Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

Nah, pop had to swat the lines with the back of his hand to show it weren't hot.
Main OFF, Submain OFF and 25A MCB OFF…..3 stages of isolation from bites. 

Working on 'small' mains, with insulated cable, I obviously always isolate (and lock off with a real padlock) everything that I'm working on. But out of habit I tend not to touch conductors anyway, and on a small job it's quite possible to do the whole thing in a way that would have been non-eventful if you had worked on it live.

Whoever, when you get to bigger stuff there's always a point where it just becomes a metalwork job and you have to touch what would normally be live uninsulated conductors. No matter how many times I've checked lockouts, how many times I've stuck a meter between the conductor and earth, and even when I've deliberately earthed the normally live conductors, I still get a slight tingle of apprehension just before actually touching the conductors for the first time.

[mnementh]

   
$50: Altera DE2 Dev Kit on Kijiji

Just thought I'd pass this on to my fellow moose-dodgers. 

mnem

[VK5RC]

320m long 3ph service submain line to the pump shed emergency maintenance.
Rust sucks.....and splits porcelain insulators. 



Blowing like a right SOB here today and not wanting to be 7m up a ladder so grabbed the boi as he was passing in his digga and worked outta the bucket.

Not been formally shown how to do the powerline bindings however it looks fairly close to what was unwrapped. 

Nah, you definitely f-up there, you can tell that the real boys didn't do that as it is WAY TOO NEAT, no zip ties, different guage wire etc!
Seriously - good job, 😁

[tautech]

Nah, pop had to swat the lines with the back of his hand to show it weren't hot.
Main OFF, Submain OFF and 25A MCB OFF…..3 stages of isolation from bites. 

Working on 'small' mains, with insulated cable, I obviously always isolate (and lock off with a real padlock) everything that I'm working on. But out of habit I tend not to touch conductors anyway, and on a small job it's quite possible to do the whole thing in a way that would have been non-eventful if you had worked on it live.

Whoever, when you get to bigger stuff there's always a point where it just becomes a metalwork job and you have to touch what would normally be live uninsulated conductors. No matter how many times I've checked lockouts, how many times I've stuck a meter between the conductor and earth, and even when I've deliberately earthed the normally live conductors, I still get a slight tingle of apprehension just before actually touching the conductors for the first time.

Yeah 230VAC is not to be carelessly mucked with and this 415VAC 3ph line even less. 
Even in a digger bucket 7m above the ground, earth ground contact is ALL around you so you need know 1000% it's dead.
I built all of it except the wire to insulator bindings and the alloy to copper end connections that my linesman mate wouldn't trust to anyone but a trained linesman. Got the poles, wire and HW for nicks and planted the poles with the cross arms, braces and insulators already on them and ready for wire.
Boi didn't have his diggas back them so had his old boss, our neighbor to drill the holes and stand the poles. The end pole was a 10m monster and his 8 tonner really struggled to lift and stand it.
Still, it was a job done on the cheap but well done and will most likely see me out. 

[tautech]

Nah, you definitely f-up there, you can tell that the real boys didn't do that as it is WAY TOO NEAT, no zip ties, different guage wire etc!
Seriously - good job, 😁

Thanks Rob.
LOL, you might think so but the wrapping wasn't as tidy as my linesman mate did.
Only took this pic of the original wrap on the broken insulator however from above so you can't see much. 

Yeah I know, shed below is well knackered. 

[capt bullshot]

I give up. After multiple attempts to convert the translated QRV-HB100 article to .pdf without copying it to a fucking Word document first, I cut my losses and just zipped the .html.

EDIT:   And now I see that the problem was Gurrgle all along; they have some DRM crap in the document so it will only open in a new window at Google Translate. The .html below is useless.

mnem
Google, man.

Sorted that for you: https://cb.wunderkis.de/wk-pub/HB100_QRV.pdf

Edit: That's the article mentioned on the first page, the link from within the PDF doesn't work: http://www.ham-radio.com/sbms/presentations/Walt_Clark/DROplexer.pdf

[tonyalbus]

I give up. After multiple attempts to convert the translated QRV-HB100 article to .pdf without copying it to a fucking Word document first, I cut my losses and just zipped the .html.

EDIT:   And now I see that the problem was Gurrgle all along; they have some DRM crap in the document so it will only open in a new window at Google Translate. The .html below is useless.

mnem
Google, man.

Sorted that for you: https://cb.wunderkis.de/wk-pub/HB100_QRV.pdf

Thanks! 

[bd139]

Edge sucks. I disabled that sucker ages ago.

There’s a new version which is basically chrome.

[mansaxel]

Transformer that was a skip-find yesterday checks out. Some 5H inductance at 100Hz per winding. (According to the DE-5000. I started at 1KHz, not really the same result there...) Low voltage Ωhms are OK on both windings. Insulation is OK. Took a bit of effort to get the picture at the same time as I was cranking the Megger.

[med6753]

Who was it that said that the Type 310A was a hot box? They weren't kidding. This little SOB has only been on 15 minutes and already throwing off tons of heat...even with the covers off.

I've noticed a few issues. The trace "blooms" and goes out of focus if you crank the intensity up. Probably needs HV checked and adjusted. The 50mV Vertical range is FUBAR. Trigger seems a little odd in the way it operates. Already mentioned scale illum dead. But considering the filthy mess it was this is pretty damn good.   

VEPHAGANI (vintage equipment performing half as good as new instruments). But anyway, its TEA time 

Well of course. Who knows how many years this scope sat unused and collecting dust/dirt. It's going to have a few issues that will need to be addressed. But once I get done it will perform as near as I can get it to factory specs limited only by the equipment I have available to calibrate it.     

And I already fixed one issue. It was an operator error. Since the scale illumination control also functions as the power off/on switch the max intensity for the scale light bulbs is full anti-clockwise, not full clockwise as is normal and you would expect. The bulbs are fine. 

I am fine if you have fun.  What I wonder, however, is in which holy grail Tek museum all these beautifully and fully functional instruments will land. And, who is gonna come and visit these museums ? My first guess: Old farts as we are ourselves.
Best example: Wellenkino (largest collection of tube based Teks in perfectly working order I know of). Awesome but futile. I love it. 

Hey, some guys collect guns, some baseball cards, others perhaps butterflies, and the guy who steals and collects women's dirty panties for scratch and sniff. All depends on what "floats your boat". I collect, restore, and use vintage Tek equipment. As long as they are in my possession they will lead a pampered life. Now while I can specify what happens to them after I take a dirt nap there's no guarantee that will take place. They could easily wind up being crushed and recycled. But since I won't be around to witness that there's not much I can do about it.   

[med6753]

Pat (Cubdriver)....do you want the cans shown in this pix? Let me know or else they will be tossed out.

[bd139]

Stick em on ebay and sell them to the guitar amp builders saying they have a nice tone 

[tonyalbus]

Live from Amsterdam :-)  ... my other hobby, that actually pays instead of costs 

Well me boss told me so..haha

[bd139]

Cool stuff.

I miss datacentres! Clouds are much less fun

[URI]

Cool stuff.

I miss datacentres! Clouds are much less fun

Yes. They're so...   ...virtual.   

[BU508A]

Cool stuff.

I miss datacentres! Clouds are much less fun

I do like clouds. And rainy days. 

[mansaxel]

Cool stuff.

I miss datacentres! Clouds are much less fun

While I agree on principle, I spent all of yesterday in one of ours, verifying operation of a MADI-to-Ethernet interface via CWDM. I wear custom molded ear plugs and I still am feeling completely wrung out after a day in there.  My own at home is small enough and quiet enough that I can stand it. Especially if I ever get my cooling system done, so I can close the rack door.

[bd139]

Cool stuff.

I miss datacentres! Clouds are much less fun

While I agree on principle, I spent all of yesterday in one of ours, verifying operation of a MADI-to-Ethernet interface via CWDM. I wear custom molded ear plugs and I still am feeling completely wrung out after a day in there.  My own at home is small enough and quiet enough that I can stand it. Especially if I ever get my cooling system done, so I can close the rack door.

Yeah that sucks. If swap for my days though. 3.5 hours elapsed and 3 of them have been on conference calls

Edit: got two more calls to go totalling 3 more hours. This is all because someone picked “hack it until it works” and is trying to retrospectively apply some engineer discipline.

[BU508A]

Cool stuff.

I miss datacentres! Clouds are much less fun

While I agree on principle, I spent all of yesterday in one of ours, verifying operation of a MADI-to-Ethernet interface via CWDM. I wear custom molded ear plugs and I still am feeling completely wrung out after a day in there.  My own at home is small enough and quiet enough that I can stand it. Especially if I ever get my cooling system done, so I can close the rack door.

Yeah that sucks. If swap for my days though. 3.5 hours elapsed and 3 of them have been on conference calls

Discussing about dead horses and how to motivate them?

[bd139]

Cool stuff.

I miss datacentres! Clouds are much less fun

While I agree on principle, I spent all of yesterday in one of ours, verifying operation of a MADI-to-Ethernet interface via CWDM. I wear custom molded ear plugs and I still am feeling completely wrung out after a day in there.  My own at home is small enough and quiet enough that I can stand it. Especially if I ever get my cooling system done, so I can close the rack door.

Yeah that sucks. If swap for my days though. 3.5 hours elapsed and 3 of them have been on conference calls

Discussing about dead horses and how to motivate them?

No these ones are about digging all the crap out from under the rugs and fixing them at the last minute.

Comedy really as I’ve got over 4 weeks of holiday to burn before the end of the year 

[Saskia]

ditto. Several hours of conf calls a day, and all of them annoying. And they expect me to get some stuff done ...

[Specmaster]

320m long 3ph service submain line to the pump shed emergency maintenance.
Rust sucks.....and splits porcelain insulators. 



Blowing like a right SOB here today and not wanting to be 7m up a ladder so grabbed the boi as he was passing in his digga and worked outta the bucket.

Not been formally shown how to do the powerline bindings however it looks fairly close to what was unwrapped. 

Looks fine to me, but I would have used insulated cables from choice to improve safety aspects from anyone with a ladder etc accidentally coming into contact with power.

[Specmaster]

Nah, pop had to swat the lines with the back of his hand to show it weren't hot.
Main OFF, Submain OFF and 25A MCB OFF…..3 stages of isolation from bites. 

Working on 'small' mains, with insulated cable, I obviously always isolate (and lock off with a real padlock) everything that I'm working on. But out of habit I tend not to touch conductors anyway, and on a small job it's quite possible to do the whole thing in a way that would have been non-eventful if you had worked on it live.

Whoever, when you get to bigger stuff there's always a point where it just becomes a metalwork job and you have to touch what would normally be live uninsulated conductors. No matter how many times I've checked lockouts, how many times I've stuck a meter between the conductor and earth, and even when I've deliberately earthed the normally live conductors, I still get a slight tingle of apprehension just before actually touching the conductors for the first time.

Totally agree, that tingle feeling is self-preservation kicking in, just in case someone has done something stupid.

[Specmaster]

Cool stuff.

I miss datacentres! Clouds are much less fun

I've done loads of lighting control schemes for datacentres in and around London over the last 20 years. I miss them too, they were always very interesting to do.

[tonyalbus]

Cool stuff.

I miss datacentres! Clouds are much less fun

Cloud is less fun, but you sleep a lot better.....if done with the right partner.... a DC is sometimes a big weight on your shoulders too.
my phone is almost never on silence ... for when..if.. etc.. but its also fun...driving around with a lot of iron when needed :-)