Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Brumby]

I did OK today.  Had to get about $120 of stuff for the car - but with a 30% off sale, a gift card and some "loyalty" credit I didn't realise I had, I only had to pony up about $50.

[med6753]

The bargains are highly dependent upon how well the retailer did before Christmas. Did well = lousy discounts. Did lousy = big discounts to get rid of inventory.

[bd139]

Yes. Also there is no such thing as a Boxing Day bargain if you bought anything you didn’t need. Today I walked to my local ASDA (UK Walmart basically) and bought some pistachio nuts. Big spender.

[med6753]

Yes. Also there is no such thing as a Boxing Day bargain if you bought anything you didn’t need. Today I walked to my local ASDA (UK Walmart basically) and bought some pistachio nuts. Big spender.

I'll bet the gift return area was chaos. Keep buying those pistachio's and support the US economy. Most of the world's supply now comes from California. Used to be Iran until the Islamic Revolution and they done Ran out. 

[Specmaster]

Yes. Also there is no such thing as a Boxing Day bargain if you bought anything you didn’t need. Today I walked to my local ASDA (UK Walmart basically) and bought some pistachio nuts. Big spender.

So far I have seen nothing at all really worthwhile in the online sales that would entice me to part with any cash either, not even pistachio nuts. Needed a breather eh?

[beanflying]

I think we are all a little Nuts  and maybe just a little 

[Specmaster]

I have been thinking of treating myself to some smart tweezers, has anyone got any experience of these at all and if so whats you opinion of them and what ones to get to get. I know that they come in all price ranges upto about £300 but I'm contemplating anything near that value, maybe a max of about £50 to £80. Just maybe I find some in the sales tomorrow, how knows?

Part of the thinking process was when working on a SMD board, they would help to reduce accidental slippage when taking meter readings as the meter is my hand rather on the bench and so no need to look away to see the reading, reducing the chances of slipping and creating a short or something.

So over to you guys for your thoughts on this idea 

[mnementh]

What you get for the money with the "real thing" vs the cheapies like the MASTECH is "fitness for purpose". I have a MS8910 I bought on sale; it DOES DO EVERYTHING they say it'll do... but with some caveats:

1) The tips, while replaceable, are pretty horrible. You have to file them to a usable profile, and by doing that, you remove the gold plating... which means you'r constantly having to polish the contact points with 1200 grit or drag them across a piece of cardboard to get consistent contact.

2) They are SLOW. To the point of uselessness. For diag work, the "AUTO" mode is useless. If you know what you're looking for, you can get better speed by selecting device type... but that defeats the greatest strength of this type of tool.

3) They don't give useful results near as often "in circuit" as the good ones. Again, really kills the value as a diag tool.

The cheapies are good at one thing: sorting loose scavenged components so you can group them in pillboxes for later reuse. They're fast enough OOC that you don't lose your mind using them.

We survived Christmas with the In-Laws... now we're headed up to Cleveland to visit the great-aunt for a few days before the New Year. Well, mostly my wife is "making things happen" while I nurse my 2nd cup of coffee and try to cudgel my brain gently awake...

mnem
Blessings upon you, my wife.

[Martin72]

They don't give useful results near as often "in circuit" as the good ones.

Examples please, I´m interesting for a model who could do this.
Got a MASTECH too...

[beanflying]

  Like this STS-5 someone may have snagged 5 minutes ago for a steal http://www.smarttweezers.com/smart-tweezers-bluetooth-st5s-bt/

[tautech]

Like this STS-5 someone may have snagged 5 minutes ago for a steal

Good onya bean ! 

The -S is what I’d get but that one will serve you well. Enjoy. 

[beanflying]

Yesterdays Bling has already left the building before I changed my mind

I haven't posted any photos of it's Cold War opponents internals before that I can remember but much more Russian and Austere but it just works. 0.02% for most decades and 0.03% for the bottom few.

Semi Bling in a dreary overcast way .....

[Specmaster]

What you get for the money with the "real thing" vs the cheapies like the MASTECH is "fitness for purpose". I have a MS8910 I bought on sale; it DOES DO EVERYTHING they say it'll do... but with some caveats:

1) The tips, while replaceable, are pretty horrible. You have to file them to a usable profile, and by doing that, you remove the gold plating... which means you'r constantly having to polish the contact points with 1200 grit or drag them across a piece of cardboard to get consistent contact.

2) They are SLOW. To the point of uselessness. For diag work, the "AUTO" mode is useless. If you know what you're looking for, you can get better speed by selecting device type... but that defeats the greatest strength of this type of tool.

3) They don't give useful results near as often "in circuit" as the good ones. Again, really kills the value as a diag tool.

The cheapies are good at one thing: sorting loose scavenged components so you can group them in pillboxes for later reuse. They're fast enough OOC that you don't lose your mind using them.

We survived Christmas with the In-Laws... now we're headed up to Cleveland to visit the great-aunt for a few days before the New Year. Well, mostly my wife is "making things happen" while I nurse my 2nd cup of coffee and try to cudgel my brain gently awake...

mnem
Blessings upon you, my wife.

Hmm, is there anything that sits above Mastech but someway down from the Smart Tweezer ones which are ridiculous prices, over twice what I paid for the Brymen 867!

[beanflying]

LCR Research Elite 1 or 2 (2 has high voltage protection) $179 or $220'ish
Smart Tweezers ST5C $153 USD+ post

Global Specialties was another https://au.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Global-Specialties/LCR-58?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtNaRJxj63fbynoTWCGEUqmsRR88X4FEus%3d $150 @ mouser

[nixiefreqq]

ya see some strange stuff in gettysburg.

was out running around yesterday and stopped to get swmbo some coffee.

saw this in the parking lot.  a genuine wild turkey.  well...….maybe not so wild.  it has probably been living on french fries and doughnuts.

swmbo marched right up and took the picture. (but she is a trained ninja)

[med6753]

Only one? Here's some turkeys. Right in NYC (Staten Island). This video is dated 2 years ago and they said they were going to move them out. Guess what? They are still there and multiplying. 

[Specmaster]

Wow, free Christmas dinner right there, and you would be assisting in the general clean up of the area as well, thats what I call having your cake and eating it as well 

[bd139]

Makes me think of this for some reason:

[neo]

Either i need to be a praised a saint for the weird of heart or condemned as a maniac. That and a unicomp model m keyboard are my self bought christmas presents. More pix, and probably a hernia, to come after my 80 pound brick makes the pilgrimage from cali to here

[Specmaster]

Makes me think of this for some reason:

Haha, awesome but I couldn't possibly eat a whole one 

[nixiefreqq]

Either i need to be a praised a saint for the weird of heart or condemned as a maniac. That and a unicomp model m keyboard are my self bought christmas presents. More pix, and probably a hernia, to come after my 80 pound brick makes the pilgrimage from cali to here

keep a camera handy for when you first hit the on switch.

am looking forward to seeing those dot led displays in their full glory.

of course there is a chance they will be obscured by a massive billow of smoke.

(anything that big has got to produce something massive....good or bad)

either way......we want to see pictures.


ps  it might be best if you stand clear and poke the on switch with a long broom handle.


pps  was looking for a mushroom cloud emoji but could not find one.

[beanflying]

The keypad looks like leftovers from the HP 3000 terminals we had in Uni. So many late nights debugging Fortran code drinking bad coffee to avoid the 'Dip Comp students' slowing it to a crawl or breaking it. 

[0culus]

Either i need to be a praised a saint for the weird of heart or condemned as a maniac. That and a unicomp model m keyboard are my self bought christmas presents. More pix, and probably a hernia, to come after my 80 pound brick makes the pilgrimage from cali to here

Oooo, that looks nice! I have an 8657A, which is nice, but it really needs a wheel/knob to manipulate settings.

[beanflying]

Bit more switch Bling from Muirhead in the UK. x1 and x10 ohm decades soon to be modded to air core inductance switches. Shame to junk the resistors but I planned to swap them out when I first brought them

[med6753]

With some exceptions it's been pretty quiet in here lately. Not surprising. Christmas, New Years, family, etc. As for me between the holidays and the major bench renovation hasn't been too much TEA activity. That is about to change. Parts order submitted to Mouser yesterday. So next week I'll be back into the addiction.   

This weekend the woman will be here. Arriving today. Haven't seen her in about 7 weeks. She's been working weekend overtime and so have I. She hasn't seen the major changes here and I haven't told her about it. I can't wait to see her reaction. I know it's going to be somewhere along the lines of "you are crazy but I still love you".