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Old 10th May 2020, 9:21 pm   #21
Simon Gittins
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Default Re: Writing a test equipment theory and repair book?

A PDF of the Puckle book can be downloaded:
https://archive.org/details/TimeBase...pment/mode/2up
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Old 10th May 2020, 10:31 pm   #22
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Default Re: Writing a test equipment theory and repair book?

At work I try and encourage all people to always pause and ask themselves:

"Am I making a valid measurement?"

This applies to every measurement for everyone regardless of experience or the quality of the test gear. I try and follow this rule myself. It is so easy to produce a flawed measurement and I always try and encourage people to try and assess all the things that can contribute to overall measurement uncertainty. This requires an understanding of the test gear and also the device under test and also the experience to make sense of any measurement result. I would consider this to be very important advice for anyone.
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Old 10th May 2020, 10:43 pm   #23
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You mention Gordon King - my impression is that anything that was written in a GJK book was very probably correct and reliable, and that was generally true of most textbooks published in that era. The process of getting something in to print probably involved appreciable effort to check and verify what was being presented. Large book publishers took that for granted.

Whether that is true of most books written today I think is much less certain. I wonder what you intend to do in terms of getting your books published and properly 'vetted' before they are released on the World?

B
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Old 10th May 2020, 11:26 pm   #24
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Default Re: Writing a test equipment theory and repair book?

Not wanting to drift OT, but does anyone know of an online source for GJK's book called (I think) "Servicing with the Oscilloscope"? I used to have a copy, but can't find it anywhere.

Mike

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Old 10th May 2020, 11:52 pm   #25
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Default Re: Writing a test equipment theory and repair book?

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Not wanting to drift OT, but does anyone know of an online source for GJK's book called (I think) "Servicing with the Oscilloscope")? I used to have a copy, but can't find it anywhere.

Mike
I bought my copy from Amazon. It was being offered for ridiculous prices before I snapped up a cheap copy.

There is a two available now for £15.00.
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Old 11th May 2020, 4:55 pm   #26
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Default Re: Writing a test equipment theory and repair book?

IMHO you'd need to include a chapter on digital dataloggers/logic-analysers/simulators.

Remember that even the simplest home-computers/video-games-machines etc are now 50 years old - and their fans probably represent more of an ongoing 'interest-group' for your proposed book than people using testgear to repair legacy analog TVs and the like.
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Old 13th May 2020, 6:30 am   #27
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Default Re: Writing a test equipment theory and repair book?

Hi!

Yes I am going to include all these devices in Part 9 of my book, which will include a large CRT based logic analyzer, the "Sealese" tool, and a brief introduction to car OBD scan tools!

Circuits for two car scan tools from my personal collection, the ELM327 and the VAG 1152 will feature in the final chapter!

Additional chapters for PC Game/Vintage Computing test devices will be added in Part 10 but as I may have to purchase some examples of these I can't promise their early or initial inclusion!

I am now mentally formulating ideas for page layouts, typefaces, etc., etc., before the huge mammoth task of writing the work begins!

Chris Williams
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Old 13th May 2020, 6:51 am   #28
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Hi!

Quote:
The process of getting something in to print probably involved appreciable effort to check and verify what was being presented. Large book publishers took that for granted.

Whether that is true of most books written today I think is much less certain. I wonder what you intend to do in terms of getting your books published and properly 'vetted' before they are released on the World?
Nowadays, with the common use of "Git Hub" repositories with their facilities for modifications in the shape of "pull requests", a great many text books, software manuals, etc., (KiCAD for example) are published online, with a polite request from their author for errors, omissions, new chapters requests, etc., to be brought to his or her notice, and this is the path I will be going down!

In the old days, a book had to be submitted in final form before it was sent to a publisher (sometimes several!) for consideration, but the modern method of online publication means I can rely on reader criticism and/or improvement suggestions!

Chris Williams
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Old 13th May 2020, 7:04 am   #29
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Hi!

Finally, can anyone recommend anything particular for writing the work with? – has Office got enough formatting tools or do I need to use DTP or "Latex" methods of writing?

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Old 13th May 2020, 1:03 pm   #30
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Default Re: Writing a test equipment theory and repair book?

MS Office and Libre Office would both have plenty of formatting options, but I find them a bit awkward if I want to control exact positioning of may items on the same page so keep meaning to look at DTP. As you mentioned opening it up via GitHub then probably best avoid Microsoft Office purely because it will restrict who can contribute.

However to make a start I'd ignore formatting; plan sections, get the text in, insert images with figure numbers so you can cross reference it in the text. You can cut/paste that into any other editor later, or stick with the original editor and prettyfy it later - what I find can happen with documents is you spend ages formatting and getting it looking pretty only to then change something and have to reformat/re-pretty.

Its certainly is a lot of work, many moons ago I made a start on scope timebases and gave up (scope timebases half done ...)

TTFN,
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Old 13th May 2020, 1:53 pm   #31
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OpenOffice does pretty well, and it's free.
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Old 15th May 2020, 11:27 am   #32
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Default Re: Writing a test equipment theory and repair book?

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Originally Posted by Duke_Nukem View Post
MS Office and Libre Office would both have plenty of formatting options, but I find them a bit awkward if I want to control exact positioning of may items on the same page so keep meaning to look at DTP. As you mentioned opening it up via GitHub then probably best avoid Microsoft Office purely because it will restrict who can contribute.

However to make a start I'd ignore formatting; plan sections, get the text in, insert images with figure numbers so you can cross reference it in the text. You can cut/paste that into any other editor later, or stick with the original editor and prettyfy it later - what I find can happen with documents is you spend ages formatting and getting it looking pretty only to then change something and have to reformat/re-pretty.

Its certainly is a lot of work, many moons ago I made a start on scope timebases and gave up (scope timebases half done ...)

TTFN,
Jon
Jon

with regard MS Word's remarkable ability to shuffle text about unpredictably (especially with embedded pictures/diagrams), the best way I have found to manage this is to write a book/document in chunks, and convert those chunks into PDF, having got the layout as I want it. Once a Word document is shut down, the chances of it opening up again with exactly the same layout is fairly small - unless special care is taken. Limiting the size of the document helps.

Individual PDF files can easily be combined into a bigger PDF file if wanted - though you need something like Acrobat to do it.

Word can behave nicely if you master the text wrapping around pics feature, and also fix pics, diagrams and tables into an absolute position on the page. That is obviously only fine once the text is pretty well finalised, otherwise you then have to manually move the pics, etc about to get a neat layout.

Alternatives to Word used to be heavyweight desktop publishing programmes like Framemaker and Quark. Very expensive and they had a frighteningly long learning curve to master them. Having had the experience I wouldn't recommend it - though modern equivalents may now be a lot better.


Richard
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Old 15th May 2020, 10:00 pm   #33
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Ted, Open Office and Libre Office are essentially the same. A few years back, the Oracle owned Open Office started to incorporate "non-free" software, so a decision was made to fork Libre Office away from Open Office. I THINK libre Office has had more development than OOO since that separation. Libre is the preferred choice in the FOSS world, and all current Linux OS's use it.
Les.
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Old 26th May 2020, 8:32 pm   #34
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Hi!

Part 4 – Principles of Measurement 4 – Digital Instruments

Chapter 16 Principles of Digital Measurements
Chapter 17 Dual Slope Integration
Chapter 18 Multi–Slope Integration
Chapter 19 Average RMS to DC Conversion
Chapter 20 True RMS to DC Conversion
Chapter 21 Earlier methods of A/D Conversion in Older Instruments
Chapter 22 The ICL7106 and ICL7107
Chapter 23 DMM Fault Finding and Repair
Chapter 24 Principles of Auto–Ranging
Chapter 25 Build a Mid–Range True RMS Bench DMM with Auto–Range Facilities

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Old 26th May 2020, 8:55 pm   #35
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Hi!

Part 5 – Measurement of Other Common Parameters

Chapter 26 Introduction to Other Measurements
Chapter 27 The Wheatstone Bridge
Chapter 28 Valved Bridges
Chapter 29 Solid State Component Meters – An Introduction
Chapter 30 Introduction to ESR
Chapter 31 A Commercial design Analysed – the Portable Chinese Component Tester
Chapter 32 Build a Simple Analogue ESR Meter
Chapter 34 Introduction to Frequency Measurements
Chapter 35 The Maplin DFM based on the ICM7216
Chapter 36 Measurements of Impedance
Chapter 37 Measurements of Phase Angle
Chapter 38 Measurements of Power
Chapter 39 Some Commercial Instruments Analysed
Chapter 40 Fault Finding other types of Instruments
Chapter 41 Introduction to T.H.D. Measurements
Chapter 42 The Ferrograph RTS2 Analysed
Chapter 43 Fault Finding a Harmonic Distortion Analyser
Chapter 44 Intermodulation Distortion
Chapter 45 An example of an I.M. Analyser – the Heathkit IM–5248
Chapter 46 Building a simple T.H.D. Analyser.

I think this covers the next two parts nicely!

Chris Williams
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Old 26th May 2020, 9:18 pm   #36
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Hi!

Part 6 – Power Supplies

Chapter 47 Principles of Rectification
Chapter 48 Introduction to Voltage Stabilization
Chapter 49 Introduction to Switch Mode Power Supplies
Chapter 50 Voltage Stabilization for Valve Circuits
Chapter 51 Voltage Stabilization for Transistor Circuits
Chapter 52 A Commercial Low Voltage Linear Design Analysed – The Sinclair PL320
Chapter 53 A High–Voltage Design for Valve Circuits Analysed – The Solartron Oscilloscope H.T. Stabilizer
Chapter 54 The "Experimenter's Power Pack".
Chapter 55 Fault Finding Commercial Power Supply Units
Chapter 56 Build a Good Quality 0–60V 2A Power Supply unit with Digital Readout
Chapter 57 Introduction to Electronic Loads
Chapter 58 An Electronic Load Analysed –The Kiksuki PLZ150
Chapter 59 Fault Finding an Electronic Load
Chapter 60 Build a Four Channel Electronic Load with Digital Readout

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Old 26th May 2020, 9:32 pm   #37
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Hi!

Part 7 – Low Frequency Signal Sources

Chapter 61 Generation of Sine Waves at Low Frequency
Chapter 62 Generation of Square Waves at Low Frequency
Chapter 63 Sine to Square Wave Conversion
Chapter 64 A Valved Audio Generator Analysed – The Heathkit IG–82U
Chapter 65 A Transistor Audio Generator – The Lyons "Interlab SQ10"
Chapter 66 Introduction to Function Generators
Chapter 67 The ICL8038 IC Analysed
Chapter 68 Introduction to Sweep Generators
Chapter 69 The Feedback Instruments FG601 Function Generator
Chapter 70 The Feedback Instruments SFG606 Sweep Generator
Chapter 71 Fault Finding a Function Generator
Chapter 72 Build an Inexpensive DDS Function Generator

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Old 26th May 2020, 9:40 pm   #38
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Quote:
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Hi!

Part 6 – Power Supplies

Chapter 47 Principles of Rectification
Chapter 48 Introduction to Voltage Stabilization
Chapter 49 Introduction to Switch Mode Power Supplies
Chapter 50 Voltage Stabilization for Valve Circuits
Chapter 51 Voltage Stabilization for Transistor Circuits
Chapter 52 A Commercial Low Voltage Linear Design Analysed – The Sinclair PL320
Chapter 53 A High–Voltage Design for Valve Circuits Analysed – The Solartron Oscilloscope H.T. Stabilizer
Chapter 54 The "Experimenter's Power Pack".
Chapter 55 Fault Finding Commercial Power Supply Units
Chapter 56 Build a Good Quality 0–60V 2A Power Supply unit with Digital Readout
Chapter 57 Introduction to Electronic Loads
Chapter 58 An Electronic Load Analysed –The Kiksuki PLZ150
Chapter 59 Fault Finding an Electronic Load
Chapter 60 Build a Four Channel Electronic Load with Digital Readout

Chris Williams
Chris

Just a thought - you may be planning to include in another chapter, but maybe a chapter on protection circuits - protection of both PS itself and of connected DUTs. There have been quite a lot of queries and comments on this area over the years on the Forum, and it might merit its own chapter, since there's a fair bit to say.

Mike
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Old 27th May 2020, 11:50 am   #39
Chris55000
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Hi!

I will include this as part of Chapters 51 and 55!

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Old 27th May 2020, 12:14 pm   #40
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Hi!

I realised I'll need Parts 11 & 12!

Part 11 - Special & Single-Purpose Test Equipment

Chapter 111:- Introduction to PAT Testing
Chapter 112:- A PAT Tester Analysed - The Seward PAT1000
Chapter 113:- Fault Finding a PAT Tester
Chapter 114:- Introduction to Car Diagnostics
Chapter 115:- The VAG1552 Analyser
Chapter 116:- The ELM327 Car Diagnostic Tool
Chapter 117:- Repair Hints for Car Diagnostic Tools
Chapter 118:- Ultrasonic Cleaners
Chapter 119:- A Chinese Ultrasonic Cleaner Analysed
Chapter 120:- Repairing Ultrasonic Cleaners

It will be quite a few months before I can buy a good quality Ultrasonic Cleaner to dissect for Chapters 119 and 120 I'm afraid!

Part 12:- Electronic Tools in Common Use

Chapter 121:- Introduction to Temperature Controlled Soldering Tools
Chapter 122:- The 852D Soldering and Hot-Air Station
Chapter 123:- Fault-Finding the 852D
Chapter 124:- De-soldering Tools
Chapter 125:- The ZD915 Desoldering Station
Chapter 126:- Repair of the ZD915
Chapter 127:- Introduction to Surface Mount Rework
Chapter 128:- The T862++ IR Rework Station
Chapter 129:- Repair of the T862++
Chapter 130:- Build a good Quality T12 Soldering Iron Controller

Index

Before anyone asks why I've not written and posted the resumes in numerical order, this is because I'm considering the chapter titles from the equipment I have and what gets commonly asked about.

Finally, can anyone point me in the direction of a good quality free Word Technical Manual Template to use as a starting point for writing my work on?

Chris Williams
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