Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Neomys Sapiens]

So it's the same old BS "The bell ends will object, so do NOTHING" argument...? Come on C... I know you can do better than that.

Those people are free to install any ducking color switch/outlets they like; up to and including painting them as they see fit if that's their choice. The point being... there should be SOME standard for this sh...tuff that both manufacturers and installers CAN adhere to, so that it's not a matter of writing on the covers with a ducking Sharpie or having to bring a labeler because nobody can be arsed to take responsibility for making a simple color choice.     

mnem
*back into 3DP hell*

So do what us sensible British chaps do, have a physically different socket. As I said in another message, we use 2A round pin plugs for lighting outlets. In fact there's no bar to you guys over there adopting exactly the same socket and plug. Heck, you weirdos need a decent mains plug for something.

With all due respect, please let those victorian contraptions be confined to your island. That is what the differently coded CEE positions are for.
But there is a proper industrial practice which solves the problem too. It means to mark a receptacle or other element with the reference designator of the element from which it is supplied. If it comes from a fuse/breaker that is different than a switch.

[med6753]

I had one of that very model back in the day when I was a volunteer firefighter... was pretty sensitive with a center-loaded antenna about half-extended.  Have you ever seen the pagers they used back then? Little portable receivers with tone squelch based on a cluster of mechanical reeds. Ducking amazing that sh...tuff worked at all, and more so that it survived as long as it did. Some of the pagers were already 20 years old when I joined.

Yep, and it's still very sensitive and picks up the stations fine but the audio is half what it should be and surprisingly not very distorted. 

A dicky coupling cap perhaps ?

My first thought and why I have a nearly complete set of replacement capacitors on hand ready to install. Tomorrow's activity.

[Neomys Sapiens]

thanks for asking, no, it was cancer. My daughter has to write her centralized finals and spend about 40 hours with her classmates who have been doing their corona parties   

I'll be driving up north (she lives with my Ex about 300 miles north) to give her a mask and some filters that are literally unobtainium around here. I can't imagine though what writing finals must feel like with a 3M 6000 or 7500 series mask on her face for 8+ hours ...
Absolutely not what we had in mind for her final year of school.

Not helping your daughter, but you are giving me an idea how we could make something out of this damned Corona problem. For example, the technical trade schools could hold their practical tests in Level3 HazMat suits. I would like to see that fumbling - and contrary to the normal content it might provide a bit of a challenge!

[Saskia]

I also have 5 single use masks that I will hand her, but I still think forcing kids to write their finals under these circumstances (and have 3 tests in just one week) a  move.

[Neomys Sapiens]

If a room does not have an entry switched ceiling light I think the code requires at least one outlet wired to the entry wall switch dedicated for lighting.

Not applicable here.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Well regarding deliveries from the U.S. to Germany:

They come in at Frankfurt airport and are being handed over to a special sorting office of DHL.
I'm waiting for a plate sticker for an Agilent 8110A that I bought and paid on March 5th, 2020. It made it's way over to Frankfurt and was "out for delivery" there on March 20th, 2020. "Out for delivery" is the step when it's handed over to the DHL/customs sorting office.
After that: No f***ing tracking by DHL anymore!   

I have opened a case at *bay now before I'm over the deadline for doing so. Told the seller how it is and that it's not against him. 

I'm waiting since four weeks for this packet being delivered now!
Calling DHL to have them investigating where the packet is won't help.
Been there, didn't help at all: That packet back then was delivered to my local customs office and I picked it up long before DHL answered my request: DHL was not able to find the packet.        

My parcel from Japan to Germany (sent on the 21.02.2020) has supposedly been in Frankfurt customs since the end of February. Other things I ordered later have already made it through Frankfurt customs, so I expect I won't ever be seeing this one.

McBryce.

Maybe have a look at Zoll-auktion.de 

[bd139]

I also have 5 single use masks that I will hand her, but I still think forcing kids to write their finals under these circumstances (and have 3 tests in just one week) a  move.

That's terrible.

Then again here they're getting the teachers to estimate the GCSE grades and that's final. Which is a shit show as it has to be based on the mock exam grades done and the teachers, on the record, said that they'd purposely marked them low. Plus being proto-nazis a lot of the teachers have grudges against particular students

On top of that they've started pushing google classroom out to students. Now the teachers have no idea how to use it because my kids went to a school run by luddites so there has been no time to onboard people including staff. Therefore I've got an 8 year old, who can barely type, having to do 5h work days according to their limits uploaded as non editable powerpoint documents you can't "turn in" because the teachers are lazy halfwit fucks who only know how to copy and paste worksheets they downloaded after a 30 second gogole session. They sent the wrong URL to everyone ( https://www.googleclassroom.net/ ) which has caused everyone short of a couple of slices to hit a wall instantly. And I've got a 13 year old who can't actually get into it because whoever set it up forgot some people and no one knows if it's the school, the LEA or a subcontractor adding user accounts

[Neomys Sapiens]

Somebody here in Germany interested in a Fluke 3330B DC calibrator?
Pick-up only in Kraichtal Baden-Württemberg (near Bruchsal/Karlsruhe).

https://www.ebay.de/itm/143586084444

Photo from the auction:


No affiliations with the seller.

What is it with eBay, I have entered the description into eBay UK, clicked on the European option and it fails to show this?

Could it be the same problem that I had with some sellers in the US? When they state that one should contact them for oversea sales, so they are not excluding it but also they have not entered it into ebay, I can't see theit offers until I make up an adress in the US under 'shipping to'.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Also, here is a definitely exotic one for the fanciers of Nixie displays:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Raritat-Altes-Multimeter-mit-Rohrendisplay-Fa-Zierold-Digimet-ZD-2001/193430077585

[Specmaster]

Somebody here in Germany interested in a Fluke 3330B DC calibrator?
Pick-up only in Kraichtal Baden-Württemberg (near Bruchsal/Karlsruhe).

https://www.ebay.de/itm/143586084444

Photo from the auction:


No affiliations with the seller.

What is it with eBay, I have entered the description into eBay UK, clicked on the European option and it fails to show this?

Could it be the same problem that I had with some sellers in the US? When they state that one should contact them for oversea sales, so they are not excluding it but also they have not entered it into ebay, I can't see theit offers until I make up an adress in the US under 'shipping to'.

Yes, it could be, I had to do that, not that I'm particularly interested in getting it, but who knows, if the price was right.... But all I've had to do before with eBay is to type in the item number and bingo, not this time, I think that maybe this newer version of eBay has lost some of the usefulness of the old version?

[Saskia]

a friend just ordered 20 pairs of FFP2 filters for the 6000 series masks for me, hopefully they arrive be EOW.

These fucktard politicians ... why can't they just take the average grades the kids have done over the past 4 years ?
That would have been halfway fair and rewarded those that have been working hard to achieve some good grades.

in other news, I am currently looking at a Hameg lab power supply for a reasonable amount of money ...
Can't afford the new R&S ...

btw. any opinions on EAPS PSUs ? I have the 2016-100 sitting here, next to my 3 channel Korad.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Left light switch turns the socket on and off. It’s wired to the wrong bit of the switch. Also correlates with the switch rather than the light bulb as well due to the dual switch topology. Total nightmare to work that out I bet for Zucca 

It's not that obvious because zucca's picture shows the switches wrong; a 3-way lighting switch is a SPDT toggle, so is ALWAYS making contact with one or the other point. What he has there is sortof a ON-OFF-ON SPDT. (either that, or the common symbol for a switch has evolved and I'm just an old fart who expects things to be "a certain way")

It is absolutely normal to have an outlet wired in parallel to an overhead light switch for a floor/table lamp. Most often over here they'll have it as one half of a duplex outlet, as med suggests. This arrangement however... if zucca has it right... means that in one position, the power to that outlet actually is in series with the overhead lamp. That would DEFINITELY have you and   in short order. 

Since color-coded outlets are a common thing nowadays... you'd think they'd develop a standard color code to denote switched outlets and the related switches and the same with 3-way switches. I've seen some strange ones; like the house I'm in now, which has the fan in the upstairs bathroom (instead of using a timer switch) 3-way wired to a switch downstairs next to the thermostat in the dining room.  Since they already have timer switches all over the place, the only reason I can think of for this instead of a timer is so that fan can be turned on from downstairs; maybe if "he" stinks up the joint and forgets to turn on the fan...?

mnem

I think it is a crappy drawing software problem and/or Zucca maybe being not a stickler for IEC conformal symbols. Switch is 1 form C - that other type, i.e. on-off-on would have to show the root contact in the mid position. BTW, that 'Pull' and 'Throw' notation should be discarded entirely!

[Saskia]

other news: received my USB Eprom programmer today. 2 days after ordering from banggood
(who in Odin's name comes up with a name of banggood , anyway ... must be chinese...

I like chinese, I like chinese, they only come up to your ....

[bd139]

It's called Banggood because sometimes it goes bang and sometimes it's good

[Neomys Sapiens]

a friend just ordered 20 pairs of FFP2 filters for the 6000 series masks for me, hopefully they arrive be EOW.

These fucktard politicians ... why can't they just take the average grades the kids have done over the past 4 years ?
That would have been halfway fair and rewarded those that have been working hard to achieve some good grades.

in other news, I am currently looking at a Hameg lab power supply for a reasonable amount of money ...
Can't afford the new R&S ...

btw. any opinions on EAPS PSUs ? I have the 2016-100 sitting here, next to my 3 channel Korad.

EA is solid technology, except that one of them annoyed me once. I had to test some limit relay circuits for the SOFIA switchgear and thought I could do it by ear. I wondered why the value of the resistor had no effect at all. What I heard was the relay of the EA power supply ...
Had a good laugh after with the co-workers.

HAMEG - I would not. I was there when the current multi-output lab PS (or the one before) was in development and it is not how I like a Lab PS to work. Could PM you more.

If not EA, maybe Delta? A bit more robust and conventional in the power path, but as someone here demonstrated, well built and repairable!

What power/voltage/current ranges and other features are you looking for? There are some other candidates as well.

[Saskia]

I had a somewhat different association, but then I am not a native speaker.

The PS I am eyeing is the 7042. If you have some advice please do not hesitate to let me know.
I have my EAPS, a Korad 3 channel and a single channel Korad. I don't necessarily *need* another one, it's the 'want' factor if I can upgrade my stuff for a reasonable amount of money. I would not swap it out for a less worthy though ...

It would be great to have something capable of driving a solenoid with 70V. None of my current PS can do that, the maximum is 30V. This will suffice to get some reaction on the solenoid, but not for properly testing it.

[Specmaster]

Left light switch turns the socket on and off. It’s wired to the wrong bit of the switch. Also correlates with the switch rather than the light bulb as well due to the dual switch topology. Total nightmare to work that out I bet for Zucca 

It's not that obvious because zucca's picture shows the switches wrong; a 3-way lighting switch is a SPDT toggle, so is ALWAYS making contact with one or the other point. What he has there is sortof a ON-OFF-ON SPDT. (either that, or the common symbol for a switch has evolved and I'm just an old fart who expects things to be "a certain way")

It is absolutely normal to have an outlet wired in parallel to an overhead light switch for a floor/table lamp. Most often over here they'll have it as one half of a duplex outlet, as med suggests. This arrangement however... if zucca has it right... means that in one position, the power to that outlet actually is in series with the overhead lamp. That would DEFINITELY have you and   in short order. 

Since color-coded outlets are a common thing nowadays... you'd think they'd develop a standard color code to denote switched outlets and the related switches and the same with 3-way switches. I've seen some strange ones; like the house I'm in now, which has the fan in the upstairs bathroom (instead of using a timer switch) 3-way wired to a switch downstairs next to the thermostat in the dining room.  Since they already have timer switches all over the place, the only reason I can think of for this instead of a timer is so that fan can be turned on from downstairs; maybe if "he" stinks up the joint and forgets to turn on the fan...?

mnem

I think it is a crappy drawing software problem and/or Zucca maybe being not a stickler for IEC conformal symbols. Switch is 1 form C - that other type, i.e. on-off-on would have to show the root contact in the mid position. BTW, that 'Pull' and 'Throw' notation should be discarded entirely!

Somehow I'm struggling to believe that these are prepared symbols, I think that these are some that Zucca drew. All the symbols that I have seen are symmetrical and these aren't. These remind of an old colleague who when he used to draw up schematics to aid on site installation would do it all in MS Paint, bear in mind that these were being used commercially, they just didn't present a professional image 

So with that in mind I feel that Zucca felt that this was a better option to present the schematic in this fashion than a hand drawn one, The moving contact of switches is just drawn in to show that the contact is infact a SPDT switch, if they were SPTT, i.e. SP on-off-on then a commercially drawn symbol would have had the common terminal central on the vertical plain and if was a 3 position switch it would have shown a off contact position equidistant between the upper and lower strapper contacts. This is also shown by the fact that the moving contact is different in both symbols.

So IMO this is in essence a back of cigarette packet drawing updated to try to make it clearer and easier for everyone to understand. I understood it perfectly.

[Cerebus]

So it's the same old BS "The bell ends will object, so do NOTHING" argument...? Come on C... I know you can do better than that.

Those people are free to install any ducking color switch/outlets they like; up to and including painting them as they see fit if that's their choice. The point being... there should be SOME standard for this sh...tuff that both manufacturers and installers CAN adhere to, so that it's not a matter of writing on the covers with a ducking Sharpie or having to bring a labeler because nobody can be arsed to take responsibility for making a simple color choice.     

mnem
*back into 3DP hell*

So do what us sensible British chaps do, have a physically different socket. As I said in another message, we use 2A round pin plugs for lighting outlets. In fact there's no bar to you guys over there adopting exactly the same socket and plug. Heck, you weirdos need a decent mains plug for something.

With all due respect, please let those victorian contraptions be confined to your island. That is what the differently coded CEE positions are for.
But there is a proper industrial practice which solves the problem too. It means to mark a receptacle or other element with the reference designator of the element from which it is supplied. If it comes from a fuse/breaker that is different than a switch.

You really want a dirty great CEE connector on the lamp stand in your living room? Good luck with that...

[AVGresponding]

You're unlikely to see those round pin lighting plugs outside of an industrial/commercial environment.
I've certainly never seen one in a domestic setting.

Well you haven't been round my in-laws house then because when they had an extension to their lounge done, I rewired their house and I installed a few 2A sockets in the lounge and dining room so that they could plug in some mode lighting lamps for atmosphere, fed from the lighting circuit and switched via a multi switch plate.

Really? Well, about all I can say to that is, welcome to the 1950s!

[tautech]

I had a somewhat different association, but then I am not a native speaker.

The PS I am eyeing is the 7042. If you have some advice please do not hesitate to let me know.
I have my EAPS, a Korad 3 channel and a single channel Korad. I don't necessarily *need* another one, it's the 'want' factor if I can upgrade my stuff for a reasonable amount of money. I would not swap it out for a less worthy though ...

It would be great to have something capable of driving a solenoid with 70V. None of my current PS can do that, the maximum is 30V. This will suffice to get some reaction on the solenoid, but not for properly testing it.

A multi channel 30V PSU with series capability will get you close.

[Saskia]

I was thinking about that (the series capability) but am not sure if the Korad can do this. The Hameg will probably not be able, but I have not checked this.

[mansaxel]

You really want a dirty great CEE connector on the lamp stand in your living room? Good luck with that...

That, that would be Wonderful!

Then again, I've got a 32HE Rittal bay frame in the living room. With a bantam jackfield for the central matrix. Am sitting pondering to do a Mutteruhr/Nebenuhr system if I can get hold of enough displays, taking the time from a divider-by-60 driven from my GPSDO 1PPS output. (the clocks want a DC pulse once a minute, with alternating polarity, so minute 1 is +, minute 2 is -, et c. ) And, as smoking gun, I'm posting in this thread  So, of course, I'd like "Commandos" (as they're known in the UK) in my living room.

[tautech]

I was thinking about that (the series capability) but am not sure if the Korad can do this. The Hameg will probably not be able, but I have not checked this.

Any decent PSU with isolated channels can do this either with an external hardwire connection or if available an internal series connection driven by the UI.

[Specmaster]

You really want a dirty great CEE connector on the lamp stand in your living room? Good luck with that...

That, that would be Wonderful!

Then again, I've got a 32HE Rittal bay frame in the living room. With a bantam jackfield for the central matrix. Am sitting pondering to do a Mutteruhr/Nebenuhr system if I can get hold of enough displays, taking the time from a divider-by-60 driven from my GPSDO 1PPS output. (the clocks want a DC pulse once a minute, with alternating polarity, so minute 1 is +, minute 2 is -, et c. ) And, as smoking gun, I'm posting in this thread  So, of course, I'd like "Commandos" (as they're known in the UK) in my living room.

And I suspect your still single?  My SWMBO would use that as grounds for a divorce pronto I'm sure.

[Wolfgang]

I was thinking about that (the series capability) but am not sure if the Korad can do this. The Hameg will probably not be able, but I have not checked this.

RIGOL DP832 ? Thats at least 64V/3A. And it works.