Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

The storm is just about done and the sun trying to peak thru. Not sure how much is out there. Definitely over a foot but I don't think the 16+ inches predicted...at least not here. So it doesn't beat the monster 18 + we had 3 years ago.

But still a PITA none the less. Later I'll have to go out and clean off/move the CR-V so they can get the entire lot plowed.

Please do not forget to put on your red bonnet. It's cold outside.   

[mansaxel]

Nice. Rather hate ersa though, including my own.

I'm probably just home-blind, but I like mine quite OK.

[mansaxel]

-hp- 410b update:

With selenium, cobwebs, warts and all, it starts, runs, gets hot in the right places, and calibrates.

Voltage source 6206b.

On to-do-list:

• Handle
• Contact cleaner on rotaries
• re-cal once it is bolted together
• Modern diode instead of selenium
• Warm, cuddly feeling of another wiggly pointer at the bench.

[Zucca]

Free42 app on my smartPwn.    

Emu48 user here, life is good.
That Swiss thing is sexy... too sexy for me. Please stop.

After trying asin(acos(atan(tan(cos(sin(6°)))))) bye bye emu48.
Reading the 42s manual now.
You addicted me to rpn now. Bastards

[Cerebus]

I put it on my tablet and handed it to my wife. An hour later, I can still hear her playing with it upstairs.

mnem

I found it last night, after SWMBO had gone to bed, so I haven't had a chance to show it to her yet. But yeah, the iPad is probably the natural home for this, so I've cued it up and she'll get handed it when she comes back from the cat nap she's just gone off for.

As an actual musician (of sorts) I'm finding it wants a 'stave' by each blob that you can jump around on, so you can get a proper tune rather than just glissandos, but I'm still loving it.

As it is, it's prompted a trimming of nails and this



to come out a wee bit earlier this year. It normally comes out around Yuletide, even if it's been languishing all year, for a raucous Yuletide singsong with friends, but that's not happening this year - so I'll just have to settle for annoying the neighbours on my own (SWMBO can't carry a tune in a bucket).

[nixiefreqq]

med has me beat.  my measuring stick says 6-8 inches.

(6,000,000 - 8,000,000 uInches for med)

edit   meant to say 6,000,000,000 - 8,000,000,000 uuInches

edit 2  actually meant to say 6,000,000,000,000 to 8,000,000,000,000 uuInches.  (damn.....thats a lot of zeros for an old geezer to type.)

[mnementh]

You lot whine more about the weather than we do and it’s our national sport.

Anal-o-scope reminds me of a company I worked for. All their internal stuff was suffixed “omatic” for comedic reasons. I did consider using analomatic for their commissions analyser but quite frankly I didn’t have the balls to at the time. I would do it now without even second guessing it

Dunno aboot med's customers,  but the crews I worked with would buy that thing because of the name. Jody, the computer diag guy in the Dodge Dealership, would call our exhaust sniffer "th' gas anal-eyezurr" right in front of the customer with a perfectly straight face. It was his heavy accent let him get away with it; somehow blending elements of Sean Connery's thick brogue and Michael Caine's Cockney wit (no mean feat in itself) and flat delivery. He claimed to be "from south of London", but I still think it was an affectation. 

mnem
OTOH... who would claim to be that which was not...?

[mnementh]

<SNIP>

Nope. I said no more dangerous than a overcharged (or shorted) Ni-Cd. But safe enough inside its billet aluminum pris0n that I'm not afraid to use it on a daily basis. Nothing with this level of energy density is safe-safe (which BTW, is ~1/3 the airline limit, and not in a flammable plastic package); and that includes modern NiCd cells which can discharge at a much higher current level than used to be the norm. 

As for the insulation... look again. The entire body of the pack is at the same potential as the body of the flashlight. There is double insulation (layers of Kapton tape on top of the plastic liner) at the live end.

I'd definitely consider it safer than say... a loaded pistol. Or computerized voting machines.

mnem
 

Yeah, right, thaat's why there are limits for shipping Lithiums but none for shipping NiCad, Nimh or SLA
And to ship (or carry) a Lithium battery it has to have been tested and approved. Unfortunatly most people don't bother which is one of the reasons there have been multiple shipping accidents with lithiums
https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/HZMSR2001.pdf

Yes; predominantly LiPo batteries in consumer equipment; NOT cylindrical cells. What's truly terrifying is that you can fly with up to three 4S/9,500mAH (one in the drone, two spares) in your carry-on luggage. 

But hey... lets talk aboot how dangerous my little flashlight is, when it literally encases already steel-armored cylindrical cells in another 10-13mm of billet aluminum armor.

mnem
 

[med6753]

It's all dug out and been to the store to get a few provisions. It took a while. 

[mnementh]

Whinge mode on:
How hard could it be?
Some battery powered LED lights (actually 14 in total) used to mood light a veranda area just outside the living room, they are chewing through 40 AA batteries every month at 5hrs/day run time.
Two current limited supplies, two series wiring harnesses, removal of the battery case, two stainless steel 'balustrade' wire supports later and I have blown 16hrs.
Whinge mode off;

I am happy with the results - so is SWMBO.
😎

PS Isn't the lm317 a great jelly bean part!

Whuf... I certainly applaud the ingenuity (and I do love LM317/LM1117-A as well), and if the main drive was to use what you have on hand, I do get it. 

But you are aware that they make CC LED power supplies for exactly this purpose, and they're dirt cheap...? Like... you could probably do this for $10-20 plug & play cheap...?

mnem

[mnementh]

@mnementh nice job on deadpool 

Thanks! 

Yeah, I'll admit it was a lot more work than I originally expected... partly due to failing eyesight, partly due to arthritic old hands cramping up, and partly due to being an adult with a much greater awareness of the passage of time. 

I'm just not the same person I used to be when I made little armies of orcs, dragonkin & kobolds for my D&D campaigns... 

mnem
*sigh*

[tonyalbus]

lots of catching up.......
lots of snow on pictures..... and yes rain here   

@zucca  ... great you made it in the end... terrible to travel right now i guess.

Look look.... think i am on the right track, with my videos.
good comments are always nice... specialy if its from one of the best....

[mnementh]

The storm is just about done and the sun trying to peak thru. Not sure how much is out there. Definitely over a foot but I don't think the 16+ inches predicted...at least not here. So it doesn't beat the monster 18 + we had 3 years ago.
But still a PITA none the less. Later I'll have to go out and clean off/move the CR-V so they can get the entire lot plowed.   

Yeah, this is like exactly what I was expecting when I spent $200 getting "extra staples" (okay, plus a few Holiday Goodies ) last night... so far, approx 2cm. However, they are predicting snow for the next couple days... so we could still get there before next week. 

Maybe this is a good day to exercise the credit card rather than the back & knees... 

mnem

[Neomys Sapiens]

A little request for help:

As I know, there are several owners of Tek 1501/1502 TDR testers around here. Could someone make a test on a good clean 50R coax line of maybe 10m or whatever you have available and then provide it to me in the form of a printout, screencopy, good photograph. Preferably with full readout in case of the 1502.

I only have a FDR device here and I need an example of a TDR measurement for a manual.
Also ok if a connector is visible, but it should not be a fooked-up cable.

[mnementh]

I put it on my tablet and handed it to my wife. An hour later, I can still hear her playing with it upstairs.

mnem

I found it last night, after SWMBO had gone to bed, so I haven't had a chance to show it to her yet. But yeah, the iPad is probably the natural home for this, so I've cued it up and she'll get handed it when she comes back from the cat nap she's just gone off for.

As an actual musician (of sorts) I'm finding it wants a 'stave' by each blob that you can jump around on, so you can get a proper tune rather than just glissandos, but I'm still loving it.

As it is, it's prompted a trimming of nails and this      to come out a wee bit earlier this year. It normally comes out around Yuletide, even if it's been languishing all year, for a raucous Yuletide singsong with friends, but that's not happening this year - so I'll just have to settle for annoying the neighbours on my own (SWMBO can't carry a tune in a bucket).

   I'll come help annoy the neighbors! I'm good at that!   

mnem
I can carry a tune in a bucket... just drop a radio in there.   

[Saskia]

I can come and play the didgeridoo ...

[Cerebus]

Do that and you'll end up in BD's cellar along with the street mime artistes and human statues. 

[Saskia]

should I take the strat instead ?

[Cerebus]

Sounds better. The idea is to annoy the neighbours, not my sense of musical decency.

[capt bullshot]

A little request for help:

As I know, there are several owners of Tek 1501/1502 TDR testers around here. Could someone make a test on a good clean 50R coax line of maybe 10m or whatever you have available and then provide it to me in the form of a printout, screencopy, good photograph. Preferably with full readout in case of the 1502.

I only have a FDR device here and I need an example of a TDR measurement for a manual.
Also ok if a connector is visible, but it should not be a fooked-up cable.

Here's a few TDR pictures of a homemade 5m RG174 cable:
- Full length at default scale
- Full length at 5x vert. zoom
- zoomed into the reflections caused by the connector (this is a better one in terms of cables I've readily available).

[Ero-Shan]

Here's one for you,  Tony:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Nordmende-Frequenzzahler-Counter-Nordmende-AC3358-AC-3358-TOP/154242785895?hash=item23e9962267:g:dAMAAOSwvWFf1iML

And if you're not interested, I might take a shot at it (I already have a Nordmende Nixie counter, but not yet a Panaplex counter!).

[tonyalbus]

Here's one for you,  Tony:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/Nordmende-Frequenzzahler-Counter-Nordmende-AC3358-AC-3358-TOP/154242785895?hash=item23e9962267:g:dAMAAOSwvWFf1iML

And if you're not interested, I might take a shot at it (I already have a Nordmende Nixie counter, but not yet a Panaplex counter!).

Thank you ...i pass this one... you go for it

[mnementh]

Do that and you'll end up in BD's cellar along with the street mime artistes and human statues. 

A mime is a terrible thing to waste.

mnem
I like mime spread on pumpernickel toast. With lots of horseradish.

[Robert763]

<SNIP>

But hey... lets talk aboot how dangerous my little flashlight is, when it literally encases already steel-armored cylindrical cells in another 10-13mm of billet aluminum armor.

mnem
 

That just turns it into a pipe bomb instead of an incendary because it's sealed. That was a major issue with the Boeing 787 Lithium battery, they didn't vent the case.
Of course you will now say it's not sealed in your usual circular argument way.
I give up 

[bd139]

Do that and you'll end up in BD's cellar along with the street mime artistes and human statues. 

And the crusty jugglers!