Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

I’d just shove any old fast rectifier in there. UF4000 series would probably do. Almost never worth chasing an exact part down unless it won’t fit in the hole.

[jxjbsd]

Just now, I bought a 7104  ， which looked good, and was sold for $300.  Do I need to continue treatment?
(Attachment Link)

If it has been said once, it's been said a hundred times--You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.

last line of Hotel California by the Eagles.

Hotel California, I have heard many times, but never read its lyrics.
 Yes，But you can never leave!
TEA is just a kind of desire, but fortunately we have no more desire.

[med6753]

I’d just shove any old fast rectifier in there. UF4000 series would probably do.

Yea, I have some 1N4148's here which would probably work too. I'm in no hurry to blow it up again. 

[bd139]

Let us know before you power it up so we can call an ambulance if you disappear 

[mnementh]

Wow, we got 2 hot cases of TEA addiction going here. Which will happen first? Run out of money or run out of room? 

One will always happen first, usually the room.  After all, old equipment won't cost much money.  Before the money runs out, will the wife be a problem?    How does your wife tolerate TEA?

I just hide everything in the basement 

attic here 

That's also where she'll hide the body... 

mnem
Right under the frozen moose haunches. Yup. 

[Saskia]

ok, had a so so day.
Finally my shipment of rare metals arrived.
60 grams of metal for around 3 effing grand. FFS.
Sold 2 of my motorbikes, now I only have the Milwaukee granny bobber left (the one that does not require me to lift my leg when getting onto it ...
Had a discussion with my boss why I needed a delegate. Fuck vacation, they call me even when I am in the middle of the pacific ...
I need to get a different phone number ...

[SilverSolder]

ok, had a so so day.
Finally my shipment of rare metals arrived.
60 grams of metal for around 3 effing grand. FFS.
Sold 2 of my motorbikes, now I only have the Milwaukee granny bobber left (the one that does not require me to lift my leg when getting onto it ...
Had a discussion with my boss why I needed a delegate. Fuck vacation, they call me even when I am in the middle of the pacific ...
I need to get a different phone number ...

I have never regretted the idea of owning two phones -  one strictly for work, and the other for my personal use.  One or the other can be silenced or turned off completely depending on the situation.

[Neomys Sapiens]

ok, had a so so day.
Finally my shipment of rare metals arrived.
60 grams of metal for around 3 effing grand. FFS.
Sold 2 of my motorbikes, now I only have the Milwaukee granny bobber left (the one that does not require me to lift my leg when getting onto it ...
Had a discussion with my boss why I needed a delegate. Fuck vacation, they call me even when I am in the middle of the pacific ...
I need to get a different phone number ...

Hf? Re? Np?

[BU508A]

Let me see what arrived today:

- a friend of mine sent me some TO-18 and TO-39 transistors for Wolfgang
- my nanoVNA2 arrived and got the green sticker from the customs on it, so no further hazzle 
- some stainless steel hemispheres for my Teslacoils
- a box in questionable state from Reichelt with some parts, e.g vacuum tube sockets, Löthonig, power MOSFETs, Wago connectors, toroidal transformers, some ECF80, LT1006-CN8, etc.
- the Grundig UZ 56 in very nice state. pictures will follow

But for now I'm really tired from the madness @ work ...
I think I'll play a little with those depletion n-channel MOSFETs BSP 149.  I want to use them as a constant current circuit as mentioned in this application note from Infineon. For this purpose I'd like to create a table which shows me, which value of the resistor I have to use for which current (e.g. 75 Ohm for ca. 20mA).

I have added the AN from Infineon and the datasheet of the BSP149

*yawn* 

[Mr. Scram]

I have never regretted the idea of owning two phones -  one strictly for work, and the other for my personal use.  One or the other can be silenced or turned off completely depending on the situation.

Modern phones do profiles. You can fully switch and not be bothered in one mode while in the other. That saves carrying two physical phones like some kind of drug dealer although that does make a great combination with an explosives permit or license or whatever Saskia has.

[mnementh]

   Oh... sorry. - 哦对不起 

Gabriel: Nobody would throw such a priceless instrument in the water. -  没有人会把这种无价的工具丢在水里。

Tycho: Oh, precious child. You will be food for eBay's wolves. - 亲爱的孩子，您将成为eBay狼的食物。

That's as close as I could get. Much of the tone is lost in translation.  - 那是我所能做的最好的。大部分语气在翻译中迷失了。

mnem
 

Thank you, yes, translation is usually not perfect.  Perhaps professional issues can be helped by Google Translate, but it is too difficult to translate a joke.  Your picture is very good.

You're welcome; I'm glad you got the gist of the joke. Picture was snurched (stolen shamelessly) from webcomic Penny Arcade: https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2016/09/02/preordained

别客气;我很高兴您得到了笑话的精髓。图片是从网络漫画“ Penny Arcade”中偷走的，没有遗憾： https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2016/09/02/preordained

If you have Google translate on your phone, it will translate in real-time using the phone's camera. I've used it myself with devices set to Simplified Chinese.

如果您的手机上安装了Google翻译，它将使用手机的摄像头进行实时翻译。我自己将其用于设置为简体中文的设备。

Okay... I'm going to go back to speaking only English now; this is making my brain hurt. 

好吧...我现在回去只说英语。这让我头疼。

mnem
 

[GreyWoolfe]

I have never regretted the idea of owning two phones -  one strictly for work, and the other for my personal use.  One or the other can be silenced or turned off completely depending on the situation.

Modern phones do profiles. You can fully switch and not be bothered in one mode while in the other. That saves carrying two physical phones like some kind of drug dealer although that does make a great combination with an explosives permit or license or whatever Saskia has.

Company provides phones and will not allow personal phones for company use under any circumstances.  I've carried 2 cell phones now for 2 decades.  No drug dealer, just a humble field service tech.  I don't use belt clips, both phones reside in my pocket, lest I look like some twatwaffle.

[mnementh]

   Here are finally somewhat better pics of the battery victim:

If you ever wondered what people mean when they say a "pretty potato picture" or "a very potato camera", this is exactly what they mean.

As in "What did you take that picture with...? A potato...?"

I weep for your poor phone/webcam/potato babies.... 

mnem
Wait... is that green stuff FUR...?

[mnementh]

I have never regretted the idea of owning two phones -  one strictly for work, and the other for my personal use.  One or the other can be silenced or turned off completely depending on the situation.

Modern phones do profiles. You can fully switch and not be bothered in one mode while in the other. That saves carrying two physical phones like some kind of drug dealer although that does make a great combination with an explosives permit or license or whatever Saskia has.

Company provides phones and will not allow personal phones for company use under any circumstances.  I've carried 2 cell phones now for 2 decades.  No drug dealer, just a humble field service tech.  I don't use belt clips, both phones reside in my pocket, lest I look like some twatwaffle.

Same here, same exact lifestyle, same exact solution. My phone in my front pocket, company iPwn in my butt pocket. If they can't be arsed to get me a OtterBox, they can replace it every other month.

mnem
Damn... now I want waffle sandwiches.

[mansaxel]

Company provides phones and will not allow personal phones for company use under any circumstances.

Same here, same exact lifestyle, same exact solution. My phone in my front pocket, company iPwn in my butt pocket. If they can't be arsed to get me a OtterBox, they can replace it every other month.

Same here. They DO give the company phone a profile workout, such that most apps aren't trusted and many of my colleagues carry only the company phone, which we're free to use privately (all corporate plans here have unlimited domestic minutes and SMS, and we also have unlimited domestic data. Inside EU it is limited but generous, outside EU it is robber telco capitalism as usual (take that, you poor misguided people who wanted out of EU)) but I really do not want to have to use a comms device over which my employer has MDM power for traffic that are none of their business.

Our private plans (we've got a family plan for all 5 of us) has unlimited minutes and SMS as well, and 20GiB data per month per phone, in-country, and that's been more than enough. We've never even gotten close to hit the limits.

[Mr. Scram]

Same here. They DO give the company phone a profile workout, such that most apps aren't trusted and many of my colleagues carry only the company phone, which we're free to use privately (all corporate plans here have unlimited domestic minutes and SMS, and we also have unlimited domestic data. Inside EU it is limited but generous, outside EU it is robber telco capitalism as usual (take that, you poor misguided people who wanted out of EU)) but I really do not want to have to use a comms device over which my employer has MDM power for traffic that are none of their business.

Our private plans (we've got a family plan for all 5 of us) has unlimited minutes and SMS as well, and 20GiB data per month per phone, in-country, and that's been more than enough. We've never even gotten close to hit the limits.

Modern MDM should be ever better at keeping employer data in its own secure enclave and the rest outside of it, but I wouldn't blame anyone for being cautious or suspicious. They can just wipe the whole thing if they feel like it and while they all say they won't, mistakes are and will be made.

[Saskia]

I don't have a company phone.

[bd139]

BYOD here. Well for “trusted” people anyway. I run slack and outlook and Duo on it and that’s about it. Mostly so I can reply to stuff while I’m having a shit

[Specmaster]

I second that notion of having 2 cell phones, I've had 2 for 15 years now and still do carry 2 even though I've been retired a while now. I keep one phone for those calls I need to make where I don't want to receive return calls and the other phone for friends and family, works a treat.

[bd139]

I just don’t answer it if I don’t want to 

iOS has lots of interesting “fuck off and leave me alone” features as well which are correctly set up.

[Mr. Scram]

I second that notion of having 2 cell phones, I've had 2 for 15 years now and still do carry 2 even though I've been retired a while now. I keep one phone for those calls I need to make where I don't want to receive return calls and the other phone for friends and family, works a treat.

Dual SIM sounds perfect for you.

[Neomys Sapiens]

It's cold, wet, and windy outside, quite naturally notions of Scotland come to one's mind. So it is only fitting that one of Laphoigs newer creations (An Cuan Mor) followed me home and could not be chased away.
Maybe the weather will be more agreeable then. Besides, I got the essence of vinegar for the de-gunking of the MiniTracer.

In other terms, an armful of small stuff came in today. A gaggle of positioners for M22520/2-01 crimp pliers, MNEM's Tektronix alignment tools and a parcel of electronic parts, whose order was partially triggered by looking for transistors for Wolfgang. Seeing the missing Hfe-steps in the BC-10x lineup, I had to refill a bit there, with some complementary types also having been absent. Some beefy 1N5408 diodes too for repairing a demagnetizing jig. And a surprise from Ero-Shan with some AS5010's and an AD542H.
err..thanks!

At work, I have designed myself into a corner. When the vile Garmin company changed the level of their PPS-pulse output on a GPS-receiver we are using from 5V to 3.3V logic, it was clear that we can neither tolerate that nor hold Garmin responsible, because we routinely violate the recommended cable length.
When their newer receiver, which is multi-GNSS capable, showed up with a RS-422 instead of a RS-232 interface, it became clear that there will have to be an adaptor. Have you ever heard the horrible words 'REQUIREMENTS EXPLOSION'?
It ended up being rather heavily garnished with GDTs, Transzorb diodes, ferrites etc. due to it's exposed position and the fact that the old GPS-rx was coming in fried too often. Being a responsible employee, I tried to show some cost consciousness, at least, where my design is not tainted by that. So I wanted to reuse the housing of an existing preamplifier. The bottom part is gone already, as the connectors required more height. Well, the lid and the EMC-gasket remain. I have had a layout and  mechanical drawings done and now I am struggling to fit the interconnecting wires into it in a way that will spare me from a horrible death on the hands of the assembly crew. (My request for slave children was turned down on some obscure reasons by HR too). Did I mention that TIME is a factor? So no redo.
If no miracle happens, this means I'm stuck with custom modified Mil-C-26482 connectors in order to keep the behind-flange-part from interfering with the PCB. Well, easy come, easy go.

And I am looking at many Tek scopes now (see floppy problem). Will I be willing to trade off channels or bandwith? Do I want to have something as massive as a TDS7054 at home? Will I cripple my capabilities in an unexcusable way by going for anything except a TDS3054C? And the selection process (or even the mere pre-selection gathering of information) is fraught with danger! Even wearing blinkers I would not be able not to look at other TE too!

[Neomys Sapiens]

I don't have a company implant yet.

Corrected that for you!

[Neomys Sapiens]

   Here are finally somewhat better pics of the battery victim:

If you ever wondered what people mean when they say a "pretty potato picture" or "a very potato camera", this is exactly what they mean.

As in "What did you take that picture with...? A potato...?"

I weep for your poor phone/webcam/potato babies.... 

mnem
Wait... is that green stuff FUR...?

Of course it is FUR. If it had SCALES on it, I would have shot it on arrival.

Wait, should I have allowed that tuber to cool down first? Can't be helped, fingertips are thoroughly burned now and it will be some time before I get the potato mash out of the USB connector.

[mnementh]

  As long as you keep the coffee pouring, I can handle a few potshots. I have a tough hide. 

mnem
Fortunately, I keep my scales numbered for just such an occasion...