Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Vince]

Anyone that works for Bell labs and does videos.....you pay attention. 

That was my point !    You do NOT know he worked there and lead a team of RF researchers... UNTIL you have watched a bunch his videos first, then only you find out ! Same as all other youtubers. You have to trust them first, then only maybe over the course of many videos, you progressively figure out that they do know what they are talking about, and that your gut feeling was right in telling these guys were worth your while. But it takes time to watch all theses videos to eventually find out...

[tautech]

Anyone that works for Bell labs and does videos.....you pay attention. 

That was my point !    You do NOT know he worked there and lead a team of RF researchers... UNTIL you have watched a bunch his videos first, then only you find out ! Same as all other youtubers. You have to trust them first, then only maybe over the course of many videos, you progressively figure out that they do know what they are talking about, and that your gut feeling was right in telling these guys were worth your while. But it takes time to watch all theses videos to eventually find out...

Dave did a one on one interview with Shahriar a few years back you might like to dig out.

[Vince]

 
Just redid the schematics from scratch for my little Kicad project, now that I ahve upgraded to the latest Ubuntu version, 21.04, hence Kicad 5.1.9.

Doing the schematics was painless, then I run ERC, does not complain too much, other than the ground symbol somehow annoying it, don't know why.


THEN I go to assign footprints to every component on the schematic before I can run PCBNew and ... and..... picture below. Oh no.... Kicad can't fucking find the footprint library, I am screwed, so much for upgrading to the latest and greatest !!!   

What now ? Spending days on Ubuntu and Kicad forums hoping it's a known problem and someone can take my hand to fix it promptly?! 

[Vince]

Dave did a one on one interview with Shahriar a few years back you might like to dig out.

Yes I watched it of course, might have done 2 videos with him actually IIRC.

I also listened to the interview he did with him on his "radio" podcast, The Amp Hour.

[BU508A]

With the background that most people here probably have, you can tell pretty quickly who's serious and who's a windbag. Of course, the first thing is to find the point of how you present something. But with Shahriar, you could see from the beginning that his standards are academic and that's something I really appreciate.

I'm not saying that Mr. Carlson explains things wrongly, but the way he does it I think is a failed attempt to be sophisticated and at the same time suitable for beginners.

I am similarly critical of ElectroBOOM (Mehdi). It is obvious that he knows what he is doing and his explanations are accurate. What bothers me about him is the comedy element in his presentations. I appreciate his kind of self-irony, that he doesn't take himself too seriously. At the same time (for comedy reasons imho) he lacks respect for mains voltages and high voltage and high energy systems with his feigned carelessness. I only remember his stunt with the Jacob's ladder.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[mnementh]

THEN I go to assign footprints to every component on the schematic before I can run PCBNew and ... and..... picture below. Oh no.... Kicad can't fucking find the footprint library, I am screwed, so much for upgrading to the latest and greatest !!!   

What now ? Spending days on Ubuntu and Kicad forums hoping it's a known problem and someone can take my hand to fix it promptly?! 

I'm a complete *NIX fuckwit, but something looks hinky in that directory path. Like something is missing between slashes or a extra in there.

mnem
 

[Vince]

Yep Dragon I just noticed that too... so maybe something simple then, there is hope.. still, how to fix it...

[mnementh]

With the background that most people here probably have, you can tell pretty quickly who's serious and who's a windbag. Of course, the first thing is to find the point of how you present something. But with Shahriar, you could see from the beginning that his standards are academic and that's something I really appreciate.

I'm not saying that Mr. Carlson explains things wrongly, but the way he does it I think is a failed attempt to be sophisticated and at the same time suitable for beginners.

I am similarly critical of ElectroBOOM (Mehdi). It is obvious that he knows what he is doing and his explanations are accurate. What bothers me about him is the comedy element in his presentations. I appreciate his kind of self-irony, that he doesn't take himself too seriously. At the same time (for comedy reasons imho) he lacks respect for mains voltages and high voltage and high energy systems with his feigned carelessness. I only remember his stunt with the Jacob's ladder.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Nuthin' makes hot air like dwagon-fire...

mnem
we no longer speak of the electric fence incident.

[BU508A]

Yep Dragon I just noticed that too... so maybe something simple then, there is hope.. still, how to fix it...

Have you tried to find this package?
find / -name "SMD*.pretty"

[mnementh]

Yep Dragon I just noticed that too... so maybe something simple then, there is hope.. still, how to fix it...

If it's something hardcoded that's borked in the package or installer, they'll probably get plenty of noise aboot it and fix it in the nightlies quickly. 

If it's something installing in the wrong place due to the hardware config on your particular box or a VM... you could be up sheet creek until doomsday.

mnem
"Very helpful... very helpful indeed..." Chibila thought to himself...

[SoundTech-LG]

Not sure exactly why, I think it is the many annoying things that Mr. C repeatedly says and does. Mostly incessant yapping without much real content. Good for beginners, I guess. At least I feel a bit better about my collection, because it is so much smaller. I need to be careful though, never want that kind of massive POS around here.

[mnementh]

   When I saw this abomination on Stephen's back bench a week or two ago, the first thing that came to mind was:

"OMG... Alienware finally gave up all pretenses, and just made a computer that is a robot vagina."

Turns out it's even worse than that...   

mnem
sorry... the SNR was getting a little too high; I couldn't breathe...

[Specmaster]

but excuse me how can you KNOW FOR SURE how a cap or anything behaves under 600V... unless you actually SUBJECT it to said voltage ! 101.....   

Oh yes that's the one that gets me.

I'd just like to add a reality observation: There's a reason the crank Megger puts out 0,5 KV. Because nothing tests for high voltage resilience like ... drum roll ... High Voltage!

And that's why things like PAT and installation testing is done with something that approaches the actual conditions present.

That is why I love this Extech MG302, besides being a good multimeter, its insulation tester is switchable between 125, 250, 500 and 1,000V thus making good for cap leakage tests because you can select the nearest voltage to the cap's operating range.

[Vince]

Yep Dragon I just noticed that too... so maybe something simple then, there is hope.. still, how to fix it...

Have you tried to find this package?
find / -name "SMD*.pretty"

Well I just did thanks to you ! I do'nt know my command line that much... do'nt know how to search for files. I know cd, cp, ls, and exit ! LOL
Enough to survive    OK maybe a few more but you get the idea...

So tried that... "permission denied" ! What, I can't even search for files as a hmble user ? tried running it via "sudo"... no better ! 

But... I think I just found the problem ! Oh my God...

I ran "Synaptic", the package manager. I searched for all Kicad related packages, not that many so was easy. Found on devoted to fottprints... but it was already installed so should be good. Then I looked at the details for that footprint package. I had a look at all the files it installed on the machine... the path is correct, same as what's in the error message. However after some experimenting and looking more carefully..... I found the problem I think !

In Kicad, in the footprint browser, when you select a category, say "Capacitors_SMD", it loads a file from that path, that's named " Capacitors_SMD.pretty".
same goes for each and every category of footprints. THE PROBLEM : the library file name needs to be 100% same spelling as the name you see in the browser ! It's a one to one thing !  Problem is that 99% of the time, the strings don't match 100%. There is one tiny difference.
What I see is that in the footprint browser, categories usually specify a PLURAL form of the component type : "CapacitorSSSS ".... "ResistorSSS" , "InductorSSS "etc.. but the corresponding file on the hard drive is spelt SINGULAR ! So, no match, "library not found" ! HOW STUPID !!! 

So, to check my theory I searched for a category that was SINGULAR in the browser.... and made sure it was spelt properly in the corresponding library file on the disc. Found a match for "Display". So in the browser I tried clicking on the "Display" category and... hey presto, IT WORKS !!!

So...it's a stupid packaging problem, guy who did it was not very focused on the task at hand ! Or the guy who wrote the script that did the work automatically, don't know how it's done...
At any rate, this footprint package needs to be.. repackaged, with proper file names this time !
I guess as a workaround I could manually rename the library files in so they match what the footprint browser calls for...  that would get me going for the time being. Then need to check the Ubuntu and Kicad forum  to see if that's been reported. As Mnem said I just can't believe something that huge, that make the package useless, went unnoticed ! How is that for quality assurance ? Nobody gives a crap even of major packages like Kicad ?! 

[mnementh]

I have no real problem with Carlson and I usually enjoy his videos in spite of his repetition. I understand why because he realizes many beginners view his videos.

But him and I work together? No way, it would be like Clash of the Titans. 

I imagine something more like this... not gonna say who I think med is, except in this case not Papa Smurf... 

mnem

[tggzzz]

His attitude regarding his mystery leakage tester is what bothers me the most indeed... but nobody forces me to subscribe to his Patreon thing so this leakage tester shall remain forever a mystery. Plus, from an engineering perspective, even though I am no engineer.... baffles me. He claims it can test caps at super low voltages... but excuse me how can you KNOW FOR SURE how a cap or anything behaves under 600V... unless you actually SUBJECT it to said voltage ! 101.....   

Oh yes that's the one that gets me.

Prepared educational slide:

The dependent variable should be the y-axis

[Vince]

OK I just test my theory... I renamed the "Diode_SMD.pretty" directory (it's a dir in fact not a single file, my mitake) into "DiodeSSSSS_SMD.pretty".
Well I didn't want to mess with anything, so I didn't actually rename the directory, rather I created a symlink to it, with the spelling corrected.

Result : it works ! Well kinda. Now if I click on that category in the foot print browser, no error message anymore.. however it lists zero footprint inside that category ! So there must be something more going on.... it's getting out of hand, I give up.... will check the Kicad and Ubuntu forums to see if they are aware of it and an updated package is available... crossing fingers...

[tggzzz]

As for Shahriar , I follow him too of course.. but content is very different so can't compare.

I do not compare the content, different subjects, different level.
I'm comparing the presentation of both of them. While you have to be very concentrated and staying alert with Shahriar's videos,
the opposite is the case with Mr. Carlson. Listening to him makes me feel like a dumb person and it drives me crazy how
he is stretching things. Whenever I've watched a video from him I'm having the finger on my mouse to jump forward.
His explanations are for me falling in the same category as click-baiting. Teasing with something interesting and then
stretching it endlessly until it becomes uninteresting and I'm jumping forward to something more interesting, e.g. squeeze pimples.

The academic equivalent is doing one piece of work, and getting many papers from it - where each paper differs from the others by one "Least Publishable Unit". Those are a waste of the readers' time.

[tautech]

OK I just test my theory... I renamed the "Diode_SMD.pretty" directory (it's a dir in fact not a single file, my mitake) into "DiodeSSSSS_SMD.pretty".
Well I didn't want to mess with anything, so I didn't actually rename the directory, rather I created a symlink to it, with the spelling corrected.

Result : it works ! Well kinda. Now if I click on that category in the foot print browser, no error message anymore.. however it lists zero footprint inside that category ! So there must be something more going on.... it's getting out of hand, I give up.... will check the Kicad and Ubuntu forums to see if they are aware of it and an updated package is available... crossing fingers...

Vince have you had a look here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/kicad/

[mnementh]

His attitude regarding his mystery leakage tester is what bothers me the most indeed... but nobody forces me to subscribe to his Patreon thing so this leakage tester shall remain forever a mystery. Plus, from an engineering perspective, even though I am no engineer.... baffles me. He claims it can test caps at super low voltages... but excuse me how can you KNOW FOR SURE how a cap or anything behaves under 600V... unless you actually SUBJECT it to said voltage ! 101.....   

Oh yes that's the one that gets me.

Prepared educational slide:

The dependent variable should be the y-axis

There's more than enough Carlson Bollocks to cover both axes and the Fuck Knows? regions of that chart, and you know it. 

mnem
Wait... now there's a name for a pop/indy band if I ever saw one...

[Cerebus]

Just redid the schematics from scratch for my little Kicad project, now that I ahve upgraded to the latest Ubuntu version, 21.04, hence Kicad 5.1.9.

Doing the schematics was painless, then I run ERC, does not complain too much, other than the ground symbol somehow annoying it, don't know why.


THEN I go to assign footprints to every component on the schematic before I can run PCBNew and ... and..... picture below. Oh no.... Kicad can't fucking find the footprint library, I am screwed, so much for upgrading to the latest and greatest !!!   

What now ? Spending days on Ubuntu and Kicad forums hoping it's a known problem and someone can take my hand to fix it promptly?! 

My bet is you forgot to install the new library/footprint package(s).

What do you get when you

Code: [Select]

apt list --installed | grep kicad
from the command line?

[Vince]

Vince have you had a look here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/kicad/

Nope I haven't. I checked the Kicad website to see what forums they have. Saw the EEVBlog one.. among numerous others. don't fancy posting on a dozen forums of course so I went for the main Kicad forum hosted by themselves, as it sounded more logical and they said it was the most active of them all.

Just posted there :

https://forum.kicad.info/t/ubuntu-21-04-kicad-broken-cant-assign-footprints/30295

[Vince]

My bet is you forgot to install the library/footprint package(s).

What do you get when you

Code: [Select]

apt list --installed | grep kicad
from the command line?

Nope see my later message... footprint package is well and installed, but there are spelling inconsistencies  between what the footprint brower calls for, and what's actually on the disc.... fixed it manually on one library/component category, got rid of the error message but still not working right, doesn't display any foot print in that category.  It's too much for me, just posted on the main Kicad forum asking for help....

[mnementh]

Is it really unreasonable for him to expect not to have to fuck with that on core components, on a product that has an installer...? Or at least to expect to have a default bundle of feetsprints libraries and have it ask you which libraries to install...?

I mean sure... if it were some specialized package from a specific manufacturer sure, but jeez...

mnem
Some of the things that some software people think should be "normal"...  

[Cerebus]

My bet is you forgot to install the library/footprint package(s).

What do you get when you

Code: [Select]

apt list --installed | grep kicad
from the command line?

Nope see my later message... footprint package is well and installed, but there are spelling inconsistencies  between what the footprint brower calls for, and what's actually on the disc.... fixed it manually on one library/component category, got rid of the error message but still not working right, doesn't display any foot print in that category.  It's too much for me, just posted on the main Kicad forum asking for help....

I've edited my original message because i omitted a critical 'new', as in did you install the new librariy package(s) when you installed the new kicad package. The naming conventions changed if I remember correctly.