Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[FransW]

KJ7e,

Looks like a predecessor or forerunner of the PM6654C.

Frans

[beanflying]

I opted for NiMh for my two recent bits of Battery TEA. I have the4 LiPo's in stock and the BMS boards but Nickel is simply more idiot proof and simpler to implement. By the time I looked at adding proper charging circuitry for the LiPo's  KISS won.

[tggzzz]

I’ve always wondered if it’s possible to make a NiCd emulator for such a device. Three decent 18650 cells probably has the same amount of grunt these days.

A nasty is the charge rate. NiCd will trickle charge indefinitely at C/10, NiMH need C/20 and probably lower. And of course you have to take into account "optimistic" specs for C when selecting C/20

[tggzzz]

I opted for NiMh for my two recent bits of Battery TEA. I have the4 LiPo's in stock and the BMS boards but Nickel is simply more idiot proof and simpler to implement. By the time I looked at adding proper charging circuitry for the LiPo's  KISS won.

I certainly wouldn't use Li* cells, but I've used both NiCd and NiMH replacements for NiCd.

My preference is that if, and it is a big if, you can get the NiCd cells in the right size then they are the easiest way to go. Sub-C NiCds are still available, and I've not had occasion to look for other sizes.

[bd139]

I prefer Li-ion myself. Decent density, really easy to charge, dirt cheap, tend not to explode as often as Li-poly unless you're simultaneously a vaper, an idiot and have a pocket full of keys and small change.

NiCd you're right are easiest but they don't last long and the discharge curve is poor. I spent a number of years arguing with Sanyo Cadnica cells back when I was playing around with radio control cars and the things were disappointing to say the least. They did take one hell of a beating though - I used to fast charge them with a car battery and a big ceramic power resistor clipped to a chunk of aluminium plate with a bulldog clip

NiMh I found are really difficult to charge properly.

[tggzzz]

I prefer Li-ion myself. Decent density, really easy to charge, dirt cheap, tend not to explode as often as Li-poly unless you're simultaneously a vaper, an idiot and have a pocket full of keys and small change.

NiCd you're right are easiest but they don't last long and the discharge curve is poor. I spent a number of years arguing with Sanyo Cadnica cells back when I was playing around with radio control cars and the things were disappointing to say the least. They did take one hell of a beating though - I used to fast charge them with a car battery and a big ceramic power resistor clipped to a chunk of aluminium plate with a bulldog clip

NiMh I found are really difficult to charge properly.

While I'm far from a cell expert, I'd only consider Li* for a new design, not for a replacement.

I believe LiFePo are less likely to spontaneously disassociate that other Li* cells, which was a very serious consideration when I was flying gliders.

[beanflying]

For keeping it simple low current NiMh trickle is easy and gets good cycle life. If you want to quick charge them there is some really good dedicated IC's to manage them.

Getting up to higher voltages like you need there are specialists that will make you tagged spot welded packs if you don't want to DIY. These guys I have dealt with for over 25 years from NiCad R/C days onward (used to buy 1000mAh SCR Sanyo's by the 100 from them) https://www.master-instruments.com.au/category/Industrial_Batteries_-_Rechargeable/1532 Good site for some battery data sheets.

[bd139]

I prefer Li-ion myself. Decent density, really easy to charge, dirt cheap, tend not to explode as often as Li-poly unless you're simultaneously a vaper, an idiot and have a pocket full of keys and small change.

NiCd you're right are easiest but they don't last long and the discharge curve is poor. I spent a number of years arguing with Sanyo Cadnica cells back when I was playing around with radio control cars and the things were disappointing to say the least. They did take one hell of a beating though - I used to fast charge them with a car battery and a big ceramic power resistor clipped to a chunk of aluminium plate with a bulldog clip

NiMh I found are really difficult to charge properly.

While I'm far from a cell expert, I'd only consider Li* for a new design, not for a replacement.

I believe LiFePo are less likely to spontaneously disassociate that other Li* cells, which was a very serious consideration when I was flying gliders.

A fair point for sure.

The LiFePo ones look rather good. I also considered them for radio use until I saw the price of the things. I now lug a 3Ah SLA around inside the radio and no charge hassle. Only 1Kg extra so meh - just will have to lose a Kg of weight off me

For keeping it simple low current NiMh trickle is easy and gets good cycle life. If you want to quick charge them there is some really good dedicated IC's to manage them.

Yeah fast charging is the problem. I noticed with the TF930 counters, TTi actually designed their own charger for them. Must have been a pet project for someone. Not sure why they didn't just grab an IC for the job.

[mnementh]

18650 cells are tough as nails. FFS, they stand up to carpenters, roofers, auto mechanics and *gulp* drywall-hangers used in drills, saws, grinders, screwguns, impact drivers & cordless ratchets. And lets not forget all the cordless lawn-care tools used by every dingle and his grandbrother... 

Ready-made BMS boards exist for almost any reasonable cell config; all you have to do is apply the correct fixed voltage at the charge terminals and they take care of the rest. Most Nixx solutions charge at a much lower current than they are capable of handling, so the only problem is likely to be taking days to charge vs overnight.

Here's a nice one made for 6S/25.2V & our T12 soldering stations: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32841852309.html

mnem
*toddles off to ded after shopping too many computer bits far too late in the morning*

[VK5RC]

A month or so ago I mentioned the Tuscon Amateur Packet Radio organisation Time-Interval counter. It is a 60pS time stamping type counter with excellent stats, it is a little simple in its handling of input but it's performance for the usd ^$205 is excellent. It appears to be back in stock. For time nuts a great way to get into characterising frequency sources eg generates Allan deviation curves with a pc and software.
For comparison Keysight 53230 (25pS resol'n) is about $5900 Aussie pesos.
Rob

[ArthurDent]

Recently there has been descriptions of various vintage computer memory devices, and I’ve got a couple of old weird memory storage devices, but the strangest I have is the RCA 6499 radechon which is a cathode ray tube hybrid that dates from the 1950s.  Here are a couple of photos, one of the tube overall to show how at first glance it looks like a normal CRT, and a closeup of the inside target area which is literally the ‘screen’. These links give more information.

http://lampes-et-tubes.info/sc/sc022.php?l=e

This tube could theoretically store 16K bits and had to be continually refreshed to maintain the stored information. One application was the SAGE military computer. They should have named this computer ‘WHOPPER’ like in the movie “War Games”.

http://www.acsa.net/randfsq-7.htm

[kj7e]

A month or so ago I mentioned the Tuscon Amateur Packet Radio organisation Time-Interval counter. It is a 60pS time stamping type counter with excellent stats, it is a little simple in its handling of input but it's performance for the usd ^$205 is excellent. It appears to be back in stock. For time nuts a great way to get into characterising frequency sources eg generates Allan deviation curves with a pc and software.
For comparison Keysight 53230 (25pS resol'n) is about $5900 Aussie pesos.
Rob

Thanks Rob, they have all kinds of cool kits on there site!

https://www.tapr.org/kits_ticc.html

[mnementh]

A month or so ago I mentioned the Tuscon Amateur Packet Radio organisation Time-Interval counter. It is a 60pS time stamping type counter with excellent stats, it is a little simple in its handling of input but it's performance for the usd ^$205 is excellent. It appears to be back in stock. For time nuts a great way to get into characterising frequency sources eg generates Allan deviation curves with a pc and software.
For comparison Keysight 53230 (25pS resol'n) is about $5900 Aussie pesos.
Rob

Thank you for sharing; I'm sure our budding timenutz will be very interested.  Personally, I'd rather eat worms. 

But since I've just fallen down the Ryzen/X570 rabbit-hole, I'm sure there will be plenty to pick out of the dirt on the long, long way down... 

Recently there has been descriptions of various vintage computer memory devices, and I’ve got a couple of old weird memory storage devices, but the strangest I have is the RCA 6499 radechon which is a cathode ray tube hybrid that dates from the 1950s.  Here are a couple of photos, one of the tube overall to show how at first glance it looks like a normal CRT, and a closeup of the inside target area which is literally the ‘screen’. These links give more information.

http://lampes-et-tubes.info/sc/sc022.php?l=e

This tube could theoretically store 16K bits and had to be continually refreshed to maintain the stored information. One application was the SAGE military computer. They should have named this computer ‘WHOPPER’ like in the movie “War Games”.

http://www.acsa.net/randfsq-7.htm

That is neat... is it theoretically functional? How is the data extracted?





WOPR was in fact deliberately conceptually modeled after SAGE; our first "Global Defense" online supercomputer network. War Games was indirectly inspired by The Adolescence of P-1, a 70s SciFi story by Thomas Ryan speculating on what might happen if a sufficiently privileged self-replicating AI program got loose on DARPANET. Not surprisingly, our Reagan-era fascination with Cold War intrigue and nationwide fears of the Star Wars fiscal black hole and other such military excesses made the perfect backdrop for this morality tale. If you look at the history of our popular culture, particularly SciFi and what later percolated down to mainstream media, it really is amazing how the existence of SAGE for more than 2 decades fundamentally shaped our cultural gestalt. 

Also, WarGames was a hell of a lot of fun. We could do with a little more of such innocent amusement and a lot less of the current "The ends justifies the means and damn you if you don't agree" antisocial propaganda that has taken over all aspects of our popular media. 

mnem
*time to go outside and look at the sky*

[tggzzz]

Also, WarGames was a hell of a lot of fun. We could do with a little more of such innocent amusement and a lot less of the current "The ends justifies the means and damn you if you don't agree" antisocial propaganda that has taken over all aspects of our popular media. 

Yes, it was an is a surprisingly accurate summary of the tech and gestalt of the time, except for the obvious SF aspects (cf things like "Billion Dollar Brain" and other tosh).

"War Games" also showed (minor) characters with autism, without making any big deal of it. Very few programmes, then or since, have done that. Usually any form of disability is either omitted or a key part of the plot and Something To Be Overcome. The only exception that springs to mind is "Notting Hlil", where one character happens to be in a wheelchair.

[GregDunn]

"War Games" also showed (minor) characters with autism, without making any big deal of it. Very few programmes, then or since, have done that. Usually any form of disability is either omitted or a key part of the plot and Something To Be Overcome. The only exception that springs to mind is "Notting Hlil", where one character happens to be in a wheelchair.

I commend also to your attention "Real Genius" which had a clearly autistic supporting character (Lazlo) and probably a few others featured less prominently.

[Terry01]

Recently there has been descriptions of various vintage computer memory devices, and I’ve got a couple of old weird memory storage devices, but the strangest I have is the RCA 6499 radechon which is a cathode ray tube hybrid that dates from the 1950s.  Here are a couple of photos, one of the tube overall to show how at first glance it looks like a normal CRT, and a closeup of the inside target area which is literally the ‘screen’. These links give more information.

http://lampes-et-tubes.info/sc/sc022.php?l=e

This tube could theoretically store 16K bits and had to be continually refreshed to maintain the stored information. One application was the SAGE military computer. They should have named this computer ‘WHOPPER’ like in the movie “War Games”.

http://www.acsa.net/randfsq-7.htm

How cool is that thing? 

What is it for and how does it work?

[tautech]

Pinched from another thread and perfectly characterizes all us TEA nutters here:

[Mr. Scram]

Some have the knack, others have penisfingers.

[Cubdriver]

Some have the knack, others have penisfingers.

Some of us have both, depending on the day or even the hour.

-Pat

[mnementh]

Hey... for me, there’s more than a little personal history in that little bit of cinema; when it came out I had just realized the error of my choice of careers and fled in terror of the endemic batshit crazy of the places I was permitted to practice my vocation.

That entire short-lived show was a serial confirmation of all the reasons I’d left; I had my own narcissistic backstabbing coworker who was only slightly less satanic than Dogbert (Thank Ifni I’d been reading a fair bit of BOFH for survival strategies) and a succession of pointy-haired bosses at a succession of corporate gristmills.

The NirvanaCorp episode was eerily familiar too; my first gig straight out of tech school was a really interesting niche company that made replacement sub assemblies for legacy air traffic control systems whose original manufacturers had gone belly-up. The pay was great, the whole place, from the management team to the facilities to the other engineers & techs had a Jobs-esque “what-if” altered-reality bubble around it, and everything was decorated in like-new 70s post modern that I think was just left over from a previous occupant of the campus. Even had those horrible chrome and chocolate upholstery lounge chairs & sectionals that everyone joked about but were the most invitingly comfortable furniture to sit and read for hours or play cards.

That gig lasted just long enough for me to get a nice apartment in a suburb of Syracuse and buy a new Corvette before it literally burned inside-out when the first Bush administration decided that for the sake of domestic security, all such manufacturing and engineering was to be done solely by defense contractors with direct ties to some ambitious general.

Overnight, our idyllic little manufacturing firm was assimilated by Raytheon, and everything turned into a twisted demonic parody of the place I’d started working at. I made it through 3 rounds of layoffs before one day, without warning, they just locked the doors on my whole building and made us wait in the parking lot while armed security we’d never seen before took us inside one-by-one to collect our personal belongings.

*sigh* Most of the rest of my career was spent searching for someplace half as awesome to work; eventually I lowered my standards to “not working for a complete asshole” and still my dreams went unfulfilled until I went back to work for myself.

I was still working for a complete asshole, but it was one with whom I could “come to an understanding”.

*mnem-ories*

[xrunner]

Well, I got the new KSGER soldering station today but already have a problem with it. When going to boost it seems to reboot and end up in standby mode. 

This shit is really getting old. 

[mnementh]

Oh fuck-a-doodle. 

Try one of the unused tips as the used ones may be effed-up. Check the supply voltage as it's running; may be dropping enough to cause reboot. Also look for improperly-soldered caps on both the PSU and controller.

mnem
 

[med6753]

Someone mention SAGE and war games?

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/151980-inside-ibms-67-billion-sage-the-largest-computer-ever-built

[xrunner]

Oh fuck-a-doodle. 

Try one of the unused tips as the used ones may be effed-up. Check the voltage as it's running; may be dropping. Also look for improperly-soldered caps on both the PSU and controller.

mnem

I wrote the seller but I'm also doing some research on the problem. It seems to work well except for this one weird issue.

I think I'ma start a second career as a soldering station bug finding specialist. 

Who want to bet they send me another one?

[mnementh]

Oh fuck-a-doodle. 

Try one of the unused tips as the used ones may be effed-up. Check the voltage as it's running; may be dropping. Also look for improperly-soldered caps on both the PSU and controller.

mnem

I wrote the seller but I'm also doing some research on the problem. It seems to work well except for this one weird issue.

I think I'ma start a second career as a soldering station bug finding specialist. 

Who want to bet they send me another one?

You certainly have "The Knack" for it... 

*Ducks soggy old boot thrown from stage left*

mnem