Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bitseeker]

geeeeeeze!   no wonder I stuck almost exclusively with hp.

that is a fugly pile o junk!

edit - hope saying that does not make inverted wanna' hunt me down and whoop my fat ass.   but geeeeeeeze!

Almost bought a AC meter from that series once. Specs were really interesting but when I saw what they look liker I changed my mind 

I guess I'm a superficial person 

Not at all. Form and function work together. Poor form makes you not want to function it.

I'm going to be home alone for a week, incredible. It's going to be freaking TEA time.

There's something particularly heartwarming about that statement. It's like you achieved TEA nirvana (at least for a week).

Go forth and be TEA.

[Cubdriver]

I have enough counters already, don't I?

 

Is there such a thing? 

For a non Freq/Ham I am happy with my current five (3 of which were because of Nixie'itis) add to that a couple of fairly capable Arb generators with Freq inputs. That then led to a GPSDO and more recently an RF Generator in the fleet to help keep them in tune and now I am looking at ..... 

For my defense and additional fright, see the counters and sources here: http://web.jlw.com/test.html

I think I've mentioned before that I'm afraid to count counters.  Bought another of the blasted things last week when I was out in CA.  Didnt get a chance to box and ship it yet, but in a brief test with a function generator hijacked from work it appears to be at least fundamentally functional.  It's a Systron-Donner 7034.  Even managed to score a POH on the bay of evil for $6.something shipped.

-Pat

[bitseeker]

Nobody hates a kitten.

One pissed in my scope once and then went for my eldest and scratched her face up. She was 1. That was the last cat we ever had. Fuck cats and kittens. Nasty nasty animals. They kill all the wildlife, bring dead stuff into the house and carry nasty diseases like toxoplasma gondii, leave hairs over everything, walk all over your shit while you're in the middle of it and cost a fortune to keep running.

I like my neighbor's cat. She runs over to greet me when I get home from work. I play with her when I'm out working in the yard. I don't have to feed her or take her to the vet. She doesn't climb on my stuff, pee in my ear when I'm sleeping, leave hairballs in the middle of the hall, etc., etc. It is an ideal way to "have" a pet.

[bitseeker]

my hard working oldie laboratory is proudly presenting

THE PLOTTER MOVIE 

Please do not watch it by handy when you have to pay for the download data, it requires 1GB. (we love full HD + quality)

http://www.wellenkino.de/video/54601A_7475A.mp4

Thanks, Martin. It's been a long time since I've run a plotter. I have an HP plotter that's very similar to yours, but no knob on the front. Apparently, you can adapt a vinyl cutter knife holder for use as a ballpoint pen holder.

[worsthorse]

Nobody hates a kitten.

One pissed in my scope once and then went for my eldest and scratched her face up. She was 1. That was the last cat we ever had. Fuck cats and kittens. Nasty nasty animals. They kill all the wildlife, bring dead stuff into the house and carry nasty diseases like toxoplasma gondii, leave hairs over everything, walk all over your shit while you're in the middle of it and cost a fortune to keep running.

I like my neighbor's cat. She runs over to greet me when I get home from work. I play with her when I'm out working in the yard. I don't have to feed her or take her to the vet. She doesn't climb on my stuff, pee in my ear when I'm sleeping, leave hairballs in the middle of the hall, etc., etc. It is an ideal way to "have" a pet.

I like my neighbor's kids for analogous reasons. 

[bitseeker]

Yep, that works, too.

[bd139]

My neighbours cat shit in my vegetable patch until I dusted the whole thing with an industrial quantity of chilli powder from the local Indian corner shop.

[GreyWoolfe]

Cats lower blood pressure and reduce the chances of having a stroke and generally have a calming effect on people, especially the ill and old. I love my two and just like people, their trust has to be earned.

The 2 that belong to the stepdaughter, climb all over everything and knock stuff onto the floor.  They lick themselves on the dining room table and kitchen counters where food goes.  One constantly yowls for attention.   Can't wait for the day the stepdaughter and her family vacate our house since she will be taking the cats with her.

My dogs lower my blood pressure and provide the calming effect.

[tggzzz]

The result after several evening's work?

... soon to be seen again as part of the back-to-the-future zeitgeist.

Edit 2: also a minor flashback. We used to steal stacks of electronic components from the college stock room. They knew, to the point one of the tutors said he did and that he'd face the other way and read his newspaper while we helped ourselves, because it kept their budget for tech department allocated

That was very explicitly SOP at HP.

One of the Bill 'n' Dave stories used to instill the HP Way at new sites involved Bill. He came in one weekend to do some work in the lab, and found a padlock and chain on the stores. He removed it with a boltcutter and left a note requesting that the stores not be locked in future.

The fundamental point was that Bill and Dave wanted a company where the employees were trusted and trustworthy - a classic Theory Y company. In this case they explicitly allowed employees unlimited access to the store cupboard, and trusted they would not abuse that. The attitude was that using company property for "home office" projects was fine, since they would enjoy it and might just do something that would benefit HP.

The net result was beautifully summed up in http://www.satirewire.com/news/0105/loyal.shtml which went around the company usenet like wildfire during one of Princess Fiorina's purges.

[beanflying]

The result after several evening's work?

... soon to be seen again as part of the back-to-the-future zeitgeist.

And yet so Stolen from us Aussies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_was_here

[Specmaster]

Wow, 5 more pages and its another 100 chalked up, this thread is a living thing these days 

[bitseeker]

Yeah, it's a veritable forum all on its own. 

[Specmaster]

Yeah, it's a veritable forum all on its own. 

It can be very entertaining and enlightening to, long may it continue this way. It has I believe the right balance / mix of general chatter and TEA related content. It feels like it would if it were a real club where members had to visit it to participate and they would chat about many topics besides electronics[emoji4]

[bitseeker]

Yeah, now if we only had teleporters to facilitate meetups across such distances in a reasonable amount of time. Maybe someday (not that I want my atoms broken down and reconstituted, come to think of it).

[0culus]

It's the best megathread I've ever seen. 

[bitseeker]

A thread is only as good as its participants. So, kudos to us all. Long live TEA.

[0culus]

It would be fun to have a meetup, but picking a convenient place for everyone...not easy...and international travel is expensive and sucks down funds that could go for more TEA. 

[beanflying]

Yeah, now if we only had teleporters to facilitate meetups across such distances in a reasonable amount of time. Maybe someday (not that I want my atoms broken down and reconstituted, come to think of it).

What could go wrong  Elon will make it possible and safe for a fiver when he gets Earth to Earth rockets operating as 'proposed'
https://youtu.be/nW-NiGp1gys

[Mr. Scram]

It would be fun to have a meetup, but picking a convenient place for everyone...not easy...and international travel is expensive and sucks down funds that could go for more TEA. 

If I have to pick between a new multimeter and you lot you know the answer.

[mnementh]

my hard working oldie laboratory is proudly presenting

THE PLOTTER MOVIE 

Please do not watch it by handy when you have to pay for the download data, it requires 1GB. (we love full HD + quality)

http://www.wellenkino.de/video/54601A_7475A.mp4

greetings
Martin

That is positively delicious. One doesn't usually think "organic" when talking about printers, but plotters are the exception that proves the rule. I love 'em in all their incarnations.

Well played! 

Nobody hates a kitten.

One pissed in my scope once and then went for my eldest and scratched her face up. She was 1. That was the last cat we ever had. Fuck cats and kittens. Nasty nasty animals. They kill all the wildlife, bring dead stuff into the house and carry nasty diseases like toxoplasma gondii, leave hairs over everything, walk all over your shit while you're in the middle of it and cost a fortune to keep running.

I like my neighbor's cat. She runs over to greet me when I get home from work. I play with her when I'm out working in the yard. I don't have to feed her or take her to the vet. She doesn't climb on my stuff, pee in my ear when I'm sleeping, leave hairballs in the middle of the hall, etc., etc. It is an ideal way to "have" a pet.

I like my neighbor's kids for analogous reasons. 

I'll bring mine over to your house and they can all have a play date. 

mnem
"Insanity is hereditary; you get it from your children."

[0culus]

It would be fun to have a meetup, but picking a convenient place for everyone...not easy...and international travel is expensive and sucks down funds that could go for more TEA. 

If I have to pick between a new multimeter and you lot you know the answer.

 

I expect nothing less 

[med6753]

Subject: "If it ain't broke don't fix it". I completely agree with and endorse this general rule. But like every rule there are exceptions. IMHO here are 2 exceptions....

The Tek 2445/2465/2467 PSU. Due to it's design troubleshooting this PSU in place is a near impossible task. And to troubleshoot it outside the case would require an extensive array of load resistors. I think it's prudent to do a complete re-cap of both the Inverter/Regulator boards as insurance against failure. It's a lot of capacitors and it's time consuming. But the results are worth it. I've done it twice now and in both cases the operation was successful and the patient lived.

Tek 4XX beaded tantalum capacitors. I agree with mnem. They are the devil and kill kittens. In my limited experience with these scopes I've had 3 short and 1 explode. As a result I give them no quarter. They have to go. Tomorrow I will start on the newly acquired 475A despite the fact that it works perfectly. I want to have some assurance and confidence that it will continue to do so.

[mnementh]

Yeah, now if we only had teleporters to facilitate meetups across such distances in a reasonable amount of time. Maybe someday (not that I want my atoms broken down and reconstituted, come to think of it).

What could go wrong  Elon will make it possible and safe for a fiver when he gets Earth to Earth rockets operating as 'proposed'
https://youtu.be/nW-NiGp1gys

I agree with McCoy... unless you can separate out all the lipid cells and put me back together allright widdout 'em, not the least bit interested in having my atoms scattered across the void. Also, GQ and just enough brandy to get giggly is still one of my "guilty pleasures".

mnem
Also Spaceballs. 

[beanflying]

I agree with McCoy... unless you can separate out all the lipid cells and put me back together allright widdout 'em, not the least bit interested in having my atoms scattered across the void. Also, GQ and just enough brandy to get giggly is still one of my "guilty pleasures".

mnem
Also Spaceballs. 

Not forgetting Ice Pirates just don't catch Space Herpes while watching

[mnementh]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/132795146843

Here's one for you calcnutters... 

mnem
"Can you link me the MAN pages on that?"