Test Equipment Anonymous

Want to know how resilient cats are? One Spring night a year ago Blondie and I sat out on the balcony enjoying the evening. What we didn't realize at the time was that Harley came out with us unseen. We eventually came in and closed the door, not knowing he was out there. Several hours later we hear...

If I tried to hold Harley upside down by his feet I'd be bloodied on both arms.

No harm, no foul, the cat landed on it's feet. :lol: I was under the impression that was part of their design specification - or is it merely emergent behaviour? Design specification. By the time a kitten is 2 months old they have already mastered landing on their feet. So I guess you could say it'...

No harm, no foul, the cat landed on it's feet.

synx508 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 11, 2025 6:58 pm

I'm hesitant to drip anything into the focus control and I only have Servisol contact cleaner/lubricant, not sure if that's safe. Should I get some deoxit?

The Servisol should be OK. Just don't go crazy with it. Just a few drops down the pot shaft and work it in.

The attenuator switch decks on the 465B, as well as other 400 series, can be problematic with general wear and dirty contacts. 100% IPA will help, but months down the road you'll have to do it again. The focus pot always locks up on these scopes. Put the scope up on it's rear feet and drip deoxit do...

I was just wondering when the cat would enter the discussion. He gave it a good sniff when I brought it home. Now that the cover is off he'll have to sniff it again and I'm sure he'll start picking at the wiring. He's broken wires before on other equipment. Anything that comes into the apartment he...

Oh and....I can't leave anything uncovered on the bench because you-know-who will pick at it with his teeth.

The front panel cleaned up very nicely however the mild cleaner I used took some of the lettering off a few push button switches. The front bezel lens is a bluish tint which may hint at the phosphor of the CRT. We'll see. And we found our first issue. The Vertical Mode Switch assembly directly under...

25 CPS wrote: ↑Sun Jul 06, 2025 1:30 am

The HP 211AR's still sitting apart on the bench waiting for me to get back to it. I did finally get to the store and picked up fuses and fuse holders so hopefully a power test will be possible soon.

I'm very curious to see if you have symmetry issues like I did.

tggzzz wrote: ↑Fri Jul 04, 2025 4:54 pm Blue is good.

C911 and other beads on that rail aren't (or soon won't be) good.

That and at least 2 dozen other bloody tants.

This should make tggzzz's day. I have two 485's plus a parts mule. So why not have a third? Facebook marketplace find. It's dirty but complete. Not even a broken knob. And of course it's going to get my usual due diligence. But not today. It's the 4th of July and we celebrate our independence from y...

Agreed, cats love heat which would drive any human into heat stroke.

tggzzz wrote: ↑Sat Jun 28, 2025 7:02 pm And today's xkcd involves cats: https://xkcd.com/3108

Harley indeed goes nuts over laser pointers.

Damn cat. :roll: So today I'm putting up a curtain rod. Blondie comes into the lab holding one of the wall anchors I need. Found on the kitchen floor. I keep forgetting that I can't leave small parts on the lab benches unattended. :shock: Yesterday Blondie makes the mistake of leaving a cake with cr...

"This is my box and you can't have it"

it has been 29C here, 33C near London, looks like bits of France hit 38C. Definitely pants[1] and beer weather. RH is 50-60% so relatively tolerable. No aircon, unless you count an electric fan. [1] UK meaning, of course. What is the UK meaning of "pants"? Pants as in a wearable item or p...

Batten down the hatches, turn on the A/C, and stay the hell inside.

The last time there was any sort of fight in our Congress/Senate was 1902 when one senator punched another. Given the ranker and bad blood with our current elected officials I think they are well overdue for a full on donnybrook. :lol: Hasn't it already started, in the same way WW3 has started? Yes...

The last time there was any sort of fight in our Congress/Senate was 1902 when one senator punched another. Given the ranker and bad blood with our current elected officials I think they are well overdue for a full on donnybrook.

I've never seen Farnell equipment on this side of the pond but it turns out they do own Newark Electronics.

I hate it when I'm sick during vacation time. I did recently discover that under UK law, you can claim back the holiday days, and book them as sick days instead. Obviously this is only viable if you get full sick pay (I do), with no waiting period I'm not sure if it's Canadian law or company policy...

If you're gonna work on old Tek iron you need your extenders. The solid one is for 560 series scopes. The smaller one in the center is a home made 500 series extender. And then we have a modified JAMMA cable for 5000 series and TM500 series. https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq70/924/CyRHo2.jpg

Calibration of the 5B13N Time Base. As mentioned before the trigger works fine in both Normal and Auto mode but there is no baseline free run trace in the absence of a trigger in Auto mode. The manual states there should be. There isn't. All the trigger functions are contained in one IC. Here is the...

This CRT is not as bright as I think it should be and it exhibits double peaking which indicates lots of hours. I see. Mine is possibly a bit better. And has readouts. Probably peak analog audio scope in some ways that. Low bandwidth, large CRT, lots of inputs (I've 4 on mine, 2 per module) and ver...