Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Weekend plan: about 300km, 4000m climb on my bike.
From Germany to Italy in one night on a road bike.

If I don't see a post from me until Tuesday, it was nice to be a me member of TEA, please do not stop.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vrqD4Ax8wwq

Saskia tell Odin he helped well to reach the top of the mountain

Slightly impressed with that and I'm really difficult to impress  . Nice job 

[mansaxel]

<kettle talk>

Excellent. A joy to read

Oh and happy birthday 

As a relatively lazy individual this kettle is a purely a "quick boil" device for coffee. I don't drink tea. So plan with this is going to be used as:

1. empty 3L out of my camelbak into a cup
2. chuck this in the kettle and boil
3. Pour on top of a coffee bag now in the aforementioned cup (thus avoiding complex coffee machinery and associated mass)
4. While it's going utterly rancid and offending you all, cook up some food 

First walk out with it planned now. Will go on a week day when there are busses to leverage so I don't have to do a circular route. Tring to Princess Risborough on Ridgeway, stopping overnight at Wendover for some illegal camping . A leisurely 22 mile job in 4 stretches. Day 1 breakfast=home... lunch=steak ... dinner=mushroom curry. Day 2 breakfast=fry up ... lunch= chorizo stew and mash ... dinner = home.

Will do another chunk another day once I've got used to doing this again (has been a while)

Thanks!

In Sweden, there is no such thing as illegal camping, if you're just a little bit smart. As long as you're not on somebodys crop or lawn, you're allowed to camp, for one night. That's the law. And you're free to roam in any forest, as long as it is not a military installation.

That coffee method is my emergency procedure, and also the current army way if fed from Grönpåse / MRE / Einmannpackung / ORP / RCIR. My work backpack contains one such coffee bag, and also a folding cup, and an icecream spoon. Gotta be prepared!

[mansaxel]

But noone dares guess what was in the packages..

Based on the package paper it is a bit hard to tell what's inside. 

I'll try, starting with the big one, then clockwise ongoing.

1 - Handheld DMM
2 - DMMCheck Plus
3 - A nice Kit to solder something
4 - A NanoVNA

 

Nope! It is an ensemble of packages. They belong together. 

[mansaxel]

But noone dares guess what was in the packages..

It's all about how pressies from the wife are wrapped.

Oh, sad. In paper and with a bow. 

Anyways, many happy returns......next year you might get that pair of socks and a .........

There were socks on the wish list. A quite special kind of synthetic fibre, CoolMax. Wicks moisture out. Dry feet even in trainers on a very hot day. Didn't get them, but there are more chances.

[Robert763]

looks like a couple of Smiths 400Hz test set there too. I might be interested in those if you arn't keeping them.

There are two small Smiths items which look to be part of something much bigger. I'll try and add some pictures later.

David

Random Smiths AC voltage injector teardown. 

Is it actually any use for anything or just a nice collection of parts?

David

It is useful if you play with old fashioned 400Hz syncro systems. I'm guessing the larger unit is a transmitter with a big dial.
I o ply with syncro stuff so if you want to dispose of them let me know.

[BU508A]

But noone dares guess what was in the packages..

Based on the package paper it is a bit hard to tell what's inside. 

I'll try, starting with the big one, then clockwise ongoing.

1 - Handheld DMM
2 - DMMCheck Plus
3 - A nice Kit to solder something
4 - A NanoVNA

 

Nope! It is an ensemble of packages. They belong together.

*HAHAHAHAHA*

I think I know what it is!   

A DER EE DE-5000 with all the bells and whistles!  Right?   

[mansaxel]

Nope! It is an ensemble of packages. They belong together.

*HAHAHAHAHA*

I think I know what it is!   

A DER EE DE-5000 with all the bells and whistles!  Right?   

Korrekt!

You win a reading of a 82KΩ resistor from a newly calibrated DE-5000.

Am happy now. This is a very nice addition to the bench. I suggest anyone not having one already go buy one, or start wishing for it to turn up in the christmas sock. Have only played with it on my standards (with which it agrees) and it does mH and Ohms really well.

[BU508A]

Nope! It is an ensemble of packages. They belong together.

*HAHAHAHAHA*

I think I know what it is!   

A DER EE DE-5000 with all the bells and whistles!  Right?   

Korrekt!

You win a reading of a 82KΩ resistor from a newly calibrated DE-5000.

Am happy now. This is a very nice addition to the bench. I suggest anyone not having one already go buy one, or start wishing for it to turn up in the christmas sock. Have only played with it on my standards (with which it agrees) and it does mH and Ohms really well.

  

4300pF:


5900pF:


8000pF:


     

[med6753]

Had a good weekend and I'm confident the Lady Cop and I have resolved our differences and we can pretty much (and did  ) pick up from where we left off. But I did tell her any repeat of prior antics and I'm gone for good. She promised that won't happen.

She was impressed with how much the TE collection grew over the past half year and stated that I'm pretty much out of room. I reluctantly agreed. 

Anyway, just got back from a 4 hour round trip to bring her home and I'm tired.       

[Neomys Sapiens]

The rest of the stuff. 8082A pulse generator joining my RF and microwave experimentation "tower of power".  Got to wanting this after seeing CuriousMarc use two of them for his core memory demonstration video a while back. The killer feature for me is directly controllable rise and fall times...perfect for situations where really fast pulses will just ring. Should be very useful for the low-power radar experimentation I play around with sometimes.

Not pictured is another massive bag of Sphere free goodies, ranging from various ICs, to LEDs of many colors, diodes, switches, pots, capacitors....

Ok, this beats having a PG502 and a PG508. If it weren't for the size, it would be on the list.

[mnementh]

Kettle for my Trangia

It isn't properly used until the plastic on the handle has melted, and the molten plastic has thumb inprints, reminding the owner of the incident. They work finely on plain fires as well, and while I suspect you'll be using them for a typical "brew" (i.e tea) the only proper modus operandi is boiling coffee.

This is done thusly:

1. Obtain coarsely ground coffee. French press ground is quite OK. In Sweden, you'd buy "Kokmalet".

2. Fill kettle with cold water. Preferably from a stream, well, or if necessary, a tap.

3. Pour coffee grounds on top of water. They'll float first, but that'll cease. 

4. How much? More than naïvely thought, but no precise amount can be given. You'll learn through a process that people who talk about "frameworks" and "Software devlopment" call "continuous delivery", a method normal people call "trial and error" combined with "iteration through all possible variables until things happen to not break" .

5. Put on heating source. When coffee/water mix boils, remove from heat, allow to settle and pour carefully.

6. Drink, while observing rate of coffee grounds passing lips.

7. On rate threshold trigger, remove cup, allow a second settlement, and try again.

8. Do not remove boilt grounds from pot; instead re-use together with more water and some grounds. After some 3 boils, you're getting somewhere.

Hot beverage trivia: When the Swedish army bought Centurion tanks in the 50's, they of course came with a kettle. This was very well received by the tankers, who from then on insist that a tank is not worthy of their consideration unless it's got a kettle. Thus, one of the mods that turn the Leo 2 into a Strv 122 is "install kettle".

What...? They don't just draw hot water off the radiator anymore...? 
Happy birthday, and BTW, that is what we call "Ranch Style" coffee over here.       If you sprinkle a pinch of salt on top of the coffee and tap the side of the pot with a wooden spoon a few times after you take it off the heat, it helps the grounds settle out quicker. A little patience and learning to pour trickle-slow are key to minimizing how much you have to strain through yer teeth. 

Or, you can step into the 21st century and buy one of those stainless steel drip-perc coffee filters and pour the coffee through that into your cup; available pretty much everywhere they sell coffee. 

mnem

[Neomys Sapiens]

Gimme !! gimme!! Gimme!!!

It's a sickness.
I much prefer a little small pill that reaches right out there 'cause my shoulder tells me I'm a woss.
6mm Rem does it for me.

Let's see you keep this up once the Possums aquire some armour.

On a totally unrelated note, I recently completed delivery of the plans for a 1:5 size copy of a BMP for an unnamed NZ customer.

[Cerebus]

Weekend plan: about 300km, 4000m climb on my bike.
From Germany to Italy in one night on a road bike.

If I don't see a post from me until Tuesday, it was nice to be a me member of TEA, please do not stop.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vrqD4Ax8wwq

Saskia tell Odin he helped well to reach the top of the mountain

Slightly impressed with that and I'm really difficult to impress  . Nice job 

Yeah, but notice that an old man with a little white moustache was able to keep up with him. 

Six or seven years ago when I was cycling regularly I could have been that little old man, still had a VO_2max of over 50ml/kg/min, What it is now I dread to think - I got shagged out this afternoon just tidying the kitchen (OK, there was a little bit more exercise than that sounds like, but not much).

[Cerebus]

There were socks on the wish list. A quite special kind of synthetic fibre, CoolMax. Wicks moisture out. Dry feet even in trainers on a very hot day. Didn't get them, but there are more chances.

I had a CoolMax T-shirt once, horrible thing, I think I wore it about twice. Sure, it did the job it was made for but it felt horrible and chafed something rotten.

Edited to add: I'm clearly so shagged out that I can't type properly - having to re-edit two messages in a row (this one twice)? Shame on me.

[tautech]

Gimme !! gimme!! Gimme!!!

It's a sickness.
I much prefer a little small pill that reaches right out there 'cause my shoulder tells me I'm a woss.
6mm Rem does it for me.

Let's see you keep this up once the Possums aquire some armour.

23 the other night with member hendorog and his lad ...which would make beanflying green with envy as he's lawfully not permitted to deal with the critters like we are.

On a totally unrelated note, I recently completed delivery of the plans for a 1:5 size copy of a BMP for an unnamed NZ customer.

Nice, BMP of what exactly ? 

[bd139]

Weekend plan: about 300km, 4000m climb on my bike.
From Germany to Italy in one night on a road bike.

If I don't see a post from me until Tuesday, it was nice to be a me member of TEA, please do not stop.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vrqD4Ax8wwq

Saskia tell Odin he helped well to reach the top of the mountain

Slightly impressed with that and I'm really difficult to impress  . Nice job 

Yeah, but notice that an old man with a little white moustache was able to keep up with him. 

Six or seven years ago when I was cycling regularly I could have been that little old man, still had a VO^2max of over 50ml/kg/min, What it is now I dread to think - I got shagged out this afternoon just tidying the kitchen (OK, there was a little bit more exercise than that sounds like, but not much).

Creeps up in you quickly. I was inactive for the best part of a decade and had same problem. Fixed it recently and am still fixing it but breaking arm put a full stop in that. So 4 weeks later I’m sitting here at nearly 1AM eating chocolate brownies, drinking Coke (zero at least) and staring at Telonic web site 

Going for a run tomorrow. Need to get out of this loop. Thanks Zucca for reminding me 

There were socks on the wish list. A quite special kind of synthetic fibre, CoolMax. Wicks moisture out. Dry feet even in trainers on a very hot day. Didn't get them, but there are more chances.

I had a CoolMax T-shirt once, horrible thing, I think I wore it about twice. Sure, it did the job it was made for but it felt horrible and chafed something rotten.

Edited to add: I'm clearly so shagged out that I can't type properly - having to re-edit two messages in a row (this one twice)? Shame on me.

Gah I bought about 5 different t shirts before I found one that didn’t sand my tits off. Eventually found these do the trick and don’t lie and come in at least two muted colours that don’t make you look like a telly tubby.

https://www.berghaus.com/mens-tech-tee-short-sleeve-2.0/422163.html?dwvar_422163_color=C63&dwvar_422163_size=XS#cgid=mens-t-shirts&start=7

As for socks, cheap ass trainer ankle socks from decathlon for running and got some Salomon merino wool ones for walking. Zero blisters and cool dry feet. Shoes / boots matter more. Mine are all worn out now. More expense 

[Cerebus]

As for socks, cheap ass trainer ankle socks from decathlon for running and got some Salomon merino wool ones for walking. Zero blisters and cool dry feet. Shoes / boots matter more. Mine are all worn out now. More expense 

My 4 season Scarpa boots that I bought near the end of my twenties are still going strong over thirty years later. They've seen most of the significant peaks in the UK and at one point were my daily wear (for support) for a couple of months as I recovered from a badly sprained ankle. Cost a fortune back when I bought them and, like all good tools, that's proved to be an investment rather than an expense. Regular loving care with Nikwax after they've been out has helped I'm sure. Given that I don't get to get out and hit the hills really any more, and all they get called on to do is deal with snow and the occasional trip to muddier country, I suspect that they will out-live me.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Gimme !! gimme!! Gimme!!!

It's a sickness.
I much prefer a little small pill that reaches right out there 'cause my shoulder tells me I'm a woss.
6mm Rem does it for me.

Let's see you keep this up once the Possums aquire some armour.

23 the other night with member hendorog and his lad ...which would make beanflying green with envy as he's lawfully not permitted to deal with the critters like we are.

On a totally unrelated note, I recently completed delivery of the plans for a 1:5 size copy of a BMP for an unnamed NZ customer.

Nice, BMP of what exactly ? 

What did you mean, BMP of what? BMP-1, as they could not afford a -3.

[mnementh]

Gimme !! gimme!! Gimme!!!

It's a sickness.
I much prefer a little small pill that reaches right out there 'cause my shoulder tells me I'm a woss.
6mm Rem does it for me.

Let's see you keep this up once the Possums aquire some armour.

We have them like that all over Tejas... They're called armadillos. And they will right fuck up the front of yer car if you hit one at highway speeds. 

mnem
 

[bd139]

As for socks, cheap ass trainer ankle socks from decathlon for running and got some Salomon merino wool ones for walking. Zero blisters and cool dry feet. Shoes / boots matter more. Mine are all worn out now. More expense 

My 4 season Scarpa boots that I bought near the end of my twenties are still going strong over thirty years later. They've seen most of the significant peaks in the UK and at one point were my daily wear (for support) for a couple of months as I recovered from a badly sprained ankle. Cost a fortune back when I bought them and, like all good tools, that's proved to be an investment rather than an expense. Regular loving care with Nikwax after they've been out has helped I'm sure. Given that I don't get to get out and hit the hills really any more, and all they get called on to do is deal with snow and the occasional trip to muddier country, I suspect that they will out-live me.

Bought an expensive pair of boots once. Can’t remember which brand. May have been Scarpa. Pain and misery despite being properly fitted. i chickened out on the wearing them in phase in the end. Usually grab Berghaus GTX on sale. Get a couple of years out of a pair 100% duty. 50 quid a pop on sale can’t go wrong. Don’t leak and like wearing slippers out of the box and also still like wearing slippers after 10 miles or so

[0culus]

The rest of the stuff. 8082A pulse generator joining my RF and microwave experimentation "tower of power".  Got to wanting this after seeing CuriousMarc use two of them for his core memory demonstration video a while back. The killer feature for me is directly controllable rise and fall times...perfect for situations where really fast pulses will just ring. Should be very useful for the low-power radar experimentation I play around with sometimes.

Not pictured is another massive bag of Sphere free goodies, ranging from various ICs, to LEDs of many colors, diodes, switches, pots, capacitors....

Ok, this beats having a PG502 and a PG508. If it weren't for the size, it would be on the list.

Honestly it’s bulky and not heavy. The chassis is actually quite empty and is convection cooled. No fans! CuriousMarc did some videos about his. He had to design a replacement for an unobtainium IC for one of his. He did another video where he demonstrates using them to control core memory.

https://www.curiousmarc.com/instruments/hp-8082a-pulse-generator

[mansaxel]

  If you sprinkle a pinch of salt on top of the coffee and tap the side of the pot with a wooden spoon a few times after you take it off the heat, it helps the grounds settle out quicker. A little patience and learning to pour trickle-slow are key to minimizing how much you have to strain through yer teeth. 

Or, you can step into the 21st century and buy one of those stainless steel drip-perc coffee filters and pour the coffee through that into your cup; available pretty much everywhere they sell coffee. 

The salt trick is what our sapmi (like Canadas inuit) population does, according to "less or less" accurate lore. I usually take a glowing stick with some ashes on and modify the surface tension to accelerate settling.

[mansaxel]

I had a CoolMax T-shirt once, horrible thing, I think I wore it about twice. Sure, it did the job it was made for but it felt horrible and chafed something rotten.

Works better in socks, apparently. I have a few "functional wear" T-shirts that perform the same job (perhaps not via the same fibre), and TBH I reach for those first, because cotton feels like a lukewarm rag in comparison. So, it's either plastics or of course Merino wool.  You might want to try bamboo fibre as well, it certainly wins points in the chafing class. Because it doesn't.

[psykok]

Today arrival.    

cool, what are you gonna  do with all this nice res?

Some time ago I had the idea to build a little box with some nice resistors, capacitors, diodes, LEDs, voltage reference, current reference, oscillator etc. which I can carry with me. Could be useful when one is visiting flea-markets, e.g. the HAM Radio in Friedrichshafen. I got the idea from joeqsmith (forum fellow as well) when I watched some of his videos.

really cool idea.

Where did you purchased  these res?

It was one of these lucky findings one stumbles over occasionly.
I've bought them from this seller: zhoefler in the bay of evil.

This was the auction: https://www.ebay.de/itm/133490619724

I'm having always a close look at him, because from time to time he is offering interesting things to a reasonable price.
For example, these nice transformers can be used if you want to distribute a 10MHz reference signal through your lab:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/3-St-SMD-Trafos-HX5004ENL-Pulse-E1107-/132178369554



Or, this nice Spectrum Analyzer from Advantest:
https://www.ebay.de/itm/1-St-Spectrum-Analyzer-TR-4131-10kHz-3-5GHz-ADVANTEST-gebr-/402369334372



I do not have any affiliations with this seller and all the time I've bought things there, they were good to excellent. Fast shipping.
One time I've received an envelope with stuff in it. It had a hole in it. Took some pictures, send him an email and two days later I got a spare one for the lost item. No hazzle.

Definitively  a good seller.

The 10MHz distributor is also something I looking to build for my lab.
Any recommendations ?

[tggzzz]

My 4 season Scarpa boots that I bought near the end of my twenties are still going strong over thirty years later. They've seen most of the significant peaks in the UK and at one point were my daily wear (for support) for a couple of months as I recovered from a badly sprained ankle. Cost a fortune back when I bought them and, like all good tools, that's proved to be an investment rather than an expense. Regular loving care with Nikwax after they've been out has helped I'm sure. Given that I don't get to get out and hit the hills really any more, and all they get called on to do is deal with snow and the occasional trip to muddier country, I suspect that they will out-live me.

Mine lasted about 25 years, and went all sorts of places like Yosemite and here[1]:


I too wore them daily, including with a suit on two occasions.

The first was to a job interview, since I had a broken 5th metatarsal and was using them as a removable cast. At the end of the day-long interview, they hadn't asked why I was wearing them, so I told them. They were amused, I got the job, and had a great time at a zany company. Zany? They published an anonymous scattergram of age-vs-salary and you didn't begrudge the outliers since they were very competent. They also published an internal newsletter containing quotes you really wished you hadn't made. Nobody objected; it was all good fun, being embarassing rather than malicious.

The second time was on a business trip to the US, not long after PanAm 103. I felt it worthwhile explaining to the "enhanced airport security" that my normal shoes were in my baggage, and that I really didn't want to lose my boots.

Now I've got a bunion, so my feet don't fit boots

[1] I'd never climbed nor even had a climbing lesson. Ah, youth.