Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) : Discussion and Group Therapy Thread

[tggzzz]

Went to the Milton Keynes radio rally (Hamfest) today. It was (almost) a waste of time.
...
The audio boards are for military equipment. They have a bunch of socketed op-amps, NE571 companders and a whole bunch* of Vishay VSR bulk foil precision resistors and 1% film capacitors. Cost £3 for two boards.

Glad I couldn't be bothered; Zenith feels the same!

The resistors sound tasty. I have about the same number of VHP102s(?) on a Datron 4902S precision voltage divider. I wonder whether they might be worth more as a whole than split up.

[AVGresponding]

I'd rather have a bottom-of-the-line Fluke than the Brymen any day when doing Sparky work. All you have to do is look at the quality of the PCB and the plastic used to see that the Fluke is better across the board. Whether you can see it or not is irrelevant; I can see it.

I don't care what Joe sez; a sample size of two tested to destruction means jack-shit. When I'm dealing with potentially deadly voltages, I'm always gonna reach for the Fluke. On the bench, with low voltages, sure... use the Brymen, or even a Aneng if that's what you have handy.

mnem
No. Just NO.

Funnily enough, I found myself in a similar discussion recently: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/ ... msg5003170

[mnementh]

I don't recall anyone ever having the kind of FW problems with a Fluke that Dave had with his Brymen meter. The real difference is that Fluke has a huge deployment of meters in the field that have been in service longer than Brymen has existed as a company as they are now. That perceived quality is so because of the history of units in peoples' hands; something Brymen just doesn't have.

They're fucking Hyundais and some people are trying to make like they're just misunderstood Mercedes.

mnem
As opposed to Aneng, which is like... Yugo. Before they went belly-up.

[Specmaster]

I don't recall anyone ever having the kind of FW problems with a Fluke that Dave had with his Brymen meter. The real difference is that Fluke has a huge deployment of meters in the field that have been in service longer than Brymen has existed as a company as they are now. That perceived quality is so because of the history of units in peoples' hands; something Brymen just doesn't have.

They're fucking Hyundais and some people are trying to make like they're just misunderstood Mercedes.

mnem
As opposed to Aneng, which is like... Yugo. Before they went belly-up.

If you're talking about Dave's blue own brand Brymen meters then yes, I'd be inclined to agree with but the really large BM867 and BM869 range meters, they are designed for professional use, Dave's smaller ones are not and with Dave's involvement it is trying to be more than it was originally designed to do and is overly complicated as a result. It was originally meant to a midrange meter and I believe Dave has tried to extend it into being a dedicated meter that reflects his ideal electronics wish list and failed.

[Zenith]

Went to the Milton Keynes radio rally (Hamfest) today. It was (almost) a waste of time. There were not a lot of sellers and virtually no TE. The only just about TE Igot was a handful of Greenpar inter-series coaxial adaptors. The only other thihgs tha made it not a total failure were a couple of odd connectors I've been looking for for a while, a couple of NOS analog PCBs an a deler who was giving away a load of components........

I toyed with the idea of going to it, as it's one I haven't been to before. I recall bd139 said it was a bit variable, but he did OK there last year.

One of the sellers at Rugby said he'd be there but he didn't rate it. tggzzz wasn't interested in going, so sharing the trip. It's just over a two hour drive from here. The weather here on Saturday night was foul and I didn't really trust the forecast. Late on Saturday night I decided to give it a miss.

From what you say, it wasn't up to much.

Of course, whether these things are worth going to depends on your luck, and we all look out for different things, but all in all I don't think I missed out.

[mnementh]

I don't recall anyone ever having the kind of FW problems with a Fluke that Dave had with his Brymen meter. The real difference is that Fluke has a huge deployment of meters in the field that have been in service longer than Brymen has existed as a company as they are now. That perceived quality is so because of the history of units in peoples' hands; something Brymen just doesn't have.

They're fucking Hyundais and some people are trying to make like they're just misunderstood Mercedes.

mnem
As opposed to Aneng, which is like... Yugo. Before they went belly-up.

If you're talking about Dave's blue own brand Brymen meters then yes, I'd be inclined to agree with but the really large BM867 and BM869 range meters, they are designed for professional use, Dave's smaller ones are not and with Dave's involvement it is trying to be more than it was originally designed to do and is overly complicated as a result. It was originally meant to a midrange meter and I believe Dave has tried to extend it into being a dedicated meter that reflects his ideal electronics wish list and failed.

To put it bluntly; Fluke would never have let that POS out the door.

That is the difference I'm trying to impress upon you. Brymen copies professional quality meters; maybe even a few models are semi-competent.

Fluke laid the foundation; in some cases, they literally defined the spec. They will always have a better understanding of what is needed.

mnem
Fluke is the "no regrets" purchase here.

[bd139]

God those Brymens are fucking terrible. I mean the hardware is safe but the software and the design choices are terrible. They are being different for the sake of being different, they don't understand that stateful interfaces are BAD BAD BAD and they don't do enough testing on their products before shipping them. And quite frankly Dave wouldn't know a turd if it was spread on his toast.

Oh and the BM867, having owned one, it's slow and suffers from the same problems above. I managed to get it to hang autoranging once as well.

Just no.

[Specmaster]

God those Brymens are fucking terrible. I mean the hardware is safe but the software and the design choices are terrible. They are being different for the sake of being different, they don't understand that stateful interfaces are BAD BAD BAD and they don't do enough testing on their products before shipping them. And quite frankly Dave wouldn't know a turd if it was spread on his toast.

Oh and the BM867, having owned one, it's slow and suffers from the same problems above. I managed to get it to hang autoranging once as well.

Just no.

Wow, if you remember I got my BM867 from the same place as you did, on your recommendation as you were very pleased with it at the time

Anyway, checking the specs Fluke 85 v Brymen BM867, the Brymen does actually come out on top for speed but in reality the Fluke does display the read marginally faster. Fluke spec states 4 reading a second, Brymen states 5 reading a second. However, the Brymen is taking readings for 2 signals, so it can display both the selected reading and its complimentary one simultaneously, i.e., DC main with its AC content, ripple on a Power line etc. and also the reverse of that, AC is the main read and DC secondary on its dual display. Fluke is only a single display. The barograph on Fluke is bad at 4 reading a second, Brymen is brilliant at 60 readings a second.

If you need to measure fast changing voltages etc, then surely a digital meter is going to be crap at that, and you need something better suited to the task?

The interface is not really bad, it was just not what you had become used to with previous meters. It's like a HP50G and Casio CG50, someone used to the 50G would find the CG50 hard to operate and vice versa because the interface is arranged differently.

[Specmaster]

I don't recall anyone ever having the kind of FW problems with a Fluke that Dave had with his Brymen meter. The real difference is that Fluke has a huge deployment of meters in the field that have been in service longer than Brymen has existed as a company as they are now. That perceived quality is so because of the history of units in peoples' hands; something Brymen just doesn't have.

They're fucking Hyundais and some people are trying to make like they're just misunderstood Mercedes.

mnem
As opposed to Aneng, which is like... Yugo. Before they went belly-up.

If you're talking about Dave's blue own brand Brymen meters then yes, I'd be inclined to agree with but the really large BM867 and BM869 range meters, they are designed for professional use, Dave's smaller ones are not and with Dave's involvement it is trying to be more than it was originally designed to do and is overly complicated as a result. It was originally meant to a midrange meter and I believe Dave has tried to extend it into being a dedicated meter that reflects his ideal electronics wish list and failed.

To put it bluntly; Fluke would never have let that POS out the door.

That is the difference I'm trying to impress upon you. Brymen copies professional quality meters; maybe even a few models are semi-competent.

Fluke laid the foundation; in some cases, they literally defined the spec. They will always have a better understanding of what is needed.

mnem
Fluke is the "no regrets" purchase here.

Don't forget that Fluke also have lower quality consumer grade meters as well, they are not all built to the same specs or build quality of their professional meters or else everyone would be buying the basic Chinese 177 etc.

[bd139]

God those Brymens are fucking terrible. I mean the hardware is safe but the software and the design choices are terrible. They are being different for the sake of being different, they don't understand that stateful interfaces are BAD BAD BAD and they don't do enough testing on their products before shipping them. And quite frankly Dave wouldn't know a turd if it was spread on his toast.

Oh and the BM867, having owned one, it's slow and suffers from the same problems above. I managed to get it to hang autoranging once as well.

Just no.

Wow, if you remember I got my BM867 from the same place as you did, on your recommendation as you were very pleased with it at the time

Anyway, checking the specs Fluke 85 v Brymen BM867, the Brymen does actually come out on top for speed but in reality the Fluke does display the read marginally faster. Fluke spec states 4 reading a second, Brymen states 5 reading a second. However, the Brymen is taking readings for 2 signals, so it can display both the selected reading and its complimentary one simultaneously, i.e., DC main with its AC content, ripple on a Power line etc. and also the reverse of that, AC is the main read and DC secondary on its dual display. Fluke is only a single display. The barograph on Fluke is bad at 4 reading a second, Brymen is brilliant at 60 readings a second.

That's not really the issue. The settling time on the Brymen is much much worse and it is completely unusable on dual readings as it's so damn slow. It's a gimmick at best.

If you need to measure fast changing voltages etc, then surely a digital meter is going to be crap at that, and you need something better suited to the task?

A changing voltage is a signal and do indeed need to sample it then. And that is not something you should do with a DMM (unless it's a logging one or part of a system).

The interface is not really bad, it was just not what you had become used to with previous meters. It's like a HP50G and Casio CG50, someone used to the 50G would find the CG50 hard to operate and vice versa because the interface is arranged differently.

That's not actually correct at all. It's not a matter of opinion. There are certain human-machine interface paradigms that are actually bad and known bad because they lead people to make incorrect assumptions and decisions and increase cognitive load. In the case of the Brymen meters, the statefulness i.e. remembering the state of the last sub-mode is the stupid. You can't reason about the state of each submode without looking at it. With a Fluke you can switch it to ANY primary mode and there will be a default submode which is intuitive. If you can't work out which one you are in from the annunciators then you can turn it off and switch back to the primary mode to go to a known good state. You can't do that with the Brymen. You have to work out from the annunciators which mode it's in and what to do to get it to the mode you want. And that differs depending on the last state of the unit. This is simply BAD and DANGEROUS because it means you can't develop a muscle memory for the meter which means you have to use your cognitive capacity for working out what fucking mode it's in rather than whatever safety critical thing you are working on. That means more mistakes.

It's little things like this that lead to planes falling out of the sky.

[Specmaster]

God those Brymens are fucking terrible. I mean the hardware is safe but the software and the design choices are terrible. They are being different for the sake of being different, they don't understand that stateful interfaces are BAD BAD BAD and they don't do enough testing on their products before shipping them. And quite frankly Dave wouldn't know a turd if it was spread on his toast.

Oh and the BM867, having owned one, it's slow and suffers from the same problems above. I managed to get it to hang autoranging once as well.

Just no.

Wow, if you remember I got my BM867 from the same place as you did, on your recommendation as you were very pleased with it at the time

Anyway, checking the specs Fluke 85 v Brymen BM867, the Brymen does actually come out on top for speed but in reality the Fluke does display the read marginally faster. Fluke spec states 4 reading a second, Brymen states 5 reading a second. However, the Brymen is taking readings for 2 signals, so it can display both the selected reading and its complimentary one simultaneously, i.e., DC main with its AC content, ripple on a Power line etc. and also the reverse of that, AC is the main read and DC secondary on its dual display. Fluke is only a single display. The barograph on Fluke is bad at 4 reading a second, Brymen is brilliant at 60 readings a second.

That's not really the issue. The settling time on the Brymen is much much worse and it is completely unusable on dual readings as it's so damn slow. It's a gimmick at best.

If you need to measure fast changing voltages etc, then surely a digital meter is going to be crap at that, and you need something better suited to the task?

A changing voltage is a signal and do indeed need to sample it then. And that is not something you should do with a DMM (unless it's a logging one or part of a system).

The interface is not really bad, it was just not what you had become used to with previous meters. It's like a HP50G and Casio CG50, someone used to the 50G would find the CG50 hard to operate and vice versa because the interface is arranged differently.

That's not actually correct at all. It's not a matter of opinion. There are certain human-machine interface paradigms that are actually bad and known bad because they lead people to make incorrect assumptions and decisions and increase cognitive load. In the case of the Brymen meters, the statefulness i.e. remembering the state of the last sub-mode is the stupid. You can't reason about the state of each submode without looking at it. With a Fluke you can switch it to ANY primary mode and there will be a default submode which is intuitive. If you can't work out which one you are in from the annunciators then you can turn it off and switch back to the primary mode to go to a known good state. You can't do that with the Brymen. You have to work out from the annunciators which mode it's in and what to do to get it to the mode you want. And that differs depending on the last state of the unit. This is simply BAD and DANGEROUS because it means you can't develop a muscle memory for the meter which means you have to use your cognitive capacity for working out what fucking mode it's in rather than whatever safety critical thing you are working on. That means more mistakes.

It's little things like this that lead to planes falling out of the sky.

Well, either way, I like mine, and I was always taught that you shouldn't get flippant with multimeters as a single false move could spell problems for the DUT, the operator or the meter, so I check and double-check the range I'm switching to before starting to probe and if it takes a microsecond or two longer to get 2 reading at the same time, I'm not bothered. Better safe than sorry, I say.

As to planes falling out of the sky, isn't that one of the reason why they have these multi-million £ flight SIMs at Heathrow so that pilots can be properly trained to fly the type of planes that are flying otherwise pilots could just switch from one type to another.

[bd139]

Well, either way, I like mine, and I was always taught that you shouldn't get flippant with multimeters as a single false move could spell problems for the DUT, the operator or the meter, so I check and double-check the range I'm switching to before starting to probe and if it takes a microsecond or two longer to get 2 reading at the same time, I'm not bothered. Better safe than sorry, I say.

That's fair enough but it's very difficult to determine exactly what sub-mode the BM867 is in.

As to planes falling out of the sky, isn't that one of the reason why they have these multi-million £ flight SIMs at Heathrow so that pilots can be properly trained to fly the type of planes that are flying otherwise pilots could just switch from one type to another.

That is somewhat further down the line. Moving very far left of the process, it first hits a list of things that caused fuck ups before. Those are ironed out of the design. Then the interface is usually prototyped [1] and thrown at actual pilots to test and scenarios are thrown at it. Sometimes they find situations where layout is bad, something is not intuitive and mistakes are made. Eventually this goes into a training programme and simulator and then into the production aircraft. And then they find problems and feed back to the far left again.

This process has been going on for decades and a huge amount of information has been collected. And then ignored by car manufacturers and test gear companies.

[1] My bit was providing a drag and drop virtual interface that controlled the actual avionics module so things could be moved around before doing the first hardware prototype.

[Specmaster]

Well, either way, I like mine, and I was always taught that you shouldn't get flippant with multimeters as a single false move could spell problems for the DUT, the operator or the meter, so I check and double-check the range I'm switching to before starting to probe and if it takes a microsecond or two longer to get 2 reading at the same time, I'm not bothered. Better safe than sorry, I say.

That's fair enough but it's very difficult to determine exactly what sub-mode the BM867 is in.

Well that's where the double-checking comes in, the screen shows you which mode it's in and if it is not what you want, just keep pressing the select button till you get the correct one. Don't forget, as well, it also has the Jack Alert should you select a range which is incompatible with the lead position, (the Fluke 85 also has this feature, but it is poorly implemented, way too quiet and thus easy to miss). I've never blown a meter yet and don't forget, I've been trained to follow these safe and proven techniques because I used to work on 3ph 415v supplies with enough power to really ruin your day and your future

[bd139]

Well that's where the double-checking comes in, the screen shows you which mode it's in and if it is not what you want, just keep pressing the select button till you get the correct one. Don't forget, as well, it also has the Jack Alert should you select a range which is incompatible with the lead position, (the Fluke 85 also has this feature, but it is poorly implemented, way too quiet and thus easy to miss). I've never blown a meter yet and don't forget, I've been trained to follow these safe and proven techniques because I used to work on 3ph 415v supplies with enough power to really ruin your day and your future

Completely missing the point there I see...

[mnementh]

That's okay. When he gets zapped in the junk while diddling his Brymen to the right contextual setting, he will grok in fullness the need for intuitive UI.

mnem
or, he might like it...

[Specmaster]

@mnementh Hmm, there would be some dark forces at play if I was to be zapped in the junk while diddling my Brymen for the right setting seeing as the meter would not be connected to anything while I'm erm...looking for the right contextual setting

When my normal mode is measuring DCV and the ripple on power lines is shown in the second display, I don't need to go into other submodes. If I'm measuring ACV It's also very handy to see the frequency, so I set the meter to ACV, and it will automatically show me the frequency in the second display. If I did need to change the submode, what's the problem, there, I don't get it.

A submode on any range setting is not going to switch between volts and current, or Amps and mA or uA as the Amps has a dedicated input jack and mA and uA are also on a different range position and once again, the dual display will automatically show both DC and AC so no need to go into submodes.

Fluke on the other hand defaults to DC on current ranges so need to manually select the AC submode if required and when it comes to volts AC and DC have a dedicated switch position on the 85, so there is no submode and frequency has its own dedicated soft button which bizally seems to be selectable on every switch range, even on diode test and resistance range?

So to my mind, the Brymen covers all ticks all the boxes giving instant access to ACV and Hz together, next position its DCV and ACV, next position its DCmV and ACmV, next position its ACmV and Hz, then diode, then capacitance, then resistance, then ADC & AAC or mADC & mAAC, then finally uADC & uAAC. All displayed on its dual display.

So I get all of my readings automatically without having to switch into a dedicated DC or AC V position I also get the same in current settings without having to remember to press the AC button and I also get my frequency display without having to press the Hz button. The ergonomics award goes to the Brymen.

The only time I need to use the buttons on the Brymen is if I want to do REL, HOLD, MAX - MIN, nS, or 500,000 count.

The Brymen does have other functions as well that the Fluke doesn't, what's not to like, and it has all the EN test passes to back it up for safety.

Now I understand that you guys might well have a lifetime of using Fluke meters and learnt all the various controls and can select the mode you need by muscle memory alone, but so can I, on the Brymen and to my mind it is easier as I don't need or use nS range so it's just a few clicks on the rotary knob and its all done, no other button presses required.

Whats the latest on your father, is he OK in the facility?

[synx508]

Greetings everyone, I'm a long time reader of this thread in its original place and have decided to type some words here. Southern UK people will likely know me from radio rallies where I've a tendency to buy the odd piece of equipment, with yesterday's rally yielding a "not working" HP 1742A oscilloscope and a "fully working" Wavetek 278 function generator.
As expected the working item didn't and the non-working one mostly did though it needs a lot of the usual 1740 series fettling. The HP was still in possession of its original 1979 C11 100µF timebase integrator capacitor, or at least half of it that hadn't been eaten by its own juicy contents. The Wavetek is quite nice apart from the terrible keyboard and other user interface choices and started working after some connector reseating.
I had a horrible mishap earlier in the month when a HP 3585A that I'd done a lot of work on suffered some kind of power related chaos triggered by a lump of some previous repairer's solder that was dislodged when I moved it. The calamity probably made it beyond sensible repair, something I compounded by being way too tired and plugging in the CPU card backwards, which has destroyed one line on the CPU, making it useless. I was *quite upset* about that. I'm probably still quite upset about that.
My next task is to try to figure out what's in the box of Tek spares that I bought on Sunday, I know there are a few HV transformers in there, I'm not a Tek person but I bought it in the hope that it might have the Tek analogue switch IC that the 5440 uses, as I have one with confused readouts which seems to be a stuck switch (the binary count that drives it is fine).
My wife tells me that buying and selling test equipment is now my hobby and has bought a chunky table for me to take to rallies, which could be a hint of some sort?

[tggzzz]

Greetings everyone, I'm a long time reader of this thread in its original place and have decided to type some words here. Southern UK people will likely know me from radio rallies where I've a tendency to buy the odd piece of equipment, with yesterday's rally yielding a "not working" HP 1742A oscilloscope and a "fully working" Wavetek 278 function generator.
As expected the working item didn't and the non-working one mostly did though it needs a lot of the usual 1740 series fettling. The HP was still in possession of its original 1979 C11 100µF timebase integrator capacitor, or at least half of it that hadn't been eaten by its own juicy contents. The Wavetek is quite nice apart from the terrible keyboard and other user interface choices and started working after some connector reseating.
I had a horrible mishap earlier in the month when a HP 3585A that I'd done a lot of work on suffered some kind of power related chaos triggered by a lump of some previous repairer's solder that was dislodged when I moved it. The calamity probably made it beyond sensible repair, something I compounded by being way too tired and plugging in the CPU card backwards, which has destroyed one line on the CPU, making it useless. I was *quite upset* about that. I'm probably still quite upset about that.
My next task is to try to figure out what's in the box of Tek spares that I bought on Sunday, I know there are a few HV transformers in there, I'm not a Tek person but I bought it in the hope that it might have the Tek analogue switch IC that the 5440 uses, as I have one with confused readouts which seems to be a stuck switch (the binary count that drives it is fine).
My wife tells me that buying and selling test equipment is now my hobby and has bought a chunky table for me to take to rallies, which could be a hint of some sort?

Welcome

Oh yes. C11. The Tek485 equivalent is C911. The Tek1502 equivalent is C6246 and C6341.

Don't forget you will, if you want to keep the 3.5ns risetime, have to show the 1740 that you love it by fondling and squeezing it occasionally. The sensitive bit is, of course, the internal delay line.

The other unpleasantness I've had is that the timebase rotary switch's outer edge pressed too hard against the PCB and abraded the PCB track. Solvable by soldering a thin wire across the gap, being careful not to get solder onto the gold plated switch track/ contacts.

If you can demonstrate that they work, I expect the Tek HV transformers can be used to demonstrate to your wife that this is better than a cost-neutral hobby

[Zenith]

Greetings everyone, I'm a long time reader of this thread in its original place and have decided to type some words here. Southern UK people will likely know me from radio rallies where I've a tendency to buy the odd piece of equipment, with yesterday's rally yielding a "not working" HP 1742A oscilloscope and a "fully working" Wavetek 278 function generator.

Which rally was that? St Neots?

A few of us on here follow the UK rally scene. For those of us in the West of England. St Neots is a bit far. I might make the effort if it was as big as Newbury or Dunstable Downs. I was slightly tempted to go to Milton Keynes on Sunday, but decided not to in the end. One member went and said it wasn't up to much.

You might be kind enough to make out a short report on the rally in the Events section; the rough size, the sort of things there, trophies you came away with. It's always worth reading those if it's an event you haven't been to before.

A couple of us went to Rugby a week or so back and picked up some interesting items. We'll probably go to Telford next Sunday. I think that's about the last of the larger rallies, within striking distance, for this year. There are a few minor ones within easy reach of Bristol. Weston-super-mare, Newport and the Chippenham winter rally.

I assume that any equipment I buy at a rally has faults. I've found they are mainly straightforward and easy to fix.

[bd139]

Sad that MKARS was crap. That's usually a good one and I tend to come out with a reasonably large amount of tat

[Robert]

Greetings everyone, I'm a long time reader of this thread in its original place and have decided to type some words here. Southern UK people will likely know me from radio rallies where I've a tendency to buy the odd piece of equipment, with yesterday's rally yielding a "not working" HP 1742A oscilloscope and a "fully working" Wavetek 278 function generator.
As expected the working item didn't and the non-working one mostly did though it needs a lot of the usual 1740 series fettling. The HP was still in possession of its original 1979 C11 100µF timebase integrator capacitor, or at least half of it that hadn't been eaten by its own juicy contents. The Wavetek is quite nice apart from the terrible keyboard and other user interface choices and started working after some connector reseating.
I had a horrible mishap earlier in the month when a HP 3585A that I'd done a lot of work on suffered some kind of power related chaos triggered by a lump of some previous repairer's solder that was dislodged when I moved it. The calamity probably made it beyond sensible repair, something I compounded by being way too tired and plugging in the CPU card backwards, which has destroyed one line on the CPU, making it useless. I was *quite upset* about that. I'm probably still quite upset about that.
My next task is to try to figure out what's in the box of Tek spares that I bought on Sunday, I know there are a few HV transformers in there, I'm not a Tek person but I bought it in the hope that it might have the Tek analogue switch IC that the 5440 uses, as I have one with confused readouts which seems to be a stuck switch (the binary count that drives it is fine).
My wife tells me that buying and selling test equipment is now my hobby and has bought a chunky table for me to take to rallies, which could be a hint of some sort?

I did say the Wavetek was working when last used some time ago and that it had a habit of giving an output error message that I never got to go wrong on the bench. Now you've fixed it I'd be happy to give you your £20 back

Robert.

[Robert]

Telford is a bit far for me at 125 miles.
I've also just committed the entire TEA fund (teapot?) to a Best Offer on a bit of R&S kit so with luck won't have any funds....

Robert.

[synx508]

Don't forget you will, if you want to keep the 3.5ns risetime, have to show the 1740 that you love it by fondling and squeezing it occasionally. The sensitive bit is, of course, the internal delay line.

I wondered where this was going, but it's presumably something to do with the effects of age… of the delay line cable.

The other unpleasantness I've had is that the timebase rotary switch's outer edge pressed too hard against the PCB and abraded the PCB track. Solvable by soldering a thin wire across the gap, being careful not to get solder onto the gold plated switch track/ contacts.

This 1979 model has only two clamps on the timebase control shaft, my parts donor from a few years earlier has three (as specified in the manual), but three seems like too many. I'm going to check that I've not positioned them in a way that is likely to wear down the PCB.

If you can demonstrate that they work, I expect the Tek HV transformers can be used to demonstrate to your wife that this is better than a cost-neutral hobby

I don't think it'll be necessary to use The Apparatus at this time.

[Specmaster]

Greetings everyone, I'm a long time reader of this thread in its original place and have decided to type some words here. Southern UK people will likely know me from radio rallies where I've a tendency to buy the odd piece of equipment, with yesterday's rally yielding a "not working" HP 1742A oscilloscope and a "fully working" Wavetek 278 function generator.
As expected the working item didn't and the non-working one mostly did though it needs a lot of the usual 1740 series fettling. The HP was still in possession of its original 1979 C11 100µF timebase integrator capacitor, or at least half of it that hadn't been eaten by its own juicy contents. The Wavetek is quite nice apart from the terrible keyboard and other user interface choices and started working after some connector reseating.
I had a horrible mishap earlier in the month when a HP 3585A that I'd done a lot of work on suffered some kind of power related chaos triggered by a lump of some previous repairer's solder that was dislodged when I moved it. The calamity probably made it beyond sensible repair, something I compounded by being way too tired and plugging in the CPU card backwards, which has destroyed one line on the CPU, making it useless. I was *quite upset* about that. I'm probably still quite upset about that.
My next task is to try to figure out what's in the box of Tek spares that I bought on Sunday, I know there are a few HV transformers in there, I'm not a Tek person but I bought it in the hope that it might have the Tek analogue switch IC that the 5440 uses, as I have one with confused readouts which seems to be a stuck switch (the binary count that drives it is fine).
My wife tells me that buying and selling test equipment is now my hobby and has bought a chunky table for me to take to rallies, which could be a hint of some sort?

If you need any bits for the 1742 drop me a PM, somewhere in my lab I have a load of boards etc for the 1740 series of scopes, I might be able to help you with.

[Zenith]

Telford is a bit far for me at 125 miles.
I've also just committed the entire TEA fund (teapot?) to a Best Offer on a bit of R&S kit so with luck won't have any funds....

Robert.

Telford's a bit iffy for me, at about 115 miles, but it's almost all motorway, I had a couple of good items last time and we are coming to the end of the serious rallying season - Newark's cancelled for this year - so why not? I feel obliged to do the Hack Green (with added Secret Nuclear Bunker) rally at least once, and that's a long haul but I don't expect too much from it.

As I recall, last year you did Telford as part of a grand tour, as part of picking up some prize up north.

A lot of it depends on what you spot that you are looking for. It could be TE, it could be manuals, or books, or components.