Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

Oh dear... Kosmic has horse lube. We're all fooked.

mnem

haha, when I received it, the discussion with SWMBO went as follow:

SWMBO: What did you just receive ?
Me: Ha nothing, only 8 liters of horse laxatives.
SWMBO: WTF, I don't even want to know what you are doing in the basement!

Long drawn out "Neeeeeiiiigggghhh!" from the basement.
Kosmic: Tharrrr she blows!

[bd139]

Long drawn out "Neeeeeiiiigggghhh!" from the basement.
Kosmic: Tharrrr she blows!

That’s almost as much nightmare fuel as the 80 year old stripper.

Amazon keyboard attempt two on the way. Fingers crossed the delivery imp doesn’t eat it.

[Cerebus]

Long drawn out "Neeeeeiiiigggghhh!" from the basement.
Kosmic: Tharrrr she blows!

That’s almost as much nightmare fuel as the 80 year old stripper.

Amazon keyboard attempt two on the way. Fingers crossed the delivery imp doesn’t eat it.

Not if it's in the basement. The attic on the other hand...

[VK5RC]

So went to pick up the 492BP. about 1h 45mn each way. Was going to take the dog but decided not to asit's a bit long. Seller was very interesting with a large shed that is very un-shed like. The front part has a 3 sided bench with lots of high quality TE all racked out with the top racks tilted out at the top. Mostly HPAK, with some Tek, R&S etc. Retired consultantso most paid by work I guess. He and  have worked in similar fields so had a nice chat.
Unfortuntly the rest of the evening was pretty bad, Just after I loaded thee SA in the car my mobile rang. it ws WMBO in tears saying or dog, Orli, appeaed to have broken her leg in the backyard. Orli is  12 1/2 year old German Shepard cross rescue. I knew straight away wha it was, bone cancer. we are waiting result of one more test but it looks like we will be saying goodbye to her tonight
No advice on decision please, we both have had dogs and myimmediate family include a vet and vet nurse.

So sorry to hear, they become part of the family and give so much, sounds like you have good family input for the best decision.
Rob

[mansaxel]

*fucks off in search of 6-32 wafer-head screws*

One participant in another discussion, on IRC, stated the other night that he had some strange 3,5mm screws he could not place in the normal metric system.

I countered with the observation that yes, M3,5 does exist, in several pitches, but the Occam's Razor guess, given that he works with computers, would be UNC #6-32. This he had not considered, at all.

[bd139]

I destroy keyboards. They get hammered the shit out of them 10-12 hours a day. I’ve never had one last more than 6 months 

This particular one was an Apple magic keyboard 2 which died after 6 weeks. My eldest nicked my Durgod K320 as she murdered her Ducky one with some Monster. I sold my spare K320 a while back (Expenses claimed  ). So I ordered another K320 today (same day delivery) and it got delivered somewhere random but not to me  . Apple are RMAing the magic keyboard and I’ll get a new one Friday.

   https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XPHQW6G

I'm very happy with my Logitech G413 Silver keyboard. Build as a tank and it feels nearly undestructable.

Added to my Wish List for future investigation. I have to admit... since using this cheap-ass Redragon K506, which is built on just a cheap stamped steel upper plate, nothing less than metal core is ever going to be good enough again. Even tho it's a cheap n-rollover membrane design, the rigidity and distribution of weight make all the difference in the world.

Especially when it's getting hammered on with dragon claws/paws/hamfists. 

mnem

Well I went down a keyboard rabbit hole and look what I found: https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/tree/master/keyboards/durgod/k320

Yes K320 is a standard STM32 board which has been reverse engineered and has third party firmware available. Hold down B+L on the keyboard at plug in and it goes into DFU mode. Can reflash the original firmware then as well. So basically:

1. Standard key tops
2. Standard CPU
3. Standard firmware
4. Standard key switches.

This thing should last near forever even if I break it 

[Zucca]

the new HP Laptop line my company offers is only slim line and has dropped the ethernet port. ETH is only available through Thunderbolt 3/USB-C.
Bunch of muppets. Muppets alert! I think here muppets and monkeys merge togheter in an orchestra of stupid decisions.

KEEP THE FUUUUU  ETH PORT ON THE LAPTOP!!!!! YOU MONKEY ARTIST SLIM LINE DESIGNER!!! AND YOU EE WHO KNOWS STUFF RISE YOUR VOICE DURING THE MEETINGS WITH DESIGNER ARTISTS WHO LIVES IN THE SOFT WIFI CLOUDS, YES YOU ARE A NERD BUT YOU HAVE AN INFINITE VALUE IN YOU....
WE BUY A MACHINE BECAUSE IT WORKS NOT BECAUSE IT IS SEXY FOR OUR EYES AND OTHER ESOTHERIC FEELINGS.

Can't believe it, now I have to dick around with a USB-C/ETH adapter to work. Why? why? I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE ALL THE PRODUCT SEXY CASE DESIGNER AND THROW THEM OUT THE WINDOW, shit my blood pressure is spiking now....

So massively stupid.... massive no sense. I hope they will all die by cancer caused by 5G and WIFI radiation.

Muppets and monkeys.

[Robert763]

Had a bit more of a play with the Tektronix 492BP spectrum analyser.
Highest frequency source I had handy was a little 5.6 GHz DRO oscillator brick from a telemetry system.  The SA shows it as spot on with no drift and correct level. The 2nd harmonic at 11.2GHz is showing too. All looking good. Not bad for £675.
Many years ago I designed a demodulator for the 10MHz IF output as part of the day job. I'll have to see if I can find the circuit. I did not keep the prototype as I never thought I would have a spectrum analyser that cost as much as the flat I'd just bought 

[Saskia]

@Zucca I like your rant. Do you need anything to blow up the notebook ? or the designer 

[Zucca]

Now I found the proper video for it.

[bd139]

the new HP Laptop line my company offers is only slim line and has dropped the ethernet port. ETH is only available through Thunderbolt 3/USB-C.
Bunch of muppets. Muppets alert! I think here muppets and monkeys merge togheter in an orchestra of stupid decisions.

KEEP THE FUUUUU  ETH PORT ON THE LAPTOP!!!!! YOU MONKEY ARTIST SLIM LINE DESIGNER!!! AND YOU EE WHO KNOWS STUFF RISE YOUR VOICE DURING THE MEETINGS WITH DESIGNER ARTISTS WHO LIVES IN THE SOFT WIFI CLOUDS, YES YOU ARE A NERD BUT YOU HAVE AN INFINITE VALUE IN YOU....
WE BUY A MACHINE BECAUSE IT WORKS NOT BECAUSE IT IS SEXY FOR OUR EYES AND OTHER ESOTHERIC FEELINGS.

Can't believe it, now I have to dick around with a USB-C/ETH adapter to work. Why? why? I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE ALL THE PRODUCT SEXY CASE DESIGNER AND THROW THEM OUT THE WINDOW, shit my blood pressure is spiking now....

So massively stupid.... massive no sense. I hope they will all die by cancer caused by 5G and WIFI radiation.

Muppets and monkey.

LMAO that’s hilarious.  I’ve just had the same argument this week. Most modern laptops are stupid.

The piece of shit Dell XPS5550 they bought me has a grand total of three USB-C ports. This has been a bugbear for my team for weeks now to the point I’m getting petitioned to get it sorted. Also thanks to the new security policy I can’t RDP into it from my Mac any more. So I want to connect a monitor, keyboard, headset, mouse and one 4K 60Hz display. Not much to ask. So it comes with a USB-C to USB-A/HDMI adapter. But the HDMI only does 4K 30Hz. Obviously no good. Plus minus one USB hole. So they made us buy Anker docks and expense them. But those are no good because they don’t support 4K 60Hz nor do they support USB PD with the supplied charger. And they don’t have enough USB holes anyway so every time I want to do a Zoom call I have to unplug my mouse  . Basically it’s a 2 port USB hub that’s useless. Then they tell me that i didn’t follow the right expenses procedure and need to submit a PO for one so I returned the fucking Anker dock to Amazon and threw my fucking toys out of the pram.

So operations go into CYA mode finally after we start putting costs on this. 10 proper £250 Dell TB docks with DP and suitable USB holes have been ordered for my staff and me 

Edit: my previous setup which used a £20 dock off eBay and a recycled T470 was much better than this pile of excrement.

[BU508A]

[Rant snipped]

Muppets and monkeys.

And Fraggles.

[bd139]

Fraggles are the users 

[Saskia]

absofragglinglutely, dammit !

[bd139]

Oh I may have ordered another desktop PC as LTspice on the Mac is about as fun as pissing out caltrops  .

Plus I’m bored and nothing is turning up on eBay to play with. And mnem’s build photos made me want to build one.

i5-10400 so not going to win any prizes but it’s a silent build.

[Saskia]

Foto of Mnem moving up north.

[bd139]

Had a bit more of a play with the Tektronix 492BP spectrum analyser.
Highest frequency source I had handy was a little 5.6 GHz DRO oscillator brick from a telemetry system.  The SA shows it as spot on with no drift and correct level. The 2nd harmonic at 11.2GHz is showing too. All looking good. Not bad for £675.
Many years ago I designed a demodulator for the 10MHz IF output as part of the day job. I'll have to see if I can find the circuit. I did not keep the prototype as I never thought I would have a spectrum analyser that cost as much as the flat I'd just bought 

That was a decent price for that. I had it on the watch list hoping it’d suddenly fall to £500 (never happens  ). I’m slowly trying to collect some 10GHz stuff to play with. Have been a few boxes of kit going past in that space and I’m not buggering around with lecher lines.

[Saskia]

I must say I am quite happy with my company notebook even though it is short one bloody USB port.
However, the el cheapo USB3 hub works just fine. If I remember correctly, it was a 3€ Reichelt find.

[Cerebus]

Oh I may have ordered another desktop PC as LTspice on the Mac is about as fun as pissing out caltrops  .

Until macOS went 64 bit only the PC version of LTSpice ran happily under WINE. What broke was WINE, not LTSpice per se. The people behind the commercial WINE for macOS, CodeWeavers, were working on 64 bit support for WINE on macOS which was scheduled to make it back into the upstream - it may be there by now, I haven't checked for a while. I gave their pay-to-play product (CrossOver, £32) a spin with the trial version and it worked.

[bd139]

There’s a native macOS port of LTspice now for reference. It’s horrid to use.

[cyclin_al]

I destroy keyboards. They get hammered the shit out of them 10-12 hours a day. I’ve never had one last more than 6 months 

This particular one was an Apple magic keyboard 2 which died after 6 weeks. My eldest nicked my Durgod K320 as she murdered her Ducky one with some Monster. I sold my spare K320 a while back (Expenses claimed  ). So I ordered another K320 today (same day delivery) and it got delivered somewhere random but not to me  . Apple are RMAing the magic keyboard and I’ll get a new one Friday.

   https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XPHQW6G

I'm very happy with my Logitech G413 Silver keyboard. Build as a tank and it feels nearly undestructable.

Added to my Wish List for future investigation. I have to admit... since using this cheap-ass Redragon K506, which is built on just a cheap stamped steel upper plate, nothing less than metal core is ever going to be good enough again. Even tho it's a cheap n-rollover membrane design, the rigidity and distribution of weight make all the difference in the world.

Especially when it's getting hammered on with dragon claws/paws/hamfists. 

mnem

Keep an eye on the thrift store.  A few years back I managed to snag a used Logitech SK-2500 for free.  I have no idea why anyone would let that keyboard go.  It must be over 20 years old and still bomb-proof.

[beanflying]

For anyone bored or interested LabView T&M Webinar starts in about an hour https://events.ni.com/profile/form/index.cfm?PKformID=0x506902abcd

[Cerebus]

There’s a native macOS port of LTspice now for reference. It’s horrid to use.

There's been one for yonks, at least 4 years, perhaps longer. Yes, it's horrible and, like you, I've been forced to use it occasionally recently. Hence why, while I still could, I was running the PC one under WINE. I might even stump up the £32 for a copy of crossover so I can use it again, it's a bit smoother than firing up a VM just to run LTSpice.

There is however one good quality to the macOS version of LTSpice, the graphics are way better. It's worth firing up just to take a clean, smooth screenshot of the circuit you've been working on in the PC version. Vis, even after downsampling 4 x (to compensate for the 5K screen that the screenshot came from):

[cyclin_al]

the new HP Laptop line my company offers is only slim line and has dropped the ethernet port. ETH is only available through Thunderbolt 3/USB-C.
Bunch of muppets. Muppets alert! I think here muppets and monkeys merge togheter in an orchestra of stupid decisions.

KEEP THE FUUUUU  ETH PORT ON THE LAPTOP!!!!! YOU MONKEY ARTIST SLIM LINE DESIGNER!!! AND YOU EE WHO KNOWS STUFF RISE YOUR VOICE DURING THE MEETINGS WITH DESIGNER ARTISTS WHO LIVES IN THE SOFT WIFI CLOUDS, YES YOU ARE A NERD BUT YOU HAVE AN INFINITE VALUE IN YOU....
WE BUY A MACHINE BECAUSE IT WORKS NOT BECAUSE IT IS SEXY FOR OUR EYES AND OTHER ESOTHERIC FEELINGS.

Can't believe it, now I have to dick around with a USB-C/ETH adapter to work. Why? why? I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE ALL THE PRODUCT SEXY CASE DESIGNER AND THROW THEM OUT THE WINDOW, shit my blood pressure is spiking now....

So massively stupid.... massive no sense. I hope they will all die by cancer caused by 5G and WIFI radiation.

Muppets and monkey.

LMAO that’s hilarious.  I’ve just had the same argument this week. Most modern laptops are stupid.

The piece of shit Dell XPS5550 they bought me has a grand total of three USB-C ports. This has been a bugbear for my team for weeks now to the point I’m getting petitioned to get it sorted. Also thanks to the new security policy I can’t RDP into it from my Mac any more. So I want to connect a monitor, keyboard, headset, mouse and one 4K 60Hz display. Not much to ask. So it comes with a USB-C to USB-A/HDMI adapter. But the HDMI only does 4K 30Hz. Obviously no good. Plus minus one USB hole. So they made us buy Anker docks and expense them. But those are no good because they don’t support 4K 60Hz nor do they support USB PD with the supplied charger. And they don’t have enough USB holes anyway so every time I want to do a Zoom call I have to unplug my mouse  . Basically it’s a 2 port USB hub that’s useless. Then they tell me that i didn’t follow the right expenses procedure and need to submit a PO for one so I returned the fucking Anker dock to Amazon and threw my fucking toys out of the pram.

So operations go into CYA mode finally after we start putting costs on this. 10 proper £250 Dell TB docks with DP and suitable USB holes have been ordered for my staff and me 

Edit: my previous setup which used a £20 dock off eBay and a recycled T470 was much better than this pile of excrement.

Similar thing here.  It really is disgusting.  My work gave me a HP Elite Bang&Olufsen tablet.  It has one USB-C and one USB-A port.  Then they eventually give us dual monitors, a real keyboard, mouse, headset and webcam.  No docking station provided, and told any attempts to expense it would be rejected.  Pretty much useless....

[bd139]

There’s a native macOS port of LTspice now for reference. It’s horrid to use.

There's been one for yonks, at least 4 years, perhaps longer. Yes, it's horrible and, like you, I've been forced to use it occasionally recently. Hence why, while I still could, I was running the PC one under WINE. I might even stump up the £32 for a copy of crossover so I can use it again, it's a bit smoother than firing up a VM just to run LTSpice.

There is however one good quality to the macOS version of LTSpice, the graphics are way better. It's worth firing up just to take a clean, smooth screenshot of the circuit you've been working on in the PC version. Vis, even after downsampling 4 x (to compensate for the 5K screen that the screenshot came from):

Yes I did notice the quality increase but some of the helpful UI features like selecting analysis mode are missing. And I can never remember the spice directives. Brings me nightmares of sitting in front of SPARCstation 2 falling asleep waiting for a simple analysis to run.

There are other motivations for this as well. I am moonlighting doing some porting work for someone of ancient windows stuff. And you’re not running windows in a VM on an M1