Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Ooh you might be lucky there. I love how they've sold out everywhere 

[mansaxel]

After waiting since Sept 27, and absolutely ZERO activity since Oct 22, suddenly SOMETHING is in Canadian Customs... 

mnem
 

I got a message one day that the package with said blue wonder TE device had been dropped in my mail box.

Found box empty.

Asked PostMord, the sorry remains of Royal Mail in Sweden and Denmark, whether the package with tracking no so and so had been adressed to me, which they said "no" to.    Am disputing. Aliexpress have ruled in my favour, but I've not checked whether the funds have been returned.

[bd139]

What utter bastards if it’s empty. Does it have a weight on the customs declaration?

[med6753]

In my few times ordering from either Banggood or AliExpress I've received the items without a hassle....although it usually takes in excess of 2 weeks to get it.

[mansaxel]

What utter bastards if it’s empty. Does it have a weight on the customs declaration?

I understand I was less clear. There was no package. They reused an actual tracking number, so for all I know it can have been a set of naughty knickers that actually got shipped, to the right recipient. Or the only meter they actually managed to ship to Sweden. Yep, straight up postal fraud. Several other buyers have experienced the same.

[bd139]

Ahh makes sense now. Doesn’t surprise me to be honest.

My father got ripped off for nearly £50k once on a similar thing but container manifests and escrow fraud. Absolute shower of cunts.

[med6753]

Absolute shower of cunts.

Now I've been done wrong by one of them. But never a shower of them. Must be horrific. 

[Specmaster]

Another Installment in the Saga of the $9 Process Meter...



After waiting since Sept 27, and absolutely ZERO activity since Oct 22, suddenly SOMETHING is in Canadian Customs... 

mnem
 

Oh, thats one of the ones that Dave tested is it? I got a simiular thing from someone had purchased it thinking it was a normal multimeter when in fact it was a MS7221 same as this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mastech-MS7221-Voltage-Current-Calibrator/dp/B00KXC954W/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=MS7221&qid=1573068972&sr=8-1 I only paid IIRC about £30 and it was still sealed and it also comes with a small alloy carrying case which is foam lined inside to keep it nicely cushioned if it got dropped. So I'm a happy bunny, specs on it are pretty good too, certainly good enough to calibrate all of my meters as it has the capablity of providing voltages from .001mV to 10V in .001mV steps and upto 24mA in steps of .001mA so not too shabby.

[GreyWoolfe]

Which is not to say I haven't had a plethora of minor nicks and scrapes, which I just let bleed to wash the crap out. They usually clot within a few minutes

Thank heaven I still clot quickly.  I shudder to think what would happen if I didn't.

[VK5RC]

Mnem - I can do that - and have! Wishing you rapid digit recovery and customs /migration processing!
Med - have you got many smpsu in the room or on the same line - in my volt-nuttery my room lights can change readings by 100uV. Protection diodes rectify the AC pick up. I have also had issues with earth loops as well,
Rob

[med6753]

Mnem - I can do that - and have! Wishing you rapid digit recovery and customs /migration processing!
Med - have you got many smpsu in the room or on the same line - in my volt-nuttery my room lights can change readings by 100uV. Protection diodes rectify the AC pick up. I have also had issues with earth loops as well,
Rob

I've noticed no difference with room lights on or off. And I don't think there's any ground loop issues.

[bd139]

I must have missed a post or two!  Been too busy doing that four letter word: work!

Mnem: much ouch. I wondered what triggered the self inflicted injury reports. Hope you make a full recovery. That fucking hurts that does. Did exactly the same thing with a Stanley knife about ten years ago when I was putting a carpet down. Still got no finger print on that finger  . Carpet still has the blood stains on it 

[tautech]

I occasionally keep an eye out for Tek P6021 current probes and just nabbed one on the 'Bay that had started at just $69. 
Got it for just over $235 with a few seconds to spare. 

That's my TEA budget gone for a bit as I don't need anything else....that I know of ! 

[mnementh]

I'm sorry for the confusion guys... this was my fault. I've gone back and updated my original "comparing scars" post...

It was bean, who clarified on an earlier post about "feeding a few fingertips into a mandolin" at my goading... 

Late one night I decided to Shred on the Mandolin for fun. No it wasn't the stringed/guitar variety.  Wrap hand and fingers tightly in cloth then drive the manual vehicle to Casualty for some superglue treatment and a shot of pethedine for the throbbiness and then drive back home sometime after midnight. The 6am Cafe open was not fun the day after.

To which I responded with the graphic story and image in question:

*Cue Flashiebackie music*



* Slicing a bagel for my son's breakfast (Once Upon a Time in the Wild, Wild West of Texas) *

etc, etc... but it was entirely in the past tense; this happened when my son ( just now turned 12 going on 16... ) was like 6 or 7, or maybe even longer ago. Looking back, I see I didn't make that point clear. 

I could've sworn I'd related the story in here before, some time back; I really didn't even realize until just now that y'all thought this had just happened.

mnem

[mnementh]

Absolute shower of cunts.

Now I've been done wrong by one of them. But never a shower of them. Must be horrific. 

   
Its just what happens when you drop a boatload of cunt augers in the middle of Smurf Village. (img snurched from oglaf.com:TOTALLY NSFW)

mnem
 

[beanflying]

Hey @mnementh want to play with my new toy  No blood was expelled in the making of it 'so far'. Time for the glue sniffffffff 

Annealed to make it, re hardened post shaping, final sharpening after it is in the handle as it is to fiddly to hold straight.

[mnementh]

*SLURRRRRRP!!!*
};=)~~~~<

mnem

[mnementh]

Next up on the Bench:

      

So I went thrifting to look for power packs to run some Ikea desk lamps... and look what followed me home. A lovely little stack of Man-Eating Black Boxes. 

The Yamaha NS-45s just jumped into my cart of their own volition... I swear it's true! But the poor Onkyo... that was sitting in the back of the testing table all covered with stupid junk; DOA, unloved and unpriced.

Anybody who knows this generation Onkyo knows NONE of them were lightweights; 110% linear power, massive brute-force filtering and heat-sinks as big as the kitchen sink make them textbook examples of Enheavyment.

But you see... this beasty is extra-special; a bit of a unicorn in any kind of salvageable state. Not only was the TX-SV919THX the flagship of the Onkyo fleet when it was released some 25 years ago, it was the first consumer HT receiver to gain LucasFilm THX certification. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 100W/CH cont @ 0.08%THD or some crazy shit like that IIRC. 
Anyhoo... the Yamahas were a no-brainer at CAD$15 for the pair; especially as I was able to inspect and test them with a battery to ensure all the drivers work. SERIOUSLY. But the Onkyo... they let me take that off their hands for CAD$10, and I paid CAD$6 for the little mountain of 14ga OFC speaker wires on the floor underneath. 

mnem
*tinkering at 0:dark-thirty in the AM*

[shakalnokturn]

This:
https://www.ebay.com/233382077399
Sold for more than I was hoping.
Is the future owner out here?

[mnementh]

@   shakalnokturn: Not I... perhaps another of the regulars tho.


Onkyo is a bit of an oinker...

This poor thing has suffered all the depredations and depravities of long life in a pet-filled home; just caked with critter furrzz, and maybe other stuff. I sure hope that isn't pee I see in the bottom... 



Here I'm using a BBQ brush I also just thrifted to clean up some crusty fuse clips. Hey... you use whatcha got.

I've pulled the plug on tonight's triage at the point of determining that while I do not have STBY LED on the front panel, I do have STBY 13V as marked on the AC IN PCB coming down the wire to the CPU PCB. Tomorrow to hunt up a USB cable for wife's new printer and then read up on a packet of schematics I just D/Led.

mnem
"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." ~ grandma

[Specmaster]

Next up on the Bench:

      

So I went thrifting to look for power packs to run some Ikea desk lamps... and look what followed me home. A lovely little stack of Man-Eating Black Boxes. 

The Yamaha NS-45s just jumped into my cart of their own volition... I swear it's true! But the poor Onkyo... that was sitting in the back of the testing table all covered with stupid junk; DOA, unloved and unpriced.

Anybody who knows this generation Onkyo knows NONE of them were lightweights; 110% linear power, massive brute-force filtering and heat-sinks as big as the kitchen sink make them textbook examples of Enheavyment.

But you see... this beasty is extra-special; a bit of a unicorn in any kind of salvageable state. Not only was the TX-SV919THX the flagship of the Onkyo fleet when it was released some 25 years ago, it was the first consumer HT receiver to gain LucasFilm THX certification. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 100W/CH cont @ 0.08%THD or some crazy shit like that IIRC. 
Anyhoo... the Yamahas were a no-brainer at CAD$15 for the pair; especially as I was able to inspect and test them with a battery to ensure all the drivers work. SERIOUSLY. But the Onkyo... they let me take that off their hands for CAD$10, and I paid CAD$6 for the little mountain of 14ga OFC speaker wires on the floor underneath. 

mnem
*tinkering at 0:dark-thirty in the AM*

Those Onkyo receivers were bloody expensive here in the UK, so how the hell did you manage to prise that out of their hands such a lousy amount?

[mnementh]

They were bloody expensive everywhere. Around US$7K IIRC, and that was before Bush/Cheney broke the economy. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time; I suspect they didn't want to have to move its heavy ass ever again.

mnem
*looking out at our first Toronto snowfall*

[xrunner]

Annealed to make it, re hardened post shaping, final sharpening after it is in the handle as it is to fiddly to hold straight.

What are you dosing with that spike - killing vampires? 

[med6753]

Next up on the Bench:

      

So I went thrifting to look for power packs to run some Ikea desk lamps... and look what followed me home. A lovely little stack of Man-Eating Black Boxes. 

The Yamaha NS-45s just jumped into my cart of their own volition... I swear it's true! But the poor Onkyo... that was sitting in the back of the testing table all covered with stupid junk; DOA, unloved and unpriced.

Anybody who knows this generation Onkyo knows NONE of them were lightweights; 110% linear power, massive brute-force filtering and heat-sinks as big as the kitchen sink make them textbook examples of Enheavyment.

But you see... this beasty is extra-special; a bit of a unicorn in any kind of salvageable state. Not only was the TX-SV919THX the flagship of the Onkyo fleet when it was released some 25 years ago, it was the first consumer HT receiver to gain LucasFilm THX certification. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 100W/CH cont @ 0.08%THD or some crazy shit like that IIRC. 
Anyhoo... the Yamahas were a no-brainer at CAD$15 for the pair; especially as I was able to inspect and test them with a battery to ensure all the drivers work. SERIOUSLY. But the Onkyo... they let me take that off their hands for CAD$10, and I paid CAD$6 for the little mountain of 14ga OFC speaker wires on the floor underneath. 

mnem
*tinkering at 0:dark-thirty in the AM*

Those Onkyo receivers were bloody expensive here in the UK, so how the hell did you manage to prise that out of their hands such a lousy amount?

Onkyo's are a dime a dozen here. 2 examples:

[Zucca]

I still prefer the Marantz...