Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Now on to the next solution which is "how the hell do I use the SDS to measure this?". Well I either need a swept source and a power sensor, neither of which I currently have or can be arsed to procure or bodge up at the moment, to produce a rudimentary spectrum analyser or create a reasonably wide band noise source. So the noise source it is. While not normalised, this is good enough for fairly narrow filters like this.

Normalisation procedure...


That normalises the combination of the tx and rx..
Remove UUT and replace with a through adaptor, scan, save result as A. Reinsert UUT, scan, and display scan-A.

It's nominally flat over the entire interesting range to within a couple of dB so I couldn't be arsed with that. The issue comes with the SDS is it's not really possible to do that kind of reference measurement without getting a headache or breaking out python from what I can see. This is where a proper (or at least less pants) SA comes in

[tonyalbus]

Got that smelly, sticky alsmost broken HP 5315B Working again.

So... when are ya gonna link to a video of you USING your TEAquisitions...? You know, aside from fixing the LATEST TEAcquisition...? 

mnem
 

i am a TEA with TEAS , where does it say i need to use it?   
maybe i have TECS

[bitseeker]

Got that smelly, sticky alsmost broken HP 5315B Working again.

Excellent job, Tony! What a difference.

[tonyalbus]

somehow i am bouncing  back to page 2729.... 

[tonyalbus]

Got that smelly, sticky alsmost broken HP 5315B Working again.

Excellent job, Tony! What a difference.

Thanks bitseeker
only that little gate pot is not 100%. but i was warned about that, and that little pot/switch is hard to get.   but setting it in the middle like i do now .. it works
that needs to be fixed some dat..

[tggzzz]

Now on to the next solution which is "how the hell do I use the SDS to measure this?". Well I either need a swept source and a power sensor, neither of which I currently have or can be arsed to procure or bodge up at the moment, to produce a rudimentary spectrum analyser or create a reasonably wide band noise source. So the noise source it is. While not normalised, this is good enough for fairly narrow filters like this.

Normalisation procedure...


That normalises the combination of the tx and rx..
Remove UUT and replace with a through adaptor, scan, save result as A. Reinsert UUT, scan, and display scan-A.

It's nominally flat over the entire interesting range to within a couple of dB so I couldn't be arsed with that. The issue comes with the SDS is it's not really possible to do that kind of reference measurement without getting a headache or breaking out python from what I can see. This is where a proper (or at least less pants) SA comes in

Presuming no intermod distortion in the UUT or rx front end, that is.

My noise source plus SDR dongle had some very interesting kinks that were successfully removed as I described.

[cyclin_al]

That brings me back to engineering school days; memories.  That reminds me of Lisa in my classes.
Had to be careful as her father was a mathematics professor.  It was normal to get an engineering professor for our math classes, but you never knew until the beginning of the term if the class just might be taught by a math prof.

[mnementh]

Hubby is up and taking short walks, awaiting his get- back-on-his-feet-program to start.

That's great news, Saskia. Thanks for the update.

Ditto from the TinkerDwagon. Sorry I missed this yesterday during the moving time chaos. 

Thanks for drawing my attention to it, bitseeker. 

mnem
Only slightly wigging out...

[bitseeker]

Hope all goes well with the move, mnem. Any news on when you'll be able to safely get the rest of your goodies out of storage?

[mnementh]

Got that smelly, sticky alsmost broken HP 5315B Working again.

So... when are ya gonna link to a video of you USING your TEAquisitions...? You know, aside from fixing the LATEST TEAcquisition...? 

mnem
 

i am a TEA with TEAS , where does it say i need to use it?    Maybe i have TECS

You SO belong here.  Welcome home, Tony. 

mnem
"Sometimes you wanna go
where everybody knows your name..."

[mnementh]

Hope all goes well with the move, mnem. Any news on when you'll be able to safely get the rest of your goodies out of storage?

I donn' wanna jinx it. 

mnem
*back to the salt mines*

[cyclin_al]

(SNIP)@mnem, best wishes on your upcoming move.  I posted something in your ISP thread for you.

No one probably remembers, but I had what I thought was a problem with my pi-hole back in June. (SNIP)Any recommendations on a router with WiFi and Ethernet for North America use?

Thanks for the feedback, I'm going in a different direction for now.

At my new place, the property owner offered to pull a cable through for the ISP he provided for the condo we just moved into; at first I was reluctant (still am, TBH) but then when I saw the crazy rates I decided to take him up on it at least until we get settled in. Today on my first load of the day I found he had moved the router entire into our space, so I spent my rest time this afternoon shopping Bezos' Brothel and after a quick scan of the UM, I now have one of these on the way:



https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07ZSDR49S/

https://www.tp-link.com/us/user-guides/archer-ax10&ax1500_v1/conventions

From what I can see it has really good hardware specs (1.5GHz 3-Core, MU-MIMO, 4x GBe) for the money (CAD$101.69 all up), WiFi 6 and VPN sandbox supports both Open VPN and PPTP, so should be able to completely isolate from the other half which are using the WiFi only on the gateway router. WiFi MAC filtering and the ability to specify a single local device for management ticked the final boxes for me; I've never managed my own VPN before so this should be an educational experience for me.

OTOH, it could be a little box of Chinese Surveillance; but nowadays, I don't know that I'm not getting that even with the LinkSys WRT3200ACM-CA I was looking at for 3X the price.

mnem
current mood: wiggly

Thanks for finding that!  CanadaComputers.com has it on sale at the moment to match the BB (good nickname  ) price, so I placed an order there for store pickup later in the week.

I try to used wired networks as much as possible.  There are the usual household cellphones (one for each adult, plus one from each employer of said adults), plus the tablet, plus a few connected devices (particle.io second generation (dumping their third generation devices though)).  Those all need WiFi.  The reason we first started with WiFi is that SWMBO treats her laptop as a mobile desktop and insists on WiFi.   She is always complaining it is too slow when she is doing something with photos.  I keep repeating to her to use my computer; faster processor in a desktop and cat6 ethernet is much faster.  The trade-off is that it is not possible to walk around the house with a desktop.  Some things never change.

At least the advertising bandwidth will be cut down greatly once I can reconfigure the network to use the pi-hole again.  SWMBO actually did comment on the sudden plethora of ads when the pi-hole was taken offline.

[mnementh]

   *sigh* after spending too much money on my new camera I found a pair of reasonably looking Quadral Montan Mk3 with the famous TH400 tweeter for a very reasonable less than 500€ after ferenginizing.
On one of them the tweeter fuze is busted. Fluke F101 sez 6 Ohms so no short which is a relief. Will get a new fuse tomorrow and test if the tweeter is ok.
If so, this is a very nice catch. These sold for a fortune and are absolutely fantastic speakers. Mere 95 lbs apiece.

Reason why the previous owner sold them: his wife was bitching about the size of these critters and wanted them out. Poor fellow. I got hubby's buy in by promising not to bitch when is goes out and buys the benchmade machete that he is currently eyeing.

He can only do that once he is out of the hospital, officially they do not allow weapons on premises. Which reminds me that once apon a time I walked into the emergency room of the Mayence university hospital handgun in hand after having a rather nasty accident ...   but I'll leave that story for discord if yer interested.

Ooohhh.  That is some right proper MEBB pr0n right there. Thanks for sharing, and I'm glad there's hopeful news re: hubby. 

mnem
*so glad I married a enabler*

[tautech]

Ok so tautech asked a valid question the other day when I was using my new spectrum analyser toy: "why not use the SDS1202X-E?"  So here's some playing I did. I didn't use the SSA analyser because it's waiting for a mains filter. I'll post back with that on Tuesday when the mains filter is installed.

Not bad result bd and to clean this up some suggest you use Max Hold in the FFT menu. 

[Wolfgang]

Got that smelly, sticky alsmost broken HP 5315B Working again.

So... when are ya gonna link to a video of you USING your TEAquisitions...? You know, aside from fixing the LATEST TEAcquisition...? 

mnem
 

i am a TEA with TEAS , where does it say i need to use it?   
maybe i have TECS

TECS? I think it is UWTERS (unworthy test equipment repair syndrome) or VPEHAGANI (Vintage premium equipment half as good as new instruments).
I feel with you very much - sigh 

[xrunner]

Speaking of using TEA here's a ham friend of mine - Mark (same haircut as I have) - who brought over his new ANAN-7000DLE MKII for power output calibration -

https://apache-labs.com/al-products/1059/ANAN-7000DLE-MKII-100W-HF--6M-Transceiver-Black-Edition.html

A $2800 class SDR transceiver. I was impressed with his radio and he was impressed with my lab. We even wore masks. 

[Kosmic]

Speaking of using TEA here's a ham friend of mine - Mark (same haircut as I have) - who brought over his new ANAN-7000DLE MKII for power output calibration -

https://apache-labs.com/al-products/1059/ANAN-7000DLE-MKII-100W-HF--6M-Transceiver-Black-Edition.html

A $2800 class SDR transceiver. I was impressed with his radio and he was impressed with my lab. We even wore masks. 

16bit ADC and DAC, pretty cool!

[Ice-Tea]

I see. So, I surmise the scale looks something like

Human --- Almost Ferengi --- Ferengi --- Very Ferengi --- Grand Nagus

Human --- Almost Ferengi --- Ferengi --- Very Ferengi --- Grand Nagus --- Odo

[tonyalbus]

Speaking of using TEA here's a ham friend of mine - Mark (same haircut as I have) - who brought over his new ANAN-7000DLE MKII for power output calibration -

https://apache-labs.com/al-products/1059/ANAN-7000DLE-MKII-100W-HF--6M-Transceiver-Black-Edition.html

A $2800 class SDR transceiver. I was impressed with his radio and he was impressed with my lab. We even wore masks. 

very cool!

[Saskia]

I see. So, I surmise the scale looks something like

Human --- Almost Ferengi --- Ferengi --- Very Ferengi --- Grand Nagus

Human --- Almost Ferengi --- Ferengi --- Very Ferengi --- Grand Nagus --- Odo

ODo is no Ferengi ...

[Ice-Tea]

I see. So, I surmise the scale looks something like

Human --- Almost Ferengi --- Ferengi --- Very Ferengi --- Grand Nagus

Human --- Almost Ferengi --- Ferengi --- Very Ferengi --- Grand Nagus --- Odo

ODo is no Ferengi ...

You don't say? He did get to better of the whole bunch every single time, though...

[Saskia]

Yes, but he is lacking the typical Ferengi traits.

[Ice-Tea]

Yeah, but he out-Ferengies the Ferengi by being very un-Ferengi-like 

[BU508A]

Nobody wants to tickle Odo behind his ears.

[Brumby]

Yeah, but he out-Ferengies the Ferengi by being very un-Ferengi-like 

 = Automatic top of the food chain status!