Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[wkb]

Sofar I have had good experiences with Kleinanzeigen, even as a Dutchman.    Being able to write (and speak) half-way passable German helps. I have had experiences when I got replies in 'sortof' English when I wrote a message in German. That was an indication for me to 'nah... don't think so' 

Wilko

On at least 3 occaisions I have had Kleinanzeigen.de email me with "Account <foo> has been suspended due to suspicious activity <blabla>". So... not at all impossible that this might be a "compromised account" !

I do regularly report suspicious offers in Kleinanzeigen. Last case, an hour ago or so a Keithley DMM 6500 for 480 Euro.
The seller has used the same picture as for another ad a few days ago.
Reported it and the ad was gone within minutes.

There are from time to time other scam attempts, mostly with 34401A. Prices asked are around 200 Euro, often something like 234 or 227 Euro.
As soon as I spot such a price, I'm getting suspicious.

[McBryce]

On at least 3 occaisions I have had Kleinanzeigen.de email me with "Account <foo> has been suspended due to suspicious activity <blabla>". So... not at all impossible that this might be a "compromised account" !

I do regularly report suspicious offers in Kleinanzeigen. Last case, an hour ago or so a Keithley DMM 6500 for 480 Euro.
The seller has used the same picture as for another ad a few days ago.
Reported it and the ad was gone within minutes.

There are from time to time other scam attempts, mostly with 34401A. Prices asked are around 200 Euro, often something like 234 or 227 Euro.
As soon as I spot such a price, I'm getting suspicious.

So my Keithley 6500 isn't going to arrive on Tuesday as expected??!! Next you'll be telling me that I haven't inherited 3 Gazillion dollars from a Nigerian tycoon that died in a plane crash and had no relatives so the money never got claimed.

McBryce.

[DC1MC]

and here is the original:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/204334097159

don't worry, if you send your money to paypal friend's nirwana, nothing will clutter your shack. 

kleinanzeigen is actually a paradise for cheaters and offenders.

What is to good to be true is not true. Only use paypal with shopping security or local pickup. No money transfer oder paypal friend's nirvana.
For the TDS5054 i just tried to send money with paypal shopping security. The offender send it back instantly and complained about overrunning paypal account. 
Another cheater ask to send an advance of € 50    - jeah some pocket money for offspring hackers.

They use the human greed and the fear that someone else comes first, so that your brain stem takes over and cheats you into doing something you normally would not do.

So stay to your principles and listen to your gut feeling.
[/quote]

I have tried to report it and got this wonderful error:
"Es ist ein unerwarteter Fehler aufgetreten.
Bitte versuche es später noch einmal."

Since KA was sold by EBAY, they've most likely fired their security team or strongly reduced.
In any case, my Litmus test is to ask enthusiastically if I can come and pick it up, usually followed by complete silence or some kind of pathetic lie as excuse.

 Cheers,
 DC1MC

[Robert763]

More TEA 
Recent ebay purchase arrived. Anritsu handheld analyser with colour touch screen. No it's not a 40 GHz sitemaster with the spectrum analyser option  .
A MD6430A Network Data

So mostly for obsolete digital telephone / data standards. But it does hve a un-encoded data interface so can be used to test RS232, 422 and unusually TTL/CMOS levels. It also allows mixed interfaces so you can test between TTL and RS422 so great for testing interfaces.
[ Specified attachment is not available ]
It even came with the optional battery.
Even better for someone like me who likes a bargain, it was cheap. Very cheap actually. Only £15 

[m k]

Those prices around your neck of woods never stop amazing me.

First obvious test is how RS-422, if memory serves it's min. 200mV differential.
Maybe it accepts single ended(423) also.

[Vince]

Did you even look at the pics he posted ?! 

The second screen shot clearly lists the RS-423....

[zepto]

I grabbed a Fluke 335D from a local shop for $29.95. It seems pretty stable, not sure what I will use it for.

[Vince]

No picture = doesn't exist   

[m k]

Did you even look at the pics he posted ?! 

The second screen shot clearly lists the RS-423....

Dang, actually I did, long enough that clean glasses wouldn't do any change.
It's cölear again that eyes don't see.
Expectation it can't be either so who knows where that image went.

BTW,
how you know zepto's post doesn't have a picture?
I can't see it either but you know what I see.

[TERRA Operative]

Got my E4418B all working again. New battery, new front panel button flat-flex membrane, and new octal tri-state bus transceivers, one of which decided to die while I was replacing the battery (I replaced all 4, just in case..)
I just need to order a handle and the rubber baby buggy bumpers, along with a new rear plastic bezel and it's finished 100%.

I also got the last LCD I needed to reassemble the last TDS200 scope delivered today. This is my 4th unit and is currently a TDS210. It will be upgraded to a TDS220 once I get my SG5030 leveled sine wave gen working again (The leveling head decided to self destruct the other day..)

I also had some fun with THS700 scope backlights. I installed warm/natural/cool white LED's and took some photos in RAW mode on my phone with a colour calibration chart, and put them all together for a comparison. Image attached.
Natural white is nice, but the blue of the cool white LED's helps counteract the 'old' yellow look. What do you guys think?


And finally, I put a new battery in my Advantest R6145 DC volt/current generator. I also blew out the dust and glued up the front bezel (Loctite 401 is great stuff). I'll probably give it a coat of light cream coloured paint to bring it all back shiny again.

[Vince]

Warm white please !

The blue hue in all other attempts makes me sick. I have grown so sick of blue anything in modern electronics and consumer stuff, LED's, backlights, what have you, it makes my eyes bleed adn makes me want to kill whoever happens to be nearby.

Only exception I make is for ancient hollow state Tek scopes. My 502As have blue phosphor CRTs and I like it that way.
But for modern/solid state stuff brrr.... drives me mad.

[Vince]

Did you even look at the pics he posted ?! 

The second screen shot clearly lists the RS-423....

Dang, actually I did, long enough that clean glasses wouldn't do any change.
It's cölear again that eyes don't see.
Expectation it can't be either so who knows where that image went.

BTW,
how you know zepto's post doesn't have a picture?
I can't see it either but you know what I see.

Easy, just do like me whenever I compose a message on here : press and hold the CONTROL key on your keyboard, and at the same time roll the wheel on your mouse, forward.
If you do that, then magic happens ! Everything on the screen gets a lot bigger and even me, half blind, I can see things on the screen !

I must admit my glasses are at least 15 years old hence why I can't see squat. But there are plans to consult the eye doctor this year and go get a new pair.
I am hoping this will make using the computer easier and more comfortable.

Will also allow me to see what's in front of me when I drive, which may save some lives.

[TERRA Operative]

They warm white is very yellow in person, think yellowed vintage PC plastics yellow....

Natural white is a little yellower than the original CCFL, so I'll probably go with that.

[wkb]

Cool white gets my vote!

Wilko

Got my E4418B all working again. New battery, new front panel button flat-flex membrane, and new octal tri-state bus transceivers, one of which decided to die while I was replacing the battery (I replaced all 4, just in case..)
I just need to order a handle and the rubber baby buggy bumpers, along with a new rear plastic bezel and it's finished 100%.

I also got the last LCD I needed to reassemble the last TDS200 scope delivered today. This is my 4th unit and is currently a TDS210. It will be upgraded to a TDS220 once I get my SG5030 leveled sine wave gen working again (The leveling head decided to self destruct the other day..)

I also had some fun with THS700 scope backlights. I installed warm/natural/cool white LED's and took some photos in RAW mode on my phone with a colour calibration chart, and put them all together for a comparison. Image attached.
Natural white is nice, but the blue of the cool white LED's helps counteract the 'old' yellow look. What do you guys think?


And finally, I put a new battery in my Advantest R6145 DC volt/current generator. I also blew out the dust and glued up the front bezel (Loctite 401 is great stuff). I'll probably give it a coat of light cream coloured paint to bring it all back shiny again.

[Vince]

They warm white is very yellow in person, think yellowed vintage PC plastics yellow....

Natural white is a little yellower than the original CCFL, so I'll probably go with that.

OK OK.... I allow you to go Natural white then. Gimme the paperwork and I will sign it, but be quick before I change my mind... 

[EggertEnjoyer123]

I replaced the NVRAM in my Tek scope.

The programmer I have (Xgecu T48) tries to program the chip too fast. It seems like the DS1225 can handle it, but not the 16W08. I had to modify the InfoIC2Plus.DLL file in a hex editor to make it programming happen slower. After that, I stopped getting errors during verification.

Anyways everything worked well when I plugged in the chip. Thanks TERRA!

Nice! Great to hear it worked. Now you'll never need to replace a battery in there again.

Did you program the FRAM as a DS1225Y or as a 16W08?
I didn't have a problem programming the FRAM as a 16W08 on my TL866II Plus that I remember.

Turns out I'm stupid and I selected the SMD version of the FM16W08. I tried again using another chip and I was able to program it as the DIP version.

[EggertEnjoyer123]

I spent the entire weekend fixing my spectrum analyzers. There are at least three different types of firmware, three variations on the RF path, two different types of LCDs, two types of processor boards and they all needed to match for the instrument to pass self test. Very bad design! I had to program my chips several times to figure out the correct firmware version. Thankfully I didn't have to mess with the RF stuff, only the LCDs, processors, and firmware.

The contrast was also set to ridiculous values like -5% and 1270%, so when I plugged it in I saw nothing on the screen because of that. I ended up having to cut the wire that set the contrast and I used a process meter and a multimeter to figure out whether a positive or negative voltage was necessary (since there were two types of LCDs), and what the correct voltage should be on the display. It ended up being either -17V or +20V, but I had to slowly increase the voltage and watch the current to make sure I didn't fry anything if I got the polarity wrong.

There was also this weird issue where replacing the firmware led to garbage values getting written in the SRAM. The solution was just to load the preset. I'm not sure if the calibration values got overwritten, but I had to do it because the software would randomly glitch if I didn't.

Anyways I now have two more working spectrum analyzers. I'm keeping one and the other is going to a friend. The third one seems to require more than swapping around firmware/boards to fix, and there is probably an issue in the RF chain. I'll probably mess around with that one later.

I put 0dBm into a coupler from a signal generator (600 MHz), and the output and coupled port are shown on both SAs here  (the coupling is 15dB). You can see that both of them seem to work fine now.

Edit: I also picked up a new multimeter for free at the ham swap meet today. Some guy was walking around just handing out free equipment. The only thing broken was the fuse. I bodged the fuse and it seems to work. I'll get a proper 1/8 amp fuse later.

[duckduck]

I grabbed a Fluke 335D from a local shop for $29.95. It seems pretty stable, not sure what I will use it for.

Wow, that is crazy cheap. Post some pictures please. Gutshots, too.

[TERRA Operative]

So, for all 3 owners of an Advantest R6145 out there, I'm translating the manual from Japanese to English, so soon you'll know how to operate and calibrate it properly.

You're welcome.

[Vince]

I thought you said your Japanese sucked big time ?!   

Thanks for your effort, and I hope for you it's not a 300 page manual... or else we won't hear from you for the next 5 years, but at least we will know you left us for a good cause.

See you in 5 years then. Please if you can, try to think of powering up my scopes once or twice a year to keep them alive and healthy / error free.

Maybe set an alarm on your smartphone to remind you. 

[TERRA Operative]

My Japanese skill is indeed crap, but cutting and pasting into DeepL, along with my latent Japanese knowledge and technical knowledge is making it pretty quick.
Most of the time is spent typesetting and recreating the icons and graphics and tables etc. I used to do this work in a previous job, so it's all coming back. Just gotta rewire my brain for LibreOffice instead of InDesign... (I'm using open source software because open source).

It's about 175 pages, so you'll only lose me for 2.5 years.

[Vince]

2.5 years  ?  OK I think I can survive then... 5 years was kinda depressing, but 2+ years, not saying it's joyful, but it's almost tolerable.

No need to apologize for using LibreOffice, been using Linux on my computer for 21 years now, so Open/Libre Office it is for me too, for the better and worse...

[EggertEnjoyer123]

I also got a HP 8620C which I am planning on modifying to add a phase lock feature (so I can use it as a synthesizer). The device works and I am able to generate sweeps. (There are no scales but I have a spectrum analyzer so I don't care).

I regret my decision to cut the wires off the 2 - 18 GHz plugin to test it. Now I have to solder all 30 of those wires back to the connector.

[RolandK]

Just would have been curious about the internals and the firmware of a 1693 digibridge compared to the smaller versions, but no way, it went for $945: https://www.ebay.com/itm/295866213443

And the seller had only a screen with 88888 on display, which is a part of the startup test, but claims fully working...

So, if someone has one of these, i would be interested in a ROM image and pictures of the pcb board.

[EggertEnjoyer123]

If you're in Colorado and you want free RF stuff, take a look at this: https://groups.io/g/HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment/topic/100764454#138687