Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[beanflying]

Just while I was in here the shiny side of my HP 5300B Counter measuring system 

[Inverted18650]

Ya know, NEO told me they have 10 cats that run around....looks like the fur-ball frenzy is rampant among the community. I suppose 'Meow-support' beats tech-support any day

[0culus]

Meow support does more to reduce stress...at least when they are not chewing on your good coax. 

[Inverted18650]

Meow support does more to reduce stress...at least when they are not chewing on your good coax. 

My wife's fur-ball loves eating iPhone lighting cables.

[0culus]

Nice, soft, and chewy. I love Apple hardware for the most part (typing this from a mac) but I'll just say it: their zero strain relief cables SUCK. 

[Cubdriver]

I currently have five of them running about and getting into mischief.  They're actually pretty good about not chewing on wires and cables (Piglet seems to do it for attention; if she did it when I wasn't watching I'd have a lot of chewed through cables by now) - the annoying thing is that they DO like to chew plastic bags.  And eat the pieces, and later barf them up.  Usually when I'm asleep.  Somewhere on the path between the bedroom and the bathroom.  Nothing quite like trying to make a nocturnal visit to the throne room while trying to stay as close to asleep as possible and stepping barefoot in a nice gooey blob of ziplock bag and partially digested Friskies.  Yep.  That'll wake you up right quick!   


-Pat

[0culus]

I currently have five of them running about and getting into mischief.  They're actually pretty good about not chewing on wires and cables (Piglet seems to do it for attention; if she did it when I wasn't watching I'd have a lot of chewed through cables by now) - the annoying thing is that they DO like to chew plastic bags.  And eat the pieces, and later barf them up.  Usually when I'm asleep.  Somewhere on the bath between the bedroom and the bathroom.  Nothing quite like trying to make a nocturnal visit to the throne room while trying to stay as close to asleep as possible and stepping barefoot in a nice gooey blob of ziplock bag and partially digested Friskies.  Yep.  That'll wake you up right quick!   


-Pat

Ahhhh life with cats....if they weren't so darn cute and loving and happy to see you when you get home, we wouldn't put up with their shenanigans. 

[GregDunn]

And they keep your keyboard warm for you...

[mnementh]

From the "Dropping the Bottom Out of the Market" Dept at Amazon...

            

Earlier today, after sucking up my pride and plopping my wife's old Dell Vostro in place of my currently dismantled and de-electrified PC... I'm looking for a cheap 120mm fan that is BOTH LED (preferably Blue to match my overall case design) AND PWM for silent fan speed control to hack into my Silent Copper Cooler, since I "Empirically Engineered" the original non-PWM fan to death. Typical cost is like $15 for no-name and $20-30 for single & 2-packs of name brand fans with both features in the same unit. 

Then I scroll to the bottom and Amazon puts this in front of me. A 240mm AIO in BLUE for $60! And a 120mm one for $43!  Ratings are pretty effing good, and go back a while too. Since my case has overhead mounting for just this assembly, even if the pump does die it'll provide enough cooling by convection to prevent CPU death; add 3-year warranty for $1.04 cents... I just don't see how I can possibly go wrong here. The last time I looked into AIOs you couldn't touch a 120mm unit, even no-name, for less than $80.

But wait... it gets worse... so then I go looking at cable extension kits for my OCZ PSU. I have a cheap 24-pin one buried somewhere NOT in my Computer Parts bin... if I had to I could dig it out. Probably. The kit I LIKE with blue individually braided wires is $33... really not that bad, but then I find this 1000W  completely modular PSU for $39.99. I think to myself how good can it be... but a quick research of other ExcelVan models shows surprisingly fair overall. Though of course, longevity is the question. 

 I really don't believe I'm going to be pushing it anywhere near its advertised limits, so I think I'm going to take one for the team and see just how bad this $40 PSU can be. I'll load it up like I do my HP power supplies and see how much it can handle and how clean the power. If I don't think it can be trusted, I'll send it back. Just to be on the safe side, though... I added the 3-year warranty and a 12-inch ATX extension... both cost less than $6 as add-on. 

mnem
*Doing the "Amazon's Bitch Build" for TinkerDwagon Tech Tips*

[mnementh]

Ahhhh life with cats....if they weren't so darn cute and loving and happy to see you when you get home, we wouldn't put up with their shenanigans. 

I say the same thing about my kids. 

mnem
Come to think of it, my wife says the same thing about me...   

[beanflying]

I currently have five of them running about and getting into mischief.  They're actually pretty good about not chewing on wires and cables (Piglet seems to do it for attention; if she did it when I wasn't watching I'd have a lot of chewed through cables by now) - the annoying thing is that they DO like to chew plastic bags.  And eat the pieces, and later barf them up.  Usually when I'm asleep.  Somewhere on the path between the bedroom and the bathroom.  Nothing quite like trying to make a nocturnal visit to the throne room while trying to stay as close to asleep as possible and stepping barefoot in a nice gooey blob of ziplock bag and partially digested Friskies.  Yep.  That'll wake you up right quick!   


-Pat

You just haven't lived until in the main street of the town you live in, having to remove parts of a shopping bag from the rear end of your distressed Whippet because he was a compulsive food thief or having to clean up after scoffing a tub of butter did amazing things to his bowels  .....

The Dog you have instead of a Cat, sleep 20 hours a day can jump on benches in search of Food and other desirable things no barking and no shedding of fur. Departed the world aged after peeing on a rabbit borough on his last day on earth 18+

[mnementh]

Looks like today will probably be "Page 1000 Day" for the old TEA thread guys.  I hope I'm awake and present to see it!

If i'm not, then a hearty    and congratulations, bitseeker! Well played! 

mnem
*Toddling off to the dwagon's den*

[mnementh]

\You just haven't lived until in the main street of the town you live in, having to remove parts of a shopping bag from the rear end of your distressed Whippet because he was a compulsive food thief or having to clean up after scoffing a tub of butter did amazing things to his bowels  .....

The Dog you have instead of a Cat, sleep 20 hours a day can jump on benches in search of Food and other desirable things no barking and no shedding of fur. Departed the world aged after peeing on a rabbit borough on his last day on earth 18+

*Raises a bowl of milk to dear and departed furry family*

We all have our stories to tell, my friend. And we all have been enriched by our time with 4-legged family.

mnem
*Sigh*

[tautech]

Yeah I remember grandpa telling me how sad it was they had such short lives......I thought what a silly old bugger at the time until I had my first really good working dog, what a smart brilliant mutt well breed tri-color eye dog he was.
Took me some weeks to talk myself into putting him down at ~14yrs when his time was up.

When you get a good one, treasure it as you most likely will never have as good one again......I haven't. 
Still raises hairs on my neck when I remember some of the amazing stuff he did for his boss and master. 

[neo]

GAZE UPON ME MERE MORTALS AND WEEP!

Wait, damn it, thats the wrong script.

A literal thousand miles and two days later I'm back home and with my new acquisitions.
HP 141T with three plug ins, 8552B spectrum analyzer IF section, 8553B spectrum analyzer RF section and, 8555B spectrum analyzer RF section. Will also work, supposedly, with HP oscilloscope plug ins... will look into that.
8640B Sig Gen with doubler, good to a GHz and a heavy SOB. Not as heavy as the 141T but damn if it aint close.
3456A WITH rack mount ears this time, checked and within cal.
Three, 3480Bs each with a mostly working 3482A DC range unit. In simple terms three DC voltmeters but their nixies so damn the logic regarding practicality and rejoice anyway.
8506A With allllllllll the options, except current, will have to rectify that issue in time.
7A26 oscilloscope plug in to complete my current rig.

Completely unrelated but Corky's BBQ down in Memphis has ribs which are little slices of heaven carved up, smoked and put on a plate.

kid; "Hey mister, are you a good guy or a bad guy? You look like a good guy but your dressed like a bad guy."
kid's parent, *light tap upside the head* "Manners!"
  Actually happened.

[Brumby]

Yeah I remember grandpa telling me how sad it was they had such short lives......I thought what a silly old bugger at the time until I had my first rally good working dog, what a smart brilliant mutt well breed tri-color eye dog he was.
Took me some weeks to talk myself into putting him down at ~14yrs when his time was up.

I was going to stay out of this one - but I'm in that very position right now.  An old family friend of mine has had a dog in her life for as long as I've known her.  She now has a small-medium dog that has made its 14th birthday.  I first met this dog when it was a pup just weaned off its mother, so I've known it nearly as log as she has.  When it was about 2, it came down with "white shakes".  This was very distressing to see.  The vet said the dog was in no pain, but was not expected to survive for very long, so was sent home to, essentially, die.  This turned the whole family into carers - and even me on the occasions I'd drop by.  The subsequent care allowed the dog to recover sufficiently to go running in crazy circles around the household cat and to play soccer - leading a pretty happy life.

Now age has caught up with the dog which has several other issues and the time is upon us for the final decision.  I say "us" because even though the dog isn't mine, the other family members can't bring themselves to make the call and are looking to me to do that.  I've spoken to the vet who says we are "in the zone".  The fear is if we wait too long, then the dog will be subjected to unnecessary suffering.

This is not a decision I am looking forward to - but it's not too far away.......

[tautech]

@ Brumby
You will know when.     

Had to do it more times than I care to remember and each time it's tough.....last one was about 6 months ago and I no longer have need for a dog. 

Then my youngest son (29) came home with a 3mth old tri-color bitch last week....... 

.......................
Part time puppy obedience trainer.

[beanflying]

...

Now age has caught up with the dog which has several other issues and the time is upon us for the final decision.  I say "us" because even though the dog isn't mine, the other family members can't bring themselves to make the call and are looking to me to do that.  I've spoken to the vet who says we are "in the zone".  The fear is if we wait too long, then the dog will be subjected to unnecessary suffering.

This is not a decision I am looking forward to - but it's not too far away.......

It isn't ever easy I took the old nearly blind and totally deaf Whippie for his last stagger on very shakey legs to smell and pee on the Rabbits then on to the Vets were he was just able to walk himself in. Until the last week he was still doing ok but in the end we were both ready after a few long nights of him really not being comfortable at all

tearing up into my G&T happy memories still   

[Inverted18650]

I think I am getting depressed and randomly buying stuff now. Another $1k gone on an HP3245A...  

[Brumby]

I'd sympathise - but I have mixed feelings at the moment.  I blame you and Bean ....


Edit:
But I must also thank you both at the same time.   

[Inverted18650]

I'd sympathise - but I have mixed feelings at the moment.  I blame you and Bean ....

Fuck the 3456A, I amy have a break down and send you the 7510..fuck it

[neo]

@Inverted

Got it home, put it in a stack and tested the 7A26 plug in first.  It works but it's dicky as hell, well channel one works. 2 at this point is a shit show, going to have alot of fun (really i am) going through this one and casting the demons out. 

[Specmaster]

@Inverted

Got it home, put it in a stack and tested the 7A26 plug in first.  It works but it's dicky as hell, well channel one works. 2 at this point is a shit show, going to have alot of fun (really i am) going through this one and casting the demons out. 

Seeing your pile, I can't help thinking that you relieved Inverted of nearly all his gear, almost like house clearance styley [emoji48]

[neo]

@Inverted

Got it home, put it in a stack and tested the 7A26 plug in first.  It works but it's dicky as hell, well channel one works. 2 at this point is a shit show, going to have alot of fun (really i am) going through this one and casting the demons out. 

Seeing your pile, I can't help thinking that you relieved Inverted of nearly all his gear, almost like house clearance styley [emoji48]

Don't be silly. I didn't take ALL of his stuff, just all the good stuff that i could afford. (which by this point was a decent portion of it)

[beanflying]

I'd sympathise - but I have mixed feelings at the moment.  I blame you and Bean ....


Edit:
But I must also thank you both at the same time.   

We are perfect angels honest we are 

Just a few more posts to page 1k ....... We all need to get an external life