Techs: What's on your Shelf of Weird Things?

On a related note, i've got a collection of stuff retrieved from inside vcrs. toys, straws, audio c60s, coins , etc.

and evidence of botched 'repairs', like the line transformer with charred arc holes in, someone had stuck chewing gum and sellotape over in an attempt to 'fix'.

will think about what else i have and post back!

-B

I have some microwave stuff from Western Electric that not too many would even know which end was which or even be able to take a decent guess as to what it did. Hell I don't even know and I've had this crap for 20 years :)

More so than having weird technical problems, try evaluating some of the customers! Some of them have the wildest stories about their TV or themselves.

--

JANA _____

Here are a few things from mine:

• A three-legged resistor. It used to be two separate power resistors, but one got so hot it exploded and fused itself into the identical resistor immediately next to it on the circuit board. It looks like a letter "Y" and even close inspection makes one suspect it was actually manufactured this way.

• A 7805 voltage regulator that works as long as the input voltage is from 8 to 12 volts, but when it goes any higher than that, the output voltage drops to about 3 volts.

• A 1-watt carbon resistor that's missing a 1-mm wide band of carbon, exposing the internal element. Looks like it was lasered neatly out. Resistor still tests good, though.

• A 1N4001 diode with the cathode marking on the wrong end.

• Transistors with the wrong part numbers printed on them! (Took us a LOOOONG time to figure this one out!)

Others I've heard about:

• Multimeter test leads that accidentally carried too much current through them, instantly fusing the internal wires into one big, solid mass. Some tech was trying to measure the high voltage on a laser power supply but forgot to switch the meter from "Ohms" to "Volts." Now he's got a fried meter and red and black coathangers.

I'm glad I dont repair vacuums.

NT

Post some pictures. I bet someone on the list will know what you have.

Bill K7NOM

OK, here's one:

Inside, are two nested cylinders that are electrically insulated from the others, but attached to two of the pointy probes on the left via the two middle flanges.

What is it? :)

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heating element?

Doubt it. Nothing between the cylinders except air. :)

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Laser gizmo?

My guess (and it is a guess) is that it is a standard capacitor. Don't understand why it would have the pointy probes though.

Bill K7NOM

It looks like a shielded four-point probe for determining the sheet resistance of some soft material. If so, the shoulders on two of the probes would maintain a uniform penetration distance. I seem to recall that in such applications, two of the probes are connected across a voltage source in series with an ammeter and the other two are connected across a voltmeter. Presumably there'd be a connection to instrumentation cables.

The only problem with this theory is that the finish on the device doesn't seem correct for this sort of a job.

M Kinsler

Going back in my memory, I think I've actually seen something like this before, and now I think maybe that it's not a four-point probe, but some sort of RF antenna element. Those probes look awfully familiar somehow.

This is an excellent exercise.

M Kinsler

I reckon my best is a KT88 with a molten anode.

Graham

Flux Capacitor?

Ron(UK)

Hopefully, it'll come to you while your sleeping. :) But I really do have no idea. I got it in a box of junk.

Again, there's nothing inside besides two smaller nested cylinders, electrically insulated from the outer one with glass beads between the flanges.

I rather like the idea of the probe, except there are only 3 electrically separate contacts and then how does one connect to it?

:)

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I still hang on to the pair of slip-joint pliers with which I tried to loosen a mains lug in a 100 amp disconnect box...live. If I open the pliers fully, one side of the jaw is a perfect fit for a certain size allen screw.

One night at a gig, the house electrician left unexpectedly, holding

150' feet of our '0' feeder cable captive. I had no way to shut off the power and the truck was fully loaded. I bade everyone give me plenty of room, put one hand in my pocket and attacked the problem with my handy slip-joints. I had all three hot legs disco'd and was going after the neutral when the slip-joints...slipped.

I was ready, though and jumped back as soon as I felt them let go. It made a pretty spectacular ZZZAP! and blew the tool clean out of the box. They have a pretty nasty gash melted into the side that I use to remind me not to be stupid.

I solved the problem by cutting the feeder where it came out of the box and left eight or ten inches behind.

jak

The diagonal cutters on my pliers have a nice notch that I inadvertently fabricated when I cut through an energized line cord one fine day. It makes a nice wire-stripping notch.

M Kinsler

Been there, done that. Shut off the circuit breaker, then cut the wire and POW! Oops, that wire snaked off to a different circuit! Breaker was now off though :)

I have a TIP-41 transistor that works perfectly until the package exceeds ~90 degrees F. Then the B-E junction goes open. Let it cool, and it works again. You can watch the junction open and close with the heat from your fingers. I assume a defective wirebond to the die is to blame.

I also have a 6550 tube that lost negative grid bias while operating. The tube got so hot that the glass envelope melted and "sucked in" to touch the plate. :)

Bob Weiss N2IXK

Matt J. McCullar wrote: