Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cubdriver]

Though at the same time, finding a working one for less than a c-note shipped is a pretty good score...

Congrats on that.

-Pat

[shakalnokturn]

Seen these before?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/133424053258?

[Specmaster]

Update on Avo Mod8 Mk5, this meter is out 30, 300, 600 and 1,000Vdc and also on 100, 300, 600 and 1,000VAC. At least I know that this is not because some gorilla has been it before because I broke all the seals to gain entry. I believe that this model has a built-in flaw as a result of Thorn's search for cost cuts in production. Unlike previous models I have used before, the range switches are far less positive in their action. On earlier models it was impossible to get the switch in a mid position between 2 ranges, but this Model 8 Mk5, on every range you can because there are definite clickable positions between each range, meaning that looks possible that you could select the 600V range but if you click the switch up 1 click, from the 300v position to go into the 600V range, that it seems possible to also be in the 300V range as well thus overloading the range resistors so it looks like a gorilla has been using it, the SM indicates that if the meter reads higher than  it really is  So if a value has drifted downwards then the reading get higher and vice versa. As always, the SM has had corners cut as it just lists what the ohmage value of the resistors should be, but not the wattage nor its % rating but it does give its Avo part number which fine and dandy while the company exists
 but once they shut down, the info goes with them

[med6753]

I missed a whole bag of those connectors at a hamfest here for £5. Should have bagged them. Alas I was already heavily burdened with crud and my arms were about to fall off.

rarely does BD give me a chance to gloat. very very very rarely...

(Attachment Link)

from the last hamfest i attended, now a year ago. twenty dollars for the whole lot. the best part is that i actually use the damn things. 

Hey, can I buy one with a BNC female?

[worsthorse]

I missed a whole bag of those connectors at a hamfest here for £5. Should have bagged them. Alas I was already heavily burdened with crud and my arms were about to fall off.

rarely does BD give me a chance to gloat. very very very rarely...

(Attachment Link)

from the last hamfest i attended, now a year ago. twenty dollars for the whole lot. the best part is that i actually use the damn things. 

Hey, can I buy one with a BNC female?

let me see what i have...

[cyclin_al]

@Spec, Gorgeous photos of those aircraft!  Pictures like that do not come just by chance.

In my search for bench multimeters, I came across this on kijiji:
Keysight 25 MHz Differential Voltage Probes (4),
https://www.kijiji.ca/v-other-business-industrial/ottawa/keysight-25-mhz-differential-voltage-probes-4/1240333056
The seller also has some B&K items and some machinist type instruments.

Yes, that's my local TE surplus store The listing price is normally a bit high, but they are open to negotiation and accept reasonable offer. When they sell for parts there is normally a problem.
Not sure how good they are at packaging and shipping since I collected in person everything I bought from them.

Do you deal with them directly or through fleabay?  Not having dealt with them before, I went through fleaBay and made an offer which was instantly rejected.  My offer was a bit on the low side.  I assume a seller can set a reserve price in fleabay for that sort of thing?  Probably I will sit back and wait for a better deal to come along...

[Brumby]

I suspect the problem is simply the one experienced worldwide by anybody managing anyone that looks anything like an engineer - getting the little bastards to write the documentation up.....

I just don't get that... the documentation was always my favorite part of the project, really; the dénouement.

I always thought you had "issues".  That just added a headline entry to the list.

My chance to disappear into my cubby for a day or three

Ah - well at least there is a plausible explanation

and collect my thoughts into a single list of "What you should know..." type stuff and put it all on paper before moving on to the next project.

WHAT?!!  You were actually given that amount of time to do it?

Maybe they all just let me do it so they wouldn't have to... 

That has my vote.

Of course, the time to do such things is now a nonexistent commodity. "Management" types don't understand that "human multitasking" is entirely a bullshit construct; it assumes one actually HAS "unused clock cycles" to split off to another task.
...
Oh, right... we WERE talking about management types, weren't we...? 

You're indicating this was a process for which adequate ( ) time was allocated, but is no longer.

How far back did you experience this - because I've not seen it in anything I have done professionally.  (From an IT background, that is.)

[0culus]

Decided to go back to RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall yesterday as the weather forecast was good and the wind direction also was favourable in order to get some top shots of the F15's as they fly towards the group of photographers, some pilots will tip a wing to us those to give sought after top shots brilliantly lit in the early morning sunshine. The last 2 photos of the F15's show 308 with a wheel that failed to retract and that sent the base full scale emergency mode as the pilot frantically called out on his radio that he had repeatedly tried to cycle the landing gear a number of times to clear the fault without success. He had to fly around for about 25 minutes while dumping fuel to get to a safe weight for landing to minimise the risk of a major problem with the fuel. This problem was made worse for as his 2 drop tanks also refused to play ball so it meant the while his wing tanks could dump, his drop tanks could not and in the event of the other wheel not dropping, the plane would land on the drop tank risking a fire ball. 

In that 25 min period the pilot was able to manually crank the wheels  down and come in for a landing. Once landed, the plane was sent to a remote part of the airfield and was met by 2 fire engines and other emergency vehicles and the plane checked over. It was given the all clear to return to is hanger where I suspect engineers to repair were waiting to sort the issues.

After I went to Mildenhall because the sunlight then favoured that location because of the direct of its runway but only for a short period and there was a special ops Hercules doing a mixture of touch and goes and ILS approaches and was later joined by RAF C17 from Brize Norton of ILS approaches, and despite the pilot being cleared for the "option" meaning he could come in a full stop landing, touch and goes or high level fly though, he chose to do a series of high level, 2000ft fly throughs  Then was treated to what was supposed to be a pair of Ospreys doing circuits but one went tech at the last minute so only 1 took to the air for the circuit training and then I left as the light was fading fast and everything would be a virtual black shape against a bright sky 

I have provided links instead of thumbnails to maintain the level of details in them in case anyone wanted to make a wallpaper etc.

That's an F-15E Strike Eagle since it has conformal tanks (IIRC). The F-15 is one hot airplane. I knew a guy who was an F-4 driver in Vietnam and finished his USAF career driving the F-15. Anyway, one time he decided to try and outclimb a summer thunderhead in his F-15 during a training flight. He had to abort or run out of gas; the storm was building faster vertically than the positive thrust/weight ratio F-15 can climb! Last I have heard the air superiority variants (A, B, C, D) have a combined record in combat of 104 kills and 0 losses. Pretty incredible.

[mnementh]

I suspect the problem is simply the one experienced worldwide by anybody managing anyone that looks anything like an engineer - getting the little bastards to write the documentation up.....

I just don't get that... the documentation was always my favorite part of the project, really; the dénouement.

I always thought you had "issues".  That just added a headline entry to the list.

My chance to disappear into my cubby for a day or three

Ah - well at least there is a plausible explanation

and collect my thoughts into a single list of "What you should know..." type stuff and put it all on paper before moving on to the next project.

WHAT?!!  You were actually given that amount of time to do it?

Maybe they all just let me do it so they wouldn't have to... 

That has my vote.

Of course, the time to do such things is now a nonexistent commodity. "Management" types don't understand that "human multitasking" is entirely a bullshit construct; it assumes one actually HAS "unused clock cycles" to split off to another task.
...
Oh, right... we WERE talking about management types, weren't we...? 

You're indicating this was a process for which adequate ( ) time was allocated, but is no longer.

How far back did you experience this - because I've not seen it in anything I have done professionally.  (From an IT background, that is.)

It's a long fucking story. Yeah, my first gig right out of school was pretty much NirvanaCo; they were weird, they were a niche Aero manufacturer and they were absorbed by a large defense contractor a couple years later and my job vaporised along with about 3/4 of the rest of the company. Every subsequent gig I took was trying to get back to that; because I was still young and enthusiastic and actually enjoyed getting my hands dirty on the process floor and solving the nasty problems everybody else didn't want to touch, I guess they decided to leave me the eff alone when I decided to disappear into my cubby for a day or three.

It took me more than a decade to realize I was never going to get back to my first job; it didn't exist anymore. The first time some fuckwidget actually tried to tell me to multitask, I explained that I was already doing 6 things, all of them annoying as fuck, and that if I ever heard that shit from his mouth again he was going to find my foot on his throat.

He didn't last long after that; but neither did I. I realized that I was about 6 weeks from being a news story on a rooftop with a rifle; decided to take a nice boring mechanic job in a hot rod shop.

mnem
*crawls off to ded*

[Zucca]

Yesterday installed Ubuntu on USB drive to salvage data on a broken Mac HDD and copy them to a FAT32 windows external drive.   It was funny.

Funny...?   

*plops a traffic cone on Zucca's head*

Go stand in the corner and think about what you've done here.   

I feel like a beaten dog and I don't see the big dragon in the room. Help me I want/need to learn!

Problem: a friend's Mac  is gone kabum because of spilled water, it is an old one with the keyboard destroyed. No sense to become Louis Rossmann...
Yes the data are valuable for her, she gave me an external drive she is using with all the other Windows laptop. She does not want a Mac anymore...
Plugged the Mac HD Drive in my win box with a SATA/USB adapter, Win:"Do you want to format the drive?" No thanks.
Google it, found some $$ win software to read the Mac HD on a win mashine. So I know Ubuntu can do Mac HD and of course FAT32 one and got the job done for free.

 

[McBryce]

I had a similar issue last year and used this to get the data off the drive (it's free) using a windows machine: https://hfsexplorer.de.softonic.com/

McBryce.

[bd139]

Lucky Filevault wasn't set up. You're f*cked then. Incidentally I killed a 2010 MBP in the same way. 

No spamming from me for a few days. Up to my eyes onboarding stuff 

[Specmaster]

That's an F-15E Strike Eagle since it has conformal tanks (IIRC). The F-15 is one hot airplane. I knew a guy who was an F-4 driver in Vietnam and finished his USAF career driving the F-15. Anyway, one time he decided to try and outclimb a summer thunderhead in his F-15 during a training flight. He had to abort or run out of gas; the storm was building faster vertically than the positive thrust/weight ratio F-15 can climb! Last I have heard the air superiority variants (A, B, C, D) have a combined record in combat of 104 kills and 0 losses. Pretty incredible.

Yes you're right those are F-15E's and the record is correct, I think it's the plane to make such a claim to fame. They can climb very rapidly indeed if asked. Now and then you will one take off and play to await mass of photographers by flying low to the ground along the runway and just about when they are level with the photographers, stand the plane on its tail and sent it skywards like a rocket until its out of sight. Lakenheath is home to both C and D variants. C's are single-seaters only. I have been there on many occasions now as that and Mildenhall are the nearest air bases to me, and they are nearly always busy training, unlike a proper RAF base who always seem strapped for cash so do most of their training in simulators these days.

I have been on base there a number of times as well, once as a guest of one of the squadrons and been inside their HQ for briefings and even allowed to roam on their ramp taking whatever photos I wanted but not allowed to photograph inside the cockpits. The key to getting photos like that is knowing where to locate yourself and mastering the art of panning, which is so easy as they come by fairly close and at great speed and for everyone photo that you're proud of, there are many that just get deleted. I don't edit mine like so many others do with photo shop and other programs, so mine are just straight out of the camera.

[Zucca]

This remind me:

https://www.topgunmovie.com/

I can't wait!

[tautech]

That's an F-15E Strike Eagle since it has conformal tanks (IIRC). The F-15 is one hot airplane. I knew a guy who was an F-4 driver in Vietnam and finished his USAF career driving the F-15. Anyway, one time he decided to try and outclimb a summer thunderhead in his F-15 during a training flight. He had to abort or run out of gas; the storm was building faster vertically than the positive thrust/weight ratio F-15 can climb! Last I have heard the air superiority variants (A, B, C, D) have a combined record in combat of 104 kills and 0 losses. Pretty incredible.

Yes you're right those are F-15E's and the record is correct, I think it's the plane to make such a claim to fame. They can climb very rapidly indeed if asked. Now and then you will one take off and play to await mass of photographers by flying low to the ground along the runway and just about when they are level with the photographers, stand the plane on its tail and sent it skywards like a rocket until its out of sight. Lakenheath is home to both C and D variants. C's are single-seaters only. I have been there on many occasions now as that and Mildenhall are the nearest air bases to me, and they are nearly always busy training, unlike a proper RAF base who always seem strapped for cash so do most of their training in simulators these days.

I have been on base there a number of times as well, once as a guest of one of the squadrons and been inside their HQ for briefings and even allowed to roam on their ramp taking whatever photos I wanted but not allowed to photograph inside the cockpits. The key to getting photos like that is knowing where to locate yourself and mastering the art of panning, which is so easy as they come by fairly close and at great speed and for everyone photo that you're proud of, there are many that just get deleted. I don't edit mine like so many others do with photo shop and other programs, so mine are just straight out of the camera.

Funny how how impressed we are by fast planes keeps cropping up....from a couple years back:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg1428665/#msg1428665

Nice pics Spec. 

[Cerebus]

That's an F-15E ...
 Last I have heard the air superiority variants (A, B, C, D) have a combined record in combat of 104 kills and 0 losses. Pretty incredible.

Yeah, but they've clocked up 175 non-combat losses. For any other category of Widlarizer that would be a pretty poor ratio of "does the ultimate job it was designed for" to "fails catastrophically" ratio. Still, better than the F35's final record will probably be: "90% of all aircraft produced were lost during in-flight software upgrades".

[Ice-Tea]

That's an F-15E ...
 Last I have heard the air superiority variants (A, B, C, D) have a combined record in combat of 104 kills and 0 losses. Pretty incredible.

Yeah, but they've clocked up 175 non-combat losses. For any other category of Widlarizer that would be a pretty poor ratio of "does the ultimate job it was designed for" to "fails catastrophically" ratio. Still, better than the F35's final record will probably be: "90% of all aircraft produced were lost during in-flight software upgrades".

Well, they didn't have much wars to be fought (not really, anyway) so it's a bit unfair to the F15. Compared to the F104, flying in one should be like a Sunday stroll in the park.

[Specmaster]

That's an F-15E ...
 Last I have heard the air superiority variants (A, B, C, D) have a combined record in combat of 104 kills and 0 losses. Pretty incredible.

Yeah, but they've clocked up 175 non-combat losses. For any other category of Widlarizer that would be a pretty poor ratio of "does the ultimate job it was designed for" to "fails catastrophically" ratio. Still, better than the F35's final record will probably be: "90% of all aircraft produced were lost during in-flight software upgrades".

Yep, I think the same is true for the Harrier, they have lost loads of them due to the fact that they were just so difficult to fly, the Americans called them widow makers, but the F-35 is just so complicated that they will I'm sure loose far more due to software and hardware issues than they will to enemy action.

[BU508A]

Anybody in need of some spare parts for a HP 8657B signal generator?
Or a GW Miliohm Meter? (No affiliations with the seller)

A13 Board
https://www.ebay.com/itm/133428444394



A3 Board:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/133428443947



2GHz Doubler:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/402283732179



GW GOM-801G Milliohm-Meter
https://www.ebay.com/itm/133427575308

[Cerebus]

Yep, I think the same is true for the Harrier, they have lost loads of them due to the fact that they were just so difficult to fly, the Americans called them widow makers, but the F-35 is just so complicated that they will I'm sure loose far more due to software and hardware issues than they will to enemy action.

It's the F104 that was dubbed the Widowmaker...

(Voices of Ground control and pilot. Intercom radio type distortion.)

Ground Control: Ready for last minute cock-pit-check?
Pilot: OK
GC: Largactil....five milligrammes
P: Check
GC: Valium...ten milligrammes
P: Check
GC: Haloperidol...five milligrammes
P: Which one?
GC: The little white ones. W - W for white. (W-W written as the German VolksWagen symbol)
P: (a bit slower) OK. Check
GC: Pheno Barbitone. Five Milligrammes
P: (slower) Check
GC: Disipel...five milligrammes
P: (even slower) Cheeeck
GC: Glass of water
P: Cheeeeeeeck...
Ground Control and Pilot: Our father .... which art in heaven hallowed be ... mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxi ma culpa

(Jet take off noise into.... )

[Specmaster]

In this footage shot RAF Lakenheath, at the end of the clip there is some in cockpit footage of a F-15E taking off on runway 06 and flying to the left of where I take my shots from which I have indicated with a red arrow on the photo. This one of the access road gateways into the forest for the forestry keepers. From this vantage point the planes grow exceedingly rapidly from a dot in the camera viewfinder to overflowing the screen if your not quick enough to scrub a bit of zoom off.

[Specmaster]

Yep, I think the same is true for the Harrier, they have lost loads of them due to the fact that they were just so difficult to fly, the Americans called them widow makers, but the F-35 is just so complicated that they will I'm sure loose far more due to software and hardware issues than they will to enemy action.

It's the F104 that was dubbed the Widowmaker...

(Voices of Ground control and pilot. Intercom radio type distortion.)

Ground Control: Ready for last minute cock-pit-check?
Pilot: OK
GC: Largactil....five milligrammes
P: Check
GC: Valium...ten milligrammes
P: Check
GC: Haloperidol...five milligrammes
P: Which one?
GC: The little white ones. W - W for white. (W-W written as the German VolksWagen symbol)
P: (a bit slower) OK. Check
GC: Pheno Barbitone. Five Milligrammes
P: (slower) Check
GC: Disipel...five milligrammes
P: (even slower) Cheeeck
GC: Glass of water
P: Cheeeeeeeck...
Ground Control and Pilot: Our father .... which art in heaven hallowed be ... mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxi ma culpa

(Jet take off noise into.... )

According to this article, so was the Harrier, see the section headed "Accidents" towards the bottom.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_AV-8B_Harrier_II

[Kosmic]

Found some cheap LCR Tweezers on ebay. MASTECH MS8911, 1-3% accuracy (46$).

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MASTECH-MS8911-Smart-SMD-Tester-Auto-Range-Auto-Scanning-6000-counts-SMD-Tester/202567452638



Was reviewed on Elektor magazine some time ago. Supposed to work fine.

https://www.elektormagazine.com/news/review-mastech-ms8911-smart-smd-tester

[Specmaster]

Nice, handy to have in your tool line up, seldom use mine but worth their weight in gold when you need to measure SMD's.

[xrunner]

The Kikusui COS 5020 oscilloscope is completed. I finally got all the noise to go away by cleaning and re-seating all the connectors and cleaning the wafer switches. I did a complete cosmetic job on the old girl and she looks great now. I checked the bandwidth and measured ~21 MHz. The amplitude calibration is acceptable. Completely acceptable for low frequency troubleshooting.

My friend said he was planning on a new place on his bench for it and wanted to start using it a lot more. I think he needs a refresher course in oscilloscope use so I'll invite him over to pick it up and we'll have a mini-course and go over the controls while observing some test signals.

By the way, I constructed a brand new riser shelf for my bench yesterday using my table saw. I already had all the wood parts except for the top piece. Came out great. Plan to add a new set of LED strip lights as soon as they arrive.