Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Those are Tek enclosures for the likes of Type 114, Type 191, etc.

I'll bet he scrapped the original owners. 

[bd139]

He was a Tektronix employee for years. Might have been from the skip.

[worsthorse]

Those are Tek enclosures for the likes of Type 114, Type 191, etc.

I'll bet he scrapped the original owners. 

More likely he picked up the cases from the Tek scrap pile. 

[Specmaster]

Oh the stupids have invaded here now. There is no toilet roll, tea bags or pot noodles in my local area now    Not that I needed any of them.

Ditto in Chelmsford as well, same goes for elephant bog rolls and tissues, although I did manage to grab 4 boxes of tissues.

[worsthorse]

Oh the stupids have invaded here now. There is no toilet roll, tea bags or pot noodles in my local area now    Not that I needed any of them.

Ditto in Chelmsford as well, same goes for elephant bog rolls and tissues, although I did manage to grab 4 boxes of tissues.

Other than hand sterilizer disappearing from the shelves about a week ago we haven't seen too much of that here. I imagine that will change when (a) the numbers start climbing exponentially in two or three places and (b) people figure out that Mike Pence isn't the best choice as the COVID czar.

[bd139]

Oh the stupids have invaded here now. There is no toilet roll, tea bags or pot noodles in my local area now    Not that I needed any of them.

Ditto in Chelmsford as well, same goes for elephant bog rolls and tissues, although I did manage to grab 4 boxes of tissues.

There's loads of bog roll and elephant bog roll left on amazon and ocado so no panic yet 

Oh the stupids have invaded here now. There is no toilet roll, tea bags or pot noodles in my local area now    Not that I needed any of them.

Ditto in Chelmsford as well, same goes for elephant bog rolls and tissues, although I did manage to grab 4 boxes of tissues.

Other than hand sterilizer disappearing from the shelves about a week ago we haven't seen too much of that here. I imagine that will change when (a) the numbers start climbing exponentially in two or three places and (b) people figure out that Mike Pence isn't the best choice as the COVID czar.

Was he part of the lot trying to pray the thing away? If so, 

[Cubdriver]

Those are Tek enclosures for the likes of Type 114, Type 191, etc.

I'll bet he scrapped the original owners. 

More likely he picked up the cases from the Tek scrap pile.

Let's hope!

-Pat

[WastelandTek]

Those are Tek enclosures for the likes of Type 114, Type 191, etc.

I'll bet he scrapped the original owners. 

More likely he picked up the cases from the Tek scrap pile.

this

[edavid]

Those are Tek enclosures for the likes of Type 114, Type 191, etc.

I'll bet he scrapped the original owners. 

More likely he picked up the cases from the Tek scrap pile.

He probably bought them at the Tektronix Country Store (aka RAMS).  The only Tek employee I heard of who sometimes had special scrap access was Deane Kidd.

[grizewald]

In your case, I'd just assume "patriotic milk" (Sveridge flag is gold and teal     ).

But I still wouldn't drink it...

Despite where I live, I'm an Englishman by birth and can't actually live without regular doses of good black tea, particularly when I get up in the mornings.

If you think the Swedish flag is gold and teal, then all I can assume is that you have pronounced colour blindness and your teal text affectation helps you in some way with that.

In reality, the Swedish flag is nothing else but yellow and blue.

[Specmaster]

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow evening at 21:00 UTC is the weekly Discord session which I joined in with for the last 2 goes. Last week I was experimenting with my mic settings and was unsuccessful in getting it work, so I had to resort to just texting and despite further experimenting this week with trying to get the Discord program to access my mic via the front or rear mic socket on my PC, the result is still the same, the Discord setup and test facility, still reports that it is unable to detect any mic activity at all, but my speakers are working OK with the mic, strange?

I have even tried experimenting with a headset with built in mic, and yes you guessed it, its still not playing along for some reason, so I should be on line tomorrow, able to hear those with working mics, but I will still only have a keyboard to use. 

[beanflying]

Yep discord is a bit special about Microphones the mic on my Microsoft Lifecam didn't work and I had a few flakey issues with my new dongle based one initially but for better or worse depending on what comes out of my mouth and the state of caffeination at the time it now seems to be a simple PNP each week

[Specmaster]

Well I have even tried a BT headset, nah, it still won't play with me 

[drussell]

...trying to get the Discord program to access my mic via the front or rear mic socket on my PC, the result is still the same, the Discord setup and test facility, still reports that it is unable to detect any mic activity at all, but my speakers are working OK with the mic, strange?

Are you sure that you have the microphone input selected and the gain up on the recording sound mixer for the correct device, not just the regular playback mixer?

If you have the microphone input enabled and up in the playback mixer, you will hear a copy of what you say echoed through your speakers, even if the recording input is muted or the gain is down so any software that tries to "record" from it won't see any signal...

Edit: A good test would be to pull up something like Audacity and be sure you can actually record properly from your microphone in a program that gives you more complete device control.

[GreyWoolfe]

Stupidity is the largest renewable resource to mankind.

Oh cool - can I use that quote?

Yes, with pleasure. 

Hmm, reminds me of an Einstein quote, "There are two things that are infinite, the universe, and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe".

I was speaking to a fellow tech today and he was saying that he had been waiting for 2 weeks for an image from one of our clients.  In trying to come up with a different quote, he made his own.  He said that they were going slow, as fast as they can.  I thought it was pretty damn funny.

[0culus]

Because no technical library is complete without some history books.  Purchased this book through the Vintage Tek museum's ebay shop. Fascinating read so far.

[mnementh]

On The Bench Tonight:




This pleases me. 

                  

Blue-Point ETBSL3600 Power Driver Li-Ion Refit

Picked this little beastie up at the Thrift a few days ago for 10 Canadian Pesos as my recent search for another Makita 6019 at a sane price (yup; another favorite tool locked away in storage  ) has been an abysmal failure. I figured that since it's Blue-Point, it'll likely be the best example of the breed I'll come across, so maybe should do until my 6019 comes back to me.

 Spent another CAD$12 on a decent 3000mAH/20A-discharge rated 18650 cell from a local Vape Shop; paid about double for the brick & mortar surcharge, but I got to test the IR first to confirm it a real LG-HG2 cell and take it home today.

Dismantled the battery by twisting & wiggling the tabs so the spot-welds break; then straightened the tabs out and soldered the (+) tab in place to get everything centered properly. Added a little corrugated split wire loom as a spacer around the 18650, then the (-) tab bent in a U around the bottom to keep everything in place. Finally added the thermistor & its tab; it's not likely I'll need this, but having it there makes things feel balanced. 

Packed it all in the old shell, added a little more split loom as filler; I left the (-) tab extra long to allow for reworking once an appropriate protection PCB can be sourced from China or Taiwan.

First impressions: I reality-tested with my little CV PSU at 3.4-3.6 volts to simulate the original 3S 4/5 Sub-C pack when I first got it.  Fully charged, the 18650 runs at 3.8-4.0 volts even with a fair amount of load applied by pinching the bitholder shank, so it runs more like 250-300 RPM rather than the stock 200.  3000mAH capacity actually AT 20A discharge rate, and is almost triple that of the original pack as well.

On the driver itself, the all-metal knuckle joint is smooth and solid, and the metal gearbox is quiet... possibly the quietest one of these I've ever seen. The clutch has a good selection of settings, and testing with a 1/4" allen wrench chucked up reveals the lowest is pretty low and very smooth. I still think it would easily strip out m3 screws in thin sheetmetal or plastic, but might not strip out with a m4 in similar materials.

The bad: Rocker switch is heavy metal construction; single speed reversible but does NOT appear to have a motor brake circuit. With the extra speed, this means it turns 1/2-3/4 turn after the button is released. Switch feels a little notchy; I may disassemble to see if it has motor brake but there is something wrong inside. Lights in head are a nice touch; replaceable bi-pin incandescent bulbs like Mini-Maglite used to use. LED upgrade should be easy given the 18650 power source; I may look into that after it gets a BMS/protection PCB. Right now making it a habit to store without the battery in it until that is realized.

Yeah, yeah... I know I've given others here a rash of shit about using these. I'm STILL not sold on it yet myself; I already miss variable speed and motor brake. We'll see if it can in fact "do until my 6019 comes back to me". It should be pretty hard NOT to get US$17 worth of use out of it though.

mnem

[mansaxel]

Of note is that "The electrons travel along Valhalla's highly polished conductors at 96% speed of light" (yeah, right!),

A 1% improvement over a standard wire. Impressive. A figure without relation to anything meaningful sounds sciency and is completely meaningless, except that it makes for more impressive-sounding bullshitting. 

If you had, somehow, a 301m speaker cable on your left and a 1m speaker cable on your right system, you'd have a 1µs time delta (assuming that RADM Hopper was in the right ballpark with her nanosecond wires), which is possible to measure.
Perhaps possible to hear, in a good environment, with some program material. It does, however mean that you'll have to maintain your ears fixed to a tolerance of way below 1mm or 4 thousands of an inch. Otherwise, the timing error in air will completely obfuscate the offset introduced by the cable.

If you have identical cables for left and right, the Valhalla advantage of 1% will be completely lost by moving your head somewhat further back. Again, let's be generous and say less than 1mm away. Much less, actually.

Mixing a delayed signal with a direct signal electrically will of course have drastic comb filtering effects, but that does not happen as detrimentally in air. A practical implementation of this is in sound reinforcement for musical theatre, where the love duets tend to sound horrible because the two lavalier microphones fitted to two people singing face to face will both pick both voices up, about equally strong, but in different time. Time here being between 3ms (they hate each other) and 0,2 ms (they've become very good friends and are about to go find a room.) which translates to several (as in more than 100) kilometres of wire in electrical signals.

Electric mixing of these well-delayed and direct signals produces a horrible phasing effect (because a part of acting is to act, as in move around. Or the choreographer will feel bad) but maintaining separation of voices A and B all the way to two separate speaker systems placed side by side will smooth out these problems making the sound much more natural.  Several West End musicals and their Broadway counterparts have employed this trick with great success.

[mansaxel]

Ditto in Chelmsford as well, same goes for elephant bog rolls and tissues, although I did manage to grab 4 boxes of tissues.

people figure out that Mike Pence isn't the best choice as the COVID czar.

Was he part of the lot trying to pray the thing away? If so, 

He initiated it. Because that's the kind of guy he is.

[beanflying]

For those who have forgotten (conveniently ) here is the link direct into tomorrows TEA time Discord Chat text channel so no mic is no excuse. If you are not registered get it done in advance.

https://discordapp.com/channels/658020677533827101/662871717667930142

For those armed with a Mic that speaks discord the is also the voice channel but anyone with speakers or headphones can listen and type your comments/abuse in response to what is said which may or not be replied to in kind

Just under 14 hours to go......

[mansaxel]

In reality, the Swedish flag is nothing else but yellow and blue.

And being measurement people, lets define yellow and blue; Pantone PMS 116 C for yellow, and PMS 301 C for blue; which is equal to CIE x=0,472 y=0,465 Y=64,4 and x=0,189 y=0,192 Y=8,3.

The first definition was actually set in the swedish air force, who of course, being military, needed a instruction on how to paint by numbers. The definition was "guldgul och ljust mellanblå" and persisted as the only official regulation on colour until a law (1982:269) was passed with an addendum (1983:826) setting out the above values.

[bd139]

That’s probably a good thing. If you don’t have standards then you end up with trouble. I’m hypersensitive to two problems we have here on signage:

1. Speed camera signs with the camera upside down.
2. British rail signs back to front.

Errors happen a lot if you don’t have standards.

[beanflying]

Ok Fluke Nerds 49 Fluke Manuals or Notes $60 USD with free US shipping eBay auction: #264590997532 even shipping to me in Oz is only $20 USD but I will be good 'this time' 

[tggzzz]

Of note is that "The electrons travel along Valhalla's highly polished conductors at 96% speed of light" (yeah, right!),

A 1% improvement over a standard wire. Impressive. A figure without relation to anything meaningful sounds sciency and is completely meaningless, except that it makes for more impressive-sounding bullshitting. 

If you had, somehow, a 301m speaker cable on your left and a 1m speaker cable on your right system, you'd have a 1µs time delta (assuming that RADM Hopper was in the right ballpark with her nanosecond wires), which is possible to measure.
Perhaps possible to hear, in a good environment, with some program material. It does, however mean that you'll have to maintain your ears fixed to a tolerance of way below 1mm or 4 thousands of an inch. Otherwise, the timing error in air will completely obfuscate the offset introduced by the cable.

If you have identical cables for left and right, the Valhalla advantage of 1% will be completely lost by moving your head somewhat further back. Again, let's be generous and say less than 1mm away. Much less, actually.

Mixing a delayed signal with a direct signal electrically will of course have drastic comb filtering effects, but that does not happen as detrimentally in air. A practical implementation of this is in sound reinforcement for musical theatre, where the love duets tend to sound horrible because the two lavalier microphones fitted to two people singing face to face will both pick both voices up, about equally strong, but in different time. Time here being between 3ms (they hate each other) and 0,2 ms (they've become very good friends and are about to go find a room.) which translates to several (as in more than 100) kilometres of wire in electrical signals.

Electric mixing of these well-delayed and direct signals produces a horrible phasing effect (because a part of acting is to act, as in move around. Or the choreographer will feel bad) but maintaining separation of voices A and B all the way to two separate speaker systems placed side by side will smooth out these problems making the sound much more natural.  Several West End musicals and their Broadway counterparts have employed this trick with great success.

It is worse than that. Calculate how fast the electrons move in a wire delivering power from one end to the other. It is a very small fraction of the speed of light!

[med6753]

As I recall it's approx 1.2ns/ft delay.

At least that's what my still asleep and coffee derived memory is telling me.