Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tautech]

Needs something a bit faster than my SDS5104X to match a sub 30ps risetime. 

Not a big deal, you'd just need some old and crusty equipment  :

I might offer you some of Med's rope but not this time as I'm soon to order a SDS6204A. 

But that can wait for a little bit as the pulser is just for checking out passive probes for which a detailed thread is coming once I get my head around FFT's and pulsers to show probe BW rolloff.
Should be fun comparing a good few probes from different sources in BW's from 100-500 MHz and finding what's good value for money.

[Vince]

[...] in Carcassonne, where I was driven by les sapeurs-pompeurs

Oh my.... 

Sapeurs pomp and circumstances. Still preferable to the pompes funèbres.

You were faster with that one. But I have the story to go with it.
In the mid 90s, I had activities in the French city of St. Etienne.
After some visits as a kid, I had been giving that country a wide berth - that blasted language having endangered my Abitur was only the last straw of a reason. Now I had to go there, and despite having been assured that I would be fine with English at the company I was visiting, I felt the necessity to polish up at least some common technical terms. Voilá, I knew about fiches and prises, le courant continu et le courant alternatif, and I was quite sure that 'pompes' are pumps.
Now in Germany, we have some occurrences of industrial sales representancies having taken residence in a former retail shop and having the windows painted over or replaced by opaque glass, sometimes showing a logo of one or several manufacturers. There are two former shops of this type in Mannheim alone.
Now I drove through St. Etienne, and within a short time I had encountered not one but FOUR shops of this type, all of which seemed to sell pumps! I wondered whether this city suffers from a high water table or maybe a particularly deficient sewage system - and decided to investigate!
I entered this pump-peddling business and adressed the serious looking gentleman behind the counter straight away. I asked him, in more ore less correct french, but with the correct technical terms, whether he sells rotary (pompes rotatives) or plunger pumps (pompes à piston) and for which purpose they are?
Just to make sure that I would be understood correctly I did underlay the vocal communication with gestural depictions of the pumps mentioned. And I was puzzled by the fact that, as far as a furtive glance through the room yielded, not a single pump was to be seen there!
The (supposed) salesman of flow-inducing machinery looked at me rather aghast. Then my eyes fell upon the half-opened sliding door to another room, where some grieving relatives were pondering the offered selection of caskets. Suddenly I was able to make the connection from 'funèbres' to 'funeral', which had not occured to me before. I think that I managed to snort not too loudly and say something as well before I managed to leave the shop through the nicely etched glass door.
The story was quite a hoot with my hosts at GIAT. One guy told me that I got it wrong - before the deceased can be pumped away, it would be necessary to feed them into a macerator.

 

Oh you all are killing me, I love this TEA forum ! 

Yes like in most languages I assume, words in French usually have more than just one meaning ! 

[tautech]

Gadget arrived from the other side of the globe today and a Jammy Git biscuit for the first correct guess of what tautech's new toy might be. 
Spec sheet attached.

That's a Leo Bodnar fast edge pulse generator device, isn't it?

Should I be right, there's something wrong with the hardcopy. The rise/fall times appear quite unplausible. Afair, this gadget is in the 20 ... 40 ps ballpark.

40ps is the advertised/rated rise/fall time and the hardcopy test results show it comfortably beats its 40ps rating.
http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=124&products_id=295

[Vince]

Gadget arrived from the other side of the globe today and a Jammy Git biscuit for the first correct guess of what tautech's new toy might be. 
Spec sheet attached.

That's a Leo Bodnar fast edge pulse generator device, isn't it?

Nailed it and just when about to call you all a bunch of useless tits  but then the good Capt has proved his worth again after earlier nailing the quiz that Vince put up. 

With all the Cookies Cap'tain is getting recently, I fear for his health ! I would not want him to become fat and develop diabetes or whatnot ...     

BTW please keep the traffic low today. Have lots of work to do today, just received all the metal/wire-mesh and concrete blocks to do the foundations for my garage, so will be busy all day installing that. When I am done and exhausted and sleepy this evening, I don't want to have to catch up with 20 pages of TEA. Please be nice with me.

Have a good day all...

[Robert763]

Fluke 27's have arrived.  Two for $125 each (Of course, paying in Canuck shekels means it cost more than that).  Offer was based on simplified bulk shipping for two.  They were shipped separately... 

Nice, what cat rating are they?

Groan

[Specmaster]

Gadget arrived from the other side of the globe today and a Jammy Git biscuit for the first correct guess of what tautech's new toy might be. 
Spec sheet attached.

That's a Leo Bodnar fast edge pulse generator device, isn't it?

Nailed it and just when about to call you all a bunch of useless tits  but then the good Capt has proved his worth again after earlier nailing the quiz that Vince put up. 

With all the Cookies Cap'tain is getting recently, I fear for his health ! I would not want him to become fat and develop diabetes or whatnot ...     

BTW please keep the traffic low today. Have lots of work to do today, just received all the metal/wire-mesh and concrete blocks to do the foundations for my garage, so will be busy all day installing that. When I am done and exhausted and sleepy this evening, I don't want to have to catch up with 20 pages of TEA. Please be nice with me.

Have a good day all...

Those footings really don't look deep enough to meet UK standards,

[Specmaster]

Fluke 27's have arrived.  Two for $125 each (Of course, paying in Canuck shekels means it cost more than that).  Offer was based on simplified bulk shipping for two.  They were shipped separately... 

Nice, what cat rating are they?

Groan

Thats easy, the answer is clearly 2 

[DC1MC]

Just in case someone's interested in results of my timenut activities, here's a summary (updated):

http://wunderkis.de/tnfb/fdif_meas.html

Noise floor of my various contraptions:

http://wunderkis.de/tnfb/noise_floor.html

so who's the winner of the gang, for us exponent challenged people ?

[capt bullshot]

Just in case someone's interested in results of my timenut activities, here's a summary (updated):

http://wunderkis.de/tnfb/fdif_meas.html

Noise floor of my various contraptions:

http://wunderkis.de/tnfb/noise_floor.html

so who's the winner of the gang, for us exponent challenged people ?

None, they're all mediocre   

[Neper]

Yes like in most languages I assume, words in French usually have more than just one meaning ! 

So, to go full circle on your pompeur thing, let me take us all back some 30 years and to what was our favourite restaurant in Boulogne at the time... Le Grand Guignol.

The landlady had her night off which usually meant the landlord had the place to himself whereas he'd normally stay quietly in the background when she was around. The evening wore on and not only had he had a few but we had all been treated on the house to various high-percentage beverages and our coffee cups had been refilled a few times - with brandy.

The remaining guests were a bunch of young English lads who didn't speak a word of French, a local family - father, mother, teenage son and daughter - and an English couple in their fifties - quite distiguished and very erm... British. She appeared to have some French, enough to make orders and ask for things but no more.

Eventually, our good landlord got his pipe out and lit it. Our British lady asked: "Est-ce une pipe anglaise ?" (Is this an English pipe?) ... "Ah non, Madame, je ne saurais pas me payer une pipe anglaise. Mais si une Anglaise voudrait m'offrir une pipe je ne dirais certainement pas non !" (No, Madam, I couldn't afford an English pipe. But if an English woman were to offer me a pipe I'd certainly not refuse.) I'll let you work out the double-entendre yourselves. Thankfully, she didn't get it but we almost choked on our drinks while the French parents were gasping and their kids had a severe case of the giggles.

[mnementh]

Fluke 27's have arrived.  Two for $125 each (Of course, paying in Canuck shekels means it cost more than that).  Offer was based on simplified bulk shipping for two.  They were shipped separately... 

Nice, what cat rating are they?

*grooooooooooaaaannnnnn*

mnem
And you said that with a straight face... remind me to never invite you over for poker night.

[mnementh]

Yes like in most languages I assume, words in French usually have more than just one meaning ! 

So, to go full circle on your pompeur thing, let me take us all back some 30 years and to what was our favourite restaurant in Boulogne at the time... Le Grand Guignol.

The landlady had her night off which usually meant the landlord had the place to himself whereas he'd normally stay quietly in the background when she was around. The evening wore on and not only had he had a few but we had all been treated on the house to various high-percentage beverages and our coffee cups had been refilled a few times - with brandy.

The remaining guests were a bunch of young English lads who didn't speak a word of French, a local family - father, mother, teenage son and daughter - and an English couple in their fifties - quite distinguished and very erm... British. She appeared to have some French, enough to make orders and ask for things but no more.

Eventually, our good landlord got his pipe out and lit it. Our British lady asked: "Est-ce une pipe anglaise ?" (Is this an English pipe?) ... "Ah non, Madame, je ne saurais pas me payer une pipe anglaise. Mais si une Anglaise voudrait m'offrir une pipe je ne dirais certainement pas non !" (No, Madam, I couldn't afford an English pipe. But if an English woman were to offer me a pipe I'd certainly not refuse.) I'll let you work out the double-entendre yourselves. Thankfully, she didn't get it but we almost choked on our drinks while the French parents were gasping and their kids had a severe case of the giggles.

So does that mean une pipette is the same as une petit fellatio...? 

mnem
Je veux savoir juste assez de français pour me faire gifler. 

[med6753]

Gadget arrived from the other side of the globe today and a Jammy Git biscuit for the first correct guess of what tautech's new toy might be. 
Spec sheet attached.

That's a Leo Bodnar fast edge pulse generator device, isn't it?

Nailed it and just when about to call you all a bunch of useless tits  but then the good Capt has proved his worth again after earlier nailing the quiz that Vince put up. 

With all the Cookies Cap'tain is getting recently, I fear for his health ! I would not want him to become fat and develop diabetes or whatnot ...     

BTW please keep the traffic low today. Have lots of work to do today, just received all the metal/wire-mesh and concrete blocks to do the foundations for my garage, so will be busy all day installing that. When I am done and exhausted and sleepy this evening, I don't want to have to catch up with 20 pages of TEA. Please be nice with me.

Have a good day all...

Those footings really don't look deep enough to meet UK standards,

Same. Absolute 4 foot minimum here. And that's just minimum to get below the Winter frost line.

[Kosmic]

Gadget arrived from the other side of the globe today and a Jammy Git biscuit for the first correct guess of what tautech's new toy might be. 
Spec sheet attached.

That's a Leo Bodnar fast edge pulse generator device, isn't it?

Nailed it and just when about to call you all a bunch of useless tits  but then the good Capt has proved his worth again after earlier nailing the quiz that Vince put up. 

Needs something a bit faster than my SDS5104X to match a sub 30ps risetime. 

I think you forgot a 0 there. 30ps would make the SDS5104X a 11.66Ghz scope. Siglent is great but I don't think they are there yet.

You were probably talking about 300ps 

[Vince]

Foundation work going well, much faster than I thought... so allowing myself a 10 minute break.. to check TEA of course ! 

So, to go full circle on your pompeur thing, let me take us all back some 30 years and to what was our favourite restaurant in Boulogne at the time... Le Grand Guignol.

Oh stop it, you are really killing me you all ! 

I'll let you work out the double-entendre yourselves.

Never heard that expression in French/France, strange... of course I can get what it means, but it sounds like ancient French that the Brits picked up a few centuries ago when their dictionnary got invaded by French words...
Looks like this expression survived in England, but not in France...

@Dwagon : No, a pipette is nothing to do with a small blow job... but nice try, I am proud of you.

[Vince]

BTW please keep the traffic low today. Have lots of work to do today, just received all the metal/wire-mesh and concrete blocks to do the foundations for my garage, so will be busy all day installing that. When I am done and exhausted and sleepy this evening, I don't want to have to catch up with 20 pages of TEA. Please be nice with me.

Have a good day all...

Those footings really don't look deep enough to meet UK standards,

Same. Absolute 4 foot minimum here. And that's just minimum to get below the Winter frost line.

I guess every country is different.

I am no expert in construction, I am more into electronics and old cars but... what I am doing is well above average, it's luxury.
Most people here who do their garage would just pour 2 or 3 inches of concrete straight onto the ground and call it a day.

Of course every foundation depth is different depending on where you live in the country, nature of soil on your particular yard, and what kind of construction you want to do.... I think it's called "engineering" or something ?! 

There is the theory and then there is what builders actually do in real life.

From what I gathered, the minimum thickness for the foundation, that is the concrete you pour into the trench, is about a foot. Trying hard to use imperial units here. Say 25cm minimum. That's it. Then you lay one or more layers of concretes blocks to get back to the surface so to speak... as many layers as you need to do what it is that you want to do, but it's up to you... if you need one meter deep to get a soil you are happy with, then so be it. Do whatever you feel is necessary.

I am planning on pouring enough concrete in there to get the foundation about 43cm thick/deep, so that's well above the minimum of 25cm. I am in no danger of my car sinking into the ground when I will park it there, I am not worried...

Then the slab again not just one way to do it, and thickness depends on what solution you go for. It's not an exact science... even though websites would like you to think it is... again theory an practice. I live in the real world not in a text book 

House builders themselves never go by the book, yet houses hold up just fine and no builder has ever been taken to jail...so mine certainly should given how low his attention to details is... 

I am not even doing a house, just a humble garage to put my car in, and store my Tek scopes. Load is not that great....
It's not going to collapse.

I hope this is not the start of a know it all construction contest. If so don't expect me to reply to any body, I will just wait and let it die 

OK my break is over, time to get back to work.... only 3 hours left of daylight.. or kinda. skies are turning very overcast and menacing, not looking good... must try to get as much as possible done before it starts raining, crap.... looks like I will have to finish the job tomorrow...

Have fun.

[Neper]

I'll let you work out the double-entendre yourselves.

Never heard that expression in French/France, strange... of course I can get what it means, but it sounds like ancient French that the Brits picked up a few centuries ago when their dictionnary got invaded by French words...
Looks like this expression survived in England, but not in France...

Quite so. Merriam-Webster defines it as: "a word or expression capable of two interpretations with one usually risqué". There we go again...

I am not even doing a house, just a humble garage to put my car in, and store my Tek scopes. Load is not that great....

Knowing Tek scopes and their propensity to proliferation I'd be less concerned about the car...

[mnementh]

BTW please keep the traffic low today. Have lots of work to do today, just received all the metal/wire-mesh and concrete blocks to do the foundations for my garage, so will be busy all day installing that. When I am done and exhausted and sleepy this evening, I don't want to have to catch up with 20 pages of TEA. Please be nice with me.

Have a good day all...

Those footings really don't look deep enough to meet UK standards,

Same. Absolute 4 foot minimum here. And that's just minimum to get below the Winter frost line.

I guess every country is different.

I am no expert in construction, I am more into electronics and old cars but... what I am doing is well above average, it's luxury.
Most people here who do their garage would just pour 2 or 3 inches of concrete straight onto the ground and call it a day.

Of course every foundation depth is different depending on where you live in the country, nature of soil on your particular yard, and what kind of construction you want to do.... I think it's called "engineering" or something ?! 

There is the theory and then there is what builders actually do in real life.

From what I gathered, the minimum thickness for the foundation, that is the concrete you pour into the trench, is about a foot. Trying hard to use imperial units here. Say 25cm minimum. That's it. Then you lay one or more layers of concretes blocks to get back to the surface so to speak... as many layers as you need to do what it is that you want to do, but it's up to you... if you need one meter deep to get a soil you are happy with, then so be it. Do whatever you feel is necessary.

I am planning on pouring enough concrete in there to get the foundation about 43cm thick/deep, so that's well above the minimum of 25cm. I am in no danger of my car sinking into the ground when I will park it there, I am not worried...

Then the slab again not just one way to do it, and thickness depends on what solution you go for. It's not an exact science... even though websites would like you to think it is... again theory an practice. I live in the real world not in a text book 

House builders themselves never go by the book, yet houses hold up just fine and no builder has ever been taken to jail...so mine certainly should given how low his attention to details is... 

I am not even doing a house, just a humble garage to put my car in, and store my Tek scopes. Load is not that great....
It's not going to collapse.

I hope this is not the start of a know it all construction contest. If so don't expect me to reply to any body, I will just wait and let it die 

OK my break is over, time to get back to work.... only 3 hours left of daylight.. or kinda. skies are turning very overcast and menacing, not looking good... must try to get as much as possible done before it starts raining, crap.... looks like I will have to finish the job tomorrow...

Have fun.

It's pretty simple, actually. You want the base of your foundation (including drainage tile/crushed stone used to carry away water so it can't pool at the base of the foundation) to be 6-12" below the lowest frost line in the coldest part of the winter. If you don't, frost heave will make the walls and slab move and crack.

This has nothing to do with the intended application, this has to do with the materials used; if you're building with block and/or concrete slab/footers, this has to be done or it will crack/crumble. A stick-frame structure is of course more forgiving than block walls which will bow/buckle/crack. But even just having the footers heave & crack will rip the j-bolts through your mooring plates and make gaps for snow/rain/critters to get into the structure.

So if you want your TEA to stay cozy and dry, make sure your footers go well below the frost line, or in the case of warmer climes, well below the rainwater saturation level during the wettest season.

Of, and no matter what your friends say... divide your concrete slab into sections with interfacing between; don't try to do a single continuous pour. You're going to have cracking; it's better to make sure it happens where you decide.

Cheers!

mnem
*lessons learnt the hard, expensive way*

[Vince]

Here we go, Dwagon also knows it all about construction, oh fuck me it's my fault, why the hell did I post a humble OT pic, boy I will never be caught doing that again. Please forget all about my garage, I am not building one, the pic I showed are from a neighbour, I am sure, has to be.

You are 100% right I am 100% wrong, my house will soon collapse, my garage will crack and and sink and you will have to take down every house built in France and redo them as you please because they are not built like you want. I am not sure the owners will appreciate your view though, as their house id doing just fine.

Just for reference there is no such thing as frost where I live, FFS I am not in Canado or Chicago or Detroit ! 

If you know better than local builders and construction people how to do a house or garage in my neck of the wods, by all means go teach them, and good luck. Warning : they are NOT friendly with people who want to tell them how to live their life...

Only problem here is water, I live in a huge marsh, as well a minusculy (yes I like to invent words some times) seismic. So the rules here are as thick a layer of 20mm gravel as you can afford (10cm minimum, 25cm if you can...) then a bit of sand to even the surface, then a layer of thick 0.15mm plastich sheet to keep the water from degrading the slab, add lots of wire mesh to the slab, and lots of iron vertically and horizontally to keep the walls together should an "earth quake" happen or the building move due to the humid soil.

Now go to the local authorities to tell them otherwise and good luck with that.

I am done, will never post OT anything any more no matter how little, and if I then appear dry and narrow minded and without a life, I don't care. Now it's electronics and nothing else.

Have a good day.

Fuck me....

[Specmaster]

BTW please keep the traffic low today. Have lots of work to do today, just received all the metal/wire-mesh and concrete blocks to do the foundations for my garage, so will be busy all day installing that. When I am done and exhausted and sleepy this evening, I don't want to have to catch up with 20 pages of TEA. Please be nice with me.

Have a good day all...

Those footings really don't look deep enough to meet UK standards,

Same. Absolute 4 foot minimum here. And that's just minimum to get below the Winter frost line.

I guess every country is different.

I am no expert in construction, I am more into electronics and old cars but... what I am doing is well above average, it's luxury.
Most people here who do their garage would just pour 2 or 3 inches of concrete straight onto the ground and call it a day.

Of course every foundation depth is different depending on where you live in the country, nature of soil on your particular yard, and what kind of construction you want to do.... I think it's called "engineering" or something ?! 

There is the theory and then there is what builders actually do in real life.

From what I gathered, the minimum thickness for the foundation, that is the concrete you pour into the trench, is about a foot. Trying hard to use imperial units here. Say 25cm minimum. That's it. Then you lay one or more layers of concretes blocks to get back to the surface so to speak... as many layers as you need to do what it is that you want to do, but it's up to you... if you need one meter deep to get a soil you are happy with, then so be it. Do whatever you feel is necessary.

I am planning on pouring enough concrete in there to get the foundation about 43cm thick/deep, so that's well above the minimum of 25cm. I am in no danger of my car sinking into the ground when I will park it there, I am not worried...

Then the slab again not just one way to do it, and thickness depends on what solution you go for. It's not an exact science... even though websites would like you to think it is... again theory an practice. I live in the real world not in a text book 

House builders themselves never go by the book, yet houses hold up just fine and no builder has ever been taken to jail...so mine certainly should given how low his attention to details is... 

I am not even doing a house, just a humble garage to put my car in, and store my Tek scopes. Load is not that great....
It's not going to collapse.

I hope this is not the start of a know it all construction contest. If so don't expect me to reply to any body, I will just wait and let it die 

OK my break is over, time to get back to work.... only 3 hours left of daylight.. or kinda. skies are turning very overcast and menacing, not looking good... must try to get as much as possible done before it starts raining, crap.... looks like I will have to finish the job tomorrow...

Have fun.

Oh, I thought you said that you was building a house? For a garage that should be fine.

[Vince]

Oh, I thought you said that you was building a house? For a garage that should be fine.

House was done by the builder, got the key 18 months ago, but the inside of it still needed finishing up. Sanding and painting the dry walls, furnishing the bathroom, need to put some  floating parquet on the bedroom floor, kitchen area needs doing entirely, need to make the attic liveable as well, put a floor up there, dry walls, electricity insulation decorating blah blah blah.... then make a stair case and put stairs in there.

So I am still working inside the house to finish it up, but at the same time I am now also starting work on building the big garage behind the house in the back yard. Garage I am doing all myself from the ground up. So a lot more work ahead...

I am doing both the house and garage at the same time, whiie also trying to fix electronic stuff to make a dime, then fix my own stuff, the fix other people's stuff, then try to catch up with TEA and also work on my old car to make it half decent but so much to do on it etc.  So lots to keep me busy.... that's why I have less and less patience with poor Dwagon who knows it all and can't help but grab every single opportunity to show it. Sorry Dwagon it's just the truth and you know it and every body knows it... and I am getting sick of it really    I like you, you are funny but really you should consult a psychologist to work on your " I am 10 year old " syndrome. Grow up Dwagon, grow up... I assure you I like things in you that will still be there even if you grow up. You can be less childish yet still fun and interesting... You don't need to piss people off all the time for people ot register you are out there... we know you are there... all you achieve by pissing people off is... well people are pissed at you ! 

Got most of the work done, hurricane arrived at 4PM or so, didn't anticipate that hmmm.... so had to stop earlier that I would have liked. It's so windy it reminds me of my days in England ! 

[Specmaster]

I see, but to be fair to poor old dwagon, I do think that I was not alone in thinking that you were building a house, rather than finishing the inside of the house, maybe I misunderstood it, I don't know. But there are other people, like dwagon, who always seem to know best and always put their points forward, but equally, like me they tend to be of the older generation who have been there, seen it, done it and are in most cases just offering what we consider to be helpful advice to try and prevent someone else having to do things the hard way, which is how a lot of us have learnt so much.

Sometimes, you just have to grin and bear it, if you know that you have the right solution that meets your local regulations, just ignore those that keep proffering advice. Take it from me, its far better to get advice upfront, rather than afterwards if something goes wrong and then everyone says that they knew it would and just kept quiet until its too late. 

[med6753]

 

[Specmaster]

I'll bring the soft drinks then.

[Cubdriver]

Oh, I thought you said that you was building a house? For a garage that should be fine.

House was done by the builder, got the key 18 months ago, but the inside of it still needed finishing up. Sanding and painting the dry walls, furnishing the bathroom, need to put some  floating parquet on the bedroom floor, kitchen area needs doing entirely, need to make the attic liveable as well, put a floor up there, dry walls, electricity insulation decorating blah blah blah.... then make a stair case and put stairs in there.

Vince, if it were me, I'd put the stairs in first - it'll make getting all that other stuff up there easier.   

<ducks and runs>

-Pat