Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Yeah, he did sound like he was pretty level headed, that said, you have to be a bit crazy to do what he did. He mentioned that he played a flight sim so he had some idea of what he was doing with the plane and one point he joked about life imprisonment for people like him. Like you said, he also mentioned about minimum wage etc so I guess the poor follow was at his wits end trying to pay his way and this was one of highlighting his and many others plight?

[orin]

The aircraft only had a few thousand lbs of fuel, so no way it could've been in the air more than a few minutes; I'm sure it was all over before most people in the area knew there was even something going on. But when those National Guard jets scrambled, I'm sure the sonic boom rattled a few windows...

The scrambled those jets from Portland!*

It was sure all over before I heard anything, or rather, saw it in the online version of the Seattle Times.

* source: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/norad-fighter-jets-were-trying-to-direct-stolen-plane-over-pacific-ocean-when-it-crashed/

[nixiefreqq]

Well I've pretty much decided that my 465 is now a parts mule. And I've been scanning Evil Bay. Found some possible contenders and made an offer on one. It has some physical damage but I can swap over parts from mine. We'll see what happens. I'll report if it goes through.

fought a year long battle with a vlf phase tracking receiver once.

never got more satisfaction from anything than tossing that son of a bitch into the crusher pit at the waste transfer station.

it was not my proudest moment.......but is sure felt good.

[factory]

never got more satisfaction from anything than tossing that son of a bitch into the crusher pit at the waste transfer station.

it was not my proudest moment.......but is sure felt good.

There was a few difficult to impossible to repair things at work I had to fix, I would have loved to tossed them in a crusher or photonicinduction-ed them instead. I couldn't win either way, they weren't happy until they were fixed and then moaned how long it took afterwards.

David

[med6753]

Well I've pretty much decided that my 465 is now a parts mule. And I've been scanning Evil Bay. Found some possible contenders and made an offer on one. It has some physical damage but I can swap over parts from mine. We'll see what happens. I'll report if it goes through.

fought a year long battle with a vlf phase tracking receiver once.

never got more satisfaction from anything than tossing that son of a bitch into the crusher pit at the waste transfer station.

it was not my proudest moment.......but is sure felt good.

Yep, it's turning into a parts (money) pit and it seems every time I fix one thing another breaks. This latest fail with the +55 volt reference has nothing to do with the reinstall of the Vertical board. I haven't tracked down exactly what's gone FUBAR but I did order some parts as likely candidates but I don't hold out much hope that it's gonna get fixed.

In other TEA stuff. I cleaned up this RCA WO-505A including spray painting the cabinet. Came out pretty good considering it's been beat. Electrically it needs a lot of work. Currently on the cart and that's a 5KHz square wave at 0.5V p-p. To say it looks shitty is an understatement. Focus is off. If you vary the intensity it changes the sweep length. And obviously it should be able to display a 5KHz square wave cleanly. It's gonna go into the project que for probably late Fall or Winter. I haven't been able to find a service manual or schematic but I don't think I'll need one. It's pretty simple in there.   

[Neomys Sapiens]

I fled the heat for 6 days last week to the Isle of Man.
Had a nice lamb pie there - and really great seafood. Mmmmh....queenies!
Also got a nasty sunburn in the face and on my arms - at 25°C you just did not notice.
Yes, of course also FissionFish and Chips - with mediocre mushy peas. But fresh fish.

Unfortunately, no one on the island would have my 2AG 0.25A (5x15mm) fuses.

[bd139]

Well I've pretty much decided that my 465 is now a parts mule. And I've been scanning Evil Bay. Found some possible contenders and made an offer on one. It has some physical damage but I can swap over parts from mine. We'll see what happens. I'll report if it goes through.

fought a year long battle with a vlf phase tracking receiver once.

never got more satisfaction from anything than tossing that son of a bitch into the crusher pit at the waste transfer station.

it was not my proudest moment.......but is sure felt good.

I took a tek 453 down to the tip once after it evaded me on a few things. Just couldn’t look at it any longer. We all do it sometimes

Talking of which does anyone want a couple of telequipment D83’s 

On a positive note, antenna works nicely 

[Specmaster]

I fled the heat for 6 days last week to the Isle of Man.
Had a nice lamb pie there - and really great seafood. Mmmmh....queenies!
Also got a nasty sunburn in the face and on my arms - at 25°C you just did not notice.
Yes, of course also FissionFish and Chips - with mediocre mushy peas. But fresh fish.

Unfortunately, no one on the island would have my 2AG 0.25A (5x15mm) fuses.

Nice, did you happen to bump into Big Clive while on the Isle of Man?

[med6753]

Holy crap.....got a response...the seller accepted my offer. 

So..........I've got a 465B with DM44 coming. It includes all manuals. It's got some physical damage but I can swap over the parts from mine. I realize the "B" has quite a few changes from the 465 but I can deal with it.   

[Specmaster]

I took a tek 453 down to the tip once after it evaded me on a few things. Just couldn’t look at it any longer. We all do it sometimes

Talking of which does anyone want a couple of telequipment D83’s 

On a positive note, antenna works nicely 

What on earth would your sweet Mum say about giving away those D83??

[bd139]

Probably shrug and pour another gin

[med6753]

I took a tek 453 down to the tip once after it evaded me on a few things. Just couldn’t look at it any longer. We all do it sometimes

Talking of which does anyone want a couple of telequipment D83’s 

On a positive note, antenna works nicely 

What on earth would your sweet Mum say about giving away those D83??

You sounded so up beat about those D83's. Wut happen??

[factory]

I took a tek 453 down to the tip once after it evaded me on a few things. Just couldn’t look at it any longer. We all do it sometimes

I'm surprized you didn't dump it on ebay as "parts only". Then again it might have returned to haunt you if someone else did the same.

David

[bd139]

I took a tek 453 down to the tip once after it evaded me on a few things. Just couldn’t look at it any longer. We all do it sometimes

Talking of which does anyone want a couple of telequipment D83’s 

On a positive note, antenna works nicely 

What on earth would your sweet Mum say about giving away those D83??

You sounded so up beat about those D83's. Wut happen??

My patience for stuff goes along like a sine wave. It’s currently at the bottom of the cycle. Give it another week. It goes from “fuck it I’m going to make everything from scratch” (hence the peak of antenna and test gear building) to “ok I really need to take something to bits” (fixing scopes).

I took a tek 453 down to the tip once after it evaded me on a few things. Just couldn’t look at it any longer. We all do it sometimes

I'm surprized you didn't dump it on ebay as "parts only". Then again it might have returned to haunt you if someone else did the same.

David

It was on eBay for two 7 day cycles at £10 start and no one bought it. Basically the HT supply and the tunnel diodes were fucked.

[med6753]

I took a tek 453 down to the tip once after it evaded me on a few things. Just couldn’t look at it any longer. We all do it sometimes

Talking of which does anyone want a couple of telequipment D83’s 

On a positive note, antenna works nicely 

What on earth would your sweet Mum say about giving away those D83??

You sounded so up beat about those D83's. Wut happen??

My patience for stuff goes along like a sine wave. It’s currently at the bottom of the cycle. Give it another week. It goes from “fuck it I’m going to make everything from scratch” (hence the peak of antenna and test gear building) to “ok I really need to take something to bits” (fixing scopes).

I took a tek 453 down to the tip once after it evaded me on a few things. Just couldn’t look at it any longer. We all do it sometimes

I'm surprized you didn't dump it on ebay as "parts only". Then again it might have returned to haunt you if someone else did the same.

David

It was on eBay for two 7 day cycles at £10 start and no one bought it. Basically the HT supply and the tunnel diodes were fucked.

I hear you on the patience and mine has just about run out with the 465.

[bd139]

I’ve done the same with a 465B before. Went “hmm feck it” and shredded it for parts for another one. This is life

[med6753]

I’ve done the same with a 465B before. Went “hmm feck it” and shredded it for parts for another one. This is life

It's obvious from the front panel that the Vertical board in the 465B is quite a bit different from the 465. But other than that are there any other major differences?

[factory]

I took a tek 453 down to the tip once after it evaded me on a few things. Just couldn’t look at it any longer. We all do it sometimes

I'm surprized you didn't dump it on ebay as "parts only". Then again it might have returned to haunt you if someone else did the same.

David

It was on eBay for two 7 day cycles at £10 start and no one bought it. Basically the HT supply and the tunnel diodes were fucked.

Fair enough, not much else you could have done other than tip it or strip it for parts.


I decided some time ago that I had more than enough power supplies, yet somehow I've managed to buy a tiny HP 721A recently and also found this nice Harrison 320V power supply for a price I just couldn't resist, just praying GSP don't stuff it up or lose it.

David

[neo]

A tested and warranted Fluke 8200 popped up on evil bay and, running the risk of being burned at the stake, i bought it.

AT that cost, with 11 dollars tax they wind up using graveyard train speed shipping, preliminary estimate for delivery.... sometime in September.   

Let us hope that whichever delivery service gets it is given a hand by Hermes himself if that dreck is truly the best they can do.

[bd139]

I’ve done the same with a 465B before. Went “hmm feck it” and shredded it for parts for another one. This is life

It's obvious from the front panel that the Vertical board in the 465B is quite a bit different from the 465. But other than that are there any other major differences?

Yeah timebase is different. On the 465 the delay time is shown as a partial sweep that starts from the delay position. On the 465B you get a third trace which is zoomed. They are honestly much better scopes. A 465B + DM44 is probably one of the best scopes there was.

[Mr. Scram]

I am an idiot. I bought something new which came with a few of those useless stickers on it. I thought I'd remove the stickers, but they turned out to be nasty paper things that wouldn't come off properly. So I pull out the sticker remover and bam, two huge spots on the brand new device. They're on two main parts of the thing too, so replacing the blemished parts is out of the question.

Thankfully it's a fairly utilitarian device and not some high end piece of test equipment, but it's these things I hate the most. Brand new and I already made it look like shit. FML.

[bd139]

Gah hate it when that happens. Have done it a few times. TK Maxx here in the UK (our version of TJ Maxx) are notorious for whacking those labels on stuff and it's always my job to get the bloody things off.

[Mr. Scram]

Gah hate it when that happens. Have done it a few times. TK Maxx here in the UK (our version of TJ Maxx) are notorious for whacking those labels on stuff and it's always my job to get the bloody things off.

Using removable stickers isn't rocket science. If you want it permanently on there as a manufacturer, make it part of the silk screen. If you want to use a sticker, make it easily removable. This is terrible even if you're just trying to mechanically remove the things.

That being said, I'm mostly ticked off due to having no one to blame but myself. I consciously thought to myself that it wouldn't have to test it and that it'd be fine. 

[mnementh]

Yeah, he did sound like he was pretty level headed, that said, you have to be a bit crazy to do what he did. He mentioned that he played a flight sim so he had some idea of what he was doing with the plane and one point he joked about life imprisonment for people like him. Like you said, he also mentioned about minimum wage etc so I guess the poor follow was at his wits end trying to pay his way and this was one of highlighting his and many others plight?

That's my take on it, right down to the noise floor. There's a lot of quiet desperation in Trump's America; when it comes to a head it's usually a good bit more than a good "primal scream" therapy can fix.   

The aircraft only had a few thousand lbs of fuel, so no way it could've been in the air more than a few minutes; I'm sure it was all over before most people in the area knew there was even something going on. But when those National Guard jets scrambled, I'm sure the sonic boom rattled a few windows...

The(y) scrambled those jets from Portland!*

It was sure all over before I heard anything, or rather, saw it in the online version of the Seattle Times.

* source: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/norad-fighter-jets-were-trying-to-direct-stolen-plane-over-pacific-ocean-when-it-crashed/

Yeah, but that airport is like 150 miles away; nothin' but a few minutes for an aircraft with 580mph cruising/1600mph max speed. Pretty sure they were going a wee bit faster than "cruising" as well; sonic boom magic number is 717mph... that's 13 minutes plus scramble time.


mnem
I think maybe we've taken this "Any asshole can grow up to be President" thing a little too far.

[Specmaster]

Gah hate it when that happens. Have done it a few times. TK Maxx here in the UK (our version of TJ Maxx) are notorious for whacking those labels on stuff and it's always my job to get the bloody things off.

Using removable stickers isn't rocket science. If you want it permanently on there as a manufacturer, make it part of the silk screen. If you want to use a sticker, make it easily removable. This is terrible even if you're just trying to mechanically remove the things.

That being said, I'm mostly ticked off due to having no one to blame but myself. I consciously thought to myself that it wouldn't have to test it and that it'd be fine. 

You could have used WD40 lubricant spray, it makes a quite good sticker remover.