Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

I avoid lots of large items and just use onedrive  .

I pay £70 a year for office 365 home which gives me and the kids office licenses for all our devices and 1TiB of storage each. That’s about one pint of beer a month in London 

My professional email, now I’m folding the company, is forwarded to my outlook.com address. That kills off two O365 accounts.

I just can’t be arsed with it. I’ve got more important and interesting things to do than take my work home with me.

[mnementh]

Sunday Dinner...

      

Chopping veggies and pan-searing a 5kg boneless shoulder roast for Sunday dinner... got to christen a new 12-inch GreenPan. 

Roast is now rubbed in my usual blend of Montreal Steak & garlic/onion/bell pepper seasonings; plopped in the pot on a bed of baby carrots.

mnem

[mansaxel]

I wonder if there is a happy medium somewhere here...  e.g. throwing big files around seems best done locally, whereas keeping a folder full of frequently used stuff synced between a significant number of devices and platforms is something that can be outsourced to Apple, Microsoft, Dropbox, et al?

I'm actually using Dropbox for this. Take a pic on the phone, shove it in Dropbox on the phone, and then operate on it on the macbook, posting it in this thread from that computer. Then, if it is important, I move into long-time storage in AFS. (Yes, I, and NASA and CERN and a few other IT ops houses run AFS. It mostly sucks, but all alternatives suck way more.)

[mansaxel]

Sunday Dinner...

It being Easter I had my mind set on lamb, so 4 lamb chumps were coated in olive oil with Herbes de Provence, extra rosemary, salt, pepper, and garlic, and then went on the barbecue. A potato gratin with cheese, thyme and oregano and a classic sauce from seared onions and garlic, broth, and wine accompanied them to the table. I'd bought a Chateauneuf-dû-Pape for the occasion (tomorrow is a holiday too) but I was the only wine drinker and it felt better to let the wine wait until it and I can have company. I don't think it will go bad before that happens 

No pics, I'm afraid.

[bd139]

I wonder if there is a happy medium somewhere here...  e.g. throwing big files around seems best done locally, whereas keeping a folder full of frequently used stuff synced between a significant number of devices and platforms is something that can be outsourced to Apple, Microsoft, Dropbox, et al?

I'm actually using Dropbox for this. Take a pic on the phone, shove it in Dropbox on the phone, and then operate on it on the macbook, posting it in this thread from that computer. Then, if it is important, I move into long-time storage in AFS. (Yes, I, and NASA and CERN and a few other IT ops houses run AFS. It mostly sucks, but all alternatives suck way more.)

We archive corporate stuff, which is also on onedrive, to the Bezos version of AFS: S3 + lifecycle + Glacier. It really doesn't suck at all but costs money if you want support. Think our AWS support bill is about $30k a month...

[mnementh]

Most importantly, how do you play hockey?

I am right-handed for everything including soldering with the exception of playing hockey left-handed.
My son on the other hand (leaving this pun as-is), is left-handed for everything with the exception of playing hockey right-handed.  He has not tried soldering yet; he will come of age soon 

I hate to be the one to break this to you, but Hockey (and I assume you mean Ice Hockey) is only played by a tiny minority of the world, so most people don't play "Hockey" with either hand. Field Hockey is probably more popular in most places.

Regarding left/right, I also have the weird mixture that I am ambidextrous, but usually write with my right hand and kick a ball with my left foot.   McBryce.

I believe that question was directed at me... the implication being that if I really want to be a Canuck-dwagon, I double-damned-well better learn to play and enjoy Ice Hockey. 

I'm totes down widdat; tired of feetsball anyhoo, as Peesborgh hasn't fielded a contender since Rothlesberger still had babyface.

mnem
"Win, lose or suck... once a Steelers fan, always a Steelers fan."

"Yes, mummy."

[mnementh]

Definitely worked out better than doing spreadsheets. 

You can see your neighbors; they're too fucking close. 

mnem
current mood: dickwise

I suppose Canadians aren't used being able to see their neighbours, even if they and their neighbours are standing on the roof of their houses.   McBryce.

P.s. AND STOP MAKING ME WANT TO BUY A CASIO EDIFICE!!

LOL... I've been this way since long before I ran away to Canuckistan... I inherited that attitude from my grandparents. 

mnem

[AVGresponding]

When I bought an iPhone 4, I couldn't even get it to work, without first installing iTunes on my computer     ...and that piece of software was the most arrogant, invasive, controlling, pain-in-the-ass thing I have EVER had to deal with ... even outdoing AVG on that scale.

[mnementh]

 

I think he means Avast antivirus; one of the first of the "terrorizing little old ladies on AOL into buying AV that takes over the whole PC and is virtually impossible to uninstall" antivirus products that is itself a fucking virus...

mnem
 

[AVGresponding]

Anyone looking for a good bench meter might like to look at this, although I'm not so sure of the price, seems a bit high to me.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402776299756

It's about £200 overpriced, mine, in near perfect condition, was less than £70 shipped. Hells bells, I paid less for the Keithley 2000, and that is a massively superior meter.


EDIT: Had a closer look at the pics, mine is in way better condition.

[Saskia]

my sympathies and condolences. I have 4 - 5 shoe cartons in front of me, they contain bills, invoices, receipts, etc that I need to do my 2020 tax declaration.

This sucks.
big time.

Is that time again already for you? I thought you only did that just before Christmas last year or have a I got that wrong?

That was for 2019. This is for 2020.

[mnementh]

Now that the veggies are in and the lid is on... comes the hard part. The loooooooong wait for it to be done. 

mnem
"It stink sooo good in heeere..."

[Specmaster]

Anyone looking for a good bench meter might like to look at this, although I'm not so sure of the price, seems a bit high to me.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402776299756

It's about £200 overpriced, mine, in near perfect condition, was less than £70 shipped. Hells bells, I paid less for the Keithley 2000, and that is a massively superior meter.


EDIT: Had a closer look at the pics, mine is in way better condition.

Yes, however, TTi prices have been creeping of late, especially post Brexit and the last 5 sold on the bay of evil went for £285, £83, £123, £200 and my one I got for £71. I've noticed that a lot of TE gear in the UK, particularly British made TE moving upwards in price. Like yours, mine is also near on perfect condition and is one of my all-time favourite bench meters 

[mansaxel]

my sympathies and condolences. I have 4 - 5 shoe cartons in front of me, they contain bills, invoices, receipts, etc that I need to do my 2020 tax declaration.

This sucks.
big time.

Is that time again already for you? I thought you only did that just before Christmas last year or have a I got that wrong?

That was for 2019. This is for 2020.

I'm only on salary these days, so my tax returns are only complicated by the fact that some of my stock was sold (someone bought like 80% of the stock and could then decide to buy back the remaining 20% and delist the company from the stock exchange.) so in the online tax return web site I must perform an extra operation before I approve the rest of the return, which has been pre-computed. I of course can request that the computation be changed, say if I need to pay more tax, et c.  I expect this to take like 30 minutes. 

People who have salary only, or have had no changes in their stock portfolio, and approve of the precomputed version can complete the process with a SMS to the tax authorities containing an one-time password that is supplied on the paper form.

When I had both salary and a company on the side, the tax returns took perhaps 3 hours. Also online.

In both cases I can sign the returns electronically, and if I'm quick, I get a head start in getting overshoot taxes back.

[mnementh]

Anyone looking for a good bench meter might like to look at this, although I'm not so sure of the price, seems a bit high to me.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402776299756

It's about £200 overpriced, mine, in near perfect condition, was less than £70 shipped. Hells bells, I paid less for the Keithley 2000, and that is a massively superior meter.


EDIT: Had a closer look at the pics, mine is in way better condition.

Yes, however, TTi prices have been creeping of late, especially post Brexit and the last 5 sold on the bay of evil went for £285, £83, £123, £200 and my one I got for £71. I've noticed that a lot of TE gear in the UK, particularly British made TE moving upwards in price. Like yours, mine is also near on perfect condition and is one of my all-time favourite bench meters 

Seems way overpriced to me, considering a working 3478A can be had for ~100 quid almost any day; less if you can be patient and shop carefully.    Shameful, actually; for some reason the 3478A just gets no respect.

mnem
 

[bd139]

Yeah I'd buy one but not for that. Main advantage is it has RS232 which means no PITA GPIB adapter required.

[Vince]

Seems way overpriced to me, considering a working 3478A can be had for ~100 quid almost any day; less if you can be patient and shop carefully.    Shameful, actually; for some reason the 3478A just gets no respect.

Is it just the 3478A, or any HP gear of that generation, ie with that horrible tiny hard to read LCD that almost nobody likes ? LED or VFD gears are so much easier to read, from a distance, at any angle, whatever the lighting conditions dark or bright.

Maybe if they had made a much larger LCD with digits 3 times as tall, fatter segments, and a bright and even backlight... people would value them more ? Still,  you would still have the viewing angle problem.which neither LED or VFD suffer from.

At any rate this LCD is a killer for me personally. I would rather get an older gear with LED displays (still small but easy to read and no viewing angle problem), or save some more money and get a newer generation with VFD. 

[factory]

I used to have good luck powering up these scope straight out of the box, but when I got a type 549 a year ago, I was greeted with an entertaining though brief mixture of loud bangs, pops, flashes of light, blue sparks, smoke, in a beautiful choreography. I don't know if the scope survived, probably not. Does not power up anymore at the least.

Looks like my luck has gone away, so now I think I will take precautions when I get round to working / restoring my collection of these scopes... at the very least check for shorts like you mention, but I am now paranoid so I think I will also hunt for used beefy variac to hook them to ! A big one for sure... IIRC a main frame 500 is around 500 Watts or so, not counting the monster 555 of course, just a  "regular" 500 main frame. So I guess I must aim at a 750VA variac or something, to be on the safe side.
I do have a dim bulb tester but would need to put several 100Watts bulbs in parallel to cope with Tek scope... not very practical, and you can't buy these bulbs anymore any way... maybe replace the bulb with a powerful halogen bulb. Still available for sale, available in high wattage, and much more compact than  light bulb. Still, a variac would be good to bring the voltage up slowly as desired, to get more control. Dim bulb tester is more of an on/off safety. Saves your bacon but gives you no fine control.

Anyway, looking forward to some interesting content with your 547, have fun and keep us posted ! 

There was plenty of old stock 100W lamps on ePay when I broke* what I thought was my last one last year, after a box of four arrived my Dad said he had a box full, they weren't with the other boxes of lamps when I had a look.   

*They never get blown in use, I just keep smashing them one way or another. 

Anyway certain old oscilloscopes tend to have time delay circuits, so lamp limiters might not be that useful for bringing them up slowly after years of storage, but would still limit current if a major fault developed.

And 250W infra-red lamps are available for use as heat lamps, they would probably need a ceramic lamp holder though.

David

[Robert763]

NOS still in box Fluke 8060A  on UK ebay £195 www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265111004557?
I'd be tempted but the TEA caddy is empty at the moment. I need to sell some junk stuff.

[factory]

The new recruit is a leftie too !

I do everything left, except wrist watch on the right arm but that's normal for a leftie.
I gave up on wrist watches 25 years ago anyway, at the end of highschool. They just get in the way. Useless too. If they were indispensable then in 25 years I guess I would have suffered from it by now... but I never did.

The only thing I do with the right hand is operate my scopes... because yes, they clearly were designed by righties : the control panel is always on the RIGHT side of the CRT ! How stupid is that... so using my left hand is cumbersome at best, and at any rate useless since my arm would obfuscate the screen so I would not see what I am doing as I am turning knobs ! Pfff.... bloody righties...

Luckily the old tube Tek scopes have the CRT at the top !    But still... there are some controls on the right side of the CRT anyway...

Most HP 180 series also had the CRT above the controls, as does my old Yokogawa storage scope.



David

[mnementh]

Yeah I'd buy one but not for that. Main advantage is it has RS232 which means no PITA GPIB adapter required.

So you're saying the fact of GPIB-only is the reason the 3478A gets no respect...?

Seems way overpriced to me, considering a working 3478A can be had for ~100 quid almost any day; less if you can be patient and shop carefully.    Shameful, actually; for some reason the 3478A just gets no respect.

Is it just the 3478A, or any HP gear of that generation, ie with that horrible tiny hard to read LCD that almost nobody likes ? LED or VFD gears are so much easier to read, from a distance, at any angle, whatever the lighting conditions dark or bright.

Maybe if they had made a much larger LCD with digits 3 times as tall, fatter segments, and a bright and even backlight... people would value them more ? Still,  you would still have the viewing angle problem.which neither LED or VFD suffer from.

At any rate this LCD is a killer for me personally. I would rather get an older gear with LED displays (still small but easy to read and no viewing angle problem), or save some more money and get a newer generation with VFD. 

Having lived with one everyday for a while... the transflective LCD on the 3478A is very good for the breed. Viewing angle is quite wide, and unless you like to work on a dark bench, the fact of passive display is a total non-issue.

I think the problem is

a) not sexy; everything aboot it screams "dumptruck" design ethos.
2) general ignorance aboot B/L vs non-B/L display; folks pre-judge it and just say "pass..." because they've never actually had one.

Bottom line is the 3478A is one of the most straightforward UI, generally easy-to-use meters ever made. If not for the fact they're proportioned like a Dachshund (dog and a half-long; half a dog wide) they'd be the perfect all-around bench meter. 

mnem
 

[Saskia]

my sympathies and condolences. I have 4 - 5 shoe cartons in front of me, they contain bills, invoices, receipts, etc that I need to do my 2020 tax declaration.

This sucks.
big time.

Is that time again already for you? I thought you only did that just before Christmas last year or have a I got that wrong?

That was for 2019. This is for 2020.

I'm only on salary these days, so my tax returns are only complicated by the fact that some of my stock was sold (someone bought like 80% of the stock and could then decide to buy back the remaining 20% and delist the company from the stock exchange.) so in the online tax return web site I must perform an extra operation before I approve the rest of the return, which has been pre-computed. I of course can request that the computation be changed, say if I need to pay more tax, et c.  I expect this to take like 30 minutes. 

People who have salary only, or have had no changes in their stock portfolio, and approve of the precomputed version can complete the process with a SMS to the tax authorities containing an one-time password that is supplied on the paper form.

When I had both salary and a company on the side, the tax returns took perhaps 3 hours. Also online.

In both cases I can sign the returns electronically, and if I'm quick, I get a head start in getting overshoot taxes back.

well,

over here it is different. I have to turn in between 20 - 30 pages of tax declaration plus one binder of receipts. It is a big A4 binder, the Leitz style. My tax declaration weighs somewhere between 3 and 4 kgs.
And most certainly it's not done within 30 minutes.

Now with that company on the side that my employer allowed me to  set up this year, this will about double.

[Vince]

Most HP 180 series also had the CRT above the controls, as does my old Yokogawa storage scope.

Yeah, that vertical / portable form factor with the CRT at the top was widespread in the '70s it seems, with the 5000 and 7000 series Tektronix-wise. Unless you specifically asked for a rack-mount version, the bench top version was vertical.... but come the '80's and the horizontal form factor with CRT on the left, quickly became the "norm", still true today 40 years later. Yokogawa is japanese (?) so maybe their "norm" evolved differently there, don't know...  Just looked at their website, they make only two lines of scopes it seems, only the cheaper/slow models are vertical, faster ones are just like any Tek/HP high-end scope. Might be due to the very large LCD constraint though ! ....

Anyway, CRT at the top is definitely not the majority these days, by a long shot...

I don't really care I mean, I can live with the controls on the right ! I can shift gears in the car with the right hand after all, so turning a few knows on a scope is not that big a problem, I won't sure scope manufacturers !

It becomes less and less relevant with high-end modern scopes though, since the controls represent such a small portion of the real estate. 90% of the front panel s just one huge LCD screen which you can operate with touch more and more anyway...

[mansaxel]

NOS still in box Fluke 8060A  on UK ebay £195 www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265111004557?
I'd be tempted but the TEA caddy is empty at the moment. I need to sell some junk stuff.

It is in slightly better condition than the ex-military one I got for 150 SEK (like £12) plus shipping. The novelty(sic) is really coming at a price!

[mnementh]

...I do have a dim bulb tester but would need to put several 100Watts bulbs in parallel to cope with Tek scope... not very practical, and you can't buy these bulbs anymore any way... maybe replace the bulb with a powerful halogen bulb. Still available for sale, available in high wattage, and much more compact than  light bulb. Still, a variac would be good to bring the voltage up slowly as desired, to get more control. Dim bulb tester is more of an on/off safety. Saves your bacon but gives you no fine control.

Anyway, looking forward to some interesting content with your 547, have fun and keep us posted ! 

Is this enough fine control of wattage...? They make these for putting lots of cheap LED floodlights in the garage; I've used one with appliance bulbs to fine-adjust max current on my dim-bulb tester. Costs $10-15 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=bulb+splitter+7+in+1

mnem
*juicy*