Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Mr. Scram]

- The sound of a grinding wheel is coming from a corner, where Cerebus sits with a bottle of schnapps, sharpening all his cutlery and feeling ignored.

A dishevelled drunk man playing with knives and people are avoiding him? The nerve!

[BU508A]

That's the charme of this thread. Whenever you are visiting it, one can watch

- med painting something blue, except it is his bedroom
- Saskia playing with 50g of ceefour
- bd139 is buying / selling something
- tony is buying a counter.
- nixiefreqq is ranting about RPN calulators
- the Dwagon is lamenting on <insert topic of your choice here>
- tautech is playing with Siglent stuff
- BU508A is trying to find strange R&S gear
- Zucca has this ongoing marriage-project
- bitseeker is trying to catch-up
- 0culus buying another RPN calculator ^*
- cubdriver is frolicing around with his cats ^*
- not sure what Cerebus is doing but I think it has something to do with magic smoke and syringes ^**
- ...

please feel free to add any thoughts to this list.   

^* Edit 1
^** Edit 2

- The sound of a grinding wheel is coming from a corner, where Cerebus sits with a bottle of schnapps, sharpening all his cutlery and feeling ignored.

Any better? 

[McBryce]

look what I found in the mail.

Guess what it is.

(In catch up mode)

That's too easy. I've never had one of the originals, used one, or even been knowingly close to one. The giveaway is the "VIC", "SID" and "64" on the silkscreen.

No spoiler, just in case.

And despite all those hints, bd139 still thought it was a VIC20, when in fact it's a C64 clone.

McBryce.

[Cerebus]

- The sound of a grinding wheel is coming from a corner, where Cerebus sits with a bottle of schnapps, sharpening all his cutlery and feeling ignored.

A dishevelled drunk man anthropomorphic aardvark playing with knives and people are avoiding him? The nerve!

TFTFY

[Cerebus]

Any better? 

Hmph! [ Shuffles along looking at the floor, kicking litter about. ]

[BU508A]

look what I found in the mail.

Guess what it is.

(In catch up mode)

That's too easy. I've never had one of the originals, used one, or even been knowingly close to one. The giveaway is the "VIC", "SID" and "64" on the silkscreen.

No spoiler, just in case.

And despite all those hints, bd139 still thought it was a VIC20, when in fact it's a C64 clone.

McBryce.

Brotkasten bleibt halt Brotkasten.   
(sorry, this works only in German) 

[bd139]

look what I found in the mail.

Guess what it is.

(In catch up mode)

That's too easy. I've never had one of the originals, used one, or even been knowingly close to one. The giveaway is the "VIC", "SID" and "64" on the silkscreen.

No spoiler, just in case.

And despite all those hints, bd139 still thought it was a VIC20, when in fact it's a C64 clone.

McBryce.

To be clear I knew exactly what it was. It was an opportunity to throw a trite insult at the C64, which I throughly despise coming from another superior 6502 faction.

Edit: changed avatar. The Ferengi was making me uncomfortable 

[capt bullshot]

look what I found in the mail.

Guess what it is.

Looks like a controller to fire 50 grams of CeeFour

[psykok]

other toys arrived today, Fluke 163 and 164:


I got them for cheap  because they are not powering  up, probably dead batteries.

[Cerebus]

look what I found in the mail.

Guess what it is.

(In catch up mode)

That's too easy. I've never had one of the originals, used one, or even been knowingly close to one. The giveaway is the "VIC", "SID" and "64" on the silkscreen.

No spoiler, just in case.

And despite all those hints, bd139 still thought it was a VIC20, when in fact it's a C64 clone.

McBryce.

Brotkasten bleibt halt Brotkasten.   
(sorry, this works only in German) 

"A bread bin will always be a bread bin"  -  I think we can guess the idiom. I know there's a similar English idiom, but it's currently choosing to remain just out of mental grasp.

[Cerebus]

Edit: changed avatar. The Ferengi was making me uncomfortable 

[Fx: wanders into distance singing ] "I wear my heart on my sleeve, I wear my heart on my sleeve..."

[drussell]

look what I found in the mail.

Guess what it is.

It says right on the board, "C64 Micro/Laptop"...   

(Not that it's terribly difficult to guess with positions labelled things like SID and VIC II...) 

There are quite a few different types and versions of those modern C64 boards, though I don't recall seeing that particular one before in any of the YouTube videos I've seen on modern C64s...

[Saskia]

and now for something completely different


Got my knockoff T12 soldering gizmo from gangbang ... 25 Pesos including the knife tip. This is getting ridiculous.

@Cerebus one of my favorite cutlery bits.

look what I found in the mail.

Guess what it is.

Looks like a controller to fire 50 grams of CeeFour

[tonyalbus]

Just realized, i should have asked first... i just bought a new original 82357B GPIB to USB adapter with CD and stuff incl shipping for 59,-
did not seem expansive but maybe you guys have better solutions...
i can use this right, to read calibration and other stuff?
https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/4000055854700.htm

[Saskia]

look what I found in the mail.

Guess what it is.

It says right on the board, "C64 Micro/Laptop"...   

(Not that it's terribly difficult to guess with positions labelled things like SID and VIC II...) 

There are quite a few different types and versions of those modern C64 boards, though I don't recall seeing that particular one before in any of the YouTube videos I've seen on modern C64s...

reworked as a laptop board which includes an adapter for a PI1541 running on a raspi 0. There is certainly the option to attach a TFT and put everything in a very small case. I got this to replace a board that I am sick of debugging.

[BU508A]

look what I found in the mail.

Guess what it is.

(In catch up mode)

That's too easy. I've never had one of the originals, used one, or even been knowingly close to one. The giveaway is the "VIC", "SID" and "64" on the silkscreen.

No spoiler, just in case.

And despite all those hints, bd139 still thought it was a VIC20, when in fact it's a C64 clone.

McBryce.

Brotkasten bleibt halt Brotkasten.   
(sorry, this works only in German) 

"A bread bin will always be a bread bin"  -  I think we can guess the idiom. I know there's a similar English idiom, but it's currently choosing to remain just out of mental grasp.

VC20:


C64:


Brotkasten:


Not that big difference between those three.   

[TorinoFermic]

Quote from: tonyalbus on Today at 10:40:56

Just realized, i should have asked first... i just bought a new original 82357B GPIB to USB adapter with CD and stuff incl shipping for 59,-
did not seem expansive but maybe you guys have better solutions...
i can use this right, to read calibration and other stuff?
>https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/4000055854700.htm

The same thing can be done with Arduino-based GPIB adapter. First link in this post : https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/hp-3478a-how-to-readwrite-cal-sram/msg3011668/#msg3011668

[bd139]

look what I found in the mail.

Guess what it is.

(In catch up mode)

That's too easy. I've never had one of the originals, used one, or even been knowingly close to one. The giveaway is the "VIC", "SID" and "64" on the silkscreen.

No spoiler, just in case.

And despite all those hints, bd139 still thought it was a VIC20, when in fact it's a C64 clone.

McBryce.

Brotkasten bleibt halt Brotkasten.   
(sorry, this works only in German) 

"A bread bin will always be a bread bin"  -  I think we can guess the idiom. I know there's a similar English idiom, but it's currently choosing to remain just out of mental grasp.

VC20:


C64:


Brotkasten:


Not that big difference between those three.   

The best one you can put bread in without having to get a screwdriver first.

[BU508A]

Edit: changed avatar. The Ferengi was making me uncomfortable 

Pity, I liked the "no equal sign" picture 

What's the meaning of the new one? Looks like a draft from a marketing company selling Batterizers. 

[BU508A]

look what I found in the mail.

Guess what it is.

(In catch up mode)

That's too easy. I've never had one of the originals, used one, or even been knowingly close to one. The giveaway is the "VIC", "SID" and "64" on the silkscreen.

No spoiler, just in case.

And despite all those hints, bd139 still thought it was a VIC20, when in fact it's a C64 clone.

McBryce.

Brotkasten bleibt halt Brotkasten.   
(sorry, this works only in German) 

"A bread bin will always be a bread bin"  -  I think we can guess the idiom. I know there's a similar English idiom, but it's currently choosing to remain just out of mental grasp.

VC20:


C64:


Brotkasten:


Not that big difference between those three.   

The best one you can put bread in without having to get a screwdriver first.

You have to disassemble the other two first, of course. What else does one do with them?   

[med6753]

Edit: changed avatar. The Ferengi was making me uncomfortable 

Pity, I liked the "no equal sign" picture 

What's the meaning of the new one? Looks like a draft from a marketing company selling Batterizers. 

He changes avatars more often than I change underwear. 

[bd139]

Edit: changed avatar. The Ferengi was making me uncomfortable 

Pity, I liked the "no equal sign" picture 

What's the meaning of the new one? Looks like a draft from a marketing company selling Batterizers. 

[bd139]

You have to disassemble the other two first, of course. What else does one do with them?   

Indeed. Or they float when you chuck them in a river.

[Wolfgang]

Caps replaced. Look at these bastards. The cracked ones were actually across the switch not the mains which was interesting. One of the smaller ones is missing the top because I popped it with the pliers getting it out.

I am sure these bastards contain Ammonium nitrate.  To my utter suprise the company who made them is still in business (now renamed KEMET, IIRC).
Why on earth are people still buying based on such a galactic reputation for pyrotechnic failures ?

[mnementh]

Today my EPROM Eraser showed up which I've bought

<snip>

But I'm convinced, it will for sure not meet the VDE safety standards or the CE standards (EMI).

After or before you've enhanced it? 

Seriously, the major problem with self-certification along the CE marking model is that it lacks "nuke'm from orbit, land, plow the land and spread salt over the fields" termination clauses in the legislation. It is largely painless and cheap to get caught peddling broken stuff, so people take their chances, especially if they're only one step in the value chain. There is always someone else to blame.

The old SEMKO / DEMKO / VDE / UL / CSA model was hampering innovation and was a market blocker; we do not want that again. What we need is a way for manufacturers and vendors to feel the pain.

Oh, I know... it was so horrible to have to have your product full of angry pixies inspected by an independent certification body made of people who actually know their asses from a hole in the ground. You know, BEFORE importing them by containerload and the fire jumps out and burns people up. 

mnem
"Acceptable risks" = pricetag on human lives.