Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Looking sharp Med. 
Got the incoming package yet ?

Thanks and nope, hasn't shown up yet.

[mansaxel]

A 3-phase rotation indicator.

Can't you do that with just a set of Duspol's ? 

Probably. But this is the safe 200lb gorilla way, and that suits me!

What's safer than Duspols to use on mains ? 
And yes my Duspol Master has a phase rotation indicator.

Ah, now I understand. Safe as in "reasonable chance to get things right" also plays in. But, as I wrote, it was roughly 1/4 of what a Benning Duspol Digital costs. And I already carry a multimeter for when I need to measure things more precisely...

Finally, this is TE, innit? Why do I have to motivate that here? 

[Specmaster]

320m long 3ph service submain line to the pump shed emergency maintenance.
.................

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.

Cable used is called Squirrel, commonly used in NZ for 11KV mains distribution and always bare uncovered.
Specs:
https://www.nexans.co.nz/eservice/NewZealand-en/navigateproduct_540247469/Squirrel.html#characteristics

Some 1300m of it was required and had to wait a few months to get it from local upgrades to our powerco network.
A few of the 320m runs were in 1 length but a couple needed the special joiners, ~200mm long grease filled tubes that required a hydraulic crimper with the correct dies for it.

As any part of the installation was 4+m above ground it well meets reg and in fact is some 6m is its lowest point.
9 & 10m concrete poles were used.
Design was for 5A loads when in fact Squirrel cable will allow 16A and still meet min voltage drop spec for a 320m run.
The whole installation meets regs and when I look around at some old local installations of bare copper overheads I cringe as they are nowhere near as high as these running over our fields where at times heavy machinery operates.
Max legal height for heavy traffic here is 4.3m and we have nearly 2m above that which is plenty of clearance for a LV mains installation.

At the end of the day, the whole line was installed for basically nicks as some favours were called and the real cost was just my time and planning over a couple of years. Since then it's saved us the 3-5 liters petrol/week the petrol engine drank for water pumping.

I see, when I did mine, it was in a large packing case factory, making huge wooden transporting cases for TV transmitters, Radar domes and antennas etc so there were often mobile cranes in use throughout the place, so I had to get it as high as it was possible to get it and hence the use of insulated cables. I always made sure that the earth cable was bare and also the lowest and highest so that hopefully the first to contact when the cables were in a vertical stack, in a bid to ensure that should a crane touch, it was earthed. When I had to run these overhead supplies horizontal, I always ran an earth on each side for the same reasons.

[mnementh]

A 3-phase rotation indicator.   

   Can't you do that with just a set of Duspol's ?     

Probably. But this is the safe 200lb gorilla way, and that suits me!

I thought that was: You throw a 200lb gorilla at the live end of the motor, and see which way his arms and legs flap... 

So I guess phase rotation would be... You throw him at the electrical box, and note whether fire shoots out of his eyes or his arse...?

mnem
 

[Neomys Sapiens]

A 3-phase rotation indicator.   

   Can't you do that with just a set of Duspol's ?     

Probably. But this is the safe 200lb gorilla way, and that suits me!

I thought that was: You throw a 200lb gorilla at the live end of the motor, and see which way his arms and legs flap... 

So I guess phase rotation would be... You throw him at the electrical box, and note whether fire shoots out of his eyes or his arse...?

mnem
 

Nope. You connect one testlead to each of the gorilla's three legs and you observe the direction in which he rolls his eyes.

[mnementh]

Not sure I'd consider connecting that third leg as being any way safe... 

mnem
...but could be highly amusing to watch.

[mnementh]

Well that didn't take long. All the high value resistors in the divider checked out OK. I turned my attention to the primary side of the HV and low and behold quickly found the issue.
See schematic. V701, a highly coveted Amperex Bugle Boy 12AU7 has blown it's last horn. NFG.  Replaced it with a civilian RCA 12AU7 and HV is now -1675V.     

You can still sell that bugle boy as untested to balance some karma in the universe 

And in a audio amplifier, it might could very well function even if it is a bit weak or leaky.    Just enhances that lovely warm Buggle-Boi sound... 

mnem
nice pants.

[AVGresponding]

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.

Like some numpty (usually a bloody builder) connecting two radial circuits, both served by different isolators/fusing, together at some remote point. It's never happened to me, but I know someone who nearly became a cropper because of it who was saved by his own paranoia (Tony, the same guy who taught me electrical installation and to keep several of my own padlocks in my toolbox for use on lockouts).

I found a similar situation with a lighting circuit in one of our community centres.

I discovered it was fed from two supplies, and in this case, not just from two in the same distribution board, but from two separate distribution boards.
It took over a year from the time I reported the issue for it to be rectified.

The killer punchline to this little story, is that the installation had passed its periodic inspection mere weeks earlier, and I know for a fact the work was done several years before that.
The tester responsible, as you might expect, is no longer a working electrician. He is now Electrical Clerk of Works for us.   

On the plus side, having fixed many of this douche-bag's fuck-ups, he hasn't the cojones to say a damn word about any of my work...


I found the microwave movement sensors after a brief search this afternoon when I got home from work, and am currently trying to decide whether to find a correctly sized box, or just wrap it in cling film...   
Just kidding, I gave it a quick test, and cleaned the worst of the crud off it (20 years opening automatic doors at the main entrance of a large city central library).
I'll leave the details of it out, so Cerebus can discover them for himself.

I did find some other stuff while I was looking, that might interest someone; a methane detector (NIB), and a CO₂ monitor, 4500ppm (also NIB).
I've two of those old fashioned things, what are they called..? An-a-log? They wave at you when you pass current through them, very 19th century. They are 70mm square Hobuts, one is 0-60VDC, the other is 0-10ADC, with built-in shunt.
All available for the cost of postage.


Yay, 3DP has arrived! Soon I can initiate my plan for world domination through inexplicable plastic widgets!

[Neomys Sapiens]

Uuuuuugh!!!
9h of teleconferencing with Austrians trying to speak Änglisch. With only a portable microphone in that room.
When someone of those primates business partners dropped his paw onto the table, my head exploded.
Owww, my ears!
Qwww, my brain!

[mnementh]

...Yay, 3DP has arrived! Soon I can initiate my plan for world domination through inexplicable plastic widgets!

   https://3dprint.com/69605/braq-3d-printed-dragon/


   https://www.ponoko.com/blog/ponoko/five-unusual-3d-printed-gears/

mnem
*impairing productivity since nineteen-mumblety-mumble*

[Neomys Sapiens]

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.

Like some numpty (usually a bloody builder) connecting two radial circuits, both served by different isolators/fusing, together at some remote point. It's never happened to me, but I know someone who nearly became a cropper because of it who was saved by his own paranoia (Tony, the same guy who taught me electrical installation and to keep several of my own padlocks in my toolbox for use on lockouts).

I found a similar situation with a lighting circuit in one of our community centres.

I discovered it was fed from two supplies, and in this case, not just from two in the same distribution board, but from two separate distribution boards.
It took over a year from the time I reported the issue for it to be rectified.

The killer punchline to this little story, is that the installation had passed its periodic inspection mere weeks earlier, and I know for a fact the work was done several years before that.
The tester responsible, as you might expect, is no longer a working electrician. He is now Electrical Clerk of Works for us.   

On the plus side, having fixed many of this douche-bag's fuck-ups, he hasn't the cojones to say a damn word about any of my work...


I found the microwave movement sensors after a brief search this afternoon when I got home from work, and am currently trying to decide whether to find a correctly sized box, or just wrap it in cling film...   
Just kidding, I gave it a quick test, and cleaned the worst of the crud off it (20 years opening automatic doors at the main entrance of a large city central library).
I'll leave the details of it out, so Cerebus can discover them for himself.

I did find some other stuff while I was looking, that might interest someone; a methane detector (NIB), and a CO₂ monitor, 4500ppm (also NIB).
I've two of those old fashioned things, what are they called..? An-a-log? They wave at you when you pass current through them, very 19th century. They are 70mm square Hobuts, one is 0-60VDC, the other is 0-10ADC, with built-in shunt.
All available for the cost of postage.


Yay, 3DP has arrived! Soon I can initiate my plan for world domination through inexplicable plastic widgets!

70 square millimeter WHAT?

[mnementh]

I think he was being silly aboot a couple of these, only manufactured by Howard Butler Ltd AKA . 

mnem
 

[bd139]

   https://3dprint.com/69605/braq-3d-printed-dragon/

Not sure why but that reminded me of something featured on Aliexpress the other day: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/SPH-Dragon-Sexy-Inflatable-Sex-Toy_60540353290.html

I was trying to buy shrink wrap for 18650's at the time

[mnementh]

Eeeep...! That thing on AliBaba is a ride-on toy. 

And when they say "sexy" in this context, they mean you can fuck it; so there's an orifice or 3 somewhere on the thing.

mnem
 

[Cerebus]

   https://3dprint.com/69605/braq-3d-printed-dragon/

Not sure why but that reminded me of something featured on Aliexpress the other day: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/SPH-Dragon-Sexy-Inflatable-Sex-Toy_60540353290.html

I was trying to buy shrink wrap for 18650's at the time

Of course you were dear boy, of course you were. 

[Saskia]

so did you find any interesting sex toys ?

[Saskia]

stuff that arrived today:
my Tamron 150-600 which got a firmware update to run on the EOS R. A quick test reveals that I can read the package labels when doing a handheld foto of a box 10m away in dim light at about 12800 ISO.

Unfortunately it's a first Gen Tamron, the 2nd Gen is supposed to be a lot better.

the wrecked Canon EF17-40L, unrepaired, as repair costs approach 400 € and a used one is about 290.

a replacement notebook from my employer, Microsoft tried to "repair the account" on the old one, rendering login impossible.
Try to get past the outsourced helpdesk, that wanted  me to show them the login failure while trying to connect from the Home Office.

 

[Specmaster]

I found a similar situation with a lighting circuit in one of our community centres.

I discovered it was fed from two supplies, and in this case, not just from two in the same distribution board, but from two separate distribution boards.
It took over a year from the time I reported the issue for it to be rectified.

The killer punchline to this little story, is that the installation had passed its periodic inspection mere weeks earlier, and I know for a fact the work was done several years before that.
The tester responsible, as you might expect, is no longer a working electrician. He is now Electrical Clerk of Works for us.   

On the plus side, having fixed many of this douche-bag's fuck-ups, he hasn't the cojones to say a damn word about any of my work...

Yep, and what peeves me is that it tends to be douche bags like that get promoted 

[Specmaster]

   https://3dprint.com/69605/braq-3d-printed-dragon/

Not sure why but that reminded me of something featured on Aliexpress the other day: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/SPH-Dragon-Sexy-Inflatable-Sex-Toy_60540353290.html

I was trying to buy shrink wrap for 18650's at the time

That's your story and your sticking to it 

[bd139]

Yep 

[factory]

Well that didn't take long. All the high value resistors in the divider checked out OK. I turned my attention to the primary side of the HV and low and behold quickly found the issue.
See schematic. V701, a highly coveted Amperex Bugle Boy 12AU7 has blown it's last horn. NFG.  Replaced it with a civilian RCA 12AU7 and HV is now -1675V.     

You can still sell that bugle boy as untested to balance some karma in the universe 

And in a audio amplifier, it might could very well function even if it is a bit weak or leaky.    Just enhances that lovely warm Buggle-Boi sound... 

mnem
nice pants.

And don't forget to pack it China style in a bag, to enhance the sound it makes when it pops through the letterbox & hits the floor.
Which reminds me I need to do an autopsy on those smashed tubes I received.


David

[factory]

Factory: € 99,95

https://odnd.nl/measuring-equipment-gear-analyzer-oscilloscope-tone-generator-multimeter-parts/philips-counter-timer-pm6630-pre-scaler-pm6632-with-nixie-tubes-ev-n-4227

I had a counter offer of €95 on ePay, but I've spent too much on TE recently, plus my Citroen van gearbox linkage decided to malfunction as I selected reverse on the work car-park this morning, every garage seems to be too busy to come out & look at it. 

The seller of the cheap HP 6255A PSU can't send by DHL as it's too heavy/expensive, now going by TNT.

David

[bd139]

Well that didn't take long. All the high value resistors in the divider checked out OK. I turned my attention to the primary side of the HV and low and behold quickly found the issue.
See schematic. V701, a highly coveted Amperex Bugle Boy 12AU7 has blown it's last horn. NFG.  Replaced it with a civilian RCA 12AU7 and HV is now -1675V.     

You can still sell that bugle boy as untested to balance some karma in the universe 

And in a audio amplifier, it might could very well function even if it is a bit weak or leaky.    Just enhances that lovely warm Buggle-Boi sound... 

mnem
nice pants.

And don't forget to pack it China style in a bag, to enhance the sound it makes when it pops through the letterbox & hits the floor.
Which reminds me I need to do an autopsy on those smashed tubes I received.


David

What the fuck.

I ordered a 12AU7 from RS a couple of years back and it came in a box inside a box inside a box

[factory]

Well that didn't take long. All the high value resistors in the divider checked out OK. I turned my attention to the primary side of the HV and low and behold quickly found the issue.
See schematic. V701, a highly coveted Amperex Bugle Boy 12AU7 has blown it's last horn. NFG.  Replaced it with a civilian RCA 12AU7 and HV is now -1675V.     

You can still sell that bugle boy as untested to balance some karma in the universe 

And in a audio amplifier, it might could very well function even if it is a bit weak or leaky.    Just enhances that lovely warm Buggle-Boi sound... 

mnem
nice pants.

And don't forget to pack it China style in a bag, to enhance the sound it makes when it pops through the letterbox & hits the floor.
Which reminds me I need to do an autopsy on those smashed tubes I received.


David

What the fuck.

I ordered a 12AU7 from RS a couple of years back and it came in a box inside a box inside a box

Well the cheap sellers from China on ePay think it's fine to send them in something you might wrap your sandwiches in & nothing else. I got a full refund after escalating the claim, seller kept repeating "would a partial refund be OK?", like hell it would. 

David

[mnementh]

Correct response: "Well, let's see... Would running your dick partially through a sausage grinder be okay...?"

mnem