Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[worsthorse]

Lars should have stuck to tennis.

As for the free trays with makeup thing. Three points.  Firstly as Mr Scram points out, the makeup costs a lot of money to get the free stuff. The free stuff is a disingenuous apology. Secondly the situation is now not that I get the free stuff because it turns out that it’s quite expensive when you’ve got to pay for it yourself and you have to do that if you’re a cheating bitch  .  Thirdly if I did it would be covered in gunk which I don’t want near my kit.

And on that I’m about to go “full on bastard mode” this morning. Turns out the homework my youngest got given this weekend was a commercial vanity publishing scam poetry competition. Alas I am entering the poem for it as my English is about 7 year old quality. The letters down the edge will be RIP OFF CUNTS. If it gets published, which it will as they need to sell their product, I’m going to tell everyone who bought it, put my feet up and watch the chaos ensue.

that's freakin' awesome.

[mnementh]

5000 Posts... Damn. Time for a Change.

Candidates are:         

Choose wisely; mnem has a strange sense of humor and may make you regret it.

mnem
muahahaha!!!

Ouroboros, no doubt.

Or as we are all going to think of it henceforth: "Dragon licking its own arse".

I chose Ouroboros... Just because Cerebus likes it.

mnem
"Yes... no... I dunno... Life is unfair..."

[mnementh]

...my first fiancee. Who was, incidentally, a batshit crazy redhead.

Weirdly, I also had a, let's be charitable, less than 100% equitably balanced redhead as a first fiancée.

Not weird at all to anybody who knows you even a little bit, buddy. Or anybody who knows me... 

mnem
"Couldn't happen to a nicer bloke... no, seriously... If he were even a little bit nicer, never woulda happened..." ~grand-dad

[mansaxel]

Looks very familiar. Used on IBM Z Series fiber channels. 

Yup, but I do guess those were FC SFPen; these were 1 GigE transceivers. The form factor is identical, but the line encoding is quite different.  The support for 10GE in our application will be forthcoming, but the CE did not have the latest software release with him, it was only supposed to be published CET Noon today. Living on the edge, are we.

[Cerebus]

The support for 10GE in our application will be forthcoming, but the CE did not have the latest software release with him, it was only supposed to be published CET Noon today. Living on the edge, are we.

Or your vendor is only just catching up with the times. I'm running 10Gbe at *home*, mostly built out of second-hand kit sold off by people who are moving to 40Gbe or faster.

[med6753]

No pictures. The carnage is too horrific for those with weak constitutions.  The Fluke 8810A has been stripped for parts.  Specifically the entire front LED/Switch board assembly and the main range switching relay. One the 8800A's was still experiencing intermittent manual range issues so those parts were swapped out. The result is the 8800A is now rock solid and the 8810A is in a sorry state. But it's survival of the fittest a the drifty 8810A was the sacrifice.  The 8800A was recalibrated and it's in spec on all ranges.

And here's an interesting tidbit....the LED/Switch board out of the 8810A was labeled “8800A”. More confusion as to what is different, if anything, between  them.   

[xrunner]

Here's the bd139 parts holder. I just shortened it by 10 mm so the bins are 40 x 40 mm. I like it, I think I'll start another one this evening. 

(or just go get some make-up at Wal Mart I'm getting low on blush anyways LOL)

[mansaxel]

The support for 10GE in our application will be forthcoming, but the CE did not have the latest software release with him, it was only supposed to be published CET Noon today. Living on the edge, are we.

Or your vendor is only just catching up with the times. I'm running 10Gbe at *home*, mostly built out of second-hand kit sold off by people who are moving to 40Gbe or faster.

Oh, those are only edge devices, running audio streams. They don't NEED more than GE. An audio channel is around 1.25Mbit/s, so there is plenty room with GE only. The switch I'm connecting them to has 10/25GE ports with 6x100GE backbone ports, though, so I like to think we're well on the crest of the adaptation wave.

Video is another thing, though. More of that next year, when I'm also hoping to run 10GE at home as well; my second-hand supply is limited to GE for the prices (free) I'd like to pay.

[med6753]

 

[AVGresponding]

The plot thickens with the 1953A.

No shorts on the board, pass transistor fine.

Lots of waaaay off tolerance carbon comp resistors, but none in the voltage reg circuitry.

Aaaand now it doesn't power up at all, the 5V rail is dead, and the _12V is no longer tracking the +12V, as it's at -21V   

Enough for today   

[Zucca]

Here's the bd139 parts holder. I just shortened it by 10 mm so the bins are 40 x 40 mm. I like it, I think I'll start another one this evening. 

(or just go get some make-up at Wal Mart I'm getting low on blush anyways LOL)

I use a Nespresso box:

[GreyWoolfe]

Here's the bd139 parts holder. I just shortened it by 10 mm so the bins are 40 x 40 mm. I like it, I think I'll start another one this evening. 

(or just go get some make-up at Wal Mart I'm getting low on blush anyways LOL)

I use a Nespresso box:

Is that stuff any good?  I see silly commercials on this side of the pond and wonder.  I am not a serious coffee drinker (sorry, bean) as life is too crazy to add caffeine to the mix.  When I do, it is some iced coffee first thing in the morning as Flori-DUH never really gets cold enough for a hot drink.

[Specmaster]

I just a series of these boxes from the "Really Useful Box" range of various sizes to suit whatever I'm working on, they benefit from having lids that held on by the clips at each end. Useful if the box gets accidently knocked over, saves the screws etc going under the bench. The small one shown here, I have about 20 of those in different colours so I can store small parts according to where / which board etc they came from.

[Zucca]

Is that stuff any good?  I see silly commercials on this side of the pond and wonder.  I am not a serious coffee drinker (sorry, bean) as life is too crazy to add caffeine to the mix.  When I do, it is some iced coffee first thing in the morning as Flori-DUH never really gets cold enough for a hot drink.

the taste is ok. Nothing superb as George Cloney believes.

What bothers me:
1) How much alu goes in the dump field
2) Probably 40% of what you pay goes in the commercial brand image killmyself.
3) The machine is a machine and will go tits up one day.

A good old Bialetti with a nice fresh grind coffee is hard to beat.

[bd139]

Quick evening 3DP project, this time at least electronics related. Decided to make some traditional style air core coil formers. This is a quick test run for an analogue VFO. The Q of an decent air core is higher and it is more temperature stable than toroids so it's a good experiment to see what the deal is with PLA as a former.

Input (starting to get the hang of freecad at last!)



Output, target 1.9uH. This is a quick draft print hence the shitty output quality:



Bingo!



Going to make a V2 with a couple of extra slots and run the return wire through the coil.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Got a packet with tubes...  about 20x RV12P2000 4x LS50, steel tubes and ...

one special tube filled with clean water   
(Attachment Link)

to short for full size SPRTs, but a beauty

You are sure that is just plain water? And not the special kind?

tick...tick...tiktiktiktiktiktik

[Cerebus]

Is that stuff any good?

Who cares? Take a simple thing, a single dose of coffee, and wrap as much energy-intensive, single use, non-biodegradable waste around it as possible? It's a criminal squandering of resources just so some jumped up millennial can get, at home, a half-arsed version of the coffee they Instagram about when they buy it in some chi-chi coffee shop. If they want a decent coffee at home let 'em learn to use a grinder and a proper espresso machine that'll cost no more than the fancy Nespresso machine anyway, and taste better, and won't consign loads of precious resources to landfill.

Not that I've really got an opinion about it. 

[Specmaster]

Quick evening 3DP project, this time at least electronics related. Decided to make some traditional style air core coil formers. This is a quick test run for an analogue VFO. The Q of an decent air core is higher and it is more temperature stable than toroids so it's a good experiment to see what the deal is with PLA as a former.

Input (starting to get the hang of freecad at last!)



Output, target 1.9uH. This is a quick draft print hence the shitty output quality:



Bingo!



Going to make a V2 with a couple of extra slots and run the return wire through the coil.

Great stuff, I'm still struggling to think of anything I could make if I had a printer apart from control knobs😉

[beanflying]

Here's the bd139 parts holder. I just shortened it by 10 mm so the bins are 40 x 40 mm. I like it, I think I'll start another one this evening. 

(or just go get some make-up at Wal Mart I'm getting low on blush anyways LOL)

I use a Nespresso box:

Is that stuff any good?  I see silly commercials on this side of the pond and wonder.  I am not a serious coffee drinker (sorry, bean) as life is too crazy to add caffeine to the mix.  When I do, it is some iced coffee first thing in the morning as Flori-DUH never really gets cold enough for a hot drink.

Apart from the stale contents and the NON Coffee component included in them they are another plastic waste breeder.

If you must go down the Pod path then at least buy refillable pods and fill them with FRESH roasted and ground beans. 

https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR5.TRC0.A0.H0.Xrefillable+pods.TRS0&_nkw=refillable+pods&_sacat=0

They are still muck in a cup compared to a real Espresso base partly due to the very reduced quantity of beans in the pod and also the rubbish extraction.

[nixiefreqq]

No pictures. The carnage is too horrific for those with weak constitutions.  The Fluke 8810A has been stripped for parts.  Specifically the entire front LED/Switch board assembly and the main range switching relay. One the 8800A's was still experiencing intermittent manual range issues so those parts were swapped out. The result is the 8800A is now rock solid and the 8810A is in a sorry state. But it's survival of the fittest a the drifty 8810A was the sacrifice.  The 8800A was recalibrated and it's in spec on all ranges.

And here's an interesting tidbit....the LED/Switch board out of the 8810A was labeled “8800A”. More confusion as to what is different, if anything, between  them.   

holy shitballs!  the poor thing was just a wee bit off in the least significant digit and you went all Hannibal Lecter on its ass?

where is the compassion?  oh the humanity!

couldn't you have just painted it (or slapped a fan on the back)?

gonna' go hide my drifty meters lest this is insanity is contagious and crosses the border into pennsylvania.

BEWARE OF NEW YORKERS WITH HAND TOOLS!

[bd139]

@beanflying: Agree. If you’re going to buy a coffee machine that runs on pods grab a tassimo and a refill kit. I haven’t got to grinding beans yet but it tastes closest to fresh and is a lot more consistent than my local half stoned baristas. I like burned ass Starbucks in it TBH. Nespresso stuff is vile - chemicals. Machine cost me £30 and is cheaper to run than a kettle.

@specmaster: knobs are on the print list too. Haven’t got good enough at Freecad yet to attempt them though.

[mnementh]

Fuck pods, fuck the machines that use them, and fuck the people who use the machines. They are a pox on the soul of humanity; utterly unmitigated shit in a convenient, easy to carry package.

mnem
 

[Carl_Smith]

When I find my self yet again disassembling electronic devices and I need a parts holder to keep track of all the tiny screws I like to use those snap together SMT part storage containers like these:

I don't trust open parts trays because invariably somewhere along the way I'll knock them over and loose the tiny screws that you can barely see that they seem to like to use in laptops and stuff these days.   I can put the parts in each container for each step, to keep track of what goes where, and then close each container so I don't loose them.

[Specmaster]

Fuck pods, fuck the machines that use them, and fuck the people who use the machines. They are a pox on the soul of humanity; utterly unmitigated shit in a convenient, easy to carry package.

mnem
 

What is so wrong with good old instant coffee from a jar, like Nescafe etc (battening down the hatches from the abuse that will surely come now from the seasoned coffee drinkers) 

[bd139]

Because it tastes like the devils smeg.