Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

That said, I've had a Test-Umm LANRover LANRoamer (they had to change the name somewhere around 2000-something due to Leyland or whomever coprolite douchebaggery)

That'll be Ford then. That's around the time that the rights to "Land Rover" passed to Ford.

[mnementh]

First pass on Deadpool-icorn; I got this far before I had to put it down and back away because my hands were starting to cramp up. Everything else is done; dad's iPud is programmed, iCloud is full of family vids and pics, letter written and a "dad-friendly" pictorial "Start Here With Your iPad" pamphlet made up and this is the last thing needs to be packed.

It may not be perfect, but I made it.

mnem
*toddling off to ded* 

[mnementh]

Oh fuck. I forgot to program his iPud with his WiFi credentials.



mnem
*scrabble-scrabble... unpack-unpack... fidget-fidget...*

[mnementh]

   This one's a keeper, I think.

The different design means I can push the whole objective up in the elevator cradle like this, so none of it protrudes below the metal bracket, which means no worries aboot accidentally touching it with the hot air handset.     I'll probably print up a ring spacer to make it easy, and to support some auxiliary lighting. As you can see here; with the elevator angled back just a wee bit, the reflection glare goes away and  I can get in there easily with elevation at ~80mm. Magnification at 80mm is approx the exact same as the other one was at 20-30mm. 

   Resolution to the PC doesn't seem as good as the other one at 20-30mm; not as crisp. But it is still more than good enough I think.

Overall, this 'scope has much better usability. 

Difference is this one is made to work on stuff, while the little one is just made to look at it. 

Only real negative is that mine arrived kicked to shit and damaged; the base and the elevator rack were sent loose in the bottom, and the box was all bashed in before it was packed, as no damage to the shipping carton. This caused the heavy base and elevator extrusions to bash against each other in many places; lots of dings in the edge of the frame and in the teeth of the elevator rack.

I've taken photos from the first I saw the box smashed; I'm going to contact the vendor and see if I can tap him for a few bucks refund rather than ship it back. I l know I can clean up the teeth in the rack and make it smooth again; I just shouldn't have to, nor should I have to put up with the base being all dinged to Hell...

Welp, while I was searching the intardnet to see if I could find the correct PC software for this 'scope (in hopes it might support higher resolution) I discovered the Mustool G1200 on bang-em-good(affiliate link) for only $68 plus $3-7 shipping. (free to UK... huh?)

Sure looks like the same unit as mine. Screen res is listed as 1024X600; looking at mine and how noticeable the screen-door effect is on the screen, I wouldn't be surprised if it was 1024X600 as well. I think if this vendor doesn't want to give me a partial refund for the damaged unit, I'll just send it back and get the one from bang-em-good on the way.

mnem
*knocks self unconscious with a microscope mallet*

[cyclin_al]

Oh fuck. I forgot to program his iPud with his WiFi credentials.



mnem
*scrabble-scrabble... unpack-unpack... fidget-fidget...*

There is ALWAYS one more seemingly minor detail that is actually critical ...
Once taken care of, see line above ...

~my experince

[Saskia]

and even if you have taken care of about anything that can go wrong Murphy will eff you from behind.

happened to me just yesterday.

Some highly skilled staff migrated from Exchange old-version to a newer version but did not take over the old policies including those for automated deletion (and the exceptions (!)).

Now guess what happened. Not allowed to discuss more details.

What an effing shitshow.

[med6753]

For some reason I find myself wide awake and on first cup of coffee at 02:45 hours. 

Anyway, let the panic begin. Winter storm "watch" now posted for Wednesday afternoon until Thursday morning. As predictions become more solid that "watch" will be changed to a "warning". The masses will be running around like chicken with no head getting groceries and any other outside chores done.

Now the measurements are in degrees F, MPH, inches/Hg, etc, etc. If that upsets your delicate constitution then I suggest skip opening the attachment and go sit in a chair with your head between your knees until the blood recovers back into your head. 

[bd139]

So how many foot-pounds of eunuch’s blood is it today? 

[beanflying]

My first job way back when used to encounter rods, chains and inch acres of water. My next real job was industrial Pumps and Control systems for a company importing gear mainly from the USA - Merican abomonational units are easy albiet it really really stupid in a modern world

[med6753]

It's good to see that I've managed to evoke a thinly veiled "piss off" from both sides of the planet simultaneously. My job is done. Have a good day.   

[VK5RC]

@med, I had a little smile, just under the temperature in Fahrenheit, they kindly provided it in Celsius as well 😉

[vk6zgo]

Not in Oz, it wasn't, both "B+boost" in tube designs & overwinds on solid state EHT trans were more common than any other way of doing things.

I should have been more specific. I was referring to vintage vacuum tube designs. Yes, some did have an extra B+ Boosted supply originating from the flyback. If I recall that became somewhat necessary when TV's started going cheap by employing series string and elimination of the power transformer.   

Now when TV's started going solid state all bets were off. All sorts of creative designs were employed.

North American and 220/240V countries differed greatly in their approch to valve / tube TV design. In NA they typically had a mains trandformer supplying different voltages. In the UK at least thwy were transformerless designs with a "hot" chassis connected to mains, Filaments in trings with dropper resistors in series and multiple voltages generated from the flyback transformer. They were a significant hazrd to work on 

Most of the few US TVs I ran across were transformerless, but the overwhelming majority of Australian ones used power transformers, and B+boost supplies.

There were a number of reasons for transformer type supplies.
(1) Transformers were already made in large numbers for radios & other equipment.

(2) Valves (tubes) were most commonly made in this country with 6 v or 12 v heaters, the additional cost of producing wholly new types locally for "series string" heater supplies was not justified, & imported ones were expensive.

(3) Series string heaters are not as simple for 240v supplies as they are for 120 v---UK sets had various resistive methods of dropping voltages to use a reasonable number of heater voltage types.

(4)TV was introduced later than other countries, so, initially, most of the sets were used in major cities which already used 240/250v ac Mains supply.
As TV services were rolled out, communities using DC supplies were often also in the throes of conversion to ac Mains, so there was only a small requirement for AC/DC TV sets.

DC to AC converters were available, which were electromechanical devices using a very large 50 Hz "vibrator" (in effect, a larger version of the power supplies used in car radios).
These allowed the use of a standard ac TV on DC Mains.

Some were made for 240v/240v use, but most were either for 110v/240, or, in very large numbers, for use with 32v DC farm lighting plants.

[mansaxel]

Is that a selenium rectifier on the left? If so, must go. 

Edit....Yep....get rid of it. 100 ohm, 2 watt resistor in series with the sillycon diode.

Is 100Ω, 2W a generic or specific value?

This is not the plate voltage (which is dealt with by a hollow-state rectumfryer) but instead a low-voltage circuit that goes off the heater supply to supply drive to Ohms measurement. Relevant circuit below.

[med6753]

Is that a selenium rectifier on the left? If so, must go. 

Edit....Yep....get rid of it. 100 ohm, 2 watt resistor in series with the sillycon diode.

Is 100Ω, 2W a generic or specific value?

This is not the plate voltage (which is dealt with by a hollow-state rectumfryer) but instead a low-voltage circuit that goes off the heater supply to supply drive to Ohms measurement. Relevant circuit below.

That's generic for a typical B+ supply. Selenium rectifiers drop 5 or more volts, and even more as the age, as opposed to a silicon which drops .6 volts. The circuit you have there is much different.

You may have enough adjustment to maintain the -4.2 volts. But if not you may have to increase the 33 ohm resistor a bit.

[Zucca]

mnem
 

Best enjoyed by avoidance...

Thanks to CANADA TEA Section to support the Italian one....appreciate it.
I settle down for this chinesium device, but I did not order the package with the woodooo SCAN scary probe cable because I do believe in God but not in ghosts.

will keep you posted.

[GreyWoolfe]

I reactivated this project.

Now I more want than need a ethernet cable check device. It should be a high quality chinesum one... 
Jokes aside I do not want to go over 150€ for a Fluke one...

PS: I am sure you guys will convince me to bank out 500€ for a nice pro device... bastards... 

Take a look at this link:
https://www.amazon.com/ELEGIANT-Multifunction-Collation-Telephone-Continuity/dp/B01HCQSHNG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=37X4S497DJU1U&dchild=1&keywords=cable+tester+and+toner+kit&qid=1608038961&sprefix=cable+tester+and+toner%2Caps%2C194&sr=8-1

I bought this one for myself.  It actually works better than I expected for the price.  I got it when I was wiring my new home office space when I couldn't find my Linkmaster tester.  The toner works very well also.  Since I found my Linkmaster, I keep this in my company van in case I need to trace an unmarked port.  Very happy overall and it runs on 9V batteries.

[Cerebus]

Is that a selenium rectifier on the left? If so, must go. 

Edit....Yep....get rid of it. 100 ohm, 2 watt resistor in series with the sillycon diode.

Is 100Ω, 2W a generic or specific value?

This is not the plate voltage (which is dealt with by a hollow-state rectumfryer) but instead a low-voltage circuit that goes off the heater supply to supply drive to Ohms measurement. Relevant circuit below.

That's generic for a typical B+ supply. Selenium rectifiers drop 5 or more volts, and even more as the age, as opposed to a silicon which drops .6 volts. The circuit you have there is much different.

You may have enough adjustment to maintain the -4.2 volts. But if not you may have to increase the 33 ohm resistor a bit.

I hadn't realised that selenium rectifiers drop that much. Given that, I'd think that it was probably better to cook up an active solution rather than simply using a resistor, I'd think you want something closer to a constant voltage drop. So what about replacing the resistor with a V_be multiplier, or an amplified zener, or even just a whacking great power zener?

[med6753]

Is that a selenium rectifier on the left? If so, must go. 

Edit....Yep....get rid of it. 100 ohm, 2 watt resistor in series with the sillycon diode.

Is 100Ω, 2W a generic or specific value?

This is not the plate voltage (which is dealt with by a hollow-state rectumfryer) but instead a low-voltage circuit that goes off the heater supply to supply drive to Ohms measurement. Relevant circuit below.

That's generic for a typical B+ supply. Selenium rectifiers drop 5 or more volts, and even more as the age, as opposed to a silicon which drops .6 volts. The circuit you have there is much different.

You may have enough adjustment to maintain the -4.2 volts. But if not you may have to increase the 33 ohm resistor a bit.

I hadn't realised that selenium rectifiers drop that much. Given that, I'd think that it was probably better to cook up an active solution rather than simply using a resistor, I'd think you want something closer to a constant voltage drop. So what about replacing the resistor with a V_be multiplier, or an amplified zener, or even just a whacking great power zener?

http://www.w3hwj.com/index_files/RBSelenium2.pdf

[vk6zgo]

Is that a selenium rectifier on the left? If so, must go. 

Edit....Yep....get rid of it. 100 ohm, 2 watt resistor in series with the sillycon diode.

Is 100Ω, 2W a generic or specific value?

This is not the plate voltage (which is dealt with by a hollow-state rectumfryer) but instead a low-voltage circuit that goes off the heater supply to supply drive to Ohms measurement. Relevant circuit below.

That's generic for a typical B+ supply. Selenium rectifiers drop 5 or more volts, and even more as the age, as opposed to a silicon which drops .6 volts. The circuit you have there is much different.

You may have enough adjustment to maintain the -4.2 volts. But if not you may have to increase the 33 ohm resistor a bit.

I think, looking closer, you will find that is -1.2 volts.

[med6753]

Is that a selenium rectifier on the left? If so, must go. 

Edit....Yep....get rid of it. 100 ohm, 2 watt resistor in series with the sillycon diode.

Is 100Ω, 2W a generic or specific value?

This is not the plate voltage (which is dealt with by a hollow-state rectumfryer) but instead a low-voltage circuit that goes off the heater supply to supply drive to Ohms measurement. Relevant circuit below.

That's generic for a typical B+ supply. Selenium rectifiers drop 5 or more volts, and even more as the age, as opposed to a silicon which drops .6 volts. The circuit you have there is much different.

You may have enough adjustment to maintain the -4.2 volts. But if not you may have to increase the 33 ohm resistor a bit.

I think, looking closer, you will find that is -1.2 volts.

Ouch, you're right. I was still on coffee number 1. 

[AVGresponding]

Windows 10, don't you just love it...

Bring back XP, I say.

Got a usb HDD cradle (used ofc) and after jury rigging a power supply and shoving an old HDD in, nothing. Well, not nothing, I can hear it spinning up and down when I connected the usb lead, but nothing on My PC to show it's there.
Had to go to disk management and allocate the drive. Now it's fine, but why does it have to be so bloody obscure? Just autodetect I plugged something in ffs   


In TE news I got a nice little Philips DMM for just under £30 shipped, then missed a TTi awg and a HP MegaZoom, only to end up the biggest sucker winning bidder on a Tek 222.


Added to that, sirbigclive has got me lusting after a BV9900 Pro.

[mnementh]

mnem
 

Best enjoyed by avoidance...

Thanks to CANADA TEA Section to support the Italian one....appreciate it.
I settle down for this chinesium device, but I did not order the package with the woodooo SCAN scary probe cable because I do believe in God but not in ghosts.

will keep you posted.

For that price, a lot of tester in a little package. Even if you have to replace the cheap RJ-45s with decent name-brand ones, still a bargain.

The tone-tracer isn't voodoo; it's just a high-gain op-amp connected to a speaker, and you plug the tester in the other end to generate an audio-frequency tone on the wire. With a good tracer, this tone can literally be picked up from a foot or two away; a lifesaver when trying to find a specific unmarked or improperly marked drop in a crowded IDF/MDF.

Newer versions use a digital signal which can safely be transmitted over a live drop; the "voodoo" toner has a chip programmed with digital pattern filters to identify that specific digital tone pattern with very high spurious signal rejection, so very low SNR traces can still be found, even on a live drop.

The Chinglish advert doesn't do them or you any favors in terms of explaining how the damned thing is actually supposed to work, unfortunately.

Even if you're just planning to retrofit a single domestic residence, that tracer can be worth its weight in gold. I've spent hours locating a single drop that didn't terminate where site documentation said it should. 

Cheers,

mnem
 ²

[mnementh]

Is that a selenium rectifier on the left? If so, must go. 

Edit....Yep....get rid of it. 100 ohm, 2 watt resistor in series with the sillycon diode.

Is 100Ω, 2W a generic or specific value?

This is not the plate voltage (which is dealt with by a hollow-state rectumfryer) but instead a low-voltage circuit that goes off the heater supply to supply drive to Ohms measurement. Relevant circuit below.

That's generic for a typical B+ supply. Selenium rectifiers drop 5 or more volts, and even more as the age, as opposed to a silicon which drops .6 volts. The circuit you have there is much different.

You may have enough adjustment to maintain the -4.2 volts. But if not you may have to increase the 33 ohm resistor a bit.

I hadn't realised that selenium rectifiers drop that much. Given that, I'd think that it was probably better to cook up an active solution rather than simply using a resistor, I'd think you want something closer to a constant voltage drop. So what about replacing the resistor with a V_be multiplier, or an amplified zener, or even just a whacking great power zener?

Jeez... if you're going to go that far off the purist-ideology trail, seems to me might as well plop a LM1117-A with a couple 0603 SMD resistors across the pins in there; just hide it all under the carcass of that Se rectifier.

mnem
 

[Robert763]

Windows 10, don't you just love it...

Bring back XP, I say.

Got a usb HDD cradle (used ofc) and after jury rigging a power supply and shoving an old HDD in, nothing. Well, not nothing, I can hear it spinning up and down when I connected the usb lead, but nothing on My PC to show it's there.
Had to go to disk management and allocate the drive. Now it's fine, but why does it have to be so bloody obscure? Just autodetect I plugged something in ffs   


In TE news I got a nice little Philips DMM for just under £30 shipped, then missed a TTi awg and a HP MegaZoom, only to end up the biggest sucker winning bidder on a Tek 222.


Added to that, sirbigclive has got me lusting after a BV9900 Pro.

You do know that the battery in that 222 is shot and is a completely unobtanium weird shape SLA? 
It's 6V IIRC. Had one years ago and replaced the SLA with Nicads and a constant current charger circuit  and Diode bypass to deal with the constant voltage charger.

[mnementh]

Windows 10, don't you just love it...   Bring back XP, I say.   Got a usb HDD cradle (used ofc) and after jury rigging a power supply and shoving an old HDD in, nothing. Well, not nothing, I can hear it spinning up and down when I connected the usb lead, but nothing on My PC to show it's there.

Had to go to disk management and allocate the drive. Now it's fine, but why does it have to be so bloody obscure? Just autodetect I plugged something in ffs   

In TE news I got a nice little Philips DMM for just under £30 shipped, then missed a TTi awg and a HP MegaZoom, only to end up the biggest sucker winning bidder on a Tek 222.

Added to that, sirbigclive has got me lusting after a BV9900 Pro.   

Windows XP wouldn't detect an unformatted/no MBR (unallocated) HDD either, no matter what teh interface. 

Sorry... a thermal camera built into a phone...? that thing is just a $470 doorstop. SmartPwns simply aren't made to anything like a real tool quality; design life is typically 1.5 years. Now add Chinesium firmware spyware with internet connectivity to the mix... I'd really rather drill screws through my feet than spend that kind of money on that thing.



As for the Tek 222... that, I think, will still bring you joy long after that thermal stoopit-phone is rotting in a landfill.

It is by far the cutest of the Tek Digi-log Smart Scopes. 

mnem
Priorities, man!!!