Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

I know there are a few here who are much more knowledgable about things like pi-hole, and I need help to solve a problem without going too far down a rabbit hole.  I do have other things (TEA) I would rather be doing.

I noticed some strange things happening this week, including the return of ads.  Pi-hole takes care of that, right?
Not when it is being bypassed.
I discovered my ISP had reset the modem/router unit in my home back to defaults.
As a result, the router was doing DHCP and the ISP was providing DNS.  This is absolutely NOT what I wanted and was changed without my permission  .
So I spent the morning fettling around with things and thought I had fixed it.
DHCP is once again turned OFF on the router, just the way it was when I set it up.
The Primary DNS once again points to my Pi-hole.
However, in my previous setup, the secondary DNS pointed to 0.0.0.0.
This time, I had to point the secondary DNS to my Pi-hole as well, in order for the router to accept the change in settings.

After that, I was happy.  I could return to browsing eevblog.com  and things like google (sans ads) worked.
However, SWMBO was the first to discover that all is not well in the world.
It turns out quite a number of things do not work, while others do.  For example, Yahoo and Keysight could not be accessed.

The Query Log in Pi-hole is giving me some clues.
For the sites that are not working, the Status is Unknown(0), whereas sites that are working have a status OK(...)

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?  It almost looks like there is something wrong with a DNS cache or an upstream DNS server.
Of course, I am starting to get out of my league at this point.

Google is a bit of a useless tease since I can get search results, but mostly cannot access the website that returned in the search result!

Any ideas?

One reason I don’t bother with it. Genuinely don’t want to be a sysadmin at home.

Chrome: uBlock origin
FireFox: uBlock origin
Safari iOS: purify
Safari macOS: wipr
Edge: bin it
Android: bin it
Windows: bin it now they turned off deferring updates

[AVGresponding]

Brake calipers are cheap enough that they are better replaced than fixed, so you have something reliable for several more years.  Once they seize, they can be a b!tch to clean up...  and they will be more prone to seizing a second time.

"Cheap" is very much a relative term.

[drussell]

Brake calipers are cheap enough that they are better replaced than fixed, so you have something reliable for several more years.  Once they seize, they can be a b!tch to clean up...  and they will be more prone to seizing a second time.

"Cheap" is very much a relative term.

Indeed.

It depends on what it is.  If a $12 seal & boot kit, quickie hone job and 10 minutes of your time saves buying a reman caliper for $120 or $200, it's probably time well spent, assuming the caliper itself is in otherwise good condition, no cracked piston, broken bleeder or anything (usually there is just a light bit of rust in the bore from people never changing their brake fluid, which is extremely hygroscopic and a light hone and new seals are all you need.)

On the other hand, if it is some small, common caliper that you can grab from any parts store for $25, then why bother, just swap it out and let them take care of remanufacturing it. 

[Cerebus]

I have posted my story of the Braun Visacoustic projector in the Repair section because of this:

"Ask for repair help or describe how to repair equipment"

This is an example of any and all tree-like hierarchical catalogue systems, from filing cabinets to the Dewey Decimal system, and fleabay. They can't unambiguously guide you to where things are; the best they can hope to acheive is to guide you away from where they aren't.

Dewey 666.0  - Here be Dragons (pottery ones)

[SilverSolder]

Brake calipers are cheap enough that they are better replaced than fixed, so you have something reliable for several more years.  Once they seize, they can be a b!tch to clean up...  and they will be more prone to seizing a second time.

"Cheap" is very much a relative term.

Indeed.

It depends on what it is.  If a $12 seal & boot kit, quickie hone job and 10 minutes of your time saves buying a reman caliper for $120 or $200, it's probably time well spent, assuming the caliper itself is in otherwise good condition, no cracked piston, broken bleeder or anything (usually there is just a light bit of rust in the bore from people never changing their brake fluid, which is extremely hygroscopic and a light hone and new seals are all you need.)

On the other hand, if it is some small, common caliper that you can grab from any parts store for $25, then why bother, just swap it out and let them take care of remanufacturing it. 

New (not remanufactured) from a professional OEM brand, coated against rust, premium part, is $55 for my car -  since the good quality ones only have to be changed every 7 - 10 years (even less frequently on a garage kept car), just getting a couple of those and then forgetting about them is a no brainer. 

When I change the brake pads, I clean off the calipers, re-lube the pins, and repaint them.  Looks good, and keeps them working - time better spent (and more fun) than rebuilding calipers!

If there is one thing I hate more than doing a job on the car,  it is having to re-do it soon afterwards due to problems.   I skimped on some lower control arms the last time they were changed - and after 2 years, they were toast.  I got refunded, but all the work is the real cost.  Now I only buy OEM parts, on the advice of my local mechanic who says they definitely last longer than aftermarket in 99% of cases.

[bd139]

I have posted my story of the Braun Visacoustic projector in the Repair section because of this:

"Ask for repair help or describe how to repair equipment"

This is an example of any and all tree-like hierarchical catalogue systems, from filing cabinets to the Dewey Decimal system, and fleabay. They can't unambiguously guide you to where things are; the best they can hope to acheive is to guide you away from where they aren't.

Dewey 666.0  - Here be Dragons (pottery ones)

662 is more fun 

[tggzzz]

]
One reason I don’t bother with it. Genuinely don’t want to be a sysadmin at home.

Chrome: uBlock origin
FireFox: uBlock origin
Safari iOS: purify
Safari macOS: wipr
Edge: bin it
Android: bin it
Windows: bin it now they turned off deferring updates

Don't you mean "turned off deferring bricking"? So what os isn't binned?

Another of my career choices was to avoid being a sysadmin. I largely managed it. Linux requires less understanding that has to updated daily than the alternatives.

[drussell]

...
So what os isn't binned?

FreeBSD

[BU508A]

I know there are a few here who are much more knowledgable about things like pi-hole, and I need help to solve a problem without going too far down a rabbit hole.  I do have other things (TEA) I would rather be doing.

I noticed some strange things happening this week, including the return of ads.  Pi-hole takes care of that, right?
Not when it is being bypassed.
I discovered my ISP had reset the modem/router unit in my home back to defaults.
As a result, the router was doing DHCP and the ISP was providing DNS.  This is absolutely NOT what I wanted and was changed without my permission  .
So I spent the morning fettling around with things and thought I had fixed it.
DHCP is once again turned OFF on the router, just the way it was when I set it up.
The Primary DNS once again points to my Pi-hole.
However, in my previous setup, the secondary DNS pointed to 0.0.0.0.
This time, I had to point the secondary DNS to my Pi-hole as well, in order for the router to accept the change in settings.

After that, I was happy.  I could return to browsing eevblog.com  and things like google (sans ads) worked.
However, SWMBO was the first to discover that all is not well in the world.
It turns out quite a number of things do not work, while others do.  For example, Yahoo and Keysight could not be accessed.

The Query Log in Pi-hole is giving me some clues.
For the sites that are not working, the Status is Unknown(0), whereas sites that are working have a status OK(...)

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?  It almost looks like there is something wrong with a DNS cache or an upstream DNS server.
Of course, I am starting to get out of my league at this point.

Google is a bit of a useless tease since I can get search results, but mostly cannot access the website that returned in the search result!

Any ideas?

Try this:
first, upgrade your pi-hole:
- login to the pihole with ssh
  example from mine (it has the IP 192.168.1.111 yours is very likely different):
  ssh -l pi 192.168.1.111
- then become root
  sudo su -
- then execute these commands in this order
  apt-get update
  apt-get -y upgrade
  /usr/local/bin/pihole -up
  init 6; exit

  it is a good idea to reboot a machine after running an upgrade.

- once the pi-hole is up and running again, create a cronjob, so the pi-hole will do every 24h an update and a reboot
- execute these instructions in this order
- login to the pi-hole and become root as described above

- create a config file for the crontab
  echo "* 2 * * *       /root/pihole.sh" >> /root/crontab.2020062901
- create a cronjob. * 2 * * * means: run this job at 2am every 24h
  crontab /root/crontab.2020062901
- check, if the cronjob is in place:
  crontab -l

- create a little shellscript with the name pihole.sh. The easiest to do so is copy&paste the lines between the ******
******* begin script *******
echo "#!/bin/bash
apt-get update
apt-get -y upgrade
apt-get -y dist-upgrade
apt-get -y auto-remove
/usr/local/bin/pihole -up
init 6; exit" > pihole.sh

******* end script ********
- change the attributes of pihole.sh so it will become executable
  chmod 750 /root/pihole.sh


Hope that helps.

[med6753]

The only fix for this checksum error is a new EAROM. Absolutely unobtanium unless you harvest it from a parts unit.

If I had a 2465 (not A nor B) earom failure, I would try to replace it with an atmega328 or similar. I would ignore the 42V circuits and tap the 5V signals. Bitbanging ought to be possible for a fast processor and slow serial earom.

Of course that doesn't change the invalidity of the current earom contents.

That's basically my issue. I have borked EAROM contents so trying to read the contents and transferring them to another device won't buy me anything.

Edit.....overall it's basically a minor annoyance and I thought I could do a quick fix but alas not to be

[worsthorse]

Have been working through a long list of overdue house maintenance projects, including several "supervise the tech doing this or it will go wrong" sessions, after experiencing, for example...

the furnace tech who insisted on installing a thermostat on the side of the furnace in the furnace room and disconnecting the two in the house while replacing our humidifier, thereby temporarily bricking the entire system. to his boss's credit, he came himself the next day, fixed the problem and didn't charge me for either visit.

anyway, lots of ding fixing, painting, plumbing, fence repair and the like going on around here. not much time for TE, though I did get the three 485s out of their cases and figured out that I should be able to get one good working unit out of the three.

i also finished (for now) beating on the S38B. i've eliminated the modulation hum and will probably declare victory. i will post photos over on the S38 thread rather than here.

did i miss anything interesting the last ten days? 

[med6753]

did i miss anything interesting the last ten days? 

Yea, were you able to check to see if you had an extra GR to female BNC that you'd be willing to sell me? I only have one and could really use another one.

The Ebay sellers are insane with their prices.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Spent the morning being repeatedly kicked in the balls by the internet... you'd think "sewing machine oil" would be a pretty UN-ambiguous search term; but I keep getting page after page of everything but that. (iPwn cases...? SERIOUSLY...?) Or something that could work, only ridiculously priced or an eyedropperful of product when I need a pint.

I think I'm just going to say "fuck it" and go with some light hydraulic oil; viscosity will be a bit high, but at least I can get a quart at Princess Auto without killing myself. 

mnem

Possible designations for clear distillates of petroleum-based oils would be 'Weissöl' (White oil?) or Vaselinöl. But even here I can buy premium lubricants from various surplus dealers.
You should, for example, be able to buy O-147 in suitable (gallon?) sizes.
Or try CLP (S-758), which is not so superclean but more widely available and should work ok.

[cyclin_al]

I know there are a few here who are much more knowledgable about things like pi-hole, and I need help to solve a problem without going too far down a rabbit hole.  I do have other things (TEA) I would rather be doing.

It turns out quite a number of things do not work, while others do.  For example, Yahoo and Keysight could not be accessed.

The Query Log in Pi-hole is giving me some clues.
For the sites that are not working, the Status is Unknown(0), whereas sites that are working have a status OK(...)

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?  It almost looks like there is something wrong with a DNS cache or an upstream DNS server.
Of course, I am starting to get out of my league at this point.

Google is a bit of a useless tease since I can get search results, but mostly cannot access the website that returned in the search result!

Try this:
first, upgrade your pi-hole:

it is a good idea to reboot a machine after running an upgrade.

- once the pi-hole is up and running again, create a cronjob, so the pi-hole will do every 24h an update and a reboot

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the advice; it is certainly good advice but did not help in this case.  I may just implement that cronjob once I figure out the current problem.
Pi-hole showed that it was already up to date.  My recollection was that the latest upgrade was done recently, but before I ran into the current troubles. I did the upgrade again, just to be sure. 
Any chance that update could have borked something that I did not notice till now?  Other options to explore?

@bd139, I do not want to be a sysadmin at home.  However, I want even less the issues of fixing SWMBO's numerous devices.  The idea was to handle things once as close to the point of entry as possible, rather than chasing down a bunch of devices and fixing them repeatedly.  The only one I know of that is worse at taking care of devices is SWMBO's mother .... 

[bd139]

]
One reason I don’t bother with it. Genuinely don’t want to be a sysadmin at home.

Chrome: uBlock origin
FireFox: uBlock origin
Safari iOS: purify
Safari macOS: wipr
Edge: bin it
Android: bin it
Windows: bin it now they turned off deferring updates

Don't you mean "turned off deferring bricking"? So what os isn't binned?

Another of my career choices was to avoid being a sysadmin. I largely managed it. Linux requires less understanding that has to updated daily than the alternatives.

Agree with windows.

The only OS I really actually like these days is iOS if I’m honest. It mostly just does stuff and keeps out of the way and doesn’t annoy me. It’s actually a completely viable desktop replacement now (!).

As for Linux, let’s not go there. The boot process is a complete shit show. Also have crap to deal with all the time when various programming languages shit all over the system packages. That’s just this week’s problems and it’s only Monday.

I know there are a few here who are much more knowledgable about things like pi-hole, and I need help to solve a problem without going too far down a rabbit hole.  I do have other things (TEA) I would rather be doing.

It turns out quite a number of things do not work, while others do.  For example, Yahoo and Keysight could not be accessed.

The Query Log in Pi-hole is giving me some clues.
For the sites that are not working, the Status is Unknown(0), whereas sites that are working have a status OK(...)

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?  It almost looks like there is something wrong with a DNS cache or an upstream DNS server.
Of course, I am starting to get out of my league at this point.

Google is a bit of a useless tease since I can get search results, but mostly cannot access the website that returned in the search result!

Try this:
first, upgrade your pi-hole:

it is a good idea to reboot a machine after running an upgrade.

- once the pi-hole is up and running again, create a cronjob, so the pi-hole will do every 24h an update and a reboot

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the advice; it is certainly good advice but did not help in this case.  I may just implement that cronjob once I figure out the current problem.
Pi-hole showed that it was already up to date.  My recollection was that the latest upgrade was done recently, but before I ran into the current troubles. I did the upgrade again, just to be sure. 
Any chance that update could have borked something that I did not notice till now?  Other options to explore?

@bd139, I do not want to be a sysadmin at home.  However, I want even less the issues of fixing SWMBO's numerous devices.  The idea was to handle things once as close to the point of entry as possible, rather than chasing down a bunch of devices and fixing them repeatedly.  The only one I know of that is worse at taking care of devices is SWMBO's mother .... 

Buy her an iPad. Can’t fuck them up! 

[BU508A]

Thanks for the advice; it is certainly good advice but did not help in this case.  I may just implement that cronjob once I figure out the current problem.
Pi-hole showed that it was already up to date.  My recollection was that the latest upgrade was done recently, but before I ran into the current troubles. I did the upgrade again, just to be sure. 
Any chance that update could have borked something that I did not notice till now?  Other options to explore?

Could be, some months ago, an updated of the pi-hole borked it somehow. I did a manual update and then it was fine.
Today I did a manual update again (because I want to make sure that my instructions would be correct ;-) ) and spotted a minor issue: one of the sources for the lists wasn't reachable. Perhaps this has lead to the problems you are seeing.

If this all doesn't work,  then perhaps I'd take a new clean SD-card and do a complete new installation.
If you don't want to follow that rabbit hole too long, then this could be a good Plan B.

[tggzzz]

]
One reason I don’t bother with it. Genuinely don’t want to be a sysadmin at home.

Chrome: uBlock origin
FireFox: uBlock origin
Safari iOS: purify
Safari macOS: wipr
Edge: bin it
Android: bin it
Windows: bin it now they turned off deferring updates

Don't you mean "turned off deferring bricking"? So what os isn't binned?

Another of my career choices was to avoid being a sysadmin. I largely managed it. Linux requires less understanding that has to updated daily than the alternatives.

Agree with windows.

The only OS I really actually like these days is iOS if I’m honest. It mostly just does stuff and keeps out of the way and doesn’t annoy me. It’s actually a completely viable desktop replacement now (!).

There's a relevant phrase, something to do with grass being greener. With Apple, that tends to mean something along the lines of "any colour so long as it is black".

As for Linux, let’s not go there. The boot process is a complete shit show. Also have crap to deal with all the time when various programming languages shit all over the system packages. That’s just this week’s problems and it’s only Monday.

Well, now that Linux Mint 20 LTS is out, I'll shortly be (re) installing that, Win10, and OpenSUSE.

I've got a Win7 on an old netbook. Do you think its magic numbers will be sufficient for Microsoft/Win10? I'm only too aware that a WinXP licence code wasn't enough to reinstall WinXP on a machine. No, the MSdroid couldn't explain that either.

[bd139]

Jony Ive and Steve Jobs are gone now. It’s a different world in the last two iOS releases. Poisonous personalities are evicted from Apple finally. Keyboards started working, you’re never holding it wrong and it has a file system that’s useful. Oh plus arm desktops are coming which as an former Acorn user, slightly excites me.

I’ve never had a windows 7 license not activate on windows 10. Should work.  If not, PM me. I have a vast number of win 10 pro ones available to me from disposed of kit. I’m sure I could pass one along

[worsthorse]

did i miss anything interesting the last ten days? 

Yea, were you able to check to see if you had an extra GR to female BNC that you'd be willing to sell me? I only have one and could really use another one.

The Ebay sellers are insane with their prices.

I checked and I sorry that I don't, The good news... I am working on getting acquiring some at a reasonable price. It may be a couple of weeks before I can tie it down but it is on my to do list to let you know when I know.

[Neomys Sapiens]

@MNEM MIL-PRF-7870 should work too. Also Starrett 1620.

[mnementh]

I have two choices for shipping from some unknown warehouse in the US to here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada...
I need these parts before the weekend, Thursday would be nice but by Friday is imperative.
Canada Day is Wednesday, which might screw things up and of course Saturday is July 4th so many will be gearing up for the weekend. 

Anyone been having particularly good luck or bad luck with either of these?

DHL International Express supposedly Thursday July 2 $38.25
FedEx Economy supposedly Friday July 3 $21.85

I haven't shipped anything express from the US for ages.... 
DHL was usually spotty, FedEX is normally good to me but they are only offering the Economy rate not full express from this place right now......  sooo...

Which do I chose?   

I've noticed, in the last week or so, that shipping times have become dramatically faster - this is true with both USPS and UPS which I have received shipments via recently.

Looks like they might be getting the shipping situation back to normal / under control.

You might be OK...

Mmmmmhmmmmm... good luck widdat. 



It's quarter to seven right now; I suppose as it's still daylight out, not TECHNICALLY end of day YET...   

mnem

[mnementh]

Spent the morning being repeatedly kicked in the balls by the internet... you'd think "sewing machine oil" would be a pretty UN-ambiguous search term; but I keep getting page after page of everything but that. (iPwn cases...? SERIOUSLY...?) Or something that could work, only ridiculously priced or an eyedropperful of product when I need a pint.

I think I'm just going to say "fuck it" and go with some light hydraulic oil; viscosity will be a bit high, but at least I can get a quart at Princess Auto without killing myself. 

mnem

   
  5 seconds on amazon.com:  https://www.amazon.com/Singer-2131E-All-Purpose-Machine/dp/B000YZ1Y06/

Yes, the above-mentioned "eyedropperful when I need a pint"; I'd need 4 or 5 of that little bottle as this is a wet-sump machine with oil pump. Also, Singer oil is full of some damned thing that reeks to high heaven; it's worse than transmission fluid.  Light mineral oil is odorless.

mnem
moo. or don't.

So... Princess Auto was a bitch; the ISO32 Hydraulic Oil they have is "Anti-Wear", which has the same kind of phosphate detergents as ATF. Cracked the cap on one; not enough to break the seal, but enough to catch a whiff. Reeks like a workbench at AAMCO. 

I give up; I'm gonna place an online order with the sewing supply shop downtown which has generic Lily White Sewing Machine Oil $17/liter. The question now is: Do I spend the 2 hours there and back, or pay Canada Post $11 and take the gamble that it gets here any faster than the parcel above... 

Well, the leftovers SHOULD be a lifetime supply of refills for the micro-oiler I use on my whirry little flying things...

mnem
"Oh.... I beat my knee with a monkey wrench, cuz it feels so good when I stop..."

[SilverSolder]

Spent the morning being repeatedly kicked in the balls by the internet... you'd think "sewing machine oil" would be a pretty UN-ambiguous search term; but I keep getting page after page of everything but that. (iPwn cases...? SERIOUSLY...?) Or something that could work, only ridiculously priced or an eyedropperful of product when I need a pint.

I think I'm just going to say "fuck it" and go with some light hydraulic oil; viscosity will be a bit high, but at least I can get a quart at Princess Auto without killing myself. 

mnem

   
  5 seconds on amazon.com:  https://www.amazon.com/Singer-2131E-All-Purpose-Machine/dp/B000YZ1Y06/

Yes, the above-mentioned "eyedropperful when I need a pint"; I'd need 4 or 5 of that little bottle as this is a wet-sump machine with oil pump. Also, Singer oil is full of some damned thing that reeks to high heaven; it's worse than transmission fluid.  Light mineral oil is odorless.

mnem
moo. or don't.

So... Princess Auto was a bitch; the ISO32 Hydraulic Oil they have is "Anti-Wear", which has the same kind of phosphate detergents as ATF. Cracked the cap on one; not enough to break the seal, but enough to catch a whiff. Reeks like a workbench at AAMCO. 

I give up; I'm gonna place an online order with the sewing supply shop downtown which has generic Lily White Sewing Machine Oil $17/liter. The question now is: Do I spend the 2 hours there and back, or pay Canada Post $11 and take the gamble that it gets here any faster than the parcel above... 

Well, the leftovers SHOULD be a lifetime supply of refills for the micro-oiler I use on my whirry little flying things...

mnem
"Oh.... I beat my knee with a monkey wrench, cuz it feels so good when I stop..."

Do you have Amazon?

www.amazon.com/Sewing-Machine-Zoom-Spout-Oiler/dp/B079RMRZ8D/

[mnementh]

Spent the morning being repeatedly kicked in the balls by the internet... you'd think "sewing machine oil" would be a pretty UN-ambiguous search term; but I keep getting page after page of everything but that. (iPwn cases...? SERIOUSLY...?) Or something that could work, only ridiculously priced or an eyedropperful of product when I need a pint.

I think I'm just going to say "fuck it" and go with some light hydraulic oil; viscosity will be a bit high, but at least I can get a quart at Princess Auto without killing myself. 

mnem

   
  5 seconds on amazon.com:  https://www.amazon.com/Singer-2131E-All-Purpose-Machine/dp/B000YZ1Y06/

Yes, the above-mentioned "eyedropperful when I need a pint"; I'd need 4 or 5 of that little bottle as this is a wet-sump machine with oil pump. Also, Singer oil is full of some damned thing that reeks to high heaven; it's worse than transmission fluid.  Light mineral oil is odorless.

mnem
moo. or don't.

So... Princess Auto was a bitch; the ISO32 Hydraulic Oil they have is "Anti-Wear", which has the same kind of phosphate detergents as ATF. Cracked the cap on one; not enough to break the seal, but enough to catch a whiff. Reeks like a workbench at AAMCO. 

I give up; I'm gonna place an online order with the sewing supply shop downtown which has generic Lily White Sewing Machine Oil $17/liter. The question now is: Do I spend the 2 hours there and back, or pay Canada Post $11 and take the gamble that it gets here any faster than the parcel above... 

Well, the leftovers SHOULD be a lifetime supply of refills for the micro-oiler I use on my whirry little flying things...

mnem
"Oh.... I beat my knee with a monkey wrench, cuz it feels so good when I stop..."

Do you have Amazon?www.amazon.com/Sewing-Machine-Zoom-Spout-Oiler/dp/B079RMRZ8D/

Yes... Already looked at EVERY ONE OF THOSE. All those little bottles are like $16 EACH to get them to me.   

Even if they combined shipping, it would be 4 or 5 of them at $7-8 EACH... plus shipping AND Import Duty of ~10-12%.

mnem

[mnementh]

ON THE BENCH: 2KVA CURB SCORE!

      

Picked this up off the curb this afternoon, on my way home from the above-recounted abject failure at Princess Auto. As I haven't actually had a proper TEA post in at least a couple moltings, I figured I'd do the Dave thing:

"Oy! Don't turn it on, take it apart!!!"     

First off, a quick wipedown with alcohol; then a trip to the washroom to wash me paws... then right back 'ere.

See Y'all in a few!

mnem