Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

@mansaxel: Sounds like the idiots who wired a DC up I saw. All redundant circuits were on the same two phases 

[tggzzz]

I am scared of the outcome as such. Having had a deep technical discussion on the witch computer and written a python virtual machine which is similar to it, I propose that I may end up with several hundred dekatrons and a large electricity bill if I buy one

A1: you would soon sell it to get a Ge transistor serial machine, e.g. an Elliott 803 in the next room to the Witch. (And then regret and make/buy another dekatron machine)

A2: I'll buy you one dekatron, if others chip in.

A3: ah, youngsters. No self-control.

Don't even start me on A1. I already have a copy of this downloaded and enough transistors stashed to build it! http://www.smrcc.org.uk/members/g4ugm/Manuals/wirelessworldcomputer.pdf

Oh I really wish I hadn't clicked on that link and looked at that. Really.   

Don't look at http://www.smrcc.org.uk/members/g4ugm/ACC/Vol3-Issue3.pdf from Aug 1975, which contains the first article on the Amateur Computer Club Weeny Bitter, a home-brew computer.

The next issues http://www.smrcc.org.uk/members/g4ugm/ACC/Vol3-Issue4.pdf http://www.smrcc.org.uk/members/g4ugm/ACC/Vol3-Issue5.pdf have a simulator written in Algol-60 (yay!), the schematics and TTL parts list.

Subsequent issues have errata and other followups.

[bsudbrink]

I am scared of the outcome as such. Having had a deep technical discussion on the witch computer and written a python virtual machine which is similar to it, I propose that I may end up with several hundred dekatrons and a large electricity bill if I buy one

A1: you would soon sell it to get a Ge transistor serial machine, e.g. an Elliott 803 in the next room to the Witch. (And then regret and make/buy another dekatron machine)

A2: I'll buy you one dekatron, if others chip in.

A3: ah, youngsters. No self-control.

Don't even start me on A1. I already have a copy of this downloaded and enough transistors stashed to build it! http://www.smrcc.org.uk/members/g4ugm/Manuals/wirelessworldcomputer.pdf

Oh I really wish I hadn't clicked on that link and looked at that. Really.   

I gotsta' make me one of those!

[med6753]

The RCA 54-45 scope is based upon the EICO 430 but I discovered that RCA made changes and “dumbed down” the design. The 54-45 schematic is first. The 430 schematic is second. RCA deleted the OA2 VR tube in their design. That VR tube is important because the Vertical Amp, with the exception of the input capacitor, is a directly coupled (DC) design all the way to the CRT. In order to be stable and drift free a DC amp should have regulated B+. The 430 has it, the 54-55 doesn't. Once I get the RCA scope all fixed up I'm going to see how stable it is. If it drifts around I'll add the OA2 to the circuit. OA2's are readily available on flea bay. And while there's no knock out on the chassis for a 7 pin tube socket there is plenty of room where I can add a tube socket on stand-offs if necessary.   

[Specmaster]

@mansaxel: Sounds like the idiots who wired a DC up I saw. All redundant circuits were on the same two phases 

Clearly cowboys, a good installation is one that has all 3 phases balanced so quite possibly a bunch of house bashers who have never come across 3 phases before, or under the impression that only machinery needs 3 phases to give the motors more grunt?

[mnementh]

I am scared of the outcome as such. Having had a deep technical discussion on the witch computer and written a python virtual machine which is similar to it, I propose that I may end up with several hundred dekatrons and a large electricity bill if I buy one

A1: you would soon sell it to get a Ge transistor serial machine, e.g. an Elliott 803 in the next room to the Witch. (And then regret and make/buy another dekatron machine)

A2: I'll buy you one dekatron, if others chip in.

A3: ah, youngsters. No self-control.

Don't even start me on A1. I already have a copy of this downloaded and enough transistors stashed to build it! http://www.smrcc.org.uk/members/g4ugm/Manuals/wirelessworldcomputer.pdf

Oh I really wish I hadn't clicked on that link and looked at that. Really.   

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Hey Spec.... how many boxes of those resistors did you say you have left...?

mnem

[worsthorse]

I am scared of the outcome as such. Having had a deep technical discussion on the witch computer and written a python virtual machine which is similar to it, I propose that I may end up with several hundred dekatrons and a large electricity bill if I buy one

A1: you would soon sell it to get a Ge transistor serial machine, e.g. an Elliott 803 in the next room to the Witch. (And then regret and make/buy another dekatron machine)

A2: I'll buy you one dekatron, if others chip in.

A3: ah, youngsters. No self-control.

Don't even start me on A1. I already have a copy of this downloaded and enough transistors stashed to build it! http://www.smrcc.org.uk/members/g4ugm/Manuals/wirelessworldcomputer.pdf

Oh I really wish I hadn't clicked on that link and looked at that. Really.   

Don't look at http://www.smrcc.org.uk/members/g4ugm/ACC/Vol3-Issue3.pdf from Aug 1975, which contains the first article on the Amateur Computer Club Weeny Bitter, a home-brew computer.

The next issues http://www.smrcc.org.uk/members/g4ugm/ACC/Vol3-Issue4.pdf http://www.smrcc.org.uk/members/g4ugm/ACC/Vol3-Issue5.pdf have a simulator written in Algol-60 (yay!), the schematics and TTL parts list.

Subsequent issues have errata and other followups.

I love stuff from my ill-spent youth. And I have a crate of (though clearly not enough of them) Ge transistors and such.  And how can you not love a project with 1800 resistors?

Plus, wirewrap!

mnem
 

YOU WILL NEED  66 panel mounted neons.  No stinkin' low voltage LEDs need apply. 

And... "Designed by B. Crank."

_________

worsthorse, who has clearly had too much coffee when he has a text wrangler window open so he can combine quotes from multiple eevblog posts and is wondering if he should have a logo like @mnen does.

[mnementh]

Can you dig it...?

I knew that you could... 

mnem
*time to feed the chiddlers... little grrl is gnawing on my ankle*

[med6753]

RE: Wireless World Digital Computer.

Clearly you guys are having wet dreams of your mis-spent youth. 

[mnementh]

Not really; I built a number of discrete DTL logic modules as part of my coursework, and this is just a "whole class project" intended to yield a simple computer from similar modules the whole class can learn on once completed. You know, from back in the day when "cooperation" and "group effort" weren't dirty words. 

I mean yeah... this article is older than I am. But that doesn't mean I can't appreciate it or that the material therein hasn't touched my life directly. 

mnem
Also, my misspent youth included eighty 9V batteries series-stacked on a 2x6 just for shits & giggles.

[Neomys Sapiens]

I was intending to give you an update on how my work is totally taking care of the problem how to spend my time and energy, and report on how some people at work 'pulled a Elsie the Cow' (die Kuh Elsa) on me.

Then it dawned upon me that this would have gotten me blank stares bereft of any understanding from the anglophone world, as this piece of humor might never have been translated. I'll have to locate a transcription and translate it, but I can show you what the technical context was.

We still need telling about Elsa. Not one I've heard, and I know all about Rhabarberbabarabarbarbarenbartbabierbierbarbärbel... 

Well, I'll try. (from memory)
It starts with an owner of a large estate, who is somewhere else, being called in the middle of the night and told that his cow Elsa (one of several hundred) is deceased.
After a short moment of anger the owner regains his composure and asks under what circumstances the bovine came to death. The answer is that a structural member of the stable hit her on the head after she had survived the stable burning down (with all the other cows).  Asking how that could happen, he is told that the fire started when his son dropped a lighter, with his arms being in plaster and such.
Now even more alarmed, he asks what happened to his son and is told that he fell down the stairs when trying to decorate for the funeral of his mother - the owner's wife.

It is synonymous here with very bad news being fed to someone in a totally ridiculous way by starting with something totally insignificant while the truly shocking events come out one after another only after asking. I'm not really good at this, but I am sure that now you can relate it to a local equivalent.

[Zucca]

It was so much much fun today, I was in heaven at the Produtronica 2019 here in Munich.

EDIT: Removed my ugly face.

spolier just for the TEA dragons:



much much more to come.

Next year you have to come with me.

 

[Wolfgang]

New ? VFDs in 2019 ? Hardly.
The only thing new in this one is lead-free solder. This part is a Methusalem, nevertheless it has the new black Keysight color so you can see the dust better. 

[beanflying]

It was so much much fun today, I was in heaven

(Attachment Link)

spolier just for the TEA dragons:

(Attachment Link)

much much more to come.

Next year you have to come with me.

Well the Keysight is clearly useless it won't match the beige of my other gear 

[Mr. Scram]

Nice VCR.

[Neomys Sapiens]

It was so much much fun today, I was in heaven

(Attachment Link)

spolier just for the TEA dragons:

(Attachment Link)

much much more to come.

Next year you have to come with me.

One would think that they could at least call it a 3458B now, with the third name and another coulour and all.
I intended to go too, but see the 'cow Elsie' thing for hindrances. And one, two, three manuals to write. And a whole ****load of MTBF calculations to redo. And to find the reason behind the current-pumping failure mode of a RF power amplifier, where my precedessors have built a control loop for the biasing of the capricious power MOSFETs without any provision to watch what is happening inside.

But I think it's two years until the next Productronica or did they change that alternating schedule?

[Specmaster]

Hey Spec.... how many boxes of those resistors did you say you have left...?

mnem

I probably have the wrong values anyway  , otherwise I might just be able to muster enough for this 

[Neomys Sapiens]

At least, a Multizet eff, which is the moving iron version of the ubiquitous Siemens Multizet, joining the herd for small change.
Not exactly rare, but exotic insofar as the moving iron meter is normally used only in switchgear instruments.

[med6753]

New ? VFDs in 2019 ? Hardly.
The only thing new in this one is lead-free solder. This part is a Methusalem, nevertheless it has the new black Keysight color so you can see the dust better. 

And either it's out of cal or the 10V reference is off. 

[med6753]

It was so much much fun today, I was in heaven

(Attachment Link)

spolier just for the TEA dragons:

(Attachment Link)

much much more to come.

Next year you have to come with me.

Well the Keysight is clearly useless it won't match the beige of my other gear 

Easily fixed. 

[Neomys Sapiens]

@Zucca: As I have the impression that HTB is closing shop silently, did any new names in the serious pre-owned T&M business pop up?

[med6753]

Nice VCR.

Beta or VHS? 

[Kosmic]

Nice VCR.

Beta or VHS? 

Funny initially thought it looked weird in black, but once you guys started talking about VCR, now it's the only thing I'm seeing

[Cerebus]

I was intending to give you an update on how my work is totally taking care of the problem how to spend my time and energy, and report on how some people at work 'pulled a Elsie the Cow' (die Kuh Elsa) on me.

Then it dawned upon me that this would have gotten me blank stares bereft of any understanding from the anglophone world, as this piece of humor might never have been translated. I'll have to locate a transcription and translate it, but I can show you what the technical context was.

We still need telling about Elsa. Not one I've heard, and I know all about Rhabarberbabarabarbarbarenbartbabierbierbarbärbel... 

Well, I'll try. (from memory)
It starts with an owner of a large estate, who is somewhere else, being called in the middle of the night and told that his cow Elsa (one of several hundred) is deceased.
After a short moment of anger the owner regains his composure and asks under what circumstances the bovine came to death. The answer is that a structural member of the stable hit her on the head after she had survived the stable burning down (with all the other cows).  Asking how that could happen, he is told that the fire started when his son dropped a lighter, with his arms being in plaster and such.
Now even more alarmed, he asks what happened to his son and is told that he fell down the stairs when trying to decorate for the funeral of his mother - the owner's wife.

It is synonymous here with very bad news being fed to someone in a totally ridiculous way by starting with something totally insignificant while the truly shocking events come out one after another only after asking. I'm not really good at this, but I am sure that now you can relate it to a local equivalent.

Thanks for that.  I kind of got the jist from the video Mnem posted last night. I say 'jist' because the one thing I can never even really begin to follow in German is comedy - too fast, too much word play and so on. To be honest, my German comprehension is still very much at the "Bitte, langsam und klar" stage.

What's concerning is that I immediately got a feeling for where it was going from the way the initial "Elsa ist todt" (or whatever was actually said) was said; it suggests that I've heard something similar from some of my past German colleagues way too often.