Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Thank you Apple, my iPad Air is now becoming a brick because you no longer support it, suddenly overnight with zero warning I might add, Outlook no longer works on it. It worked fine yesterday until I had to change the password and now diddly squat. Turns out although the OS was only updated about 4 weeks ago to iOS10 iOS12, it now needs iOS12 iOS14 to run Outlook 

That's not really Apple's fault that one. It's 8 years old and iOS 12 has still been receiving security patches for critical stuff.

What happened was Microsoft decided they don't want to target iOS12 any more and set their app as baseline iOS14. And why they did that, looking at adoption trends, 77% of users are on iOS 14 now, 100% of iOS 13 users can install iOS14 which accounts for another 16.5% of users. Only 5.4% of people are on iOS12 and that's not even specific to their app but the entire platform. So basically Microsoft said fuck spending XXX to support you. Go whine at them 

If that's also an original Air, I bought one each for the kids when they came out (new). They lasted 6 years and were replaced with latest ones then. Got £110 back each for them then. So ~229 for 6 years of computing each was a pretty good investment. £3.20 a month approx

 


Edit: possibly new (cheaper) ipads coming out today as well.

[Robert763]

I'd rather be near a well maintained nuclear weapon than near one of the Cobalt sources...

Not confined to the campuses, unfortunately. Don't go near scrapyards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt-60#Incidents_involving_medical_radiation_sources

TE too. A lot of 30's-60's aircraft instruments and some TE meters were luminised with Radium based paint Some radio's, notably the "19 Set" were as well. A lot of surplus meters got into hombrew TE. Thee are no longer luminous but still rdioactive. They also tend to leak Radon and the leaves decay products   on nearby items. They can often be identified visually. The radioactive paint is typically a yellow/brown colour like it's nicotine stained.  Often only the needle and significant value / marks are luminised. Another use of radium is in some humidity meters, notably the "Dewpointer"
t's not just Radium, Tritium and Ni63 is also found in instruments that rely on ionisation. An example is the 3M model 703 static field meter. These csn be found on ebay e.g.  www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124461079391? but should not be. Apart from being against ebay rules, in the USA this instrument is subject to an NRC general licence and is not transferrable. If you don't use it any more or it is faulty it has to be returned to 3M (or a licenced disposal site but they will charge $$$).  I have a 703, differernt rules here.

Around 1970 a schoolfriend put his fobwatch against the school's geiger counter. It was more radioactive than the school's most radioactive source, and was sent to Harwell to be destroyed.

Must buy a geiger counter and put it against some LoSalt (60%KCl) sometime.

You need a sensitive GM tube and a scaler to do that realistically. There is a lot of self shielding in lo-salt. I can supply a tube and PSU/pulse amplifier that will drive a std universal counter if you are interested.....

[Robert763]

More TEA,
Put a silly  offer on a Fluke 25, £21 including postage and it was accepted 
I really needed a 11th (or is it 12th?) Fluke.

Edit, Checked the list. Up to 12 Fluke meters 11, 16, 25 x2 89V, 8022A, 8022B, 8060 x3, 8920A, 8922A.

[xrunner]

Found these accoutrements installed on an hp 437B power meter in an Ebay seller's listing (they were selling more than one power meter). I asked if all the power meters had those parts installed (because I wanted just the handle parts). They wrote back and said thanks for asking because only the one had those parts, and they would change the picture. I asked if they would sell me just the handle parts, and they said, well sure.

I have rarely seen the handle and rear legs, I don't know why. But here they are installed. Now you might ask me - Hey xrunner - where on Earth are you going to carry an hp 437B power meter using a handle? I'll tell you then - anywhere I want to! 

[Cerebus]

Yep, thats so true, I always found it a little unnerving every time I had visit a couple of our Atomic Weapons Establishments 

The firearms or the radiation ?
Radiation would bother me more. 

The firearms I imagine. The Civil Nuclear Constabulary (better known as the Nuclear Police) were the only regularly armed police in the UK until the Met decided to go for the "armed bully boys with shaved heads" look on a regular basis.

Yeah well I just don't get how some can be not scared of electricity yet they are of firearms. 
Arse about IMHO.

Well, the express purpose of firearms is to kill, either for hunting or warfare. That folks like you and me use them as long distance paper punches as a form of peaceful sport has itself evolved from the need to train people to use them in warfare. The British government used to promote target shooting as a sport to have a ready supply of proficient rifleman handy in case of hostilities. Everybody is aware that a firearm is a weapon, and a weapon that one is unlikely to defend oneself from without having one oneself and being proficient in its use. One has an innate understanding that a firearm is more dangerous than a fist, rock, stick, knife or sword.

You have to put this into a context. I can go to Bisley, be surrounded by literally hundreds of firearms out in the open and small arms fire sounding off left right and centre and I have no fears for my safety whatsoever apart from the routine "working with dangerous machines" risks and associated caution. But, if I see a policeman with a firearm in the streets my internal alarms go off.

If one sees people with weapons, be it firearms in the street,  a crowd with a clutch of baseball bats outside a playing field, or a Stanley knife being carried down the street by someone who doesn't look like they are in the middle of some work, then an internal alarm goes off. If it didn't your ancestors would have been eaten by bears or tigers and you wouldn't be here. It's only in places where the open presence of firearms on a daily basis is normal that people get desensitised to the threat that a firearm represents.

[bd139]

More TEA,
Put a silly  offer on a Fluke 25, £21 including postage and it was accepted 
I really needed a 11th (or is it 12th?) Fluke.

Edit, Checked the list. Up to 12 Fluke meters 11, 16, 25 x2 89V, 8022A, 8022B, 8060 x3, 8920A, 8922A.

That was probably the one I was humming and hawing over. Thank you for saving me 

Got my TM501 chassis. Better condition than it looked but stinks of electronic death. Will clean it out and check it over before powering up.

[med6753]

More TEA,
Put a silly  offer on a Fluke 25, £21 including postage and it was accepted 
I really needed a 11th (or is it 12th?) Fluke.

Edit, Checked the list. Up to 12 Fluke meters 11, 16, 25 x2 89V, 8022A, 8022B, 8060 x3, 8920A, 8922A.

That was probably the one I was humming and hawing over. Thank you for saving me 

Got my TM501 chassis. Better condition than it looked but stinks of electronic death. Will clean it out and check it over before powering up.

Seems like Fluke 25's are to you guys like a carrot is to a horse. Dangle it in front of you and you'll follow it everywhere. 

[bd139]

We’re probably going to use them as body armour when we take our colony back from you

[Cerebus]

So we didn't have to run back & forth from the control room, one of the "clever chaps" made up a box with two large key switches, which could be plugged into one of the GPOs conveniently mounted on pillars throughout the building.

I want to know how you got the whole of the General Post Office onto a pillar. I mean, that's going to be 10s of 1000s of people!

Or put differently - GPO is not a universal abbreviation and I haven't a clue what you're talking about. Abbreviations for bits of electrical kit do not, in general, travel well. e,g, UK abbreviations RCD, RCBO, ELCB.

But everybody else worked it out!

OK, for not you, who is indulging in some gentle "piss taking", but for anyone who is genuinely confused, it is a "General Purpose Outlet".

No, I really couldn't figure it out. There's a reason that the convention in writing is that the first time you use an abbreviation in something you define it unless it is so universal that you are sure it will be understood by all. In a context of cross-borders and "what electricians call things" 'understood by all' is quite a high barrier. The first time I heard a sparky refer to a 'GLS' lamp I couldn't for the life of me figure out what they meant.

It is not as confusing as "plug tops", the very common term "jack plugs", or many others.
For instance, whenever I hear "AVR" I think of large motorised power transformers, & USB translates to "Upper Side Band!"

An interesting sidelight on "GPO" & Post offices:

In Oz, back in the day, the organisation was the "Postmaster General's Dept " & a "GPO" was the main Post Office in  each State capital, which was generally, a very imposing building.
"Australia Post" still use the term "GPO" for their headquarters in each State, but it is pretty much a "virtual" thing, the buildings themselves having been sold off to the ever salivating "Private Sector!"

[Specmaster]

More TEA,
Put a silly  offer on a Fluke 25, £21 including postage and it was accepted 
I really needed a 11th (or is it 12th?) Fluke.

Edit, Checked the list. Up to 12 Fluke meters 11, 16, 25 x2 89V, 8022A, 8022B, 8060 x3, 8920A, 8922A.

That was probably the one I was humming and hawing over. Thank you for saving me 

Got my TM501 chassis. Better condition than it looked but stinks of electronic death. Will clean it out and check it over before powering up.

Seems like Fluke 25's are to you guys like a carrot is to a horse. Dangle it in front of you and you'll follow it everywhere. 

Not me, I'm done with 25's now. 27's at least come get with the program, you move forwards a bit at a time, not backwards, yah a 27 is really a 25 with 2 extra buttons, but it comes in more upto date custard colour 

[Cerebus]

Radiation risks of nuclear weapons (before they go bang) get rather exaggerated. I'd rather be near a well maintained nuclear weapon than near one of the Cobalt sources that you can find scattered around university campuses or one of the Technetium sources that you can find in many a hospital.

The only time I was dosed with technetium, I was told to stay away from pregnant women for 24 hours.

I had a friend at university, a biochemist by the name of Robin, who had congenital hyperthyroidism. If you want to know what he looked like just google "Marty Feldman", he was basically a young Scots version of Marty.

He'd reached the age where he was 'full grown' enough that they were prepared to give him radioactive iodine therapy to permanently 'tone down' his thyroid gland. This duly happened; he was sent into a lead lined room on his own, drank from a plastic cup and was sent home.

For several days afterward he had to pee into bottles and poop into a plastic bag, the products thereof to be treated as radioactive waste. You should have seen the looks on some faces when an official van, with appropriate warning stickers - quite discreet, but also quite recognisable to many at a university - turned up at the halls of residence to cart it all away.

[Cerebus]

Thank you Apple, my iPad Air is now becoming a brick because you no longer support it, suddenly overnight with zero warning I might add, Outlook no longer works on it. It worked fine yesterday until I had to change the password and now diddly squat. Turns out although the OS was only updated about 4 weeks ago to iOS10 iOS12, it now needs iOS12 iOS14 to run Outlook 

Why are you blaming Apple for something Microsoft did? It would have been Microsoft who chose to make Outlook require a particular minimum version of IOS, not Apple.

[Cerebus]

I'd rather be near a well maintained nuclear weapon than near one of the Cobalt sources...

Not confined to the campuses, unfortunately. Don't go near scrapyards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt-60#Incidents_involving_medical_radiation_sources

TE too. A lot of 30's-60's aircraft instruments and some TE meters were luminised with Radium based paint Some radio's, notably the "19 Set" were as well. A lot of surplus meters got into hombrew TE. Thee are no longer luminous but still rdioactive. They also tend to leak Radon and the leaves decay products   on nearby items. They can often be identified visually. The radioactive paint is typically a yellow/brown colour like it's nicotine stained.  Often only the needle and significant value / marks are luminised. Another use of radium is in some humidity meters, notably the "Dewpointer"
t's not just Radium, Tritium and Ni63 is also found in instruments that rely on ionisation. An example is the 3M model 703 static field meter. These csn be found on ebay e.g.  www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124461079391? but should not be. Apart from being against ebay rules, in the USA this instrument is subject to an NRC general licence and is not transferrable. If you don't use it any more or it is faulty it has to be returned to 3M (or a licenced disposal site but they will charge $$$).  I have a 703, differernt rules here.

Around 1970 a schoolfriend put his fobwatch against the school's geiger counter. It was more radioactive than the school's most radioactive source, and was sent to Harwell to be destroyed.

Must buy a geiger counter and put it against some LoSalt (60%KCl) sometime.

You need a sensitive GM tube and a scaler to do that realistically. There is a lot of self shielding in lo-salt. I can supply a tube and PSU/pulse amplifier that will drive a std universal counter if you are interested.....

You could probably use the KCl as it's own scintillation salt and just get away with a properly dark room and a good photomultiplier tube. It probably wouldn't be as good as a purpose made scintillation crystal, but I bet you'd get something.

[SoundTech-LG]

Here on the job, I have the possibility of being the new owner of a Tektronix 7854, with cart, 4 plug-ins, all original manuals, programming kybd, and other stuff inside the cart drawer. Unknown operational status, but nice shape. Am I crazy to want it? I am already out of room. 

[med6753]

We’re probably going to use them as body armour when we take our colony back from you

I'll gladly let you invade if you promise to do one simple thing. You Brits did it in 1812 but not well enough. Please raze DC back to a true natural swamp it once was rather than the putrid swamp it is today. 

[med6753]

After extensive research I have FINALLY gotten a handle on why the vertical amplifier in the Type 547 destroys itself and then takes the +100V supply with it. It all has to do with a somewhat confusing change in parts based upon serial ranges. My 547 is low S/N (2646). The output transistors I used were for much higher S/N and involve some other supporting part changes. I can't get the transistors originally used on my scope. But I do have a matched pair of the later transistors. If I add one silicon diode and change the current zener from 105V to 110V it will upgrade the vertical amplifier and SHOULD work.

Tomorrow I'm going to start with the upgrade. Cross my fingers and toes it works. 

[BU508A]

We’re probably going to use them as body armour when we take our colony back from you

I'll gladly let you invade if you promise to do one simple thing. You Brits did it in 1812 but not well enough. Please raze DC back to a true natural swamp it once was rather than the putrid swamp it is today.

Provide them enough Earl Grey and they will do ANYTHING! 

[syau]

Need a Tek patent 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tektronix-Framed-First-Patent-1985-L-Rodney-Bristol-DC-Amplifier-Offset-Balance-/384394606519

[Cerebus]

I am already out of room. 

And that's stopped so many here before, not! 

[med6753]

Here on the job, I have the possibility of being the new owner of a Tektronix 7854, with cart, 4 plug-ins, all original manuals, programming kybd, and other stuff inside the cart drawer. Unknown operational status, but nice shape. Am I crazy to want it? I am already out of room. 

You have to ask? Yes, you are crazy to want it but we're all crazy here so just go and get it. Out of room? So am I but that hasn't stopped me.

[med6753]

We’re probably going to use them as body armour when we take our colony back from you

I'll gladly let you invade if you promise to do one simple thing. You Brits did it in 1812 but not well enough. Please raze DC back to a true natural swamp it once was rather than the putrid swamp it is today.

Provide them enough Earl Grey and they will do ANYTHING! 

No, I draw the line on the Earl Grey or any other tea they wish to bring. We'll need to have a Chesapeake Bay Tea Party. 

[mnementh]

Cerebus -

I remember you talking aboot looking for some sort of tray to use for populating PCBs; something with a lip to keep flyaways captive. Yesterday I picked this up from the Thrift; it looks like just the kind of thing you were asking for. I'm guessing it is some sort of silicone baking sheet for ummm... I dunno what...?

Dimensions are 150mm x 150mm inside; lip is 10mm high to the inside surface. Bottom measures 2mm thick so marginally safe to solder right on it; or you could just put your PCB on a MetCal potholder or somesuch for a little extra safety.

No idea what they'd call it on your side of the pond; hopefully not too frightfully expensive.

mnem
*solder-ily*

That looks like the silicone version of a swiss roll tray (which has a fancier nom gastronomique that I can't remember offhand). Might be a winner.

i was trying work out what the strange, other-worldly creature sprawled on it was, before I realised it was a reflection!

 

Yup... just the truly hideous "rustic/goth/victorian homologated-style" chandelier over the dining room table.

Yes, that's right... the dwagon has a dining room again.
I'm so chuffed to be that close to civilization again... I don't give a aboot the fucking ugly lighting all through this ahem... middle-eastern themed house.

mnem
*lit AF*

[Cubdriver]

Here on the job, I have the possibility of being the new owner of a Tektronix 7854, with cart, 4 plug-ins, all original manuals, programming kybd, and other stuff inside the cart drawer. Unknown operational status, but nice shape. Am I crazy to want it? I am already out of room. 

IMO you'd be crazy to leave it, but I'm not wrapped all that tightly.   

-Pat

[mnementh]

This morning in my personal newsticker:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/radon-treatment-mine-radiation-covid/2021/08/06/2bcf9ebc-f08f-11eb-81d2-ffae0f931b8f_story.html

Dunning-Kruger at work. 

Edit:
This is a list of horrible radioactive products, e.g. chocolate or condoms.

https://gizmodo.com/seriously-scary-radioactive-consumer-products-from-the-498044380

This one was my favorite... thanks for the chuckle!

The humor kindof died quickly when I realized we just had a man Morlock holding what is supposedly the highest office in the free world tell people to inject bleach as preventive against COVID. It's sad when current real life manages to out-fucked-up history so gravely.

mnem
Maybe we should send him it it a lifetime supply...?

[cyclin_al]

Yep, thats so true, I always found it a little unnerving every time I had visit a couple of our Atomic Weapons Establishments 

The firearms or the radiation ?
Radiation would bother me more. 

The firearms I imagine. The Civil Nuclear Constabulary (better known as the Nuclear Police) were the only regularly armed police in the UK until the Met decided to go for the "armed bully boys with shaved heads" look on a regular basis.

Yeah well I just don't get how some can be not scared of electricity yet they are of firearms. 
Arse about IMHO.

They haven’t seen electricity hurt anyone yet.

Only thing to be scared of is stupid people.

This morning in my personal newsticker:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/radon-treatment-mine-radiation-covid/2021/08/06/2bcf9ebc-f08f-11eb-81d2-ffae0f931b8f_story.html

Dunning-Kruger at work. 

Edit:
This is a list of horrible radioactive products, e.g. chocolate or condoms.

https://gizmodo.com/seriously-scary-radioactive-consumer-products-from-the-498044380

Time for a homemade Radon Gas Detector?


No, too many projects