Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

If she's Italian, he's done for  . I think I'd just wait. 

[BU508A]

all this discussion about 3D printing makes me checking for a printer for myself.
I'm tending to buy a Prusa i3 MK3S (self assembling), looking at all these tests.
Even the German Make: Magazin 05/2019 (heise.de) recommends this printer.

But the Ender 3 Pro is also looking promising. What I do not understand: why is the Prusa
3-times more expensive than the Ender? *scratching head*

Looking at the construction of the Prusa gives me more confidence than to the Ender 3 but I cannot nail it down to some dedicated points.
It's more like a guts-feeling.

Will watch this further ...

Ender 3 Pro:
https://www.creality3dofficial.com/products/creality-ender-3-pro-3d-printer

Prusa i3 MK3S:
https://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printers/180-original-prusa-i3-mk3-kit.html#/7-color-black_and_orange/51-spring_steel_sheet-both_sheets

ALL3DP reviews:

Ender 3 Pro:
https://all3dp.com/1/creality-ender-3-pro-3d-printer-review/

Prusa i3 MK3S:
https://all3dp.com/1/original-prusa-i3-mk3-review/

[bd139]

Prusa is better but not 2.5x as good. Which is why the Ender is better

[med6753]

If she's Italian, he's done for  . I think I'd just wait. 

Absolutely and completely. I almost married one and I'll tell you if I did I wouldn't be here today. 

[grizewald]

The 7061 has arrived!



Thankfully, it was well packed and has survived the journey from The Netherlands to Sweden without damage. It even seems to work!

More COTO relays and precision resistors than you can shake a stick at.



Upon opening the case, I was greeted by the left over smell from when the previous Schaffner mains filter committed suicide. The remnants of the smoke created by the boiling pitch are easy to see.



The white plugs on the voltage selection part of the filter are actually much more dirty than the photo would suggest. At least I don't need to immediately order a new filter.

There is a small problem which needs immediate attention though...


 
Maybe those batteries should be called "Time Bomb" instead of Mempac?

[bd139]

Yeah those buggers are nasty. Not quite as bad as the other types: http://www.cjemicros.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/DSCF0996.jpg

[grizewald]

Wow! That really is nasty.

I'd say that PCB is well and truly "beyond economic repair".

[BU508A]

The 7061 has arrived!

I love those blue displays!  Hope, you'll enjoy this nice meter.

 
Maybe those batteries should be called "Time Bomb" instead of Mempac?

A battery after 30 years installed? I wouldn't consider this as a surprise. (with an "s") 

[grizewald]

A battery after 30 years installed? I wouldn't consider this as a surprise. (with an "s") 

I don't find it that surprising that the battery is dead, but honestly, how hard is it to make a battery that doesn't start discharging highly corrosive potassium hydroxide over the PCB once it is spent? Memory backup batteries are a liability.

[Cerebus]

I suspect that it's an intrinsically hard problem. Batteries depend on electrochemistry for their operation, corrosion is an electrochemical effect, put the two together and you've got a problem. The only way around the problem would be to make the parts of a battery that aren't part of the electrochemical 'physics package' out of polymers or the like that aren't going to get involved in the electrochemistry and then I suspect other material properties come into play - heat tolerance, electrolyte permeability etc.

[McBryce]

Easy, don't solder the battery right in the middle of the PCB. Put the battery in a box with flyleads to the PCB - Problem solved.

McBryce.

[Cubdriver]

The 7061 has arrived!


 

Damn.  It's possible that the dies for some of those ICs could have come out of the National plant in Danbury, CT.  I was there from mid 1984 until they closed it in 1990 and we had transistor, TTL and CMOS lines in operation, and were certainly making 'jellybean'-type ICs.  Good luck with your new toy!

-Pat

<edit to fix photo link>

[tggzzz]

A battery after 30 years installed? I wouldn't consider this as a surprise. (with an "s") 

I don't find it that surprising that the battery is dead, but honestly, how hard is it to make a battery that doesn't start discharging highly corrosive potassium hydroxide over the PCB once it is spent? Memory backup batteries are a liability.

But the manufacturer presumed that the meter wouldn't be in use 1/3 of a century later

If it is like the 7081 (that board looks similar), that battery is unimportant and it might even be possible to omit replacing it. ISTR the battery is for the captured data and maybe a RTC.

In my 7081 the cal data is in NVM on one of the "floating" boards behind the input socket, and there's no battery there.

[Wolfgang]

well... i live in 26sqm apartment so a have to choose between bed or laser cutter or buy a big laser cutter and sleep inside 

Bunk Bed and put the Laser and printer up top? 

This looks like another example of what not can be built using 3D printers.
They make whole cars, furniture, ...

Just the material will cost you a small fortune, and printing time is probably in the order of weeks.
Still this is sissy stuff. Real men would mill the whole thing from a huge block of plastic. 

[mnementh]

Stop posting awesome 3D printed stuff...   I want to kill myself.

If it's any consolation... I had to make this same decision a couple months ago myself: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0134FY4CW/

In retrospect... not a single fucking regret. Waking up actually feeling rested instead of like I'd spent the night fucking/fighting a kangaroo... No contest. Let the kangaroo win, if it'll bring you a new mattress.

Most people don't even realize how bad their old one had gotten until they get a new, decent one; and this pattern repeats over and over, decade after decade.

A good mattress wins hands-down over any toy; it really is one of the most neglected yet fundamentally critical aspects of anybody's quality of life. 

mnem
"If this is anything like it is with them 'roos, we gonn' need more room."

[mnementh]

Got to say it was nice last night at Ikea on my own. Got myself a nice new frying pan, cable tray and some daim bars. Not half a car full of salad shakers, bathroom pots, plants which will be murdered by the end of the week and candles that smell like a fire in a jelly bean factory.

I can get the same experience without the backbreaking hike AND enjoy a cuppa coffee perusing Amazon on my 32" 165Hz monitor. And no regrets when I get the new what-the-fuckever model 3.0 home and discover it's just cheap particle-board or a crappy imitation of some actual quality name brand hard good I could have bought for the same price elsewhere.  Fuck Ikea with a shovel.

mnem

[Specmaster]

Got to say it was nice last night at Ikea on my own. Got myself a nice new frying pan, cable tray and some daim bars. Not half a car full of salad shakers, bathroom pots, plants which will be murdered by the end of the week and candles that smell like a fire in a jelly bean factory.

I can get the same experience without the backbreaking hike AND enjoy a cuppa coffee perusing Amazon on my 32" 165Hz monitor. And no regrets when I get the new what-the-fuckever model 3.0 home and discover it's just cheap particle-board or a crappy imitation of some actual quality name brand hard good I could have bought for the same price elsewhere.  Fuck Ikea with a shovel.

mnem

Wow, who pissed on your cornflakes then  Ikea is not that bad, at least over this side of the pond. Their main rivals have long since gone to the wall, so we clearly don't have the depth of products on offer as you have over there, we don't have much choice in the matter. At least with Ikea you can actually go and see the quality of the item(s) before buying 

[bd139]

Yeah I fucking love Ikea. I just hate going there with other people 

Anyway "bench refactor" complete. Decided to move to a desk first model and just get the equipment out I need when I need it thus minimalism it is. Better for the mental health and much more working space. I reckon there's enough space to handle a Tek 7000 series now 



Edit: hmm reckon I can get a reasonable sized 4k monitor in there 

[mnementh]

Anything with "big fucking laser" in it is the correct answer 

Even better.

all this discussion about 3D printing makes me checking for a printer for myself.
I'm tending to buy a Prusa i3 MK3S (self assembling), looking at all these tests.
Even the German Make: Magazin 05/2019 (heise.de) recommends this printer.

But the Ender 3 Pro is also looking promising. What I do not understand: why is the Prusa
3-times more expensive than the Ender? *scratching head*

Looking at the construction of the Prusa gives me more confidence than to the Ender 3 but I cannot nail it down to some dedicated points.
It's more like a guts-feeling.

Will watch this further ...

Ender 3 Pro:
https://www.creality3dofficial.com/products/creality-ender-3-pro-3d-printer

Prusa i3 MK3S:
https://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printers/180-original-prusa-i3-mk3-kit.html#/7-color-black_and_orange/51-spring_steel_sheet-both_sheets

ALL3DP reviews:

Ender 3 Pro:
https://all3dp.com/1/creality-ender-3-pro-3d-printer-review/

Prusa i3 MK3S:
https://all3dp.com/1/original-prusa-i3-mk3-review/

The PRUSAs are 90% elitist wankery, plain & simple. Yeah, sure they were the first to "market" back in the day. Get a decent 8040 extrusion based chassis with all metal frame parts and you're already ahead of the game; fuck PRUSA and their stupid shit frames made of printed shit. 

The Ender 3 is a fabulous starter OR 2nd machine; They are 90% preassembled so you know it's gonna work right out of the box, so you can get right into the "fine-tuning" aspect instead of "did I put that roller on the wrong side of the channel...?" etc first build headaches. Really, there is no way you can go wrong at the price of the thing unless you buy it from some markup wankmeister store.

The only qualifier I'd make to that is that if you can afford a little more, seek out and buy one of the other models with a dual-Z upgrade and ceramic heated bed (even if it has the Build-Tak surface on there and you have to peel it off) already included. Those would be my #1 & #2 features over the Ender 3/Ender 3 Pro.

mnem
I have too much blood in my caffeine circulatory system.

[mnementh]

Got to say it was nice last night at Ikea on my own. Got myself a nice new frying pan, cable tray and some daim bars. Not half a car full of salad shakers, bathroom pots, plants which will be murdered by the end of the week and candles that smell like a fire in a jelly bean factory.

I can get the same experience without the backbreaking hike AND enjoy a cuppa coffee perusing Amazon on my 32" 165Hz monitor. And no regrets when I get the new what-the-fuckever model 3.0 home and discover it's just cheap particle-board or a crappy imitation of some actual quality name brand hard good I could have bought for the same price elsewhere.  Fuck Ikea with a shovel.

mnem

Wow, who pissed on your cornflakes then  Ikea is not that bad, at least over this side of the pond. Their main rivals have long since gone to the wall, so we clearly don't have the depth of products on offer as you have over there, we don't have much choice in the matter. At least with Ikea you can actually go and see the quality of the item(s) before buying 

Ikea pissed in my cornflakes; they're EVERYTHING that's wrong with western-style capitalism. I've been there many times; the allure of "everything under one roof" is compelling, I'll admit. I've NEVER been NOT disappointed; either in the quality of what I got home or at the realization of how much I overpaid for the few things I actually DID like. NONE of the their stuff is "GOOD" quality; it's all Chinesium import goods custom-made first to a price, with quality at best a tertiary concern.   

Just putting it all together in a fucking multilevel coliseum does NOT make any of it worth the powder to blow it to hell.

mnem
It's like SEARS without the feeling of qwalitee. 

[med6753]

Remind me to stay away from Ikea.   

Let's all piss in the dragon's corn flakes. 

[BU508A]

In Germany, IKEA means: Idioten Kaufen Einfach Alles.

Means: Idiots buy simply all.  Or so.

[BU508A]

The PRUSAs are 90% elitist wankery, plain & simple. Yeah, sure they were the first to "market" back in the day. Get a decent 8040 extrusion based chassis with all metal frame parts and you're already ahead of the game; fuck PRUSA and their stupid shit frames made of printed shit. 

The Ender 3 is a fabulous starter OR 2nd machine; They are 90% preassembled so you know it's gonna work right out of the box, so you can get right into the "fine-tuning" aspect instead of "did I put that roller on the wrong side of the channel...?" etc first build headaches. Really, there is no way you can go wrong at the price of the thing unless you buy it from some markup wankmeister store.

The only qualifier I'd make to that is that if you can afford a little more, seek out and buy one of the other models with a dual-Z upgrade and ceramic heated bed (even if it has the Build-Tak surface on there and you have to peel it off) already included. Those would be my #1 & #2 features over the Ender 3/Ender 3 Pro.

Thanks for your loud and clear words.  I appreciate that.

I did a little search with google. just to verify:
You are talking about these things?

The ceramic bed:
https://www.creality3dofficial.com/products/creality-new-upgraded-heated-bed-build-plate-surface

And the dual-z-axis upgrade:
https://www.aliexpress.com/i/33008433245.html

Strange thing is: I didn't find it on the Creality website. Maybe I'm overlooking something? 

[med6753]

No "Idioten Kaufen Einfach Alles" here.  Everything you see in this photo was custom built by me with 2 exceptions. The shelf that the Sony ICF-5500W is on and just barely visible in the far corner the cart with the white printer.

And I make no claims as to being a carpenter or cabinet maker. Regular hand/power tools, good planning, and measure twice and cut once. 

[BU508A]

@med:

Spot on! 

I do like the comfy-chair!