Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

   Just found some retard signalling out on my daily walk 

Yeah right. If our weather was being engineered who the fuck would choose to make it what it has been recently?

Them! Who? Them!  I had that discussion once with my father.

Oh, lookit... the whole Contrails Conspiracy clusterfuck is making the rounds again. This has literally been around since the '50s in one form or another, and it morphs constantly; I've seen it bandied aboot with tie-ins to the Anti-Fluoride Conspiracy, DDT and Thalidomide, the Alien Lizard People Pope/Prez/Prime Minister etc, Helter Skelter, Son of Sam and Paul is Dead, 2 or 3 different Luddite Movements, and even a round or two of the Anti-Vaxxers.

mnem
Gotta love the Classics...

[mnementh]

Oh just remembered, here's another one for Specmaster and factory to have a look at:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363448628974

Nah, it is already pricey, bound to go higher yet and the buyer has no history, fakespot guard already flagged the seller up needing extreme caution.

Seller is only down the road from me so I can go and smother dog shit all over their car and house if there’s a problem.

Can I come with and shoot video to post on (anti)social media...? 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

A Fabricobbledy Monday Morning Project:



The resistors were waiting in my mailbox this morning after brekkerz; I decided to step back from that Pioneer to get a start on something useful, so pulled the heatsink from that black behemoth monoblock amp to make this. 20 m3 holes drilled and tapped with the same bit/tap, all by hand with cordless drill. Even had to tap the holes with the drill too... Okay, I didn't have to, but I preferred to as I didn't have a proper ratcheting tap handle to use.

Still to come: Terminals on the way, and designing/printing bits to hold them and a 120mm fan.   

mnem
 

[mnementh]

I just stumbled across this on Amazon... and for some reason, I immediately thought of you, med... 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

   https://xkcd.com/864/

mnem
*knocks self unconscious with a chicken mallet*

[capt bullshot]

 

My PC is driving me crazy at the moment, I tried to see if it would be suitable to run Windows 11 when it is released, and it failed, and now it is effing about. I had problems with audio on discord Saturday, since then installed new audio drivers, and it's completely screwed up the settings, and now it will no longer see the headset when plugged in, so no microphone and no headphones, only speakers 

I may have to wipe it clean and do a complete reinstall, if that happens, I may be gone sometime reinstalling everything 

Guilty of violating:

Rule #1: Never update a working system   

[vk6zgo]

One of the engineers at work took a Lecroy Wavesurfer off site in his car and smashed the screen    He didn't bother taking the front cover or packing it properly 

And to think I felt guilty, back in 1968, when I braked hard, & the Telequipment Serviscope that was sitting on the Series 2 Landrover seat fell on its backside.
Broke off one of the rear feet, & badly dented the back panel, but it still worked!

I can do you one better, though, with an EE's misadventure.

A Telecom Aust Engineer came back from the bush with a Landcruiser "troop carrier" full of test instruments, all in aluminium "road cases", & parked it in his home driveway.
During the night some "evil doers" stole the "troopie" along with all the goodies.

The cops soon found the Toyota-----empty!

Finding the test gear took a little longer, but the police officers rang a few days later with the "good news"-----all of the gear had been recovered.

The "bad news"?
They were recovered in the river!

[vk6zgo]

   https://xkcd.com/864/

mnem
*knocks self unconscious with a chicken mallet*

Dude!
It's 2021 & I still don't have my bloody flying car!

[bd139]

My PC is driving me crazy at the moment, I tried to see if it would be suitable to run Windows 11 when it is released, and it failed, and now it is effing about. I had problems with audio on discord Saturday, since then installed new audio drivers, and it's completely screwed up the settings, and now it will no longer see the headset when plugged in, so no microphone and no headphones, only speakers 

I may have to wipe it clean and do a complete reinstall, if that happens, I may be gone sometime reinstalling everything 

Guilty of violating:

Rule #1: Never update a working system   

Correction: Never update a working *windows* system…

[BU508A]

Just found some retard signalling out on my daily walk 

Another Bill Gates conspiracy theory?

Jepp.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory

[vk6zgo]

Just found some retard signalling out on my daily walk 

Yeah right. If our weather was being engineered who the fuck would choose to make it what it has been recently?

Nobody said it has been engineered well!
I've known engineers who would stuff it up!

[BU508A]

My PC is driving me crazy at the moment, I tried to see if it would be suitable to run Windows 11 when it is released, and it failed, and now it is effing about. I had problems with audio on discord Saturday, since then installed new audio drivers, and it's completely screwed up the settings, and now it will no longer see the headset when plugged in, so no microphone and no headphones, only speakers 

I may have to wipe it clean and do a complete reinstall, if that happens, I may be gone sometime reinstalling everything 

If you are going to do this, I'd suggest to add another harddrive and install on it Linux after you have installed Windows. My Linux is working fine with discord, no problems at all, it just simply works.

Edit:
If you don't have any experiences with the available Linux desktops, I recommend to use something similiar to Windows, such as Cinnamon, Mate or KDE Plasma. I'm using KDE which serves me very well.

[med6753]

Since the Type 547 has to be put aside for a while turning my attention to some volt-nut stuff. These two 8800A's are in need of some calibration touch up. But just DCV and Ohms. I don't have adequate references for ACV so that won't be checked. The hp 3456A will be the arbitrator or reference. Both 8800A's and the 3456A have been powered up for about 12 hours. DCV zero set as shown.


 
Didn't realize it until now that the ACV trim pot count is different between the two DMM's. The 8800A on the left with the fewer trim pots is the later S/N. Doesn't matter since I won't be checking ACV anyway.

   

[bd139]

My PC is driving me crazy at the moment, I tried to see if it would be suitable to run Windows 11 when it is released, and it failed, and now it is effing about. I had problems with audio on discord Saturday, since then installed new audio drivers, and it's completely screwed up the settings, and now it will no longer see the headset when plugged in, so no microphone and no headphones, only speakers 

I may have to wipe it clean and do a complete reinstall, if that happens, I may be gone sometime reinstalling everything 

If you are going to do this, I'd suggest to add another harddrive and install on it Linux after you have installed Windows. My Linux is working fine with discord, no problems at all, it just simply works.

Edit:
If you don't have any experiences with the available Linux desktops, I recommend to use something similiar to Windows, such as Cinnamon, Mate or KDE Plasma. I'm using KDE which serves me very well.

I’d like to add that if you’re doing to do that do explicitly what BU508A says and do it on a physically different hard disk. Dual booting windows 10 is a pain on one disk with EFI.

Or not do it at all which is my thing. I won’t use desktop Linux any more. I spend more time fixing it than using it (currently my T495 is hosed because Ubuntu 20.04 blows the kernel out the moment X starts and it’s officially supported hardware  ). I’ve given it to my middle one so she can play games on it.

[BU508A]

My PC is driving me crazy at the moment, I tried to see if it would be suitable to run Windows 11 when it is released, and it failed, and now it is effing about. I had problems with audio on discord Saturday, since then installed new audio drivers, and it's completely screwed up the settings, and now it will no longer see the headset when plugged in, so no microphone and no headphones, only speakers 

I may have to wipe it clean and do a complete reinstall, if that happens, I may be gone sometime reinstalling everything 

If you are going to do this, I'd suggest to add another harddrive and install on it Linux after you have installed Windows. My Linux is working fine with discord, no problems at all, it just simply works.

Edit:
If you don't have any experiences with the available Linux desktops, I recommend to use something similiar to Windows, such as Cinnamon, Mate or KDE Plasma. I'm using KDE which serves me very well.

I’d like to add that if you’re doing to do that do explicitly what BU508A says and do it on a physically different hard disk. Dual booting windows 10 is a pain on one disk with EFI.

Or not do it at all which is my thing. I won’t use desktop Linux any more. I spend more time fixing it than using it (currently my T495 is hosed because Ubuntu 20.04 blows the kernel out the moment X starts and it’s officially supported hardware  ). I’ve given it to my middle one so she can play games on it.

@Specmaster:
If you want to try and play around with Linux, I recommend to download a distro, put it on an USB stick and boot from it. Then you'll have two options in general: one for installing it, one for trying.

@bd139
I'm using Ubuntu since now 15 years and I never had the need to fix X or the desktop. I'm running here 20.04 and 18.04, both LTS and all works like a charm. If we should ever meet in real life, then I'm really keen to listen to your stories about all those desktop fixing, because it never occured to me.

[bd139]

Oh I could go on for months. You’re probably one of those lucky people who just steps on all the stones in the river and looks like Jesus. I’m the guy up to his knees in silt with a piranha nibbling on his testicles 

[BU508A]

 

Thanks for the laugh!

[Robert763]

A Fabricobbledy Monday Morning Project:



The resistors were waiting in my mailbox this morning after brekkerz; I decided to step back from that Pioneer to get a start on something useful, so pulled the heatsink from that black behemoth monoblock amp to make this. 20 m3 holes drilled and tapped with the same bit/tap, all by hand with cordless drill. Even had to tap the holes with the drill too... Okay, I didn't have to, but I preferred to as I didn't have a proper ratcheting tap handle to use.

Still to come: Terminals on the way, and designing/printing bits to hold them and a 120mm fan.   

mnem
 

How many watts are you going to be dissipating with that lot? It will need  fan to get anywhere it nominal rating.

[med6753]

Oh I could go on for months. You’re probably one of those lucky people who just steps on all the stones in the river and looks like Jesus. I’m the guy up to his knees in silt with a piranha nibbling on his testicles 

I have an old Toshiba laptop very happy running 20.04 LTS. Never any issues but I really don't use it all that much. I took the Lady Cop's old Dell desktop and wiped Win7 and installed 20.04 LTS. It's perfect for her since about all she does with a computer is surf the web.

And I don't look like Jesus and I can't walk on water. 

[Specmaster]

My PC is driving me crazy at the moment, I tried to see if it would be suitable to run Windows 11 when it is released, and it failed, and now it is effing about. I had problems with audio on discord Saturday, since then installed new audio drivers, and it's completely screwed up the settings, and now it will no longer see the headset when plugged in, so no microphone and no headphones, only speakers 

I may have to wipe it clean and do a complete reinstall, if that happens, I may be gone sometime reinstalling everything 

Guilty of violating:

Rule #1: Never update a working system   

No No not at all, audio just screwed up all by itself, before I looked at Windows 11, it has been playing up for a while on Discord sessions. 

[beanflying]

Before you get to the limitations of specific applications  Yes I know it is a few years old too 

[Specmaster]

OK, back to this Stewarts of Reading business with the Fluke 97. I replied yesterday to their email offering one for £125 + vat etc and that they may or may not be able to provide some accessories for it, all depends on whatever they could find. I thanked them for their email, but said that the price was too much for me and that their listing also showed the Fluke 99B at £125, twice bandwidth and far higher specs. I also explained that I wasn't happy buying something completely blind like this, especially when I was even sure just what to expect when I received it, and maybe I should just stick to my existing scope and differential probe.

This morning, I received an email from them asking me if I had a phone number that I could let them have so that they could chat with me! Is that a good sign or what  I've never had this kind of response before from other sellers, so I'm not to sure how to play it 

[tggzzz]

Is that a good sign or what  I've never had this kind of response before from other sellers, so I'm not to sure how to play it 

Depends on what they have to say and whether they are prepared to put it in writing.

Take the call, unless your time is more valuable to you.

[Robert763]

Talk to them, it wil probably be Dwyane or Beryl (his mum). Nothing to loose but a bit of time.

[Specmaster]

Before you get to the limitations of specific applications  Yes I know it is a few years old too 

It does nothing to enhance Linux or to convince those on the fence, like me, to install Linux when you hear from the Author of the software itself talk about it like this. Yes its good that is open source but at the same time it also gives rise to so many variants, that an application from a developer may not work on some  variants of Linux. That really sucks. At least Windows provides the users a degree of comfort by only having the one variant that applications have to run on. End users, like myself only need to know if the application has been designed to run on Win10.