Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

"Will thir be requiring the 6690A tonight?"

"Thank you Igor, no."

[Mr. Scram]

It seems there's a lot of beaten up crap for way too much money on the web currently. I don't mind spending a good chunk of change on a nice device, but I'm not eager to buy junk for even more money.

[Cerebus]

Apropos of nothing that reminds me of an anecdote that I don't think I've told on here.

I was in Foyles one day. For the non-Londoners this is a large, long-established and somewhat eccentric bookstore on the Charing Cross Road.

Near the rear door on the ground floor they have a table, in a prime position that any sane bookseller would fill neatly with fast moving, popular items. In typical Foyles fashion it was, at the time of this tale, piled high with a random selection that required you to be quite dedicated at examining what was there to find out if there was anything interesting. While I was examining what was there, so were a lot of other people packed around the edges so that there was no more space to approach the table.

I am of average height and an arm, clad in a good quality overcoat, came about a foot clear over my head reaching for a book accompanied by a very deep voice saying "EXCUSE ME" - the capitals here denoting not a raised voice but sheer presence. Wondering quite how tall and massive this presence above me must be I looked up - into the face of Dracula. Christopher Lee had just leant over me. Let me tell you he was much more physically impressive in person that he ever was on the screen.

[mnementh]

Yeah, he was always an amazing presence; even in his 80s as Count Dooku he was formidable. They had to do camera magic in Revenge of the Sith so that he didn't simply tower over Hayden Christensen during their fight scenes.

Lee's Dracula was more than just him and that amazing presence; it was also the chemistry between him and Peter Cushing. And the proof of that is the fact that they pulled it off again in the 70s remakes; albeit 70s cheesy as opposed to 50s cheesy, still quite watchable in context as a quadrilogy in "Monster Movie Matinee" style.

https://youtu.be/fryQyFU0Pps

This is a 70s detective-show style intro some fan created a few years ago; when I first saw it I literally snarfed. Made me go out and look for first two again on torrent.

Of course, my personal favorite of that ilk was Vincent Price... it literally made my week and forced me to grant then-grudging respect for Johnny Depp when I discovered he'd asked for and they'd written a role for Price in Edward Scissorhands.

mnem
"Do you remember the fun we had when you poisoned me...?" ~ Vincent Price

[mnementh]

It seems there's a lot of beaten up crap for way too much money on the web currently. I don't mind spending a good chunk of change on a nice device, but I'm not eager to buy junk for even more money.

If you have the application for such a piece of hardware, 2 grand on being able to bring it online isn't that bad a gamble; odds are the seller doesn't have anyplace he could power it up to test. The 15KW replacement models start about $1000 more; but they are literally a computer-controlled arc welder.

mnem
"When I say 'More Power!!!', I mean 'Let's start with 3-phase, and work our way up to the harder stuff.' "

[bitseeker]

Just a little something to power all your LEDs and then some.

[orin]

Apropos of nothing that reminds me of an anecdote that I don't think I've told on here.

I was in Foyles one day. For the non-Londoners this is a large, long-established and somewhat eccentric bookstore on the Charing Cross Road.

Near the rear door on the ground floor they have a table, in a prime position that any sane bookseller would fill neatly with fast moving, popular items. In typical Foyles fashion it was, at the time of this tale, piled high with a random selection that required you to be quite dedicated at examining what was there to find out if there was anything interesting. While I was examining what was there, so were a lot of other people packed around the edges so that there was no more space to approach the table.

I am of average height and an arm, clad in a good quality overcoat, came about a foot clear over my head reaching for a book accompanied by a very deep voice saying "EXCUSE ME" - the capitals here denoting not a raised voice but sheer presence. Wondering quite how tall and massive this presence above me must be I looked up - into the face of Dracula. Christopher Lee had just leant over me. Let me tell you he was much more physically impressive in person that he ever was on the screen.

Was that the 'old' or 'new' Foyles?  It just wasn't the same last time I was there a few years ago.  To quote their history*: "Gone are the dusty piles, the confusing layout and the archaic queuing system...".  I used to go in the 80s when it was an easy walk from where I used to work just off Oxford St..  I still have a book with a rather faded hand written receipt still inside it from back then.

*https://www.foyles.co.uk/about-foyles

[Terry01]

Ok final update on this one. Image heavy.

Remaining parts after the repair: one washer. Have no idea where it came from. One test point I had to desolder to get something and forgot to solder back on. Not bad. I have bagged them up for next time I go inside it when it inevitably snuffs it again.

Tin whiskers in the reference oscillator. These were cleaned out carefully with a brush and a mini vac.



Knackered:



Went straight past this little fellow and assumed he was a silver mica cap. Nope, camoflage brown top!



Properly reassembled:



Now I've RTFM and know there is a zero marker it actually makes sense. 10MHz at 0dBm out of my DG1022Z:



Body count.



And on that note I'm going to bed 

Nice fix buddy! Since we're swearing anyways,,, Cool As FUCK!! 

I love seeing old stuff brought back to working,,, even if I don't know what it is or what it does!?

Really nice! 

[tggzzz]

I am of average height and an arm, clad in a good quality overcoat, came about a foot clear over my head reaching for a book accompanied by a very deep voice saying "EXCUSE ME" - the capitals here denoting not a raised voice but sheer presence. Wondering quite how tall and massive this presence above me must be I looked up - into the face of Dracula. Christopher Lee had just leant over me. Let me tell you he was much more physically impressive in person that he ever was on the screen.

A bit like the difference between Tim Curry in the Rocky Horror Picture show and Tim Curry stomping up the aisle in The Rocky Horror Show.

I also have the matching lobby poster, but can't be bothered to extract it.

[mtdoc]

(SNIP)
Properly reassembled:



Now I've RTFM and know there is a zero marker it actually makes sense. 10MHz at 0dBm out of my DG1022Z:
(SNIP)
And on that note I'm going to bed 

Now THAT is one picture that's worth a thousand fucks. 

Well done, my friend. Hope all it needs now is a little touch-up paint and some polish. 

Yeah, no kidding.  Very nice bd!  Thank god I have no room for a 7000 series set up on my bench otherwise I'd be looking for one on eBay now.  Hmm, I wonder if I just stacked up my PSUs a little higher.....

[bd139]

I’m out of space as well. This is current living on the dining table. 

No sign of my 87V yet. Seller hasn’t even marked it as dispatched  ... hope this isn’t an idiot.

[Specmaster]

I’m out of space as well. This is current living on the dining table. 

No sign of my 87V yet. Seller hasn’t even marked it as dispatched  ... hope this isn’t an idiot.

Who has to hump it off the dining table at mealtimes will be devolpeing a good 6 pack then [emoji4].

I doubt the 87V seller is an idiot, you normally suss them out pretty quickly, email them and ask if it's been dispatched and could they give you the tracking number. That's what I do if it doesn't show as being dispatched.

[Terry01]

I’m out of space as well. This is current living on the dining table. 

No sign of my 87V yet. Seller hasn’t even marked it as dispatched  ... hope this isn’t an idiot.

Who has to hump it off the dining table at mealtimes will be devolpeing a good 6 pack then [emoji4].

I doubt the 87V seller is an idiot, you normally suss them out pretty quickly, email them and ask if it's been dispatched and could they give you the tracking number. That's what I do if it doesn't show as being dispatched.

Yup, good call! Maybe get them moving if they haven't already.

[bd139]

Have poked them with the preverbial messaging stick. Fingers crossed.

Edit: got reply. Hasn't sent it yet. People been sick 

[Specmaster]

It might have been nice to have sent you a quick message to that effect though. 

[bd139]

Indeed. They did apologise and promise to send it today and let me know the tracking ID so I'm ok with that as long as it actually happens. Was mostly just hoping to have something to play with this weekend as all my other things to do are winging their way from China at the moment and the 7L12 was a bit easier to get up and running than I was anticipating. And the only other stuff is gardening. And I bloody hate gardening.

[Specmaster]

I can relate to that myself, I hate it when I haven't a new toy to play with or something that I want to do, SWMBO can always find something for me to do if I let her 

Like you, I'm waiting for gear to arrive from China so I'm hoping that my latest fixer upper arrives before the weekend although this weekend I have plenty to do, open days at North Weald with the Gnat display team and classic jet fly-in, even a open air cinema showing Top Gun besides collecting SWMBO and Sister in Law from Gatwick  So I won't have time to play with toys unfortunately, not until late evening at least but its better than watching much of the drivel on TV.   

[med6753]

I’m out of space as well. This is current living on the dining table. 

What does the family think of that, especially the SWMBO?

[med6753]

. And the only other stuff is gardening. And I bloody hate gardening.

If you hate it so much do what we do here. Just plant grass, mow it, and be done with it. 

[Specmaster]

. And the only other stuff is gardening. And I bloody hate gardening.

If you hate it so much do what we do here. Just plant grass, mow it, and be done with it. 

I hate mowing the grass, besides it can bring on my Asthma.

[bd139]

What does the family think of that, especially the SWMBO?

She's surprisingly not bothered. Although I think that might be leverage for something else.

If you hate it so much do what we do here. Just plant grass, mow it, and be done with it. 

I'm already there. I'm thinking about planting some concrete. The rest of the gardening involves going round with an industrial sized bottle of Roundup and killing everything else growing like it was agent orange in The 'Nam.

[Specmaster]

Concrete the front and its off street parking as long as some fucking numpty doesn't park across the front of it.

[bd139]

Ahh can't do that unfortunately. Local planning wankers don't want dropped kerbs here as it will lower the tone of the neighbourhood [1], plus there's a local covenant where the council owns half my fucking hedge, which annoyingly they cut down, replanted a shit one that died after 4 attempts at replacing it in a row and then left me to cut the manky thing and served me a notice because it was in a state.

Also to add, they only replaced the hedge because of a massive event at Twickenham Stadium so it was done as a turd polishing measure.

[1] silly because we're number one customer of police tape here.

Edit: going to move to a nice isolated house in the middle of land I own one day. Trespassers will be shot!

[Specmaster]

I have just received this email (attached) and I think it highlights some serious issues and for some reason our government (UK) along with others are currently blocking it?  I suspect that this is being done for purely selfish reasons in order to line the pockets of certain parties and shows that they are paying minimal attention to any rules and regulations that are for the benefit of the average person or the preservation of the globe.

We in that context deserve a medal for our work in keeping test gear going and less likely to being landfill.

[Specmaster]

Ahh can't do that unfortunately. Local planning wankers don't want dropped kerbs here as it will lower the tone of the neighbourhood [1], plus there's a local covenant where the council owns half my fucking hedge, which annoyingly they cut down, replanted a shit one that died after 4 attempts at replacing it in a row and then left me to cut the manky thing and served me a notice because it was in a state.

Also to add, they only replaced the hedge because of a massive event at Twickenham Stadium so it was done as a turd polishing measure.

[1] silly because we're number one customer of police tape here.

Edit: going to move to a nice isolated house in the middle of land I own one day. Trespassers will be shot!

I knew it was a rough area but not that rough surely that it uses more of the police tape surely not 

When and if that day dawns that you get your dream house, good luck getting your chinese shit delivered to your door, instead you're going to have to go outside and drive / walk to the gate  etc where the poor old delivery man was shot as a trespasser and climb over the mound of previously shot trespassers delivery men / postmen etc and collect it yourself