Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[WastelandTek]

god, I'm sorry worsthorse

that is one of the hardest things

[Kosmic]

i am having a not-so-great evening.  sitting in a pet hospital er waiting room, hoping my dear old dog’s kidneys haven’t failed.

 

[tautech]

As a young fella I thought granddad was a silly old bugger when he told me the sad thing about dogs is they are not with us long ....in human terms. Now I'm a silly old bugger myself, well how right was he !

Niko, Woe, Jed, Di, Tip, Smoke and Prince have all now departed to that rabbit chase in the sky, each after years of faithful service as a 'man of the land's' tool yet each still has a soft spot in my heart for the wonderful things each of them was good at.
Spare a thought for the vets that have to deal with the dirty job and loss of their customers pets each and every day which is why I elected decades ago to spare them of it.
Terrible that it is each of us and our pets will have our last day and it's a privilege to have them give you a decade or more of service tempered by the day when their time has come.
Not one had less than a week of deliberation before the dirty deed had to be done ! 

[beanflying]

Now a few of you have convinced yourselves to get a 3D printer. Add a Laser to the wish list  Trial fit prior to gluing, neat press fit joints on the dozen parts.

[VK5RC]

@worsthorse - commiserations - dogs give so much.
 One of the saddest things is how short they live, unfortunately 2 of our wee beasties (Airedales) are 13yrs old - time ticks so fast.

[jake111]

I like the cabinets.  What material is that counter surface?

[VK5RC]

The bench top is a Corian type material, very happy with it, unfortunately the cabinets are veneer, and a bit rough around the edges.

[tautech]

Now a few of you have convinced yourselves to get a 3D printer. Add a Laser to the wish list  Trial fit prior to gluing, neat press fit joints on the dozen parts.

And where is the lid so they don't carve you up next time you reach for them !   

[beanflying]

Now a few of you have convinced yourselves to get a 3D printer. Add a Laser to the wish list  Trial fit prior to gluing, neat press fit joints on the dozen parts.

And where is the lid so they don't carve you up next time you reach for them !   

If the level of Drunk is that high I can't get them out without blood I clearly won't feel the pain  If on the other hand it is due to lack of Caffeine there will be  aplenty.

[tautech]

Now a few of you have convinced yourselves to get a 3D printer. Add a Laser to the wish list  Trial fit prior to gluing, neat press fit joints on the dozen parts.

And where is the lid so they don't carve you up next time you reach for them !   

If the level of Drunk is that high I can't get them out without blood I clearly won't feel the pain  If on the other hand it is due to lack of Caffeine there will be  aplenty.

Then you'll need to increase the level of Drunk until it hurts no more ! 

Better still, maintain a level of Drunk.   

[beanflying]

Speaking of which it is 6pm so it is about time to crack the top on one.

Also Lasered up some corner brackets from 4.5mm Acrylic for a Router Fixture sure beats marking out and trying to make it look nice on the edges

[worsthorse]

thanks all for the kind words. a long night here.

[BravoV]

Ok just got home. Today’s haul:

...

3400A meter is peeling badly And it has the old style line connector so will require some work. I know someone who has a 3400A meter floating around which will go in it if I can lever it off them for a decent price  . ....

Just an offer locally, no peeling, cosmetically still perfect, wonder how much its worth guys ?

Will you snatch it for about 35 Yankee bucks ? 

EDIT :

Yep, I got many-many moving coil meters already, more than I need. 

[BU508A]

*groooooannnnn*

*throws soggy ol' boots in BU508A's general direction*

mnem
I forgot to put something pithy down here.

Thanks. Just in case if you'd have a second one, I'd appreciate it.   

[mnementh]

...........baked taters with too much butter ...........

Wubbish !     Never too much butter but tatties are better still deep fried in beef dripping. Yum !   With lotsa salt !

TOO MUCH is JUST enough! 

mnem
*gurkle-gurkle-gurkle...*

10kg at a time much ?   

Back in an earlier life when I owned/operated a C30 StepVan roach coach (perversely named the Weenie Wagon  ) selling "only the finest Sabrett's dirty water dogs and accessories!", one of the crowd favorites was a nor'eastern delicacy known as salt potatoes.

   https://www.amazon.ca/Bayou-Classic-200-440-44-Qt-Turkey/dp/B076XHJFNC

You start out with 40-qt kettle like this one and a 25lb bag of  baby russet potatoes (these are about the size of a golf ball or smaller) in DIY seawater, boil 'em on high until you can stab one through with a bamboo skewer while it's floating on the rolling boil, then turn down the heat and let 'em simmer while you mix a little shredded garlic/onion with a tub of butter (actually, any of a number of name-brand margarines worked better but shhhhh! ). By the time that concoction had turned liquid on the steam table & started to smell sweet, it was time to add the taters to the table & serve. Any leftovers or over a 4-hour limit on the steam table (it did happen from time to time ) got stored in the fridge until next morning, then diced and fried to go with eggs or in breakfast tacos; but usually I wound up making taters fresh at breakfast too.

I cooked a fukkin' LOT of taters in that truck...   

mnem

[bd139]

Ok just got home. Today’s haul:

...

3400A meter is peeling badly And it has the old style line connector so will require some work. I know someone who has a 3400A meter floating around which will go in it if I can lever it off them for a decent price  . ....

Just an offer locally, no peeling, cosmetically still perfect, wonder how much its worth guys ?

Will you snatch it for about 35 Yankee bucks ? 

EDIT :

Yep, I got many-many moving coil meters already, more than I need. 

I'm working on a whole crate of Abbots Ale at the moment. As I already have it and I'm not going to drink it  .

The dude in quesiton was selling lots of HP parts on ebay until about 3 years ago when his computer blew up and he lost all his ebay account details. His house is still full of it. It means actually going to the local radio club to get it though which I don't want to do because they are all dicks. Also it's probably peeling as well and he just assumed it wasn't as he can't see his nose most of the time. Not sure why I bother. 

Edit: also to note this is the guy I bought a couple of Tek attentuators from a few years ago and he handed them over with no legs and told me they were fine and he didn't remember seeing any legs on them 

[mnementh]

*groooooannnnn*

*throws soggy ol' boots in BU508A's general direction*

mnem
I forgot to put something pithy down here.

   Thanks. Just in case if you'd have a second one, I'd appreciate it.   

Jeebus... I threw three atcha already; are y'all really THAT hungry...?

mnem
*fuel*

[BU508A]

*groooooannnnn*

*throws soggy ol' boots in BU508A's general direction*

mnem
I forgot to put something pithy down here.

   Thanks. Just in case if you'd have a second one, I'd appreciate it.   

Jeebus... I threw three atcha already; are y'all really THAT hungry...?

You'll have NO idea... 

[mnementh]

   

Welp... THAT was entirely unsatisfying.   

Picked this AVX-44 up a couple weeks ago on a thrifting excursion; it had no pigtail so was being sold cheap. Usually I have to dismantle to the main PCB & trace out the wires with a meter against the datasheet of whatever IC they're using for finals in the thing (Power/ACC/GND are usually pretty easy to ID) and reprogram whatever physically compatible plug I have lying around. It's a nice little bit of mental exercise.  Damn if these wiseasses didn't print a pinout of the main wiring harness right on the PCB!!! Took me about 45 minutes all told; disassembly & reassembly included. 

Now where's the fun in THAT...?!? 

mnem
Now I have nothing to do all morning; I may actually have to spend time with my family... *mumble-grumble*

[SilverSolder]

Speaking of which it is 6pm so it is about time to crack the top on one.

Also Lasered up some corner brackets from 4.5mm Acrylic for a Router Fixture sure beats marking out and trying to make it look nice on the edges

So what do you use for the laser work...  do you already have a CNC stage that you adapted?

[beanflying]

Speaking of which it is 6pm so it is about time to crack the top on one.

Also Lasered up some corner brackets from 4.5mm Acrylic for a Router Fixture sure beats marking out and trying to make it look nice on the edges

So what do you use for the laser work...  do you already have a CNC stage that you adapted?

Some of the details here of the wee beast https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/40w-300x200mm-laser-cutter-engraver-vollerun/msg1665956/#msg1665956

[bd139]

Blimey. Just got Radcom through the door this morning. ML&S litter for the first few pages with shiny things that don't work very well. There's a half arsed review of a Ksger T12 that doesn't even open the thing up and whine about the mains safety issues but has a whole paragraph on being a cheap arse. This is followed by someone restoring the bird shat covered remains of a rusty beam antenna. Then an advert for MFJ's new "arrived broken" stuff. Then some unrealistically priced second hand crap and some valve vultures offering collection. This is followed by the letters section in which some miserable hostile elitist twat complains that they should revoke amateur licenses for people who don't progress past foundation quickly (perhaps they just wanted some legit 2m action?!?!). At the end "shitty propagation this month".  . In the bin. Really not selling it are they. I'm surprised I didn't see a letter rant that "membership is dwindling". Of course it is - no one wants to spend 50 smackers a year on that crap.

[med6753]

Unfortunately it does look like ham radio is dying a slow death. Once all those Hobo's go SK I don't think there will be much left. 

[bd139]

Yep indeed. It's ass end of solar cycle now as well. Also if you go to the hamfests I'm the youngest dude there these days which is scary as I'm not that young. Perhaps I should pillage all the valves out of their shit for test gear 

[med6753]

Took a break from the re-cap of the 535A to finish up the re-cap of the linear section of the PSU in the 485.

Balance of the capacitors changed out. Risking the low value (under 15uf) tants. 15uf and above have been changed. All electrolytics changed.



This 2nd 485 is now done. On the torture rack displaying the 1MHz calibrator into 50 ohms that tggzzz is so fond of. Notice how much smaller the CRT is compared to it's cousin 475A.