Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

So his 5D lens is supposed to give him 20cm working distance which is very generous... but in practice he says it's more like 12cm.... I guess one has to take into account its particular eye sight problems as well to get the complete picture so to speak ! 

Well, it's more that if you drop the "at infinity" simplifying assumption you have to do some real physics to work out what's going on. As soon as you move closer than 'infinity' to one side of the lens you shorten the focal distance the other side of the lens - at least I think I remember it works that way, I've probably used the optics I learned at school only half a dozen times since.

[med6753]

Naahhh... lots of Indian families in our neighborhood, so pretty conservative actually. I fear we may be the ones bringing down the property values this time.

Waddya mean, this time? 

Hey, we weren't always country bumpkins. Sometimes we were Cajun bayou escapees. 

mnem
and Ifni save their poor heathen souls, both our kids are honest to goodness Texans.

You should fire up the grille and throw on some big steaks and hamburgers to piss them off and offset the smell of the curry. 

[AaronLee]

Update on the Ebay GPS shipping delays. I tried to check what was going on, and told to be patient being they just finished the Labor Day Weekend in the USA. I'd completely forgotten that in USA, Labor Day is in September, and not in May as it is in most of the rest of the world. So they maybe need a few days to catch up on the backlog due to dealing with a less than full amount of workers during that time.

[med6753]

Update on the Ebay GPS shipping delays. I tried to check what was going on, and told to be patient being they just finished the Labor Day Weekend in the USA. I'd completely forgotten that in USA, Labor Day is in September, and not in May as it is in most of the rest of the world. So they maybe need a few days to catch up on the backlog due to dealing with a less than full amount of workers during that time.

Correct. Monday, September 6th, was a national holiday.

[BU508A]

Link doesn't work...

Thanks, it's fixed. Sorry, but it points now to the German site, though.

What is the working distance of this thing, enough to use a soldering iron, or only  good enough for visual inspection i.e. need to stick the board to the lens in order to focus the picture ?!...

Just measured it. Working distance is approx. 120mm between object and lense which should be enough for soldering.
Distance between lense and my eyes approx. 120mm as well.
The biggest advantage (to me) is the huge visible area.

Thanks, link works now. I was mistaken, you only bought the lens itself... so I would need to buy the entire lamp/stand on top of that. So basically it's quite convenient / versatile... you can use it either as a lamp, or add a lens to it but only if you need it, and you can use different lenses on it depending on the job at hand... so it's win-win, no need to comprise.
visible area is also a big problem with lenses, so it the one you got gives good results, that's a huge bonus indeed !

Hmmm  I am tempted now ! 

I took some pictures, hope they might be helpful.

Working visible area (full resolution, perhaps needs some time to load):


Distance from the object (sorry, it is hard to see, approx. 150mm):


The 5D 20D¹ lens at work:


¹Edit:
It's really late here, will go to bed NOW! 

[Vince]

So his 5D lens is supposed to give him 20cm working distance which is very generous... but in practice he says it's more like 12cm.... I guess one has to take into account its particular eye sight problems as well to get the complete picture so to speak ! 

Well, it's more that if you drop the "at infinity" simplifying assumption you have to do some real physics to work out what's going on. As soon as you move closer than 'infinity' to one side of the lens you shorten the focal distance the other side of the lens - at least I think I remember it works that way, I've probably used the optics I learned at school only half a dozen times since.

That's why it's simpler to just measure it in real life rather than make assumptions based on theory... a ruler is simpler and faster and describes the actual reality without resorting to any math !   

So, 12cm or so, said BU... it's waaaaay more than what I have right now with my crappy Optivisor thing of a bob, so that's all I need to know !
Wide field of view is also a huge and much welcome improvement ! Just checked, the lamp costs 60 Euros or so... it's OK, can do that. Add the lens on top of it, still affordable for something that works well.. and that you only have to buy once.
Definitely on my shopping list ! 

[mnementh]

Naahhh... lots of Indian families in our neighborhood, so pretty conservative actually. I fear we may be the ones bringing down the property values this time.

Waddya mean, this time? 

Hey, we weren't always country bumpkins. Sometimes we were Cajun bayou escapees. 

mnem
and Ifni save their poor heathen souls, both our kids are honest to goodness Texans.

You should fire up the grille and throw on some big steaks and hamburgers to piss them off and offset the smell of the curry. 

Soon enough, sensei. 

mnem
Thank Ifni, I just found my last few Tramadol... I may actually sleep tonight.  😣

[Vince]

I took some pictures, hope they might be helpful.
The 5D lens at work:

Thanks for bothering, does look nice, I am sold !   

[AaronLee]

Update on the Ebay GPS shipping delays. I tried to check what was going on, and told to be patient being they just finished the Labor Day Weekend in the USA. I'd completely forgotten that in USA, Labor Day is in September, and not in May as it is in most of the rest of the world. So they maybe need a few days to catch up on the backlog due to dealing with a less than full amount of workers during that time.

Correct. Monday, September 6th, was a national holiday.

Plus Americans (as with most people around the world) are fond of taking off an additional day(s) in conjunction with three-day weekends to extend them even more. Also, I guess it's the start of the school year for at least some in the USA, and maybe the week before Labor Day is a popular week for people who are in school or have children in school to take a vacation.

[mnementh]

The 5D lens at work:   

I keep thinking to try some of these:

https://www.amazon.ca/OuShiun-Reusable-Magnification-Glasses-Reading/dp/B0836N5CJN/

on my magnifying lamp to get just a little more magnification for those hard to read components. They're made of that cling vinyl, only supposedly optical quality and "wash & reuse" maintenance, etc.

If I come across them at "stoopit cheap" prices, I might take a chance on some. 

mnem
*toddles off for some couch tuber time widda family*

[med6753]

Update on the Ebay GPS shipping delays. I tried to check what was going on, and told to be patient being they just finished the Labor Day Weekend in the USA. I'd completely forgotten that in USA, Labor Day is in September, and not in May as it is in most of the rest of the world. So they maybe need a few days to catch up on the backlog due to dealing with a less than full amount of workers during that time.

Correct. Monday, September 6th, was a national holiday.

Plus Americans (as with most people around the world) are fond of taking off an additional day(s) in conjunction with three-day weekends to extend them even more. Also, I guess it's the start of the school year for at least some in the USA, and maybe the week before Labor Day is a popular week for people who are in school or have children in school to take a vacation.

The Labor Day 3 day weekend signals the end of the Summer season. The 3 day Memorial Day weekend in May signals the start of the Summer season.

Schools in the Northern states typically start after Labor Day. But most schools in the Southern states typically start school in August. 

[Kosmic]

Newark (North American Farnell) is having a sale on their old line of multimeters. Their Tenma in-house brand. Most of them are rebranded Uni-T but for the price it's not that bad.

I got their model # 72-2995. 40000 counts (actually roll over at 46000 counts), around 0.025% DC accuracy, 0.05% for , 100KHz bandwidth ACV. All that for 112$US.

https://www.newark.com/tenma/72-2995/industrial-true-rms-digital-multimeter/dp/95Y2984



The meter can detect when leads are not setup correctly.


Input protection seem to be OK, Got 1000V ceramic fuse, solid input jack.


I tested the accuracy in most of the mode and it's pretty good. I would have never paid the full price, but with a 50% rebate, it's a good deal.

[beanflying]

Because we all need component levity   

[cyclin_al]

   Also found in my cheap-ass curb-score Samsuck TV... and on Amazon for $12 delivered: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07LCBLB8N

mnem
*clicky-clicky...clickety-clickety...*

There are half a dozen cute little relays in the thing. Keyboard : tactile switches, however not the cheap kind : Look at them, 100% metallic construction ?!     Never seen luxurious ones like that... probably because all the ones I salvaged came form cheap consumer devices, not pro stuff made for field use !

Thank you for burning 10 dollars from my bank account.

  did I do now?!?

mnem
*looks all over his keyboard for the "burn $10 from your bank account" macro...*

It's those darn tactile switches you found on Amazon!  His currency is not the Canadian peso, so it is only $10 instead of $12.99 CAD.

-- you can tell a Canadian price by the .99 cause it appears a whole dollar cheaper that way 

EDIT:  still holding on to my wallet ... Must resist ...

Oh... now I see. I thought Z was blaming me for something Vince  said. Looks like the "nested quotes mismatch bug" in SMF bit us both.

Huh... I always thought the xxx99.99 pricing thing was mostly a 'merkin flimflam marketeering thing. Guess I shouldn't be surprised the infection crossed the border ahead of me. 

As for the switches... why resist...? I bought them cuz I needed 6 of the metal ones to fix that curb-score Samsuck TV; and we both know there's no way in hell the rest of the kit will go unused in any of our labs. For 10 bux, a total no-brainer.

mnem
 

In the end, could not resist.

However, these cost me much more than the $12.99 CAD.

The dog got very excited on the arrival of the delivery person.  Yeah, we do not get many visitors out here.

A friend who lives slightly further out into the boonies told me that Amazon does not deliver to them, and instead uses Purolator for delivery service.

Anyways, in the excitement, the dog got accidentally tangled up in a table cloth. 
Said table cloth covered a work table of 42" by 96" .... in turn completely covered by completed LEGO sets (some completed per LEGO instructions, some completed with custom designed add-ons by the kid).
Everything ended up on the floor in bits scattered everywhere (and some bits in places other than the floor) 

It took almost an hour to pick up all the LEGO, inspect the room, find more LEGO pieces, inspect again, find more pieces ... and so on. 
I have no idea how much time it is going to take to rebuild all those LEGOs, with the kid asking for help to find the pieces he wants from the parts boxes.

SWMBO saying that she could finally put the tablecloth in the laundry is not sufficient consolation by any means .... 

... all of this for just a tiny box of switches 

I'll take the grief for that collateral assache as long as I also get the credit for remotely, and without any direct interaction, keeping said kids out of the skate park and/or blowing hundreds of dollars at the arcade for the last 2 days. 

mnem

Where do you even find videos like that?  That question was rhetorical and I already regret asking ... 

[cyclin_al]

A small package of microcontroller SOCs from California just crossed into Canada destined to me.
The date on the packing slip is July 2020 ... 14 months and still not arrived...

You can probably sell those at a large profit at the moment

Hmmmm, especially since they were purchased with a discount coupon I was given since some of their other SOCs were not fit for purpose.

Hmmmm, I still have those other microcontroller SOCs and the manufacturer datasheet is now revised to indicate the correct specification.
These I could sell with no moral qualms.

-- Kijiji here I come

[mansaxel]

¹Edit:
It's really late here, will go to bed NOW! 

Thanks for filling the thread while I was asleep!

[mansaxel]

Newark (North American Farnell) is having a sale on their old line of multimeters. Their Tenma in-house brand. Most of them are rebranded Uni-T but for the price it's not that bad.

Input protection seem to be OK, Got 1000V ceramic fuse, solid input jack.

From the silkscreen it seems to be a UT-171A rebrand. Those sold for almost 3 times that (2.89, actually, at todays USD rate) at Distrelec here, so yeah, nice buy.

[tggzzz]

So his 5D lens is supposed to give him 20cm working distance which is very generous... but in practice he says it's more like 12cm.... I guess one has to take into account its particular eye sight problems as well to get the complete picture so to speak ! 

Well, it's more that if you drop the "at infinity" simplifying assumption you have to do some real physics to work out what's going on. As soon as you move closer than 'infinity' to one side of the lens you shorten the focal distance the other side of the lens - at least I think I remember it works that way, I've probably used the optics I learned at school only half a dozen times since.

Disinterring memories from 50 years ago... ¹/_f = ¹/_u + ¹/_v, where u,v are the object/image distances and f is the focal length

[tggzzz]

I keep thinking to try some of these:

https://www.amazon.ca/OuShiun-Reusable-Magnification-Glasses-Reading/dp/B0836N5CJN/

on my magnifying lamp to get just a little more magnification for those hard to read components. They're made of that cling vinyl, only supposedly optical quality and "wash & reuse" maintenance, etc.

If I come across them at "stoopit cheap" prices, I might take a chance on some. 

I have used them to add bifocals to plain sunglasses, when I needed to read a map and see infinity. They work, they aren't perfect, they have the advantage that they can be adjusted to match the glasses and your inter-pupilliary distance.

I like head-mounted visors that have multiple lenses/magnifications, since they can be used with your ordinary prescription glasses. Occasionally I get out my stereo microscope when I need to inspect something closely.

[Specmaster]

The 5D lens at work:   

I keep thinking to try some of these:

https://www.amazon.ca/OuShiun-Reusable-Magnification-Glasses-Reading/dp/B0836N5CJN/

on my magnifying lamp to get just a little more magnification for those hard to read components. They're made of that cling vinyl, only supposedly optical quality and "wash & reuse" maintenance, etc.

If I come across them at "stoopit cheap" prices, I might take a chance on some. 

mnem
*toddles off for some couch tuber time widda family*

Why not just fire up your microscope? 12cm working distance with no effort and with just a tad more effort a further 5 to 10cm can be had from using it and as a result far greater magnification.

[Cubdriver]

I fear that (in California at least) they may have passed far beyond the event horizon surrounding the black hole of stupidity.

This is why:

[Cubdriver]

The sticker in the previous post, warning of potential cancer and reproductive harm, was on a FUCKING DRYWALL KNIFE. What the hell are Californians doing with drywall mudding tools that gives them cancer and causes reproductive harm?  Using the handle as a sex toy?  Scraping the rubberized coating off and brewing toxic tea?  There’s such a thing as going too far with ridiculous warnings, and I think this more than qualifies.  At this rate, they should just make a list of stuff that DOESN'T cause cancer on the left coast - it would probably have less than a dozen things on it.



 

-Pat

(Edit to add - I'm on the east coast in Connecticut, so it won’t cause me to get cancer or suffer reproductive harm)

[Neper]

Because we all need component levity   

The German word for a rectifier is Gleichrichter. There's the old joke of calling it a gleich riecht er - it'll smell soon.

[nfmax]

So his 5D lens is supposed to give him 20cm working distance which is very generous... but in practice he says it's more like 12cm.... I guess one has to take into account its particular eye sight problems as well to get the complete picture so to speak ! 

Well, it's more that if you drop the "at infinity" simplifying assumption you have to do some real physics to work out what's going on. As soon as you move closer than 'infinity' to one side of the lens you shorten the focal distance the other side of the lens - at least I think I remember it works that way, I've probably used the optics I learned at school only half a dozen times since.

Disinterring memories from 50 years ago... ¹/_f = ¹/_u + ¹/_v, where u,v are the object/image distances and f is the focal length

...where u,v are the object image distances from the front & back principal planes which, for thick lenses, are not at the same location

[tggzzz]

The sticker in the previous post, warning of potential cancer and reproductive harm, was on a FUCKING DRYWALL KNIFE. What the hell are Californians doing with drywall mudding tools that gives them cancer and causes reproductive harm?  Using the handle as a sex toy?  Scraping the rubberized coating off and brewing toxic tea?  There’s such a thing as going too far with ridiculous warnings, and I think this more than qualifies.  At this rate, they should just make a list of stuff that DOESN'T cause cancer on the left coast - it would probably have less than a dozen things on it.

Over here the "Daily Wail" tabloid that caters to the "worried well wives" divides all chemicals into two sets: cancer causing, and cancer curing. Some appear in both sets, but neither the Wail nor its readers have sufficient wit/memory to care about that.