Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Don't knock buses, I used to be an engineer on them, did my apprenticeship on the buses (not LT) never did me any harm...  or did it?, thats where I became hooked on TEA 

My father was an LT bus driver/inspector for a few years between his engineering career and importer/IT career. I had enough of busses as a kid

I know buses are tedious, but diseases are your main concern? Let that immune system do its thang!

I work from home at the moment. I used to commute in and out of London via public transport daily on rail and bus. I was constantly sick then. Now I get a cold about once every 6 months or so and that's from the kids.

I just can't stand the damn things. Actually considering just getting an Uber.

[Specmaster]

With all those ebay purchases and stuff from Hamfests (flea markets) your immune system must be running like a swiss clock by now 

[Mr. Scram]

I work from home at the moment. I used to commute in and out of London via public transport daily on rail and bus. I was constantly sick then. Now I get a cold about once every 6 months or so and that's from the kids.

I just can't stand the damn things. Actually considering just getting an Uber.

It might just be the reduction of stress that makes the difference. Now,children. Speaking of plague bearers!

[Specmaster]

I used to work from home as well, handy for getting new purchases into the house without SWMBO knowing unless the kids squealed on me. I'm coming your way in the early hours of the morning tomorrow, taking my Brother -in-Law to Heathrow for flight to down under, want me to give you a knock around 6am?

[bd139]

Hahaha I'll be asleep then. I hope

With all those ebay purchases and stuff from Hamfests (flea markets) your immune system must be running like a swiss clock by now 

You'd think so, but alas no. I'm one of those crazy people who cleans everything. Hand gel, Dettol, the lot.  My wife was seriously ill for about 2 years with a completely shot immune system so it tends to stick with you a lot afterwards. Everything gets cleaned and cleaned again.

[Specmaster]

Well I do the same, cant stand working on dirty things, people may puked over them or worse..

[Mr. Scram]

You'd think so, but alas no. I'm one of those crazy people who cleans everything. Hand gel, Dettol, the lot.  My wife was seriously ill for about 2 years with a completely shot immune system so it tends to stick with you a lot afterwards. Everything gets cleaned and cleaned again.

I tend to clean used gear I buy, but it's more of a ritual. It's a way of making the equipment mine, and familiarizing myself with it.

I don't tend to do it with new stuff, even though the cleanliness shouldn't be very different, so it's probably not about that.

[Specmaster]

New stuff shouldn't need cleaning anyway, its not sat around in others people's smoke for instance, I hate buying something thats come from a smokers home, yuk.

[Mr. Scram]

New stuff shouldn't need cleaning anyway, its not sat around in others people's smoke for instance, I hate buying something thats come from a smokers home, yuk.

Do you really think all those factory workers washed their hands after yesterday's curry took its revenge? At least nicotine kills pretty much anything on contact.

[Specmaster]

They may only have had time to touch it the once before it was shipped out, they make them so quick these days with pick and place machines etc, years ago it would taken far longer to make them and been handled considerably more to boot. Also anything from a home has probably had that curry scenario many many times, hence thats the biggest priority in my mind 

[xrunner]

New stuff shouldn't need cleaning anyway, its not sat around in others people's smoke for instance, I hate buying something thats come from a smokers home, yuk.

I've had some rank equipment coated with nicotine, the worst things were ham radio transceivers from a smoker's ham shack. I got a spare Kenwood TS-120S from a smoker and it was the worst I've ever seen. Every board and wire was coated with sticky smoke residue. I literally had to set it outside on a gardening table until I could dose each spare board with alcohol. Even after that, they smelled of nicotine And to think people intentionally suck those fumes into their only set of lungs ... 

[tautech]

Big booey hooey here. The EGR on my car just exploded this afternoon. So it has been unceremoniously dumped outside the garage and will be looked at tomorrow. Hope the hell they fix it before Kempton or no TEA for me 

Who hasn't got the EGR disabled ?
Over here it's not checked for a WOF and when disabled the oil stays clean much longer.

[TiN]

1 week without ebay. Can't be happier! 

[bitseeker]

Is that a new record, TiN?

[TiN]

Maybe, I was sick  .

I did got this delivered though:

[Cubdriver]

Maybe, I was sick  .

Well obviously, if you were off the 'bay for a week! 

I did got this delivered though:

Is that just the front panel, or the whole thing?  And if the former, do you have the rest of one squirreled away somewhere to put it on?

-Pat

[TiN]

Just a front panel. I have also LCD and metal frame from it. I don't have anything else from 5500A but I'm not interested in 5500A anyway, my zombie project is higher in the food chain .

[bitseeker]

Glad to see you're better now, TiN.

[TiN]

Mhm, that didn't last long.

Received a strange box today from Fedex.

Gotta love this Fedex folks, aye? 

[mnementh]

New stuff shouldn't need cleaning anyway, its not sat around in others people's smoke for instance, I hate buying something thats come from a smokers home, yuk.

I've had some rank equipment coated with nicotine, the worst things were ham radio transceivers from a smoker's ham shack. I got a spare Kenwood TS-120S from a smoker and it was the worst I've ever seen. Every board and wire was coated with sticky smoke residue. I literally had to set it outside on a gardening table until I could dose each spare board with alcohol. Even after that, they smelled of nicotine And to think people intentionally suck those fumes into their only set of lungs ... 

New stuff shouldn't need cleaning anyway, its not sat around in others people's smoke for instance, I hate buying something thats come from a smokers home, yuk.

Do you really think all those factory workers washed their hands after yesterday's curry took its revenge? At least nicotine kills pretty much anything on contact.

And there you see the main reason why one of the first points in my triage checklist is : Can I put this [Device, Tool, Circuit board] in the dishwasher? How much work to make it safe to do so?

Seriously; I just stripped out and reassembled a whole microwave to do that, because it was a really nice 1100w all Stainless Steel model just caked with stovetop grease. I caught a good mag for it cheap on fleaBay, so glad to upgrade as the membrane keypad on my 15-year-old Sharp had finally degraded to where all that worked was [CLEAR] [START/1 MIN] and [POPCORN]. 


mnem
Yeah, me and Vincent Price... loving that dishwasher, maybe a little too much. 

[Echo88]

And i already wondered who did buy that 5500A-front 

[Specmaster]

While I wait for either the next bargain to come along on Ebay or the arrival of parts ordered to get on with repairing, my Goldstar CRO or the restoration a Hameh HM408-1A CRO that purchased a few months and started it then put on ice while other bargains were debugged, I thought I'd catch on some bits that I put on hold

So today I replaced the nasty BNC cable exiting the calibrator IG-4505 via a rubber grommet with a BNC socket that will enable the calibrator with a BNC socket so it makes both stowage and connection to equipment far easier. 

[bd139]

Looking good. I love Heathkit stuff from that era. It's pretty decent and well made for the price point.

Here's a picture of my old matching Heathkit power supply which I sold about 3 months ago when I got my nice Thandar one:



This is the poor man's E3630

[Specmaster]

Trouble with Heathkit is that as most of it was sold as kits, you are at the mercy of the assembler as regards to quality of build and if they stuck to the manual or not, otherwise it is pretty reasonable kit.

I have never come across a power supply of theirs before, nice looking, but lacking in terms of power if required which is why I guess you parted with it? I'd have been tempted to keep as a second supply unit.

[bd139]

It’s pretty useful generally. It’s three independent floating supplies that you can parallel if you need more wumph. You are rarely at the mercy of the builder on these as Heathkit sold more assembled than they did as kits mainly to schools and university labs. The only weak point is the metering which used fixed resistors and was way out. The interesting bit is you just can’t blow it up!

Really as far as power goes it’s fine for most electronics work. I’ve used it to build and power hundreds of circuits.  I only got the Thurlby unit because I wanted better metering and some more watts per channel for building switching supplies.

I think I paid £20 for it about 10 years ago which was a good deal. £2 a year