Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[AVGresponding]

Except there is no HP 54621D, that range was new in 2001 under Agilent, last HP catalog was 1999.
The parts are not very interchangable, the CRT uses different signals, as found by the Dragon and the add-on packs use a different connector.

David

And given the length of time of design-tooling-manufacturing cycles, was almost certainly designed while still HP

[McBryce]

Projection display based on panel meter movement, don't want to give the actual name on here, as these are an endangered species.

Just read about it on the web, sounds cool...

The front & rear panels are finished in light French blue according to the manual.
David

A "French" blue ?! 
Oh dear, marketing people at their best...
I wonder what they had in mind what they came up with that...

Or maybe it's like British Racing Green ? They meant French Racing Blue ? OK in this case it does mean something... though to me the French Racing Blue was a darker shade...

I thought French Blue is a type of cheese? 

McBryce.

[Ice-Tea]

No, that's Danish blue 

[TERRA Operative]

I went to a Mescal bar tonight.

For those that don't know what Mescal is... If Tequila is a slap, Mescal is a punch to the face. ooooof




In TE news, I have a Korg WT-10A 'Tuning Trainer' (A musical instrument tuner plus audio function generator from the 1970's) on my bench, I managed to resolder a hair-fine wire in the analogue dial gauge to get things happy again, and after a recap and good dose of Deoxit, along with some TLC, I'll be able to use it to adjust the X-911 Guitar Synth a friend gave me to repair, along with the extra one he just bought...
The output is a bit crap at the moment, but it'll come good with some love.

Korg synths all the way down here at the moment.

[Vince]

Projection display based on panel meter movement, don't want to give the actual name on here, as these are an endangered species.

Just read about it on the web, sounds cool...

The front & rear panels are finished in light French blue according to the manual.
David

A "French" blue ?! 
Oh dear, marketing people at their best...
I wonder what they had in mind what they came up with that...

Or maybe it's like British Racing Green ? They meant French Racing Blue ? OK in this case it does mean something... though to me the French Racing Blue was a darker shade...

I thought French Blue is a type of cheese? 

McBryce.

Blue refers to the cheese itself, not the country ! 
But yes we do have a cheese called "blue"....
... well that's not very accurate. "Blue" refers to a type of cheese, not a particular cheese.
We have several different blues, depending on what part of France they originate from.

Two of the most well known ones are "Bleu de Bresse" and "Bleu d'Auvergne".
I am sure there are others but I am no cheese expert at all.... Google will probably come to the rescue.

[TERRA Operative]

I really like cheese but not blue cheese.

I love Camembert, but I'm sure if it's not made in the Camembert region of France, it's just sparkling soft cheese.

[Vince]

Yes, according to Google, Camembert is so old that its name is now in the public domain, so any random Joe anywhere in the world can make whatever junk and call it "Camembert" if so he wishes, and it's legal... 

So if you want some Camembert, better do your research before buying anything....
I guess I could send you some but it would be rather expensive with Shipping !

A good Camembert at the very least must be made in Normandie (The Camembert village is located in this area) and made using raw milk not pasteurized milk, to begin with.
Pasteurized milk tastes like shit and the texture is horrible.
Raw milk it smells like a decomposing cadaver ie it's excellent ! 

[McBryce]

Raw milk it smells like a decomposing cadaver ie it's excellent ! 

There's a "cure" for that: Leave a piece of Maroilles in your fridge for a week. After that, any other cheese odour will be mild in comparison.

McBryce.

[factory]

Good luck with those Vince, they all look in very nice condition, must have been well cared for, unlike most TE on sale at the usual places.

This is what I bought a couple of weeks ago, a Frequency and Time Measuring Equipment, type TSA three four three six mark two, good for 1.2 megacycles when new, the power supply output is a bit low. Count doesn't give the right readings, but at least it is counting, unlike most Racal stuff of the same age.

Ooh, sweet.

One sold on the 17th for a much higher price

I was very lucky to get this one with an offer, but I bet the seller wasn't as happy, after the mark one version sold for way more, doubt it went to anyone that would restore it at that price  , but I would like to be proved wrong.

The front & rear panels are finished in light French blue according to the manual.
David

A "French" blue ?! 
Oh dear, marketing people at their best...
I wonder what they had in mind what they came up with that...

Or maybe it's like British Racing Green ? They meant French Racing Blue ? OK in this case it does mean something... though to me the French Racing Blue was a darker shade...

French blue seems to date back at least 200 years, but the reference to some Oxford dead tree book is even more deceased. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shades_of_azure#French_blue
Light French blue seems to have a British Standard number too.

And keep all that delicious cheese well away from me, I'd rather not end up back in Stoke hospital.

Back to the TE, HP employees seemed to call the color used for the 1970s HP system one (& later) covers "duck s**t green". 
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showpost.php?p=1028844&postcount=3

David

[Vince]

Raw milk it smells like a decomposing cadaver ie it's excellent ! 

There's a "cure" for that: Leave a piece of Maroilles in your fridge for a week. After that, any other cheese odour will be mild in comparison.

McBryce.

Oh wow that's some real nasty stuff there... I think I would rather drink a glass of acetone instead ! 

Maroilles (or Munster, or Livarot) is not for the faint of heart indeed.. Camembert is more manageable by the masses, hence why it's so popular.

[Vince]

French blue seems to date back at least 200 years, but the reference to some Oxford dead tree book is even more deceased. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shades_of_azure#French_blue
Light French blue seems to have a British Standard number too.

Hmm interesting. So for 200 years the Brits decided that some blue was French but in 46 years I have been living here, never heard of it.
Feels like French fries to me... the Brits called them that but we don't, because they are actually Belgian not French.

And keep all that delicious cheese well away from me, I'd rather not end up back in Stroke hospital.
David

Here, I corrected your typo for you !   
Yes, I do feel some sense of shame, but hey...

[m k]

Here it's mämmi time again.

[Wolfgang]

Raw milk it smells like a decomposing cadaver ie it's excellent ! 

There's a "cure" for that: Leave a piece of Maroilles in your fridge for a week. After that, any other cheese odour will be mild in comparison.

McBryce.

Oh wow that's some real nasty stuff there... I think I would rather drink a glass of acetone instead ! 

Maroilles (or Munster, or Livarot) is not for the faint of heart indeed.. Camembert is more manageable by the masses, hence why it's so popular.

... if it walks out of the fridge, let it go

[McBryce]

Raw milk it smells like a decomposing cadaver ie it's excellent ! 

There's a "cure" for that: Leave a piece of Maroilles in your fridge for a week. After that, any other cheese odour will be mild in comparison.

McBryce.

Oh wow that's some real nasty stuff there... I think I would rather drink a glass of acetone instead ! 

Maroilles (or Munster, or Livarot) is not for the faint of heart indeed.. Camembert is more manageable by the masses, hence why it's so popular.

Maroilles tastes fantastic, it's just the smell that's "challenging".

McBryce

[wkb]

Another HP PSU.  A 500 W HP6652A has followed me home this time.  Just need to get it converted to frontpanel binding posts.

Just need to see if Jared is willing to ship another pushbutton of Akihabara fame over to me 

[TERRA Operative]

Oh nice.

I'm sure I can get you sorted out.

[Peter_O]

Another HP PSU.  A 500 W HP6652A has followed me home this time.  Just need to get it converted to frontpanel binding posts.

Just need to see if Jared is willing to ship another pushbutton of Akihabara fame over to me 

I found my ..53 quite crammed inside and decided for an external solution.

   

[TERRA Operative]

Just dragged my 8160A 50MHz pulse gen back out for more time on the healing bench...

I previously narrowed the fault down to a couple chips, so I just ordered some riser cards I designed from China.

Anyone got any of these part numbers in their stash of parts?
U3 - 1820-2149 - HP Custom chip - Dual Gate
U6 - 1820-0802 (MC10102P) - ECL Quad 2-Input NOR Gate
U7 - 1820-1482 (MC10211P) - ECL Dual 3-Input/3-Output NOR Gate

I'll probably need one or more of these, I have a feeling it might be U3 as there was a service note released regarding it (although I have yet to find the actual service note anywhere..)

[factory]

Have you looked for other brands of the ECL ICs, I have some untested Hitachi branded HD10102, the device this came from was very deceased, the NiCd cells had taken a dump all over the MCU board.
Would like to strip these boards, but it just takes to long, need to find out the quick way MJtronix murders boards. 

There are a mix of sHitachi, Fujitsu and Mouldyrola ECL parts on the boards.

David

[K0ELB]

Just picked up this Tektronix 75A last week. Been wanting a combination variac and dim bulb tester but only found the 75B which goes for a quite a chunk of change. The 75A was a lot cheaper and seems to be pretty rare.

[tautech]

Just picked up this Tektronix 75A last week. Been wanting a combination variac and dim bulb tester but only found the 75B which goes for a quite a chunk of change. The 75A was a lot cheaper and seems to be pretty rare.

That's pretty cool.
What's its max rating ?

[K0ELB]

That's pretty cool.
What's its max rating ?

7.5 amps. They were used to verify oscilloscopes for shorts and other wiring issues before delivery.

[tautech]

That's pretty cool.
What's its max rating ?

7.5 amps. They were used to verify oscilloscopes for shorts and other wiring issues before delivery.

More pics with its cover on, sides and rear please.

[cncjerry]

OK, down the rathole again with a CSA8000b...

4 to 5 yrs ago, I bought a CSA8000B for $150.  The person was local, college student thought it was a scope, even delivered it. It powered on but had the Dallas eeprom (if that's the right term) issue so it didn't boot.  The instructions on eevblog are good and I was able to bring it up but you need the dallas eeproms to hold the boot instructions or its a hassle getting it to run.  So I bought the dallas modules for both the PC and PPC boards, carefully soldered them on, had to go back and touch them up, etc.  Not a lot of fun as one is up next to a card connector and yes, I had some melted plastic by the time it was done.  I had programmed the eeproms and the unit booted correctly. I have a 20Ghz electrical module and that came up.  But when I measured the calibrator, I remember the voltage was low by a factor of 10 maybe. So after playing around with settings I powered down, reseated the cards and of course, my brand new eeprom from asia hadn't held the config.  There isn't much in there, just a couple instructions on where to find the PPC boot code!  But do you think it could keep it just once!! Nope.

And this really po'ed me!  While typing this the guy who agreed to sell it to me for the asking price just said he had a higher offer, $50 more.  That's a little lame, don't you think?  Told him to keep it.  This is a company too, not just a person on the web.  I mean is that any way to do business? 

Jerry

[K0ELB]

More pics with its cover on, sides and rear please.

I’ve uploaded the pics to Tekwiki, the first 8 are of mine:



https://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/75A

I should say the first 14 are mine, the 6 after the 8 that I uploaded are the original eBay pics of my unit that the site owner uploaded before I bought it.