Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

I knew you'd be along any minute to pee in my cornflakes, bean.



mnem
*ride the walrus*

I'm glad for a change someone pissed in your cornflakes.   

[beanflying]

I knew you'd be along any minute to pee in my cornflakes, bean.

mnem
*ride the walrus*

I'm glad for a change someone pissed in your cornflakes.   

Someone had to do it  Clearly he needs MORE Fusion 360 practice too 

I have cut heaps of gaskets the hard way over the years from all sorts of weird materials for weird chemicals. Laser cutting rocks. Getting the bigger CNC in good running order will allow Teflon and some of the other materials that Lasering will kill you dead.

[med6753]

I knew you'd be along any minute to pee in my cornflakes, bean.

mnem
*ride the walrus*

I'm glad for a change someone pissed in your cornflakes.   

Someone had to do it  Clearly he needs MORE Fusion 360 practice too 

I have cut heaps of gaskets the hard way over the years from all sorts of weird materials for weird chemicals. Laser cutting rocks. Getting the bigger CNC in good running order will allow Teflon and some of the other materials that Lasering will kill you dead.

Good boy. Keep it up. Maybe have a contest. 

[mnementh]

Thanks for the belly laugh!!!     But nothing you can say is gonna wet my cornflakes right now... THEY GOT KRYPTONITE TONIGHT, BAY-BEE!!! 

   Not only did I just find leftover Chinese in the fridge for my midnight snack (and well before the best-by date), just before that I found my Misfit Shine under the seat of my wife's car! I thought it had popped out of the band and gotten lost in the driveway while I was wrangling that big upright compressor down to the street to drain the rusty water out; but after half an hour of scouring the street and the drive, no joy. 

So while I'm putting the grocery bags away from a run where I not only DIDN'T FORGET anything on the list, AND I actually got princess parking to boot, I think... hey... maybe I should try scanning the bluetooth with my phone. Halfway down the driveway I spot its GUID; a little further down and it actually syncs! I keep walking around, making it sync, hoping to see the lights... and eventually I'm standing right by the car window when it syncs up.

Voi-lips! there it is! Woohoo!! Woohooo!! Woohoooo!!! 

mnem
Fuck, man... I need to go buy a lottery ticket RIGHT NOW!!!

[Specmaster]

As we currently have a round of desoldering techniques and equipment re-appraisals, I would be interested to know if someone here has tried those desoldering syringes (hollow needles), which some chinese sources are pushing on Ebay and elsewhere. They are intended for thru-hole parts and work allegedly by pushing them over the lead through the melted solder, thus separating the lead from the pcb.

On the topic of wick, the stuff sold by Spirig (CH) and the AMASAN brand are of the same quality as Chemtronics.

BTW: are there any died-in-the-wool Edsyn fans around? I have a seemingly working PS540 hot air station laying around for which I did never procure a handpiece. PM if interested.

Yep, of course I have a set of those Japanese desoldering tubes and TBH they do work well subject to the following, 1/The tube needs be closely matched to the leg being removed. 2/The Pcb needs to have holes that are larger than the legs. 3/ The legs need to straight, so the PCB must be soldered by Bath or flow type of system. A hand built board is no good as the legs will be more prone to  being bent in order to retain the part while being soldered. But they are cheap enough to justify a place in your toolkit.

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[beanflying]

And after peeing in his Kryptonite Cornflakes. Got any thoughts on a PC build @mnementh or anyone else for that matter? 

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-computing/$1000-usd-cad-and-rendering-workhorse-getting-the-balance-right/msg2516457/#msg2516457

[VK5RC]

Re desoldering,
Quick jobs
  4-6 leads- chemtronics soder-wick (kept sealed) and twiddle of the lead after. My most used technique.
  2 leads and I have a spare, cut it out, desolder one lead at a time, either solder wick or tooth pick to clean up the hole after.

Big jobs eg  8+ leads
Get out the desoldering gear,
An el-cheapo  zd 987 works quite well BUT as said before here, keep your finger on the trigger to suck the solder through, and keep cleaning the chamber and nozzle/channel.
I have a Metcal desoldering gun, it works very well but you have to fire up an air compressor. It can suck solder out of a via in a heavy solid ground plain. I use it rarely.
Solder suckers - not my favorite, haven't got one of those better ones though.
I have tried the hollow needles, often you don't have the room to deploy them.

I have used a hot air gun with mylar tape on a few smd devices - went ok, only a couple of wayward nearby components.

Re broken studs etc, I am glad to see that it is not just me who has repair jobs like that! My daughter's front wheel bearing replacement was a saga of epic proportions. I still have nightmares about that car - it's the anti-Christ! It won't die!

[Kosmic]

So it had to come to a end, Arrow.com decided to end their free overnight shipping on everything. You now need to spend 50$ for free shipping or pay 15$ flat rate.

Hello digikey, my old friend!

Yeah, it was great while it lasted. I can't figure out why they were doing it. They had to know that the customers would disappear when the free deal did, right?

/me wanders off to explore the wonders of winmor, ardop and vara.

Maybe they thought people would stay for the excellent search tool (Not!) 

[bd139]

Gah just spent the entire day cleaning out shit and taking it to the tip. It’s 34oC today (93.2 oF for the weirdos). Too hot for TE even being powered up today 

In some good news my USPS delivery made it to Langley HWDC finally. Now it’ll sit there and rot for another week 

[Specmaster]

Finally I have enough transistors to rebuild these 2 Hacker Radio Amps (still gonna to try and get one of these working on Si gear instead of Ge if possible (running but with lower output and distortion to resolve).

Rebuilt one with Ge gear and was just going to test the last delivery of AC176 transistors (almost as rare as hens teeth) only to discover that the seller should have gone to Specsavers, they are all AC126, fecking useless to me, bastards. 

So just managed in all this heat to get one put back together using a AC176 from another seller that I snapped as a backup and just about going to power this puppy up and see what happens, still suffering with this bloody leg issue as well 

[bd139]

Those hooky transistor sellers are bloody useless. 

[med6753]

Gah just spent the entire day cleaning out shit and taking it to the tip. It’s 34oC today (93.2 oF for the weirdos). Too hot for TE even being powered up today 

In some good news my USPS delivery made it to Langley HWDC finally. Now it’ll sit there and rot for another week 

You need to think about investing in some sort of A/C. Similar temps here and I'm cool and collected. 

Are window units available in the UK? Stay away from the "in room" units with the plastic duct to the outside. They are inefficient.

[bd139]

Hardly worth it. Back down to 24 tomorrow (75oF). Plus we’re not a bunch of pussies 

Can you imagine the zombie apocalypse if you guys can’t power your AC for a few days 

[med6753]

Hardly worth it. Back down to 24 tomorrow (75oF). Plus we’re not a bunch of pussies 

Can you imagine the zombie apocalypse if you guys can’t power your AC for a few days 

Item 1: Then quit your bitching. 

Item 2: When it comes to heat call me a fucking pussy.  I don't do well in the heat. Can't stand the heat.  If the zombie apocalypse comes I'll sit in the car with the engine idling and the A/C on full. 

[Specmaster]

Despite the heat, I've powered up my TEA and completed the refurbished Hacker Amp 1, all calibrated and working a real treat, stacks of power and great tonal qualities as well, I'm calling that a win. RF section was a bit weak and after a little fettling, its pulling in loads of stations as well. Time to refit the chassis inside the cabinet now and do final checks, linearity is buggered because I made it so as the early Hackers, great and good as they suffered from the restricted early FM wavelengths of 88 to 101 MHz which is fine if you only want to listen to the good old Aunty Beeb stations, most of the commercial and local stations live in the 101 to 108 MHz so I've tweaked the oscillator to bring in the higher frequencies as well, I think I might have to lose 1 of the national Beeb stations but I'm OK with that.

Currently with 3 fans on the go in my lab, its 31oC so I'm going to switch off the TEA equipment and see if the temp drops a bit, if it does I'll be starting on the Si powered Hacker amp 2 to see if I can cure the distortion on that.

I'd love to be able have A/C installed because I don't do the heat very well, never did when I was a young skinny teenager let alone a big old lump that I now am  If it gets too bad I'll have to sit in the car for awhile with its A/C on full 

[Kosmic]

Got the perfect combo here for heat management, Pool outside and AC inside 

[bd139]

@med 

@specmaster. Nice one. Excellent work 

On the heat I found out everyone on local 2m is outside in their gardens slightly smashed. Just had a 20 min QSO with a local regular about tomatoes. My tomatoes are dead as I forgot to water them while I was building the K2 

[Kosmic]

My tomatoes are dead as I forgot to water them while I was building the K2 

Nice to be able to grow something in your backyard. Here squirrels eat everything, tomato, cucumber etc .. even flowers.

[Kosmic]

Despite the heat, I've powered up my TEA and completed the refurbished Hacker Amp 1, all calibrated and working a real treat, stacks of power and great tonal qualities as well, I'm calling that a win. RF section was a bit weak and after a little fettling, its pulling in loads of stations as well. Time to refit the chassis inside the cabinet now and do final checks, linearity is buggered because I made it so as the early Hackers, great and good as they suffered from the restricted early FM wavelengths of 88 to 101 MHz which is fine if you only want to listen to the good old Aunty Beeb stations, most of the commercial and local stations live in the 101 to 108 MHz so I've tweaked the oscillator to bring in the higher frequencies as well, I think I might have to lose 1 of the national Beeb stations but I'm OK with that.

Specmaster, I want some pics ! 

[Mr. Scram]

You need to think about investing in some sort of A/C. Similar temps here and I'm cool and collected. 

Are window units available in the UK? Stay away from the "in room" units with the plastic duct to the outside. They are inefficient.

The problem with airconditioning is that it eats terrifying amounts of power. Unless it's combined with solar panels using up a couple of handful of dollars or pounds each day gets expensive quite quickly. Not every economical and not very environmentally friendly.

[med6753]

You need to think about investing in some sort of A/C. Similar temps here and I'm cool and collected. 

Are window units available in the UK? Stay away from the "in room" units with the plastic duct to the outside. They are inefficient.

The problem with airconditioning is that it eats terrifying amounts of power. Unless it's combined with solar panels using up a couple of handful of dollars or pounds each day gets expensive quite quickly. Not every economical and not very environmentally friendly.

Yes it does and quite frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.    My electric bill does increase dramatically during the Summer...sometimes even doubles. Don't care, I'll pay it. The rest of the year I do try to be frugal and "environmentally friendly" with power consumption. So it balances out.

[bd139]

My tomatoes are dead as I forgot to water them while I was building the K2 

Nice to be able to grow something in your backyard. Here squirrels eat everything, tomato, cucumber etc .. even flowers.

Squirrels are bastards. I’ve killed a few of the sods in recent years. They seem to have got the point. They’re quite domesticated here which makes them easy to bait and hit with a shovel. I did consider buying an air rifle to do a bit of plinking but it’s frowned upon in the UK.

[Kosmic]

Squirrels are bastards. I’ve killed a few of the sods in recent years. They seem to have got the point. They’re quite domesticated here which makes them easy to bait and hit with a shovel. I did consider buying an air rifle to do a bit of plinking but it’s frowned upon in the UK.

  with a shovel  hope your kids were not watching 

At the beginning I was trying to control the situation by trapping them in a cage and doing deportation to a nice park nearby. I was eventually overrun and they completely won now.

[Mr. Scram]

Yes it does and quite frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.    My electric bill does increase dramatically during the Summer...sometimes even doubles. Don't care, I'll pay it. The rest of the year I do try to be frugal and "environmentally friendly" with power consumption. So it balances out.

That balances out like a diet Coke balances out a supersized menu. 

[bd139]

Squirrels are bastards. I’ve killed a few of the sods in recent years. They seem to have got the point. They’re quite domesticated here which makes them easy to bait and hit with a shovel. I did consider buying an air rifle to do a bit of plinking but it’s frowned upon in the UK.

  with a shovel  hope your kids were not watching 

At the beginning I was trying to control the situation by trapping them in a cage and doing deportation to a nice park nearby. I was eventually overrun and they completely won now.

Yeah they were watching. Circle of life. Granted I turned it into a semicircle.

You have to kill them. They just come back. I know because my neighbour years ago used to spray paint them and let them go again miles away and they’d bloody appear again.