Path: ...!news.mixmin.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: legg Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design,sci.electronics.repair Subject: Re: Favourite Test Equipment Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2024 08:29:00 -0400 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 123 Message-ID: References: <9k7j0jlnbhs8qfg5m17pium0835meean83@4ax.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2024 12:27:35 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="350597a13cd7975afd60656781f07b79"; logging-data="2620890"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18fUkXx+hAZo43DHm5Zpkx2" Cancel-Lock: sha1:Z/bado+uRHghjN8LFFyd/3yZP0w= X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 4.2/32.1118 Bytes: 7495 On Mon, 01 Apr 2024 11:36:48 GMT, Jan Panteltje wrote: >On a sunny day (Mon, 01 Apr 2024 09:39:59 +0100) it happened Cursitor Doom > wrote in : > >>On Mon, 01 Apr 2024 07:01:34 GMT, Jan Panteltje >>wrote: >> >>>On a sunny day (Sun, 31 Mar 2024 18:41:18 +0100) it happened Cursitor Doom >>> wrote in <9k7j0jlnbhs8qfg5m17pium0835meean83@4ax.com>: >>> >>>>Hi all, >>>> >>>>I'm starting to get a bit fed up with having my test equipment blow up >>>>just when it's needed. This is the drawback with vintage gear; if it's >>>>not used frequently then it can go *bang* the next time you switch it >>>>on. It makes for good practice in repairing stuff, but wastes a lot of >>>>time which could be better spent doing other things. >>>>I think it's time I modernised my test gear. I was just wondering if >>>>anyone has any recommendations they can share. Is there a particular >>>>piece of test equipment you couldn't live without? Something you're >>>>particularly impressed with? I'd be interested to know so I can >>>>perhaps acquire said item and thereby reduce the number of explosions >>>>I experience. >>>> >>>>Thanks, >>>> >>>>CD. >>> >>>My 10 MHz Trio dual trace analog scope is from 1979 or there about, I blew up a channal once myself in the first week >>>when I accidently touched a booster diode in a TV I was repairing with it, fixed it locating the problem with the other >>>channel. >>>Later I cracked the graticule when a soldering station fell on it from the table (scope stands on the ground) >>>Made a new graticule. >>>So, and still working perfectly, OK for all things I build with micros. >>>For RF to about 1.6 GHz I use RTL_SDR USB sticks and the spectrum analyzer I wrote. >>>and for AC DC measurements I have some made in China digital meters and an analog one. >>>also a Voltcraft clamp-on meter for current when you do not - or cannot interrupt things with the meter impedance. >>>Also have a Voltcraft soldering station. >>>Blew up one of my digital meters a while back (volts on the resistance scale) but fixed it again (replaced resistor). >>>Many other test equipment I designed and build, like amplifiers LF and RF, SWR meter, radiation meters, gamma spectrometer, >>>GHz stuff for satelite, transmitters low and very high power, what not, >>>a frequency converter to use the RTL-SDR sticks and so the spectrum analyzer on higher and lower frequencies. >>>Have a SARK100 SWR analyzer too. >>>Things last forever here... >>>Scope used on a regular basis.. >>>RTL-SDR stick 24/7. >>>Digital meters used every day. >>>Use my self designed lab power supply every day.. >>>What more do you need? >>>Learn to use the stuff, understand what's important, and that is it >>>When I started in electronics as a kid I did not even _have_ a meter, still stuff worked. >>>Build my own scope at some point back then when I somehow got the parts >>>Not much pocket mony as a kid. >>>UNDERSTAND your systems, what electrons do. >>>Showing of with boat anchors may impress people, especially the clueless... >>>But it does not help you one bit. >>>Anything with an accuracy better than 1 percent in most cases is just like apes screaming load trying to impress other apes. >>> >> >>I don't think any of us here truly understand what electrons do, Jan! >>Boat anchors don't impress anyone nowadays; they're more likely to >>make one look like some sort of oddball mad scientist who couldn't get >>laid. ;-) >>I'm guessing you don't have a TV. Would I be right? > >I learned the basics of how electrons behave and move as a small kid from this book: > https://www.boekenwebsite.nl/techniek/zowerkt-de-radio > 'That is how radio works' >He also wrote > that is how TV works >and > That is how the transistor works. >I remember walking the streets of Amsterdam looking for usable parts for my own TV in primary school >Tried to make an OLED TV too. > >In high-school were I build an tube amplifier for the school band >I got an old tube CRT from a TV shop. >Made an HV generator using a car ignition coil on the output of an old EL84 audio amp, >made that amp oscillate by feeding back some output to the input. >The output of the ignition coil rectified by an old TV HV diode >Horizontal deflection coils on same amp >Vertical defection coils on an other audio amp. >That was my first scope. >Not very high frequency.. >Had a transistor FM transmitter of my own design working too, >we had a radio program! >As to understand electrons START THERE >That is what it is all about. >That is how I started as a kid, books from Van Aisberg >Later when studying electronics I got some old tube TV, and gradually replaced each part with transistors >rewound horizontal output transformer, build a new tuner. >By that time Elector magazine published the 'teletor' > https://archive.org/details/elektuur-36-1965-11_20200524 > used some ideas from that and had my first transistor TV, mine was MUCH bigger had a real CRT. >In 1968 designed my own TV vidicon camara, left my current design job and started in broadcasting, hired on the spot, >6 month payed training in the school banks all about broadcasting all about television >Many years nothing but film, TV and audio, video recording, satellite, slow motion, video editing, running a TV studio, what not >So, you could f*cking learn a bit >Yes I have a nice Samsung TV and a portable one too. >I can build one from scrap in no time, but the digital decoders these days need a chip >but I can code that too. > https://panteltje.nl/panteltje/newsflex/download.html > https://panteltje.nl/panteltje/raspberry_pi_dvb-s_transmitter/ > >I like to open source things, worked in all sort of science fields electronics is used for, >from medical to space to army to navy to broadcasting, been there done it >Electrons try to understand, math is just about quantities and breaks down anyways as mamaticians will do a divide by zero >and claim a new reality. >EInsteinianism is brain dead. >hehe > >PS I had a TV repair shop in Amsterdam for many years (see it is also going to ..repair) > >. Jan, do you have a 'toy' budget? Most new stuff (that might actually save time or work better than home brew) seems to fall into that category. RL