Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Kosmic]

Oh he’s completely nuts. Look for the Furby organ 

No way... that was this guy too...? Fukkin' awesome!!!

mnem

I think I want to play with old TVs and analog synth now

https://youtu.be/QWh4wcPNwgM?t=373

[Specmaster]

I suspect the risk of increasing R falls much more in the area of the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of selfish and ignorant people socialising with their friends without distancing or masks, rather than the likely handful of people travelling to pick up TE, and who are far more likely to follow social distancing and infection control measures in general.

Agreed that we are far more likely to adhere to the safety precautions but, if we allow one group to do things but not the others we, risk nobody doing the right thing. So you're saying that like Dominic Cummings, its ok for us to break the rules?

[nixiefreqq]

one of these is on the way to my fortress of solitude , but stuck at the big sorting center in harrisburg.

anyone have experience with them?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP363-RF-Power-Meter-50-to-0dBm-1M-10GHz-Attenuation-Value-for-Radio-Instrument/373290120533?hash=item56e9d33555:g:68UAAOSwPJRfkXo4

Oh lordy... just what I need. Another $50 power meter that needs one or two $80 attenuators to work in my application.

Bastard. 

mnem
*finger hovering over the BIN button anyways*

you are welcome.  (but i do prefer to be called "bastard freq" thank you)

already had the attenuators for protecting a couple of spectrum analyzers.

[VK5RC]

There is of course the other side that by making that TEA trip you are putting your family at risk of Covid  or loosing the breadwinner from it. I've known hard times too but health is more important than property.

Certainly. But if you are starving, your health will be deteriorating, too.

And this lockdown is detrimental to our health, physical and psychological. And there is no real factual evidence that one of the main principals of healers, doctors , ... is being preserved (primum non nocere). Naturally there are assholes partying. On the other hand there are small business owners whose financial existance is being ruined.

It is difficult to find the right balance.

The Public Health Agency of Sweden  (Folkhälsomyndigheten) is getting a serious amount of shit thrown at them by people who IMNSHO can think of only one thing at a time and are ravingly adamant about getting more lockdown. Because covid.

At the same time, the agency has a research team that reads every snippet of science on this disease, and then they assess that with what they know about the adverse health effects of various recommendations, like closing society down.

Very often, they end up with the end sum being "the benefits from severely limiting what people can do, in terms of stopping the pandemic, are at the same time counteracting public health because people in lockdown beat their family members or lose their income" to name but a few of the side effects.

The net result is "Wash your hands, keep your distance, don't travel unless you really have to, don't meet people outside your family you don't really must meet, and you might not infect others if you wear a mask when you must be too close to them." Which isn't as sexy and DOING THINGS as locking down with armoured squad cars on empty streets and military at the border.

Most often, ironically, (at least among the ones I communicate with, which of course is a fat bias) the men hollering loudest for More Oppressive Measures are liberal engineers. Who should think twice before asking to be oppressed for not scientifically provable reasons.

Finally, on death tolls. There's been a lot of talk about our comparatively high death tolls.  Pro primo, we have a NPM style care system for elders. Constantly starved of resources, and with the second or third most common employment form for staff being temporary, by the hour. (are those people going to take the chance of getting a few hours work even if they've got a cold? You bet. And then they'll go to the next care facility, because you'll have to work everywhere to make ends meet. You'll see which nice superspreaders they become..) Pro secundo, in our statistic reporting, if a car crash victim is (as they are) tested and turns out positive with the virus at autopsy, they become a "covid victim." I'm not certain that is so everywhere. 

I think we can tell which method worked best some 4 years after we've gotten this virus down to normal "winter flu" levels. Until then, we're just guessing based on bent and twisted derivata curves.

The points you raised say a lot about the state of our society today where the rich become mega rich and the poor become even poorer, especially during an event like we all are going through at the moment, like Jeff Bezos has become the worlds first centi-billionaire  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos and https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/02/tech/amazon-earnings-bezos/index.html .

Don't get me wrong, I like to see people do well for themselves but at what cost to the rest of us. He is not alone in this respect, most of the worlds top earners, evade paying the correct level of taxes to the countries where they operate in, thus leaving the shortfall to people like us who cannot avoid the taxes to make up the shortfall, so while they get richer we of course are getting poorer through their greed. They also exploit their workers in so many ways and also ask the impossible from them for as little pay and job security as they can get away with.

If rich people and large companies paid their fair share of taxes than the welfare state would be able to afford to look after people correctly when hard times hit and people would not then be in a position where they have to go to work even if they have a cold, flu, COVID-19 or whatever and spread it onto others. Hospitals etc could also be better funded as a result and that is something that everyone regardless of their ranking in the rich list, social standing etc would benefit from. In fact, it might be that with a healthier and happier work force, that big businesses and those that own them, could actually a major benefit from less absenteeism and a better more motivated workforce would result if they didn't feel down trodden.

I doubt that people involved in accidents etc that require an autopsy would be recorded as having Covid as cause of death because history will show those governments up in a very bad light indeed, and they would be more likely to try to disguise many Covid deaths as something else entirely, I don't see having a high number deaths from it as a badge of honour. The world was warned about such an event years ago and they chose to do nothing about it.

Some Aust stats, note the 'mega rich' are a tiny proportion of the population.
https://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-50-of-all-income-tax-in-australia-paid-by-10-of-the-working-population-45229

[Specmaster]

Hmm, this is certainly causing some discussion, and I have to admit I can see both sides of the equation here, and I too have been at rock bottom, upto my neck in debt, 3 babies to care for and basically almost just the clothes I had on my back, no PC and no mobile phone, and I was working in 3 jobs to try and keep my head just above the water line, so I could continue to supporting my family and my Mum at the same time. So I fully understand the position that some of these sellers on Gumtree, Shpock, Craigs List etc might feel that they are being denied the chance of providing for their family by perhaps selling off some of their most treasured items. Well, quite frankly this is a load of BS, they are not, they are asked to consider giving their buyers the option of a delivery service at zero cost to them, as in eBay, it is at the buyers cost.

So nothing untoward there. All that the government is doing here is acting on the science (and about time too IMO)

If the buyer still wants to drive long distances and collect their goods, thats fine, but they have to fully shoulder the fact that they do in fact face being stopped by police and possibly fined a not insignificant sum of money, they have to pay for their fuel and time etc, and also live with the guilt if they then subsequently become diagnosed as having the virus and then having to disclose their movements, and if they managed to avoid being stopped in the first instance, they might then be fined afterwards because of their disclosure. They would also have with the guilt if it subsequently proves they also passed on the virus to the seller and thus exposed their family needlessly to it as well.

Personally, I do not wish to be in that position.

Proper business people will be registered and have company logos, headed paper and maybe sign written vehicles and are still encouraged to go about their business but take social distancing etc seriously, and hence where the couriers come in. Those genuine business people have nothing to worry from being stopped as they can prove what they are doing. As Robert stated, his company had to provide him with a proper paperwork in case he was stopped to prove that he was on official company business in an essential service capacity.

If we had done what NZ did from very early days, shut the borders to all but purely essential people, the current Draconian measures might not have been required and thousands of lives saved as well.

I rest my case.

So perhaps then... this is an example of noblesse oblige for the modern age...? We have the means, we have the discretionary funds to buy these for-pickup-only items, it is therefore also our obligation to take the risk of being fined but still pursue those items (within reason), as doing so stimulates the borked economy?

And even if we do take one for the team, we can console ourselves with the hope that we kept some poor unfortunate from getting a ticket for desperately far from home for desperately needed income...?

Another concern... I do not consider having things delivered by courier to be any bit safer than doing a properly-arranged curbside pickup; I've seen some downright skeevy individuals delivering my Amazon goods, and those people still have to go to every skeevoid and his brother's drippy-all-winter house before they bring me my goods.

mnem
that reminds me; I need to make a pilgrimage to the one semi-nearby pharmacy that has both my Sudafed and bottled IPA sometime soon...

Is that any different really to going shopping, and you have to handle items there that others have touched but when you get home, wash your hands with soap and water or hand cleanser or indeed have a bottle similar in your car? Over this side of the pond, couriers, postman etc usually ring the doorbell, pop their parcels on the door step, step back a few steps and wait for you to answer the door, and then they take a photo of you picking up your parcels. The far greater risk is from inhaling other peoples breath containing water drop lets, very minimal risk from handling the parcels.

Which reminds me, has anyone noticed how Bang em Good are trying to reassure people that its safe to buy from them as they claim to sterilize your packages before dispatching them?

I'm off to my bed, till next time.

[AVGresponding]

I suspect the risk of increasing R falls much more in the area of the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of selfish and ignorant people socialising with their friends without distancing or masks, rather than the likely handful of people travelling to pick up TE, and who are far more likely to follow social distancing and infection control measures in general.

Agreed that we are far more likely to adhere to the safety precautions but, if we allow one group to do things but not the others we, risk nobody doing the right thing. So you're saying that like Dominic Cummings, its ok for us to break the rules?

No.

What I am saying is that if you don't bother to properly enforce lockdown rules and instead just pick the low-hanging fruit, you won't make an effective difference to R.

[mansaxel]

Some on-topic, for a change:

As I'd swapped in a new RIFA, changed the mains plug, and set the transformer winding switches to 240V in the 6237b, I plugged it in, and flipped the switch. With a BANG and a small flash on the secondary side of the transformer, it blew the mains fuse. 

Now, I'm out of suitable fuses, I think. Must get fuses, recheck the winding switches, then rig the variac and a bulb. Damn!

Bummer. Is the fuse that came out the right value...?

mnem
 

For US mains, yes (so too large value, and still it blew). I forgot to procure the proper one -- I most likely have the required value in 5x20mm, but not in 1/4" x 1 1/4".

[med6753]

I just got done pulling an all night marathon working on Larry. Late yesterday I successfully replaced the one channel attenuator with the burnt out 50 ohm/1MEG switch lamp with one that works. Also cleaned the channel selection switch directly under the CRT. So now all channel indicators work properly. In order to ease the remove/install of the attenuator assembly I removed the PSU/X-Axis board. That's when the project took 2 giant steps backward. Upon re-install of the PSU board I now had half a blob for a trace. Similar to the original fixed intensity issue but this time I could vary the intensity. When I rotated the chassis to check things I heard a jingle of something moving around right in the vicinity of the CRT. Uh-oh. Checked again and confirmed coming from the CRT.....or at least I thought it was. Decided to pull the CRT.

Replacing the CRT is not difficult but re-installing the vertical deflection plate wires is a real challenge. The horizontal is a piece of cake. Anyway, it did NOT fix the screen blob. And shaking the CRT revealed no rattle. BUT....I'm glad I changed it. Look at the silicone where the HV enters. All yellowed and appears to be arcing in the past. I've never seen one yellow like this and the replacement wasn't. I think I avoided a future issue.

   

Anyway, after installing the replacement CRT the rattle went away but still had the blob. So I pulled the PSU board and checked for issues. Found nothing. Decided to install the old PSU board. Turned the chassis on it's side and heard something hit the bench. A transistor.  After searching around I found it's home on the sweep board. In the pix it's the one directly in front of that orange disc cap. In the mean time I had installed the old PSU board. Now had a good trace. Pulled the transistor to confirm and got a blob. So pulled the old PSU board and installed the new one. Good trace. 



So net result is now I'm ahead of where I was yesterday, although it took all night to get there.  As long as I don't run into any other unexpected issues here's what is left to do:

Check CRT bias. I think it's set too high.
Still have to figure out the B sweep knob sync with the A sweep.
Compensation and calibration (There's that dirty word again but that's what Tektronix calls it)
Performance check.
Burn-in.



I think I'm gonna go get some sleep. 

[tautech]

Poor Curly.

[med6753]

Poor Curly.

Later I will post a pix of Curly. Be prepared to be shocked.   

Going to bed.

[bd139]

RIP curly 

[Brumby]

Be prepared to be shocked.   

From Med .... that is more than a little worrying.   

[McBryce]

Just updated the Keithley 6500 Firmware and I didn't Brick it! It came with FW 1.7.3c, now at 1.7.5b. No idea what the changes were, need to read the release notes (probably should have done that first?).

McBryce.

[bd139]

Good start to the day. My battery charger just blew up 

Can anyone recommend something that will charge 12x AA NiMh cells independently?

Edit: might actually just charge them off a power supply at C/10 

[Specmaster]

Good start to the day. My battery charger just blew up 

Can anyone recommend something that will charge 12x AA NiMh cells independently?

Not a good start, hope thats not a precursor to the rest of the day. The most I've ever come across is a six slot charger.

[bd139]

Yeah I have a 12 slot but it’s one I don’t intend to buy again as I only bought it before xmas 

These are mostly used in sets of 3 so I’m thinking that I may just number them up in groups and just do C/10 for 12 hours. Ikea Ladda cells do not bothered if I fuck ‘em particularly just as long as they don’t go on fire 

[beanflying]

Good start to the day. My battery charger just blew up 

Can anyone recommend something that will charge 12x AA NiMh cells independently?

Edit: might actually just charge them off a power supply at C/10 

Providing they are close to matched a series string will be ok at low current even with AA's. All of our old 8 cell Tx packs were typically fast charged at 5-600mAH or even harder if you were in a rush. Recent purchase has been rolling well for me if you need a replacement https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/what-did-you-buy-today-post-your-latest-purchase/msg3443750/#msg3443750

[Specmaster]

I suspect the risk of increasing R falls much more in the area of the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of selfish and ignorant people socialising with their friends without distancing or masks, rather than the likely handful of people travelling to pick up TE, and who are far more likely to follow social distancing and infection control measures in general.

Agreed that we are far more likely to adhere to the safety precautions but, if we allow one group to do things but not the others we, risk nobody doing the right thing. So you're saying that like Dominic Cummings, its ok for us to break the rules?

No.

What I am saying is that if you don't bother to properly enforce lockdown rules and instead just pick the low-hanging fruit, you won't make an effective difference to R.

Absolutely right, the more we can reduce the amount of interaction between people not living together, ie, lockdowns, the quicker the R rate drops. So if lockdowns don't work, why are we not seeing the number of cases, hospital admissions and deaths all continuing to rise? What we are seeing is the opposite, so logic tells us that if we made a better effort we could reduce it even more. Earlier this week, the Essex Police stopped a couple on the M11 who said that they had driven 105 miles just to take their dog for a walk in Essex    Don't they have parks in other areas then 

[capt bullshot]

Got a new toy for the stack of soldering equipment: It's the cheapest of the whole stack, anyway a few tests showed it does the job. As it's rather seldom used, I'm happy with it for now.

[Robert763]

@Cerebus: Blind Hugh is more appropriate. I can smell the latinum.

Anyway surprisingly on topic ish for a change I won some test gear on eBay! It came with something I wanted as an ornament. The test gear is clearly missing some gubbins. Sorry if I sniped someone.

The ornament looks like a fairly hefty core memory stack. The test gear is a harwell thermal RMS voltmeter. I know the seller as well which is handy. I don’t expect the voltmeter will ever work or I can find any documentation for it.

I'd spotted that one too. I already have a cople of core store exmples and 4 Thermal RMS meters. The meter is  NIM unit so you will need  bin or make up a PSU.

[bd139]

Was mostly after it for the core memory stack TBH. The RMS voltmeter has two tube sockets with no tubes in. I assume that was for the choppers so I'm not looking to repair or bring it up. Will evaluate what I'm going to use it for. The chassis is interesting with the controls and panel meter more than the original purpose!

Good start to the day. My battery charger just blew up 

Can anyone recommend something that will charge 12x AA NiMh cells independently?

Edit: might actually just charge them off a power supply at C/10 

Providing they are close to matched a series string will be ok at low current even with AA's. All of our old 8 cell Tx packs were typically fast charged at 5-600mAH or even harder if you were in a rush. Recent purchase has been rolling well for me if you need a replacement https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/what-did-you-buy-today-post-your-latest-purchase/msg3443750/#msg3443750

Thanks will look into this today 


On to the FT818, and of course someone has been "at it" at first sight! Wouldn't transmit. Couldn't see anything obvious. The CW filter was an interesting find so I downloaded the manual and found the TX is in CW practice mode so it won't actually TX when you key down. I did a full hard reset on it and it works fine. Will kick out full 6w by the looks.

Have been listening to Heathrow approach on it for the last hour

[Specmaster]

Got a new toy for the stack of soldering equipment: It's the cheapest of the whole stack, anyway a few tests showed it does the job. As it's rather seldom used, I'm happy with it for now.

Hey, I have the exact same tool myself, under the brand name of Duratool. I've had now about 4 years and it works really well, very pleased with it. Its so much better the using wick all the time and so much quicker to use.

[Ice-Tea]

In case your wondering how to remove bloodstains from vintage grey faux-leather HP gear: Acetone.

End of message.

[factory]

Got a new toy for the stack of soldering equipment: It's the cheapest of the whole stack, anyway a few tests showed it does the job. As it's rather seldom used, I'm happy with it for now.

Hey, I have the exact same tool myself, under the brand name of Duratool. I've had now about 4 years and it works really well, very pleased with it. Its so much better the using wick all the time and so much quicker to use.

Work bought one of those DurXtool (as it got called) desoldering station to replace a Weller one where the element disintegrated, they wouldn't pay for something more industrial, such as the Pace* I used.
I recommend getting some spare tips as they will damage traces when worn and some extra filters.
The unit we had had a nasty habit of jamming FM radio when the heater was energised too.

*When the motor for the pump in the Pace died I ended up cannibalising the Weller station for it's pump.

David

[factory]

I think I want to play with old TVs and analog synth now

https://youtu.be/QWh4wcPNwgM?t=373

Watched that one too and a few others yesterday, I couldn't stop seeing the burn in the centre of the picture bulb, as he didn't turn the intensity down with no input. 
Try this with anything too modern I suspect the processor will complain & shutdown the telly down, I had a cheap one new from when they were becoming obsolete and it failed after not much use with a red picture followed by it doing the shutdown thing. It's still here somewhere.

David.