Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Arrived at hospital at 0545 hours. At 0730 hours was in for the surgery. Didn't fully wake up until 1130 hours. Currently 1430 hours and I'm home. I had at least a 3 or 4 inch cut and surprisingly as long as I'm sitting and even standing pain is minimal or just uncomfortable. It's getting up that hurts like hell. Not taking any pain meds either and I think I'm going to forgo them unless I really need it.

It's good to finally have that taken care of and hopefully I heal fast.

That cup of coffee tasted so damn good after not having anything since last night. 

Don't be try to be a fucking hero !
Pop the pills and at least be comfortable.

Actually, if he refrains from taking painkillers during the day, the slight pain he says he is experiencing will serve as a reminder to him not to do anything that is going to put a strain on him, so that might just be a good thing, because we all know he can be stubborn at times and might just try something silly. But I really recommend him to have painkillers at night to assist in getting a good night's sleep, as that is when the body does its healing most.

Seriously, speaking as someone who's been managing pain for decades, and who's had some pretty bad cuts & lacerations (more than a few of which probably should have seen some stitches) as a result of not watching out as well as I should have with heavy machinery... this is definitely the path to quickest actual healing.

Go heavy on anti-inflammatory medications like ibuprofen to address the cause of the pain, as light as you can bear on opiates that mask the pain or make your consciousness detached from the pain and dull your wits.

mnem
 

So far, on a scale of 1 -10 my discomfort when sitting or standing is no more than 3 at most. The occasional stab at 7 when getting out of a chair but quickly fades. Agreed the quickest way to healing is avoid the drugs as much as possible and based upon what I'm experiencing right now are completely unnecessary. And yes, with no drugs the little pain I experience is the reminder that I need to take it easy and let the body heal.   

   https://xkcd.com/883/

mnem
"If it were a two or above I wouldn't be able to answer, because that would mean a break in the screaming."   ~hover text on this XKCD

[mnementh]

You are not alone. Being knocked out yesterday has totally screwed up my ability to sleep tonight. Been wide awake all night. But I figure sometime around dawn I'll probably crash.

Yeah... I dunno what is going on with me... I've gone to bed 3 times now; just took another sleeping pill. 

mnem
and now it really is 25 or 6 to 4...

[McBryce]

Robert did what with who for how many jellybeans...?!?   

mnem
*agitating-ily*

There were no jellybeans but apparently there was some hot buttered toast and a nurse..........

Mmmm... breakfast... 

mnem

went thru a lot of stages processsing this one:

1.  that is just wrong.

2.  but wait,  there is bacon!

3.  and look at the butter on those pancakes......yeah maybe i would?

4   oh shit......what if that is actually mnem?  aggggggghhhhhhh!

5.  how much bourbon is in the house?   agggggghhhhhhh!

6  wait.....the cheeks are not covered in a mat of thick fur.  whew!

7.  mmmmmm. bacon.

So you didn't have the "Oh no, mnem's gone and shaved his ass" stage that I went through?

McBryce.

[mnementh]

It would still be bigger than that. 

mnem
Make fun of muh bootayy-breakfast all ya want; it's still one of muh favourite meals...

[AVGresponding]

Finally I managed to get my first COVID shot today. Organized by the company, so no waiting and no mask. Phew. Arm hurting only very slightly - like flu shot.

Did spend the remainder of the day in the lab measuring assorted RF parts on the VNA. Then a PDR on the mechanical design of the next generation product. Now THAT left me feeling unwell. I have a lot of work before me which might be called electromechanical diplomacy. I have to convince them now or I have to wait for them failing IP and EMC testing. Ow.
Then had some beers with my ex-US army colleague and did some toolpr0n show for her. I wonder whether this was a good idea, as she already goes 'aaaah Belzer' all over.

Still waiting eagerly for my full-risk, private buy of a Keithley 2400. Fingers crossed and all squirrely.

Otherwise too much work and shitty weather. Attendance over the next days will still be rather sporadic.

Had my second jab on Tuesday, took the next day off sick just because I could (they aren't allowed to count it towards sick "targets"), then yesterday was on a PASMA scaffolding course. At worst I could describe the after effects as a mildly annoying insect bite.

Good luck with that 2400!

[Vince]

Looked through the Scottrade12 offers on ebay. Got stuck for some hours just looking those companies up.
That Metrix GX5000-MoD pulse generator at MJTRONIX looks nice, although.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114681080274?hash=item1ab38669d2:g:6qIAAOSwXIpgJnBF

Love the GX5000, have one, two other people I know in frog land also have one.

They are quite rare I find, from what I gather they were sold only in 1998 or something.
When I got mine it was also on Ebay UK , I don't know, maybe 4 years ago, for half the price this is one is at.
I remember the seller saying back then, that he had got hold of a bunch of these, like really a bunch... 2 dozen or something... looks like they slowly finding their way on various Ebay sellers, mostly always in the UK. 99% of the time I see them for sale on Ebay UK, not France or Germany... maybe Metrix sold there only in the UK ? Don't know...

Have 2 people I know here in Frog land who also have one. We are all 3 equally desperate to find schematics for it, but it's not going to happen.
Metrix can't even find schematics of their stuff to save their life, 99% of the time I ask them, and this GX5000 is even more hopeless since they said they actually did NOT design it themselves (they don't have the R&D power to design such nice stuff, never had), it was subcontracted ti.... they would not tell.

I love mine even though the user interface is very quirky / painful when it comes to using the 4 arrow keys to set a numerical value.
Their fan is quite loud, yet it gets too warm and after an hour or so of running, mine stops working, outputs shuts off and display spits out complete garbage, then eventually it freezes.

But before it does that, the frequency of the output signal is extremely both inaccurate as well as unstable.
Here is a quick video I did back then, where I set the GX5000 to 10MHz / 100ns period, and I get 10,002,50 Hz .. yes 2,5kHz off ! 
As for instability, as you can see it spans several hundred Hz !



I guess there must be a PLL somewhere that fails to lock, but without schematic it's not going to be a lot of fun...

Still, I love this little thing, and its rarity makes me love it even more. So, I WILL definitely spend the time and effort to try to fix it...one day... 

[AVGresponding]

Always getting  on Discord for not having a working Mic so prior to delivering a new scope to a large audio crowd some horse trading was arranged and access to their E-Waste room was approved. 

Some fixing first might be required however but still quite pleased with the score.
Surely I can get one of the Mic I/O's working. 
Now to look for manuals etc 
Found in a jiffy:
https://www.soundcraft.com/en/product_documents/notepadusermanual_v-1-0-pdf

I only ever use cheap headsets and never have an issue.   

The one I normally use for Discord and TeamSpeak is a Sony with a mic built in to the cable, and it just... works. Cost was £19.99, new.

If I need more mobility I have a couple of bt setups, both again under £20 each new, though I think the bt dongle for the pc might have cost £5 so might put the cost over £20...

One is an integrated in-ear unit which is probably obsolete I've had them that long https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011LR8908
And the other is a bt receiver you can plug a wired headset into, bought from Tesco iirc https://www.amazon.co.uk/Griffin-Bluetooth-Wireless-Transmitter-Receiver/dp/B01HRYAP1K

[BU508A]

It would still be bigger than that. 

mnem
Make fun of muh bootayy-breakfast all ya want; it's still one of muh favourite meals...

Edit:
"Head cinema off"

[Andrew_Debbie]

Arrived at hospital at 0545 hours. At 0730 hours was in for the surgery. Didn't fully wake up until 1130 hours. Currently 1430 hours and I'm home. I had at least a 3 or 4 inch cut and surprisingly as long as I'm sitting and even standing pain is minimal or just uncomfortable. It's getting up that hurts like hell. Not taking any pain meds either and I think I'm going to forgo them unless I really need it.

It's good to finally have that taken care of and hopefully I heal fast.

That cup of coffee tasted so damn good after not having anything since last night. 

That is very good to hear. Hope you have a speedy recovery. 


 I was in a lot of pain for the first few days and uncomfortable for weeks. My scrotum swelled up too.  No fun.    I'm glad it is done but not something I ever want to go through again.

I'm sure you've been warned to avoid lifting anything for several weeks.   Surgeon warned me I'd feel fine before the repair had healed.    So no moving that Tek 555 'scope onto the bench   

[tautech]

Big time overkill for sure if I can make it work. 
Seems to have a short on the 18V DC power barrel jack  and all apart now so some pics of its guts later.
But not a tant in sight ! 

Time for some Gurgling to see what problems these things give.

The analog side in those is pretty simple; you have a PSU that does +/- 17ish volts and a +48V one, with the same reference. The dual of course to run audio, and the +48 to phantom supply. The inputs usually are first a pair of discretes and then its opamp time for buffers and filters. Most of the time pretty simple, but it's the multiplication of things that make them a challenge.

The digital side though. Much more convoluted. My guess is that if you can sort the power supply part out it'll either work (mostly) or be a total loss.

There's a short at the 18V DC input jack not found yet but there are a few 0805 0R jumpers on the main supply input traces which when removed points to a fault in one of the onboard inverters which might be a dud switcher. 
They're all 8 pin SMD tiny and tinier ! 
CC PSU external supply set to 18V held at 0.6V at 1.2A where I chickened out feeding it more.
Lots of 0603 MLCC that I believe can also go short so it's gunna be a battle checking them little suckers !
Bleary eyed and 10pm so calling it quits for tonight. 

[Specmaster]

Finally I managed to get my first COVID shot today. Organized by the company, so no waiting and no mask. Phew. Arm hurting only very slightly - like flu shot.

Did spend the remainder of the day in the lab measuring assorted RF parts on the VNA. Then a PDR on the mechanical design of the next generation product. Now THAT left me feeling unwell. I have a lot of work before me which might be called electromechanical diplomacy. I have to convince them now or I have to wait for them failing IP and EMC testing. Ow.
Then had some beers with my ex-US army colleague and did some toolpr0n show for her. I wonder whether this was a good idea, as she already goes 'aaaah Belzer' all over.

Still waiting eagerly for my full-risk, private buy of a Keithley 2400. Fingers crossed and all squirrely.

Otherwise too much work and shitty weather. Attendance over the next days will still be rather sporadic.

Had my second jab on Tuesday, took the next day off sick just because I could (they aren't allowed to count it towards sick "targets"), then yesterday was on a PASMA scaffolding course. At worst I could describe the after effects as a mildly annoying insect bite.

Good luck with that 2400!

Had my second jab weeks ago, and now I hear that I'm due to get a third before winter  , thought that 2 part jab was supposed to be good  , hang on a Mo, it must the third one that I start to be controlled by Bill Gates, yeah, that'll be it then 

[beanflying]

Finally I managed to get my first COVID shot today. Organized by the company, so no waiting and no mask. Phew. Arm hurting only very slightly - like flu shot.

Did spend the remainder of the day in the lab measuring assorted RF parts on the VNA. Then a PDR on the mechanical design of the next generation product. Now THAT left me feeling unwell. I have a lot of work before me which might be called electromechanical diplomacy. I have to convince them now or I have to wait for them failing IP and EMC testing. Ow.
Then had some beers with my ex-US army colleague and did some toolpr0n show for her. I wonder whether this was a good idea, as she already goes 'aaaah Belzer' all over.

Still waiting eagerly for my full-risk, private buy of a Keithley 2400. Fingers crossed and all squirrely.

Otherwise too much work and shitty weather. Attendance over the next days will still be rather sporadic.

Had my second jab on Tuesday, took the next day off sick just because I could (they aren't allowed to count it towards sick "targets"), then yesterday was on a PASMA scaffolding course. At worst I could describe the after effects as a mildly annoying insect bite.

Good luck with that 2400!

Had my second jab weeks ago, and now I hear that I'm due to get a third before winter  , thought that 2 part jab was supposed to be good  , hang on a Mo, it must the third one that I start to be controlled by Bill Gates, yeah, that'll be it then 

Clearly COVID is over in the UK as 60,000 are heading for Wembley. Give me Sport and/or COVID 

[nixiefreqq]

Robert did what with who for how many jellybeans...?!?   

mnem
*agitating-ily*

There were no jellybeans but apparently there was some hot buttered toast and a nurse..........

Mmmm... breakfast... 

mnem

went thru a lot of stages processsing this one:

1.  that is just wrong.

2.  but wait,  there is bacon!

3.  and look at the butter on those pancakes......yeah maybe i would?

4   oh shit......what if that is actually mnem?  aggggggghhhhhhh!

5.  how much bourbon is in the house?   agggggghhhhhhh!

6  wait.....the cheeks are not covered in a mat of thick fur.  whew!

7.  mmmmmm. bacon.

So you didn't have the "Oh no, mnem's gone and shaved his ass" stage that I went through?

McBryce.

you actually made me laugh out loud.  (swmbo gave me "the look".....but no.....thought better of trying to explain)

[BU508A]

you actually made me laugh out loud.  (swmbo gave me "the look".....but no.....thought better of trying to explain)

https://youtu.be/LlVI7ZNiFlI

SCNR 

[tggzzz]

Had my second jab weeks ago, and now I hear that I'm due to get a third before winter  , thought that 2 part jab was supposed to be good  , hang on a Mo, it must the third one that I start to be controlled by Bill Gates, yeah, that'll be it then 

It is good, but not perfect. I know of one person that has caught covid despite having both jabs - and that is just as you would expect

Then new variants have arisen and will arise. Immunity might wane over time, and having a booster jab - particularly of a different vaccine - might help.

All in all I'm glad that they are planning on my getting more jabs. (Particularly since my local city has rates between 400 and 925 (eek, and rising) per 100k).

[bd139]

Finally I managed to get my first COVID shot today. Organized by the company, so no waiting and no mask. Phew. Arm hurting only very slightly - like flu shot.

Did spend the remainder of the day in the lab measuring assorted RF parts on the VNA. Then a PDR on the mechanical design of the next generation product. Now THAT left me feeling unwell. I have a lot of work before me which might be called electromechanical diplomacy. I have to convince them now or I have to wait for them failing IP and EMC testing. Ow.
Then had some beers with my ex-US army colleague and did some toolpr0n show for her. I wonder whether this was a good idea, as she already goes 'aaaah Belzer' all over.

Still waiting eagerly for my full-risk, private buy of a Keithley 2400. Fingers crossed and all squirrely.

Otherwise too much work and shitty weather. Attendance over the next days will still be rather sporadic.

Had my second jab on Tuesday, took the next day off sick just because I could (they aren't allowed to count it towards sick "targets"), then yesterday was on a PASMA scaffolding course. At worst I could describe the after effects as a mildly annoying insect bite.

Good luck with that 2400!

Had my second jab weeks ago, and now I hear that I'm due to get a third before winter  , thought that 2 part jab was supposed to be good  , hang on a Mo, it must the third one that I start to be controlled by Bill Gates, yeah, that'll be it then 

Clearly COVID is over in the UK as 60,000 are heading for Wembley. Give me Sport and/or COVID 

It’s a ploy to kill off morons 

[Brumby]

... and make the lives of the rest of us miserable as they do it.


In the last few days, Sydney has gone into major lockdown status with stay-at-home orders and mandatory masks and check-in at ALL shopping venues.  Casual travel is not permitted.

[bd139]

Yup. This will go until March next year approx based on previous pandemics. Obviously depends on potential for this thing to mutate and avoid our current countermeasures

Making the most of no lockdown here so I’m off out tomorrow with random folk hiking

[nixiefreqq]

things are looking pretty good here in PA.

until the next spike anyway.

edit  gov wolf eliminated the mask mandate on monday.  but restaurants still have a lot of tables closed off.  asked and they said that they do not have enough staff to cover all the tables.  they all have help wanted signs on the doors.  at our favorite place we were told they have only taken 4 applications in the last 2 months. 

[Specmaster]

Yup. This will go until March next year approx based on previous pandemics. Obviously depends on potential for this thing to mutate and avoid our current countermeasures

Making the most of no lockdown here so I’m off out tomorrow with random folk hiking

Or even longer, I mean 2 weeks ago when we had 7,000 new cases a day, we were told that restrictions would now remain in place until July 19, now we have 20,000 new cases a day, we are told that they can see no reason for restrictions to last longer than July 19. Logic on that one does not compute...."The Computer says NO"

[tonyalbus]

Look what i found... hope it ships well..

Can't find any manual.. but Dana 8010-8030 looks a bit like it.

[Brumby]

Alternately, could get a cheap MOSFET Tab-welder (aboot $20-30 on eBay or less on banggood) ......

You've got me ready to pull the trigger on one .... as well as some nickel plated strip. Bloody enablers.   

OK mnem, I've pulled the trigger on one, albeit a different model.   Happy now?

Ummm... it kindof defeats the purpose of me being "The Club Guinea Pig" on these cheap Chinese bits of gear if you don't at least wait until I test it and post pictures of me getting electrocuted... 

Who said you're the only one to have fun?

... ... ...

Mind you, I still have to wait for that slow boat from China, so you might beat me to it yet.

The world has gone crazy......

My little spot welder was purchased 25th June, landed in Oz on 1st July and is slated for delivery on the 5th or 6th July.

That's like 10 DAYS total turnaround.     Completely unheard of in my experience.

[Specmaster]

Look what i found... hope it ships well..

Can't find any manual.. but Dana 8010-8030 looks a bit like it.

Looks good does that Tony.

[bd139]

Yup. This will go until March next year approx based on previous pandemics. Obviously depends on potential for this thing to mutate and avoid our current countermeasures

Making the most of no lockdown here so I’m off out tomorrow with random folk hiking

Or even longer, I mean 2 weeks ago when we had 7,000 new cases a day, we were told that restrictions would now remain in place until July 19, now we have 20,000 new cases a day, we are told that they can see no reason for restrictions to last longer than July 19. Logic on that one does not compute...."The Computer says NO"

That's a naive figure that 20,000 new cases. It doesn't mean much on its own.

If we pick the only dataset I can google quickly, the outcome is looking ok. Look at https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/covid-19-key-statistics-brighton-hove/confirmed-case-rates-trend-age

So if we break down by age the majority of the infections are in the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated groups who are socialising a lot at school and work. The remaining items are either outliers or vaccine efficacy related. The 15-39 group is generally at lower risk due to smaller proportion of comorbidity factors thus I suspect the death and poor health outcome rate will be pretty small. This is actually (so far) reflected in the death stats which are flatlining now. Time will tell if this persists. Another couple of weeks should confirm it.



Remember the vaccine is not perfect, your immune system is not perfect and life is a pretty risky thing anyway so it's looking ok at this point. Also to note the point of the vaccine isn't to entirely prevent this but to prime your immune system ready for it. You're still going to get sniffles, still going to get a headache and still going to have to have a few days off work. But none of them are going to kill you dead, make you grow an extra arm or liquify your organs or something. And you can retest as positive if you have been vaccinated and have it but it isn't going to kill you.

The point about March is that's probably the opportunity for novel mutations to appear.

Edit: another point is that a huge chunk of the people out there who got taken out by this were circling the drain or had major issues already. Farting in the same room as them might have done the job as well. They're already dead and unless there's some zombie virus then they're going to stay dead and out of the stats.

The moral of the story is put your health somewhere near the top of your priorities and avoid comorbidity factors!

My then 6 year old asked me a couple of years back why old people are all skinny. Worth pondering that for a bit.

[AVGresponding]

Clearly COVID is over in the UK as 60,000 are heading for Wembley. Give me Sport and/or COVID 

Not helped by the fact that you just have to say you tested negative to be allowed to go. Many fans are throwing the tests in the bin and just using the barcode to register a "negative" test.