Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[TERRA Operative]

Well, at least you know that manual is as applicable to your instrument as you can get!

[m k]

If revision is changing right there, does it mean that you must flip in few lottery tickets or not?

BTW,
I've started getting old circuit board search adverts from last year, maybe youpay has an end of the year discount.
One of those adverts was that top sliced chip chunk.

One other surprise advert few days back, that one hard hit HP 546xx scope is sold.
No idea why it was offered to me, maybe adverts are not exactly up to date.

[onsokumaru]

Another cool find, two tektronix tm512 modular chassis, with a nice assortment of modules. They turn on, no smoke , I have to test the functions of each module a bit. They look super and even have a front cover.

[Ice-Tea]

Not gonna lie. A little bit turned on rn.

[m k]

Seems that your voltages are not very limited.

[TERRA Operative]

Another cool find, two tektronix tm512 modular chassis, with a nice assortment of modules. They turn on, no smoke , I have to test the functions of each module a bit. They look super and even have a front cover.

The SG505 is a nice score, it's a super low distortion oscillator.
The SG503 is also a score, all you need is the proper cable and you can start characterising/calibrating scopes to 250MHz.

[Ice-Tea]

Continuing trying to revive the 5350B. It behaves a bit weirdly. Sometimes unresponsive. Sometimes kinda works. Sometimes it throws and error 005 (something something instrument bus).

I spy... I spy...

Quite a lot of corrosion   






Now, what could cause such extensive corrosion on what should be heavily plated connectors and card edges? 

Oh... never mind.

[factory]

Well, at least you know that manual is as applicable to your instrument as you can get!

Oddly the manual has some slight differences in the parts list, the thousands number readout bulb is shown as a regular neon lamp, as the later ones seem to use. Also there are two 1N936 Zeners listed, for some unknown reason this one has a 1N936 & 1N713. The analog panel meter version of this uses two 1N713 in the same place. 



I've finished repairing the power supplies, the 15uF 300V Mallory capacitor tested bad in circuit, then tests good on the Peak ESR once removed (yes I did leave it to cool down before measuring), however the seal has a hole in it and it tests bad on the Megger, a new cap got to 200V in about 20 seconds on the 250V range, I gave up at 6 minutes with the Mallory cap and it only got to 180V in this time. I've restuffed it with a Nichicon from this century, closest replacement I had was 22uF at 350V.



Next was checking voltages now I had a manual, everything was within tolerance, except for the ±9.1V supplies, they measured at +8.07V & -9.75V, they should be within ±0.9V, the +9.1V being out of tolerance.



The carbon comp dropper resistors had gone quite high in value, the 680Ω ones being the worst. Some newer 2% film resistors have been fitted, I now have voltage much closer & well within tolerance, at +9.03 & -8.88V.



The device is a Keithley 615 Electrometer, it seems to be similar to a 61, but with digital readout instead of the analog meter.



David

[shakalnokturn]

Not gonna lie. A little bit turned on rn.

Any load sharing schemes in mind when they all do turn on ?


Maybe one for Vince:
https://www.leboncoin.fr/ad/accessoires_informatique/2846722801

FWIW he refused my 15€ offer... Stuff it, put F'in price tag on it then! I hope he wastes plenty of time on seemingly ridiculously low offers. I already have enough junk around anyway.

[factory]

Looks to be a rebranded Hickok DMS 3200, I have a couple from this range & some of the plug-ins, haven't got round to restoring them yet.

David

[m k]

The carbon comp dropper resistors ...

So there are different types of holes.
Regular single side ones and special double side ones.
But is there also a regular double side ones without a second trace?

Top hole of bigger brown resistor is different than many others.
Left of it is a big one, but no connections.
Stubborn unreliable circuit board system is clearly evolving.

[Vince]

https://www.leboncoin.fr/ad/accessoires_informatique/2846722801


Maybe one for Vince:


FWIW he refused my 15€ offer... Stuff it, put F'in price tag on it then! I hope he wastes plenty of time on seemingly ridiculously low offers. I already have enough junk around anyway.

Thanks for thinking of me but no thank you... just like you I have enough stuff and am trying hard to downsize. I plan on spending the winter getting rid of as much TE as my heart can allow, either selling them for dirt cheap, no shipping, or taking them apart if I think their parts are more valuable to me than selling it for half a dime if even that.

I am still open to acquisitions, every now and then, but it's now meant to become the exception, not the rule anymore. So it better be something truly special (to me at least...), like the Tek 575 I got the other day.

This old Metrix just doesn't cut the mustard.

I have stopped impulse buys for random stuff that just keep piling up gathering dust and never get used nor fixed. I am starting to see the light....
I only keep things I really like a lot, have a reasonable use case for, and reasonably believe I have the skills and means to fix.

This means even my beloved Tek scopes are not safe... my TDS 310 and 2430 and rack mount 7603 and of course my 2215 POS of a scope which is on the front line... I still wonder how Tek deemed this scope production ready. My old humble Hameg will be gone too, an old engineer friend expressed his interest, so he will get it...
The Gould 1604 will go to. I should never have bought it in the first place, but I was weak. I feel a little stronger now... it's neither a good analogue scope nor a good digital scope, it's the worst of both worlds... with ergonomics even worse than my Fluke/Philips combiscope, which says a lot doesn't it...  That Gould has only one good thing in it : a nice big toroidal transformer in the power supply... that, I sure intend to keep. Other than that... 2 million switches on the front panel, yeah might salvage those as well.

My two HP 416B hollow-state reflectometer are at risk too... love them but have zero use for them and they take a lot of space and need fixing. Might keep one as a decoration in the living room but having two of them is just over the top. No idea if these can even be sold even for cheap. Might take one apart for parts in case I somehow decide to restore the other one one day, who knows.

Anyway, it's heart breaking to come to the realisation that you just don't have enough space nor time to look after all your gear and that the only sensible thing to do is downsize the harem, having to chose which one of your kidneys you want to part with....     But no matter how much I might manage to downsize, I will still have wayyyyy more than I will ever need, so I think I will forever qualify for TEA membership ! 

[Vince]

Looks to be a rebranded Hickok DMS 3200, I have a couple from this range & some of the plug-ins, haven't got round to restoring them yet.

David

Plug-in design ? Makes it more interesting.

Hickok yes indeed, zero doubt about that : the seller posted a close-up picture of the plaque of the instrument, clearly reads "manufactured by Hickok, USA ".

https://img.leboncoin.fr/api/v1/lbcpb1/images/06/26/99/062699c9774c96d4b6aa8f68a469a4e0acb821ec.jpg?rule=ad-large

[factory]

Looks to be a rebranded Hickok DMS 3200, I have a couple from this range & some of the plug-ins, haven't got round to restoring them yet.

David

Plug-in design ? Makes it more interesting.

Hickok yes indeed, zero doubt about that : the seller posted a close-up picture of the plaque of the instrument, clearly reads "manufactured by Hickok, USA ".

https://img.leboncoin.fr/api/v1/lbcpb1/images/06/26/99/062699c9774c96d4b6aa8f68a469a4e0acb821ec.jpg?rule=ad-large

Yes I did see that, I've downloaded the pictures, seems there are two models of the Hickok digital measuring system, the 3200 with 3 digits & the 3202 with 3½ digits, I have one of each and a 3202P with recorder/printer output. Farnell in the UK also sold a version, but it does look a bit different, possibly made under license from Hickok, I regret not buying the Farnell version a few years ago.

David

[factory]

The carbon comp dropper resistors ...

So there are different types of holes.
Regular single side ones and special double side ones.
But is there also a regular double side ones without a second trace?

Top hole of bigger brown resistor is different than many others.
Left of it is a big one, but no connections.
Stubborn unreliable circuit board system is clearly evolving.

Keithley seem to have used a double sided PCB for this 615, but there are no plated through holes, there are some rivets to join top & bottom (much the same as BR using through-pins in the 1970s), they are soldered both sides.

The other hole with no connection is a rivet used to anchor the pad on the other side, this is where a wire from the loom is soldered in place.

David

[m k]

I ordered few BNC T-adapters with all female connectors from far away, they arrived.
My guess is that certain manufacturing procedure leaves one end of top side without bottom metal inside a connector.
These are equal to what I got earlier where bottom connector was male.
Next try is a different mold, with some "angled" females, but all with squared center, earlier ones have all been completely round.

[m k]

either selling them for dirt cheap,

I have a rule for that, everything you get is profit.

[wkb]

More stuff to go fix: two E4418B RF power meters managed to sneak into my ham shack. One HP branded, the other Agilent branded.

Something to work on now the autumn is closing in..

[Ice-Tea]

You got a power head for those?

[tautech]

You got a power head for those?

What have you got, by PM if you like.

[Ice-Tea]

None. I actually have one of these I'd like to test with a head 

[wkb]

You got a power head for those?

I have a working HP437B meter with a working head. And a broken head too.

[wolfy007]

Not gonna lie. A little bit turned on rn.

I dont suppose you have any those TTi CPX400D for spare parts. I got one from work that was dropped (they were going to ewaste it), but its going to be a difficult to repair as one of the components broken is a transformer from on one of the SMPS boards inside.

[TERRA Operative]

More stuff to go fix: two E4418B RF power meters managed to sneak into my ham shack. One HP branded, the other Agilent branded.

Something to work on now the autumn is closing in..

These have a lithium backup battery that should be replaced.

Be careful though! Extract or take notes of all the revision details before removing the battery, as it will be lost.
It's no big deal though as it is simple to reprogram, as per this Keysight guide, as long as you took notes or photos of the data.

https://docs.keysight.com/kkbopen/how-can-the-e4416a-e4417a-e4418a-epm441a-e4418b-e4419a-epm442a-e4419b-memory-be-erased-for-security-purposes-588277960.html

I also have a 437B, and my 8481A sensor and cable are cross compatible with my E4418B.
Not sure if my E8482A sensor is compatible with the 437B though..

[Ice-Tea]

I have a working HP437B meter with a working head. And a broken head too.

Perhaps I'll ping you one day to rent it when I have the time to look into it ;-)

I dont suppose you have any those TTi CPX400D for spare parts. I got one from work that was dropped (they were going to ewaste it), but its going to be a difficult to repair as one of the components broken is a transformer from on one of the SMPS boards inside.

Not right now. I haven't checked all of them. If one turns out to be a dud, I'll let you know.