Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

While you guys were out bidding each other on the current probes I paid way too much for one of these.

I really need one and it's the cheapest I could find.    Could use a total of 2 more but I'll settle for one right now.

Sucks doesn't it. I walked past a bag of GR connectors a while ago for £5. Did consider it. Should have considered it!  

[med6753]

While you guys were out bidding each other on the current probes I paid way too much for one of these.

I really need one and it's the cheapest I could find.    Could use a total of 2 more but I'll settle for one right now.

Sucks doesn't it. I walked past a bag of GR connectors a while ago for £5. Did consider it. Should have considered it!  

Yep, sure does. They were never very popular and as far as I know General Radio no longer exists. Even the Chinese can't be bothered to make counterfeits. 

[BravoV]

Latest hoard, a manual step attenuator, HP 8495A, DC to 4GHz , 0-70 dB with 10 dB step,  < 40 bucks. 

[Cerebus]

Yeah lots of bastard sellers out there at the moment 

Well today has gone to a shit show already. Thanks Leonart Poettering for gracing us with systemd again. All my systemd-resolved based nodes have lost DNS forwarding DNS on ubuntu 20.04 so I've got to go around 20 nodes manually, disable it and replace it with an immutable resolv.conf.

I'm seriously going to glass that fucking cockwomble if I ever see him.

You're going to have to go to Mordor to find him.

One systemd to rule them all,
   one systemd to find them,
One systemd to bring them all
   and in the darkness bind them.

And like 'the ring' systemd properly belongs in the fire at the heart of Mount Doom.

[nixiefreqq]

can tell you exactly where i was 19 years ago today.

in the bowling alley at giebelstadt army airfield.  a local national tech was showing us a biggish com closet that he said should work as the location for a proposed fiber optic node for that end of the post.  noticed that people were starting to crowd around a tv that was on.  then the local guy answered his phone and said he had to go because they were activating the patriot battery on the other side of the flight line.

wtf?

it turned into a very weird day.

[bd139]

Yeah lots of bastard sellers out there at the moment 

Well today has gone to a shit show already. Thanks Leonart Poettering for gracing us with systemd again. All my systemd-resolved based nodes have lost DNS forwarding DNS on ubuntu 20.04 so I've got to go around 20 nodes manually, disable it and replace it with an immutable resolv.conf.

I'm seriously going to glass that fucking cockwomble if I ever see him.

You're going to have to go to Mordor to find him.

One systemd to rule them all,
   one systemd to find them,
One systemd to bring them all
   and in the darkness bind them.

And like 'the ring' systemd properly belongs in the fire at the heart of Mount Doom.

Hahaha. Spot on.

Lunch time project is now systemd free:



Even managed to get rid of dbus!

All courtesy Devuan.

[Cerebus]

can tell you exactly where i was 19 years ago today.

in the bowling alley at giebelstadt army airfield.  a local national tech was showing us a biggish com closet that he said should work as the location for a proposed fiber optic node for that end of the post.  noticed that people were starting to crowd around a tv that was on.  then the local guy answered his phone and said he had to go because they were activing the patriot battery on the other side of the flight line.

wtf?

it turned into a very weird day.

I was driving down Glencoe.

[bd139]

I was "temporary comms officer" during that as I was working at an MoD contractor using the one non airgapped external bridge machine to mash F5 on slashdot (the only web site still servicing pages) and listening to an FM radio because it was the only outside comms we had. I then span round 180 on my chair and posted it on internal Lotus Notes for staff consumption. Did that for three days. Earned a lot of free beer 

Edit: At the point I did consider starting a GIS business but I couldn't be arsed in the end. 

[Cerebus]

You deserved a medal for that. Being forced to use Lotus Notes, I mean.

[med6753]

can tell you exactly where i was 19 years ago today.

in the bowling alley at giebelstadt army airfield.  a local national tech was showing us a biggish com closet that he said should work as the location for a proposed fiber optic node for that end of the post.  noticed that people were starting to crowd around a tv that was on.  then the local guy answered his phone and said he had to go because they were activing the patriot battery on the other side of the flight line.

wtf?

it turned into a very weird day.

I was driving down Glencoe.

I was working at IBM Poughkeepsie. The first plane in flew directly overhead as it followed the Hudson River down towards NYC.

Today is the Lady Cop's B day and those events have ruined it permanently. She was on duty at school in Lower Manhattan. Didn't see the first plane go in but witnessed the 2nd. Spent 3 continuous days on duty before she could go home. Assisted in crowd control in getting people across the Brooklyn Bridge off Manhattan.

She said the worst thing about it was the smell. And it stays with you forever because you know what it is.   

[bd139]

You deserved a medal for that. Being forced to use Lotus Notes, I mean.

Tell me about it. Electronic cancer that thing.

[Zucca]

Thanks. Too pricey for a few caps again now. Not that I can't afford it but I actually completely resent paying so bloody much for overheads on a few capacitors.

I've decided I'm just going to slowly collect a Mouser order until I get up to the free limit then do the whole lot. Up to £13 so far 

My dream is that all the TEA Brothers who live in the same area will work unite to hit that limit together

Imagine all the people living life in peace, yuuuu uuuuu

[AVGresponding]

LMAO 

I'm betting 75 quid (no I'm not bidding on it)

Edit: went for 77. Not a bad estimate 

Twas a gift for that, I would've gone to 100 but I didn't need a 5th current probe. 
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tektronix-P6021/303670696441?hash=item46b42f19f9:g:O3IAAOSwvQdfTQ4J&autorefresh=true

Hope someone here nabbed it.

'twas I

[AVGresponding]

can tell you exactly where i was 19 years ago today.

in the bowling alley at giebelstadt army airfield.  a local national tech was showing us a biggish com closet that he said should work as the location for a proposed fiber optic node for that end of the post.  noticed that people were starting to crowd around a tv that was on.  then the local guy answered his phone and said he had to go because they were activating the patriot battery on the other side of the flight line.

wtf?

it turned into a very weird day.

I'd just gotten up and saw the second impact as it happened on BBC News 24.

As soon as I realised what I was seeing, I figured, "well, that's it then, ww3 just started".

[mansaxel]

Yeah lots of bastard sellers out there at the moment 

Well today has gone to a shit show already. Thanks Leonart Poettering for gracing us with systemd again. All my systemd-resolved based nodes have lost DNS forwarding DNS on ubuntu 20.04 so I've got to go around 20 nodes manually, disable it and replace it with an immutable resolv.conf.

You and me both. I had to un-fuck NTP on one systemd machine the other week. Fucking moron, that. "I'm gonna replace every dæmon that's been working for 25 years with a shit one that doesn't do 10% of what the original one does, but obeys my world view. "

On a related note, I saw some optimistic fuckwit suggest using SNTP for a Raspberry π driving a Nixie clock. SNTP is what you use for getting time about not too much off so Kerberos can start working, ie. 5 minutes uncertainity, not for precision work.

I'm seriously going to glass that fucking cockwomble if I ever see him.

When you're done, hand him to me. I think he's got some gonads that need adjusting. Percussively.

[BU508A]

I'll ask ElectroBOOM! if he needs a dummy for his experiments.

[mansaxel]

some good news on the delivery front! China order 31st August. Delivered today:

Yes, shipping is improving. Today, landed an assortment of 1300 Aderendhülsen, chinesium, 11€ shipped from Germany. Took all of three days IIRC.

Went and fetched up a shipment from eibabo (LSA-Plus holders and Wago 221 Series quick-connects, the only ones that work reliably with swedish installation cables) too, also three days from Germany. Now I have telephony in the workshop, using my old pulse-dialling phones. Also, I can hang one of my field telephones with rotary dial on the external wiring point if I want.

Fun. And expensive.

[BU508A]

some good news on the delivery front! China order 31st August. Delivered today:

Yes, shipping is improving. Today, landed an assortment of 1300 Aderendhülsen, chinesium, 11€ shipped from Germany. Took all of three days IIRC.

Went and fetched up a shipment from eibabo (LSA-Plus holders and Wago 221 Series quick-connects, the only ones that work reliably with swedish installation cables) too, also three days from Germany. Now I have telephony in the workshop, using my old pulse-dialling phones. Also, I can hang one of my field telephones with rotary dial on the external wiring point if I want.

Fun. And expensive.

Since some time I'm having this one on my watchlist. Considered it for my basement. Disadvantage is: pick-up only.



Edit:
in combinatin with a TAE to DECT adapter. Something like this:

https://www.amazon.de/Wantec-b-Adapter-CAT-iq-f%C3%A4hig-Netzsteckergeh%C3%A4use-Wei%C3%9F/dp/B00TCGPODQ

[mansaxel]

it turned into a very weird day.

Indeed. I was at the theatre, preparing to play the next-to-last show of last years comedy for the new engineering students. (I worked at the Royal Institute of Technology, as network tech, and had a small side activity in sound engineering for the student theatre.)

The TV's backstage weren't showing the stage camera as they usually would.

[mnementh]

I used to make up and install my own wiring looms, in jigs that I designed... I didn't lace them, I made them in the time-honoured way that automotive looms were made with electrical insulating tape.

The time-honoured method was wrapping with pitch-impregnated fabric cloth tape similar to friction tape, or to pull it through similar cloth braid tubing and stretch the tubing tight.

After that was introduced plain PVC ribbon which had no adhesive, typically 1-2" width that was heated with hot air as you stretched it around the wire bundles so it pulled tight as it cooled. This ribbon was thinner than typical electrical tape, as it was intended to be wrapped such that there would be 3 layers when done. While some manufacturers did use electrical tape to tie off the ends, it was usually looped under itself and tied off, then the end sealed with cement so it couldn't back out.

I've done all 3 types making custom and replacement harnesses for cars & trucks. Also spent a summer working in a quarry rewiring Cats for electric start and GM alternators. Learned a lot about working with huge-gauge copper there.

mnem
 

Yep, also worked a lot on Cats, Detroit's, Cummins, Gardeners, AEC, Bristol, Leyland, Priestman and Ruston Bucyrus engines on anything from trucks to buses and onto earth movers and huge great excavators, in some pretty inhospitable dangerous locations. Looking back, many of which would be outlawed today as unsafe work places. Oh the things we used to do in our youth eh?

Yup... the stuff you do when you're young & dumb & 10 feet tall & bulletproof. How the fuck did we survive to be old & wise?

Mostly D8s & D9s here; plus a few Brockways where the fabric-wrapped harnesses had literally rotted away from the constant cycles of hot/humid vs cool/dry down & up the quarry. Fuckin' stuff had moss growing on it. 

The Brockways and the D9s were a joy to work on; you could climb in through the bonnet and climb out from under the back. Drive it up on a couple 18" H-beams in the service area, and literally enough room underneath to sit in a chair and work. 

The D8s not so much... underneath they were packed full of hydraulics and heavy iron for the rear-mount ripping tines.

mnem

[mansaxel]

Since some time I'm having this one on my watchlist. Considered it for my basement. Disadvantage is: pick-up only.

Oh, an off-by-one-error phone. Sweden has 0-9 on the dial. What kept me from doing this earlier was that the _very_ few SIP ATA boxes that do pulse dialling detection all are one pulse off. Except a fairly new one from Grandstream, which can be set for "Sweden", "New Zealand", and "Rest of the world" as far as pulse dialling detection goes.

[bd139]

You and me both. I had to un-fuck NTP on one systemd machine the other week. Fucking moron, that. "I'm gonna replace every dæmon that's been working for 25 years with a shit one that doesn't do 10% of what the original one does, but obeys my world view. "

On a related note, I saw some optimistic fuckwit suggest using SNTP for a Raspberry π driving a Nixie clock. SNTP is what you use for getting time about not too much off so Kerberos can start working, ie. 5 minutes uncertainity, not for precision work.

Ooh don't get me started on that. I could go a whole fucking hour on that and Windows Time.

Some tard screwed up the migration between VMware and Hyper-V a place I was working a while back which caused systems to miss soft interrupts and lose time. Cue drifty clocks and broken Windows Time and NTP all over the shit. I had to literally spoon feed the honey to fix that pile of shit.

When you're done, hand him to me. I think he's got some gonads that need adjusting. Percussively.

Yep. Then, to quote a character from Cibola Burn, I'm going to cut his throat and piss in his lungs.

[mnementh]

If anyone interested in a FLUKE 8840A ... this does not seem expensive...

https://www.ebay.nl/itm/FLUKE-8840A-Digital-Voltmeter-Ammeter-Ohmmeter-Multimeter-750V-50-60-Hz/363097496464

I'm always leery when they post oodles of pics, but most of them are just copies of the same one or two shots. And listed as working, but not one pic of it lit up tells me probably you can't read the display with a single light on in the room.

mnem
*huggles his 189 close*

[mnementh]

can tell you exactly where i was 19 years ago today.

in the bowling alley at giebelstadt army airfield.  a local national tech was showing us a biggish com closet that he said should work as the location for a proposed fiber optic node for that end of the post.  noticed that people were starting to crowd around a tv that was on.  then the local guy answered his phone and said he had to go because they were activating the patriot battery on the other side of the flight line.

wtf?

it turned into a very weird day.

I'd just gotten up and saw the second impact as it happened on BBC News 24.

As soon as I realised what I was seeing, I figured, "well, that's it then, ww3 just started".

I called my dad several times & couldn't get through to him until afternoon; he was fine but the dust and ash were falling on his block at 89th & York almost 7 miles away.

He said the entire city was in shock for almost a week while downtown dug itself free; my VFD sent several experienced firefighters to Buffalo, NY to cover shifts for firefighters who went to New York. 2 of them didn't come back; we had all been in classes led by those two at one time or another.

mnem
*sigh*

[mnementh]

Since some time I'm having this one on my watchlist. Considered it for my basement. Disadvantage is: pick-up only.   

Oh, an off-by-one-error phone. Sweden has 0-9 on the dial. What kept me from doing this earlier was that the _very_ few SIP ATA boxes that do pulse dialling detection all are one pulse off. Except a fairly new one from Grandstream, which can be set for "Sweden", "New Zealand", and "Rest of the world" as far as pulse dialling detection goes.

Mmmmm...  I like it. A LOT. Making a working dialer would be a worthwhile Arduino project fer sherr.

mnem
*impairing productivity since nineteen-mumblety-mumble*