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From: Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design,sci.electronics.repair
Subject: Re: Favourite Test Equipment
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2024 17:59:42 +0100
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On Fri, 05 Apr 2024 08:13:07 -0700, John Larkin <jl@997PotHill.com>
wrote:

>On Fri, 05 Apr 2024 07:49:30 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>
>wrote:
>
>>On a sunny day (Thu, 4 Apr 2024 11:56:23 -0000 (UTC)) it happened Phil Hobbs
>><pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote in
>><uum4h6$kmdl$1@dont-email.me>:
>>
>>>Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund <klauskvik@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>> On 01-04-2024 09:01, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>>>>> On a sunny day (Sun, 31 Mar 2024 18:41:18 +0100) it happened Cursitor Doom
>>>>> <cd@notformail.com> 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 channel 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.
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Very true about specifically the 1% statement. Sidebar, at an earlier 
>>>> employment, we needed to equip a new lab. Guys wanted GHz scopes. When 
>>>> asked if the ever looked at edges faster than 1ns, no one did.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>
>>>It’s true that there are a lot of relatively undemanding jobs in
>>>electronics. You can get on fine with a 200-MHz scope if all you’re doing
>>>is PIC and Pi and ham radio and analog TV.   
>>
>>Bull,
>>I have been using my Trio 10 MHz dual channel for digital TV too
>>see
>> https://panteltje.nl/panteltje/raspberry_pi_dvb-s_transmitter/
>>GHz output..
>>
>>Its is about UNDERSTANDING the systems
>>You cannot repair a TV set in a short time if you do not UNDERSTAND every part of the circuit and its function, the whole system
>>neither with a 10 MHz or with a 10 GHz scope.
>>Fault finding had been my job most of the time, sometimes with 'the show must go on'
>>or rocket must launch or whatever.
>
>Does anyone still repair TVs? TV repair shops used to be common but
>seem to be gone now.
>
>TVs are insanely cheap and reliable now. I suspect that a failure
>under an over-priced "extended warranty" gets you a replacement.
>
>Nobody makes schematics available now, and a TV is full of exotic
>custom chips.

All which make repair extremely difficult! There are moves afoot in
Europe, I believe, to introduce some sort of 'compulsory
repairability' law, to enable freelance repairers to fix up stuff
that's gone kaput. That would be an excellent idea, given the massive
amount of electronics that goes into landfill. Our 'throw away
culture' is not doing the environment any favours at all. This is what
needs to be focused on, not some garbage about greenhouse gases.