Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[capt bullshot]

Don't you have any of that ceefour problem solver at hand ?

Once upon a time, there was an EE (not me) who designed a capacitive dropper voltage supply for a small instrument. The instrument had a rather large segment LCD at its front panel. At some point, customers returned these instruments failed with a burn mark in the middle of the LCD. Guess what: The tantalum that blew up (part of the cap. dropper supply) was labeled "C4" - was a running gag for some time

[bd139]

C4 aka Linux in the IT world. First thing I boot up is Libreexec on one of those nice little fanless M600's and it just works out of the box.

Only problem is they only have DP connectors on them which means you can't send audio over HDMI even with a DP->HDMI cable. Argh!

Fucking shit show this stuff is. I think I might just stick to the sneakernet (usb sticks) and the current TV rather than pissing around with this stuff. Life is too short to argue with several conflicting display standards, HDCP and all that faff.

[capt bullshot]

Only problem is they only have DP connectors on them which means you can't send audio over HDMI even with a DP->HDMI cable. Argh!

Somewhere, I've got an DP->HDMI adaptor that states "with audio". I guess you'd still need an audio capable DP output to make use of it. Apparently such a thing exists.

[Wolfgang]

Don't you have any of that ceefour problem solver at hand ?

Once upon a time, there was an EE (not me) who designed a capacitive dropper voltage supply for a small instrument. The instrument had a rather large segment LCD at its front panel. At some point, customers returned these instruments failed with a burn mark in the middle of the LCD. Guess what: The tantalum that blew up (part of the cap. dropper supply) was labeled "C4" - was a running gag for some time

The mean thing with tants is that most of the time they die quietly and show no outer signs of their demise.
The real acoustic and pyrolytic cap is definitively the RIFA, which should be designated as C6 (hexogene). These parts
are the shaped charges of the electronic world.  :

[capt bullshot]

Don't you have any of that ceefour problem solver at hand ?

Once upon a time, there was an EE (not me) who designed a capacitive dropper voltage supply for a small instrument. The instrument had a rather large segment LCD at its front panel. At some point, customers returned these instruments failed with a burn mark in the middle of the LCD. Guess what: The tantalum that blew up (part of the cap. dropper supply) was labeled "C4" - was a running gag for some time

The mean thing with tants is that most of the time they die quietly and show no outer signs of their demise.
The real acoustic and pyrolytic cap is definitively the RIFA, which should be designated as C6 (hexogene). These parts
are the shaped charges of the electronic world.  :

Yes, if not enough oomph (aka activation energy from the external source) is available, tants just fail short.

[bd139]

Only problem is they only have DP connectors on them which means you can't send audio over HDMI even with a DP->HDMI cable. Argh!

Somewhere, I've got an DP->HDMI adaptor that states "with audio". I guess you'd still need an audio capable DP output to make use of it. Apparently such a thing exists.

Yeah I've got one. It doesn't work. Looks like an issue with the M600's DP implementation 

[Neomys Sapiens]

Don't you have any of that ceefour problem solver at hand ?

Once upon a time, there was an EE (not me) who designed a capacitive dropper voltage supply for a small instrument. The instrument had a rather large segment LCD at its front panel. At some point, customers returned these instruments failed with a burn mark in the middle of the LCD. Guess what: The tantalum that blew up (part of the cap. dropper supply) was labeled "C4" - was a running gag for some time

The mean thing with tants is that most of the time they die quietly and show no outer signs of their demise.
The real acoustic and pyrolytic cap is definitively the RIFA, which should be designated as C6 (hexogene). These parts
are the shaped charges of the electronic world.  :

Those RIFAs are messy, but energy-wise no comparison, AFAIK. A tant with generous overload (line voltage) can almost used as a initiator without other chemicals.

[med6753]

Nothing compares to a miss placed 300VDC to turn components back to elementary carbon and silicon. 

[Neomys Sapiens]

@specmaster: they won't care. It is in their area too.

[BU508A]

Don't forget to set up a pihole while you are at it ...

Saskia you are a very talent girl! What's your background? Were you born in a EE Family?

Anyhow... I used in the past pfBlocker. Not impressed with it I had to put stuff in the white list constantly.
Is the pihole a plug and forget thing? Anyhow I will give it a shot. I like not having packages installed on the pfSense box.

The pi-hole is nearly an install-and-forget thing.

https://www.heise.de/tipps-tricks/Pi-Hole-auf-dem-Raspberry-Pi-einrichten-so-geht-s-4358553.html

What I did, is: I've created a cronjob on the raspi-pi, which checks the installation of the os for updates and does a reboot every 24 hours. Improves the stability a lot.

Here it is:

Code: [Select]

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo su -
root@raspberrypi:~# crontab -l                                                                                     
* 4 * * *       /root/pihole.sh                                                                                   
root@raspberrypi:~# cat /root/pihole.sh                                                                           
#!/bin/bash                                                                                                       
apt-get update                                                                                                     
apt-get upgrade -y                                                                                                 
/usr/local/bin/pihole -up                                                                                         
init 6; exit           

[tonyalbus]

Guess the TTi ws not to far off ;-)

Was fun, easy setup easy lock...

[bd139]

yeah mine was bang on when I had it. Very nice counters.

[xrunner]

Guess the TTi ws not to far off ;-)

Was fun, easy setup easy lock...

Your nights will be more restful now, having had this pleasing knowledge revealed. 

[tonyalbus]

Guess the TTi ws not to far off ;-)

Was fun, easy setup easy lock...

Your nights will be more restful now, having had this pleasing knowledge revealed. 

Indeed 

[tonyalbus]

yeah mine was bang on when I had it. Very nice counters.

Thanks, the PeakTech is not that good, i think the XtalOsc is old... it is a 10Mhz.. i maybe just take it out and add a BNC to the back and connect it to the Lab.Ref.
Just waiting for the Distribution amp... it has olso a devider to 1Mhz for the Marconi... hope it does not take long to arrive from China...

[Saskia]

Hi anyone and especially those with a leaning towards the wonderful gear from Beaverton:
THOSE are the Tektronix-furnished or -endorsed alignment tools I told you about on Saturday during our Discord meet.
(Attachment Link)
(Attachment Link)

The good news is that the seller has one or more kits left!
The link is here:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Tektronix-Abgleichwerkzeug-von-1984/224022530815

Should anyone of the regulars, especially Messrs. <Worsthorse> and <0culus>, be interested in obtaining them, please contact me as soon as possible. I am able and willing to provide this service for you.
Same for the british crew and <Beanflying>. Another hint: the seller also has nice adaptors. He accepts usually proposed prices around 75% (in my case, 15.-€ for the tools).

You are naughty to point me towards his site.. I just sent him an offer for his Raytheon Klystron ...

[Specmaster]

Guess the TTi ws not to far off ;-)

Was fun, easy setup easy lock...

TTi take a lot of beating, something us Brits can be proud of  Come to think of it, I have no idea why you doubted it Tony 

[Specmaster]

Hi anyone and especially those with a leaning towards the wonderful gear from Beaverton:
THOSE are the Tektronix-furnished or -endorsed alignment tools I told you about on Saturday during our Discord meet.
(Attachment Link)
(Attachment Link)

The good news is that the seller has one or more kits left!
The link is here:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Tektronix-Abgleichwerkzeug-von-1984/224022530815

Should anyone of the regulars, especially Messrs. <Worsthorse> and <0culus>, be interested in obtaining them, please contact me as soon as possible. I am able and willing to provide this service for you.
Same for the british crew and <Beanflying>. Another hint: the seller also has nice adaptors. He accepts usually proposed prices around 75% (in my case, 15.-€ for the tools).

You are naughty to point me towards his site.. I just sent him an offer for his Raytheon Klystron ...

Maybe something else to add to your collection briefly before you have get rid off then eh?

[Neomys Sapiens]

Hi anyone and especially those with a leaning towards the wonderful gear from Beaverton:
THOSE are the Tektronix-furnished or -endorsed alignment tools I told you about on Saturday during our Discord meet.
(Attachment Link)
(Attachment Link)

The good news is that the seller has one or more kits left!
The link is here:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Tektronix-Abgleichwerkzeug-von-1984/224022530815

Should anyone of the regulars, especially Messrs. <Worsthorse> and <0culus>, be interested in obtaining them, please contact me as soon as possible. I am able and willing to provide this service for you.
Same for the british crew and <Beanflying>. Another hint: the seller also has nice adaptors. He accepts usually proposed prices around 75% (in my case, 15.-€ for the tools).

You are naughty to point me towards his site.. I just sent him an offer for his Raytheon Klystron ...

Saskia and a reflex klystron???
.
.
.
In Darmstadt a emergency task force is established. Postal boffins tie their ear flaps tighter and start to wipe antennas and charge the batteries in their DF vehicles. A NOTAM is issued effectively closing southwestern Germany to all air traffic.....

[Saskia]

Don't forget to set up a pihole while you are at it ...

Saskia you are a very talent girl! What's your background? Were you born in a EE Family?

Is the pihole a plug and forget thing? Anyhow I will give it a shot. I like not having packages installed on the pfSense box.

@Zucca nope, not at all. The family I was born in was abusive. May they suffer from genital necrotizing fascitis ...

I spent 8 years in one of those 3 letter organizations doing strange stuff that I am not authorized to talk about, then spent some time studying stuff (mainly computer science and neuro psychology along with clinical and organizational psychology), then went into the consulting business where I was hired out to IBM to do 2.5 level support for AIX, parallel computing and clustering. From there I was headhunted for a pharmaceutical company where I spent the past umphteen years doing project management and system integration with the current job title of Senior Principal System Engineer ... and since I am at the end of my career ladder I am looking for interesting stuff to learn. Such as Japanese, FPGA programming and rebuilding a V8 engine.

I have a knack for strange hobbies, a pyro and small arms license and some strange hobbies that I am pursuing - such as repairing pinball machines.

If anybody wants one, please don't hesitate to ask. I will be selling 2 or 3 in the near future, so if you are interested ...
 

[Saskia]

You are naughty to point me towards his site.. I just sent him an offer for his Raytheon Klystron ...

Maybe something else to add to your collection briefly before you have get rid off then eh?

naah, I need to move a couple of pinball machines, some motor bikes and some audio equipment soon. Plus about 3 cubic meters of fishing equipment. But apart from that ...
Oh, I forgot those arcade machines ...
and ...

bloody hell ...

[Mr. Scram]

C4 aka Linux in the IT world. First thing I boot up is Libreexec on one of those nice little fanless M600's and it just works out of the box.

Only problem is they only have DP connectors on them which means you can't send audio over HDMI even with a DP->HDMI cable. Argh!

Fucking shit show this stuff is. I think I might just stick to the sneakernet (usb sticks) and the current TV rather than pissing around with this stuff. Life is too short to argue with several conflicting display standards, HDCP and all that faff.

Weren't you going to buy one of those repeater amplifier things which accidentally strips out DRM?

[Mr. Scram]

yeah mine was bang on when I had it. Very nice counters.

You sold the TF930 too?  At this point I'm almost surprised the NSPCC hasn't been called yet for attempting to flog those off.

[Wolfgang]

You are naughty to point me towards his site.. I just sent him an offer for his Raytheon Klystron ...

Maybe something else to add to your collection briefly before you have get rid off then eh?

naah, I need to move a couple of pinball machines, some motor bikes and some audio equipment soon. Plus about 3 cubic meters of fishing equipment. But apart from that ...
Oh, I forgot those arcade machines ...
and ...

bloody hell ...

A reflex Klystron is small, cute and does not use a lot of space or power.
Every household should have one. For what band is that ? The X-Band stuff is really surplus and harmless.
It has been used a lot by ham radio people before Gunn diodes and GaAs FETs.

[Specmaster]

I still have my TF930, to coin a certain phrase, its going to the grave with me that is. I know that I'll get another that good at such a good price, its almost like I stole it.