Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

FFS just got an actual Royal Mail depot dude turn up at my door with a package from China that was due to arrive early 2017. Apparently they found it when moving stuff around in the depot  .  At least they delivered it eventually.

What’s in it? Some diodes that I can’t even remember buying and probably forgot about the moment I ordered them.

WTF I'd have just tossed the package in the bin rather then have to explain that away to the customer [emoji44]

[bd139]

Yes I would have too. Turns out they were 36v zeners. Think they were destined to be used as Vce protection diodes. I’ve got a spool of 200 of those already I bought way before then so I’m not sure why I even ordered that.

[Inverted18650]

I was (am) excited to meet and hang out with NEO but it will be short lived as I have to go to the fucking ER tonight....what a damn week its been! Just as I start to get my mind right out of the damn depressive funk, my body starts falling apart...

[Specmaster]

I was (am) excited to meet and hang out with NEO but it will be short lived as I have to go to the fucking ER tonight....what a damn week its been! Just as I start to get my mind right out of the damn depressive funk, my body starts falling apart...

WTF, hope its nothing too serious Inverted 18650

[GregDunn]

I was (am) excited to meet and hang out with NEO but it will be short lived as I have to go to the fucking ER tonight....what a damn week its been! Just as I start to get my mind right out of the damn depressive funk, my body starts falling apart...

Boo, hiss!  Glad I decided to postpone my visit - you have enough on your plate right now without worrying about visitors!  Heal up quickly!

[Ice-Tea]

Got a HP8663A. Nice piece of kit. Reasonable shape. Contrary to my back that will have to recover a few days from the two flights of stairs I went up with this
Anyways, it skips 10dB steps on the output -40dB is fine, -50 is still -40 and so on. So I'm guessing a cooked RF relay or attenuator. Nothing too horrible probably.

However, there's also an error code "100" which I don't understand. You have codes up to 99. You have some more starting from 101 but according to the manual, 100 does not exist. Oh, well, fun for another day.

[mnementh]

I was (am) excited to meet and hang out with NEO but it will be short lived as I have to go to the fucking ER tonight....what a damn week its been! Just as I start to get my mind right out of the damn depressive funk, my body starts falling apart...

Sounds like that back injury relapse has turned a bit more serious than you hoped. As a long-term lower back injury survivor, I have some inkling. Given that you're going to the ER, I'm guessing that you will probably need at least a shot of cortisone to patch you up. I hope it needs nothing more than that.

Eeeeeee... "Nothing more" makes it sound like a small concern; it is not. Spinal injections are no trivial matter under any circumstances; it really is a surgical procedure. I'm just hoping you don't require more extensive surgery.

Yeeg... I keep digging myself deeper and deeper here. I'm just gonna say best of luck friend, and leave it at that. 

mnem
A back is a terrible thing to waste.

[mnementh]

Yes I would have too. Turns out they were 36v zeners. Think they were destined to be used as Vce protection diodes. I’ve got a spool of 200 of those already I bought way before then so I’m not sure why I even ordered that.

You needed to reload my Suborbital Crowbar Launcher because you emptied it trying to take out the local shithole ginmill, and you thought it be a great gag to mail me "a box of crowbars". 

No, wait... that was Cerebus. 

Damn.

mnem
*Goes outside to find some dirt to kick at while looking distracted*

[GreyWoolfe]

From the "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" Dept...



Well, at least while I was doctoring myself I got a good show; I could see tendons moving back & forth inside the hole when I moved my fingers, like in that scene from the end of Empire Strikes Back with Luke's new robotic hand... 

mnem
That'll teach me to talk nice about Harbor Freight. 

Many years ago did something like that with a wood chisel to the palm of my hand.  Wrapped it up and continued with what I was working on.  Ex came home and hauled me to the ER.  While the ER doc was prepping my hand, I could see the bone, nice and white.  That was 8 stitches.  Lucky I didn't damage anything.  Just 1 in a line of many scars on my hands.

[0culus]

I was (am) excited to meet and hang out with NEO but it will be short lived as I have to go to the fucking ER tonight....what a damn week its been! Just as I start to get my mind right out of the damn depressive funk, my body starts falling apart...

                               

Hope it all goes well man. 

[GregDunn]

Many years ago did something like that with a wood chisel to the palm of my hand.  Wrapped it up and continued with what I was working on.  Ex came home and hauled me to the ER.  While the ER doc was prepping my hand, I could see the bone, nice and white.  That was 8 stitches.  Lucky I didn't damage anything.  Just 1 in a line of many scars on my hands.

I did something like that only not with tools; I was still in high school, getting out of a friend's car while juggling a couple of possessions and tried to slam the door with my free hand.  Caught one finger in the gap.  Probably would have been fine except my reflexes tried to yank it loose, which resulted in pulling the skin off the end of the finger.  I remember looking down at the denuded digit and thinking, "that's the bone."  Fortunately doc was able to re-attach the cap of skin and it healed pretty well - enough that I can play guitar and bass with it today.   

[0culus]

From the "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" Dept...



Well, at least while I was doctoring myself I got a good show; I could see tendons moving back & forth inside the hole when I moved my fingers, like in that scene from the end of Empire Strikes Back with Luke's new robotic hand... 

mnem
That'll teach me to talk nice about Harbor Freight. 

Many years ago did something like that with a wood chisel to the palm of my hand.  Wrapped it up and continued with what I was working on.  Ex came home and hauled me to the ER.  While the ER doc was prepping my hand, I could see the bone, nice and white.  That was 8 stitches.  Lucky I didn't damage anything.  Just 1 in a line of many scars on my hands.

When I was a kid I had an incident where I fell on the edge of a plastic bin lid (one of many bins of Legos that I still have!) right on the corner of my knee. It cut right in and left a DEEEP hole. I uhhh...never told my mom about it and it healed up. Can't even find the scar anymore.

[mnementh]

From the "That's Go-o-o-o-o-d Soup!!!" Dept...



Just a quick shout out to Campbell's Soup... I've never been a great fan of most of their stuff; while you can be guaranteed anything you get from them will be edible, usually I find it generally bland and salty, and mostly mushy. This particular recipe was a surprise; I could actually taste the chicken, and the vegetables, and nothing was mushy. Somehow, they even got some form of biscuit in there, and even THAT has good flavor and isn't mushy!

This is my third can of the stuff, and still the same surprisingly good taste, so evidently not a fluke. (I know, it's a chicken, not a fish - *rimshot*)

Also... Finished the OCZ power supply. Everything looks good, ripple ~10mV on 3.3V & 5V, and ~20mV on 12V rails. PG time went down from 390uS to 290uS, which is excellent, and it runs for almost 5 seconds after turn-off before everything goes down.    Still finishing up the sleeving on accessory wires, but I like the "black cabling on black chrome" look. 

My tester needs some attention though... it's reading a little high on the 5V rail. PSU is right on the high side of normal at 5.25V, but tester thinks 5.4V. The resistor divider may have gotten cooked when I had the mishap that required a bodge wire a while back; I'll have to look into it when I have more time. 

A'aight... I need to go get ready for my son's Achievement Award ceremony; he got a crazy PERFECT SCORE in his UIL Music Program Contest!

Cheers,

mnem
Parenthood. 

[tautech]

From the "That's Go-o-o-o-o-d Soup!!!" Dept...

Just a quick shout out to Campbell's Soup... I've never been a great fan of most of their stuff; while you can be guaranteed anything you get from them will be edible, usually I find it generally bland and salty, and mostly mushy. This particular recipe was a surprise; I could actually taste the chicken, and the vegetables, and nothing was mushy. Somehow, they even got some form of biscuit in there, and even THAT has good flavor and isn't mushy!

This is my third can of the stuff, and still the same surprisingly good taste, so evidently not a fluke. (I know, it's a chicken, not a fish - *rimshot*)

mnem

Oh good, you're feeling better so we can stop polishing the bullet and put the cattle drench away.   

Sounds like you'll be spitting fire again in no time. 

[Inverted18650]

WTF, hope its nothing too serious Inverted 18650

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS A 'FAIRLY GROSS' THOUGHT, THAT YOU MAY NOT WANT IN YOUR MIND.

Thanks mate, for you and all, I'm going to be fine. Its kind of gross but I'll tell ya...if you dare to read on...somehow, on top of everything else this week, I devolved a LARGE hemorrhoid that decided to ruptureand cause a mess first thing this morning. I'll spare the details, but I actually "feel" better, I just have to go in so they can close me back up; some stitches or staples or whatever they do, to make damn sure it doesn't come back.

edit* when it happend (WED) I called my Doc and he said he couldn't get me in til Monday, which was fine as I was laying around with back pain and didnt want to get up and drive around anyway...when it ruptured (today) I had no idea what was going on, so I had to google it and look at images and see if that was what was going on down there with me...

[bd139]

Cor those things are bastards. Genuinely hope you get ‘em sorted ASAP. Nothing worse than the sitting and shitting apparatus being troublesome. Second only to something wrong with your head IMHO.

[Inverted18650]

For sure..got this nice new toy Ive barely used and a FLuke 5200A I havent even opened yet sitting on my floor. Tons to do  and I am broken

[tautech]

For sure..got this nice new toy Ive barely used and a FLuke 5200A I havent even opened yet sitting on my floor. Tons to do  and I am broken

Soldier on at your peril, rest up mate, tomorrows another day, other shit stuff can wait.

[0culus]

@Oculus:
The ground leads I found have a thread outer diameter of approximately 3.35mm.
They are definitely from vintage Tek probes and were intended to connect with the tread to threaded crocodile clips. The other side is a spring clip which did go around the probe body.

But there is one with two threads, so I guess they are the same.
I could spare two of them, which you could adapt by fitting a croc or a 0.64mm for the mini-grabbers used now.

Send PM with adress/answer.

Would you be able and willing to supply me with (any of) the following:

2pc.  screws 6-32 lenght 1inch pan-head (pozidrive, but I do not think, that matters) (HP2360-0209 equivalent)

Nut, Plain, Hex: 0.312"-32 x 0.438", BRS, (3pc.)

Washer, Flat: 0.312" ID x 0.469" OD x 0.031 (3pc.)

Washer, Lock: 0.32" intl, 0.015" thk, STL (3pc.)

Hey mate, I picked up this hardware today. Shoot me a PM and tell me where to send it. 

[beanflying]

For sure..got this nice new toy Ive barely used and a FLuke 5200A I havent even opened yet sitting on my floor. Tons to do  and I am broken

Well that's a PITA. Just because you may as well laugh at it as cry Look after yourself in body and mind and get well so you can play with your own toys and ship leftover toys to the other TEA deprived humans.

[Specmaster]

For sure..got this nice new toy Ive barely used and a FLuke 5200A I havent even opened yet sitting on my floor. Tons to do  and I am broken

Broken yes, but not beaten and now you have the perfect motivation to get back to it ASAP. God speed your recovery friend, we look forward to the lovely photos of your new toys in due course. 

[Inverted18650]

Broken yes, but not beaten and now you have the perfect motivation to get back to it ASAP. God speed your recovery friend, we look forward to the lovely photos of your new toys in due course. 

This is the positve reinforcement I need, you want to be my new "shrink" VA pays well...lol

I am waiting on NEO, guess they got a little lost and stuff in traffic. Hopefully its still a go and we will post some pics. I am going to have my boy get the HP Spec Analyzer and SIG GEN up on the table, so he can give it a test run.

[med6753]

Broken yes, but not beaten and now you have the perfect motivation to get back to it ASAP. God speed your recovery friend, we look forward to the lovely photos of your new toys in due course. 

This is the positve reinforcement I need, you want to be my new "shrink" VA pays well...lol

I am waiting on NEO, guess they got a little lost and stuff in traffic. Hopefully its still a go and we will post some pics. I am going to have my boy get the HP Spec Analyzer and SIG GEN up on the table, so he can give it a test run.

Hopefully one of these days we can have a meet and greet too. 

If Neo shows up have him help you pack up the 7704 and the Time Mark Generator. I'm anxious to get them. 

[Specmaster]

Broken yes, but not beaten and now you have the perfect motivation to get back to it ASAP. God speed your recovery friend, we look forward to the lovely photos of your new toys in due course. 

This is the positve reinforcement I need, you want to be my new "shrink" VA pays well...lol

I am waiting on NEO, guess they got a little lost and stuff in traffic. Hopefully its still a go and we will post some pics. I am going to have my boy get the HP Spec Analyzer and SIG GEN up on the table, so he can give it a test run.

Hopefully one of these days we can have a meet and greet too. 

If Neo shows up have him help you pack up the 7704 and the Time Mark Generator. I'm anxious to get them. 

No, don't get NEO to help you pack them, get him to pack them, you have enough problems without adding to them.

I love the idea of a meet and greet but you guys are too fucking far away  But we do sort of meet  and greet on here, we get a feel for each others lives and what not. I have zero doubts that your going to get lots of encouragement from this forum, we look after our Bruva's here 

[Inverted18650]

For sure mate. My son is going to be doing that later tonight for first thing in the morning. Ill have it bring it down and I will play with it while I wait. I hope hes okay, not answering and 1.5 hrs late.