Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Vince]

You BASTARD!!! Made me snort coffee out my nose...[

mnem

Coffee out of a Dragon's nose ? I guess that's perfectly normal, must be some kind of built-in fire extinguishing system ?? 

[mnementh]

mnem
no. not in any way natural; in fact, quite unnatural. 

[xrunner]

In preparation for later, to make sure this will work, I went ahead and nuked the Agilent E4411B firmware using it's flash erase procedure. I need to know if it will be able to restore the firmware from that point. If this doesn't work as advertised I need to know now.

I powered on the unit with ESC & VIEW/TRACE buttons held down and it went into flash erase mode. Service manual sez "wait approximately 10 minutes"  and there is absolutely no indication of progress or completion - just a white screen.

I decided to wait "approximately" 12 minutes. I powered it off then on, and nothing but a white screen. Yep definitely nuked but that is expected. Inserted ESALOADR floppy and re-cycle pwr again, and sure enough it starts the firmware loading program. That fail safe ability resides in another chip on the main board, probably U74 (same flash memory chip) which is on the main board. Firmware now re-loaded and back up and running like nothing happened.

A little scary, but now I can move forward.

If you are interested in how the memory/firmware upgrade goes from here (when I get more parts) I'm continuing it in the thread below. There is another member whose been trying to do this and we're consolidating it all here -

Agilent ESA Series Memory & Firmware upgrades

Thank you for your interest in this topic.

[Saskia]

very quick somewhat spicy soup:

400 ml coconut milk (may be the light variant)
1 spoon rapeseed oil
1 spoon of red thai curry paste
1 - 2 handful of veggies (I use deep frosted brockoli, cauliflower, carrots
5 frozen prawns (optional)
add pepper and salt.

Throw together in pot.
Let it cook until the cauliflower is cooked

Eat.
Takes 5 minutes to throw together and can be modified (by adding lemon gras, thai basil, chinese cabbage, peppers, chicken).

[McBryce]

very quick somewhat spicy soup:

400 ml coconut milk (may be the light variant)
1 spoon rapeseed oil
1 spoon of red thai curry paste
1 - 2 handful of veggies (I use deep frosted brockoli, cauliflower, carrots
5 frozen prawns (optional)
add pepper and salt.

Throw together in pot.
Let it cook until the cauliflower is cooked

Eat.
Takes 5 minutes to throw together and can be modified (by adding lemon gras, thai basil, chinese cabbage, peppers, chicken).

A meal without meat is like a lab without test gear.

McBryce.

[mnementh]

Don't be such a prawn. 

mnem

    *stirring the TEA*

[BU508A]

Where is bd139?
Missing him somehow ...

[25 CPS]

very quick somewhat spicy soup:

400 ml coconut milk (may be the light variant)
1 spoon rapeseed oil
1 spoon of red thai curry paste
1 - 2 handful of veggies (I use deep frosted brockoli, cauliflower, carrots
5 frozen prawns (optional)
add pepper and salt.

Throw together in pot.
Let it cook until the cauliflower is cooked

Eat.
Takes 5 minutes to throw together and can be modified (by adding lemon gras, thai basil, chinese cabbage, peppers, chicken).

Rape seed oil?  Uh-oh.  You can't call it that!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/tisdale-land-of-rape-honey-slogan-changes-opportunity-grows-here-1.3730796

[Specmaster]

Where is bd139?
Missing him somehow ...

I thought the same, but I guess he is rather busy on the software side at the moment, he has recently listed some items on eBay so he won't be far away.

[Neomys Sapiens]

 So a child at a public beach with a bucket of seawater is an offender ..

Whoa! No reason to go all WMD!

[Neomys Sapiens]

Back to TEA. I finished the test circuit for the HDSP0860 (amber 4x7) display clock and it works fine. Using 74HCT390s which are decmal rather than binary saves a bit of decoding so just 3 74HCT390s and a 74HCT08 for decode.  I'll probably add a quad EXOR for injecting pulses for time setting. One thing is thet the HDSP display run pretty hot. So I've ordered some 0.5mm silicone thermal transfer material and will run a alloy strip behind the displays as a heatsink.
Off to cut a rectangular hole in the 2mm thick front panel.

Why don't you pulse them?

[Neomys Sapiens]

So, the 8022b got robbed of its 6F22 cellbattery (because I have but one oscillator and several multimeters..) a dozen pages back or so. As I did that little intrusion, I remembered why I'd bought a stash of 6F22 terminal clips; there was a bodge repair on the one in the 8022B. Small project time!

Grab one of the new ones, trim it to length, and furnish it with bootlace ferrules, then.

Empty the PCB of the old ones, and prep to solder the new one in. (I still love my China-sucking-desolderer, buy one!)

Trimmed the length of the ferrules, cleaned with IPA.

Some performance checks, first DC V:

Then ACV, with the 123 as waveform witness. The adaptation of a pseudo-RMS circuit is evident, as the 1KHz sine is 10V p-p and 2*3,45*sqrt(2) is 9,76.

(I will now test how many attachments I can cram in here and still post...)

rather unconventional, but definitely worth a try (soldering w. ferrules)

[mansaxel]

Rape seed oil?  Uh-oh.  You can't call it that!

Just wait until ýou see what the autotranslator in the Amazon store backend did to the "rapeseed field wallpapers" when they let it loose at making "swedish" from whatever was typed/copied into the store initially.

[mansaxel]

rather unconventional, but definitely worth a try (soldering w. ferrules)

Yes, it worked a treat. What I did, though, was to first solder the crimped ferrules in the holes in the pcb, then cut them flush (Superknips!) with the fillet on the soldering, as one does with a normal component leg, and then did a small touch-up where I flowed just a tiny bead of solder on top of the cut, to get some capillary action going inside the ferrule. The cold joint between the wire and the inside of the ferrule probably does not fill upp 100%, so just a tad solder, mostly for peace of mind.

If I did this for something new, I'd probably do solder turrets, or use these clip-on terminals and matching PCB mount pegs which I've encountered inside Clansman headsets and handsets and I had to source when I'd run out of spare cables. Being built to withstand squaddies means that I probably safely can expose them to anything.

[Cerebus]

Being built to withstand squaddies means that I probably safely can expose them to anything.

... except actors and policemen.

[Neomys Sapiens]

I have an 8021B which looks identical, at least on the exterior, to your 8022B and I wonder what the differences are?

No continuity buzzer on the 8022B. Generally lower last digit on 80xx series Flukes means more features / performance.

Edit, just checked an old RS Components catalog. In 1986 the buzzer (8021B) cost £25 more. The 8022B 8020B with buzzer, conductance and better accuracy was £49 more. An increase of nearly 50%.  My First 8020 was a big investment back in the early 80's, more than twice what I paid for my first car!

I was well short of the age necessary to drive a car when I got my 8060A in '83. And the 'moped' which I would have been able to drive wasn't going to carry my equipment even then. 

[GreyWoolfe]

2 words: Magna Carta
You step into my castle and I will defend it and all others inside it !

There will be 2 shots, one into the ceiling and the other into......
Prove which shot was first as the warning shot. 

Thankfully, here in Flori-DUH, we have the castle doctrine.  You break in and you won't hear the sound of the Kel-Tec KS7 being racked like in stoopid movies.  You won't even hear the sound of a warning shot because Wolf 12ga 00 buckshot in 2.75" cost me $189 for 120 rounds.  You might, however, hear over the barking, "Smile, wait for the flash."  Tautech, you are waaaaaaay too kind  to give a warning shot.

Putting a working firearm in the hands of anybody but me terrifies me.

Most of the world is very different to the US where in most countries sidearms are very redistricted whereas a longarm should be considered as just another tool and firearms have perfectly valid uses and gun sports are part of Olympic competitions where those competitors are just as heavily invested as us here in TEA.

We each have different hobbies and interests.

FWIW, my comment above was a total joke. I'm about as rabidly pro-gun as anybody you'll ever meet, from the USA or otherwise. I donate money to basically every pro gun-rights organization there is, including Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership - and I'm not even Jewish.

Please don't joke about such things as there's already enough underhand moves to citizen disarmament all outlaid in UN policies. Deal early and properly vet the few bad eggs that bring these sports into general disrepute which affects normal law abiding owners rather than sell the pretense that it's best for the greater good. 

I agree.  I have been a gun owner for over 40 years.  Not once have I had the urge to rob someone at gunpoint.  Nor have I shot anyone for looking at me sideways.  I am also a concealed weapons permit holder.  I am in favor of stronger background checks and waiting periods for non concealed carry holders.  Both Mrs. GreyWoolfe and I have concealed permits and the quick check done by the gun shop took about 5 minutes for each of us compared to as long as 4 hours.  It pays to be honest and to never have been arrested, let alone accused/convicted of a felony.

[tautech]

2 words: Magna Carta
You step into my castle and I will defend it and all others inside it !

There will be 2 shots, one into the ceiling and the other into......
Prove which shot was first as the warning shot. 

Thankfully, here in Flori-DUH, we have the castle doctrine.  You break in and you won't hear the sound of the Kel-Tec KS7 being racked like in stoopid movies.  You won't even hear the sound of a warning shot because Wolf 12ga 00 buckshot in 2.75" cost me $189 for 120 rounds.  You might, however, hear over the barking, "Smile, wait for the flash."  Tautech, you are waaaaaaay too kind  to give a warning shot.

LOL, where did I say a warning shot might come first ?
For the authorities a further one into the ceiling might indicate you gave one. 

[Brumby]

LOL, where did I say a warning shot might come first ?

I thought that was eminently clear.

For the authorities a further one into the ceiling might indicate you gave one. 

Useful for those jurisdictions that don't have "the castle doctrine".

[VK5RC]

Data re guns and death, suicide is the issue.

[cyclin_al]

very quick somewhat spicy soup:

400 ml coconut milk (may be the light variant)
1 spoon rapeseed oil
1 spoon of red thai curry paste
1 - 2 handful of veggies (I use deep frosted brockoli, cauliflower, carrots
5 frozen prawns (optional)
add pepper and salt.

Throw together in pot.
Let it cook until the cauliflower is cooked

Eat.
Takes 5 minutes to throw together and can be modified (by adding lemon gras, thai basil, chinese cabbage, peppers, chicken).

Rape seed oil?  Uh-oh.  You can't call it that!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/tisdale-land-of-rape-honey-slogan-changes-opportunity-grows-here-1.3730796

Over here in the great white north, the actual grain is called Canola (trademark).  It is actually a particular variety of rapeseed, which is commercially grown.

But yeah, no one calls it what is is anymore...
Similarly, try finding linseed oil in the paint store department of some big box store...

[Saskia]

this is where my internal dictionary fails.

My English is somewhat usable (minus the errors introduced by google autocorrection/special vocabulary that I rarely use), but how should I know that you are not supposed to call something by its generic name ...

[mansaxel]

Being built to withstand squaddies means that I probably safely can expose them to anything.

... except actors and policemen.

Of course. Another trying profession is "engineering students".

[McBryce]

Being built to withstand squaddies means that I probably safely can expose them to anything.

... except actors and policemen.

Of course. Another trying profession is "engineering students".

"Engineering Student" isn't a profession, it's a step towards a profession.

McBryce.

[mansaxel]

Being built to withstand squaddies means that I probably safely can expose them to anything.

... except actors and policemen.

Of course. Another trying profession is "engineering students".

"Engineering Student" isn't a profession, it's a step towards a profession.

McBryce.

For some, who are called "overstayers" or "överliggare" in Swedish; I think one could call them "Langleger" in German (to borrow a nautical term), the normally transitional state of University is converted into a life-long existence. This often is marked by a focus on social activities around studies, and beer, and not so much studies. A few of the students simply don't leave.  Some of these have made excellent contributions toward culture. Others simply became alcoholics.

When I worked at the largest technical university in Sweden (because I was not qualified to study there, but sysadmin with a side order of lecturing was OK) I saw and interacted with a few.