Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[factory]

Missed the HP 427A. Was doing the bloody school run when it finished and forgot to bid 

FML 

If it was the one I think it was, it went for £30.50, I didn't win it either  , but I did have the 1st bid on it 

Wasn't me either, although I did forget to bid on a nice 432C last week, being at home instead of work distracted me too much. 

David

[AVGresponding]

Well, as to the length of the tails... we are going to use butt-splice crimps where necessary.   

I like "carrots", much more refined than "dog willies".


On the positive side, this'll be a good opportunity to increase my "Hall Of Shame" photo collection. One prominent example is a submarine joint on a ~180mm² 4-core armoured down in the basement.
The reason it exists? Someone didn't check carefully enough which armoured they were cutting. This one was still live when he cut into it...
He is now deceased, though not from this. My favourite anecdote about him is, when a colleague and I had done all the jobs on our monthly list, and called him looking for something to do, he replied, "can't you just go find somewhere to hide?".
I never did find out the job number for Hide and Seek. RIP Dave.

[Robert763]

Ooh pyro, haven't done any of that for years. A 1000V megger could leave a fair charge on a long length 

Note to Saskia, don't get excited, it's a nickname for Pyrotenax the original maker of MICC.

[Cerebus]

Ooh pyro, haven't done any of that for years.

It's 35 years if it's a day since I last touched the stuff. I've still got one of the pot crimping tools kicking about in the bottom of my really ratty, really old tool box. The tool and the toolbox were hand-me downs from Tony, the guy I used to 'mate' for back in the day.

The toolbox came spare when he spotted the opportunity to heftily pad a materials bill with a new set of toolboxes for one customer who, shall we say, deserved it. 

[Specmaster]

I've been watching Les Paul copies on ebay this week.

I was watching one with a BIN price of £120, and suddenly a message pops up "the seller has sent you an offer of 96% off - £4.

Naturally I bought it immediately, though I was expecting what happened soon after...

Message from the seller "sorry, was an accident, phone in pocket blah blah blah, monies refunded".

Oh well.


Next job, having finished the covid testing centre:



We're replacing (almost) all the boards in City Hall. These are about half of them, there will be just short of 40 in total.

We're not rewiring, just board changes. All the wiring (well almost all) is MICC (mineral insulated copper cable).
The new boards will be full of RCBOs. Every. Single. Circuit.
Anyone that knows anything about MICC wiring will be shaking their head and chuckling at this point...

Management thinks we will be done in no time, have said don't bother with full testing, just do loops. Any problems, we'll sort as we go.
The consensus among the blokes on the tools is this will bring new meaning to the phrase "nuisance tripping".

Fortunately we get paid by the hour, and not by how much we can do in a day...

LMAO, was this designed by City authorities own electrical dept or outside consultants, whoever it was they are bloody muppets 

[SilverSolder]

What makes MICC cables so bad for this?

[BU508A]

Today, the VFR S102JT 100R 0.01% resistors from Vishay arrived.

And since christmas is coming I've decided to offer to you six pairs of resistors, consisting of:

1x VFR S102CT  1000R  0.01%  2ppm/K  (pitch: 3.81mm or 0.15")
1x VFR S102JT   100R   0.01%   2ppm/K  (pitch: 5.08mm or 0.20")

I've attached the datasheet from Vishay below.

These are the rules:
- Price per pair: 20 EUR, incl. shipping
- payment via PayPal is preferred
- shipping to Europe only (this includes all EU *exit countries)   
- first come, first serve (write me a PM)
- only one pair per user, to give others a chance as well
- if a pair is requested, I'll set the status to "reserved"

(1) - reserved
(2) - reserved
(3) - reserved
(4) - reserved
(5) - reserved
(6) - reserved

And here are some pictures of the usual suspects:

Overview and a detailed overview:


Please be aware of the different pitch sizes: = 5.08mm vs. 3.81mm (0.20" vs. 0.15")


Thanks, hope, you'll enjoy the resistors. 

Edit:
They are all gone now.
Thanks to all who asked for a pair of those resistors. I'll send them out tomorrow, so that they'll hopefully arrive next week.

  

[Specmaster]

Heads up, I have just received my £1 listing fee offer from eBay, ends on Monday, if you're a UK based member, check your email / eBay accounts to see if you have the same offer.

[bd139]

Just got one now!  Thanks for the heads up 

[Cerebus]

What makes MICC cables so bad for this?

MICC looks like this:


Copper conductors in the centre, an insulator, a copper sheath (earth) and then usually an over-moulded PVC sheath. That white insulator is compressed magnesia  powder, magnesium oxide.

You cut the cable to length, strip back lots of the copper sheath and the magnesia to leave you with tails. Then you terminate it like this:



The good thing about MICC, as the tradename Pyrotenax suggests, is that it has superb fire performance. It will keep working up to some crazy temperature because the copper melts before the insulation packs up. It gets specified for fire alarms on that basis alone. Also it's intrinsically safe - with an earthed solid copper sheath it is very, very hard to get it to misbehave, get hot, catch fire or spark. So it gets used in mines and other places where electricity could become a fire hazard.

That's the good. The bad is, it must be terminated very carefully. You're supposed to form a hermetic or near hermetic seal. You have to get: the pot properly screwed onto the sheath, the insulating putty properly packed into the pot, and the seal crimped properly onto the pot. If you don't make the seal properly atmospheric moisture gets in and the magnesia insulation can become slightly conductive. We're talking small leakage currents here and it's safe because of the earthed sheath. Trouble is, get enough leakage to earth building up, parallel a few runs up and suddenly earth leakage based circuit breakers can get quite tetchy about the stuff.

Also because it's not unlike rigid coax it can have significant capacitance, if that interacts with a load it can in theory be a problem, as too can, in theory, the conductor to earth capacitance, but both are rarely experienced as issues in the real world.

Edited to add: Almost forgot. When you've cut a length off the reel to use, you're supposed to seal the bare end of the reel. Most people just wrap some PVC electricians tape over it, which doesn't cut the mustard. If it hasn't been properly sealed for storage, the next length off the reel has been pre-soggyed, and no matter how well you terminate it it's going to have leakage currents from day one. Worse still, if you've done a good job of sealing it on installation, that moisture has no way to get out and the leakage is permanent.

[SilverSolder]

What makes MICC cables so bad for this?

MICC looks like this:


Copper conductors in the centre, an insulator, a copper sheath (earth) and then usually an over-moulded PVC sheath. That white insulator is compressed magnesia  powder, magnesium oxide.

You cut the cable to length, strip back lots of the copper sheath and the magnesia to leave you with tails. Then you terminate it like this:



The good thing about MICC, as the tradename Pyrotenax suggests, is that it has superb fire performance. It will keep working up to some crazy temperature because the copper melts before the insulation packs up. It gets specified for fire alarms on that basis alone. Also it's intrinsically safe - with an earthed solid copper sheath it is very, very hard to get it to misbehave, get hot, catch fire or spark. So it gets used in mines and other places where electricity could become a fire hazard.

That's the good. The bad is, it must be terminated very carefully. You're supposed to form a hermetic or near hermetic seal. You have to get: the pot properly screwed onto the sheath, the insulating putty properly packed into the pot, and the seal crimped properly onto the pot. If you don't make the seal properly atmospheric moisture gets in and the magnesia insulation can become slightly conductive. We're talking small leakage currents here and it's safe because of the earthed sheath. Trouble is, get enough leakage to earth building up, parallel a few runs up and suddenly earth leakage based circuit breakers can get quite tetchy about the stuff.

Also because it's not unlike rigid coax it can have significant capacitance, if that interacts with a load it can in theory be a problem, as too can, in theory, the conductor to earth capacitance, but both are rarely experienced as issues in the real world.

Edited to add: Almost forgot. When you've cut a length off the reel to use, you're supposed to seal the bare end of the reel. Most people just wrap some PVC electricians tape over it, which doesn't cut the mustard. If it hasn't been properly sealed for storage, the next length off the reel has been pre-soggyed, and no matter how well you terminate it it's going to have leakage currents from day one. Worse still, if you've done a good job of sealing it on installation, that moisture has no way to get out and the leakage is permanent.

Thank you, fascinating!

[tggzzz]

Heads up, I have just received my £1 listing fee offer from eBay, ends on Monday, if you're a UK based member, check your email / eBay accounts to see if you have the same offer.

Ta!

[Specmaster]

Wow, I can't believe the current offer on this dead Thurlby 1905a DMM, started off @£15 its reached £56 already with nearly 2.5 days left, makes me wonder what kind a value would mine be.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Thurlby-1905A-Intelligent-Digital-Multi-Meter-Spares-or-Repairs/353278926021

[med6753]

If it's stuck permanently powered on then how come pictures show it off? I would think it would be more desirable and reassure potential buyers if it were shown stuck powered up.

Makes me suspicious.    

[mnementh]

Just because the meter is Intelligent does not mean that the seller or the bidders are.

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

[cyclin_al]

My windows stuff is all wired. Wired keyboard, wired mouse, wired headset, wired ethernet. This is bliss even compared to the Apple gubbins. It just works.

Keyboard and mouse are Logitec here, through their 'unified receiver'. 100% troublefree.

My newest PC build is a "family" machine and ended up using the Logitech unified receiver also.  It worked fine at the beginning and then started acting strangely.  I realized the latest thing I changed and then I dialed down the power setting on the new TP-link AX1500 (same as @mnementh bought).  After that, the Logitech devices worked fine again.

In general, I choose wired unless there is a practical or a usability issue for choosing wireless.

I did look at BT headphones a couple of years ago.  I wanted a solution to be able to use the TV when the kid was asleep in the next room.  Went into a store to see a set from respected name brand here that was on sale.  I tried out the headphones and was utterly disappointed with them.  I happened to notice there was also a set from Audio-Technica also on sale.  I tried those and ended up spending eight times my budget; those were impressive.  They still are.

I find BT management is a PITA.  When I want to use the headphones with the TV, I have to make sure BT is turned off on my cellphone before I turn on the headphones.  Otherwise, the headphones pair with the cell phone.  We also have two headsets now and it is always a 50/50 gamble on choosing the correct one on the TV.  Later, when I get in the car, I wonder why BT does not work ... until I realize to turn on BT on the phone.  The only vehicle that had trouble with BT was the F-250 truck; Clarion wanted $1700 to replace the BT chip on the unit.  I was planning on replacing the chip myself, until I sold the truck for other reasons.

[cyclin_al]

Uggh.

It's really sad... that I can tell they've started buying produce and meat from the US just by the drop in quality since the COVID lockdown. Eggs used to be better; now we have the same eggs from sick hens with shells that shatter into a million splinters instead of cracking normally. Produce with chunks of soil still caked on. Canned vegetables that have several large chunks of stem or hull in every can. Meats injected with as much water as they can physically carry, so that you can't even cook it in a pan because it steams and boils rather than frying.

I don't even need to look at the packaging to know... just noticing the quality is the same as I used to get in Texas. And yes, the quality is that much worse... that you do notice it. And when you check the packaging, yup... "May contain xyz from the US."

mnem
Get the fuck out.

Oh please do not get me started on the negotiations bullying that lead to the replacement of the NAFTA trade deal.  That one has created a mess on so many different levels....

[cyclin_al]

welcome, your bench is way to clean 

@tony,   Did someone not say the same thing about a clean desk to you when you first joined us?

@nexus, Welcome, you already have a greater collection than some of us 

[Saskia]

Drove up north, home, and will continue setting up home office there instead of in the company appartment. Boss told me that I can enter campus to pick up my workstation so that at least I have a decent computer for remote work.
Halfway decent.
Anyway, about to drive to Reichelt and rummage through the returns shelf ...
Flipped 2 computers yesterday, still need to get rid of 2 more.

[AVGresponding]

What makes MICC cables so bad for this?

MICC looks like this:


Copper conductors in the centre, an insulator, a copper sheath (earth) and then usually an over-moulded PVC sheath. That white insulator is compressed magnesia  powder, magnesium oxide.

You cut the cable to length, strip back lots of the copper sheath and the magnesia to leave you with tails. Then you terminate it like this:



The good thing about MICC, as the tradename Pyrotenax suggests, is that it has superb fire performance. It will keep working up to some crazy temperature because the copper melts before the insulation packs up. It gets specified for fire alarms on that basis alone. Also it's intrinsically safe - with an earthed solid copper sheath it is very, very hard to get it to misbehave, get hot, catch fire or spark. So it gets used in mines and other places where electricity could become a fire hazard.

That's the good. The bad is, it must be terminated very carefully. You're supposed to form a hermetic or near hermetic seal. You have to get: the pot properly screwed onto the sheath, the insulating putty properly packed into the pot, and the seal crimped properly onto the pot. If you don't make the seal properly atmospheric moisture gets in and the magnesia insulation can become slightly conductive. We're talking small leakage currents here and it's safe because of the earthed sheath. Trouble is, get enough leakage to earth building up, parallel a few runs up and suddenly earth leakage based circuit breakers can get quite tetchy about the stuff.

Also because it's not unlike rigid coax it can have significant capacitance, if that interacts with a load it can in theory be a problem, as too can, in theory, the conductor to earth capacitance, but both are rarely experienced as issues in the real world.

Edited to add: Almost forgot. When you've cut a length off the reel to use, you're supposed to seal the bare end of the reel. Most people just wrap some PVC electricians tape over it, which doesn't cut the mustard. If it hasn't been properly sealed for storage, the next length off the reel has been pre-soggyed, and no matter how well you terminate it it's going to have leakage currents from day one. Worse still, if you've done a good job of sealing it on installation, that moisture has no way to get out and the leakage is permanent.

On top of this, what isn't indicated on the picture is the sealing putty that you pack into the sealing pot.
The sealing disc is then packed on top of that, and if any of the components are not initially properly tight, and someone decides after this to tighten them, it is possible to twist the tails together...

LMAO, was this designed by City authorities own electrical dept or outside consultants, whoever it was they are bloody muppets 

By our lot of course.

To add insult to injury, every single one of them is a former sparky, with at least some of experience with MICC, and this particular building.

We've had to wait a bit for drawings (not unusual), and the reason apparently is because the department that has the big printers won't let our department use them (they are on the same wing of the same floor in the same office building).   

[med6753]

This is very tempting. A Type 564 with 4 plug-ins and the cart for only $100 USD. The cart alone is worth the price of admission. It does look a little rough and appears to have been stored in a damp area. It's about 3 hours away. But Christmas is coming and not in the budget for now. If still available in January I just might make a Winter road trip. 

https://harrisburg.craigslist.org/ele/d/carlisle-tektronix-sampling-oscilloscope/7225466235.html

It also comes with a plug-in that I've never heard of before. A Type 3C66.

http://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/3C66 

[AVGresponding]

- shipping to Europe only

If your definition includes the UK, at least until the formal exit date, then I'll take a pair.

[BU508A]

- shipping to Europe only

If your definition includes the UK, at least until the formal exit date, then I'll take a pair.

I'm considering the UK as a part of Europe, even after the 31.12.2020   

Please send me a PM with your address I'm reserving (4) for you.

[tggzzz]

I'm considering the UK as a part of Europe, even after the 31.12.2020   

So do many people here Or, for the situation itself

[khs]

mnem
 

Here a more classic (German) motorcycle:
https://www.werner.de/kultschmiede/kultrpk.html