Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

I always buy the Maille stuff. https://www.ocado.com/products/maille-dijon-original-mustard-57189011

Edit: check that out for 2 quid: https://www.ocado.com/products/maille-dijon-original-mustard-37085011

[SilverSolder]

Coleman's mustard.  Few other brands seem to have the right level of aggression!

I prefer Bournier. In my opinion the best Dijon. When I'm making a local variant on the Reuben James, though, I prefer French's yellow, or a very good clone that is a lot easier to get in Sweden. It's known by the name "S-sandwich" because it only allows ingredients starting with "S" in Swedish; sourdough bread, butter ("smör"), salt boiled beef, sauerkraut, mustard ("senap"), and chopped celery ("selleri"). Insanely tasty.  Now I'm hungry, and I lack all the ingredients. 

English mustard is very different to French (incl. Dijon).  Until you've tried making fresh Colman's mustard from the powder (in the yellow tin) your nose hasn't really lived!  :-)

The 6*S sandwich sounds delicious.  Is that served open face like other Scandinavian sandwiches?

I was in Stockholm last year, stayed in Skärgården a few days.  At a supermarket, I purchased an open faced sandwich consisting of eggs, prawns, and salad...   sadly, I found they had put it on something that looked like a brioche bread.  WTF???   I had to transplant the sandwich "filling" onto a piece of traditional dark sourdough bread, and then it was delicious! 

[med6753]

Well I just spent 2 fucking hours debugging an RF amplifier to find out the LED I was using as a zener had an 0.8V voltage drop. It's supposed to be 2V. Fucks sake. Those were decent LEDs as well from RS. In the process of debugging I managed to blow up the NanoVNA as well

Just about had enough of shit today 

Oopsie. 

[Specmaster]

Damn I had pulse special boxed edition CDs (with flashing LED) and some fucker snatched my bag at the time. I was more pissed about that than the laptop (which was a shit Compaq that was sooo heavy)

I have that CD too. 

Edit, here it is. The batteries died years ago and I suppose I could get in there and change them.

That's the one.

Well I just spent 2 fucking hours debugging an RF amplifier to find out the LED I was using as a zener had an 0.8V voltage drop. It's supposed to be 2V. Fucks sake. Those were decent LEDs as well from RS. In the process of debugging I managed to blow up the NanoVNA as well

Just about had enough of shit today 

What, How the fuck did you manage that?

Edit: I have that CD set as well, but not as the album, download from the Apple Store on iTunes.

[tautech]

Well I just spent 2 fucking hours debugging an RF amplifier to find out the LED I was using as a zener had an 0.8V voltage drop. It's supposed to be 2V. Fucks sake. Those were decent LEDs as well from RS. In the process of debugging I managed to blow up the NanoVNA as well

Just about had enough of shit today 

Oopsie. 

Yep, another penis fingers episode implies the RF amp was working just fine. 

[Specmaster]

Maybe you should stick to scopes, buying, restoring and flipping them on again?

[Zucca]

That seller should be closed in a wood box and ship it over the ocean to madagascar without any water.

Now sad news from my side, an old 2014 kickstarter 3d printer popped out from my basement:



https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1784037324/bi-v20-a-self-replicating-high-precision-3d-printe

sell it and get a new one? Or better to follow the rabbit hole trying to get it up and running?

I am sad because I feel like it is a cheap, low quality big 3d printer. WASTED.

My spider senses are telling me to not touch this thing and let it go on Ebay.

Yes, I am so stupid I bought it in 2014 and left in the basement until now.

Tomorrow somebody is coming to my home with cash to pick it up....

Next step:

https://www.creality3dofficial.com/products/ender-5-pro-3d-printer



Where I should buy my new Ender 5 pro, aliexpress?

[mansaxel]

English mustard is very different to French (incl. Dijon).  Until you've tried making fresh Colman's mustard from the powder (in the yellow tin) your nose hasn't really lived!  :-)

The 6*S sandwich sounds delicious.  Is that served open face like other Scandinavian sandwiches?

Yes, I've had the Coleman experience. I still think Dijon holds a taste edge to it, if not in strength.

The S-only is a "real sandwich", that is, made to be eaten by hand.  The concept idea was for a lunch box style serving rather than a plated serving, and then two slices of bread are more or less required.

I was in Stockholm last year, stayed in Skärgården a few days.  At a supermarket, I purchased an open faced sandwich consisting of eggs, prawns, and salad...   sadly, I found they had put it on something that looked like a brioche bread.  WTF???   I had to transplant the sandwich "filling" onto a piece of traditional dark sourdough bread, and then it was delicious! 

Heh, I understand completely. The brioche thing is neither to my taste. IMNSHO the Danes make the best open face sandwiches in the world (and frequently on dark sourdough rye bread). We usually try to take the children to Copenhagen once a year because the Tivoli amusement park is the one true park. Not the least because they've got world-class open face sandwiches in their micro brewery...

[bd139]

@Zucca Ender FTW!

Ok looks like I didn't blow up the NanoVNA. The SMA connector I was using had a Chinesium fracture. I ran the cal cycle on the NanoVNA and it was fine. Phew!

Well the RF amp is well and truly buggered. It's only a small signal front end amplifier but the damn thing doesn't work. It worked perfectly in LTspice and on the NanoVNA for about 2 mintues. One min it's pulling 20mA, next minute 8mA and the thing is toast. I have replaced every part and it's still damn pulling 8mA. I built the entire amp again with new parts and it's pulling 8mA fine but only 3dB of gain not 15dB. Can't figure it out. I tried tuning it with a receiver to see if it's oscillating - nothing. Probing it with scope / finger - nothing. 

It actually forward biases an LED successfully by 0.8V by the looks which is a big WTF. Unless it's oscillating at 400MHz+ or something which a PN2222A shouldn't be able to do.

[mansaxel]

Insanely tasty.  Now I'm hungry, and I lack all the ingredients. 

I did not. Not exactly to spec; the bread shall be more SF style sourdough than sourdough Finnish rye, and the meat is home broiled steak rather than boiled salt beef, but I had some sad celery, mustard, of course, and sauerkraut. But it all starts with "S".

 

[Cerebus]

So plan this week is beef, tomato and lettuce sandwiches tomorrow for lunch. I'll do myself a nice stir fried beef thing on Tuesday. Then beef masala on Wednesday in the slow cooker.

I reccomend roast beef, mustard, and spring onion sandwiches. Use butter. Gives a nice sharp bite to it!

Coleman's mustard.  Few other brands seem to have the right level of aggression!

Have you heathens never heard of horseradish!

[tggzzz]

So plan this week is beef, tomato and lettuce sandwiches tomorrow for lunch. I'll do myself a nice stir fried beef thing on Tuesday. Then beef masala on Wednesday in the slow cooker.

I reccomend roast beef, mustard, and spring onion sandwiches. Use butter. Gives a nice sharp bite to it!

Coleman's mustard.  Few other brands seem to have the right level of aggression!

Have you heathens never heard of horseradish!

Horseradish has the advantage you can make it yourself, without having to buy it

[bd139]

Can’t eat the stuff. Makes me want to carve my bile ducts out with a knife 

[SilverSolder]

So plan this week is beef, tomato and lettuce sandwiches tomorrow for lunch. I'll do myself a nice stir fried beef thing on Tuesday. Then beef masala on Wednesday in the slow cooker.

I reccomend roast beef, mustard, and spring onion sandwiches. Use butter. Gives a nice sharp bite to it!

Coleman's mustard.  Few other brands seem to have the right level of aggression!

Have you heathens never heard of horseradish!

Absolutely!  I like a bit of both... 

Can't think of a good brand of horseradish, off hand.  Perhaps best to buy raw and grate...

[beanflying]

Next step:

https://www.creality3dofficial.com/products/ender-5-pro-3d-printer


Where I should buy my new Ender 5 pro, aliexpress?

In Oz we have a Creality drop ship account on evilbay. It is backed up with a human in China with direct contact with the Engineering team if needed. It worked out cheaper for me to buy from them for my two Ender3's after we started getting Taxed on ALL imports similar to your VAT. Before that it would have been fractionally cheaper to have brought on Ailexpress/Gearbest etc. I brought the CR-10S from their Aliexpress store BTW which at the time was $20-30 more than the cheapest but worth it for the backup IMO.

[med6753]

You Europeans and your fancy sandwiches. 

Mine: Virginia Baked Ham with imported Swiss on a hard roll with lettuce and mayo. Simple and delicious.  Haven't had one for a long time due to the diabetes (the bread is a no-no). 

Edit....like horse radish too. 

[bitseeker]

You guys are making me hungry!

[xrunner]

Ok looks like I didn't blow up the NanoVNA. The SMA connector I was using had a Chinesium fracture. I ran the cal cycle on the NanoVNA and it was fine. Phew!

Good. I bricked one yesterday real gud with a new firmware but it's better now. 

Back to the Superbowl ... 

[GreyWoolfe]

There's also a band here in the States that does Floyd too and I've been told they are pretty good.

But in my mind nothing beats the real Gilmour/Waters/Wright/Mason. 

The group is Brit Floyd and they are quite good.  My best friend has seen them in concert several times.  He has sent me a couple of audio recordings and a video recording off of his phone and even like that, they sound like the original.

[worsthorse]

Damn I had pulse special boxed edition CDs (with flashing LED) and some fucker snatched my bag at the time. I was more pissed about that than the laptop (which was a shit Compaq that was sooo heavy)

I have that CD too. 

Edit, here it is. The batteries died years ago and I suppose I could get in there and change them.

That's the one.

Well I just spent 2 fucking hours debugging an RF amplifier to find out the LED I was using as a zener had an 0.8V voltage drop. It's supposed to be 2V. Fucks sake. Those were decent LEDs as well from RS. In the process of debugging I managed to blow up the NanoVNA as well

Just about had enough of shit today 

 

As I have just returned from the storage room, where I surveyed the pile of gear that I either can't get working or damaged in the process of fixing, I can feel your pain. 

[worsthorse]

@Zucca Ender FTW!

Ok looks like I didn't blow up the NanoVNA. The SMA connector I was using had a Chinesium fracture. I ran the cal cycle on the NanoVNA and it was fine. Phew!

Well the RF amp is well and truly buggered. It's only a small signal front end amplifier but the damn thing doesn't work. It worked perfectly in LTspice and on the NanoVNA for about 2 mintues. One min it's pulling 20mA, next minute 8mA and the thing is toast. I have replaced every part and it's still damn pulling 8mA. I built the entire amp again with new parts and it's pulling 8mA fine but only 3dB of gain not 15dB. Can't figure it out. I tried tuning it with a receiver to see if it's oscillating - nothing. Probing it with scope / finger - nothing. 

It actually forward biases an LED successfully by 0.8V by the looks which is a big WTF. Unless it's oscillating at 400MHz+ or something which a PN2222A shouldn't be able to do.

Are you sure it's a PN2222A?  Just sayin'

* worsthorse wanders out of range.

[WastelandTek]

yo worst

how's that scope??

[worsthorse]

yo worst

how's that scope??

It is on a table next to the bench. It is in excellent mechanical condition. I powered it up long enough to figure out that channels 2,3, and 4 work; no trace on channel 1; POST fails on ATTN/ACQ board. Peeled a sticker off the back panel and discovered that it has both the deep memory and FFT option installed, along with the RS232/Centronics board. Powered it back down and it will stay that way until I can open it up, pull the boards and do the recap work.

I don't know a lot about this scope so I spent the last two days in the rabbit hole gathering manuals, schematics, mods, software, and forum threads, along with watching a couple of long dis-assembly videos by a guy whose OCD is worse than mine.   

I will probably set aside the TM500 plugin repair marathon (I finished another one tonight) to work on it but I will have a look at the acquisition and processor boards before I decide.

[mnementh]

...Next step: https://www.creality3dofficial.com/products/ender-5-pro-3d-printer

   Where I should buy my new Ender 5 pro, aliexpress?   

FUKKIN'. A. DIDDY!!!   

mnem
About fukkin' time, too!    

[grizewald]

I'm all in favour of a weak pound.



SEK-GBP exchange rate

Erm, that shows GBP currently getting stronger versus SEK.

Indeed, and that's why I'm in favour of a weaker pound.