Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Glad to hear your house situation has declined in shittyness

Haha, I bet the manager is regretting phoning me yesterday from his mobile because I definitely got the feeling that they were more than happy to leave us as we were with no power over the weekend and work on the solution Monday onwards. There was zero concern about our frozen food stocks. If there was no way that they could not get us reconnected today, I was going to suggest that they supply us with a small generator to keep them going and also to power the TV at the very least via extension leads.

[bd139]

Sound about right. A friend of mine is a sparky who’s only customer is one of the local housing associations and his entire life is trying to work out how to get around their attempts to not pay him or avoid him doing work. I’m sure they incentivise failure.

[Cerebus]

A foolish strategy as local tradesmen tend to know each other either directly or indirectly. Word of dodgy customers tends to get around and suddenly they can find themselves with nobody who's prepared to do work for them. Then they're left with having to use one of the contracting firms like Amec or Conway who are 1) more expensive, 2) have accounts departments and lawyers who know how to make sure they get paid.

[Saskia]

I should train myself not to check using bid now how high an auction will go ...

Won a threshold preamp, albeit not the one I originally wanted.

Should be good as a spare amp in case one of my current ones needs restoration.

[bd139]

A foolish strategy as local tradesmen tend to know each other either directly or indirectly. Word of dodgy customers tends to get around and suddenly they can find themselves with nobody who's prepared to do work for them. Then they're left with having to use one of the contracting firms like Amec or Conway who are 1) more expensive, 2) have accounts departments and lawyers who know how to make sure they get paid.

When did the “masked” public sector ever not run anything but foolish strategies?

I did some contract work for the NHS back in 2004 and discovered quickly that (a) getting paid is difficult and (b) suing them was damn near impossible due to the queue. After 75 days the money turned up. It immediately broke when paid and I got a panicked call. Up front per incident payment after that shit show. So it turned out that they had moved the kit and not screwed down the RS232 cable. 2 minute job for £700 was a good day 

[BU508A]

And now for something completely different: thermal stripper!

On saturday my 5 + 4 Euro thermal stripper arrived. Brand: Mentor-Strip.

This is a picture from the auction:


You surely have noticed this unusual plug. It is made of Bakelite and contains a phased controlled modulator.
The plug in detail:



The temperature can be set between 0 to 10 where
0 relates to ca. 35°C
5 relates to ca. 100°C
10 relates to ca. 150°C

With the silver screw one can clamp the scale.

Here we have the inhabitants of the bakelite case:



Interesting Triac they have used. No idea what brand it is, wasn't able to find a datasheet or some information about it.
The 369 is perhaps a date code.

The blades are heavily used and worn out. Maybe I'll find one day a good replacement for them.



I did also some testing with PVC and PTFE (the brown one) insulated wires.
Set the regulator to "5" the PVC stripping worked nicely.
But the PTFE even on "10" and after nearly 10 attempts was hardly impressed.



Will look further for a thermal stripper. I think, it would be really useful if one has to strip ribbon cables.
Not sure about the PTFE performance but this Mentor Strip thingie is hardly to be taken seriously. Maybe with better blades.

[factory]

1707b home. It's fucked. CRT has gassed out, clearly has been dropped. Not a problem. All I want is its organs. So as the first part of the autopsy, we have a power supply board.

Spot the clear sign of a careless/clueless owner. First one who gets it gets bugger all other than disappointment.

Too late for you scope, but there is a new CRT for the 1707B on ePay, full manual is on keyshite website (option 300 whatever that is).
https://www.ebay.de/itm/114345727051
http://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/01707-90912.pdf?id=1861989

David

[tggzzz]

Sound about right. A friend of mine is a sparky who’s only customer is one of the local housing associations and his entire life is trying to work out how to get around their attempts to not pay him or avoid him doing work. I’m sure they incentivise failure.

I knew a contractor who wasn't paid by a bit of GEC, so he declared them bankrupt.

The money materialised pronto, in a motorcycle courier's pannier.

[med6753]

And now for something completely different:  stripper!



The blades are heavily used and worn out. Maybe I'll find one day a good replacement for them.

?  ? 



 

[tggzzz]

 I'm this close to reporting that picture to the mods; it can't be unnseen.

Be careful with burning PTFE.

[bd139]

1707b home. It's fucked. CRT has gassed out, clearly has been dropped. Not a problem. All I want is its organs. So as the first part of the autopsy, we have a power supply board.

Spot the clear sign of a careless/clueless owner. First one who gets it gets bugger all other than disappointment.

Too late for you scope, but there is a new CRT for the 1707B on ePay, full manual is on keyshite website (option 300 whatever that is).
https://www.ebay.de/itm/114345727051
http://literature.cdn.keysight.com/litweb/pdf/01707-90912.pdf?id=1861989

David

Thanks for the tip off. However I had no intention of repairing it. It was merely knob harvest session for other gear. The things are almost unworkable without extender cards.

[Robert763]

I'm this close to reporting that picture to the mods; it can't be unnseen.

Be careful with burning PTFE.

Thermal wire strippers should not be used on PTFE. It does not melt but decomposes releasing nasty chemicals.
They are pretty poor on any kind of heat resistant wire e.g. silicone, radiation cross linked plastics etc.

[Saskia]

Nasty chemicals being HF and COF2 and perfluoroisobutylene...

See here.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/fam.810160204

Just don't. fuck. with. Fluor. It can kill you dead in an instant.

[mnementh]

Good news.  The frozen-food shuffle is one of the worst PITAs of this modern life; have done it myself a time or three... that I can remember. Also had me a few "Whole neighborhood is invited" BBQs over the years... LOL 

I missed the original post too; dang. 

I just got a 2-hour taste of that last week; no idea how I'd manage for a week or even a day. Would be buying a genset and/or running a extension to the neighbor's fo sho. No CPAP=no sleep for the ol' fat bastahd dwagon.

Best of luck my friend. Was wishing I could put y'all up, but we're losing our minds over here already. We have to be out by the 31st and we STILL don't have a signed lease yet. 

mnem
*looks skyward* "Come on Ifni... you can do better..."

Thanks old buddy, holy shit balls you guys have really got to get your fingers out, the 31st is sure coming head-on like a bastard run away freight train. Whats if the 31st comes and you still have nowhere, more stuff put into storage and slum it in a 2 bit hotel somewhere? Just with the gear you have in storage already and the gear you currently have, you must be looking at a converted warehouse of something to take it all 

Yeah... fortunately the stuff this side of the border is small enough to fit in a 20' shipping container, one of which I'm renting for ~$135/mo. Still, between that and the big one a hair over a grand a month USD just in storage. 

I've taken 2 more loads since then (the Rav4 loaded down and the fanny pack on the trailer hitch); container is ~45% capacity and we still have beds, a dresser and couches to move.
Oh, and this back-breaking mofo:

If we don't have a contract on the 31st then yeah, I guess we'll be schlepping ourselves to Intown Suites or the equivalent.  But that is a misery to worry about later; we still have numerous bits of furniture that need to be dismantled before we can move them. THOSE are my #1 concern right now.

Today's first load was... I kid you not... 100% speakers. Speakers from the kids rooms, speakers from the bedroom, speakers from the living room, speakers that had been squirreled away in closets and garage.  I really DO need to get some of the ones I don't use put up on Kijiji... 

mnem
I'm like that old lady who collects cats... only it's speakers. Ummm Wooof...?

[Specmaster]

WTF did I just see, err no thanks, I think I'd be prepared to pay her to put clothes on rather than strip off what few she was wearing 

[BU508A]

    

Congratulations  med, now I want to do this:

https://youtu.be/qXaGPc_vFSg/

       

[mnementh]

I did note that I was done with ham radio not RF full stop. This is 2.4GHz ISM for remote sensing. Trying to work out how to make 2.4Ghz patch antennas on shitty FR4 substrate from china.

Glad to hear your house situation has declined in shittyness

Can you use 5.8GHz...? There are Lots of ready-made modules for transmitting/receiving analog audio/video used in RC FPV. Power ranging from 25mW to 5W, and every kind of antenna from monopole to sleeve dipole to CPW, helical and patch all available for SOOOOO cheap.

https://getfpv.com

https://www.banggood.com/search/fpv.html?from=nav

mnem
 

[Cerebus]

Sound about right. A friend of mine is a sparky who’s only customer is one of the local housing associations and his entire life is trying to work out how to get around their attempts to not pay him or avoid him doing work. I’m sure they incentivise failure.

I knew a contractor who wasn't paid by a bit of GEC, so he declared them bankrupt.

The money materialised pronto, in a motorcycle courier's pannier.

The trick was to send a "Statutory Demand" for payment then, x days later when it hadn't been paid, make an application for a winding up order on the basis that non-payment of a statutory demand was formal evidence of not being able to pay one's debts as they fall due and therefore not meeting the criteria for being a "going concern" and also thereby meeting the criteria for "trading while insolvent" which is one of those things that gets banning orders issued against directors. Nothing, but nothing, is going to wake up a behemoth company like the CEO or chairman getting a call from a city analyst asking "Why are you being wound up?".

The ability to make an application for a winding up order so easily was changed to make it harder a few years back - evidently this trick to force payment was played often enough that someone with deep pockets lobbied to get it changed. I too know someone who used the same tactic in the past, which is how I know the details as it was too good a trick to know to pass up the opportunity to learn enough to be able to reproduce it if ever I needed it.

[mnementh]

I'm this close to reporting that picture to the mods; it can't be unnseen. Be careful with burning PTFE.

I know... that Mentor Strip thingie is a fucking horror show!!! 

mnem
 

[0culus]

Working on another Jim Williams pulser build. This will likely be my final one along the lines of the original design (this time in a project box though), before I experiment with extensions of the design, such as adding delay lines and custom PCBs (I need practice anyway). Anyway, I discovered that my 50 ohm termination was absolutely horrible...turned out to be a grounding issue in the project box. Now it looks much better. NanoVNA V2 to the rescue!

edit: for funzies, picture on the 585A with Type 82 plugin (high impedance input).

[tggzzz]

I'm this close to reporting that picture to the mods; it can't be unnseen. Be careful with burning PTFE.

I know... that Mentor Strip thingie is a fucking horror show!!! 

mnem
 

Given how quickly it materialised, I presume that picture is either a selfie or from his stash.

[Cerebus]

I'm this close to reporting that picture to the mods; it can't be unnseen.

Be careful with burning PTFE.

What's more worrying is that Med had it bookmarked somewhere so he could produce it so quickly. What had he been looking for that he found it originally when he bookmarked it?

[BU508A]

I'm this close to reporting that picture to the mods; it can't be unnseen.

Be careful with burning PTFE.

What's more worrying is that Med had it bookmarked somewhere so he could produce it so quickly. What had he been looking for that he found it originally when he bookmarked it?

My bet would go to: Dr. Frank N. Furter's grandma on vacation.

[Cerebus]

More of a familial resemblance to Riff-raff, I think.

[mnementh]

Jeezus you bastards... now you've got me thinking about med Smurfing off!  I can't decide which is worse; that or his vinyl-clad sack of wrinkles!!!

Where's muh fukkin' bottle o' Brain Bleach...?

mnem