Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Mr. Scram]

Did you look at the Heinzinger for which I had included an link earlier (Rosenkranz)? I find that generator knob very interesting. Also, I have to enquire whether it is remote controllable together with U/I. That would mean you get some PWM for free.

And I hope that the remark about computers is not aiming at me having noted a deficiency there. Because me and computers, that is a topic in itself. I still operate a W7 laptop as my current main system, but it will not cope properly with W10. When I looked what I should do next, I found that all newer Lenovo after my T60 are those blasted 16:10 things. It does not help me when working with documents, nor drawing nor anything else. And a new stationary PC? Those that are reliable and which I would like to get are industrial machines and they are either in the price range of a major aquisition or they have the same problem with W7. So I am still totally undecided what to do. And all that just that people can get visuals of a soricomorph in it's lab? Nah. Also I'm not keen to sanitize my home office just for that.
Does that Discord stuff work with audio only too - akin to Skype for Business?

Any video chat service is audio only when you tape up the camera or flat out disable it. 

[Saskia]

I sold my 1.5 gallon one for 3 times my purchase price, so I could not resist. I do however quite a collection of tiny ultrasonics for small stuff that should be kept separate and should not be exposed to the full power of the large ultrasonic. I think a .8l is very usable, a 2l would probably have been better, I still have that 10l and have access to a 30l.

And it's my favorite tool for restaurations.

[Saskia]

@Mr Scram Oh, discord is Video chat ? I never cared, for me it's audio only anyway
@Neomys Sapiens you only need an inexpensive headset ...

[Neomys Sapiens]

I went out for a kit to do something useful and visited https://www.pipistrel-aircraft.com/
when I stumbled across their current special offer which is free access to their online training material
https://www.pipistrel-aircraft.com/are-you-grounded-because-of-covid-19-flight-restrictions-we-have-a-solution/

maybe someone is interested. If not: no discussions please, just move on, nothing to see here ...

And I thought DIAMONDS are a girl's best friends? -> DA20...DA43...DART450??
Do you remember FANTRAINER? I'm wondering if any of them survived.

[Saskia]

@Neomys Sapiens the DA42 (or DA62) is my alltime favorite, however there is a certain lack of funds.
I would have settled for a DA20, but there we have the noIFR problem ...
and the other problem is my medical.

[Neomys Sapiens]

corrosion here, corrosion there, corrosion everywhere ...

If anybody out there is, now or at any time in the future, designing something that needs an auxiliary battery "on board", please, please, please, consider relocating it to a little plastic container off the board and connecting to it with a little plug and socket. Yes, it'll add 50¢ to your BOM, but it will save your customers $$$ or €€€ in the long run when the battery eventually craps out. If you're feeling really considerate you could make that container leak proof, but at least put it at the bottom of the case (gravity wise).

Best solution for that that I saw except on exotic stuff was on the Siemens PG-685, a CP/M-86 based very very sturdy computer used for the programming of PLCs. The backup battery holders were bayonet-locking cylinders at the rear (even with a o-ring), which held a standard AA battery in a little clip  each. Completely enclosed and separated from the electronics and the environment! The holders could be from Cambion, but I'm not sure.

[Neomys Sapiens]

I happy to share the same illness

I mainly everything for the hp 331a

(Attachment Link)

Saskia, look! Another power supply which does 66V! 

[Specmaster]

My Internet connection is off and on all the time, Virgin Media are having massive problems at the moment.

[Saskia]

@Neomys Sapiens I am bidding for one, currently ...

Look what I found in one of the not yet cleaned corners ...

[bd139]

My Internet connection is off and on all the time, Virgin Media are having massive problems at the moment.

Pfft we only got FTTC here about 1.5 years ago. I'm in suburban London in a bit where a large amount of tech staff live. This was all down to NIMBYs not wanting the cabinets on the streets. And it only hits 59/15 mbits each way. They just put fibre boxes on all the poles now so we can get FTTP and I was literally just going to order it before the plague hit. Figured it was a risk getting OpenReach to do anything at the moment so leaving it be.

BTW the local morlocks tried to burn our 4G tower down unsuccessfully last night. It's still working. They already had a team out this morning replacing the cladding on it  . They're building a large cage around it as well which makes it more difficult to attack.

With virgin there is no cabinet in the street, all their gear is in manholes so you get FTTP without any of the drawbacks, maybe you should educate them and then you can get speeds like mine. 

 

No time for TE here still. Am lurking on here and eBay. Have managed to build up some funds though for speculative purchases. Watch this space 

[Specmaster]

Problem is national, twitter is awash with reports of it. The items I was watching have been blown out. Tko many people on eBay because their bored, prices are stupidly high. I'm having to use my phone for Internet at the moment.

[mnementh]

CPAP machine anyone?

My neighbor got a new CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine and the supplier said to throw this one away. He asked me if I wanted to play around with the old one (he knows me pretty well). Of course I do. It's a ResMed unit and the PCB says Sydney, Australia.

So what it does is give you positive air pressure in your airway all night. It has a control unit which has an SD card. The SD card appeared to have daily files on it giving the prescriber the data on the performance. In the control unit is a blower. The left side connects to the right side which has a water reservoir for humidity control. Then the air comes out a long tube to your mask.

The main unit has a menu system for some simple user settings, but there is no way to control the air pressure in the menu. He said they can do it in the office if needed after a sleep study. There is an interface connector on the back but not one I recognize. I presume that is where they connect an external computer or proprietary unit to set it up.

Some of the parts used, other than the usual suspects such as voltage regulators and the like -

stm32f103zgt6
ARM® Cortex®-M3 STM32F1 Microcontroller IC 32-Bit 72MHz 1MB (1M x FLASH

Sensiron sdp711-01 differential pressure sensor

GE NPA-C02035 Surface-Mount Pressure Sensor

On the top side of the PCB are a whole lot of gold pads, perhaps for testing? In the water reservoir unit is a humidity sensor that sends it's data back through the interconnect between units.

Right now it blows a steady stream of air and doesn't require the humidity unit to run. Might be useful for a project someday. 

Surely, that is essentially a ventilator? It would be my guess that those gold pads would for an automatic test machine to test the board after it was populated and soldered to see if it needed to go for reworking or not?

There's a lot of technology in these little boxes; I know, from maintaining my last two through extended periods of being too poor to afford any but the most basic of health insurance, which essentially meant that a new one would come out of pocket. First off; there are two basic types; CPAP & BiPAP.

Most use a Mass AirFlow Sensor (charged wire or fast thermistor in a venturi) but some use calculated airflow through an orifice based on pressure and motor RPM. BiPAP is different int that it also monitors back pressure vs head pressure with a MAP (Manifold Absolute Pressure) sensor tapped at both sides of the venturi and against barometric pressure. The latter is the only type that could be suitable for use as a ventilator; you can do permanent damage to a compromised lung full of fluid with a CPAP.

Unfortunately, the big problem is that they simply aren't meant for this load; the blower is NOT positive displacement, and it is relatively small as the design of a CPAP/BiPAP is really only meant to augment "suppressed breathing" during REM sleep rather than actually being able to take over for someone who can't breathe properly for themselves. In medical situations, this is a huge difference and they will not want to use one for someone who is even marginally POSSIBLY in need of a ventilator.

If you're thinking it's funny that I'm using automotive terms for these bits you're not wrong; the technology was originally developed using OTS automotive components.The blower in these is a real work of art: Closed-loop speed control, thermally monitored and of course multi-pole BL drive; often with ceramic bearings good for a decade or more of service. Designed first for low MTBF and 2nd to be sleeping space quiet. I've worn out two (one noisy bearings and the 2nd developed flaky rare-earth magnets in the rotor)  in my 1st BiPAP over the years; just put in a new one bought at a liquidation sale from a major service center last year. My backup CPAP is still on the original one, but low hours.

Older models use the datacard or a CF card to store data; current ones (like my dad has) have cellular data because they are no longer sold, exactly, but rather provided "as a service" and billed accordingly. They can monitor your usage history (including apnea events, non-sleep and REM sleep), change all the config, probably even brick the thing remotely if you don't pay.

Cheers,

mnem
*currently braving the madness that is PronterFace*

[Neomys Sapiens]

Someone operating a Gould DSO and missing the associated 'Waveform Processor'? That guy has two of them:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/193440868414?ViewItem=&item=193440868414

[bd139]

Problem is national, twitter is awash with reports of it. The items I was watching have been blown out. Tko many people on eBay because their bored, prices are stupidly high. I'm having to use my phone for Internet at the moment.

Yeah I’ve lost one of my contractor minions to it as well which is why I haven’t been around today 

[Neomys Sapiens]

@Neomys Sapiens I am bidding for one, currently ...

Look what I found in one of the not yet cleaned corners ...

Please don't aim that at me! I'm totally ok with guns, rockets, explosives, high voltages, hard gamma.., but those I'm terrified of! In the wrong hands, it becomes a terrible thing!

[Specmaster]

My Internet connection is off and on all the time, Virgin Media are having massive problems at the moment.

Pfft we only got FTTC here about 1.5 years ago. I'm in suburban London in a bit where a large amount of tech staff live. This was all down to NIMBYs not wanting the cabinets on the streets. And it only hits 59/15 mbits each way. They just put fibre boxes on all the poles now so we can get FTTP and I was literally just going to order it before the plague hit. Figured it was a risk getting OpenReach to do anything at the moment so leaving it be.

BTW the local morlocks tried to burn our 4G tower down unsuccessfully last night. It's still working. They already had a team out this morning replacing the cladding on it  . They're building a large cage around it as well which makes it more difficult to attack.

With virgin there is no cabinet in the street, all their gear is in manholes so you get FTTP without any of the drawbacks, maybe you should educate them and then you can get speeds like mine. 

 

No time for TE here still. Am lurking on here and eBay. Have managed to build up some funds though for speculative purchases. Watch this space 

Yeah, while I have no such cabinets in my street, I concede that they do exist in some areas as per this BBC report, clearly a VM engineer working in one 
But it does seem to be back again now.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52448607

[mansaxel]

contact me via PN if you want something decent with W7. I am using W7 myself as I get into an uncontrollable rage when I have to use W10. Discord works fine with W7 and Audio.

I know what you talk about on that rage part. But it's been like so with me and Windows since Windows 95. Being confined to that crapware for general computing makes me consider going out in Mother Nature to kill something cute, just to get the feelings in check.

I'm on OS X for the most part, and macbooks at that. My desktop (which I very seldomly use at the console) is a Devuan (i.e.  with a proper init, not a crappy world domination project by a dude who fucked a sound server up). I do log in to it over the net all the time, as well as into all my other servers.

On this set of systems I can program most of my radios, make PCB's, write code, manage networks, post on forums, and handle my email. I can open and edit all the shitty word processing formats and the checkered paper emulator that people mis-use as a bastard child between a database and a DTP program, ie. Excel.

For my paying-for-toys-and-food work, I never need Windows. I possibly get a little less money that way, but the reduced alcohol consumption more than compensates.

The thing that makes me even consider Windows -- still -- is all the shitty remote control programs for stuff, like cars, radios, cameras, et c. Adding insult to injury you also, if you're of the TEA disposition, frequently need to use old and outright dangerous versions of Windows.

I, thus, need a Toughbook. But it's going to run 10, as much as possible. Because Windows, as I wrote, is so fucking full of holes needing patching, that the only way to stay even remotely secure is to run bleeding edge.

And, I hate it. Case you wondered.

[Saskia]

I still have my 4.4 BSD source license somewhere ...
but let's not venture there, otherwise I will have to reprogram my computer with an axe and present the bids to Thor as an offering.

[Mr. Scram]

A nice discussion about the merits of various OSs is exactly what we need after the earlier tensions. 

[mnementh]

@Neomys Sapiens I am bidding for one, currently ... Look what I found in one of the not yet cleaned corners ...

Please don't aim that at me! I'm totally ok with guns, rockets, explosives, high voltages, hard gamma.., but those I'm terrified of! In the wrong hands, it becomes a terrible thing!

"Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh... wrong paws.... errr, hands..."

mnem
};=)~~~~<

[Specmaster]

All of this talk about Windows 10 V Windows 7, XP etc makes me wonder if you are trying to run software that was written years ago when those other versions were current?
I know that personally in the early days after "upgrading" from 7 to 10, I was having horrendous problems but those have all disappeared now and it seems that whatever I want to run on it, does so very effectively as long as it was written with Win10 in mind. If I fish out a program used to work perfectly on Win7 or even XP then more often then not, it will not run correctly. I have got myself an old Dell Dimension E520 that I intend to install a copy of Win7 on specifically to run my collection of old games.

[Specmaster]

A nice discussion about the merits of various OSs is exactly what we need after the earlier tensions. 

[mnementh]

Still as true as it was 20 years ago; only the names of some of the offenders have changed.

mnem
next topic please...

[worsthorse]

Any of the 3DP folks here looking for a simple practice project? I am building a new antenna and need a bunch of spacers. I have the STL files and it is pretty simple:



The best material will be UV resistant and the design assumes 0.35mm resolution and 20% infill. I am happy to pay for time and materials and I'd rather have someone I know here do it rather than farm it out.   PM me if you might be of help and I will send you the file and the part counts.  Thanks!

And no, I don't have time to set up a printer and learn 3DP right at the moment. Thanks for asking. 

[Saskia]

@Specmaster what I hate most is that Microsoft wants to tell me how I should work and that I should trust THEM with my data and everything. Right. I'd rather move my stuff to freebsd. Hell, I'd even prefer OS/390.