Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Plus I need some time to plan a suitable mid life crisis 

I don't think planning is involved, more stumbling blindly, or plunging recklessly.

That’s exactly what I mean by planning. A former colleague of mine got a DWA license approved the other day and is now attempting to obtain a crocodile.

mnem

[med6753]

News.....NY, NJ, and CT just ordered all casinos and gyms closed as of 8 PM today. Restaurants are take out or drive up only. No seating. 

[Ice-Tea]

[AVGresponding]

Haha who needs a gym membership when vintage TE is this size?

I need a kindly US member to buy this for me, than ship it on at sensible shipping cost: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-10241A-10-1-Divider-Probe-Tip-for-HP-1120A-and-1121A-Active-Probes-500-MHz/223947513877   


Here are some other picks of the day: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HeathKit-Capaci-Tester-Model-IT-22/184212372434

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GenRad-1658-RLC-Digibridge-1658-9700/313028189464

This looks nice but collection only, it's already been relisted with a price drop: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/philips-pm-3315-125Mhz-DSO/133359307747

This guy is often hugely optimistic on prices: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-576-Curve-Tracer-PR/223886510658

This seems great value for a 900Ah battery pack: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-USB-900000mAh-Portable-Backup-LED-Power-Bank-Battery-Charger-For-Mobile-Phone-/133357961245   

[med6753]

No smoke! That's a good thing! 

Start with the PSU.

[mnementh]

   There is always the Helmet Aerial option for additional cred     

Oh, ... please, no.   

Why ?     Gorgeous ground plane. 

Damn... beat me to it! 

Fingers crossed. I'll be surprised if Hermes can fuck up a Fluke. TBH our local regular driver is pretty good and reliable, just upstream you don't know about.

Yes working from home now. Everyone at the company is. I think it's a policy applied by our parent company as well so that's about 9000 people working from home suddenly. I get the feeling the infrastructure is going to bend soon. Already got problems with voice calls on slack and the inevitable problems of getting about 300 odd people using VPNs and stuff 

Yes, I think you're right, for many people, this working from home will become a permanent thing and companies will be making money from it as well. While working from home, your saving them massive amounts of energy costs, etc and I predict that many buildings will be either sold off or sub divided and let out as smaller units.

It really has to be a permanent thing and something I've been a proponent of for a long time (I've worked from home 90% of the time since 2009). At the moment we burn vast amounts of energy moving people around for what is fundamentally tradition and a lack of trust. That means we then have to drag all the required supporting resources to wherever people congregate to do work. This costs more energy. In line with the other direction of this thread today, it's insane and unsustainable. Travel needs to go down and we need to invest in logistics, distributed working models and reduction of energy consumption. I think peak insanity is actually Tesla. While the direction is marginally better, we're still moving a mountain or two every day for absolutely no fucking reason at all and enabling that. Need to start fixing society rather than enabling existing behaviour with new tech.

Sadly, no. What will REALLY happen is that those in charge will get to see exactly how few people really NEED to be at the office for it to function, and look to outsource everybody else's workload to India for 1/4 the cost; because obviously everybody else is fucking expendable. 

Crikey that’s a special one 

So....after all that time/money building/testing/aligning that transceiver you toss the whole kit in the closet?     I dare not predict your next wacko move. 

Yup. Turns out I like making things but get bored after that     I should throw that effort into product development. I’ve got some ideas.

There you go, you've said that before, just after I joined this elite club of ours 

Yeah and I got absolutely bloody nowhere with it 

Same here; I LOVE the building aspect, but then lose interest. I spent months and megabux building my Ryzen Gaming/VR rig; now all that remains is getting the software sorted and... I STILL mostly use it as my daily driver. About once a week I dust off the goggles and poke around in VR; play a little Beat Saber and get frustrated with something Steam has changed since the last time I played, then quit and go read webcomics to cool off. 

mnem
But hey... at least I'm all caught up on Schlock Mercenary.

[Specmaster]

Yep, to me a fluke with a edge operated range switch isn't a proper fluke.

The 8060A fanboys probably just put our names on some kind of list...

Maybe, I don't care, but equally I wasn't talking about vintage meters, but more shall we say up to date style of meter, unlike the early 77's and the 115 with the range switch designed to allow it to be operated with a thumb whilst holding the meter. Thats not a sensible thing to do switch ranges while probing but those meters make easier to do 

[Kosmic]

News.....NY, NJ, and CT just ordered all casinos and gyms closed as of 8 PM today. Restaurants are take out or drive up only. No seating. 

Bar, Theater, Gym and all non essential establishment were ordered to close yesterday over here. Restaurants are only allowed 50% capacity for now one. Just a question of time until they close completely.

As long as they deliver my package I'm going to be OK

Ironically look like the different sellers from china resumed their activity. I'm waiting for some parts.

[med6753]

I got parts coming today too. They are out for delivery. 

[AVGresponding]

Yep, to me a fluke with a edge operated range switch isn't a proper fluke.

The 8060A fanboys probably just put our names on some kind of list...

Maybe, I don't care, but equally I wasn't talking about vintage meters, but more shall we say up to date style of meter, unlike the early 77's and the 115 with the range switch designed to allow it to be operated with a thumb whilst holding the meter. Thats not a sensible thing to do switch ranges while probing but those meters make easier to do 

To be fair (and to completely contradict myself also     ) I do find the thumb-ability of the range switch on my T5-1000 to be really useful, especially if I'm wearing builders gloves.
I'd not be switching ranges while probing, but I might well be needing my other hand for something else (holding tools, holding on for grim life at the top of a wobbly 10 metre portable scaffold etc).

[mnementh]

If you read and agree to their terms and it's an informed decision, it's a choice. If you read their terms and can't understand and hate them, or if you don't bother and just hate them for having terms, it's paranoia.

I never had to do any such thing with my GoPro Session; it just worked. I never wanted their software for anything except offline video editing; if you're using their studio for pics (actually, if you're using a GoPro for pics) you're wasting your time. The WiFi interface was never worth the hassle in real-time; trying to "frame a subject" within the fisheye effect of a GoPro is like trying to kill a swarm of bees with a pistol. 

I agree with having to sign in to the mobile app being BS; it never had that when I used it, and while smartphones are getting better about privacy and security, they're still just a incessant data leak in your pocket. With the app for my Session the only thing you signed into was your social media, which I cared fuck all about.

They changed the app overnight and caught many people out. Check the link I posted earlier for people calling GoPro out on their forum. The app could definitely come in handy but they killed much of that overnight.

Yes, and I saw elsewhere that folks figured out very quickly how to sideload the older version and fix the problem. The real problem here is that folks got used to being able to do something stupid with their GoPro (The whole WiFi/phone viewer thing instead of just a cheap LCD on the cam was an absolutely fucktarded idea by GoPro) and then lost that ability.

Yeah, sure... it probably sucked out loud at the time for a segment of their user base... but I REALLY have a hard time getting angry about it now.  I was never stupid enough to buy into that functionality anyways, as it was absolutely the antithesis of what GoPro was all about: A monkey-can-use-it simple action camera, built like a tank, to take pictures and vidzz when you wanna do something in a camera-hostile environment.

That was why it never had a viewfinder display to begin with, and the whole point of the fisheye wide-angle lens; you concentrate on what you're DOING, and all you have to do is point the cam roughly in the direction of the action to get the shot. It's when stupid people started DEMANDING cinematography features that the whole GoPro thing turned stupid. 

mnem
 

[Kosmic]

Booo just missed a Lecroy AP031 differential probe that pop up on ebay this morning for 100$

Got distracted and forgot about it, it's sold already 

[mnementh]

That was why it never had a viewfinder display to begin with, and the whole point of the fisheye wide-angle lens; you concentrate on what you're DOING, and all you have to do is point the cam roughly in the direction of the action to get the shot. It's when stupid people started DEMANDING cinematography features that the whole GoPro thing turned stupid. 

And now, looking at the website, I see the Chinese invasion DID make them alter their roadmap in a positive direction: The Hero7 Silver looks to be a effing AWESOME cam for $199. 4K/30 & 1440P/60, waterproof to 10m without a shell, and touchscreen viewfinder. Lots of opportunity for them to sell accessories and to upsell to better 4K video models, yet still no NEED for any apps.

Same thing happened with Apple and the iPad Air 9.7" models: I bought my first new iPad EVER Christmas of 2018 for my daughter; at $299-64GB/$349-256GB, it was really a no-brainer. A GREAT value in tablet computing. PERIOD. More than a year later, I STILL do not regret springing the extra 50 clams to max it out, either.

mnem
moo?

[Cerebus]

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function" --Al Barlett

It'a a toss up between that and most people's inability to understand "The probability of a coin coming up heads on the next toss is ¹/₂, no matter what has happened in the previous n tosses."

[worsthorse]

There is always the Helmet Aerial option for additional cred 

i am certain that somewhere, someone is selling a kit version of this. cause in ham radio, that's how we roll.   

[mnementh]

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function" --Al Barlett

It'a a toss up between that and most people's inability to understand "The probability of a coin coming up heads on the next toss is ¹/₂, no matter what has happened in the previous n tosses."

Except when it doesn't. 

mnem
*agitating-ily*

[worsthorse]

There you go, you've said that before, just after I joined this elite club of ours 

Wow, I didn't know I was in an Elite Club. I always said I never join any club that would have me as a member. 

Yeah and I got absolutely bloody nowhere with it 

I haven't made any ham contacts in a couple of months. I was down to just using FT8 anyway just to make long distance contacts. It just got boring. I'll still try to work a DXpedition but other than that it just sits there unused. Oh but I do talk to people on two meters still, to practice social distancing skills. 

I mucked with FT8 for a while. It was fun to see how far I could toss a small signal but the automated nature of it got boring fast. Might as well be communicating with an automated subway turnstile. Even JT65 was more interesting.    I still do HF traffic nets, which is mostly a way to check in with people I only see at hamfests, but most of my on air time is spent doing wilderness race support. I guess that's as much about being in the mountains as it is the radioing piece.

[GreyWoolfe]

[...]
 At the moment we burn vast amounts of energy moving people around for what is fundamentally tradition and a lack of trust.
[...]

There is more to it than that, though.  We are fundamentally social beings, we need to interact with other humans.  Doing so only online (directly from our brains floating in an aquarium or something, in the extreme) is not going to work...   we can definitely interact with people online (like we are doing right now) but we also need "real" interactions.

Outside of Mrs GreyWoolfe, my son and daughter-in-law, there are very few people I care to regularly interact with.  That includes the stepdaughter that still lives with us.  Thankfully, her husband transferred back to the other side of the state and she and granddaughter are following in June.  Very excited to finally be empty nesters though I will miss the granddaughter.  I have been a field service tech for almost 21 years and almost 16 of that working from home with my current company.  I interact by phone with my co-workers and I see people when I actually can't fix the issue by phone/remote and have to head to the site.  I am quite content to be with Mrs GreyWoolfe, my dogs and computer/book.  If we won the lottery, I'd be the one living on an island guarded by sharks with frikkin' lasers on their heads.

[med6753]

Parts for the next projects. All those capacitors are for one piece of equipment. I will reveal tomorrow what that equipment is. The black object is the replacement LTC-7P lithium battery for the Tek 2430 NVRAM. I'll be ripping into that later in the week.

[Specmaster]

[...]
 At the moment we burn vast amounts of energy moving people around for what is fundamentally tradition and a lack of trust.
[...]

There is more to it than that, though.  We are fundamentally social beings, we need to interact with other humans.  Doing so only online (directly from our brains floating in an aquarium or something, in the extreme) is not going to work...   we can definitely interact with people online (like we are doing right now) but we also need "real" interactions.

Outside of Mrs GreyWoolfe, my son and daughter-in-law, there are very few people I care to regularly interact with.  That includes the stepdaughter that still lives with us.  Thankfully, her husband transferred back to the other side of the state and she and granddaughter are following in June.  Very excited to finally be empty nesters though I will miss the granddaughter.  I have been a field service tech for almost 21 years and almost 16 of that working from home with my current company.  I interact by phone with my co-workers and I see people when I actually can't fix the issue by phone/remote and have to head to the site.  I am quite content to be with Mrs GreyWoolfe, my dogs and computer/book.  If we won the lottery, I'd be the one living on an island guarded by sharks with frikkin' lasers on their heads.

Much the same here if I won enough, either that or I'd buy all the houses in my close and turn it into a gated estate and then I could use the other houses as labs etc without having SWMBO nagging me to tidy up. 

[Mr. Scram]

Yes, and I saw elsewhere that folks figured out very quickly how to sideload the older version and fix the problem. The real problem here is that folks got used to being able to do something stupid with their GoPro (The whole WiFi/phone viewer thing instead of just a cheap LCD on the cam was an absolutely fucktarded idea by GoPro) and then lost that ability.

Yeah, sure... it probably sucked out loud at the time for a segment of their user base... but I REALLY have a hard time getting angry about it now.  I was never stupid enough to buy into that functionality anyways, as it was absolutely the antithesis of what GoPro was all about: A monkey-can-use-it simple action camera, built like a tank, to take pictures and vidzz when you wanna do something in a camera-hostile environment.

That was why it never had a viewfinder display to begin with, and the whole point of the fisheye wide-angle lens; you concentrate on what you're DOING, and all you have to do is point the cam roughly in the direction of the action to get the shot. It's when stupid people started DEMANDING cinematography features that the whole GoPro thing turned stupid. 

mnem
 

You can't expect the rest of the world to be the genius you are. We can't all be the sharpest bulb in the shed.

[factory]

I need a kindly US member to buy this for me, than ship it on at sensible shipping cost: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-10241A-10-1-Divider-Probe-Tip-for-HP-1120A-and-1121A-Active-Probes-500-MHz/223947513877   

Have you tried asking the seller if they will send it by a more sensible service? "Express" is not needed. 

Here are some other picks of the day:
This guy is often hugely optimistic on prices: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-576-Curve-Tracer-PR/223886510658

It was £1200 a few weeks ago, seems a lot for something that doesn't even show a trace on the CRT. 

David

[AVGresponding]

I need a kindly US member to buy this for me, than ship it on at sensible shipping cost: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-10241A-10-1-Divider-Probe-Tip-for-HP-1120A-and-1121A-Active-Probes-500-MHz/223947513877   

Have you tried asking the seller if they will send it by a more sensible service? "Express" is not needed. 

I'll give that a try, thanks.

Here are some other picks of the day:
This guy is often hugely optimistic on prices: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-576-Curve-Tracer-PR/223886510658[/color][/b]

It was £1200 a few weeks ago, seems a lot for something that doesn't even show a trace on the CRT. 

David

Yeah, I don't think he really knows the market value on most of the test gear he gets.

He had a Digimess 1.5kW bench psu up for £100 + shipping a week or so back, it went while I was uhming and ahing about whether I had space for it   

If you ever want to build a Panavia Tornado from scratch though, he's the place to go for parts   

[bd139]

Ah I know that guy. I keep nearly buying missile launcher switches from him. Then I give myself a mental slap round the face and tell myself to be sensible 

[mnementh]

On the Bench This Afternoon: GoPro Hero 2014 Edition
(SNIP)
I'm still vacillating over whether to allow GoPro software on ANY PC I own long enough to update the FW; the possibility of 1080P/60FPS does make me think.

mnem
*lunch-dwagon*

The Hero+ or LCD versions were more interesting offering but this was the time oriental competition really got into stride. I don't think GoPro ever was the same since. Regardless it's a good find for 15 Canapesos. Looks like you're hard at work filling the new house up with thrift store junk. I mean treasures. 

Guilty as charged. It's as much a matter of boredom as anything, I'm afraid.  (SNIP)

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07X5TZ7J8/

This should keep me off the streets & out of trouble for a day or three. With the authorities closing events and shops left & right due to the global COVID charlie-foxtrot, the wife is ALREADY ready to break my foot off in my own ass... All 3 of her children have been driving her batty for a week now. 

Selling points:

Cheap as chips, PLUS $40 off; PRIME delivery

32-bit Board, Trinamic 2208s, 4.3" Touchscreen

Glass upgraded, heated bed w/oversized knibberty-knobs

Proper IEC Power

EOF Sensor, Print Resume Marlin FW

Well-rated on Amazon; EVERYBODY seems to hate EVERYTHING not ENDER on Amazon 

Kit form, and probably a POS... so should keep me busy for a while fixing all the little "stoopit shit" things.

I toyed with getting this franchise-builder Ender 3: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07P68LDLG/  but wasn't convinced it was all CREALITY quality. I'll probably regret it...

mnem
Good thing I have a Dremel...