Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

Back in the day, the use of "Belling Lee" connectors for audio inputs was quite common, in both the UK & Oz.

This is one of the days I'm happy we have had a significant influence from Germany. DIN connectors, while crappy, are ages better than Belling-Lee coax plugs, which are plain crap. Hell, they make the F connector look good.

Nowadays, I won't buy audio gear without XLR connectors and associated balanced interfacing.

For home / domestic use, or indeed in most environments where the audio gear is going to be fixed, XLR connectors are a massive overkill, but for mobile use such as mobile DJ's, recording equipment that has to be moved a lot like outside broadcast units, film locations etc, I agree, XLR is essential because of its ruggedness.

What about homes that contain either squaddies, policemen, actors, or [shudders] 2 year-olds? 

[AVGresponding]

Two were available but I've snapped up one:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Fluke-8800A-Digital-Multimeter-Vintage-Electronics-Not-Tested-/184846341550?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286

[med6753]

I broke down. Couldn't let them languish unloved any longer. Two Tek 454's for $40 USD. Both have issues. If all goes as planned I'll pick them up tomorrow.

[mnementh]

If you decide to keep and plumb in the R/O then fit one of these to a Human drinking spout which might seem dumb adding minerals back in but it tastes WAY better in Tea and Coffee and is far less likely to give gut troubles due to the pH. Something like this https://www.gpawholefoods.com.au/buy/remineralisation-cartridge-in-line/RO-IN-REMIN?gclid=Cj0KCQjw7pKFBhDUARIsAFUoMDasFuDUF1m7f9qXex-UDjdHK_YO5rSfLdTyeMMRwlPr5-pRuPM5NRsaApo1EALw_wcB

Oh please! One place I don't expect to find this kind of pseudo-scientific claptrap reiterated is by people on here. How is pure water at pH 7.0, compared to remineralised water at pH 7.4, is going to mess with the pH balance of the gut considering that the first place that water is going to visit is a stomach that has a pH of between 1.5 and 3.5 and that is in a body that has its own active feedback system for controlling the gut pH?

Bear in mind that pH is a log scale, so the pH difference between pure and remineralised water of 0.4 (10^0.4 = 2.5) is dwarfed by several orders of magnitude by the  pH difference between water and the stomach contents of pH 3.5 to 5.5 (10^3.5 ~ 3,200 to 10^5.5 ~ 320,000) . If drinking pure pH 7.0 water that is 0.4 pH different (2.5 times more acidic; or more accurately 2.5 times less basic) from 'normal' pH 7.4 remineralised water caused "gut problems due to pH" then the consumption of coffee (pH 5), orange juice (pH 3.3) Coca-Cola (pH 2.5, nearly 32000 times more acidic than pure water) would cause devastating symptoms. That guff about pure versus remineralised water causing gut troubles due to pH just does not make scientific sense.

The non Pumped R/O membranes are generally less of an issue as they tend to leave more Ions in the water. Be it R/O of most high grades, Demin or Distilled  the damage it can do can be terminal to what it touches including the Human Body.

Oh dear, it gets worse. Please cite, even a single, peer-reviewed scientific paper that demonstrates any of those forms of purified water being 'terminal' to a human body - I'll even permit a paper citing drowning as long as it attributes some of the harm to the purified nature of the water involved.

I don't really want to be so scathing, but it's difficult not to be when someone is holding out that water that is a tiny bit purer than we generally encounter is some kind of serious medical hazard, to the point of using the word 'terminal' associated with 'Human Body' to imply that pure water is a deadly poison. Common sense ought to tell you to be suspicious of such 'information'.

It just goes to show that scientists and engineers are not magically inoculated against believing or repeating old wive's tales, even through we like to think that our supposed rationality protects us from them. What hopefully sets us apart is how we respond once we start applying critical thinking to them.

My entire family drank and cooked with distilled water for four years when we lived in Houston; it was the only water we could be reasonably certain wasn't just locally sourced tap water run through a Brita filter. Many brands proudly proclaiming to be Texas Spring Water... sure, here lets just pour that fracking wastewater right in my jug, please.  (slight exaggeration for dramatic effect)

I know we may have been a bit paranoid, and water from plastic jugs is not necessarily actually good for you either (do a Google on PP jugs and particulate plastic contamination if you want to see some really horrific PPM PPT numbers)... but at least it didn't taste like diesel fuel and have a rainbow oil slick on top if you drew off a glassful slowly in the afternoon. No, not "read about" or "heard of" secondhand... observed firsthand in more than one home other than my own in different neighborhoods.

When they're buying laws that circumvent the FOIA to keep you from knowing what's in the chemical cocktail they're pumping into the earth to turn coal deposits into oil slurry, you can be damned sure it's bad. As in Erin Brockovich bad.

If you aren't at least a little paranoid, you haven't been paying attention. At all.

mnem
*toddles off to put on his flameproof jammies in preparation for the impending dogpile*

[mnementh]

Back in the day, the use of "Belling Lee" connectors for audio inputs was quite common, in both the UK & Oz.

This is one of the days I'm happy we have had a significant influence from Germany. DIN connectors, while crappy, are ages better than Belling-Lee coax plugs, which are plain crap. Hell, they make the F connector look good.

Nowadays, I won't buy audio gear without XLR connectors and associated balanced interfacing.

For home / domestic use, or indeed in most environments where the audio gear is going to be fixed, XLR connectors are a massive overkill, but for mobile use such as mobile DJ's, recording equipment that has to be moved a lot like outside broadcast units, film locations etc, I agree, XLR is essential because of its ruggedness.

What about homes that contain either squaddies, policemen, actors, or [shudders] 2 year-olds? 

They make mini-XLRs just for (nudge-nudge, wink-wink ) itty-bitty brains and itty-bitty fingers. 

mnem
 

[Robert763]

Back in the day, the use of "Belling Lee" connectors for audio inputs was quite common, in both the UK & Oz.

This is one of the days I'm happy we have had a significant influence from Germany. DIN connectors, while crappy, are ages better than Belling-Lee coax plugs, which are plain crap. Hell, they make the F connector look good.

Nowadays, I won't buy audio gear without XLR connectors and associated balanced interfacing.

For home / domestic use, or indeed in most environments where the audio gear is going to be fixed, XLR connectors are a massive overkill, but for mobile use such as mobile DJ's, recording equipment that has to be moved a lot like outside broadcast units, film locations etc, I agree, XLR is essential because of its ruggedness.

What about homes that contain either squaddies, policemen, actors, or [shudders] 2 year-olds? 

Or balanced interconnections

[Cerebus]

What about homes that contain either squaddies, policemen, actors, or [shudders] 2 year-olds? 

They make mini-XLRs just for itty-bitty brains and itty-bitty fingers. 

mnem
 

Those have, what, 1/4 the metal in them? You've had - hold on I can get this, I've enough fingers - one two year-old boy in your house for a whole year. How long do you think one of those would last on a day when a two year-old boy has decided to test everything in the house with his toy hammer? OK, it might not be a toy hammer, it might be a ladle, it might be the cat, but any of us who've been around small boys (and small redheaded girls) will recognise the activity I'm describing. Best settle on the full sized ones. 

[mnementh]

 
Have to confess: that was me.
I'm a big qwertee fan and when...

Oh god I think you've just cost me a fortune...



OK, I'm not gonna buy ALL of those, but I did get a Meditating Cookie Monster, a Pinky and the Brain for myself, and a Pinky and the Brain for a friend.

I'm really surprised this one wasn't right at the top of your list... 

mnem

[mnementh]

What about homes that contain either squaddies, policemen, actors, or [shudders] 2 year-olds? 

   They make mini-XLRs just for (nudge-nudge, wink-wink ) itty-bitty brains and itty-bitty fingers. 

mnem
 

Those have, what, 1/4 the metal in them? You've had - hold on I can get this, I've enough fingers - one two year-old boy in your house for a whole year. How long do you think one of those would last on a day when a two year-old boy has decided to test everything in the house with his toy hammer? OK, it might not be a toy hammer, it might be a ladle, it might be the cat, but any of us who've been around small boys (and small redheaded girls) will recognize the activity I'm describing. Best settle on the full sized ones. 

There, is that better...?



You forgot the perennial favorite, a wooden-headed stick horse swung around the house like a battleaxe in the hands of a 5-year-old; the mere thought of which makes my left knee shudder involuntarily. 

mnem

[mnementh]

Alright boys, who's offering on this Agilent N1914A dual channel power meter?  I'll put down $5.    https://www.ebay.com/itm/303953989765   

I would totally offer $1 as a joke, except I'm afraid the seller would accept my offer, and then I'd be stuck paying the shipping cost, plus needing to dispose of the thing when it got here. 

Dispose of it? That's a keeper! Splash of Isopropanol and a blast of canned air and she'll be like a bought one!

McBryce.

run it through the dishwasher real quick. 

mnem
*agitating-ily*

[mnementh]

I broke down. Couldn't let them languish unloved any longer. Two Tek 454's for $40 USD. Both have issues. If all goes as planned I'll pick them up tomorrow.

You'll love them. The insides just feel historic; like Apollo-era space-race Hi-Tech. Which, actually, they are.

mnem
 

[Cerebus]

You forgot the perennial favorite, a wooden-headed stick horse swung around the house like a battleaxe in the hands of a 5-year-old; the mere thought of which makes my left knee shudder involuntarily. 

Personally my shuddering would be about six inches to the right and a foot and a half higher. I'm particularly thinking about my dentist sister-out-law's son and daughter charging around the house after their grandfather fed them all the absolutely-forbidden-at-home sugary sweets they could eat*. Thankfully the grandparents in question weren't the kind to have a house full of glass or china knick-knacks, unfortunately this meant that the most fragile thing of interest was Uncle Cerebus. Being repeatedly accidentally head-butted in the nuts by my charging feral nephew  is one of my less fond memories of being an Uncle.

*Being fed sugar has been medically proven not to cause hyperactivity in children, contrary to the circulating myth. However, small children are immune to reason, logic, or medical fact, and will still charge around wailing like banshees after getting the faintest whiff of something sweet, especially if said sticky substances are verboten at home.

[mnementh]

Yes... I can imagine, as my daughter went through a similar kicking phase. Fortunately, most of that phase was directed at big brother... and being a girl, we decided to try and teach her to use that skill responsibly...

The "everything's a hammer" phase... I was recalling it as it happened to me, nothing more. The first such episode caught me entirely by surprise while standing by the sink loading the dishwasher; it did in fact leave me hobbling around on a cane for a week thereafter, and definitely feeling much older than my years...

mnem
"Honey...  were we thinking when we decided to have kids...?"

[Cerebus]

"Honey...  were we thinking when we decided to have kids...?"

I think it would be more helpful if the powers that be, instead of legislating for maternity and paternity leave and other benefits for parents, put the funds required to cover those assorted benefits towards grants for fully effective body armour. 

Edit: One can tell, from the wibbling coming forth from me today, that I can find nothing fun TEA-wise to buy, and I am thoroughly sick and tired of trying to get a control loop for my GPSDO design working that is accurate, stable and settles quickly in the face of 100 to 1000 second time constants. (I actually have a cunning plan that's probably faster and sounder in principle than anything I've seen before, but trying it out means ripping up and rewriting much of what I've already done and I'm putting off the tooth-pulling moment.)

[Specmaster]

Back in the day, the use of "Belling Lee" connectors for audio inputs was quite common, in both the UK & Oz.

This is one of the days I'm happy we have had a significant influence from Germany. DIN connectors, while crappy, are ages better than Belling-Lee coax plugs, which are plain crap. Hell, they make the F connector look good.

Nowadays, I won't buy audio gear without XLR connectors and associated balanced interfacing.

For home / domestic use, or indeed in most environments where the audio gear is going to be fixed, XLR connectors are a massive overkill, but for mobile use such as mobile DJ's, recording equipment that has to be moved a lot like outside broadcast units, film locations etc, I agree, XLR is essential because of its ruggedness.

What about homes that contain either squaddies, policemen, actors, or [shudders] 2 year-olds? 

Yep, I've had 4 lots of 2-year-olds in my lifetime and zero issues with any audio gear, can't vouch for any squaddies, policemen or actors though, but then, all of my audio gear was properly manufactured. Mind you though, I did in my teens make my own stereo amplifier, but that had DIN sockets for inputs and screw terminals for outputs   

[capt bullshot]

Edit: One can tell, from the wibbling coming forth from me today, that I can find nothing fun TEA-wise to buy, and I am thoroughly sick and tired of trying to get a control loop for my GPSDO design working that is accurate, stable and settles quickly in the face of 100 to 1000 second time constants. (I actually have a cunning plan that's probably faster and sounder in principle than anything I've seen before, but trying it out means ripping up and rewriting much of what I've already done and I'm putting off the tooth-pulling moment.)

For the I (integral) part of the control loop, have a look at the TBH (take back half) algorithm (I had to google this too once I stumbled across the term). Quite simple but effective. Other strategy: make a (normal PI) loop for frequency, and slew the phase by known phase difference and known TXCO / OCXO control voltage vs. frequency gain.
That's what I'm currently playing with at my radio clock (http://wunderkis.de/dcf-rcvr/), things are way much easier with the recently acquired OCXO than the TXCO of the orignal design.
Don't be afraid to rewrite (silly advise, I'm usually afraid of throwing out too much old code, too).

[mansaxel]

For home / domestic use, or indeed in most environments where the audio gear is going to be fixed, XLR connectors are a massive overkill, but for mobile use such as mobile DJ's, recording equipment that has to be moved a lot like outside broadcast units, film locations etc, I agree, XLR is essential because of its ruggedness.

Of course, but why be reasonable? In this thread of all places?

[25 CPS]

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/mastercraft-5-shelf-metal-wood-rack-24-x-48-x-72-in-0686371p.html#srp

For the Canadians here who have test equipment storage problems:  25% off 24x48x72 shelving units at Canadian Tire.  I just checked with a measuring tape and that's deep enough to hold Tektronix 7000 and 500 series mainframe scopes and weight rated appropriate as well.  I just added one to my cart since I suddenly developed a Tek scope storage problem several weeks ago.

Interesting!  I always thought that Crappy Tire had the same prices across Canada.  Today I learned otherwise.  I looked at a bunch of stores in Quebec and Eastern Ontario; they all show full price.  Central or Southern Ontario stores have the sale price.   

That is interesting - I was under the same impression too that the prices and the different sales and promotions were set nationwide.  I had no idea there were regional differences like that.

[mansaxel]

They make mini-XLRs just for (nudge-nudge, wink-wink ) itty-bitty brains and itty-bitty fingers. 

Oh, and it has to be Neutrik XLRs too, although perhaps Cannon/Amphenol can suffice for simpler use. Switchcraft did historically suffer from worn out production lines and were really bad. The ones on the picture are Chinesium copies, even worse than Switchcraft.

Small XLRs are not a match for Hirose or Lemo plugs. Sennheiser used Microdot coaxial connectors for audio in and out on their wireless microphone beltpacks, but have regressed to 3,5mm with screw lock.

[mnementh]

"Honey...  were we thinking when we decided to have kids...?"

I think it would be more helpful if the powers that be, instead of legislating for maternity and paternity leave and other benefits for parents, put the funds required to cover those assorted benefits towards grants for fully effective body armour. 

Edit: One can tell, from the wibbling coming forth from me today, that I can find nothing fun TEA-wise to buy, and I am thoroughly sick and tired of trying to get a control loop for my GPSDO design working that is accurate, stable and settles quickly in the face of 100 to 1000 second time constants. (I actually have a cunning plan that's probably faster and sounder in principle than anything I've seen before, but trying it out means ripping up and rewriting much of what I've already done and I'm putting off the tooth-pulling moment.)

By the time that got through committee, this is what would be approved:      

mnem
    
my inner codemonkey has little sympathy...   

[factory]

"Honey...  were we thinking when we decided to have kids...?"

I think it would be more helpful if the powers that be, instead of legislating for maternity and paternity leave and other benefits for parents, put the funds required to cover those assorted benefits towards grants for fully effective body armour. 

Edit: One can tell, from the wibbling coming forth from me today, that I can find nothing fun TEA-wise to buy, and I am thoroughly sick and tired of trying to get a control loop for my GPSDO design working that is accurate, stable and settles quickly in the face of 100 to 1000 second time constants. (I actually have a cunning plan that's probably faster and sounder in principle than anything I've seen before, but trying it out means ripping up and rewriting much of what I've already done and I'm putting off the tooth-pulling moment.)

Maybe you would be interested in an oscilloscope to repair or a hp power supply, no idea who the seller might be. 
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=180339

David

[beanflying]

If you decide to keep and plumb in the R/O then fit one of these to a Human drinking spout which might seem dumb adding minerals back in but it tastes WAY better in Tea and Coffee and is far less likely to give gut troubles due to the pH. Something like this https://www.gpawholefoods.com.au/buy/remineralisation-cartridge-in-line/RO-IN-REMIN?gclid=Cj0KCQjw7pKFBhDUARIsAFUoMDasFuDUF1m7f9qXex-UDjdHK_YO5rSfLdTyeMMRwlPr5-pRuPM5NRsaApo1EALw_wcB

Oh please! One place I don't expect to find this kind of pseudo-scientific claptrap reiterated is by people on here. How is pure water at pH 7.0, compared to remineralised water at pH 7.4, is going to mess with the pH balance of the gut considering that the first place that water is going to visit is a stomach that has a pH of between 1.5 and 3.5 and that is in a body that has its own active feedback system for controlling the gut pH?

Bear in mind that pH is a log scale, so the pH difference between pure and remineralised water of 0.4 (10^0.4 = 2.5) is dwarfed by several orders of magnitude by the  pH difference between water and the stomach contents of pH 3.5 to 5.5 (10^3.5 ~ 3,200 to 10^5.5 ~ 320,000) . If drinking pure pH 7.0 water that is 0.4 pH different (2.5 times more acidic; or more accurately 2.5 times less basic) from 'normal' pH 7.4 remineralised water caused "gut problems due to pH" then the consumption of coffee (pH 5), orange juice (pH 3.3) Coca-Cola (pH 2.5, nearly 32000 times more acidic than pure water) would cause devastating symptoms. That guff about pure versus remineralised water causing gut troubles due to pH just does not make scientific sense.

The non Pumped R/O membranes are generally less of an issue as they tend to leave more Ions in the water. Be it R/O of most high grades, Demin or Distilled  the damage it can do can be terminal to what it touches including the Human Body.

Oh dear, it gets worse. Please cite, even a single, peer-reviewed scientific paper that demonstrates any of those forms of purified water being 'terminal' to a human body - I'll even permit a paper citing drowning as long as it attributes some of the harm to the purified nature of the water involved.

I don't really want to be so scathing, but it's difficult not to be when someone is holding out that water that is a tiny bit purer than we generally encounter is some kind of serious medical hazard, to the point of using the word 'terminal' associated with 'Human Body' to imply that pure water is a deadly poison. Common sense ought to tell you to be suspicious of such 'information'.

It just goes to show that scientists and engineers are not magically inoculated against believing or repeating old wive's tales, even through we like to think that our supposed rationality protects us from them. What hopefully sets us apart is how we respond once we start applying critical thinking to them.

The principal reason for a remineralizer cartridge is TASTE and if you want to accuse me of not knowing about them then you are WRONG. It is part of what I do TASTE and in particular related to Tea and Coffee water. If the water is to pure the result tastes flat. Somewhere around 50-80PPM is best for Espresso while brewed drinks generally 100-150 PPM is about right. There is Nothing psuedo scientific about this at all and involves blind tastings again as part of what I have done for Roasting and Cupping training.

This is not an 'old wives tale' or to be derided and dismissed because of your lack of 'knowledge' and demand it be so. Osmosis in the body is a thing and stripping minerals does happen when you feed pure water in. This is a known the body via sweat and a normal functioning urinary tract takes minerals out of the body and as I have lived with a family of Dialysis patients I know about those who don't and have had lengthy chats to the medical Techs who maintain the gear including the R/O plants for home dialysis. Minerals in water are part of a balance andif you don't put them in that balance goes off. Not all the world eats, drinks or consumes its calcium in particular from milk and a chunk of it comes from water for them.

As to pH demin, distilled and very purified water does not keep a pH of 7 it goes acidic (circa pH of 6) due to what the CO2 in air does to it when it is in an open container.

'Terminal' might be overstated but perhaps deleterious would be more appropriate. Below is similar to what is known as SCIENCE on water and some of the downside risks of drinking low mineral 'pure' water. There is plenty of actual information out there that is not junk propaganda from filter salespeople sharks.

https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/nutrientschap12.pdf

[med6753]

I broke down. Couldn't let them languish unloved any longer. Two Tek 454's for $40 USD. Both have issues. If all goes as planned I'll pick them up tomorrow.

You'll love them. The insides just feel historic; like Apollo-era space-race Hi-Tech. Which, actually, they are.

mnem
 

I'm well aware of that. The Type 422 that I recently restored has the same discrete construction. And I hooked up with the seller and I am indeed picking them up tomorrow.

[Cerebus]

Edit: One can tell, from the wibbling coming forth from me today, that I can find nothing fun TEA-wise to buy, and I am thoroughly sick and tired of trying to get a control loop for my GPSDO design working that is accurate, stable and settles quickly in the face of 100 to 1000 second time constants. (I actually have a cunning plan that's probably faster and sounder in principle than anything I've seen before, but trying it out means ripping up and rewriting much of what I've already done and I'm putting off the tooth-pulling moment.)

For the I (integral) part of the control loop, have a look at the TBH (take back half) algorithm (I had to google this too once I stumbled across the term). Quite simple but effective. Other strategy: make a (normal PI) loop for frequency, and slew the phase by known phase difference and known TXCO / OCXO control voltage vs. frequency gain.
That's what I'm currently playing with at my radio clock (http://wunderkis.de/dcf-rcvr/), things are way much easier with the recently acquired OCXO than the TXCO of the orignal design.
Don't be afraid to rewrite (silly advise, I'm usually afraid of throwing out too much old code, too).

I tried TBH, the uncertainty of measuring the zero crossings added to the inherent sampling error (jitter of ±5 ns in my case, plus ±15ns GPS uncertainty) pushed way too much short term jitter into the system. I've worked through rough drafts of all the standard schemes and none have performed as I would want.

Looking at TBH suggested to me that a deliberate search strategy might be best, so I've settled on a two phase approach.

I'm going to start-up by doing a binary search (like a successive approximation ADC) driving the DAC just like in a SAR ADC, but doubling the frequency/time measurement integration time each time the step size decreases by 1/2 so that the uncertainty in my frequency measurements is significantly less than the DAC step size. Do that all the way down through the bits in the DAC and one ought to get to the last bit with a measurement uncertainty of [checks spreadsheet] of 0.0001953125 Hz (0.4 ppt, k=2) on a sample interval of 2048, making for a total time to get to a 'spot on' adjustment with of 68 minutes and 35 seconds. It gets to an uncertainty in frequency measurement (but no particular accuracy yet) of 200 ppt after only 13 seconds. The attraction is what while it's working towards the final lock you get an accurate frequency readout complete with the uncertainty of that reading. Given how long it can take to get any GPSDO to full lock that strikes me as a potentially desirable feature.

Once it has got down to the ultimate accuracy I plan to use a simple I controller along with a heuristic based around measured OCXO gain and, after acquiring it, long term drift.


Bullet has already been bitten:

Code: [Select]

cerebus@shu:~/Documents/Electronics Design/GPSDO/Software/GPSDO-F411$ git branch successive-approximation
cerebus@shu:~/Documents/Electronics Design/GPSDO/Software/GPSDO-F411$ git branch
* master
  successive-approximation
cerebus@shu:~/Documents/Electronics Design/GPSDO/Software/GPSDO-F411$ git checkout successive-approximation


I'm always aware of Fred Brooks admonition to "plan to throw one away" whenever I start a new piece of software. Over the years I've found it to be very prescient advice.

[Cerebus]

The principal reason for a remineralizer cartridge is TASTE and if you want to accuse me of not knowing about them then you are WRONG. It is part of what I do TASTE and in particular related to Tea and Coffee water. If the water is to pure the result tastes flat. Somewhere around 50-80PPM is best for Espresso while brewed drinks generally 100-150 PPM is about right. There is Nothing psuedo scientific about this at all and involves blind tastings again as part of what I have done for Roasting and Cupping training.

Oh, look a strawman. I took no issue with what you had to say about taste, in fact I quite agree. But you set that up as a strawman argument and proceed to 'demolish' that.

Stick to the substance of my argument, not the one you've made up to replace it. How does purified water cause "gut troubles due to the pH." as you claim? In what way is that claim anything but an old wive's tale?

Ditto the deleterious nature of purified water to humans, unless you have a diet so deficient in calcium and magnesium that you body is reduced to scavenging every last bit one can of each from drinking water? The recommended daily intake of calcium in the UK is 700mg,  moderately 'hard' water is 100 - 200 mg CaCO³ per litre which is equivalent to 40-80mg of calcium, thus one would need to drink 8.75 to 17.5 litres of water a day to make up the RDI by which point you would probably have passed the LD₅₀ of water which is 90g/kg (rat), so 6.3 litres for a 70kg man.

As far as osmosis inside the body is concerned - give me a break - one of the miracles of the kidney is its ability to selectively retain or discharge minerals according to need, it's not some chunk of Visking tubing that will always shunt minerals one way and water the other according to concentration. That's precisely why the kidney contains active transport mechanisms in addition to simple osmotic mechanisms. Reabsorption of Ca²+ ions by active transport in particular is controlled by parathyroid hormone, and the levels of parathyroid hormone are controlled by blood calcium levels. Just drinking mineral deficient water is not enough to make you start literally pissing minerals away in fact, by the miracle of homeostasis, it will have exactly the opposite effect.