Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Quote from: bd139 on Today at 07:53:37

Yeah I wouldn't buy an ebay one from a chancer like that. Thanks for the tip though. £20 plus some LEDs is affordable refurb 


I figured I bought a 4.5 digit meter last week, a 5.5 digit meter this week. Next week... ? 

Thats what I thought when I got mine, good meters., only real issue that annoys the shit out of me is that the power switch at the rear 
Next week a boat anchor? 

Edit. The ultrasonic cleaner was delivered and signed for today, lets see how long for the refund 

Hey ! I only started at 5.5 digit then 6.5 digit. Never had a 4.5, maybe 3.5 if I count my Brymen BM235.

On my bench even 4.5 digits is overkill. But I did venture into 5.5 digit territory not wanting to be the odd man out and keep up with the cool crowd. Peer pressure can be overwhelming at times. But I swore I would never go there. 6.5 digits. I resisted, for almost 2 years. Then one day evil bay presented me with an 8505A at a price that kept tugging at me. I broke down. Now I have all those digits floating around and no clue as to what to do with them.   

[Cerebus]

Apple have never got mice right. Proof that over innovating is retarded.

Not entirely true. The early 90s one button mice were fine. I doubt that it's a coincidence that the manufacture of the same was contracted out to Logitech.

[Kosmic]

Anyone is looking for a cheap 100A Load (42$) ? 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Standard-Power-Inc-PS2-L-1000-Programmable-Solid-State-Load-FOR-PARTS/174067508781

Shipping is killing the deal for me 

[med6753]

Anyone is looking for a cheap 100A Load (42$) ? 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Standard-Power-Inc-PS2-L-1000-Programmable-Solid-State-Load-FOR-PARTS/174067508781

Shipping is killing the deal for me 

Even US shipping is ridiculous. Besides, I currently have no interest in burning the house down.....at least today and probably tomorrow. 

[tonyalbus]

Guess the proper meters agree..  i am very lucky in that sense with the meters i buy and there calibration.
only now i feel i bit silly i bought that owon 

(Attachment Link)

That 199 appears to be in great condition. Does it happen to have a scanner card in it? That'd be a bonus.

I like these old Keithley DMMs with the big LED displays. I have a 196.

Not sure, will need to open it, bit if i look on the back, there is a huge green stip i can connect stuff to...not sure wat it does either..will look for docs.

Just looked at that 196, thats a cool meter!

[tonyalbus]

Anyone is looking for a cheap 100A Load (42$) ? 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Standard-Power-Inc-PS2-L-1000-Programmable-Solid-State-Load-FOR-PARTS/174067508781

Shipping is killing the deal for me 

shipping will kill me i see

[tggzzz]

On other notes: red lines and what experts are saying about them:

And here is one of today's examples, where it is conveniently ignored that being on the equator means the rocket starts at 1000mph.
https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2020/07/uk-s-first-space-launch-could-take-place-in-early-2020s-government-says

[mnementh]

That looks quite neat that. Got to say that Logitech actually have their shit together with input devices. I’ve gone back to my Logitech G203 mouse because the Apple one was possibly the worst mouse the human race could muster.

I have one of the 2nd/3rd gen ones with the tiny trackball for scrolling; the one where they finally gave us a right-click. It worked for a while in Win10 Release Candidate, then the right-click stopped working for the stable releases. When that worked, it was one of the best mice I ever had, bar none. 

It annoys me no end when manufacturers lets ideology interfere with good technology; it's like we're all back on the playground in fucking 4th grade.

mnem

[bd139]

Apple have never got mice right. Proof that over innovating is retarded.

Not entirely true. The early 90s one button mice were fine. I doubt that it's a coincidence that the manufacture of the same was contracted out to Logitech.

Yeah but the Mac on the end of them was vile 

Currently trying to put together a PC with one hand. Do not recommend. Took me 40 mins to get the board in it.

[mnementh]

Ahhhh.... okay. I thought you were talking about the link I posted along with back to the author's site, not this particular aspect of the many ways in which SMF molests people's posts. 

I don't USUALLY post fullsize images... so not a frequent offender. I usually only do it when something is already "just big enough to read" or when it rates full "Poster-Size" presentation.

I guess I've gotten so used to it, I don't even think about having to copy/paste at least one image link when someone else does it. 

For me resizing pics to minimum required to identify source when I quote is just good etiquette; a thumb is enough when there's already a copy or three of a pic further back on the page, but for the sake of those jumping in at the end, or the "occasional lurker" who only tunes in once in a while... I think it's polite to give them the ability to click on it and see the full image.

Just so.

When I want to help the reader by de-emphasising the pictorial context, I'm happy to insert a "width=200" modifier.

I normally gimp my pictures down to 640/800/1024 before posting them, except in the rare cases where the extreme resolution would actually help somebody.

   I'll admit that when eevBlog raised the per-post limit from 1MB to 5 MB I got lazy and stopped resizing EVERY TIME; that probably did compound the COVID boomtime server loading bloat, especially on this thread. I've had the PowerToys Image Resizer in EVERY one of my builds since XP; it puts a VERY powerful yet quick & easy resizing utility right in the global file management dialog: https://www.bricelam.net/ImageResizer/

Since you admit to using GIMP, I'll assume you use *NIX on your daily driver (not that you've EVER voiced dissent with the Winblows Regime ), so not a benefit to you; but for the rest of us, M$ HAS given us back most of our PowerToys as part of a recent policy shift towards assimilating embracing Open-Source: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases/tag/v0.19.2

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

This is a bit more like it for all IT support types

[drussell]

(the only reason that Robinson isn't in the list of "things I have wrecked" is that I have still to encounter one in real life).

It's Robertson, actually... 

That's the default screw head here in Canada for sure, and they're absolutely great. 

The knock-off "square drive" ones are somewhat hit-and miss, but real, proper Robertson profile screws and drivers are fabulous.    Torx is OK too, of course.

[mnementh]

On other notes: red lines and what experts are saying about them:

LOL.... that's Dilbert-Level right there. 

Seems we were thinking on a common wavelength; I was just perusing this over my morning cuppa: https://thedailywtf.com/articles/ultrabase

mnem
Seems like a good time to roll out this old saw for the Trifecta:      

[mnementh]

I'm surprised that I've been able to ignore JIS and Pozidriv for this many decades

On this side of the pond, we were in the 50/50 league. Half PZ, half PH. UK kit seemed to be much more PZ, while german stuff was Allen/Inbus. Wood screws were PZ, if not for drywall, there PH ruled.

Now it's all moving to Torx.

My father may be somewhat to blame for the UK being mostly Pozidrive, he was at one time a Sales Manager for GKN fastners division (then known as Guest, Keen, Nettlefold and Mossers) who aggressively promoted Pozidrive in the UK in the 60s and 70s. (One upside of his job, we were never short of the right nut, screw or bolt at home. If we were, we had a pound of them by the end of the next working day.  My father is the reason that I knew how to (1) Sing "Blaydon Races", (2) box and (3) pick the right type and size of screwdriver, even before I went to Infant's School. )

There are a lot of Phillips users who think they're blissfully ignored JIS for many a year, but if they go and examine the screw heads on anything Japanese that they own, and have taken apart, the apprentice marks will be witness that it wasn't quite as blissful as they thought.

Being a past master at mangling the heads of fasteners (even with the correct tooling) I am grateful that the rest of the world is finally waking up to the benefits of Torx (aka hexalobular) drive. I have yet to even slightly deform a Torx head, I cannot say the same for slotted, hex (Allen), Phillips, JIS, or Pozidrive (the only reason that Robinson isn't in the list of "things I have wrecked" is that I have still to encounter one in real life).

Until you run into a Security TORX made out of dead-soft steel like those horrible JIS screws used by all of the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers from the 60s-80s. 

Those things are from Satan's own parts counter; the ill-gotten spawn of those JIS and the Ifni-damned TriWing fasteners favored by Nintendo. 

mnem
Kill it. Kill it with FIRE.

[Cerebus]

And here is one of today's examples, where it is conveniently ignored that being on the equator means the rocket starts at 1000mph.
https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2020/07/uk-s-first-space-launch-could-take-place-in-early-2020s-government-says

I've always found the "you need to be on the equator to launch orbiting things" a bit specious. Yes, you get 1000 mph (0.4 km/s) for free, but that's a small part of the 7-8 kilometers per second that you need even for a low earth orbit (over 11 km/s for escape velocity). Sure, you use al least 10% more fuel (can't be bothered to work it out properly, it gets too calculusy for the back of a fag packet), or have a lower payload, but you gain convenience, launch from home territory (which has positive security implications) and you don't have to constantly ferry staff half way around the world.

And of course you can drop "When I was driving past the spaceport the other day" into conversation with the French - "Yes, I know you've got one in French Guiana, but that's hardly on the way to the shops is it? Here, have a glass of bubbly in consolation. Yes, it is good isn't it - from Kent don't ya know. [Sound of apoplectic choking in French]". 

[mnementh]

On other notes: red lines and what experts are saying about them:   https://youtu.be/BKorP55Aqvg

And here is one of today's examples, where it is conveniently ignored that being on the equator means the rocket starts at 1000mph.
https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2020/07/uk-s-first-space-launch-could-take-place-in-early-2020s-government-says

...The Science Minister Amanda Solloway said: “We want the UK to be the first place in Europe to launch small satellites and in order to do that, we need business-friendly regulations in place."

Short version: "Lets deregulate everything for the sake of a few thousand 'potential jobs'; that has worked out so well for the US."

mnem

"What could possibly go wrong...?"

[mnementh]

And here is one of today's examples, where it is conveniently ignored that being on the equator means the rocket starts at 1000mph.   https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2020/07/uk-s-first-space-launch-could-take-place-in-early-2020s-government-says

I've always found the "you need to be on the equator to launch orbiting things" a bit specious. Yes, you get 1000 mph (0.4 km/s) for free, but that's a small part of the 7-8 kilometers per second that you need even for a low earth orbit (over 11 km/s for escape velocity). Sure, you use al least 10% more fuel (can't be bothered to work it out properly, it gets too calculusy for the back of a fag packet), or have a lower payload, but you gain convenience, launch from home territory (which has positive security implications) and you don't have to constantly ferry staff half way around the world.

And of course you can drop "When I was driving past the spaceport the other day" into conversation with the French - "Yes, I know you've got one in French Guiana, but that's hardly on the way to the shops is it? Here, have a glass of bubbly in consolation. Yes, it is good isn't it - from Kent don't ya know. [Sound of apoplectic choking in French]". 

So... you're calling this one a net positive then...? 

mnem
*Lays out the conversational cutlery for Master Earth-Pig*

[med6753]

This is a bit more like it for all IT support types

Please stop with the work related reminders of total frustration and wanting to throw shit. Retirement has been a year and half of complete bliss and I haven't thought of these ugly incidences and now they are floating around in my head.

Please, no more.....or I will have to kill someone.   

[bd139]

PC built worked. Phew. Minor pant shitter when both the CPU and DRAM PSC LEDs came on solid but it turns out the new ASRock boards that's normal and they go out when the test phase is complete. Writing this on windows 10

At least this is a free PC. It's almost identical to my old one

[Cerebus]

...The Science Minister Amanda Solloway said: “We want the UK to be the first place in Europe to launch small satellites and in order to do that, we need business-friendly regulations in place."

Short version: "Lets deregulate everything for the sake of a few thousand 'potential jobs'; that has worked out so well for the US."

Oh, it won't be a risk to anybody, as long as they're not Scots. For years the UK government has put everything that might be a little bit of a problem for the general population in Scotland. Used to be East London (I'm less than five miles from a derelict explosives works), then the North of England (Windscale/Calder Hall/Sellafield) and then it was Scotland (Faslane). Let's face it, it's better than sticking it somewhere where it's only insignificant foreigners who are at risk (Maralinga, Woomera et al.).

[mnementh]

(the only reason that Robinson isn't in the list of "things I have wrecked" is that I have still to encounter one in real life).

It's Robertson, actually...  That's the default screw head here in Canada for sure, and they're absolutely great. 

The knock-off "square drive" ones are somewhat hit-and miss, but real, proper Robertson profile screws and drivers are fabulous.    Torx is OK too, of course.

Yeah, except that (as I've recently discovered much to my annoyance, after spending a whole lifetime blissfully ignorant of the Ifni-accursed things) in the real world, about half the time the bits you buy are softer than the screws, or worse yet, BOTH are made of case-hardened cheese. 

On top of that, they make EVERY project you use the heinous things on look like it came from the fucking stone age.  They're ALMOST as shite-looking as stripped-out slotted screws from the 40s. 

mnem
And WHY... for Ifni's sake WHY...? In a country that is supposedly METRIC; when you walk into a hardware store there are like twelve metric fasteners. Total. 

[med6753]

My big project of the day. Re-cap of the B&K 1820. All two of them. 

But look at all those green tants on the board. Never saw green tants before. Ain't they purdy? For now they are staying in place. Of all my gear I only have tant blow ups on Tek stuff. I have lots of B&K and Fluke gear that's loaded with beaded tants and I only recall one lonely incident of a bad tant in a Fluke 8010A. So these will be left alone too. But if one goes they ALL go. 



Of course appropriate check out. All is well. 

[bd139]

I really like the basic LED counters. I really want a Fluke 1900A or something

[med6753]

I really like the basic LED counters. I really want a Fluke 1900A or something

Indeed. 

[PaulAm]

Anyone is looking for a cheap 100A Load (42$) ? 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Standard-Power-Inc-PS2-L-1000-Programmable-Solid-State-Load-FOR-PARTS/174067508781

Shipping is killing the deal for me 

shipping will kill me i see

Dang, I have to quit reading this thread.  I was looking for a cheapish load and I don't mind analog meters so I grabbed it.  Schematics are available and it shouldn't be a big deal to fix.  That unit has 34 pass transistors.   A kilowatt load for ~ $100 isn't all that bad.  A quick hack with an arduino will give data logging. 

Shipping is a killer anywhere these days.  The other week I got a quote of $350 to ship a box of fuel lines for my truck (that was more than the lines cost).  $65 is actually not all that bad considering.