Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[GregDunn]

I really don't like the red dot displays. They're terrible to read. They only existed because it was easy to make smaller LEDs to start with without diffusers and encapsulation.

I'm glad I'm not the only one.  I ended up with a couple because they were attached to good, inexpensive pieces of used gear; but despite their ability to show rounded corners (which is an optical illusion anyway) I don't find them as easy to read or attractive as 7-segment LEDs.  Plus, the driver circuit is more complex and prone to misbehave, which happened on both of mine.

[tggzzz]

I really don't like the red dot displays. They're terrible to read. They only existed because it was easy to make smaller LEDs to start with without diffusers and encapsulation.

I'm glad I'm not the only one.  I ended up with a couple because they were attached to good, inexpensive pieces of used gear; but despite their ability to show rounded corners (which is an optical illusion anyway) I don't find them as easy to read or attractive as 7-segment LEDs.  Plus, the driver circuit is more complex and prone to misbehave, which happened on both of mine.

OK; there are at least two strange people

I like them because they are reasonably easy to read (cf some LCDs for example) due to the "optical illusion". But then most of what we perceive is an optical or aural illusion.

On Tuesday I seriously considered bidding for some equipment containing a couple of dekatrons. It sold for £14, but the 600 mile round trip to collect it put me off.

[bd139]

Ooh I like them. Have this in my bookmarks http://www.wv7u.com/cwc/hourglass.html

On the subject of tubes, or valves for those of us on this side of the pond, I was bored earlier and came across the idea of converting the voltmeter I built a few months back to older technology.

Need an HT transformer though. Figured I could use a 240->12v to get the heater voltage for two halves of a 12au7 and then hook a dual primary 240->9v in reverse and get about 150V after rectification and smoothing. Proper HT transformer is about a £30 including delivery but this is about £5 as I already have the 12v one floating around. Got a 12AU7 and socket too.

[med6753]

Yep, those Brymen meters are fucking tough I tell yeh, just make sure that when you're probing that kind of volts that you do so hands free with good clearance 

Honestly exactly this. I soldered the probe tips onto the pads on the board so I could go hands free (yes I know that's a sin)

Holy shit. Tell us no more. You need to go to safety jail. 

[med6753]

Ebay purchase arrived. 7B70 Time Base plug-in. Testing it here in the 7603N. It's intended for the 7704 that Invert promised me. I'll need to order another one or a 7B71 which has delayed sweep.

This one works great. No issues. 

[mnementh]

I really don't like the red dot displays. They're terrible to read. They only existed because it was easy to make smaller LEDs to start with without diffusers and encapsulation.

I'm glad I'm not the only one.  I ended up with a couple because they were attached to good, inexpensive pieces of used gear; but despite their ability to show rounded corners (which is an optical illusion anyway) I don't find them as easy to read or attractive as 7-segment LEDs.  Plus, the driver circuit is more complex and prone to misbehave, which happened on both of mine.

I like them just fine... appreciated from the other side of a computer screen. 

mnem
This message brought to you by the Adz Appreciation League Of Greater BUmblefuck, TX.

[mnementh]

Yep, those Brymen meters are fucking tough I tell yeh, just make sure that when you're probing that kind of volts that you do so hands free with good clearance 

Honestly exactly this. I soldered the probe tips onto the pads on the board so I could go hands free (yes I know that's a sin)

Holy shit. Tell us no more. You need to go to safety jail. 

FFS... you know he was looking for an excuse to dress the tips anyways... 

mnem
"Oh, I'm going straight to Hell, just like my momma said... I'm goin' straight to Hell..."

[worsthorse]

Pretty much any question you may have about 24xxx scopes is answered in one way or another in that thread; it has become the de facto repository on eevBlog for all related knowledge on this family of scopes. Anything not explicitly posted there has a link to it somewhere in that thread.

My Seimens motor teardown/service (if that is what you were referring to, med) is more than a little further in that thread;

it is several pages later. You'll need to get used to that; like with TEA, it is a huge thread and most peoples' internal map of the beast tends to be pretty expansive.

mnem
And so my 2465 Army grows... muahahahahaha!!! 


I am just grateful that the 2465 thread is only fifty-nine rather than 1068, oh wait, 1070 pages long...

[med6753]

I cracked open the Tek 2430 in prep to work on it tomorrow. I never thought you could stuff 5 pounds of shit into a 2 pound bag but Tek did it.  This thing is PACKED.  1980's technology to give you a marginal DSO compared to today's offerings. Pictures tomorrow. Prepare to be amazed. 

[tggzzz]

Ooh I like them. Have this in my bookmarks http://www.wv7u.com/cwc/hourglass.html

On the subject of tubes, or valves for those of us on this side of the pond, I was bored earlier and came across the idea of converting the voltmeter I built a few months back to older technology.

Need an HT transformer though. Figured I could use a 240->12v to get the heater voltage for two halves of a 12au7 and then hook a dual primary 240->9v in reverse and get about 150V after rectification and smoothing. Proper HT transformer is about a £30 including delivery but this is about £5 as I already have the 12v one floating around. Got a 12AU7 and socket too.

That's a beguiling bookmark.

I got ~100 neons at a hamfest, and a 12V to 180V dc-dc converter, but I've yet to decide what to make. It ought to be bare wire scaffolding, resistors, caps, diodes, neons, all contained in an acrylic case. You know, ... artistic.

[mnementh]

Pretty much any question you may have about 24xxx scopes is answered in one way or another in that thread; it has become the de facto repository on eevBlog for all related knowledge on this family of scopes. Anything not explicitly posted there has a link to it somewhere in that thread.

My Seimens motor teardown/service (if that is what you were referring to, med) is more than a little further in that thread; it is several pages later. You'll need to get used to that; like with TEA, it is a huge thread and most peoples' internal map of the beast tends to be pretty expansive.

mnem
And so my 2465 Army grows... muahahahahaha!!! 

I am just grateful that the 2465 thread is only fifty-nine rather than 1068, oh wait, 1070 pages long...

LOL... I don't believe anybody would dare try and map THIS thread, internally or otherwise.   

That way lies madness.

Just so you know... eevBlog doesn't parse html tags very well; it doesn't do the < blockquote > tags correctly at all. It doesn't parse bbcode well either, but at least when you quote someone, if you use the radio button in the upper right hand corner of every post, you can tell it's a quote and which post it's a quote of. If you're quoting multiple posts, you can insert quotes in order from the [NEW POST] dialog.

Cheers,

mnem
*Off to collect the kiddles from Government-Mandated Social Indoctrination Services*

[bd139]

Ooh I like them. Have this in my bookmarks http://www.wv7u.com/cwc/hourglass.html

On the subject of tubes, or valves for those of us on this side of the pond, I was bored earlier and came across the idea of converting the voltmeter I built a few months back to older technology.

Need an HT transformer though. Figured I could use a 240->12v to get the heater voltage for two halves of a 12au7 and then hook a dual primary 240->9v in reverse and get about 150V after rectification and smoothing. Proper HT transformer is about a £30 including delivery but this is about £5 as I already have the 12v one floating around. Got a 12AU7 and socket too.

That's a beguiling bookmark.

I got ~100 neons at a hamfest, and a 12V to 180V dc-dc converter, but I've yet to decide what to make. It ought to be bare wire scaffolding, resistors, caps, diodes, neons, all contained in an acrylic case. You know, ... artistic.

Go go go go....

https://youtu.be/F4v7IDIYiNQ

[beanflying]

Apart from working on CRT's where in the modern world are you going to need one? I have looked but they are always what I consider stupid prices. I could use one with my 13kV? Dodgy Neon transformer/Jacobs Ladder or testing an electric fence output but what else?

I do have a 500:1 differential scope probe so the reason to have one is even less again 

What? A REASON to extend your voltage measurement capability by a factor of 20? Which thread is this? Who has taken over BEANFLYING's identity?

I just choose to put my $ elsewhere. The Neon transformer is easy measure the spark gap width and approximate the V/mm and smell the poor little ozones as they climb to heaven

[beanflying]

Seems @brumby's baggy of random junk has been delivered. Better send him some links for his skill enhancement.

Start here https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2636383-FQ777-951C-mini-(in-construction) Slightly different Non WiFi version was enclosed and fly in no wind or inside only lest it be eaten by the neighbors dog!

Just to increase your uncertainty the manual https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pEdRnJkjwgQI9GsWpdUWNo56rKSASr9o/view?usp=sharing for your new uncalibrated OCXO clock still more available if anyone else wants a plaything eBay auction: #223432233570

[0culus]

Can I just state for the record that FPGA EDA tools universally suck?   

Vivado: "Yeah, sure, I'll just go here and delete these important constraints, then optimize out the most important circuits in the design" 

[bd139]

No different to GCC if you turn the slightly more daring optimiser options on. "hey where did my loop go?" and "holy fuck, did I specify -fuse-crack-pipe".

Which is why I use clang/llvm now.

[0culus]

No different to GCC if you turn the slightly more daring optimiser options on. "hey where did my loop go?" and "holy fuck, did I specify -fuse-crack-pipe".

Which is why I use clang/llvm now.

Yeah, I prefer LLVM and LLVM based compilers whenever possible. The Rust compiler (rustc) is very nice.

I found and turned off every bloody optimization for synthesis, place, and route that I could find. That did cut down on the weirdness so the netlist and schematic actually looks like my code now...

[tggzzz]

Ooh I like them. Have this in my bookmarks http://www.wv7u.com/cwc/hourglass.html

On the subject of tubes, or valves for those of us on this side of the pond, I was bored earlier and came across the idea of converting the voltmeter I built a few months back to older technology.

Need an HT transformer though. Figured I could use a 240->12v to get the heater voltage for two halves of a 12au7 and then hook a dual primary 240->9v in reverse and get about 150V after rectification and smoothing. Proper HT transformer is about a £30 including delivery but this is about £5 as I already have the 12v one floating around. Got a 12AU7 and socket too.

That's a beguiling bookmark.

I got ~100 neons at a hamfest, and a 12V to 180V dc-dc converter, but I've yet to decide what to make. It ought to be bare wire scaffolding, resistors, caps, diodes, neons, all contained in an acrylic case. You know, ... artistic.

Go go go go....

https://youtu.be/F4v7IDIYiNQ

Yup that kind of thing, although the process and outcome on http://www.pa3fwm.nl/projects/neonclock/ is disappointing. Hence I'd go for something simpler and less obviously engineered.

I've found the book "using and understanding MINATURE NEON LAMPS" (sic) by William G Milner a useful starting point. The pdf is available somewhere, but it isn't in my bookmarks.

[mnementh]

I got ~100 neons at a hamfest, and a 12V to 180V dc-dc converter, but I've yet to decide what to make. It ought to be bare wire scaffolding, resistors, caps, diodes, neons, all contained in an acrylic case. You know, ... artistic.

https://youtu.be/F4v7IDIYiNQ   Go go go go....

Yeah, just don't over drive the poor things like that guy did. NE-2 bulbs only need 60-90 volts at 500-600μA. I get that he wanted more brightness to be daylight viewable; but once you burn the damned things you can't see shit through the arc-deposits anyways.

Seems @brumby's baggy of random junk has been delivered. Better send him some links for his skill enhancement.

Start here https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2636383-FQ777-951C-mini-(in-construction) Slightly different Non WiFi version was enclosed and fly in no wind or inside only lest it be eaten by the neighbors dog!

Oh, I gave up on those stupid ChengShiu and JiunLi FW-based little bastards when I discovered SilverWare Acro FW for the Whoop clones... tighter than ßetaƒlight and no spongy yaw. Also, $11 for a whole new 0716-based hummingbird is hard to beat.

But "AS A GIFT" is for sure the right price to get your toes wet... here, let me soak your socks:

https://youtu.be/qQsf0SABzk0

You'll get to see what I mean about "sounding like a total tool". 

mnem
*Puttin' on muh NOMEX jammies*

[Brumby]

Seems @brumby's baggy of random junk has been delivered.

Yes.... yes it has.  Approximately 3.6kg of mystery that both intrigues me and scares me.

I'm bracing myself for the opening.......

[beanflying]

Oh, I gave up on those stupid ChengShiu and JiunLi FW-based little bastards when I discovered SilverWare Acro FW for the Whoop clones... tighter than ßetaƒlight and no spongy yaw. Also, $11 for a whole new 0716-based hummingbird is hard to beat.

But "AS A GIFT" is for sure the right price to get your toes wet... here, let me soak your socks:

You'll get to see what I mean about "sounding like a total tool". 

mnem
*Puttin' on muh NOMEX jammies*

I actually finished up getting it for $0 from Hobbyking so I have long since had my monies worth  Two problems it wasn't the WiFi version I ordered and because of that it was only mode two while I fly mode one so they after my  them a little gave me my money back. Interesting swapping the Brain to the oposite digit in confined space flying and outside in 2 or 3 MPH it flies surprisingly well. Since I got the Tello it hadn't been flown so it deserved a new owner.

The other new skill he has to learn is how to turn some Green into Brown without getting to Black and Third Crack. I have bean meaning to do this for a while from some 2011 coffee forum posts of mine so I reworked them into a PDF this morning. Anyone else want to have a read and if it doesn't make sense to a non roaster let me know and I will retweak it.

BeanFlying's 'Coffee Roasting Minimalism' below.

[beanflying]

Seems @brumby's baggy of random junk has been delivered.

Yes.... yes it has.  Approximately 3.6kg of mystery that both intrigues me and scares me.

I'm bracing myself for the opening.......

It's not 'all' for you 

[mnementh]

I actually finished up getting it for $0 from Hobbyking so I have long since had my monies worth  Two problems it wasn't the WiFi version I ordered and because of that it was only mode two while I fly mode one so they after my  them a little gave me my money back. Interesting swapping the Brain to the oposite digit in confined space flying and outside in 2 or 3 MPH it flies surprisingly well. Since I got the Tello it hadn't been flown so it deserved a new owner.

The other new skill he has to learn is how to turn some Green into Brown without getting to Black and Third Crack. I have bean meaning to do this for a while from some 2011 coffee forum posts of mine so I reworked them into a PDF this morning. Anyone else want to have a read and if it doesn't make sense to a non roaster let me know and I will retweak it.

BeanFlying's 'Coffee Roasting Minimalism' below.

LOL... yeah, I was talking about the recipient, not you...  But since you got it "gifted" by dint of HobbyKrunk muppetry I guess that is all the better. I may try a variant of your popcorn popper method; somewhere buried in the garage I have the electric popping pot out of a little "popcorn cart" that has an agitator in it. It is well seasoned; dunno if that will harm or help. Any idea what temp to start at?

mnem
*Thinking about Columbia's third largest export*

[Brumby]

It's not 'all' for you 

So I found out.

I delivered the beans and specially marked package.  They were a bit puzzled by the "green beans", but they were interested in the coffee.  They were also very pleased with the bonus gift and wanted me to pass on a "Thank you very much" for it.  She then asked me if I'd said anything about her favourite colour or her love of sea creatures.  I told her I hadn't, but I'm not sure if she believed me 100%.

Now that the priority material has been handled, time for the much less threatening box marked "Big boys toys".

[beanflying]

The SHMBO gift is from my old Kite/Toy/Gift Business I closed 5 or 6 years ago. There is always a little left over stock from this sort of thing. That item came from a guy in Tasy I used to buy from. Lucky Guess on my part

The Greens are for you to show manly cooking skills with your paint stripping gun