Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Wolfgang]

By the way, congrats for your PhD Wolfgang. Quite an accomplishment. 

Congratulations from my side, too! What a nice work.   
I've downloaded and started reading it. Very interesting topic!   

Thank you!

Mounty

So do we have to call you Dr. Wolfgang from now on? 

Lets stay at first names, please. Thanks anyway !

[mnementh]

Gaaaaaah fuck the universe. Just spent 2 damn hours trying to get DisplayPort audio working on my PC. Then I trip over this nugget: https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1045437/ .... Just magic reset your BIOS. It works?!?!?!?! But why?!?!?!?!!

I am seriously not impressed with this Asus board. Hardware is fine but the firmware is awful. ASRock was better.

Now that I think of it... why are you faffing aboot with gawwdamn DP anyways? While it supposedly is "the best thing since sliced bread", in practice, since they're constantly arguing over what's going to be in the next revision, it almost never works as advertised.

Meanwhile, almost every time, unless your cable falls out HDMI just works. Version mismatch? No problem; you just get kicked back to 60FPS. But it still works. 

mnem
 

HDMI doesn’t just work here. I can’t shift more than 30Hz on HDMI for some reason. Also HDMI connectors are total shit. And on top of that don’t get me started on HDCP incompatibilities.

On TVs, yeah HDCP is a clusterfuck; for the same reason DP makes my balls ache. But on PCs, especially with higher-end GPUs, HDMI is a whole 'nuther animal. It just works.

And the DP connector is almost identical to HDMI... they just added a stoopit locking mechanism that always winds up oriented so you can't get hold of the fucking thing to release it.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Why did this guy make me thinking about posting it here?   
                                         
https://debeste.de/206261/Hochzeitstorte-f-r-Fantasy-Fans

             

Because everything stops for TEA.

mnem

[Neomys Sapiens]

By the way, congrats for your PhD Wolfgang. Quite an accomplishment. 

Congratulations from my side, too! What a nice work.   
I've downloaded and started reading it. Very interesting topic!   

Thank you!

Mounty

Have I missed something? Where did he post about it?

[mnementh]

Thanks, yes it has .. dave showed last years picture so its even worse 

This year it looks far better IMO. 

Good lord; I bet it took him a half hour just to turn everything back off after shooting that.

mnem
 

[0culus]

Oculus, the info you requested in the Type 454 Horizontal Amplifier.

Voltage drop across R1014. 66.8V.



Voltage drop across R1024. Identical 66.8V.  (Trace on center line, Horizontal position centered, no signal, trigger set to Auto.)



I'll leave the scope out of the case for the rest of the day in case you need more data. I will not be on Discord later today.

Thanks! This is rather interesting to note in light of some other stuff I found last night in that area of the horizontal amp. The voltage drop across those two resistors is *not* identical on mine, but they are a few hundred mV lower than what you measure. Additionally, the bias on the base of Q1014 is off by a factor of 10 (0.02V or so vs 0.2V as the schematic calls out when you set the controls up the way they did.

[BU508A]

By the way, congrats for your PhD Wolfgang. Quite an accomplishment. 

Congratulations from my side, too! What a nice work.   
I've downloaded and started reading it. Very interesting topic!   

Thank you!

Mounty

Have I missed something? Where did he post about it?

Wolfgang posted it on his website: https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/2021/08/06/phd-stuff/
The dissertation can be found here: https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-btu/frontdoor/index/index/docId/5520

[bd139]

Oh that's a veritable tome of interesting things that is as well. Nice job and congratulations Wolfgang 

[mnementh]

As for the Sansui, I am currently readjusting my lifestyle around older technology so that might be of interest 

I'm very happy with the Sansui amp I picked up earlier this year and featured in this thread. Very clean sounding. 

Oh, the B-55 is a known awesome quantity. Problems included the usual wear/bleeding associated with VFD, IIRC a few tants on the CPU section, and a few electros in the preamp board known to dry up and make it squeal.

Usually paired with the C-55 preamp and a T-60 tuner holding it all up. 

mnem
 

[Vince]

Wolfgang posted it on his website: https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/2021/08/06/phd-stuff/
The dissertation can be found here: https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-btu/frontdoor/index/index/docId/5520

Wow, congratulations Wolfgang !   350 pages, quite something, an entire book ! 

Had to laugh at the graph at the top of page 31 ! 

Now we need another thesis, this time on 10MHz oscillators ! 


Vince

[Specmaster]

Whats this about bd139 not being able to get better 30Hz via HDMI? My monitor is connected via HDMI and I'm getting 60Hz @1920 x 1080 no problems. I think it must be a function of your graphics card.

[mnementh]

By the way, congrats for your PhD Wolfgang. Quite an accomplishment. 

Congratulations from my side, too! What a nice work.   
I've downloaded and started reading it. Very interesting topic!   

Thank you!

Mounty

Have I missed something? Where did he post about it?

Wolfgang posted it on his website: https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/2021/08/06/phd-stuff/
The dissertation can be found here: https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-btu/frontdoor/index/index/docId/5520

I'm late to the party, but congrats from the tinkerdwagon as well.   

mnem
PHD = Piled Higher & Deeper... ~mom

[mnementh]

Whats this about bd139 not being able to get better 30Hz via HDMI? My monitor is connected via HDMI and I'm getting 60Hz @1920 x 1080 no problems. I think it must be a function of your graphics card.

4K TV I think. The problem is running a TV on a PC; they think you're trying to bypass the DRM built into the HDMI connection. Either that, or he has a crappy HDMI 1.2-1.4 cable that just can't carry the BW.

PC and 2K monitor with a HDMI2.0-certified cable runs 120-165Hz on every PC I own. DP on same exact hardware has constant intermittent blackouts on both my PC and my son's; this is due to the fractured specifications for the DisplayPort specification.

mnem
 

[bd139]

Not cable. Limitation of intel 630 graphics with 4k displays. DisplayPort only if you want 60Hz. I’m waiting on a proper GPU to turn up at a price I’m willing to pay.

Edit: to clarify the 3060 cards listed at $329 Nvidia estimate are 600 GBP still here.

[mnementh]

I suppose that's ASUS' fault as well...? 

mnem
*agitating-ily*

[bd139]

I suppose that's ASUS' fault as well...? 

Actually yes it is Asus’ fault as the chipset, CPU and display all support HDMI 2.0 but the Asus board doesn’t. The ASRock boards do with the same chipset. This is down to how they implemented the thing probably in the BIOS.

Quite frankly Asus is fucking garbage and priced like it isn’t.

Edit: honestly at this point I wish I’d just bought a second hand Lenovo 9th gen intel crate. That’d fucking work properly.

[mnementh]

By the way, congrats for your PhD Wolfgang. Quite an accomplishment. 

Congratulations from my side, too! What a nice work.   
I've downloaded and started reading it. Very interesting topic!      Thank you!   Mounty

Have I missed something? Where did he post about it?

Wolfgang posted it on his website: https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/2021/08/06/phd-stuff/
The dissertation can be found here: https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-btu/frontdoor/index/index/docId/5520

Oh that's a veritable tome of interesting things that is as well. Nice job and congratulations Wolfgang 

Damn you all; I looked in there too, and the maths made my head     asplote. But I very much enjoyed the tinkery dissection of the HP10811 Oscillator. 

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

Surely it is more cost-effective to have a 4K TV. I think 4K on anything less than 40" screen is not really going to be noticeably different.

[bd139]

Don’t care about cost effective when I’m sitting 2 feet away from it for 8 hours a day. Makes one hell of a difference running a desktop at 4K with 150% scaling.

Best investments you can make with computing are decent monitor, keyboard, mouse, chair, foot rest. Rest is less important.

[mnementh]

I suppose that's ASUS' fault as well...? 

Actually yes it is Asus’ fault as the chipset, CPU and display all support HDMI 2.0 but the Asus board doesn’t. The ASRock boards do with the same chipset. This is down to how they implemented the thing probably in the BIOS.

Quite frankly Asus is fucking garbage and priced like it isn’t.

Edit: honestly at this point I wish I’d just bought a second hand Lenovo 9th gen intel crate. That’d fucking work properly.

Ehhh... after my adventures with the new generation of highly-rated Gigabyte Aorus MBs, I think my next build will probably be a ASUS Tuf Gaming series. The right mix of price vs bleeding edge in every market tier/price bracket. I just couldn't make myself put up with the digital camo decoration on the product line; too Meal Team 6 for my taste. 

I do love the trade dress on the Aorus product line... all satin black varnish and anodize makes a nice sedately-lit build easy. I'll admit that was a major motivation in my brand choice the last two builds... but the PITA of actually having to send my MB in for repair, and the hoops I had to jump through vs a proper crossing-in-the-mail warranty exchange have put me off the brand, I think.

Unless I pony up for one of those concierge warranty service packages... 

mnem
 

[bd139]

I’ll take a green one that isn’t shit.

You know what I miss? Intel OEM boards.

[mnementh]

Surely it is more cost-effective to have a 4K TV. I think 4K on anything less than 40" screen is not really going to be noticeably different.

Absolutely not. TVs make a horrible monitor, especially from a few feet away.

TVs are optimized for moving pictures with low dropped frames. PC monitors are optimized for crisp rendering of text and clear images. There's a reason high-FPS gaming monitors are so expensive; a panel and display driver that can do both doesn't come cheap.

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

Interesting little video I found here.

[Saskia]

@Wolfgang congratulations also from my side.

Currently my head is too much mushy to do any reasonable math ...

Anybody out here in need of a 2560x1440 gaming monitor ? I have an Iiyama I don't need ...

[Andrew_Debbie]

Buy this badly listed 3478A with a lowball offer instead, and do all the data manipulation at the other end of an HPIB cable:

I'll likely end up spending £100 to get the Dana 5100 working  . . . .

Forgot who suggested using 'dupont' leads in liu of the unobtainium extender card.   It worked.    Minigrabbers don't.

No fault found so far, but i have a lot more to check.    I'm going to pick up the 5100 manual next month.  It is at my mother's house in Los Angeles.   Race to see if I can fix it with the 5100AF manual or not.   



A voltmeter probe fits nicely in the blue sockets at the ends of the card.    Changed to a banana lead after I took the photo, but the mini grabber worked too..