Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[psykok]

Now I have a hp tower 

[bd139]

Oooooh 8640B's. niiice. If the gears aren't all buggered 

[psykok]

Oooooh 8640B's. niiice. If the gears aren't all buggered 

The gears are ok on both devices

Never had a 8640, it’s  an amazing  piece of equipment.

[bd139]

That's good to hear. I'd check them over carefully anyway as they do crack and die suddenly. One reason I keep getting put off buying the things. There's a guy who manufactures replacements but the cost is similar to another 8640B now.

[psykok]

This kind of gear  (with the center metal insert) are prone to brake, I had the same issue in an other device.

Should be easy do build such gear with a 3d printer.

[Specmaster]

Not sure if a 3d printed part would be strong enough to transfer the torque required?

[bd139]

It might be ok if you did it in ABS. I haven't tried printing that yet as you tend to have to do it somewhere with good ventilation and it current lives in the living room fireplace which is not the best 

[Specmaster]

What makes them crack in the first place then?

[BU508A]

Anbody interested in a HP 3580A Audio Spectrum Analyzer?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133413675483



no affiliations with the seller

[mnementh]

Somehow Amazon's contract delivery has apparently lost my coffee filters which were never transferred to USPS. They already issued me a refund. First time a package has gone completely FUBAR except for the recent extended delivery times.

Go Old School Cowboy Coffee and strain it through your teeth

Slightly seriously I am a big fan of the Sock rather than Paper. It is a fine Cotton cloth that lets more oils (more flavor) through than the paper and avoids the occasional fine sediment you get in mesh filters. Re-cleanable a bunch of time with a proper clean in Espresso cleaner every few days. 'Coffee Sock' on Amazon should get you some hits.

+1  for Ranch Style. Don't knock it until you've had it. You'll never go back to coffee tartare.

mnem

[bd139]

I'm getting lazy. I discovered coffee bags by accident when looking for coffee that wasn't nasty as hell to do on a Trangia and they're not actually that bad. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B072JJLMDT/

Tassimo went in the trash a couple of weeks back.

[psykok]

Anbody interested in a HP 3580A Audio Spectrum Analyzer?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133413675483


I would love to have it but they are usually going for indecent money.





no affiliations with the seller

[psykok]

What makes them crack in the first place then?

Usually such gear a braking because of the metal insert.

[mnementh]

Motherfucker at UPS. Just turned up to pick up parcel. Parked the van outside with the side open and I can see a fucking CPC keyboard shaped box. So I asked him to check it.

"got no deliveries today mate for you"

Told him to check it.

"oh looks like it wasnt on the manifest"

Now have keyboard

 

There ya go, bd. 

Dunno about over there but here Amazon is not meeting their 2 day ship commitments on "non-essential" Prime items. More often your order stays in a cue for as much as 5 days before it ships. Given that I pay extra for Prime I wonder if I bitched loud enough if they would issue a partial refund or extend my Prime account by a few months? Yea, sounds like a crappy thing to do given this pandemic situation but hey, I paid for a service that you are not honoring.

What to do? Be a jerk or just let it slide? 

I have been thinking the same thing myself. I think it would be a nice gesture if they were to issue a statement saying for the duration of the pandemic  and while they have this massive backlog to clear, that they automatically gave each prime member 6 months or even a years service free, its not as if they depend on our subscriptions to keep the company going.

I canceled my Prime membership due to the slow shipping service - WTF am I paying for?  They can't blame the postal service because eBay sellers did not have the same levels of delay.

It's not the shipping itself that's the issue. Once they finally do fill the order and ship it I get it just as quickly as before the shit hit the fan. The problem is internal to Amazon and actually filling the order. For example: I just ordered motor oil that's a Prime item. They are not going to fill the order and ship until May 28th and it's in stock.

You have to wonder how waiting 5 days to send it helps anything?  -  All they are doing is introducing a 5 day delay, they are not altering the size of the stream of goods...

Whineasses. Definitely first world problem. Boo hoo... 3/4 of the country is closed up shop entirely, I have to wait a week before Amazon ships me my 3D printer parts because they're prioritizing food & medical shipments 6 days out of 7. Guess I'll have to while away the hours watching Prime TV or listening to Prime Music, which their servers are getting fuxxoring SLAMMED but they're still providing service.

Get a little sense of fucking proportion.

mnem

[mnementh]

I'm getting lazy. I discovered coffee bags by accident when looking for coffee that wasn't nasty as hell to do on a Trangia and they're not actually that bad. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B072JJLMDT/

Tassimo went in the trash a couple of weeks back.

Uggghhh... that stuff tastes like socks.

Good on ya for chunking the Tassimo tho. 

mnem

[bd139]

Tasty tasty socks 

TBH I drink it black with no sugar so it tastes like shit wherever it comes from 

[mnementh]

   Went for reds. Keyboard very nice apart from one really flipping annoying "feature" and that is the cherry lock function. Perfect for games but when in office mode, which honest is what this keyboard will be spending most of its time in, it has the scariest bright white LED under the windows key that you've ever seen.   On a positive not it's a lot quieter than the reds are in the K63. it's about the same as an old Cherry business line keyboard on noise. Absolutely glorious to type on though and the wrist rest and positioning is perfect. I'll desolder that LED this evening as it appears no warranty stickers are obscuring any screws

I was going to suggest you pop the key off and apply a little dab of paint or "borrowed" nail polish, but you resolved problem with a FW update.  I actually like everything about that KB, except I guess I've gotten a little spoiled by my Toughbooks and my new Lenovo. I'm just NOT willing to give up "backlit" in my keyboard anymore; I now consider it to be a "minimum standard" feature since I found I could get "backlit" in a $27 cheapie. 

mnem
moo...?

[Specmaster]

I'm getting lazy. I discovered coffee bags by accident when looking for coffee that wasn't nasty as hell to do on a Trangia and they're not actually that bad. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B072JJLMDT/

Tassimo went in the trash a couple of weeks back.

I'm getting the distinct feeling here lately that you're becoming a bit of prepper 

[mnementh]

What makes them crack in the first place then?

Usually such gear a braking because of the metal insert.

Age and plastic embrittlement are the cause; the metal insert is to provide sufficient wear/tensile strength on smaller gears with fewer teeth contacting the chain. Not really a fault; plastic gears were chosen where possible for quietness, smoother cogging action and resistance to rusting up; just different design criteria from previous age gear. Lets face it; that instrument has still outlived design spec by a factor of 4 or 5.

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

   Went for reds. Keyboard very nice apart from one really flipping annoying "feature" and that is the cherry lock function. Perfect for games but when in office mode, which honest is what this keyboard will be spending most of its time in, it has the scariest bright white LED under the windows key that you've ever seen.   On a positive not it's a lot quieter than the reds are in the K63. it's about the same as an old Cherry business line keyboard on noise. Absolutely glorious to type on though and the wrist rest and positioning is perfect. I'll desolder that LED this evening as it appears no warranty stickers are obscuring any screws

I was going to suggest you pop the key off and apply a little dab of paint or "borrowed" nail polish, but you resolved problem with a FW update.  I actually like everything about that KB, except I guess I've gotten a little spoiled by my Toughbooks and my new Lenovo. I'm just NOT willing to give up "backlit" in my keyboard anymore; I now consider it to be a "minimum standard" feature since I found I could get "backlit" in a $27 cheapie. 

mnem
moo...?

I'm in agreement with you, I consider backlighting a minimum requirement now, eyes aren't the same as you get older  but seriously most keyboards these days do lack contrast on the key caps.

[mnementh]

This kind of gear  (with the center metal insert) are prone to brake, I had the same issue in an other device.

Should be easy do build such gear with a 3d printer.

Pretty sure even PLA would provide sufficient strength IF you design the new gear such that the old metal insert gets "melted into place" into the hub. 

mnem
Nice pants.

[bd139]

I'm getting lazy. I discovered coffee bags by accident when looking for coffee that wasn't nasty as hell to do on a Trangia and they're not actually that bad. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B072JJLMDT/

Tassimo went in the trash a couple of weeks back.

I'm getting the distinct feeling here lately that you're becoming a bit of prepper 

Oh hell no. That was pure 100% unadulterated cheap arsery that was. I was going to do a few two days hikes peak season and I'll be buggered if I'm paying £200 for a hotel for a night but you can get a camp site for £15 a night. Figure three trips and that's a saving of a nice tent and some sleeping bits and it's fun to cook stuff yourself on a trangia. Coffee is a massive problem when you're camping though and I can't be arsed with dragging around all the weird ass expensive camping coffee paraphernalia that appeared on the market. Makes you look like hooky as hell pulling what looks like a coffee bong out. And carrying a good old thermos flask means you have to carefully trade off water and coffee weight. Just boil a sack and done. Can trade off later. Solved.

[bd139]

   Went for reds. Keyboard very nice apart from one really flipping annoying "feature" and that is the cherry lock function. Perfect for games but when in office mode, which honest is what this keyboard will be spending most of its time in, it has the scariest bright white LED under the windows key that you've ever seen.   On a positive not it's a lot quieter than the reds are in the K63. it's about the same as an old Cherry business line keyboard on noise. Absolutely glorious to type on though and the wrist rest and positioning is perfect. I'll desolder that LED this evening as it appears no warranty stickers are obscuring any screws

I was going to suggest you pop the key off and apply a little dab of paint or "borrowed" nail polish, but you resolved problem with a FW update.  I actually like everything about that KB, except I guess I've gotten a little spoiled by my Toughbooks and my new Lenovo. I'm just NOT willing to give up "backlit" in my keyboard anymore; I now consider it to be a "minimum standard" feature since I found I could get "backlit" in a $27 cheapie. 

mnem
moo...?

yeah same. My T470 has an illuminated keyboard. I rather like them as well. Subtle neutral colours like white are good.

With firmware fix, low illumination:



Written a few hundred lines of kubernetes manifests and got used to the keys being different shapes now and this is exactly what I've been after.

(excuse the skanky hand prints on it now  )

[mnementh]

I'm getting lazy. I discovered coffee bags by accident when looking for coffee that wasn't nasty as hell to do on a Trangia and they're not actually that bad.   https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B072JJLMDT/   Tassimo went in the trash a couple of weeks back.

Uggghhh... that stuff tastes like socks.    Good on ya for chunking the Tassimo tho. 

mnem

Tasty tasty socks     TBH I drink it black with no sugar so it tastes like shit wherever it comes from 

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20060925

mnem

[med6753]

Motherfucker at UPS. Just turned up to pick up parcel. Parked the van outside with the side open and I can see a fucking CPC keyboard shaped box. So I asked him to check it.

"got no deliveries today mate for you"

Told him to check it.

"oh looks like it wasnt on the manifest"

Now have keyboard

 

There ya go, bd. 

Dunno about over there but here Amazon is not meeting their 2 day ship commitments on "non-essential" Prime items. More often your order stays in a cue for as much as 5 days before it ships. Given that I pay extra for Prime I wonder if I bitched loud enough if they would issue a partial refund or extend my Prime account by a few months? Yea, sounds like a crappy thing to do given this pandemic situation but hey, I paid for a service that you are not honoring.

What to do? Be a jerk or just let it slide? 

I have been thinking the same thing myself. I think it would be a nice gesture if they were to issue a statement saying for the duration of the pandemic  and while they have this massive backlog to clear, that they automatically gave each prime member 6 months or even a years service free, its not as if they depend on our subscriptions to keep the company going.

I canceled my Prime membership due to the slow shipping service - WTF am I paying for?  They can't blame the postal service because eBay sellers did not have the same levels of delay.

It's not the shipping itself that's the issue. Once they finally do fill the order and ship it I get it just as quickly as before the shit hit the fan. The problem is internal to Amazon and actually filling the order. For example: I just ordered motor oil that's a Prime item. They are not going to fill the order and ship until May 28th and it's in stock.

You have to wonder how waiting 5 days to send it helps anything?  -  All they are doing is introducing a 5 day delay, they are not altering the size of the stream of goods...

Whineasses. Definitely first world problem. Boo hoo... 3/4 of the country is closed up shop entirely, I have to wait a week before Amazon ships me my 3D printer parts because they're prioritizing food & medical shipments 6 days out of 7. Guess I'll have to while away the hours watching Prime TV or listening to Prime Music, which their servers are getting fuxxoring SLAMMED but they're still providing service.

Get a little sense of fucking proportion.

mnem

I'd tell you what you could do with that spoon you like to stir but you'd probably enjoy it.