Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[PA0PBZ]

Video unavailable here. Got a different link?

Same for me, but if I search for nPGY2T9r1Ok on the tube I get 'Granddad and IPad', that sounds almost right.

[med6753]

Are your parents "baby boomers" like me? (Post WW2 until late 1950's or so). Most of us are still pretty aware and on top of things but there is a certain sub group of us that are dumber than a box of rocks. 

Absolutely.  The rampant sense of entitlement and the willingness combined with the economic means to throw away perfectly good cars, expensive electronics that have barely been used, the works is a pretty good clue that we're dealing with total heads in the clouds baby boomers here.  To their minds, it's still 1968, good jobs are plentiful, housing's cheap, energy's cheap, cars are cheap, everything's cheap and there's unlimited prosperity out there.  So clearly there's something wrong with everyone who's still in the workforce earning stagnant since 1980 wages and complaining that they can't afford a $1-million-plus teardown in suburban Toronto.

To be fair there are people who are dumber than a box of rocks in every generation but the out of touch and entitlement I've seen with a good cross section of baby boomers starting within immediate family is jaw dropping.  I've given it a lot of thought and the only conclusion that I've been able to come to is there's a lot of them out there that don't understand that the decades of post war prosperity are over and a lot of people have been born into a world where the music's stopped and all the chairs have already been taken.

Hmmm... Okay, then how do you see the same propensity in yuppies, Gen Xers and millenials...?

Baby boomers were by far the least "head in the clouds" of the recent generations, IMO. My dad may be daft in terms of tech (even tho he was a programmer for the Air Force back in the day); but in terms of knowing where his place in the world is and what goes into all the stuff we need to survive, he's got a pretty good head on his shoulders.

I think maybe you have the generations mixed up; it was my generation (post-Summer of Love) of clueless self-important fuckwidgets that blew up the US economy and turned it into a multinational Ponzi scheme; his was the ones that were trying to stop them.

mnem
*not living in the alternate reality bubble*

Mnem's right, but that sense if entitlement did start with the boomers. Even though I grew up in the typical white middle-class environment with never a want for pretty much anything I never had a sense of entitlement. I worked for and earned what I gained and in some cases lost. From the time I was 19 in 1973 until 2 years ago. And I was a good boy and paid into the system. So yes....now is my time and yes, I am entitled to that SSI I contributed to all those years. And I'm gonna make sure I get every penny they owe me.   

[nfmax]

Adding the speaker system is where things get interesting since those are not an ideal resistive load by any means and things like Quad ESL 57s are extremely capacitive and can really torture some amplifier designs.

PJW told me that whgen they were developing the ESL63, QUAD had considered building in a (current dumping) power amplifier, but decided the market wasn't ready for it!

[med6753]

Here is something that I don't recall ever seeing before on any board and shows the attention to detail that TTi out put into their products. There seems to be a ground ring around the sensitive terminals on the board, and it seems to work OK because the readings are rock solid. Now I have to rearrange my stacks again,

The Sansui amp had a similar scheme with a "special" plated ground bus all meeting at a single point. Really shows attention to detail. 

[mnementh]

Are your parents "baby boomers" like me? (Post WW2 until late 1950's or so). Most of us are still pretty aware and on top of things but there is a certain sub group of us that are dumber than a box of rocks. 

Absolutely.  The rampant sense of entitlement and the willingness combined with the economic means to throw away perfectly good cars, expensive electronics that have barely been used, the works is a pretty good clue that we're dealing with total heads in the clouds baby boomers here.  To their minds, it's still 1968, good jobs are plentiful, housing's cheap, energy's cheap, cars are cheap, everything's cheap and there's unlimited prosperity out there.  So clearly there's something wrong with everyone who's still in the workforce earning stagnant since 1980 wages and complaining that they can't afford a $1-million-plus teardown in suburban Toronto.

To be fair there are people who are dumber than a box of rocks in every generation but the out of touch and entitlement I've seen with a good cross section of baby boomers starting within immediate family is jaw dropping.  I've given it a lot of thought and the only conclusion that I've been able to come to is there's a lot of them out there that don't understand that the decades of post war prosperity are over and a lot of people have been born into a world where the music's stopped and all the chairs have already been taken.

Hmmm... Okay, then how do you see the same propensity in yuppies, Gen Xers and millenials...?

Baby boomers were by far the least "head in the clouds" of the recent generations, IMO. My dad may be daft in terms of tech (even tho he was a programmer for the Air Force back in the day); but in terms of knowing where his place in the world is and what goes into all the stuff we need to survive, he's got a pretty good head on his shoulders.

I think maybe you have the generations mixed up; it was my generation (post-Summer of Love) of clueless self-important fuckwidgets that blew up the US economy and turned it into a multinational Ponzi scheme; his was the ones that were trying to stop them.

mnem
*not living in the alternate reality bubble*

Mnem's right, but that sense if entitlement did start with the boomers. Even though I grew up in the typical white middle-class environment with never a want for pretty much anything I never had a sense of entitlement. I worked for and earned what I gained and in some cases lost. From the time I was 19 in 1973 until 2 years ago. And I was a good boy and paid into the system. So yes....now is my time and yes, I am entitled to that SSI I contributed to all those years. And I'm gonna make sure I get every penny they owe me. 

Sadly, I spent 20 of my prime earning years working in Tejas... the one state in the union that found a way to completely circumvent SSI.  My SSI earnings are relatively small, and their state-sponsored "substitute" retirement product is another fucking Ponzi scheme.

I'll get a dribble from SSI for the years spent working in other states... thank Ifni for the years in my first few corporate gigs... but not where I was "gainfully employed" for the longest consecutive period.

mnem
*punt*

[mnementh]

Video unavailable here. Got a different link?

Same for me, but if I search for nPGY2T9r1Ok on the tube I get 'Granddad and IPad', that sounds almost right.

Grandpa's iPad

Here's the punchline.

No, dad isn't that bad... he's had and used laptops I've prepared for him for decades. Also a Kindle HD for a few years. The iPad was more to help him with ZOOM (his VA meetings) and eMail are much more user-friendly on the iPad, and primarily for the "remote-manageable Photo Frame" functionality.

mnem
 

[BU508A]

Are your parents "baby boomers" like me? (Post WW2 until late 1950's or so). Most of us are still pretty aware and on top of things but there is a certain sub group of us that are dumber than a box of rocks.   

*raises hand* My dad.

He's been putting off "setting up" the iPad I sent him for Christmas until his friend Margaret can help him.

It's a iPad. And I configured the WiFi on it based on a pic of the label from his MODEM before I sent it out.

mnem
Hey, at least I got him using rechargeables on his AM/FM WalkMan...

English subtitles are available. 

Video unavailable here. Got a different link?

Try this one. Pity, subtitles aren't available for this one. But I think it should be understandable.

[mnementh]

Funny part is... I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it still works. 

mnem
 

[BU508A]

Not sure if it will survive the dishwasher

[med6753]

  Yep, that doesn't surprise me.

And my parents....the "Greatest Generation" after washing it in the dishwasher would hoard it away in a closet forever rather than throw it away or recycle it. 

[mnementh]

I wouldn't be surprised if it did still work, even after the dishwasher. Apple seals those little fuckers up tight, like a frog's asshole.

mnem

[mnementh]

Mnem's right, but that sense if entitlement did start with the boomers. Even though I grew up in the typical white middle-class environment with never a want for pretty much anything I never had a sense of entitlement. I worked for and earned what I gained and in some cases lost. From the time I was 19 in 1973 until 2 years ago. And I was a good boy and paid into the system. So yes....now is my time and yes, I am entitled to that SSI I contributed to all those years. And I'm gonna make sure I get every penny they owe me. 

Now that I think of it... why wouldn't your generation have that sense of entitlement...? You grew up in America that was: Your parents (my grandparents) went off to war, saved the world, then came back home and rebuilt the nation in their own image; all for the future of their children. In other words, for you. We can argue for days over how fictional or real that America that was really was in hindsight; but at the time, it was real for them and for your generation. Everything they did and saw on a day-to-day basis reacted as if it were real, no matter what evil undercurrents might have been in play at the time.

Where it all went pear-shaped was with the whole idea that "It's a dog-eat-dog world, and that's how it is supposed to be." My parents' generation pretty much invented the concept of the nuclear family... prior to that, the most common family structure was still generational. With the loss of multiple generations living under one roof, our connection with the past was severed, and so our entire "amalgam of every nation, but all in this together" social structure lost its roots. America became rudderless, and infected the world with that loss of direction.

The resultant power vacuum is what allowed the current crop of sociopaths to take over; arguably, it was inevitable. 

mnem
*back out into the frosty suck*

[25 CPS]

Hmmm... Okay, then how do you see the same propensity in yuppies, Gen Xers and millenials...?

Baby boomers were by far the least "head in the clouds" of the recent generations, IMO. My dad may be daft in terms of tech (even tho he was a programmer for the Air Force back in the day); but in terms of knowing where his place in the world is and what goes into all the stuff we need to survive, he's got a pretty good head on his shoulders.

I think maybe you have the generations mixed up; it was my generation (post-Summer of Love) of clueless self-important fuckwidgets that blew up the US economy and turned it into a multinational Ponzi scheme; his was the ones that were trying to stop them.

mnem
*not living in the alternate reality bubble*

You mentioned blowing up the US economy right at the end of all that.  What I can tell you is that things played out differently in Canada.  You moved to Canada because it is different here, right?  So how do I explain those points you raised?  Well, like a lot of places, the generation that grew up during the great depression and then fought World War II put in place a lot of things, social programs, government policy, etc. so that their children wouldn't have to go through what they did and the baby boomers made full use of it all.  That's fine because that's what it was all put in place for so, so far so good.

Early Gen-X squeaked by benefitted from that here too.  Then the middle of Gen-X had the carpet yanked right out from under their feet.  Then you get people around my age who weren't quite old enough for that to happen to them directly but watched it take place and knew it was going to be totally gone by the time we got there.

For one example, if you want to get a good portion of Canadian Gen-X riled up, ask about the replacement of federal student grants with loans.  That would be one of the first things that fell by the wayside as the baby boomers moved along in age and began discovering that when it came time to start paying it forward to the next generation the way their parents did for them, it was expensive.  Since they'd already gotten theirs, they weren't adversely affected by scrapping it.  And that's how it's gone with many things here.  Previously, if you combined student grants with OSAP along with the low tuition, books, and cost of living of the time, you could make out like a bandit if you were a student and it was no wonder that OSAP got nicknamed the Ontario Stereo Assistance Program.  You want to hear about that from a Canadian millennial, ask how it's been totally inadequate for getting through postsecondary education for a long time now and ask what the loan repayment horizions look like.

Another example:  In the unionized places I've worked, the collective bargaining agreements have been an interesting history lesson.  Read the contracts.  Look at the dates of red circled, grandfathered provisions for things you don't get.  Correlate that to the age of the people who voted in favour of throwing younger employees and future employees under the wheels in a way that didn't leave themselves any worse off.  You want to get any Gen-X Canadian riled up in one of these workplaces?  Say the phrase, "two tier contract."  You want to see apathy from a Canadian millennial in one of these workplaces?  They don't know what that is and they don't care because that ship got sailed before they got there.

As far as millennials go, I can tell you from talking with everyone around my age that I know, we look in one direction at the baby boomers then turn our heads 180 degrees and look at the other direction at millennials and it makes sense because look who raised them.  Many of them aren't old enough to have seen and understood how Canada unravelled over the late '80s and through most of the '90s so what they've been landing in is normal to most of them except for the older ones who are also acutely aware that they're never going to have the quality of life that their parents did.

Mnem's right, but that sense if entitlement did start with the boomers. Even though I grew up in the typical white middle-class environment with never a want for pretty much anything I never had a sense of entitlement. I worked for and earned what I gained and in some cases lost. From the time I was 19 in 1973 until 2 years ago. And I was a good boy and paid into the system. So yes....now is my time and yes, I am entitled to that SSI I contributed to all those years. And I'm gonna make sure I get every penny they owe me. 

The whole point - you're supposed to enjoy what you've worked hard for and earned.  And you bet I'm looking forward to collecting CPP when the time comes after contributing to the Canada Pension Plan every two weeks. 

[mnementh]

Okay... so what you're saying pretty much reinforces my assessment that Canada is on the same Yuppie Dream road as the US, only aboot 3 decades (one generation) behind it.

I was lucky enough to get one education (I so wish I'd taken it all the way) funded by the prior generation's actions; however when I went back to school I got to see the complete lie that system had become. I'm still paying off decades-old student loans for an education I couldn't afford to complete. STILL can't afford to complete.

3 decades worth of difference may not be much... but it is all I can manage. It is still my hope that my kids will grow up sane, and maybe, just maybe, the GWN will learn the lesson of the crack lab downstairs and move to correct those mistakes, rather than doubling down on them.

Toronto is (surprise, surprise) the beach-head of the invasion of American "ideals" and business practices. The climate here is quite like heartland cities in the US in the 80-90s. I understand there's a fair bit of similar climate in Vancouver as well; while a bit more California laid-back, still a cultural invasion. However I see much resistance to that invasion from the rest of the nation; and as that is where most of the GWN's GNP comes from, that is what gives me hope.

Maybe I'm just running away from the problem. No, actually... no maybes aboot it. 

But fuck man; 40 years of fighting and still circling the drain... can you blame me for just being tired and needing to get away from it long enough to raise my kids...?

mnem
*flanked and beaten into submission ol' dwagon*

[salvagedcircuitry]

Well, I think it's finally time to upgrade my bench magnifier. I'm passing this one on to the folks for sewing purposes.

I'm thinking of grabbing an old luxo magnifier and retrofitting it with LEDs, or snagging a used luxo wave. mmmm the options.

[mnementh]

Speaking as a long-time user of both Dazor and Luxo medical-grade magnifiers... you will not regret the time or money spent on this endeavour. 

If you can afford the space and cost, I highly recommend getting it set up as pedestal-base, either fixed or on caster wheels. Being able to set it up so the light and lens come over your shoulder makes a huge difference in the usability.

mnem
 

[Tomorokoshi]

Well, I think it's finally time to upgrade my bench magnifier. I'm passing this one on to the folks for sewing purposes.

I'm thinking of grabbing an old luxo magnifier and retrofitting it with LEDs, or snagging a used luxo wave. mmmm the options.

I like the flywheel base!

[salvagedcircuitry]

I like the flywheel base!

Thanks! I made a video of the procedure here:


I opted to make a brass insert so the flywheel could still be used for it's original purpose, just in case one of my spare engines needs one
I may make another insert if whatever magnifier I grab doesn't have a base.

[mnementh]

After finally getting half a handle on Frustion360... I do believe my original suggestion that 3DP would be the least painful way (especially for those who don't have a lathe in their hip pocket) to make this happen is correct.

At this point, I could design that spacer slug and have it printing in 30 minutes... along with some clip-on plastic feetses to protect the tabletop. 

mnem
*punt*

[SilverSolder]

Well, I think it's finally time to upgrade my bench magnifier. I'm passing this one on to the folks for sewing purposes.

I'm thinking of grabbing an old luxo magnifier and retrofitting it with LEDs, or snagging a used luxo wave. mmmm the options.

Love the flywheel lamp base!  -  I've been thinking of doing something similar with a used brake disc or drum...

[Mr. Scram]

Absolutely.  The rampant sense of entitlement and the willingness combined with the economic means to throw away perfectly good cars, expensive electronics that have barely been used, the works is a pretty good clue that we're dealing with total heads in the clouds baby boomers here.  To their minds, it's still 1968, good jobs are plentiful, housing's cheap, energy's cheap, cars are cheap, everything's cheap and there's unlimited prosperity out there.  So clearly there's something wrong with everyone who's still in the workforce earning stagnant since 1980 wages and complaining that they can't afford a $1-million-plus teardown in suburban Toronto.

To be fair there are people who are dumber than a box of rocks in every generation but the out of touch and entitlement I've seen with a good cross section of baby boomers starting within immediate family is jaw dropping.  I've given it a lot of thought and the only conclusion that I've been able to come to is there's a lot of them out there that don't understand that the decades of post war prosperity are over and a lot of people have been born into a world where the music's stopped and all the chairs have already been taken.

"Why don't you buy a nice house with a yard? We did when we were 21, when dad was a plumber and I was a stay at home mom."

[bd139]

Absolutely.  The rampant sense of entitlement and the willingness combined with the economic means to throw away perfectly good cars, expensive electronics that have barely been used, the works is a pretty good clue that we're dealing with total heads in the clouds baby boomers here.  To their minds, it's still 1968, good jobs are plentiful, housing's cheap, energy's cheap, cars are cheap, everything's cheap and there's unlimited prosperity out there.  So clearly there's something wrong with everyone who's still in the workforce earning stagnant since 1980 wages and complaining that they can't afford a $1-million-plus teardown in suburban Toronto.

To be fair there are people who are dumber than a box of rocks in every generation but the out of touch and entitlement I've seen with a good cross section of baby boomers starting within immediate family is jaw dropping.  I've given it a lot of thought and the only conclusion that I've been able to come to is there's a lot of them out there that don't understand that the decades of post war prosperity are over and a lot of people have been born into a world where the music's stopped and all the chairs have already been taken.

"Why don't you buy a nice house with a yard? We did when we were 21, when dad was a plumber and I was a stay at home mom."

Yeah full disclosure of my relationship with my father, a notable boomer...

“When your mum was a factory worker and I was on the buses we managed to buy a house. You need to get one. Your kid can’t live in that 2 bedroom place in Nottingham. She needs a garden. And you need a conservatory like us so you can invite people you don’t like over to be impressed at your apparent success. Oh and you need to get an expensive watch otherwise you’re not a real man. Don’t you own any shirts? We always wore shirts. You can’t be successful without wearing a shirt. Why are you still driving that banger - you should have bought a Jaguar or Range Rover by now. You should invest in this idea which I’ve lost £5000 on already. Why are you cooking the dinner? - you’re married! She should be ironing your shirts which you don’t own. I’m going to put classic FM on to sound intelligent but I don’t really like it.”

 

Anyway on TE I have a cunning plan. For those of you who know what Prometheus and Grafana are I’m going to write an SCPI exporter for it. Basically it’ll collect time-series metrics from test gear and display and alert on it. Anyway that’s the idea. Whether or not I’ll get the time to do it I don’t know.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Here is something that I don't recall ever seeing before on any board and shows the attention to detail that TTi out put into their products. There seems to be a ground ring around the sensitive terminals on the board, and it seems to work OK because the readings are rock solid. Now I have to rearrange my stacks again,

This is a common feature in datasheets and appnotes for precision OPAs, S&H, and so on. There it appears regularely under the layout guidelines section.

[Cerebus]

Anyway on TE I have a cunning plan.

"Just remember, we're not at home to Mr. Cockup. What aren't we Baldric?"
"We're not at home to Mr Cockup."

Later...

"Shall I prepare the guest room for Mr. Cockup my lord ?"

[factory]

Ta.

I knew about the TME ones, and the fact that they'd gone away as I had them on the putative BOM for one of my own design/build PSUs (Which I still haven't finalised the design(s) for as I keep changing my mind about things).

I'll take a critical look at the 3631 binding posts to see if they'll fit. Thank fuck that Keysight post photos with a scale for parts like that. First look suggests that the 66312 part has a keying flat on the mounting thread, the 3631 has a complete round thread - possibly within bodging range with a grinding wheel if necessary. The 66312A ones have a captive 'spinny bit' so I can't just take the knobs off the others and put them on the otherwise good existing posts. Bah!

Pollin in Germany is selling those (sadly, only the yellow and green ones are available, the others are sold out):



You can have the red and black one if you want for 1 EUR each and shipping. (I hope, a letter to the UK wouldn't be that expensive)

Edit:
I saw that Robert was faster and was coming up with the proper parts. 
Never mind. 

I have some of those, bought from "the usual scumbags" as AvE says, that I got to try after discovering that the line TME were carrying had dried up. Not great, not terrible, quality wise. I used most of them up on on a 4-wire current shunt I built a while back.

Ta anyway.

These from Sato Parts look similar but a bit more expensive, available from RS & probably other places too;
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/banana-connectors/6458893/


I quite like the look of these also from Sato Parts, but the RS site makes the colours look washed out (the one below is supposed to be red).
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/banana-connectors/6458685/


David