Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mansaxel]

Isn't it nice when the seller even posts a picture of the cracked RIFA in the sale information: https://www.ebay.de/itm/194782816280

McBryce.

I think that's an eminently honest ad. That seller would be welcome in here. Of course it'll run away to insane monies, but I put it on the watchlist anyway; the shipping will probably put me off bidding when it's due.

[mansaxel]

I did find one cracked 6DJ8 ( ),

Sell it to a 'phool as "will tame your unruly amplifier". Expensively.

[mansaxel]

Bread pictures, number "more than 1":

[ Specified attachment is not available ]

TE content:  Unigor 6e arrived. I lack the right batteries, will have to shop for them. (It does feel a bit strange with a wiggly-meter that depends on battery for more than Ωhms, but I suppose it's for science!

[Vince]

Bread pictures, number "more than 1":

(Attachment Link)

Wow, 1.5MB 5500x3000 pixels bread... that's some SERIOUS bread we have here, I can count every molecule of it ! 

Looks nice, keep it coming.... I think you are starting to motivate me to start cooking one day.

[Cerebus]

Bread pictures, number "more than 1":

(Attachment Link)

TE content:  Unigor 6e arrived. I lack the right batteries, will have to shop for them. (It does feel a bit strange with a wiggly-meter that depends on battery for more than Ωhms, but I suppose it's for science!

Annoyingly round. Try as I might I can never get the whole business of making dough spherical work as well as I'd like it to.

[Vince]

OK I am done with the labels, phew !

I got better at it as I went along, I am refining my technique and workflow, it's getting quicker and less painful with each iteration...

"Chain" printing is good. I Printed all the lables in one mile long strip. Then I cut the labels one by one using my plastic template. This was a good idea.
In very little time it allows to :

1) Make cleaner cuts than the scissors (they are hopeless)
2) Adjust the justification of the text simply by moving the plastic template over the tape the way you wan it
3) and of course the most important, easily cut the tape precisely to 50mm so that all labels are exactly the width of the drawers.

I think I will further improve, by making my cutting template from transparent plastic rather than the opaque green of the margarine lid... This will let me see the tape while I am cutting it, to make sure the text justification is perfect. Right now it's a bit hit and miss...I am particularly annoyed by the two " Ferrite " labels, bottom left of the drawer unit, because they are off-center, closer to the RIGHT edge ! Looks weird, makes me feel uncomfortable... triggers my OCD somehow ! 
Think I will redo them....
Also need a cutting mat and scalpel.. definitely... it's on my short/mid-term buying list.

Anyway, for a first attempt, it looks decent enough. better than a piece of masking tape with me hand writing on it with a marker.... that's for sure.

I can now go label the drawers that hold the electrolytic caps....

[factory]

I use continuous printing or words to that effect in the Brother PC software to avoid the leading and trailing waste.

Also, for that bug with the posting images display corruption, it is a known thing (I thought it was resolved?) AFAIK the easy work around is to not use the first slot when uploading images, start from the second slot and then upload as usual.

Yep I know it's a common problem but it happens so rarely (last and first time for me was 18 months ago IIRC ! ) that it didn't bother me that much.... however I didn't know, or remember, that there was this work around ! If my brain manages to remember it next time I run into the issue, I would try it ! 

I've had the images corrupt even when starting with the second picture, I suspect it happens when I take a while to type the post & hit post, only to have that warning new reply notification stop the post.
Currently I'm typing my posts without any pictures, then posting it, once posted I've been clicking modify to add the pictures, starting with the second as before. Time will tell if it keeps working or not.

David

[mansaxel]

Bread pictures, number "more than 1":

(Attachment Link)

Wow, 1.5MB 5500x3000 pixels bread... that's some SERIOUS bread we have here, I can count every molecule of it ! 

Looks nice, keep it coming.... I think you are starting to motivate me to start cooking one day.

Heh, the picture as synced from my phone was 7MiB; thanks to the nice command line it's only 1,5MiB now:

Code: [Select]

$ convert -strip -quality 60 DSC_1094.JPG boule.jpeg
convert probably wins the price in "most command line switches" -- a QnD test finds lots:

Code: [Select]

$ convert --help | egrep -c -- '-[:alpha:]'
55

"-strip" takes out all leaky metadata; which is a sensible thing for publishing pictures. Exif is a very complete format.

[mansaxel]

Annoyingly round. Try as I might I can never get the whole business of making dough spherical work as well as I'd like it to.

Indeed they are! I must confess that I had help; Middle Boy needed a lift to guitar practice so I had to enlist Oldest Boy for the sphericising; and he's a trained baker, so it's very close to cheating.

[Vince]

Bread pictures, number "more than 1":

(Attachment Link)

Wow, 1.5MB 5500x3000 pixels bread... that's some SERIOUS bread we have here, I can count every molecule of it ! 

Looks nice, keep it coming.... I think you are starting to motivate me to start cooking one day.

Heh, the picture as synced from my phone was 7MiB; thanks to the nice command line it's only 1,5MiB now:

Code: [Select]

$ convert -strip -quality 60 DSC_1094.JPG boule.jpeg
convert probably wins the price in "most command line switches" -- a QnD test finds lots:

Code: [Select]

$ convert --help | egrep -c -- '-[:alpha:]'
55

"-strip" takes out all leaky metadata; which is a sensible thing for publishing pictures. Exif is a very complete format.

Yes, I use "convert" too ! I use it adjust compression ratio (like you did) to 80%.
However In your case here the most important would have been to reduce resolution first.. then only worry about compression ratio ! 

Oh it's 21H15 I am getting hungry, let's "cook" something !  Where is my can opener... 

[Specmaster]

I use continuous printing or words to that effect in the Brother PC software to avoid the leading and trailing waste.

Also, for that bug with the posting images display corruption, it is a known thing (I thought it was resolved?) AFAIK the easy work around is to not use the first slot when uploading images, start from the second slot and then upload as usual.

Yep I know it's a common problem but it happens so rarely (last and first time for me was 18 months ago IIRC ! ) that it didn't bother me that much.... however I didn't know, or remember, that there was this work around ! If my brain manages to remember it next time I run into the issue, I would try it ! 

I've had the images corrupt even when starting with the second picture, I suspect it happens when I take a while to type the post & hit post, only to have that warning new reply notification stop the post.
Currently I'm typing my posts without any pictures, then posting it, once posted I've been clicking modify to add the pictures, starting with the second as before. Time will tell if it keeps working or not.

David

You might have a point there about the delay in hitting post because of the effort sometimes in getting the text just right. I know that I often fall foul of the timeout feature and often unless I remember to copy the text and then paste it when I have to start another attempt at posting, I have to retype the whole flipping lot all over again when the timeout prevents me hitting the post it tab. 

[Ice-Tea]

If anyone has, erhh, plans for tomorrow: send me a PM. I don't want to bid against one of you lot and I'd rather not be bid up either 

[AVGresponding]

Picked the HP 8614A up today on my way home from work, from a very nice chap. He was just in the process of listing a big-assed old AVO sig-gen, to which I demurred when he offered it.

The presence of multiple cal stickers and the weight were reassuring that it hadn't been raided for its internals. The reason for an "untested" description due to an apparently easy fix like a broken power connector became clear when I started to take the thing apart.

It's a complete bastard to get to.

Anyway, after fixing the connector, it powers up fine and seems to work, though until I connect it to the 5245L I won't know if it's outputting anything (though I'd bet it is).
Oh, and it smells of hot vacuum tubes

Naturally I took some pics but I'm too tired right now, off to bed.

[Cerebus]

Annoyingly round. Try as I might I can never get the whole business of making dough spherical work as well as I'd like it to.

Indeed they are! I must confess that I had help; Middle Boy needed a lift to guitar practice so I had to enlist Oldest Boy for the sphericising; and he's a trained baker, so it's very close to cheating.

Very close, very close? Hmmmph.

[Cerebus]

Somewhat mucky but an interesting sample of a rather odd Keithley DMM with the display in the probe here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115226117944



Never seem one of these before. Not of any interest to me but I'm just pointing it out for general amusement (bemusement?) and for any beige/brown Keithley completists out there.

[Specmaster]

Off topic but rather interesting and funny, is this what video on YT which it is claimed is the Russian version of Top Gear, can't verify that of course unless anybody knows. One thing for sure is that they are crazy and having loads of fun.

[med6753]

Yea, the S/N of the one I checked today is B002646 so it's an early one. The other two are S/N B008570 and B010425 so they should match yours.

If you need a 6DJ8 let me know.

Interesting - yet again, mine has no 'B' prefix in the serial number.

And thanks for the offer of a 6DJ8; I have some squirreled away here, just need to find where I hid them. 

-Pat

These don't officially have the "B" prefix either which wasn't adopted until they were also built in Europe. Just a habit I have.     

[25 CPS]

The postman brought a package:



I ordered the current probe because I’ve got some small projects coming up that the current clamps I have for big stuff aren’t appropriate for mA or a couple of amps with their ranges of hundreds into the low thousands of amps.  Whenever I’m in it for fixed shipping fees on an order like this, I always add some test leads to make it worthwhile since you can never have too many of those.  And so the collection of stuff grows again…

[BU508A]

Some arrival here, too.

Somebody mentioned those nice clamps for probing SMD IC's in circuit.
They arrived together with some Pulse H1102NL transformers for Ethernet interfaces.
They can be used to create a nice 10MHz reference distribution amplifier for the lab.

Here are some pictures. Except for the first picture, which I've made with my Xperia Z3, I've used my Adonstar USB microscope.

[TERRA Operative]

Tonight's work: Removing all the nasty, crappy Texas Instruments IC sockets from my Tek SG503 Levelled Sine Wave Generator and replacing them with nice gold plated turret sockets.
I also found a bunch of the TI IC's had corroded through the plating on their legs and had started to rust the metal underneath, a couple has legs that were barely holding on...

Seems TI didn't really have a good run for a while there... 

So tomorrow it's off to Akihabara to find some new chips on the way in to work.

Reminder set to open up mine!
Unrelated, I just grabbed another FG501 for 33.50€ total.

Nice! I haven't got an FG501 yet. I got an FG502, FG503 and FG504 though. FG502 and FG503 are all restored and adjusted, the FG504 is currently in the queue for the healing bench.

What I really want next is an SG502 for that squeaky clean sine wave...

[Neomys Sapiens]

Tonight's work: Removing all the nasty, crappy Texas Instruments IC sockets from my Tek SG503 Levelled Sine Wave Generator and replacing them with nice gold plated turret sockets.
I also found a bunch of the TI IC's had corroded through the plating on their legs and had started to rust the metal underneath, a couple has legs that were barely holding on...

Seems TI didn't really have a good run for a while there... 

So tomorrow it's off to Akihabara to find some new chips on the way in to work.

Reminder set to open up mine!
Unrelated, I just grabbed another FG501 for 33.50€ total.

Nice! I haven't got an FG501 yet. I got an FG502, FG503 and FG504 though. FG502 and FG503 are all restored and adjusted, the FG504 is currently in the queue for the healing bench.

What I really want next is an SG502 for that squeaky clean sine wave...

And 'another' was actually wrong, as it is a FG503 which I thought of. That makes it even better, although at this price it will be a gain anyway.

[mnementh]

On the Bench... errr, Under The Bench...? Next to the Bench...? Fuck... Okay, eventually It's gonna BE a Bench...

Y'all may have noticed the ol' tinkerdwagon hasn't been in here stirring shit up... I've been busy doin' sumthin' constructive.




Got all the bits of the Middle-Manager's-Desk-of-Doom™ down in the basement; started assembling and repairing it yesterday...




This morning, I got it roughly in place, and leveled it. Ehhh... the noid lites annoyed me last week. They had it coming. 




That allowed me measurements to get the cribbing blocks started, which was the whole reason for digging out the Tevo Tornado over the New Year.




And once we got the boi home from school, I pressed him into service to bring my filing cabinet and marble countertop down so I could get started on the backboard. Had to pull the plug on the project at this point for the night. The clip angles I had in my hardware drawer just aren't big enough; gonna have to hit Homeowner Hell tomorrow for some 4" x 4" angles.

mnem
Progress, says I. 

[Zucca]

Heh, the picture as synced from my phone was 7MiB; thanks to the nice command line it's only 1,5MiB now:

Code: [Select]

$ convert -strip -quality 60 DSC_1094.JPG boule.jpeg
convert probably wins the price in "most command line switches" -- a QnD test finds lots:

Code: [Select]

$ convert --help | egrep -c -- '-[:alpha:]'
55

"-strip" takes out all leaky metadata; which is a sensible thing for publishing pictures. Exif is a very complete format.

Never underestimate the power of Terminal
I am learning this in the hard way in my 40ties.... I wish to have found someone on my road way before who had opened my eyes....

[Zucca]

when you are willing to pay for a spying device right in the middle of your livingroom? Case closed.

Why my wife can't understand that?

[Zucca]

Somebody mentioned those nice clamps for probing SMD IC's in circuit.

Enabler..... I will always remember you when I will use them.

Temping... damn aliexpress ads....