Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bsfeechannel]

Good group here, a little crazy but I think you'll fit in. 

Thank you. When The Cuckoo's Nest was released, I couldn't see it because it was rated PG-13. So I bought the issue of the MAD magazine (what else?) with the parody of the film.

[xrunner]

Good group here, a little crazy but I think you'll fit in. 

Thank you. When The Cuckoo's Nest was released, I couldn't see it because it was rated PG-13. So I bought the issue of the MAD magazine (what else?) with the parody of the film.

I could match those inmates with members in this thread ... but I'd rather leave it to your own imagination.   

[med6753]

Good group here, a little crazy but I think you'll fit in. 

Thank you. When The Cuckoo's Nest was released, I couldn't see it because it was rated PG-13. So I bought the issue of the MAD magazine (what else?) with the parody of the film.

I could match those inmates with members in this thread ... but I'd rather leave it to your own imagination.   

Coward! Go for it. I want to see what you come up with. 

[med6753]

Now that I've got this 465B broken down and the PSU caps accessible that's where I'm calling it for today. I don't want to overload this simple mind with TMI which could easily result in a screw up. And there's absolutely no rush to get this done. Besides, it's a lovely Fall like afternoon and I want to get outside and get the stink blown off me.     

[BU508A]

Good group here, a little crazy but I think you'll fit in. 

Thank you. When The Cuckoo's Nest was released, I couldn't see it because it was rated PG-13. So I bought the issue of the MAD magazine (what else?) with the parody of the film.

I could match those inmates with members in this thread ... but I'd rather leave it to your own imagination.   

"An old gray beard with an attitude."

hmmm .......   *thinking*    .....    processing, please wait   .....

 

[neo]

I think that RCA scope is all vacuum tube. If you need help troubleshooting it give me a shout. 

It is, and it came from the factory with mostly film caps already. No paper and (almost) no wax, nothing to replace except for the high voltage capacitor (wax) and electrolytics. Thanks for your offer of help, i may very well take you up on that.

My plans for it are to turn it into a curve tracer, the procedure I just simply couldn't endure sacrificing my O-12 for. Always felt at home with vacuum tubes, it's when we get to the nineties era solid state that I get lost.

[med6753]

I think that RCA scope is all vacuum tube. If you need help troubleshooting it give me a shout. 

It is, and it came from the factory with mostly film caps already. No paper and (almost) no wax, nothing to replace except for the high voltage capacitor (wax) and electrolytics. Thanks for your offer of help, i may very well take you up on that.

My plans for it are to turn it into a curve tracer, the procedure I just simply couldn't endure sacrificing my O-12 for. Always felt at home with vacuum tubes, it's when we get to the nineties era solid state that I get lost.

Yea, Paul Carlson has a video on that.

[xrunner]

"An old gray beard with an attitude."

hmmm .......   *thinking*    .....    processing, please wait   .....

 

Yep!

Who was the protagonist that started off this insanity of 1542 pages? So bitseeker must be McMurphy. 

But I'd say that each one of the contributors to this thread has a little of each of those characters in them. Yea, that should get me out of matching any more characters. 

Even in a group of insane people one of them must be the most sane - I think that must be true ... let me ask my invisible friend Charles. 

[neo]

Yea, Paul Carlson has a video on that.

Bought into his patreon just for it actually.  Very useful information in his videos, beautiful lab he's got as well.

[AVGresponding]

This is how it begins. First you get a decent DMM. I dunno, like four maybe five and half digits. Not crazy but pretty damn good. Then you decide to build some kelvin leads for it. Then you figure you'd like to know that it is reasonably accurate, and someone says, for that you should get yourself a DMMCheck and before you know it...

(Attachment Link)

You are spending your evenings figuring out the difference between RN55C and RN55D resistors, sorting 0.1% parts and checking to see if you have any new messages from the volt-nuts reflector. 

Hahaha.

Then you learn there are RN55E’s

I actually just spent £20 on those damn resistors (RN55C). I’m trying to build a band gap reference from scratch with those and a CA3096 transistor array.

And then you feel the urge to move onto real resistors, like Vishay VHP202 "Hermetically Sealed High Precision Bulk Metal® Foil Technology Resistors with TCR of ± 2 ppm/°C, Tolerance of ± 0.001 % and Load Life Stability of ± 0.005 %".

Note the plural in "resistors" 

(BTW, what's that "(Attachment Link)" crap?)

Here's some pron, including each resistor marked for tracability. You know you want to fondle these (with latex gloves to avoid contamination, natch).

Damn, now I have resistor envy, mine seems tiny by comparison...

[bitseeker]

Who was the protagonist that started off this insanity of 1542 pages? So bitseeker must be McMurphy. 

Just make sure they don't take part of my brain away.

Even in a group of insane people one of them must be the most sane - I think that must be true ... let me ask my invisible friend Charles. 

Tough call. What did Charles say?

[bd139]

This is how it begins. First you get a decent DMM. I dunno, like four maybe five and half digits. Not crazy but pretty damn good. Then you decide to build some kelvin leads for it. Then you figure you'd like to know that it is reasonably accurate, and someone says, for that you should get yourself a DMMCheck and before you know it...

(Attachment Link)

You are spending your evenings figuring out the difference between RN55C and RN55D resistors, sorting 0.1% parts and checking to see if you have any new messages from the volt-nuts reflector. 

Hahaha.

Then you learn there are RN55E’s

I actually just spent £20 on those damn resistors (RN55C). I’m trying to build a band gap reference from scratch with those and a CA3096 transistor array.

And then you feel the urge to move onto real resistors, like Vishay VHP202 "Hermetically Sealed High Precision Bulk Metal® Foil Technology Resistors with TCR of ± 2 ppm/°C, Tolerance of ± 0.001 % and Load Life Stability of ± 0.005 %".

Note the plural in "resistors" 

(BTW, what's that "(Attachment Link)" crap?)

Here's some pron, including each resistor marked for tracability. You know you want to fondle these (with latex gloves to avoid contamination, natch).

Damn, now I have resistor envy, mine seems tiny by comparison...

I can hear the sound of £20 going “fum” on that resistor

(Was looking at them on RS earlier and considering buying a couple and an LM399  )

[mnementh]

Hating Apollo Domain was a hobby of mine for 3 months. Then I got a Sun Ultra 1 on my desk. Life was good. It had a CD player!  cupholder!!!

Edit: our resident unix supremo picked an HPUX box, model of which I can’t remember, a decision she regrets to this day I suspect.

Fixed that for ya! 



It's entirely possible she's STILL suffering that misery... 

mnem
*back out into the suck*

[tggzzz]

Here's some pron, including each resistor marked for tracability. You know you want to fondle these (with latex gloves to avoid contamination, natch).

Damn, now I have resistor envy, mine seems tiny by comparison...

I can hear the sound of £20 going “fum” on that resistor

(Was looking at them on RS earlier and considering buying a couple and an LM399  )

I seem to have a couple of hundred of those resistors, just like you have a couple of hundred mosfets

[xrunner]

Just make sure they don't take part of my brain away.

But your brain is so big, you won't mind a small piece of it missing. 

Even in a group of insane people one of them must be the most sane - I think that must be true ... let me ask my invisible friend Charles. 

Tough call. What did Charles say?

He says he's going to post the answer here himself when the thread gets to 2k pages, which shouldn't take too long. 

[tggzzz]

Hating Apollo Domain was a hobby of mine for 3 months. Then I got a Sun Ultra 1 on my desk. Life was good. It had a CD player!

Edit: our resident unix supremo picked an HPUX box, model of which I can’t remember, a decision she regrets to this day I suspect.

HPUX wasn't that bad. The core stuff was pretty similar except for some sublety about when/where virtual addresses were mapped onto physical addresses.

The last Sun box I caused to appear was one of the early Niagara machines. For my workload (soft realtime telecoms) it ran rings around everything else.

[mnementh]

Good group here, a little crazy but I think you'll fit in. 

Thank you. When The Cuckoo's Nest was released, I couldn't see it because it was rated PG-13. So I bought the issue of the MAD magazine (what else?) with the parody of the film.

I could match those inmates with members in this thread ... but I'd rather leave it to your own imagination.   

Coward! Go for it. I want to see what you come up with. 

Ditto!!! 

mnem
*tail twitching; it wants to know too*

[tggzzz]

He says he's going to post the answer here himself when the thread gets to 2k pages, which shouldn't take too long. 

He has good patience if he is going to wait another ~4 years. Why not do it at page 1k?

G,D&R

[xrunner]

Ditto!!! 

mnem
*tail twitching; it wants to know too*

I'll tell my invisible friend and have him talk to your invisible friend. Oh you didn't know you had one? You will by this evening. 

He has good patience if he is going to wait another ~4 years. Why not do it at page 1k?

G,D&R

He is very patient, Charles is. He told me he got me an invisible pet unicorn, and waited several months before I got to see it. Now I bet you want to know how I can see an invisible unicorn? This is complicated, baby steps, baby steps. 

[bd139]

HPUX wasn't that bad. The core stuff was pretty similar except for some sublety about when/where virtual addresses were mapped onto physical addresses.

It was the worst thing on the market then, apart from perhaps Classic MacOS and Windows 9x.

The last Sun box I caused to appear was one of the early Niagara machines. For my workload (soft realtime telecoms) it ran rings around everything else.

Still nice machines today if you ask me. The architecture wasn't a hack job like the bastardised hack job 8080 derivative I'm using now 

[tggzzz]

He has good patience if he is going to wait another ~4 years. Why not do it at page 1k?

G,D&R

He is very patient, Charles is. He told me he got me an invisible pet unicorn, and waited several months before I got to see it. Now I bet you want to know how I can see an invisible unicorn? This is complicated, baby steps, baby steps. 

I'd be worried if you couldn't see him (at least I assume it is a him, and that no glitter is involved).

[tggzzz]

HPUX wasn't that bad. The core stuff was pretty similar except for some sublety about when/where virtual addresses were mapped onto physical addresses.

It was the worst thing on the market then, apart from perhaps Classic MacOS and Windows 9x.

I didn't have any choice!

They made a lot of money for HP. Or at least they did until Rick Belluzo[1] said WinNT was the future (and he buggered off to Microsoft a year or so later). The Itanic came later.

[1] he told us he sold PCs like bananas: if they stay on the shelf too long, they start to smell. Pretty reasonable, actually.

[bd139]

Hahaha so true

They only gave us choice because we’d mutiny otherwise 

[mnementh]

Ditto!!! 

mnem
*tail twitching; it wants to know too*

I'll tell my invisible friend and have him talk to your invisible friend. Oh you didn't know you had one? You will by this evening. 

OF COURSE I knew!!! SHHHHHH!!!!

He has good patience if he is going to wait another ~4 years. Why not do it at page 1k?

G,D&R

He is very patient, Charles is. He told me he got me an invisible pet unicorn, and waited several months before I got to see it. Now I bet you want to know how I can see an invisible unicorn? This is complicated, baby steps, baby steps. 

I'd be worried if you couldn't see him (at least I assume it is a him, and that no glitter is involved).

Glitter is ALWAYS involved. 

mnem
*twitch... twitch... twitcha-twitch...*

[neo]

Well this is a lovely example of craptastic packaging, no padding at all. Just straight into cardboard with only what look like a roll of packaging tape holding it together.





That one corner has obviously suffered an impact, and a handle is loose. Should I look inside or just complain? To complain or not to complain? That is the question!