Friday Score

Fridays are the days to hit yard and estate sales if one has the freedom to do so. I just scored a Tekronix 2215 60Mhz scope in pristine condition with all manuals and two P6120 passive probes for $18. And with just an outlet adapter or Aussie cord, it'll work down under. Now all I have to do is learn how to use the darn thing!

On the way home, found another yard sale and scored a 320Gb external USB HDD in original shrink wrap for $10.

Jon

That's a great deal, they are easy to use, I have one too IIRC.

i

"Jon Anderson" skrev i en meddelelse news:6F5no.153043$ snipped-for-privacy@en-nntp-16.dc.easynews.com...

Joke'ing: Don't even bother. It is a piece of junk. Dump it in the nearest bin and tell me where that is so I can pick it up ;-)

Serious: That is one great finding you've done there. Those things are not that hard to use.

Same as above :-)

$18 seemed a no brainer, and not a big $$ loss if I screwed up and fried it. Check on eBay, they seem to sell between about $50 and $150. Have a friend that does some real high end power supplies for scientific instrumentation that is going to check it out for me and make sure it's in good working order. And give me a quick run down on the basics.

Jon

Funny thing too, is that outside of the scope, the closest thing to tools was some old school drafting stuff. I was about to head back out of the garage when I spotted the scope, packed with manuals, in a clear plastic package like what bed sheets come in.

Jon

On Fri, 24 Sep 2010 10:58:33 -0800, Jon Anderson

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There was a long thread in the group about using an oscilloscope, back before it became a political discussion group. I'll print the thread below. Also, Techtronix published a book called "The X Y Z's of Oscilloscopes." I suspect it's out there on the web since I have an archived copy of it - waiting for the day when I spot an oscilloscope cheap.

RWL

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Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking Subject: Re: OT/gloat: I got an oscilloscope! From: "jw" Date: 2 Dec 2005 12:01:40 -0800

Hook up your probe to Ch1. Adjust the voltage(upper left knob, with red center) to appropriate division(200mv or 1V). Touch the probe to one of the metal terminals(dont' worry about the GND clip). You will need to adjust the time divisions to something appropriate. I would assume that the test terminals are going to generate a 1khz squarewave(just my experience). If that is the case, an appropriate time division would be 1ms.

Based on the previous, this should yield you a nice squarewave displayed on the screen. If you don't see anything, play with the offset knob(little knob to the left of voltage div knob). The offset may be set such that the signal is shifted off the screen.

Repeat for ch2.

Enough to get you started at least.

JW

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Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking Subject: Re: OT/gloat: I got an oscilloscope! From: Jon Elson Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2005 17:43:47 -0600

B.B. wrote:

Start simple. Set it for chan A only, and display to A sweep only, and sweep mode to auto. You should get one horizontal line. Connect a probe from the A input to one of the little metal rings under the Time/Div knob. Those are the calibrator outputs. By setting the right Volts/Div and Time/Div you should get either 2 horizontal lines or a square wave. The right settings of the trig source and

That indicates that the A or B sweep has found something to trigger on.

Those are the calibrator outputs. You have a choice of a 200 mV and a

1 V peak-to-peak square wave, usually at ~1 KHz. These are used to check the calibration of the vertical amplifier, and also to compensate the R/C compensation of the probe to accurately display square waveshapes.

Jon

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Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking Subject: Re: OT/gloat: I got an oscilloscope! From: Ecnerwal Date: Sat, 03 Dec 2005 15:05:31 GMT

They might cost more than your scope with 1 probe did...

Electronics swap meet/ham radio club meeting/etc.

For low-tech, low frequency stuff (probably applicable, but who knows) you can make a crude probe from a chunk of coax with the right connector, an alligator clip or two, and a bit of heat shrink tubing.

One of those probes is worth more than you paid for the lot.

Very cool price.

Congrats, Jon, unless it was "only dropped (3 stories) once".

-- Some people hear voices. Some see invisible people. Others have no imagination whatsoever.

Thank you for that! And I -had- that book on scopes along with another. Finally let them go because I thought I'd never own one. In the constant battle over what to keep and what to discard, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose...

Jon

It really and truly looks brand new. Not a trace of dust in any nooks and crannies. Plugged it in, and get 'blips' running left to right, so it's at least somewhat functional. I have no reason to believe it's other than pristine however. Will be getting it checked out week after next.

And another score today. After winning $96 on the Lotto last week, and yesterday's scores, thought I'd hit the road today. Hit 10 yard sales all over hell's half acre today, nada. Until I hit the last one, where there was a set of Spikes Spiders, the replacements for snow chains you just clip onto a wheel adapter. They are bloody expensive. Only chains that will fit my Escort are cable chains and I -hate- them, as the rollers just want to, well, roll under the tire.

From the size of the vinyl carrying case, I assumed them to be too big for my car, and wondered why nobody had bought them yet. Well, the zipper was buggered making it impossible to open. I did a bit of groping, and determined there were was a set, and gambled on the purchase, that I could resell and make some money. The cost? $3

Get home, and boy-oh-boy, it looks like they will fit my Escort! WooHoo! I guess I'm just getting to be a pussy in my old age, but crawling around on hands and knees in the snow chaining up sucks. Receipt shows they were purchased from the guy I get tires from and I'm due for rotation, so will have him do whatever it takes to properly fit them up.

Jon

Today...

Bought a pintle hook adapter for $5, similar to this:

I needed it badly to tow that M105A2 that I won in the miiltary auction. Very happy about it.

K.O. Lee valve grinder for $40, like this:

but with a big box and a bunch of accessories.

Super old phonograph with some kids music included for $15. This might not work and I may need to throw it out.

Prestolite torch, a bunch of Victor tips including a #6 rosebud tip, Turbotorch, lots of igniters (most thrown out), propane torches, etc for $20.

i

Depends on what you mean by "super old".

If it is old enough, the most likely failure will be the spring which drives the turntable. (Wind up style.) The other thing is you will need some consumables (needles -- cactus needles work nicely -- steel ones have to be replaced more often or they start to grind away the music from the grooves. Of course this is purely deadly to stereo recordings. :-) But the playback is purely acoustic -- no electronics or electrics. Be warned -- the spring is a flat clock spring type, but 1" wide and thick -- a killer if it gets loose. Usually, the failure is where it hooks to either the center shaft or the outer cage, and it is possible to make a new hole at the cost of some play time by shortening the spring.

Later -- you would find electric motors turning the turntable, but still an acoustic playback unit -- especially on kid's phonographs. Most likely failure here is the rubber tire which transfers motion from the motor shaft to the inner rim of the turntable.

Then we get to electric motors and tube amplifiers. Tubes are the major failure mode here. Needles get a bit fancier -- but are only sometimes called "styli".

Then to solid state amplifiers. Back to the needle/stylus and the drive rubber as the most likely failure modes.

There is *one* out there somewhere -- built from a kid's portable phonograph to demonstrate a flexible mosfet power transistor printed on a mylar film. Full power for the amplifier was a single

1-1/2 V D cell. The speaker and the cartridge were hooked directly to the power mosfet.

It was stolen from the research scientist's car, and he looked forward to the time the battery died and the thief took it in for repair, and the repairman would say "You have *got* to be kidding me. You say this worked?" :-)

Then ones new enough so you are unlikely to be calling them "very old", so I won't mention them.

Enjoy, DoN.

several incorrect statements in Don Nichols review of phonograph technology

on older wind up units, the failure I have seen most often is hardened grease - it won't work because it's all glued togethr - clean and it's fine

on tube units, most common failure is one or more capacitors,

It all depends on what you call a "failure". :-)

Hardened grease is not truly a "failure" (and I was typing in a room which was up to 93 F -- the air conditioning blower fan failed just too late for me to get a replacement until Monday. :-) It is things like this which make me wish that I had welding capability -- the hub broke out of the web of the squirrel cage. (Of course getting it sufficiently balanced would be another trick. :-)

Anyway -- hardened grease is fixed with a proper clean and lube job, which is preventive maintenance, not repair in my book.

Now -- if a lack of lube caused a part to wear to the point of needing replacement -- *that* I would accept as a failure.

A broken spring (which I *have* seen, while I have not seen the lube caking) is certainly a failure. Granted, the last time I looked at one of these was back in the late 1950s.

O.K. By now, it would be. But most of them would have been put aside before the dehydration of the electrolytics really started -- for failed tubes. They live in storage for years before someone decides to get rid of them. So likely a combination of both. Anyway -- electrolytics are easier to replace (if you don't insist on it looking the same) than tubes these days.

Enjoy, DoN.

>

DoN, this is a wind up phonograph with a needle. The problem is that the arm holding the needle seems to be a little loose and not balanced by any kind of a spring etc. It feels wrong. I would expect it to come down on the disk gently and to be relatively stable. I may post some pictures and a video.

i

Mine looks a lot like this one:

i

>>

Here's another one that is a consolation for a lousy day (son #1 broke a toe, so I took him to ER).

8 drill bits, supposedly brand new, 9-16 to 1" by 1/16", in a Huot box. The auction does not say Huot, but you can see it if you look really closely at one of the pictures. I hope that the drill bits are of the decent kind. i

>

news:rec.antiques.radio+phono is the proper newsgroup for windups.

I am very hopeful and excited. These are Silver and Deming drills, also, which makes them usable with a lot of smaller tools.

i