Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

I know it's just language barrier, my friend... but please, in the future: "Word of mouth."

"mouth to mouth on forums like this..." is just ewwwww.    Makes it sound like we're one of those pervert sex clubs or summat.

mnem

Or a bunch of mouth breathers. [Looks around.] No comment. 

[med6753]

I'm sure the other guy was Tektronix. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.  But it depends on who the customer is.

I think that was the whole original point. It shouldn't matter who the customer is, just as it shouldn't matter whom an individual is when we decide a priori to be either polite or rude to them.

We judge people who are consistent in their dealing with others very differently from how we judge people who are fawning with someone who they think may do them some good, and vicious with someone who can do them no harm. At the extreme the latter are psychopaths, and the former either 'nice' people or "a grumpy old git, but at least he's grumpy with everybody". I see no reason to use a different standard for corporations, and I will preferentially do business with the 'nice' corporation rather than the selfish one.

No argument from me. Agree 100%.

[BU508A]

Okay, can you open a business tony? I mean if we need schematics we just email you.

Haha....

usualy it is just asking the company with afriendly email if i can not find on google.
only sometimes like anritsu... it is the politcy not to help the clients with the schematics.. but still they reply friendly and sent a manual..
Just ask... that suprizingly works very well

Totally agree with you Tony, it does however seem to me that it is the smaller less internationally well known companies that seem to respond the best. The bigger well known ones don't seem to want to assist with the repair of equipment, instead they would prefer to sell you a new device.

Yes that could be, some how the 'big' ones are like that, but they forget or think its unimportant...... but in buying there is this 'like' factor..
after after they gave me this amazing service i would indeed consider my next buy with them... it does work.
also it is nice to know, even the product is old, out of support, they don't leave you in the cold..
and don't forget the mouth to mouth on forums like this...
so if you look for a PSU with long support, you can get one here... the seem to sell well in US too if i check ebay.

http://www.delta-elektronika.nl/
https://www.deltapowersupplies.com/

I know it's just language barrier, my friend... but please, in the future: "Word of mouth."

"mouth to mouth on forums like this..." is just ewwwww.    Makes it sound like we're one of those pervert sex clubs or summat.

mnem

Statler is more relaxed about this:



Waldorf : Tell me, Statler. Do you have any naval experience?
Statler : Well, I once saved a rat from drowning.
Waldorf : Really, how?
Statler : I gave him mouth to mouse resuscitation!

[mnementh]

*snerk*

mnem
 

[mnementh]

...Once I had taken the fan rotor apart I soon found it was completely dry, all the oil must have escaped from the long since expired shaft seal. once filled with oil & reassembled it was free to turn again. Two of the rivnuts for the fan guard required pressing back in, not sure how or if this had a filter fitted due to the fan guard design (it's probably missing bits).


More later.....

David

Wow... it looks like you found the missing link between the once-ubiquitous C-frame fans and modern DC axial fans. Makes you wonder what the real drive was behind that overly complicated design; maybe an end-run around FASCO's patent lawyers...?

 I love the attention to detail on that thing... like the component layout on an inner cover that no-one will ever see except guys like us who fix things. 

mnem
 

[med6753]

This talk of customer service rattled some memories...

When I was a kid I used to build a lot of models, especially aircraft. There was this one particular model I wanted but could never find locally so I sent the company who shall remain nameless a letter. The model was something like $1.29 USD so I included that in coin in the envelope.

A few weeks later I get a letter stating that they received my order and would gladly sent it but there was no money in the envelope. Obviously some asshole stiffed the coin. And I was broke.  Unknowingly My Mother saw the letter. She turned around and sent them a WTF letter. A few weeks later I get a box in the mail. It contained the model I wanted plus two or three additional other models....all free of charge.   

[tonyalbus]

I know it's just language barrier, my friend... but please, in the future: "Word of mouth."

"mouth to mouth on forums like this..." is just ewwwww.    Makes it sound like we're one of those pervert sex clubs or summat.

mnem

Damn..eeww... now i see it .... and i knew that one too.
dutch expressions )  its full of it in our language ... and very funny when you do a direct translation.. 
And when you do 'we have the dolls dancing' ... (sh*t hits the fan) 

[bd139]

Ah that’s the entire software industry!

Except the wiring is made of goat excrement and straw.

"Made" implies conscious design, rather than 10⁶ monkeys.

I beg to differ. I can make a mess, I can make a fool of myself and I can make a complete pig's ear of a job. None of those carry an implication of either intent or, indeed, fully functioning cognition. That's why I am so wary of Makers<sup>TM*

*</sup>Twat Mark

I love my father's comment on "makers": "At least they're intellectually honest because they don't label themselves engineers".

[med6753]

I know it's just language barrier, my friend... but please, in the future: "Word of mouth."

"mouth to mouth on forums like this..." is just ewwwww.    Makes it sound like we're one of those pervert sex clubs or summat.

mnem

Damn..eeww... now i see it .... and i knew that one too.
dutch expressions )  its full of it in our language ... and very funny when you do a direct translation.. 
And when you do 'we have the dolls dancing' ... (sh*t hits the fan) 

The first settlers to this area were mostly Dutch. Which is why we have many towns with "kill" in their suffix. That's a rough translation for "creek" or "stream". So we have locations called Fishkill, Catskill, Peekskill, etc.

[BU508A]

I know it's just language barrier, my friend... but please, in the future: "Word of mouth."

"mouth to mouth on forums like this..." is just ewwwww.    Makes it sound like we're one of those pervert sex clubs or summat.

mnem

Damn..eeww... now i see it .... and i knew that one too.
dutch expressions )  its full of it in our language ... and very funny when you do a direct translation.. 
And when you do 'we have the dolls dancing' ... (sh*t hits the fan) 

My english teacher called them "false friends" and he illustrated this with this little joke.

In the UK, a German tourist went to a restaurant.
The waiter appeared and the tourist said: "I would like to become a steak."
The waiter replied very politely: "I hope not so, sir."

[med6753]

My english teacher called them "false friends" and he illustrated this with this little joke.

In the UK, a German tourist went to a restaurant.
The waiter appeared and the tourist said: "I would like to become a steak."
The waiter replied very politely: "I hope not so, sir."

I don't get it. 

[Cerebus]

Makes you wonder what the real drive was behind that overly complicated design; maybe an end-run around FASCO's patent lawyers...?

Reading the patent it looks like the usual corporate malfeasance of taking two well known and un-patentable things (a shaded pole motor and a sealed bearing) and combining them in an obvious way into something 'novel' and getting it patented as a handy legal cudgel to use on anyone who is not rich enough to say "OK, so sue me". As anyone who has read a few US patents will be able to tell one "obvious to a practitioner of the art" and "obvious to the US patent office" are two very different things.

[Cerebus]

The first settlers to this area were mostly Dutch. Which is why we have many towns with "kill" in their suffix. That's a rough translation for "creek" or "stream". So we have locations called Fishkill, Catskill, Peekskill, etc.

That one made it into English as 'gil' or 'gill' for a stream. Most seen in the north of England.

[tonyalbus]

I know it's just language barrier, my friend... but please, in the future: "Word of mouth."

"mouth to mouth on forums like this..." is just ewwwww.    Makes it sound like we're one of those pervert sex clubs or summat.

mnem

Damn..eeww... now i see it .... and i knew that one too.
dutch expressions )  its full of it in our language ... and very funny when you do a direct translation.. 
And when you do 'we have the dolls dancing' ... (sh*t hits the fan) 

My english teacher called them "false friends" and he illustrated this with this little joke.

In the UK, a German tourist went to a restaurant.
The waiter appeared and the tourist said: "I would like to become a steak."
The waiter replied very politely: "I hope not so, sir."

i was thinking of a joke.. with an english man and a German woman...
but its not appropiate on thsi formum...
something with numbering s*x positions and number nine using exit  and 9 or Nein!

[BU508A]

My english teacher called them "false friends" and he illustrated this with this little joke.

In the UK, a German tourist went to a restaurant.
The waiter appeared and the tourist said: "I would like to become a steak."
The waiter replied very politely: "I hope not so, sir."

I don't get it. 

German: the verb "bekommen" means to get something. It is not really correct German when someone is saying for example "Ich bekomme ein Brot" (I get bread). It would be correct here: "Ich bekomme ein Kind." (I am having a child)

Germans tend to confuse the english became with the German bekommen.

[factory]

...Once I had taken the fan rotor apart I soon found it was completely dry, all the oil must have escaped from the long since expired shaft seal. once filled with oil & reassembled it was free to turn again. Two of the rivnuts for the fan guard required pressing back in, not sure how or if this had a filter fitted due to the fan guard design (it's probably missing bits).


More later.....

David

Wow... it looks like you found the missing link between the once-ubiquitous C-frame fans and modern DC axial fans. Makes you wonder what the real drive was behind that overly complicated design; maybe an end-run around FASCO's patent lawyers...?

 I love the attention to detail on that thing... like the component layout on an inner cover that no-one will ever see except guys like us who fix things. 

mnem
 

There is nothing to stop the circuit boards being fitted the wrong way round, I only spotted the message on the inside cover when editing the photo.

Those types of fans are still found in almost every cheap microwave.


I've scrapped two recently, one of which looked almost new, it had poor quality connectors, one for the magnetron had just dropped off by itself.  The owner instead of returning it to tesco, buggered the door up and left it by the dumpster. 


David

[mnementh]

This talk of customer service rattled some memories...

When I was a kid I used to build a lot of models, especially aircraft. There was this one particular model I wanted but could never find locally so I sent the company who shall remain nameless a letter. The model was something like $1.29 USD so I included that in coin in the envelope.

A few weeks later I get a letter stating that they received my order and would gladly sent it but there was no money in the envelope. Obviously some asshole stiffed the coin. And I was broke.  Unknowingly My Mother saw the letter. She turned around and sent them a WTF letter. A few weeks later I get a box in the mail. It contained the model I wanted plus two or three additional other models....all free of charge.   

I bet it was Monogram. When I was like 9 I had one of their T-38 kits in 1:48 scale; it arrived with a badly warped wing shell that just could not be made to align with the other half. I wrote them a letter including the part number in the kit instructions, model number, etc, all carefully printed with tongue-clenched-in-teeth concentration that must have taken me an hour with multiple erasures and complete rewrites.

I think all that effort must have somehow been transmitted along with my letter; about 10 days later my grandfather brings me this huge (well, huge to me) carton from the mailbox by the road. It contains the next scale larger model (1:32 I think) and a letter saying that my model was out of production at the moment, so could I please instead try my hand at this one and let them know what I thought. This kit had like a million more pieces of course (and was so much more expensive in the catalogs I didn't even dream of buying on my little farmboy allowance); but it brought me countless hours more time spent with tongue-clenched-in-teeth obsessing over every little bit.

I then sent them back another letter describing some issues I'd had with assembling the wheels, how I'd worked around those problems and how freaking awesome the decals in this kit were; they released without tearing and floated so much better than my other models. I got a letter back from the same person at the company, and several back & forths over the summer but eventually moving to Pittsburgh broke that correspondence.

But still a soft spot in my heart for Monogram; no matter what evil modeling empire they may have become in the meantime. 

*mnemories*

[mnementh]

I know it's just language barrier, my friend... but please, in the future: "Word of mouth."

"mouth to mouth on forums like this..." is just ewwwww.    Makes it sound like we're one of those pervert sex clubs or summat.

mnem

Damn..eeww... now i see it .... and i knew that one too.
dutch expressions )  its full of it in our language ... and very funny when you do a direct translation.. 
And when you do 'we have the dolls dancing' ... (sh*t hits the fan) 

My english teacher called them "false friends" and he illustrated this with this little joke.

In the UK, a German tourist went to a restaurant.
The waiter appeared and the tourist said: "I would like to become a steak."
The waiter replied very politely: "I hope not so, sir."

i was thinking of a joke.. with an english man and a German woman...   but its not appropriate on this formum...  something with numbering s*x positions and number nine using exit  and 9 or Nein!

Yes, EXACTLY! *** to mouth was the phrase I was explicitly trying NOT to say so... explicitly! 

mnem
 

[cyclin_al]

Bernstein



I have to admit: if Knipex, Wiha are BMW, Mercedes level... for me Bernstein is like Lamborghini.

 

But .... that looks awfully much like a Ford 8N ... 

[mnementh]

...Once I had taken the fan rotor apart I soon found it was completely dry, all the oil must have escaped from the long since expired shaft seal. once filled with oil & reassembled it was free to turn again. Two of the rivnuts for the fan guard required pressing back in, not sure how or if this had a filter fitted due to the fan guard design (it's probably missing bits).


More later.....

David

   Wow... it looks like you found the missing link between the once-ubiquitous C-frame fans and modern DC axial fans. Makes you wonder what the real drive was behind that overly complicated design; maybe an end-run around FASCO's patent lawyers...?

 I love the attention to detail on that thing... like the component layout on an inner cover that no-one will ever see except guys like us who fix things. 

mnem
 

There is nothing to stop the circuit boards being fitted the wrong way round, I only spotted the message on the inside cover when editing the photo.

Those types of fans are still found in almost every cheap microwave...   

David

Yup... still ubiquitous in consumer refrigeration as well; for the same reason: Cheap and they just plain work, even pulling arctic-cold air through a icebox for a decade or more, with like a 0.0001% infant mortality rate.

Appropriate technology, etc... 


mnem
Oh, and nukebox XFMRs are a great starting point for "electroboom moments".   

[mnementh]

Many years ago, pre WWW  I had need, personally,  of support for 'scopes from two major OEMs. Specfically service manuals. Both scope's were out of official support. I contacted the UK offices. One quoted me £200 (more than the I could by a working 'scope for) for a set of schematics. The other sent me a full set of manuals (4 volumes) plus a set of firmware upgrade ROMS with all options, shipped from the USA free of charge.
What neither of them knew was that at work I had final decision on a 6 figure order for test equipment that was going to be deployed in a system with a long service life (turned out to be over 15 years) so support was an issue. The final choice was between the same two OEMs. Quess which one I chose? Not because of any advantage I had, but because I knew which one supported their equipment long term.

Yup... this is precisely why I felt compelled to write up my recent excellent experience with DigiKey Customer Service.


People... the kind of people who frequent THIS THREAD for amusement... need to know that right now, not 10 years ago or 20, they provided me with AAA-level support and it didn't matter that I've been a hobbyist-level buyer for years. 

mnem

[med6753]

This talk of customer service rattled some memories...

When I was a kid I used to build a lot of models, especially aircraft. There was this one particular model I wanted but could never find locally so I sent the company who shall remain nameless a letter. The model was something like $1.29 USD so I included that in coin in the envelope.

A few weeks later I get a letter stating that they received my order and would gladly sent it but there was no money in the envelope. Obviously some asshole stiffed the coin. And I was broke.  Unknowingly My Mother saw the letter. She turned around and sent them a WTF letter. A few weeks later I get a box in the mail. It contained the model I wanted plus two or three additional other models....all free of charge.   

I bet it was Monogram. When I was like 9 I had one of their T-38 kits in 1:48 scale; it arrived with a badly warped wing shell that just could not be made to align with the other half. I wrote them a letter including the part number in the kit instructions, model number, etc, all carefully printed with tongue-clenched-in-teeth concentration that must have taken me an hour with multiple erasures and complete rewrites.

I think all that effort must have somehow been transmitted along with my letter; about 10 days later my grandfather brings me this huge (well, huge to me) carton from the mailbox by the road. It contains the next scale larger model (1:32 I think) and a letter saying that my model was out of production at the moment, so could I please instead try my hand at this one and let them know what I thought. This kit had like a million more pieces of course (and was so much more expensive in the catalogs I didn't even dream of buying on my little farmboy allowance); but it brought me countless hours more time spent with tongue-clenched-in-teeth obsessing over every little bit.

I then sent them back another letter describing some issues I'd had with assembling the wheels, how I'd worked around those problems and how freaking awesome the decals in this kit were; they released without tearing and floated so much better than my other models. I got a letter back from the same person at the company, and several back & forths over the summer but eventually moving to Pittsburgh broke that correspondence.

But still a soft spot in my heart for Monogram; no matter what evil modeling empire they may have become in the meantime. 

*mnemories*

It wasn't Monogram although they did make excellent models. I guess I'll mention who it was since they are no longer in biz. It was Lindberg.

[Robert763]

...Once I had taken the fan rotor apart I soon found it was completely dry, all the oil must have escaped from the long since expired shaft seal. once filled with oil & reassembled it was free to turn again. Two of the rivnuts for the fan guard required pressing back in, not sure how or if this had a filter fitted due to the fan guard design (it's probably missing bits).


More later.....

David

Wow... it looks like you found the missing link between the once-ubiquitous C-frame fans and modern DC axial fans. Makes you wonder what the real drive was behind that overly complicated design; maybe an end-run around FASCO's patent lawyers...?

 I love the attention to detail on that thing... like the component layout on an inner cover that no-one will ever see except guys like us who fix things. 

mnem
 

Looks like a take on th old PAPST external rotor AC motors

[mnementh]

...Once I had taken the fan rotor apart I soon found it was completely dry, all the oil must have escaped from the long since expired shaft seal. once filled with oil & reassembled it was free to turn again. Two of the rivnuts for the fan guard required pressing back in, not sure how or if this had a filter fitted due to the fan guard design (it's probably missing bits).


More later.....

David

Wow... it looks like you found the missing link between the once-ubiquitous C-frame fans and modern DC axial fans. Makes you wonder what the real drive was behind that overly complicated design; maybe an end-run around FASCO's patent lawyers...?

 I love the attention to detail on that thing... like the component layout on an inner cover that no-one will ever see except guys like us who fix things. 

mnem
 

Looks like a take on th old PAPST external rotor AC motors

No idea.  This basic design literally dates back to Edison; they've been making shaded-pole motors like this for over a century. The fixed-shaft variant is a new one on me tho.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

From the "Crude... But effective." Dept...



Currently trying to find the correct CC setting for my T-12 cartridge to serve as a booty-fab soldering iron instead of a cherry-red firestarter; such that I can use it to fix my soldering station.

What could possibly go wrong...?

mnem