Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

this is actually made from D2 steel, dew-picked and flown from Iraq, cleansed in the finest quality spring water, ...

And quench hardened and nitrided by being plunged, white hot, into the beating heart of a Ferengi.  Someone had better watch out...

[Saskia]

right.
Actually I was bidding on this:
https://www.catawiki.com/en/l/50757129-katana-damascened-metal-japans-samurai-zwaard-katana-kaga-fujishima-nbthk-japan-16th-century#&gid=1&pid=1

[Vince]

right.
Actually I was bidding on this:
https://www.catawiki.com/en/l/50757129-katana-damascened-metal-japans-samurai-zwaard-katana-kaga-fujishima-nbthk-japan-16th-century#&gid=1&pid=1

Don't you think it's a bit overkill to spread butter on your toasts at breakfast ?!   

Is there someone you don't like and intend to slice into bits or something ?! 

[Cerebus]

She likes really thin slices of French ... toast.

[mnementh]

Rats. Low ball offer for a toothpick knife was not accepted ...

Won't be bidding more than 2300 quid.

@mnem: one for you.

https://www.messerkoenig.at/produkt/bathleth/

this is actually made from D2 steel, dew-picked and flown from Iraq, cleansed in the finest quality spring water, ...

Mmmhmmm... it does give me a bit of a nerd-boner; a bat'leth out of combat-ready steel is definitely drool-worthy.

But this one's kindof small, even for a short summitch like myself. Also, I never exactly cared for the patina D2 develops if you don't lavish attention on it; especially compared to the bright-white of the aluminum that the blades in the show bore. 

And that must be a heavy summitch out of 5mm steel, even at 99cm...     I made a show-authentic prop of .160 al plate as a teen, and it was a handful; the momentum was like a bastard,  almost like a Claymore. Nowadays I'm so out of shape and such a klutz I'd probably kneecap myself even with a blunted one like that.

mnem
*sigh*

[mnementh]

right.
Actually I was bidding on this:
https://www.catawiki.com/en/l/50757129-katana-damascened-metal-japans-samurai-zwaard-katana-kaga-fujishima-nbthk-japan-16th-century#&gid=1&pid=1

*sigh*   If it is what the auction says it is... then yeah, a bargain. But the provenance of such things is so hard to prove from this side of a computer screen.

mnem

[Vince]

I must say I am kinda surprised and disappointed at how few " 4000 " TEA pictures we got, was expecting much more than that !

However...  I am not worried the slightest bit about the 100.000th post, it will trigger a tsunami of pics !!! Can't wait to see what people will come up with ! 


EDIT : OH no fuck me, it's me again and I did NOT even do it on purpose !! It's all your fault, posting while I was composing this very message !!!

Now I am under an obligation to come up with a 100.000 TEA pic and I just don't have the technical means to do it ! 

Not that it's relevant now it's long past 100k (passed by while I was at work), but doesn't your Metrix counter have a manual count function? i.e. you could display any number, up to the limit from the number of digits available.

David

Here it is !!! 


No Schmitt trigger for me nor RC debouncing or no nothing... this 50ohm input I am forced to use to trigger the counting is a deal breaker !
50ohms at 5V that's 100mA... ouch.

So I thought hey... that input triggers on a voltage LEVEL not on an edge so... I should be able to just connect the input to the lab power supply, which will have enough grunt for a 50ohm load. Sure I will have millions of bounces while connecting the supply to the input but who cares... Once the contact is fully established I will get a constant / clean positive logic level so it should just be happy and count, right ?! Normally yes, but turns out NO ! 
I guess the bounces make that input lose its mind, and it was really hit and miss as to whether the counter would start counting or not, once the contact was fully established ! And as it turns out it was in the "counting mood" only 1% of the time ! 
So it took a great many attempts to get it to count !

Then I fed a signal with the sig gen, slowing down progressively, switching ranges,  as I got closer and closer to 100.000. Then once I hit 100.000 I flicked the second gate (counter provides two of them) as I noticed by trial and error that doing so would STOP the counting, but leave the result on screen, so I would have all my time to take the picture, no stress. This is not documented in the user manual... but I noticed it by accident while fiddling with the switches...

[med6753]

Holy crap - whyyyy 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174913006204

My guess would be:

Labeled Daystrom Institute

Original Manual in decent shape

lens not cracked or crazed from age

face anodizing crisp and clean

bakelite bits don't look like hammered shit

In other words... a good example of the breed in good nick.

mnem
 

It still ain't worth THAT much. 

Edit...especially since it apparently doesn't include the DC probe.

[tggzzz]

Holy crap - whyyyy 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174913006204

My guess would be:

Labeled Daystrom Institute

Original Manual in decent shape

lens not cracked or crazed from age

face anodizing crisp and clean

bakelite bits don't look like hammered shit

In other words... a good example of the breed in good nick.

mnem
 

It still ain't worth THAT much. 

Edit...especially since it apparently doesn't include the DC probe.

There seems to be a bit of sentimentality around Heathkit stuff, probably based on "that was one of the first things I built".

[med6753]

Holy crap - whyyyy 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174913006204

My guess would be:

Labeled Daystrom Institute

Original Manual in decent shape

lens not cracked or crazed from age

face anodizing crisp and clean

bakelite bits don't look like hammered shit

In other words... a good example of the breed in good nick.

mnem
 

It still ain't worth THAT much. 

Edit...especially since it apparently doesn't include the DC probe.

There seems to be a bit of sentimentality around Heathkit stuff, probably based on "that was one of the first things I built".

Agree 100% and it was the stuff I built too. But $150 plus for a VTVM doesn't fly with me. 

[mnementh]

Wow... you really like to taunt Murphy, doncha bd...? 

mnem
must be bored...

Baiting Murphy is my entire point in existing. Then kicking him in the balls

I believe that is mutual.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

mnem
I thought it.... you said it.

[mnementh]

Holy crap - whyyyy 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174913006204

My guess would be:

Labeled Daystrom Institute

Original Manual in decent shape

lens not cracked or crazed from age

face anodizing crisp and clean

bakelite bits don't look like hammered shit

In other words... a good example of the breed in good nick.

mnem
 

It still ain't worth THAT much. 

Edit...especially since it apparently doesn't include the DC probe.

There seems to be a bit of sentimentality around Heathkit stuff, probably based on "that was one of the first things I built".

Agree 100% and it was the stuff I built too. But $150 plus for a VTVM doesn't fly with me. 

Not to me either... but hell, I've paid $150 for a bumper I had to iron dings out of, strip and then pay for rechroming. Just because it isn't worth that to us doesn't mean it isn't worth that to somebody. A number of somebodies, obviously.

Ya know something... in all honesty, we're mostly jaded mutherfuckers in here. We see so many people getting jammy git deals... we get to where we expect it, and we almost feel cheated if we don't get the jammy git deal ourselves.

Bottom line is for pretty much anything that people collect... $150 for a really good example to start restoring is fucking cheap.

Just look at what some people pay for old clocks... or guns... or radios... or any of a thousand other example categories.

mnem
 

[Vince]

OK now for some more TEA. Maybe the grey beard will have a clue and give me some info on this little gizmo I just did a quick tear down of for you people.

The guy I bought one of my two Metrix nixie counters (not the one picture earlier, another one with only 6 digits, 10Mhz not 160Mhz), also gave me this little artifact as a bonus. Said it was so crap he didn't even find it worth the effort putting it up for sale as for sure nobody would want it.

I always wondered what it was for !  Seller had no clue either !

Looks old, looks military looking maybe... it's tiny, fits in the hand !

If I believe the scale on the galvanometer, it's an ohm-meter, with two ranges. There as switch on the side of the case to let you select that.
Also on the side there is a handle that you can crank to energize it.

So far so good, looks like your typical ancient mega-ohmmeter to measure earth resistance.

Problem is... the scale should read in the tens of Mohms..... whereas here, it's the opposite : it measures very LOW values : one scale for 0 - 50 ohms, other scale is 0 - 150 ohms !!!

What use is that ?! 

I guess it must be some nice instrument for a very specific application... but what application ? Civil ? Military ?

Inside there is not much... the meter, the generator, the switch to select the range... and what looks like a primitive form of  coil / inductance, or might a wire wound resistor, not sure...

The movement is fucked though, sadly : the tiny coil spring that brings the needle home, is completely out of shape. Not much springiness in it left, and sometimes it just jams somehow. Needle will get stuck even though it's free to move. don't think that can be fixed.... not that I would have any use for the thing any way !

Anyway I thought this was an interesting / curious find. Would not mind knowing what it's purpose in life is, if anyone knows... just to satisfy my curiosity.


This evening a friend just brought to me his " iRobot " vaccum cleaner clone. It "misbehaves"... keeps banging / bouncing off walls instead of following them along. I hate these things but still curious to see how it's made. Said I would have a look at it.. with some luck there will be something obvious... bad SMD electrolitic caps, bad solder joint, some corrosion, I don't know.... can't do much more than basic trouble shooting, given the absence of a service manual.

Have already repaired one of these things last year. A friend (another) spilled water on his (genuine this one) iRobot Roomba. Thes ide brush quit working as a result. Was easy : corrosion on the main board, a broken trace/via that supplied power to the driver chip for the motor in charge of that brush... ran a wire and off you go.

Not so hopefully on that other robot though, since the symptoms are hard to translate in electronic terms.... "misbehave".. hmmmm...
He did say that it started doing it a while ago and that it got worse and worse over the months. So I am thinking analog problem no t digital. So there might be a hope of finding the problem.... else, it's a write-off and hopefully he will let me keep it for parts ! 

[Vince]

...

[Neomys Sapiens]

On Ebay.de is a cheap DEFECTIVE Analogic 2020 polynomial waveform synthesizer on offer.
Although the description did provide for thoughts - wtf does the seller mean by 'Festplatte' (hard disk)? The fan? Externally good condition - could be trivial - or not. Anyway, I have a working 2020 (and a 2045) and will not take on it. Remind that nobody has found a service manual yet.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/154591814368

[Neomys Sapiens]

...

AAAAAAH! Must flee! A Tellermine - and it is coming after me!

[shakalnokturn]

I guess it must be some nice instrument for a very specific application... but what application ? Civil ? Military ?

Could be a continuity tester.

Ask the manufacturer they're still around:
https://www.pagesjaunes.fr/pros/52120546
They might even send you a free service manual.

[Vince]

" CIMEL ".... Google found a CIMEL also in Paris... so could be it :

https://www.cimel.fr/about-us/#about-history

However they are into weather measuring devices... but well I guess in their early days they might have done other types of instruments... It's like saying Tektronix only ever made scopes.... of course not.

Their history timeline says they were founded in 1966, so that device is not " that " old then... not WW2 stuff for sure, even though its construction sure looks older than the mid '60's ! 

Might try dropping them an e-mail anyway, doesn't hurt...

[Cubdriver]

WANT!!!!


(Too bad it's $20k....)

-Pat

[xrunner]

WANT!!!!

(Too bad it's $20k....)

-Pat

Wow - if that's the Real Deal (it really works that good) I'd be into it - oh yea but 20 Big Ones ... maybe when the price drops. 

[tautech]

WANT!!!!

(Too bad it's $20k....)

-Pat

Too bad it still requires a $ shielding gas. 
Not needing such WOULD justify such an investment.

[mnementh]

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

[beanflying]

As it is a machine likely driven by a human costing 2-4 times that pre year $20k is cheap if it lives up to the claims. The thing I didn't see was any filler metal getting used so tolerance and fit would need to be near perfect and then I would seriously question some of the claims of penetration on thicker materials as the Laser is still only going to act on the immediate surface and rely on the material to carry the heat in.

Think I will stick to my new $2k toy for a while yet 

[Cubdriver]

Apparently you can get a wire feeder for it, too.



-Pat

[capt bullshot]

Now looking back my history and searching for posts to delete to move this post back to page 4000 





OK, was just kidding, changed my mind  a bit slower than Pat suggested





I'm not gonna head for total world domination, this is just the start ...