Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bitseeker]

Well I found out why that receiver didn’t work. Crappy toroid winding. One of the pads isn’t soldered underneath  .  Basically the antenna side isn’t connected at all ffs

(Attachment Link)

Need to undo a “user modification” as well. 

Not to mention the lackluster winding job.

[bitseeker]

Gonna get the largest truck they have. Put the beds, TVs & toolboxes in first; then whatever else will fit. Anything that doesn't fit gets left behind. 

mnem
No, wait... wife says the children are not optional, so taking them too. 

If space is that limited why bother with large items like beds? Even rather high value beds have a low value density. Can you tell I’ve played one or two RPGs?

Life is an RPG, with no restore function.

[0culus]

Gonna be there any day now. 😁

mnem
*Sunday brunch widda family for a change*

U-Haul convoy ?

Gonna get the largest truck they have. Put the beds, TVs & toolboxes in first; then whatever else will fit. Anything that doesn't fit gets left behind. 

mnem
No, wait... wife says the children are not optional, so taking them too. 

This is the vehicle I envision mnem and family using (PC goes to Van Natta Bros. Forestry: http://www.vannattabros.com/dozer.html):

[mnementh]

Not big enough.

mnem
Also, too mud.

[0culus]

That truck will easily gross over 200,000 lbs. Stack it high!

[Mr. Scram]

Life is an RPG, with no restore function.

Whisky. If you can’t remember what happened it didn’t happen at all.

[beanflying]

Life is an RPG, with no restore function.

Whisky. If you can’t remember what happened it didn’t happen at all.

Added a bottle of Glenmorangie to the shacks selection of tipples yesterday. Uber special price or it is normally over my budget price/bottle I set.

[Brumby]

 * Never found an alcohol with a taste I could enjoy.
 * Took one drag of a cigarette when I was 8 and never touched them again. (Why, people ... WHY?!!)

So why does my bank balance look like the noise floor of my scope...?

Oh, yeah .... kids.
(But they were worth it.)

[Mr. Scram]

* Never found an alcohol with a taste I could enjoy.
 * Took one drag of a cigarette when I was 8 and never touched them again. (Why, people ... WHY?!!)

So why does my bank balance look like the noise floor of my scope...?

Oh, yeah .... kids.
(But they were worth it.)

To each his own. I never quite liked the taste of the noisy buggers.

[beanflying]

No kids or ex anythings to support limited income at present but still a little spare for TEA and sipping Scotch 

[Carl_Smith]

So I've been following Ken Shiriff's blog posts about restoring the Apollo Guidance Computer.  His latest post is about the switching power supply.  Apparently NASA used tantalum capacitors 50 years ago and they actually still work.  Imagine that...

From http://www.righto.com/2019/08/reliable-after-50-years-apollo-guidance.html

We extensively tested the AGC's components before powering up the system. For the power supply, we first checked all the tantalum capacitors since tantalum capacitors are prone to shorting out. We found that the capacitors were all in good shape with the proper capacitances. This is in contrast to modern capacitors, which often leak or fail after a few years. NASA used expensive aerospace-grade capacitors and X-rayed each one to test for faults, and this made a large difference.

[ArthurDent]

From post 37450 Mystery part time.

https://u.cubeupload.com/worsthorse/IMG0591.jpg

This is a BNC to bare or stripped end insulated wire adapter. You push down on the top to open the slot in the side, insert a bare wire, and release. The spring holds the wire firmly in place. Think of it as a quick disconnect for a wire.

The second is a compensation network like what you'd find on a 10x scope probe to make the test signal look like a square wave. It would be for something quite specific and probably not useful other than for the nice housing and connectors.

[Kosmic]

I'm surprised you didn't have to shovel the ice off the beach first. 

I have no idea what happen over there in the winter and I don't want to know 

They have nice natural sandy beach during the summer though

[med6753]

So I've been following Ken Shiriff's blog posts about restoring the Apollo Guidance Computer.  His latest post is about the switching power supply.  Apparently NASA used tantalum capacitors 50 years ago and they actually still work.  Imagine that...

From http://www.righto.com/2019/08/reliable-after-50-years-apollo-guidance.html

We extensively tested the AGC's components before powering up the system. For the power supply, we first checked all the tantalum capacitors since tantalum capacitors are prone to shorting out. We found that the capacitors were all in good shape with the proper capacitances. This is in contrast to modern capacitors, which often leak or fail after a few years. NASA used expensive aerospace-grade capacitors and X-rayed each one to test for faults, and this made a large difference.

I also read from someone who worked for NASA that they never used caps rated less than 35V and usually rated at 50V. Unlike Tek which commonly used 20V rated caps in 15V circuits.

[Carl_Smith]

So I've been following Ken Shiriff's blog posts about restoring the Apollo Guidance Computer.  His latest post is about the switching power supply.  Apparently NASA used tantalum capacitors 50 years ago and they actually still work.  Imagine that...

From http://www.righto.com/2019/08/reliable-after-50-years-apollo-guidance.html

We extensively tested the AGC's components before powering up the system. For the power supply, we first checked all the tantalum capacitors since tantalum capacitors are prone to shorting out. We found that the capacitors were all in good shape with the proper capacitances. This is in contrast to modern capacitors, which often leak or fail after a few years. NASA used expensive aerospace-grade capacitors and X-rayed each one to test for faults, and this made a large difference.

I also read from someone who worked for NASA that they never used caps rated less than 35V and usually rated at 50V. Unlike Tek which commonly used 20V rated caps in 15V circuits.

I wonder how much reliability is increased by over specifying the voltage rating like that.  I don't know that much about capacitor reliability.  I would think that it would help to start but at some point it would result in diminishing returns.

The x-raying each one before use implies they were expecting to find some that would have passed an electrical test but had some sort of mechanical deficiency that would negatively affect reliability.  More details on that aspect might be interesting.

[mnementh]

Iin principle, it drastically increases the reverse voltage and ripple tolerance of electrolytic caps vs operating voltage. Especially in filter-abusive circuits like SMPS, both can be pretty egregious. It also lowers the IR, which means less drastic internal heating/cooling every use cycle.

mnem
*tzzzt*

[mnementh]

See all you freaks on the other side of 1500; this widdle dwagon is gonna go crawl into a nice cozy bed with an equally cozy wife. 

mnem
Maybe even my own...

[worsthorse]

From post 37450 Mystery part time.

https://u.cubeupload.com/worsthorse/IMG0591.jpg

This is a BNC to bare or stripped end insulated wire adapter. You push down on the top to open the slot in the side, insert a bare wire, and release. The spring holds the wire firmly in place. Think of it as a quick disconnect for a wire.

I would never have guessed this. Mahalo!

The second is a compensation network like what you'd find on a 10x scope probe to make the test signal look like a square wave. It would be for something quite specific and probably not useful other than for the nice housing and connectors.

This is what I guessed but it looks so, I dunno, manufactured or something that I figured there must be a zillion of them out there being used in some common way.

Thanks for the assist.

[tautech]

(Attachment Link)

EVERY. FUCKING. MORNING. From age 11 to age 17: up at 5am, from one barn to the other. And that guy's a effing amateur; during haying season I'd put two more layers of 5-square on before tapering down the top.

mnem
moo?

Wish I'd taken pics of our 6 wheeler ATV with 11 bales on it. 
Up and down the farm tracks was fine but don't dare go onto any sidlings. 

(Attachment Link)

During the spring/mud season, we'd lease a Gator for a month or so for fence-tending season.

mnem
Don't. miss it. a bit. 

Never was keen on Deere Johns over here.....might be something to do with this old vid:
https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/dear-john-basf-commercial-1981

Instead we were fairly early NZ adopters of good ol' Yankee Polaris as they could fair scoot along and the girls couldn't get into too much trouble on our hills as they're variable belt drive, a bit like an auto but won't stall.
We had one exactly like this from new and promptly removed the sides, boxes and tailgate and changed the front carrier to stack a couple of hay bales on.



Beat the snot outta it for years until we retired it for something a bit smaller but with more grunt.

[tggzzz]

Gonna get the largest truck they have. Put the beds, TVs & toolboxes in first; then whatever else will fit. Anything that doesn't fit gets left behind. 

mnem
No, wait... wife says the children are not optional, so taking them too. 

If space is that limited why bother with large items like beds? Even rather high value beds have a low value density. Can you tell I’ve played one or two RPGs?

Life is an RPG, with no restore function.

I didn't realise rocket propelled grenades came with a restore function. Maybe the Red Cross would be interested to know how to invoke it.

[tggzzz]

Unlike Tek which commonly used 20V rated caps in 15V circuits.

Or 15V caps on a 13V rail, as people with 485s will discover.

[Zucca]

1500 pages.

eh no, I failed.

[tautech]

Hmmmm....

I could delete an old post and make THIS the start of page 1500   

Nah.  I like seeing the post count go up, not down.

You can have it unless someone else wants to play silly buggers. 

[Ero-Shan]

* Never found an alcohol with a taste I could enjoy.
 * Took one drag of a cigarette when I was 8 and never touched them again. (Why, people ... WHY?!!)

So why does my bank balance look like the noise floor of my scope...?

Oh, yeah .... kids.
(But they were worth it.)

Never been really drunk in my whole life, but 1 beer/week and a bit of liqueur is fine. Wine, however, makes my throat sore.
With cigarettes I had the exact same experience, only at a later age. Although I really wanted to be a smoker (back then they were 'cool').

Let's not talk about my bank balance. But I have no children.

[Brumby]

Hmmmm....

I could delete an old post and make THIS the start of page 1500   

Nah.  I like seeing the post count go up, not down.

You can have it unless someone else wants to play silly buggers. 

I saw that.

You can have it back.