminished one iota---every time I sit down to do some work, some other thing comes up with higher priority.
I have been playing with my eBay purchases, though.
Both the nanoVNA & the little "El Cheapo" poor man's voltage calibration source seem to do their thing OK, although the former doesn't like being used with my laptop---doesn't matter much, as I mainly need it as a "standalone" thing!