Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

There was actually a movie made in World War II called the 49th Parallel about a German U Boat crew getting stranded in Hudson's Bay.  I saw it on TV when I was a kid when I was stuck home from school for a couple of weeks seriously sick.  The U Boat crew abandons their sub and tries to escape to the United States ...

Classic bit of Powell and Pressburger WWII propaganda. When the film was being made (released in 1941) Canada was a British ally, and the US were still sitting on the fence and officially neutral, hence the U-Boat crew planning to escape to the US was included as a blatant shaming move on the US.

But if it's the same movie I recall seeing as a kid they did get to the U.S. side but the customs agent sent them back because their paperwork was out of order. And you know how exact the Germans are with their paperwork.  "Your papers please?" 

It's years since I've seen it, but if that's how it plays out then it was quite good propaganda. You wouldn't want to insult the average working stiff, so having the plucky customs officer come good is a way to say "We know you're OK folks, but it's a damned shame that your government is leaving your country as a safe haven for the perfidious Hun". As it was, it became moot, as by the time it was released (Nov '41) the Yanks were "overpaid, over-sexed, and over here".

[McBryce]

That feeling when you receive a box and it is noisy when you shake it...
Altough this local seller made a mistake.. after me sending the pictures he paid me back.. 

Still a pitty....for such a device

It's Philips. It'd have fallen to bits if it was packaged properly anyway!

It likes it's local climate, so they stay well conserved here... we have more rain then UV and most of us keep them dry.

bd is in the UK tony. He'll grasp the concept of rain, but you may need to explain the concept of natural UV to him

McBryce.

[mansaxel]

Those popsicles that call themselves Montanans and Minnesotans are "Bloody Southerners".

And the people in Longyearbyen all look down on us. I've been there. It's a strange feeling to know that, well, yes, you are as north as can be, at least if you want to stroll to the pub in the afternoon, and there still are some 12 degrees to go until you see Santa oiling the axle.

[med6753]

There was actually a movie made in World War II called the 49th Parallel about a German U Boat crew getting stranded in Hudson's Bay.  I saw it on TV when I was a kid when I was stuck home from school for a couple of weeks seriously sick.  The U Boat crew abandons their sub and tries to escape to the United States ...

Classic bit of Powell and Pressburger WWII propaganda. When the film was being made (released in 1941) Canada was a British ally, and the US were still sitting on the fence and officially neutral, hence the U-Boat crew planning to escape to the US was included as a blatant shaming move on the US.

But if it's the same movie I recall seeing as a kid they did get to the U.S. side but the customs agent sent them back because their paperwork was out of order. And you know how exact the Germans are with their paperwork.  "Your papers please?" 

It's years since I've seen it, but if that's how it plays out then it was quite good propaganda. You wouldn't want to insult the average working stiff, so having the plucky customs officer come good is a way to say "We know you're OK folks, but it's a damned shame that your government is leaving your country as a safe haven for the perfidious Hun". As it was, it became moot, as by the time it was released (Nov '41) the Yanks were "overpaid, over-sexed, and over here".

Overpaid? Yes. Oversexed? Yes. Over there? Not quite in 1941. Wasn't until '42/'43 that we started showing up in numbers. We wanted to make sure all you blokes were overseas so we could steal your women. 

[Cerebus]

There was actually a movie made in World War II called the 49th Parallel about a German U Boat crew getting stranded in Hudson's Bay.  I saw it on TV when I was a kid when I was stuck home from school for a couple of weeks seriously sick.  The U Boat crew abandons their sub and tries to escape to the United States ...

Classic bit of Powell and Pressburger WWII propaganda. When the film was being made (released in 1941) Canada was a British ally, and the US were still sitting on the fence and officially neutral, hence the U-Boat crew planning to escape to the US was included as a blatant shaming move on the US.

But if it's the same movie I recall seeing as a kid they did get to the U.S. side but the customs agent sent them back because their paperwork was out of order. And you know how exact the Germans are with their paperwork.  "Your papers please?" 

It's years since I've seen it, but if that's how it plays out then it was quite good propaganda. You wouldn't want to insult the average working stiff, so having the plucky customs officer come good is a way to say "We know you're OK folks, but it's a damned shame that your government is leaving your country as a safe haven for the perfidious Hun". As it was, it became moot, as by the time it was released (Nov '41) the Yanks were "overpaid, over-sexed, and over here".

Overpaid? Yes. Oversexed? Yes. Over there? Not quite in 1941. Wasn't until '42/'43 that we started showing up in numbers. We wanted to make sure all you blokes were overseas so we could steal your women. 

Yeah, well, let's face it, it was the only way your lot could compete with the chiseled good looks of the average Cumbrian.

[Specmaster]

That feeling when you receive a box and it is noisy when you shake it...
Altough this local seller made a mistake.. after me sending the pictures he paid me back.. 

Still a pitty....for such a device

That's a real shame, it's a nice looking meter (I don't share bd's prejudices     ).

Is it still operational, or did the LCD expire as a result?

Still need to fire it up...
the front popped out.. so a flatcable is loose... i will do this carefully... but i think it will work..

bd could be right for dmm's in the US... it is ugly braun... if it has to much UV for years and years.. it is not the best color to have for a device... plastic will become hard and will break.
But here In most parts of the nordics-europe..(cheating and including DL/NL). it is no problem and they are well conserved.
Thats why we could have a defferent view on that.. no offence taken....... and can never argu about tast..... (and i also think its ugly) 

The Philips gray/blue stipe was nicer.

[edit] including your country too... sorry was confused about your flag.. (what i ment is.. here with less UV it conserves better)

Yes those Philips meters are always a bit suspect for the plastics do indeed tend to go very brittle after a few years. You may be able to glue the bits back together, it will no doubt show, but if it the meter works, why not have a go. The meters themselves are pretty good, I've had a couple over the years and apart from the plastics, the main problem is the screen can be difficult to read without good lighting as it lacks a backlight.

[mansaxel]

"May not post to Sweden"

Maybe someone in UK can resend it to you? Would be about GBP15,- for Hermes UK to Sweden.

Yes, That would be possible, but I just bought that -hp- 410B, so with all the presents to buy, I'm about done shopping TE this year. Am actually thinking of trying to get work to pay for a slightly higher end counter, a Fluke/Philips 6669 or so. I've got a few test cases where I want to compare 10MHz clocks, and my current counter arsenal isn't really up to comparing inputs. Of course I can do a twist, in this specific case; since the interesting frequency is nominally 10MHz I can take one of the sources as reference input and the other one normally. The resulting frequency will tell if the oscillators diverge.  As a more entertaining display, I'll dig out an oscilloscope (there's a 465 with DMM shelved in the basement) from stores and set it up in X/Y mode.

[mansaxel]

And you know how exact the Germans are with their paperwork.  "Your papers please?" 

The Italians are worse. They make the French look flexible and efficient. And France is the country where you can't order a phone line without putting  your current  phone number on the order form..

[med6753]

.....snip...  As a more entertaining display, I'll dig out an oscilloscope (there's a 465 with DMM shelved in the basement) from stores and set it up in X/Y mode.

Hopefully not in a damp basement. 

Regardless, if it's been sitting for a while be prepared for magic smoke as one or two tants commit suicide.

[mansaxel]

.....snip...  As a more entertaining display, I'll dig out an oscilloscope (there's a 465 with DMM shelved in the basement) from stores and set it up in X/Y mode.

Hopefully not in a damp basement. 

Regardless, if it's been sitting for a while be prepared for magic smoke as one or two tants commit suicide.

Noted. Room is actually quite OK. There is an impressive assortment of tants in the same room, and a soldering iron, so there are possibilities.

[mnementh]

                     "TAAAAAAAAAANTS!!!"

mnem
 

[tggzzz]

Hmm now I'm curious to know what aircraft those are out of. A small military jet of some sort clearly, Harrier, Hawk, something like that?

The 5-45kt is too slow for a glider, even a T21 or an SG38 can go faster than that  (but it will scare the bejasus out of the woodworm).

[tggzzz]

[edit] including your country too... sorry was confused about your flag.. (what i ment is.. here with less UV it conserves better)

Here in the North of England we get so little UV we have to take vitamin D supplements   

Any time you want some rain though, we have plenty of that, and to spare!   

There's a tendency for the rest of the world to forget quite how 'north' the North of England is simply becuase we don't have snow up to our nipples to complain about for 6 months of the year.

Sheffield is north of Groningen.
Middlesborough is north of Keil.

Heck, even London is north of Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City and all of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.

Lands End, the southernmost point in the UK mainland, is north of the whole of the contiguous USA. Those popsicles that call themselves Montanans and Minnesotans are "Bloody Southerners".

All because of the warmth of the Atlantic Gulf Stream. Heard stories about palm trees on the West coast of Scotland and it's true because I saw one. 

That is most clearly visible in the 0C isotherm for January, e.g.

[AVGresponding]

Hmm now I'm curious to know what aircraft those are out of. A small military jet of some sort clearly, Harrier, Hawk, something like that?

The 5-45kt is too slow for a glider, even a T21 or an SG38 can go faster than that  (but it will scare the bejasus out of the woodworm).

Hahaha yes, but I think that's a windspeed indicator, not airspeed...

[shakalnokturn]

In the damaged goods series:

I bought this during the summer it was sold as not working but was in good condition before shipping.

The seller was convinced he had packed it adequately... A decent cardboard box and big sealed-air pouches (only), once the corners had punctured enough of them the scope was flapping around in the box.
I was somewhat disappointed.

The positive side is that while taking it appart I found what caused it to be sold as not working: A loose pogo-pin found its way into the scope.

It's been taken appart for sure, I still haven't found the courage to turn it on though.

[BU508A]

Today arrival: 10 LT1031CCH date code 0038

Prey:


If someone is interested in the corresponding part from National Semiconductors,
here is an interesting offer for some LH0070-1H (4.40 EUR / piece - NAWTS):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/264952262865

[BU508A]

@Zucca, PA0PBZ and the others:   my pleasure!   

Those naughty little thingies sneaked in somehow. I guess, they are kind of being up and running and that's perhaps the reason for R&S to mark them with a red dot.      Glad, that you've enjoyed it.

"being up & running"...?

I know it's just a lost in translation thing... but now I need to know more. 

mnem
 

Well, they have eight legs and a round, hard carapace...

My Christmas care package from BU508A arrived today, thanks!

I can reveal that mine also contained stowaways, nimble little critters, born in the late 1980s.

Thanks for the feedback, glad, that everything is okay.
Someone named them as "Bob-Widlar-Memorial-OpAmps".    

They are uA709AHM, the red dot comes from Rohde & Schwarz, they have selected them for some (to me) unknown paramters.


I have 200+ pieces of them, more than enough for a lifetime.
If you are interested in some of them, send me a PM. :-)

[Ice-Tea]

Think the universe is telling me to call it a day 

[AVGresponding]

Thanks for the feedback, glad, that everything is okay.
Someone named them as "Bob-Widlar-Memorial-OpAmps".    

They are uA709AHM, the red dot comes from Rohde & Schwarz, they have selected them for some (to me) unknown paramters.


I have 200+ pieces of them, more than enough for a lifetime.
If you are interested in some of them, send me a PM. :-)

Presumably because they either are matched to a specific characteristic, or because they are outside of the requirements... do you know if ones used in their TE are dotted or not?


I spent a fair part of the day today warming various meters up, in order to measure those resistors, and I found several things out.

1. Annoyingly, the 1k one is closer to 1k than the 1k 0.005% one I bought from Mouser... probably. Bearing in mind the confidence levels of the readings on meters I was using (btw, as mnem would say, "Fluke sez BAM!"), I think my 0.005% one might only just be inside its tolerance, with the 0.01% looking like it's within 0.002%. The 100R 0.01% appears to be within around 0.004%. This is checking them with the F8840A, K2000, and S7075. The Iso-Tech LCR819 said the 100R was 100.01 ohms, so I told it to shut up. I hope I can get the 7075 calibrated at some point, it's stupidly accurate when in cal.

2. Even more annoyingly it looks like the Keithley 2000 is reading low on ohms. It tried to say the 1k 0.01% was off by 0.02% low! I'm calling bs, as I said, Fluke sez BAM and it's got a more recent cal, and I looked at the cal data, and it was within 50ppm on that range.
The Keithley is showing a small negative resistance with the leads open, and doesn't null properly, so further investigations are warranted, when I can be arsed; it's not exactly critical.

[tautech]

Fuck. I just noticed a scratch... a real, permanent, not-gonna-clean-it-away scratch aboot 20mm long... in my 32"/144Hz gaming monitor. Y'all just hadda jinx me, dinncha...?

mnem

Dwagons should keep their claws fully sheathed until they're actually required ! 

[AVGresponding]

Think the universe is telling me to call it a day 

At least it's a nice binary number, 2¹² which thinking about it, might be a clue as to the problem...

[factory]

All today's delivery victim pictures have reminded me about those Chinese number tubes that got sent in a grey bag (the kind of thing clothes are sent in) with no protection, finally time to do an evaluation of the tube with bent pins & autopsy of the smashed tube.

Well the surviving tube is useless for what I was hoping to use them for if they had been packed properly, a kind of force fit in the counter, plus the pin spacing is different. 



An autopsy on the smashed tube to find out if they used the same piece for the 2 & 5 like some Russian number tubes, well turns out they don't.



I won't be ordering any more even if they had been suitable for my TE, due to the fact they can't be arsed to pack them properly & are wasting a finite resource of NOS parts.

David

[BU508A]

Presumably because they either are matched to a specific characteristic, or because they are outside of the requirements... do you know if ones used in their TE are dotted or not?

Honestly, I don't know. 
If my memory serves me right, I think I have seen marked IC's in Rohde & Schwarz devices,
but I cannot remeber in which ones. Probably some older lab power supplies.

[Robert763]

Hmm now I'm curious to know what aircraft those are out of. A small military jet of some sort clearly, Harrier, Hawk, something like that?

The 5-45kt is too slow for a glider, even a T21 or an SG38 can go faster than that  (but it will scare the bejasus out of the woodworm).

Hahaha yes, but I think that's a windspeed indicator, not airspeed...

Well I totally misread that dial as going up to 450 not 45.
 It's an aircraft case but 5-45kt is far too low.It might be from a leak-rate tester for pitiot static systems, they were sometimes calibrated in knots as it gave an idea of what error a pitot leak would give. There appears to be a window in the scale, maybe a multiplier comes up but it seems unlikely. Any chance of a photo of the ports / connections on the back and any part number or markings?

[vk6zgo]

[edit] including your country too... sorry was confused about your flag.. (what i ment is.. here with less UV it conserves better)

Here in the North of England we get so little UV we have to take vitamin D supplements   

Any time you want some rain though, we have plenty of that, and to spare!   

There's a tendency for the rest of the world to forget quite how 'north' the North of England is simply becuase we don't have snow up to our nipples to complain about for 6 months of the year.

Sheffield is north of Groningen.
Middlesborough is north of Keil.

Heck, even London is north of Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City and all of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.

Lands End, the southernmost point in the UK mainland, is north of the whole of the contiguous USA. Those popsicles that call themselves Montanans and Minnesotans are "Bloody Southerners".

It's a bit like the way people from New South Wales refer to Victoria, South Australia & Western Australia as "the Southern States", even though SA extends further North than NSW does, & WA occupies the whole Western third of the continent.
Victoria is the only one of the three where it is correct.

Or the way Europe is supposedly a continent, when all that separates it from Asia are the Urals, which are sandhills compared to the Himalayas, but they refer to  the part of the world where India, Pakistan, & Bangla Desh are as the "sub" continent.

People "reject your reality & substitute their own".