Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Nope, it says very clearly on the receipt that "tracking unavailable to this destination country"

Edit.....as usual USPS is full of shit. The tracking is LH094432271US and I pulled up Royal Mail and entered it. And there it is. 

[McBryce]

Well regarding deliveries from the U.S. to Germany:

They come in at Frankfurt airport and are being handed over to a special sorting office of DHL.
I'm waiting for a plate sticker for an Agilent 8110A that I bought and paid on March 5th, 2020. It made it's way over to Frankfurt and was "out for delivery" there on March 20th, 2020. "Out for delivery" is the step when it's handed over to the DHL/customs sorting office.
After that: No f***ing tracking by DHL anymore!   

I have opened a case at *bay now before I'm over the deadline for doing so. Told the seller how it is and that it's not against him. 

I'm waiting since four weeks for this packet being delivered now!
Calling DHL to have them investigating where the packet is won't help.
Been there, didn't help at all: That packet back then was delivered to my local customs office and I picked it up long before DHL answered my request: DHL was not able to find the packet.        

My parcel from Japan to Germany (sent on the 21.02.2020) has supposedly been in Frankfurt customs since the end of February. Other things I ordered later have already made it through Frankfurt customs, so I expect I won't ever be seeing this one.

McBryce.

[Specmaster]

I never have any issues with FedEx or UPS. The USPS? I never know what to expect. Case in point. AVG sent me the payment via registered mail. That requires a signature. So my carrier leaves a form that I have to go to PO the next day to sign for it. So next day I show up at PO. Give lady the form. She spends the next 10 minutes looking for the letter. Can't find it. She summons the Post Master. He spends another good 5 minutes looking. Can't find it. So he takes down my phone number and says he'll call when they find it. Yea right, sure you will.  Surprisingly at around 3:30 PM same day get a call. They found the letter. So I trek back down to PO. Give lady the form. She spends another 5 minutes looking. Can't find it. Once again summons the Post Master. He spends another few minutes looking. FINALLY.....find it filed in the wrong location.

You can't make this stuff up.     

Do I have the only working Post Office in the world?

The staff are polite, happy to help, and pleased to see you.

My surname sometimes means confusion regarding where a parcel may be filed, but it never takes longer than a couple of minutes, and there's never any "hrmph"-ing.

The traffic wardens never do more than wag their finger at you (unless you're really taking the piss) as well!   


EDIT: No sign of the probe tips yet though...   

It really depends on who is working the counter. When I took the probe tips down the 2nd time the guy was most helpful and made sure the customs form was complete and accurate. And I thanked him for his assistance.

The lady who was looking for the letter I've dealt with before and she seems completely uninterested and I'm sure she's saying "hrmph" under her breath.

There's a 3rd lady who is most friendly but her favorite saying is "I apologize" which doesn't resolve the issue or concern you may have.

I have no freaking idea where the probe tips are but I think we can be confident that they made it this time through US Customs.     

Edit.....the probes are in the UK! They arrived on the 20th (Yesterday). They got to US Customs on the 4th and it took THAT long to get across the pond. I think they went across by canoe so check for salt damage. 

Our postal system is all clogged up due to the huge increase of on line shopping due to our lockdown and some things are taking weeks to work their way through the system.

[Specmaster]

This Munich apartment is full of surprises,
now I know why that plug works sporadically...

(Attachment Link)

 

why? why? Oktoberfest and then go to work??? Why nobody said anything before me?

bd can I reuse it?

Hrmph, a socket on a lighting circuit, thats a novelty especially wired like that

[Specmaster]

If a room does not have an entry switched ceiling light I think the code requires at least one outlet wired to the entry wall switch dedicated for lighting.

But in this case the lights are 2 way controlled and in this instance, the light plugged into the socket will only function via the left hand switch, the right hand one has no effect on the socket what so ever.

[Zucca]

Left light switch turns the socket on and off. It’s wired to the wrong bit of the switch. Also correlates with the switch rather than the light bulb as well due to the dual switch topology. Total nightmare to work that out I bet for Zucca 

I just found it out yesterday night at about bed time. The light has a simple three points switch configuration.
If you want a plug that switch with the light on you need to grab the wire that goes to the light.

Right now depending on how the in middle inverter and the other switch are, you can have:
LIGHT = PLUG
LIGHT = NOT (PLUG)
It's like a disco club if you plug a lamp in.

Bonus point, in that plug for sure was a washer installed in the past (I see the water line connections on the wall). I hope
they did not relocated it because it was sporadic working... BTW can you imagine a washer load on the poor light switch 

Finally all the wires are of course cemented in the walls...

Tonight I will investigate further... it is getting interesting.

[beanflying]

While waiting for the deliveries and postal service  I spent a chunk of the day coming up with some dimensions and redrawing a bigger Laser. 100W 1200x900 (up from 80W 1200x600) . The only arrival close to TEA was a 10A 24V Meanwell to drive the non Laser bits eBay auction: #202234366773

[Ero-Shan]

and now to something completely different:

Restoring a Kontron / Tabor Electronics DMM 4021 that was saved from the scrap heap:

(Attachment Link)

Shown here measuring outdoor temperature with a PT1000 sensor. Replaced some caps with modern 105 deg low ESR types, adjusted it with the aid of my K2000 and built a new NiCD rechargeable battery pack.

More TEA p*rn:

(Attachment Link)

Lots of Dale precision resistors, main voltage divider Caddock 1776-101, input components isolated from PCB by Teflon isolators, protection diodes low leakage in metal cans (PAD50 by Siliconix), ADC is a LD120/121 combo from Siliconix. The datecodes point to a manufacturing date of mid 1982. Price in Germany back then 1000DM.

The most interesting feature is "self calibration": by pressing otherwise unused button combinations you can check the accuracy of the DMM. There is a calibration assy on the main board:

(Attachment Link)

You can see a collection of Dale 0.1% resistors for checking resistance and current, and a REF-02EJ precision bandgap reference in a metal can. It should have stabilized a bit during the last 38 years 

Another button combination allows to check the internal battery pack. During operation, the battery pack is trickle charged, as soon as the meter is switched off, charging with 150mA starts and runs as long mains is connected. This charging method works well with NiCd cells but wreaks havoc with NiMh. Luckily I had some cells from a power tool lying around that went into the new battery pack.

Main problem now is finding a schematic and calibration information. The schematic over at radiomuseum.org seems to be a bad scan of a seventh generation photocopy and is missing part of the power supply. Another problem are the plastic front and rear frames: they are extremely brittle and glueing them together didnt last for very long.

Apart from being a fun project, this DMM was my first one at work, 33 years ago...

Rainer

Damnit! I also have a 4021, but never cared to open it. I had no clue there might be a battery inside!

Sure enough:



Damage is confined to the battery holder, though.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention!

And for the explanations; I have no documentation whatsoever for this DMM.

[GreyWoolfe]

Our postal system is all clogged up due to the huge increase of on line shopping due to our lockdown and some things are taking weeks to work their way through the system.

Same on this side of the pond.  Wife saw a tool on facebook she thought I should have and had me ordering it.  Delivery date is June.  No particular day in June, just June.  No doubt coming from overseas somewhere.  Even Amazon Prime next day is about a week now.

[Brumby]

While waiting for the deliveries and postal service  I spent a chunk of the day coming up with some dimensions and redrawing a bigger Laser. 100W 1200x900 (up from 80W 1200x600) . The only arrival close to TEA was a 10A 24V Meanwell to drive the non Laser bits eBay auction: #202234366773

(Attachment Link)

OK.  Now you've got my attention.

[beanflying]

While waiting for the deliveries and postal service  I spent a chunk of the day coming up with some dimensions and redrawing a bigger Laser. 100W 1200x900 (up from 80W 1200x600) . The only arrival close to TEA was a 10A 24V Meanwell to drive the non Laser bits eBay auction: #202234366773

OK.  Now you've got my attention.

Let me tempt you a second time  Few more bits added.

[Brumby]

I would be looking at something slightly different.  I would be after pass through of 1200mm wide material as well as motorised z-axis.

[beanflying]

The extra bits are the lifts for the motorized Z I just haven't added in the Stepper and tensioners yet. I was trying to think of where I was likely to want 1200 pass through and couldn't. The 900 wide allows for over width doors or wall panels for engraving (example) or plastic roll cutting so it should be wide enough (never say never of course). The wider the gantry gets it tends to limit the maximum speed/acceleration you can push it to as well.

The rule that goes without saying is that whatever CNC/Laser/3D Printer you have it will always be to small sometime no matter how big you have

[Brumby]

2400X1200 panels.

I might will probably want to stretch is slightly more to cope with 2440x1220 (8'x4').

I do realise the longer span could bring some problems, but I have a sea of uncoordinated ideas floating through my head that are preparing me for battle.  Seeing how you roll with this will play a major part in my foray into such a folly......

[BU508A]

Somebody here in Germany interested in a Fluke 3330B DC calibrator?
Pick-up only in Kraichtal Baden-Württemberg (near Bruchsal/Karlsruhe).

https://www.ebay.de/itm/143586084444

Photo from the auction:


No affiliations with the seller.

[beanflying]

2400X1200 panels.

I might will probably want to stretch is slightly more to cope with 2440x1220 (8'x4').

I do realise the longer span could bring some problems, but I have a sea of uncoordinated ideas floating through my head that are preparing me for battle.  Seeing how you roll with this will play a major part in my foray into such a folly......

Unless you have an express need for Laser at full sheet size a CNC Router is maybe the better option. At least that is my thoughts at present. Back when I was doing Kites for a living a 60W cloth Laser was under consideration at 1500x3000 for a bit under $20k. Payback would have been under 3 years with labour savings at the time but in the end we scaled back the in house manufacturing and out sourced the cutting to a diecutter.

[Ero-Shan]

Somebody here in Germany interested in a Fluke 3330B DC calibrator?
Pick-up only in Kraichtal Baden-Württemberg (near Bruchsal/Karlsruhe).

https://www.ebay.de/itm/143586084444

Photo from the auction:


No affiliations with the seller.

Ooh yes, I am interested, Sir!

Thank you very much for pointing at it.

[BU508A]

Somebody here in Germany interested in a Fluke 3330B DC calibrator?
Pick-up only in Kraichtal Baden-Württemberg (near Bruchsal/Karlsruhe).

https://www.ebay.de/itm/143586084444

Photo from the auction:


No affiliations with the seller.

Ooh yes, I am interested, Sir!

Thank you very much for pointing at it.

Welcome and good luck!   

[jxjbsd]

It's the last 465 machine. I won't collect this series in the future. After receiving, tantalum capacitor is found to be short circuited and works normally after replacement.

[bd139]

Lacking in things to do here so posting a crap teardown. Cisco 2901 that got cleaned out of dust bunnies today...



The blower in this is a serious bit of kit. Weighs about 1Kg on its own, really nicely put together.



Before. 7 year old firmware 

Code: [Select]

Cisco IOS Software, C2900 Software (C2900-UNIVERSALK9-M), Version 15.2(4)M5, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2013 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Fri 13-Sep-13 14:59 by prod_rel_team

Nice and fresh thanks to a Russian twitter account and torrent links 

Code: [Select]

Cisco IOS Software, C2900 Software (C2900-UNIVERSALK9-M), Version 15.7(3)M6, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2020 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Fri 06-Mar-20 06:19 by prod_rel_team

Edit: remove serial numbers from photo

[Specmaster]

Somebody here in Germany interested in a Fluke 3330B DC calibrator?
Pick-up only in Kraichtal Baden-Württemberg (near Bruchsal/Karlsruhe).

https://www.ebay.de/itm/143586084444

Photo from the auction:


No affiliations with the seller.

What is it with eBay, I have entered the description into eBay UK, clicked on the European option and it fails to show this?

[mnementh]

Left light switch turns the socket on and off. It’s wired to the wrong bit of the switch. Also correlates with the switch rather than the light bulb as well due to the dual switch topology. Total nightmare to work that out I bet for Zucca 

It's not that obvious because zucca's picture shows the switches wrong; a 3-way lighting switch is a SPDT toggle, so is ALWAYS making contact with one or the other point. What he has there is sortof a ON-OFF-ON SPDT. (either that, or the common symbol for a switch has evolved and I'm just an old fart who expects things to be "a certain way")

It is absolutely normal to have an outlet wired in parallel to an overhead light switch for a floor/table lamp. Most often over here they'll have it as one half of a duplex outlet, as med suggests. This arrangement however... if zucca has it right... means that in one position, the power to that outlet actually is in series with the overhead lamp. That would DEFINITELY have you and   in short order. 

Since color-coded outlets are a common thing nowadays... you'd think they'd develop a standard color code to denote switched outlets and the related switches and the same with 3-way switches. I've seen some strange ones; like the house I'm in now, which has the fan in the upstairs bathroom (instead of using a timer switch) 3-way wired to a switch downstairs next to the thermostat in the dining room.  Since they already have timer switches all over the place, the only reason I can think of for this instead of a timer is so that fan can be turned on from downstairs; maybe if "he" stinks up the joint and forgets to turn on the fan...?

mnem

[BU508A]

Somebody here in Germany interested in a Fluke 3330B DC calibrator?
Pick-up only in Kraichtal Baden-Württemberg (near Bruchsal/Karlsruhe).

https://www.ebay.de/itm/143586084444

Photo from the auction:


No affiliations with the seller.

What is it with eBay, I have entered the description into eBay UK, clicked on the European option and it fails to show this?

The trick what I am doing is changing the URL.

Example:

Code: [Select]

From:
[url]https://www.ebay.de/itm/143586084444[/url]

to:
[url]https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143586084444[/url]


[mnementh]

[story snipped]   [bd139 goes anime]   

   Oh! How nice!   bd139 managed to become super saiyajin bd139.   

And wouldja lookit that... they even got the tail right.

Lacking in things to do here so posting a crap teardown. Cisco 2901 that got cleaned out of dust bunnies today...

The blower in this is a serious bit of kit. Weighs about 1Kg on its own, really nicely put together.   

Before. 7 year old firmware 

Code: [Select]

Cisco IOS Software, C2900 Software (C2900-UNIVERSALK9-M), Version 15.2(4)M5, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2013 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Fri 13-Sep-13 14:59 by prod_rel_team

Nice and fresh thanks to a Russian twitter account and torrent links 

Code: [Select]

Cisco IOS Software, C2900 Software (C2900-UNIVERSALK9-M), Version 15.7(3)M6, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2020 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Fri 06-Mar-20 06:19 by prod_rel_team
 

Mmmmhmmm... I wonder how many "undocumented features" that torrented FW has been "upgraded" with... 

mnem
*currently sitting at a bench withj bits o' 3DP scattered from hell to breakfast*

[bd139]

Has been validated against SHA512 from cisco download page so none