Reviving Test Equipment After A Long Storage Period

[Too_Many_Tools]

I have a number of pieces of test equipment (HP, Tek, Fluke...digital/
analog/RF) that have been sitting in storage for a decade.

Time to apply the power and see if they work.

What is the recommended procedure to bring test equipment that has
been stored for a long period?

Also is there a MIL document that relates to this subject?

Thanks for what info you can offer.

TMT

 

[D from BC]

In article <bdc9a0c2-ac56-49a4-9ca1-2d058e3c0fe6
@t1g2000vbq.googlegroups.com>, too_many_tools@yahoo.com says...

I have a number of pieces of test equipment (HP, Tek, Fluke...digital/
analog/RF) that have been sitting in storage for a decade.

Time to apply the power and see if they work.

What is the recommended procedure to bring test equipment that has
been stored for a long period?

Also is there a MIL document that relates to this subject?

Thanks for what info you can offer.

TMT

Here's my guesses ..
1) Blow dust off the electronics (human skin,pollen,pollution,drywall
dust from renovations). Remove dead insects and mice/rat hair or pet
hair or mice/rat urine or feces. Check if something leaked onto the
electronics ex roof leak..
2) Don't test it..Just play dumb. You don't know what it is and don't
know how to test it and sell as is on ebay with no return.
3) If it self destructs, so what.... >10 years imo approaches totally
useless.
4) Maybe plug it in and turn it on outside in case the smoke is toxic.
+10 year old tek hmmm...ok it might be a bit heavy to move around.
5) RogerN(sed poster) might say 'Pray to God'. If it still blows up, you
didn't pray hard enough. Or God has a plan for its failure. Or Satan is
to blame for the electrolytics failing. Either way it's God's plan and
his capriousness is to be taken an example of extreme power.
6) Don't bother. Life's short. Have fun and let it be someone else's
problem.
7) Drop it off at a shop that deals with restoring and selling test
equipment. Pay.

--
D from BC
British Columbia

 

[Robert Baer]

Too_Many_Tools wrote:

I have a number of pieces of test equipment (HP, Tek, Fluke...digital/
analog/RF) that have been sitting in storage for a decade.

Time to apply the power and see if they work.

What is the recommended procedure to bring test equipment that has
been stored for a long period?

Also is there a MIL document that relates to this subject?

Thanks for what info you can offer.

TMT
Old tube-based items should be brought up with a variac to 80-90%

full voltage for up to a half an hour, and then up to full voltage if no
smoke..
This allows the electrolytics to re-form; rare baddies will complain
(smoke or explode).
Battery powered equipment should have no problems unless the
batteries are a part of an inverter to provide 120VAC..then try to
bypass the inverter and use the variac scheme.

 

[JeffM]

Too_Many_Tools wrote:

What is the recommended procedure to bring test equipment
that has been stored for a long period?

http://www.vcomp.co.uk/tech_tips/reform_caps/reform_caps.htm

 

[N_Cook]

Too_Many_Tools <too_many_tools@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:bdc9a0c2-ac56-49a4-9ca1-2d058e3c0fe6@t1g2000vbq.googlegroups.com...

I have a number of pieces of test equipment (HP, Tek, Fluke...digital/
analog/RF) that have been sitting in storage for a decade.

Time to apply the power and see if they work.

What is the recommended procedure to bring test equipment that has
been stored for a long period?

Also is there a MIL document that relates to this subject?

Thanks for what info you can offer.

TMT

Borrow or buy a variac or poorman's version a lamp socket in series and
variety of traditional bulbs 10W to 150W. Flickering bulb, like wavering
variac ammeter, often indicates cap problem. remove cover and sniff while
powering up.


--
Diverse Devices, Southampton, England
electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://diverse.4mg.com/index.htm

 

[Robert Baer]

D from BC wrote:

In article <bdc9a0c2-ac56-49a4-9ca1-2d058e3c0fe6
@t1g2000vbq.googlegroups.com>, too_many_tools@yahoo.com says...
I have a number of pieces of test equipment (HP, Tek, Fluke...digital/
analog/RF) that have been sitting in storage for a decade.

Time to apply the power and see if they work.

What is the recommended procedure to bring test equipment that has
been stored for a long period?

Also is there a MIL document that relates to this subject?

Thanks for what info you can offer.

TMT


Here's my guesses ..
1) Blow dust off the electronics (human skin,pollen,pollution,drywall
dust from renovations). Remove dead insects and mice/rat hair or pet
hair or mice/rat urine or feces. Check if something leaked onto the
electronics ex roof leak..
2) Don't test it..Just play dumb. You don't know what it is and don't
know how to test it and sell as is on ebay with no return.
3) If it self destructs, so what.... >10 years imo approaches totally
useless.
4) Maybe plug it in and turn it on outside in case the smoke is toxic.
+10 year old tek hmmm...ok it might be a bit heavy to move around.
5) RogerN(sed poster) might say 'Pray to God'. If it still blows up, you
didn't pray hard enough. Or God has a plan for its failure. Or Satan is
to blame for the electrolytics failing. Either way it's God's plan and
his capriousness is to be taken an example of extreme power.
6) Don't bother. Life's short. Have fun and let it be someone else's
problem.
7) Drop it off at a shop that deals with restoring and selling test
equipment. Pay.

Well, i disagree on the >10 year statement.

Have carefully powered up old Tek 517 scopes 8-15 years after
manufacture and all worked and near spec (in one case had to replace a
few power supply electrolytics).
I bet one could still do that today even after all this time.
THere were some damn fast ANALOG scopes with beyond 1GHz secs that
displayed fast rise pulses (mercury wetted reed pulsers) with better
resolution and fidelity than 1S1 plugins in those daze.
Single-shot pulse displays are in the long dim past.

 

[PeterD]

On Tue, 2 Feb 2010 22:11:38 -0800, D from BC <myrealaddress@comic.com>
wrote:

In article <bdc9a0c2-ac56-49a4-9ca1-2d058e3c0fe6
@t1g2000vbq.googlegroups.com>, too_many_tools@yahoo.com says...

I have a number of pieces of test equipment (HP, Tek, Fluke...digital/
analog/RF) that have been sitting in storage for a decade.

Time to apply the power and see if they work.

What is the recommended procedure to bring test equipment that has
been stored for a long period?

Also is there a MIL document that relates to this subject?

Thanks for what info you can offer.

TMT


Here's my guesses ..
1) Blow dust off the electronics (human skin,pollen,pollution,drywall
dust from renovations). Remove dead insects and mice/rat hair or pet
hair or mice/rat urine or feces. Check if something leaked onto the
electronics ex roof leak..
2) Don't test it..Just play dumb. You don't know what it is and don't
know how to test it and sell as is on ebay with no return.

Strongly not recommended. You cannot safely sell "as-is" on eBay
today, buyers assume the best even when you state clearly broken or
untested. Then they demand their money back (and eBay/PayPal gives it
to them) and they leave you a neg. Not worth the hassle. Use Craig's
list instead where buyers are not molleycoddled and pampered by the
venue.

3) If it self destructs, so what.... >10 years imo approaches totally
useless.
g
4) Maybe plug it in and turn it on outside in case the smoke is toxic.
+10 year old tek hmmm...ok it might be a bit heavy to move around.
5) RogerN(sed poster) might say 'Pray to God'. If it still blows up, you
didn't pray hard enough. Or God has a plan for its failure. Or Satan is
to blame for the electrolytics failing. Either way it's God's plan and
his capriousness is to be taken an example of extreme power.
6) Don't bother. Life's short. Have fun and let it be someone else's
problem.
7) Drop it off at a shop that deals with restoring and selling test
equipment. Pay.

Hell, grab an extension cord, plug it in, and go for it!

 

[John Walliker]

On 3 Feb, 14:14, PeterD <pet...@hipson.net> wrote:

Hell, grab an extension cord, plug it in, and go for it!

And then if it doesn't work look for lithium batteries maintaining the
calibration memory.

My HP 54542A digital 'scope died that way. No error message. It just
wouldn't start up.

After replacing the lithium battery and going through the self test
and calibration procedure it was fine.

Another potential problem is failing eproms. I bought a vector
network analyzer from ebay which turned out to have one flipped eprom
bit. I wrote this up on sci.electronics.repair.

The most common problem is probably dried up electrolytic capacitors
in switching power supplies. A cheap esr meter is worth its weight in
gold as there is often no visible sign of failure. I use a Peak
ESR60.

John

 

[Too_Many_Tools]

On Feb 3, 2:53 am, Robert Baer <robertb...@localnet.com> wrote:

D from BC wrote:
In article <bdc9a0c2-ac56-49a4-9ca1-2d058e3c0fe6
@t1g2000vbq.googlegroups.com>, too_many_to...@yahoo.com says...
I have a number of pieces of test equipment (HP, Tek, Fluke...digital/
analog/RF) that have been sitting in storage for a decade.

Time to apply the power and see if they work.

What is the recommended procedure to bring test equipment that has
been stored for a long period?

Also is there a MIL document that relates to this subject?

Thanks for what info you can offer.

TMT

Here's my guesses ..
1) Blow dust off the electronics (human skin,pollen,pollution,drywall
dust from renovations). Remove dead insects and mice/rat hair or pet
hair or mice/rat urine or feces. Check if something leaked onto the
electronics ex roof leak..
2) Don't test it..Just play dumb. You don't know what it is and don't
know how to test it and sell as is on ebay with no return.
3) If it self destructs, so what.... >10 years imo approaches totally
useless.
4) Maybe plug it in and turn it on outside in case the smoke is toxic.
+10 year old tek hmmm...ok it might be a bit heavy to move around.
5) RogerN(sed poster) might say 'Pray to God'. If it still blows up, you
didn't pray hard enough. Or God has a plan for its failure. Or Satan is
to blame for the electrolytics failing. Either way it's God's plan and
his capriousness is to be taken an example of extreme power.
6) Don't bother. Life's short. Have fun and let it be someone else's
problem.
7) Drop it off at a shop that deals with restoring and selling test
equipment. Pay.

   Well, i disagree on the >10 year statement.
   Have carefully powered up old Tek 517 scopes 8-15 years after
manufacture and all worked and near spec (in one case had to replace a
few power supply electrolytics).
   I bet one could still do that today even after all this time.
   THere were some damn fast ANALOG scopes with beyond 1GHz secs that
displayed fast rise pulses (mercury wetted reed pulsers) with better
resolution and fidelity than 1S1 plugins in those daze.
   Single-shot pulse displays are in the long dim past.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I agree.

There is LOTS of older equipment out there working.

TMT

 

[John Robertson]

Too_Many_Tools wrote:

I have a number of pieces of test equipment (HP, Tek, Fluke...digital/
analog/RF) that have been sitting in storage for a decade.

Time to apply the power and see if they work.

What is the recommended procedure to bring test equipment that has
been stored for a long period?

Also is there a MIL document that relates to this subject?

Thanks for what info you can offer.

TMT

Depends on the equipment. In our shop we constantly use old test gear
from the 70s (Fluke 9010, scopes) and they rarely need attention.

If you are worried about electrolytics exploding then you could run the
equipment on a Variac and dial it up gradually - note that this is not
going to work with switching supply machines.

On the other hand gear that uses tape or hard drives can have failures
related more to moving parts seizing up. Tape drive equipment will
likely have flattened capstans and melted drive belts, ancient hard
drives may have turned into 'shake&bake' where you have to give them a
snap to start the platters turning (don't do this if it DOES work!) -
the bake part is to leave it on from then on until you can archive the
data safely!

There are electronic replacements for old hard drives SCSI, MFM, and IDE
you just have to do a little hunting and sometimes pleading.

I picked up a SCSI adapter that I am going to see if my IDE to SmartCard
device can interface with so I can replace the drive completely on my
Fluke 9100s. Might get to this project this summer...

With stuff only a decade in storage? I'd turn it on and see what happens
- most likely it will work if there is no corrosion.

John :-#)#

--
(Please post followups or tech inquiries to the newsgroup)
John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9
Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games)
www.flippers.com
"Old pinballers never die, they just flip out."

 

[Jon Elson]

Too_Many_Tools wrote:

I have a number of pieces of test equipment (HP, Tek, Fluke...digital/
analog/RF) that have been sitting in storage for a decade.

Time to apply the power and see if they work.

What is the recommended procedure to bring test equipment that has
been stored for a long period?

Also is there a MIL document that relates to this subject?

Thanks for what info you can offer.

The big killer is electrolytic capacitors. Aluminum electrolytics often

survive, but may take a while to reform their dielectric, drawing some
current until that happens. Tantalum wet-slug caps are AWFUL, and have
a TERRIBLE failure history in exactly this situation. What's worse, in
some "mainframe" computer sort of systems with large power supplies, is
they will burn holes in the circuit boards, leading to almost
irreparable damage. I know slowly charging the aluminum electrolytics
by bringing the voltage up slowly with a Variac is a time-honored method
in the days before switching power supplies. Something I've tried since
then is to blip the power on and back off immediately once, let the unit
sit for ten minutes and then power up and see if it runs.

I think the military has been playing ostrich with this since the
Vietnam war, but it keeps those techs busy replacing caps at the repair
depots.

Jon