Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[ChrisLX200]

Sod it, thats the first 2 items on my Ebay watch list nicked from under my nose at the last second, I wonder if it's set a trend for the next 4 items then 

Wouldn't be Agilent PSUs or Decade resistance boxes would it?

Nope, you're in the clear there.

I missed out on the PSUs but I snagged one of the resistance boxes...

[Specmaster]

First there was the Heathkit which was a bit of a project, and then there was a Hickok 209A that was easy street in comparison.

Also i think the Hickok may well be in the running for the world's largest panel meter, or barring that the largest VTVM. It was top of the line for the day and age (50s? the serial number suggest 1943 but i don't believe it.) with capacitance, inductance, decibels, ohms, AC and DC.
It is massive, and i do mean massive you could store a pound of coffee and week's rations in the case, and i own two of them. 

Best stock them up now then you're ready for the bit between Christmas and mid Jan when things seem to be in short supply at the shops 

[neo]

First there was the Heathkit which was a bit of a project, and then there was a Hickok 209A that was easy street in comparison.

Also i think the Hickok may well be in the running for the world's largest panel meter, or barring that the largest VTVM. It was top of the line for the day and age (50s? the serial number suggest 1943 but i don't believe it.) with capacitance, inductance, decibels, ohms, AC and DC.
It is massive, and i do mean massive you could store a pound of coffee and week's rations in the case, and i own two of them. 

Best stock them up now then you're ready for the bit between Christmas and mid Jan when things seem to be in short supply at the shops 

Stock what up exactly? Meters or rations?

[Specmaster]

First there was the Heathkit which was a bit of a project, and then there was a Hickok 209A that was easy street in comparison.

Also i think the Hickok may well be in the running for the world's largest panel meter, or barring that the largest VTVM. It was top of the line for the day and age (50s? the serial number suggest 1943 but i don't believe it.) with capacitance, inductance, decibels, ohms, AC and DC.
It is massive, and i do mean massive you could store a pound of coffee and week's rations in the case, and i own two of them. 

Best stock them up now then you're ready for the bit between Christmas and mid Jan when things seem to be in short supply at the shops 

Well you have 2, so rations in one and meters the other?

Stock what up exactly? Meters or rations?

[bd139]

I had to wait for SWMBO to come home before I commented on this, why will become clear momentarily.

When I played this I almost thought I was listening to a recording of my own voice. I'm sure you all know the phenomenon where your own recorded voice sounds weird to yourself. Well, I played this for SWMBO and asked who she though the voice sounded like (with no priming as to what I was thinking) - she immediately named me. So, not only does your own voice sound 'wrong' when it's recorded, the recorded voice of someone else who sounds reasonably like you sounds 'wrong' to you in the same way too.

What I hear when I listen to myself recorded, and now also a recorded BD139, is something that almost borders on the adenoidal, quite nasal sounding and much higher pitched than my internal perception. Objective third parties say my voice has neither of those characteristics and is quite low pitched. I wonder if: (1) BD139 perceives his own recorded voice in the same way that I do mine, (2) what we'd sound like to each other face-to-face as opposed to a recording, (3) if we could get away with providing vocal alibis for each other?

Wow, are you sure from East London, sounds more like Brentwood to me does that. 

This is quite funny. I have the remnants of man flu and my nose was mostly blocked which is probably the nasal sounding bit. Usually much clearer but you're right; it always sounds weird. I did a few years in a shitty goth band in my youth as vocalist (don't ask) and your voice always sounds completely odd. When everyone is out one day, so you don't look like an idiot, whack some headphones on and record yourself talking on your computer and play it back. This is how people hear you. The voice in your head is actually completely wrong. This is incidentally sometimes when you're on the tube and there's some drunken young lady howling away thinking she can sing; she can't but it sounds pretty good in her head.

Directly answering the questions (1) I do indeed. It's always weird. (2) I think we'd both sound normal to each other (3) shhhhhhh

Barts born cockney scum here for reference!

Not exactly TEA but interesting.

Actually we should do a London TEA meet up

[HalFET]

I had to wait for SWMBO to come home before I commented on this, why will become clear momentarily.

When I played this I almost thought I was listening to a recording of my own voice. I'm sure you all know the phenomenon where your own recorded voice sounds weird to yourself. Well, I played this for SWMBO and asked who she though the voice sounded like (with no priming as to what I was thinking) - she immediately named me. So, not only does your own voice sound 'wrong' when it's recorded, the recorded voice of someone else who sounds reasonably like you sounds 'wrong' to you in the same way too.

What I hear when I listen to myself recorded, and now also a recorded BD139, is something that almost borders on the adenoidal, quite nasal sounding and much higher pitched than my internal perception. Objective third parties say my voice has neither of those characteristics and is quite low pitched. I wonder if: (1) BD139 perceives his own recorded voice in the same way that I do mine, (2) what we'd sound like to each other face-to-face as opposed to a recording, (3) if we could get away with providing vocal alibis for each other?

Wow, are you sure from East London, sounds more like Brentwood to me does that. 

This is quite funny. I have the remnants of man flu and my nose was mostly blocked which is probably the nasal sounding bit. Usually much clearer but you're right; it always sounds weird. I did a few years in a shitty goth band in my youth as vocalist (don't ask) and your voice always sounds completely odd. When everyone is out one day, so you don't look like an idiot, whack some headphones on and record yourself talking on your computer and play it back. This is how people hear you. The voice in your head is actually completely wrong. This is incidentally sometimes when you're on the tube and there's some drunken young lady howling away thinking she can sing; she can't but it sounds pretty good in her head.

Directly answering the questions (1) I do indeed. It's always weird. (2) I think we'd both sound normal to each other (3) shhhhhhh

Barts born cockney scum here for reference!

Not exactly TEA but interesting.

Actually we should do a London TEA meet up

Entry badge is bringing at least one piece of equipment that doesn't have a whif of Aliexpressness to it? 

[Specmaster]

Banggood's ok then?

[bd139]

I'm going to stick an HP badge to my head in the style of Arnold J Rimmer.

[URI]

I mounted the first four storage cabinets with 198 push trays into a wooden rack I built from cheap glulam plates:


Plenty of space for all the parts in uncounted bags in hidden corners and the small parts currently populating my bench. 

I've finished the second rack with the remaining storage cabinets and have started to populate them.

Huh, that's real work! I only managed to fill about sixty drawers today and it's still a long way to go: I'm currently getting all the stuff together I stored all over the flat and around my bench.

I didn't really know that I already ordered items or that I still have some.

Sorting and storing all the stuff I have here is a relief and sometimes a bit shocking at the same time: I found a pack of 10 fuses with 9 fuses in it and somewhere else I found a new pack of ten fuses with the same value.     

It's getting better... -it can only get better: I found an invoice in an cardboard box from June 2015. It was easier storing all the stuff in their shipping boxes than sorting and storing it in a meaningful location, obviously. 

Now prio one is to get rid of all the emptied cardboard boxes..   

edit: I miscounted: not about 50 but about 60 drawers..

[Cerebus]

This is quite funny. I have the remnants of man flu and my nose was mostly blocked which is probably the nasal sounding bit.

You misunderstand. I think I perceived a nasal sound because that's what I perceive when I hear my own recorded voice (which other people tell me objectively does not sound nasal). In other words, I think because your voice is very similar to mine, my brain tried to process it as it does my voice when I hear a recording of it.

Usually much clearer but you're right; it always sounds weird. I did a few years in a shitty goth band in my youth as vocalist (don't ask) and your voice always sounds completely odd. When everyone is out one day, so you don't look like an idiot, whack some headphones on and record yourself talking on your computer and play it back. This is how people hear you. The voice in your head is actually completely wrong.

I don't think so.

I used to (many years ago) work in recording and have occasionally been press ganged into doing guide vocals or backing vocals, I'd had the 'pleasure' of hearing my isolated voice replayed, at high volume, in a studio monitoring room. If it sounded anything like as awful as I perceive it to be, it would never have made it into the final mix, and I know it has.

Consequently, I've taken quite an interest in this over the years, and had quite a lot of discussions with people about it. As far as I can tell*, from asking a lot of questions of people who can hear me speak, the voice I perceive internally when I speak is close to what other people hear. One's brain somehow compensates for all the internal transmission of sound and manipulates your perception so that your perception of your own voice matches the external sound of your voice. If you like, a de-emphasis filter to compensate for all the bass emphasis, bone conduction and so on.

I think that's why one's own recorded voice sounds thin, your brain recognises it as yours and turns the internal 'corrective filtering' on, but lacks the physical stimulus that it's intended to filter, so filters out the elements that would normally be physically internal from the external physical signal. [That's the kind of sentence which, were I physically speaking, would require me to take a big gasp, right about now.]

Directly answering the questions (1) I do indeed. It's always weird. (2) I think we'd both sound normal to each other (3) shhhhhhh

Indeed, shhhhh...

Actually we should do a London TEA meet up

Could be a laugh.

*Because of all the problems associated with what the philosophers call 'qualia'.

[Mr. Scram]

Gentlemen, I'm afraid I have some bad news to tell you. I don't think there's an easy way of saying this, so I'll just get it out. Yesterday I found out I'm an idiot. It's hard to swallow, I know, but it's true.

While investigating some odd behaviour of the amp ranges of the Fluke 87V, I used a power supply to test the response. I first tested 500 mA, 1A and 1,5 A. Then I figured I'd test the mA and uA ranges again, as I read that these use another fuse. Quickly swapping over the leads, I noticed that the meter responded differently than last time. I thought to myself "That's odd, it doesn't do anything anym..."  It was at that moment my eye caught the 400 mA rating printed on the case.

Luckily I ordered some fuses the other day, which should be on my doorstep somewhere this week. I hadn't planned on needing one quite that quickly, but I guess that's exactly the point of a fuse to begin with. I still haven't found the cause the odd behaviour though. The plan is to replace both fuses to see what happens, though I doubt both fuses have gone without any significant event. The regular amp range still responds too, it's just utter nonsense far below the value it should be. Very peculiar.

[xrunner]

Gentlemen, I'm afraid I have some bad news to tell you. I don't think there's an easy way of saying this, so I'll just get it out. Yesterday I found out I'm an idiot. It's hard to swallow, I know, but it's true.

Naw - fuses aren't for idiots they are for those of us that have the power of extreme concentration which crowds out all other matters. 

[Specmaster]

Gentlemen, I'm afraid I have some bad news to tell you. I don't think there's an easy way of saying this, so I'll just get it out. Yesterday I found out I'm an idiot. It's hard to swallow, I know, but it's true.

Naw - fuses aren't for idiots they are for those of us that have the power of extreme concentration which crowds out all other matters. 

Now that description I like 

[neo]

Gentlemen, I'm afraid I have some bad news to tell you. I don't think there's an easy way of saying this, so I'll just get it out. Yesterday I found out I'm an idiot. It's hard to swallow, I know, but it's true.

Naw - fuses aren't for idiots they are for those of us that have the power of extreme concentration which crowds out all other matters. 

Now that description I like 

I'll agree it is very fair description. 

[neo]

A little over a year ago i bought a non working 'scope. Truth be told at the time i was a bit terrified by it, certainly didn't want to actually poke around in the thing. Long story short i took it back off the shelf to give it another look.

What i couldn't see then that i do see now is that it looks like an 8 year old had free run inside it. The scope is a Ballantine 1066S and at this point its either complete service manual or i cannibalize it for parts, its that screwed up. Anyone got a manual? Google has failed me.

P.S. I have not derailed the Fluke 8400A repair, just merely keeping busy until the last of the parts get here.

[Mr. Scram]

I missed out on the PSUs but I snagged one of the resistance boxes...

What resistance boxes are those? I'm still looking for a good one, but am not prepared to pay the stupid money many go for.

[Berni]

I tried the capacitor across a too high voltage supply backwards stunt before (Should have filmed it tho).

The difference being that instead of using a modern electrolytic i chose to use a old one that looked like it was from the 80s since what else to do with one of these. But still chose to use something small just in case. It was about the size of a modern 100uF 63V but back then it was probably a lot less capacity. Expecting it to blow apart i also covered it with a plastic box to contain things a bit. So i plug it in and wait... seams to be taking quite a long time. No hissing sounds so its not leaking, maybe it just went completely short or something... BOOOOOM. The box went flying straight up (Pretty high too) with a large cloud of awful smelling smoke while it was raining aluminum foil and insulator.

I was expecting a bit of a bang, but nothing like this. The little thing might as well have been filled with gunpowder!

[neo]

Well if were sharing stories of catastrophe, i once gave a ceramic dip IC 10 volts too much, wrong version of the chip and a small error. The entire top of the thing popped off with the sound of a .22 going off the thing pinged off the ceiling fan and who knows what else.

I have no earthly idea where it went but that to say that chip catastrophically failed would be an understatement.

[Specmaster]

I tried the capacitor across a too high voltage supply backwards stunt before (Should have filmed it tho).

The difference being that instead of using a modern electrolytic i chose to use a old one that looked like it was from the 80s since what else to do with one of these. But still chose to use something small just in case. It was about the size of a modern 100uF 63V but back then it was probably a lot less capacity. Expecting it to blow apart i also covered it with a plastic box to contain things a bit. So i plug it in and wait... seams to be taking quite a long time. No hissing sounds so its not leaking, maybe it just went completely short or something... BOOOOOM. The box went flying straight up (Pretty high too) with a large cloud of awful smelling smoke while it was raining aluminum foil and insulator.

I was expecting a bit of a bang, but nothing like this. The little thing might as well have been filled with gunpowder!

Yep the old ones are worst, no safety system built in back then and of course because of that you could be lulled into a false sense of security  due to the things not exploding immediately so you think everything is fine and you could maybe have your hands in the close vicinity of them teaking something when BOOOOM a nasty experience. These day with most of the current crop of caps they have the cross  impressed across the top to aid them blowing almost instantly and release the pressure before in a more gentle way.

[ChrisLX200]

I missed out on the PSUs but I snagged one of the resistance boxes...

What resistance boxes are those? I'm still looking for a good one, but am not prepared to pay the stupid money many go for.

It was a private sale on ebay, a Time Electronics 1051. Yeah, it wasn't cheap @ £127 but I'm pretty sure I could get my money back on it if I wanted to sell.

[Mr. Scram]

It was a private sale on ebay, a Time Electronics 1051. Yeah, it wasn't cheap @ £127 but I'm pretty sure I could get my money back on it if I wanted to sell.

You don't get money back if you don't sell

[Cerebus]

I was expecting a bit of a bang, but nothing like this. The little thing might as well have been filled with gunpowder!

That, my friend, is what happens when what is now effectively a pressure vessel fails.

That's why some of us make a fuss when people talk about welding up their own air compressor reservoirs from any old bits of scrap lying around, or proposes welding up a corroded through compressor reservoir with the cheap MIG welder they bought at the local big-box DIY store. Imagine what it's like when your little 5ml, 500um wall thickness aluminium pressure vessel gets scaled up to a 100l, 5mm wall thickness steel pressure vessel.

[Specmaster]

I was expecting a bit of a bang, but nothing like this. The little thing might as well have been filled with gunpowder!

That, my friend, is what happens when what is now effectively a pressure vessel fails.

That's why some of us make a fuss when people talk about welding up their own air compressor reservoirs from any old bits of scrap lying around, or proposes welding up a corroded through compressor reservoir with the cheap MIG welder they bought at the local big-box DIY store. Imagine what it's like when your little 5ml, 500um wall thickness aluminium pressure vessel gets scaled up to a 100l, 5mm wall thickness steel pressure vessel.

Much the same effect as a bomb going off with shrapnel going in directions. Wouldn't want to be in the same room with it that's for sure.

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

[khs]

Gentlemen, I'm afraid I have some bad news to tell you. I don't think there's an easy way of saying this, so I'll just get it out. Yesterday I found out I'm an idiot. It's hard to swallow, I know, but it's true.

No.

You are (on the way to) an expert.

An expert is a person who made every possible mistake (Hans-Peter Dürr).

[bd139]

I know some people who don't progress past that point