Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Good, I think...    As long as they haven't been sitting by the sunny window for a decade until the sun bleaches one side grey, as is often the case with such shops. I was about to post saying "That looks like a pretty expensive BOM!" ; I hope they all test okay and have reasonable life left in 'em. 
mnem
*toddling off to ded*

Well at first I was cautious. Bought some, tested with the LCR meter. Had some running 24/7 in a power supply for multiple months. Works fine. Most of what they have is good quality (ex, Nichicon).

EXACTLY how you should be... optimism is fine, as long as you temper it with caution.  Not doing so is how I wound up dumping about 40 lbs of sorted & drawered NOS caps just a few months ago. The NEWEST I knew were at least 15 years old; some were NOS when I scavenged them 20 years ago.

/begin rant 

Tonight is one of those times when I wishing I knew a lot more than I know.  When I was helping sort through the crates of parts and gear, I came across a small bag of these things that looked like vacuum tubes, only with four leads. I added the bag to my box of "parts to figure out later". 

During a later round of sorting, the guy I was helping told me he found two boxes of them, each with two hundred pieces, which he tossed because he didn't think I'd want them.  Tonight, I finally got around to tracking down the part number.  Here's what they are:

These things are so freakin' cool. They used them to display state in computers, among other things.  I could think of a thousand things to do with them. And they went to the dump. Wasted. Because I didn't know. Damn. I hate that.  /end rant

Aww... man. So like a itty-bitty one-bit Dekatron then? Neat!

The moral of this story: Catalogue and sell all your awesome technological "finds" and turn them into money YOU can use... before they become a millstone around your survivors' necks.

mnem
*toddling off to watch a Linus video*

[worsthorse]

Aww... man. So like a itty-bitty one-bit Dekatron then? Neat!

The moral of this story: Catalogue and sell all your awesome technological "finds" and turn them into money YOU can use... before they become a millstone around your survivors' necks.

mnem
*toddling off to watch a Linus video*

Yeah. The first round of interwebbing suggested they were magic eyes... these aren't quite as interesting as that but they still have pretty high fun potential.

And yeah you are right, this is why leaving finds like this languishing in a box is a bad idea.  And my excuse, I am tired of spending almost all of my free time sorting, researching and inventorying rather than fixing or building is looking pretty lame tonight. 

The good news is I do have ten or fifteen of them, which means I can put them into some circuits and make some stuff. I bet they would make a cool looking little audio amplifier.

[beanflying]

Oopsy Nil power to just this premises. I promise it wasn't me or my TEA/Coffee gear that caused the problem 

New run being installed currently.

[tautech]

Oopsy Nil power to just this premises. I promise it wasn't me or my TEA/Coffee gear that caused the problem 

New run being installed currently.

Roasted copper plus half roasted beans ?

[syau]

Like most 53310a owners, look like I’m going to have a lot of fun recapping the PSU 

The good thing about Arrow now charging for shipping, is that I re-discovered my local electronic surplus shop and realized they have tons of good quality caps in stock. Most of them are low ESR and 105deg. They are normally also cheaper then what I can find online.

Got everything I need for the recap!

Spend an hour or so for the re-cap and found those psu were made in Hong Kong which end up to its birth place after 30 years 

[bitseeker]

...

I got a Bakon 950D soldering iron to try the other day.
...

A soldering iron named Bakon. Hmm...

[mnementh]

Oopsy Nil power to just this premises. I promise it wasn't me or my TEA/Coffee gear that caused the problem 

New run being installed currently.

Roasted copper plus half roasted beans ?

Currently! Hah! You kill me!!! 

Naaahhh... I think they just killed his transformer so they could invite themselves in for coffee once the juice was back on.  

mnem
I think I hear a pillow calling me...

[bitseeker]

It's 31, then.

Ha pretty cool ! 

Was a bit disappointed with mine. Wanted option 31 got 30.

You guys are driving up the prices on ebay. Go away until I find one for myself! 

Nah they are all yours Wch. I only need 1 and I'm pretty sure 0culus has enough with 2 units 

"only need 1", "enough with 2"

Thems is foreign concepts in these here parts!

[bitseeker]

/begin rant 

Tonight is one of those times when I wishing I knew a lot more than I know.  When I was helping sort through the crates of parts and gear, I came across a small bag of these things that looked like vacuum tubes, only with four leads. I added the bag to my box of "parts to figure out later". 

During a later round of sorting, the guy I was helping told me he found two boxes of them, each with two hundred pieces, which he tossed because he didn't think I'd want them.  Tonight, I finally got around to tracking down the part number.  Here's what they are:



These things are so freakin' cool. They used them to display state in computers, among other things.  I could think of a thousand things to do with them. And they went to the dump. Wasted. Because I didn't know. Damn. I hate that. 

/end rant

So, it shows positive, negative, or ground state? Das blinkenlights? Cool!

The more you know, the more you know there's more to know. *sigh*

Thanks for sharing as I've never seen such things before, either.

[beanflying]

Oopsy Nil power to just this premises. I promise it wasn't me or my TEA/Coffee gear that caused the problem 

New run being installed currently.

Roasted copper plus half roasted beans ?

Currently! Hah! You kill me!!! 

Naaahhh... I think they just killed his transformer so they could invite themselves in for coffee once the juice was back on.  

mnem
I think I hear a pillow calling me...

Shack and contents alive again. Now where was I four hours ago ......... 

[tautech]

Oopsy Nil power to just this premises. I promise it wasn't me or my TEA/Coffee gear that caused the problem 

New run being installed currently.

Roasted copper plus half roasted beans ?

Currently! Hah! You kill me!!! 

Naaahhh... I think they just killed his transformer so they could invite themselves in for coffee once the juice was back on.  

mnem
I think I hear a pillow calling me...

Shack and contents alive again. Now where was I four hours ago ......... 

Fess up, what did you do ?

[beanflying]

I blame mnementh's monkeys 



Pole end problem with a suspect termination, remnant Bird Nest and shit likely to be part of the issue. 50A house fuse and connections were fine apart from some Aussie Death Spiders under the shell.

[tggzzz]

/begin rant 

Tonight is one of those times when I wishing I knew a lot more than I know.  When I was helping sort through the crates of parts and gear, I came across a small bag of these things that looked like vacuum tubes, only with four leads. I added the bag to my box of "parts to figure out later". 

During a later round of sorting, the guy I was helping told me he found two boxes of them, each with two hundred pieces, which he tossed because he didn't think I'd want them.  Tonight, I finally got around to tracking down the part number.  Here's what they are:



These things are so freakin' cool. They used them to display state in computers, among other things.  I could think of a thousand things to do with them. And they went to the dump. Wasted. Because I didn't know. Damn. I hate that. 

/end rant

Oooh. Shiny.

More interestlingly they were used in the first computer I got my hands on, an Elliott 803. There's one still working in the best museum in the world (TNMoC), in the room next to the world's oldest working computer. The TNMoC might be interested having half a dozen spares.

FFI on the display, see http://www.r-type.org/exhib/aai0056.htm
FFI on the 803 an WITCH, see https://www.tnmoc.org/elliott-brothers-computers and https://www.tnmoc.org/witch

Amazingly it seems one of WITCH's co-designers died this April, aged 98.

 

[tggzzz]

When I was a kid a chimp did that, and hit me on the back of its head. They did it because they were bored.

[bd139]

I think I'd throw my own shit if I was locked up in a cage.

[tggzzz]

I think I'd throw my own shit if I was locked up in a cage.

All adults are in cages, even if the cage is gilded and the bars are invisible.

Besides, it can be fun and useful to occasionally throw (metaphorical) shit. Some recipients just deserve it.

[Terry01]

I think I'd throw my own shit if I was locked up in a cage.

Right on the shnoz! 

[bd139]

I think I'd throw my own shit if I was locked up in a cage.

All adults are in cages, even if the cage is gilded and the bars are invisible.

Besides, it can be fun and useful to occasionally throw (metaphorical) shit. Some recipients just deserve it.

Mostly. It is at least important to maintain the appearance of being in that cage however.

Unfortunately metaphores tend not to work on those who deserve incoming excrement, thus for the low brow there is: https://www.sendshit.co.uk/

[Specmaster]

I think I'd throw my own shit if I was locked up in a cage.

All adults are in cages, even if the cage is gilded and the bars are invisible.

Besides, it can be fun and useful to occasionally throw (metaphorical) shit. Some recipients just deserve it.

Mostly. It is at least important to maintain the appearance of being in that cage however.

Unfortunately metaphores tend not to work on those who deserve incoming excrement, thus for the low brow there is: https://www.sendshit.co.uk/

I can think of a few people who deserve a shit delivery and I'm not talking about Hermes either 

[bd139]

I did it again. Bought more test gear. I'm beyond help. I blame this one on Alan Wolke W2AEW though 

[bd139]

I can think of a few people who deserve a shit delivery and I'm not talking about Hermes either 

Yes I'm actually considering creating a spreadsheet for mine

[xrunner]

I did it again. Bought more test gear. I'm beyond help. I blame this one on Alan Wolke W2AEW though 

Nice grab! 

[Ero-Shan]

/begin rant 

Tonight is one of those times when I wishing I knew a lot more than I know.  When I was helping sort through the crates of parts and gear, I came across a small bag of these things that looked like vacuum tubes, only with four leads. I added the bag to my box of "parts to figure out later". 

During a later round of sorting, the guy I was helping told me he found two boxes of them, each with two hundred pieces, which he tossed because he didn't think I'd want them.  Tonight, I finally got around to tracking down the part number.  Here's what they are:



These things are so freakin' cool. They used them to display state in computers, among other things.  I could think of a thousand things to do with them. And they went to the dump. Wasted. Because I didn't know. Damn. I hate that. 

/end rant

Please tell me this is a joke! I had one one of them, but the glass envelope was broken. I'd just love to have a working one! (Of course I'd like to have a specimen of all 'M' type tubes.)

[xrunner]

A soldering iron named Bakon. Hmm...

Yea and this one can actually cook Bakon. 

OK, so they wrote me back and said "I will resend a product for you! You will receive it soon! thanks". Since this one came with four extra T12 tips and so will the new one, I'll have a good selection of tips for ... see below.

I still haven't seen the "video" LOL. I wrote back and said I still want the damn video. Since I know know from another internet source that you can use the pot on the side to tweak the cal (even though the manual says nothing about it), if the new one is off I can use that. I'll just use it in another hobby room where I need to solder wires occasionally (my model trains).  If I can actually recover the dorked-up one then I'll have two for the price of one. I have seen some Spanish You Tube videos that show guys actually going into the cal but I can't tell from watching what they are doing. You Tube has a transcript option that displays the transcript in their language. I can capture it and run it through Google translate to see if I can understand what is going on. Things should not be this hard. 

From the way it's acting I think the numbers you enter in the cal routine are feedback values and I probably have no idea where to start to begin with. The stupid thing doesn't show what numbers are already set when you go into the cal, even if you know what you set before - it doesn't show what it was. Very bad to entice the customer into a cal routine when the explanation requires much more than they wrote about. 

But ... I am going to order the KSGER OLED T12 station because I think that is a really cool.

Carry on.

[Specmaster]

So glad to see that your going to get a proper T12 system even if it is a Ksger and not a Quicko, but as long as you buy a proper already made one then I don't think you can far wrong with either TBH, well done you........eventually