Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mansaxel]

My garage is on bedrock. End of story.

[Vince]

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.

I wrote : "Have lots of work to do today, just received all the metal/wire-mesh and concrete blocks to do the foundations for my garage "

Meh...   

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. 

Yes sure advice is always nice, but in this case I am doing big costly construction work, and already well underway... it should have been obvious that I was not improvising or else financial and legal consequences would be disastrous. It's obvious I was already well past the stage of seeking advice and gathering info on local regulations... it's not the kind of stuff you can afford to do backwards eh ?! 

[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.

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

Yes I intend to put cheap temporary stairs just so I can get up there to do the work. Then once it's all nice and polished up there, I will finish up the job by making nice fancy stairs one can charge people to look at in awe. No it won't have blinking RGB LED strips around it, not my kind...

[Vince]

I understand in the USA everything is oversized, and that this is most likely the default / standard portion for any individual ordering a big mac at MacDonalds, but really, for my small delicate French stomach it's way too much.... probably enough for a 100 life times if not more....

[med6753]

I understand in the USA everything is oversized, and that this is most likely the default / standard portion for any individual ordering a big mac at MacDonalds, but really, for my small delicate French stomach it's way too much.... probably enough for a 100 life times if not more....

Just want to make sure we have enough for everyone. 

[dl6lr]

I understand in the USA everything is oversized, and that this is most likely the default / standard portion for any individual ordering a big mac at MacDonalds, but really, for my small delicate French stomach it's way too much.... probably enough for a 100 life times if not more....

Just want to make sure we have enough for everyone. 

Gals, I don't want to disturb your concrete themes, but the TEA is ready:

To make sure I have enough, I just bought another -hp- 5245L...
Have to find a way to get one of those old hp mains cables, don't want to replace the instruments plug. I know a place where there are lots of those cables, but I have currently no access, so have to get such a cable.
Any pointer?

[Cerebus]

My garage is on bedrock. End of story.

Construction is always more fun when it necessitates the use of explosives. 

[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.

I wrote : "Have lots of work to do today, just received all the metal/wire-mesh and concrete blocks to do the foundations for my garage "

Meh...   

Sorry Vince, I wasn't referring to what you wrote today, but posts that you had previously written, which I thought had given the impression that you were building a house 

[Robert763]

So my Fluke 10 must have heard a 11 was arriving and went in a sulk. Went to use it at work yesterday for a quick check. It was in my case and works calibrated 189 was in the workshop far from where I was working. The 10 refused to change mode.
Fixed it today. the mode button switches are a carbon on plastic film membrane in the front of the case. They connect to the PCB by a short zeba strip (1D conductive rubber).
Removed the strip, wiped it and the mating tracks with a lint free cloth. Re-assembled and all OK 

[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

Yes I intend to put cheap temporary stairs just so I can get up there to do the work. Then once it's all nice and polished up there, I will finish up the job by making nice fancy stairs one can charge people to look at in awe. No it won't have blinking RGB LED strips around it, not my kind...

Just gonna use the blue ones?      

<ducks and runs further away>

-Pat

[factory]

I understand in the USA everything is oversized, and that this is most likely the default / standard portion for any individual ordering a big mac at MacDonalds, but really, for my small delicate French stomach it's way too much.... probably enough for a 100 life times if not more....

Just want to make sure we have enough for everyone. 

Gals, I don't want to disturb your concrete themes, but the TEA is ready:

To make sure I have enough, I just bought another hp 5245L...
Have to find a way to get one of those old hp mains cables, don't want to replace the instruments plug. I know a place where there are lots of those cables, but I have currently no access, so have to get such a cable.
Any pointer?

Think this seller is hoarding them all,
https://www.ebay.de/itm/224043034507
Not a very good price, hence why they still have them, but probably cheaper than importing from the US.


Or do what I did and buy more vintage h- TEA, until you have many.

Alternately there is this dodgy looking 3DP thing here,
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4862134
I think the choice of crimps is unsafe, they need to be split and/or springy, to be a decent electrical connection as the originals. If only someone could re-design it to fit some decent sprung socket crimp contacts.



The guy I bought my hp 5248M from had used bullet crimps and had complained he got a slight shock from the casing, to me they were a poor connection and they quickly got thrown out after I acquired it.


Oh and clean the pins in the sockets, same would apply to 50 year old IEC inlets.

Edit: Almost forgot this abomination that came with my hp 101A. 


David

P.S I remember Vince was building a garage, think he first mentioned it when commenting on the shortage of drivers for digging the foundation.

[Vince]

Yes I intend to put cheap temporary stairs just so I can get up there to do the work. Then once it's all nice and polished up there, I will finish up the job by making nice fancy stairs one can charge people to look at in awe. No it won't have blinking RGB LED strips around it, not my kind...

Just gonna use the blue ones?      

<ducks and runs further away>

-Pat

I HATE BLUE LEDs !!!!!!   

This blue LED on black cabinet with fake chromed knobs drives me nuts !!!

It's been going on for at least 15 years, it's time for this fashion to end !!! 

Hell even my own desktop computer has a freaking black case with blue Reset / Power LEDs !
... because 15 years ago when I bought it, the only half decent ATX case I could find within my low budget was OF COURSE, a freaking black case with freaking blue LEDs !!!   For the past 15 years, every single day, I look at this case and want to puke and throw the bloody thing out the window !!! 

Hopefully in 6 or 12 months I will be able to renew this computer, after 15+ years, and ACTUALLY throw it out the window for good, Bob Pease style !!!   

CAN'T WAIT for this glorious day !!! 

[Vince]

Hmmm... an interesting ad just popped up here, for a change.... a guy is selling a bunch of Tek scopes of all era, for only 150 Euros the lot.

https://www.leboncoin.fr/equipements_industriels/2058221322.htm

A 465 and 475 that both look in good nick.

A cool 7603 with cool plugins including a double width spectrum analyzer plugin....
List of plugins : 7A22-7B53A-7A18-7A18-7L5-7M3

A 2230 love those. Looks like the top row of buttons is missing which means the corresponding digital storage board in the thing is missing, but scope still plenty good for spare parts.

TDS 520A, love the 500/700 scopes.. for the price you can't complain. Even if it's fucked beyond repair because of the SMD electrolytic caps, still good for parts to fix other 500 scopes...  or just as a challenge to try and fix it anyway.

Would go pick the lot up but it's in Paris again, so 150 Euros for the trip, 300 Euros total, for scopes in unknown condition and that I don't need.... nope. 300 Euros is a fortune for me until I find a new job, I will have to pass... but it's so frustrating (esp the 7603 with the SA plugin) !!! 

[dl6lr]

Think this seller is hoarding them all,
https://www.ebay.de/itm/224043034507
Not a very good price, hence why they still have them, but probably cheaper than importing from the US.


Or do what I did and buy more vintage h- TEA, until you have many.

Alternately there is this dodgy looking 3DP thing here,
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4862134
I think the choice of crimps is unsafe, they need to be split and/or springy, to be a decent electrical connection as the originals. If only someone could re-design it to fit some decent sprung socket crimp contacts.



The guy I bought my hp 5248M from had used bullet crimps and had complained he got a slight shock from the casing, to me they were a poor connection and they quickly got thrown out after I acquired it.


Oh and clean the pins in the sockets, same would apply to 50 year old IEC inlets.

Edit: Almost forgot this abomination that came with my hp 101A. 


David

P.S I remember Vince was building a garage, think he first mentioned it when commenting on the shortage of drivers for digging the foundation.

Ah, yes, a bargain. If I (ever) get access to the box full of the 163-cables, I will be a wealthy man...

[mansaxel]

To make sure I have enough, I just bought another -hp- 5245L...
Have to find a way to get one of those old hp mains cables, don't want to replace the instruments plug. I know a place where there are lots of those cables, but I have currently no access, so have to get such a cable.
Any pointer?

Oh, you bought the one in Buxtehude? Congratulations.

[mnementh]

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....

Oh good lordy, Vince... can we dial the drama-llama-ing back just a bit?

I've built a few buildings... and I was just passing on, and I quote: *lessons learnt the hard, expensive way* by having to pay people who knew what they were doing to fix what I did wrong.

This is how it should be done. I learned these things from people who knew what they were doing, by paying them to do it right and asking what I did wrong. And in case you didn't notice, I included a note aboot warmer, wetter climes as I have also built in Florida, where the snow comes in by aircraft and very fast boats and rarely from the sky.

Do what you want with the advice... heed it, ignore it... if it offends you, by all means print the post, set fire to it and beat the ashes with a stick... but FFS, we don't need the histrionics over what was offered only to save you misery and expense that I have personally suffered.

And yes, for the record, I did know it was a garage. Hence the part aboot dividing it into sections with interfacing between them.

mnem
*toddles off to do something... else*

[mnementh]

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.

I wrote : "Have lots of work to do today, just received all the metal/wire-mesh and concrete blocks to do the foundations for my garage "

Meh...   

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. 

Yes sure advice is always nice, but in this case I am doing big costly construction work, and already well underway... it should have been obvious that I was not improvising or else financial and legal consequences would be disastrous. It's obvious I was already well past the stage of seeking advice and gathering info on local regulations... it's not the kind of stuff you can afford to do backwards eh ?! 

Ummm... if you haven't poured the footers, it's not too late to make sure they're below the rain saturation level. That was why I bothered to try and give advice; those footers looked terribly shallow from the pic, even for southern climates.

mnem
That is all.

[mnementh]

Yes I intend to put cheap temporary stairs just so I can get up there to do the work. Then once it's all nice and polished up there, I will finish up the job by making nice fancy stairs one can charge people to look at in awe. No it won't have blinking RGB LED strips around it, not my kind...

Just gonna use the blue ones?          <ducks and runs further away>

-Pat

I HATE BLUE LEDs !!!!!!    This blue LED on black cabinet with fake chromed knobs drives me nuts !!!

It's been going on for at least 15 years, it's time for this fashion to end !!!     Hell even my own desktop computer has a freaking black case with blue Reset / Power LEDs !
... because 15 years ago when I bought it, the only half decent ATX case I could find within my low budget was OF COURSE, a freaking black case with freaking blue LEDs !!!   For the past 15 years, every single day, I look at this case and want to puke and throw the bloody thing out the window !!! 

Hopefully in 6 or 12 months I will be able to renew this computer, after 15+ years, and ACTUALLY throw it out the window for good, Bob Pease style !!!   

CAN'T WAIT for this glorious day !!! 

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

mnem
and here's a little unicorn barf icing on top... from before I figured out the app to turn them all blue.

[mnementh]

I understand in the USA everything is oversized, and that this is most likely the default / standard portion for any individual ordering a big mac at MacDonalds, but really, for my small delicate French stomach it's way too much.... probably enough for a 100 life times if not more....

pfffft. He got his from my stockpile. 

mnem

[mnementh]

Hmmm... an interesting ad just popped up here, for a change.... a guy is selling a bunch of Tek scopes of all era, for only 150 Euros the lot.

   https://www.leboncoin.fr/equipements_industriels/2058221322.htm

A 465 and 475 that both look in good nick.

A cool 7603 with cool plugins including a double width spectrum analyzer plugin....   List of plugins : 7A22-7B53A-7A18-7A18-7L5-7M3

A 2230 love those. Looks like the top row of buttons is missing which means the corresponding digital storage board in the thing is missing, but scope still plenty good for spare parts.

TDS 520A, love the 500/700 scopes.. for the price you can't complain. Even if it's fucked beyond repair because of the SMD electrolytic caps, still good for parts to fix other 500 scopes...  or just as a challenge to try and fix it anyway.

Would go pick the lot up but it's in Paris again, so 150 Euros for the trip, 300 Euros total, for scopes in unknown condition and that I don't need.... nope. 300 Euros is a fortune for me until I find a new job, I will have to pass... but it's so frustrating (esp the 7603 with the SA plugin) !!! 

What are you doing still here...? You should've been wheels-up before your PC went to sleep after posting that!

mnem
*toddles off to feed the kiddles* I'm not saying who... I'm gonna feed them to.

[beanflying]

So Gorilla Grip, CA or Epoxy for sticking stuff together 

Spring cleaning the shack first.....

[med6753]

So Gorilla Grip, CA or Epoxy for sticking stuff together 

Only if you want the stuff to fall apart. 

[med6753]

Spring cleaning the shack first.....

Just the opposite here. Prepping for winter. Snow brush and spare gloves in the CR-V. I'll carry a shovel only if I have to go out during a storm. Being retired is certainly a blessing with that, should not have to go out. Doing a coolant change this weekend. Every 2 years. This "lifetime" coolant or 100K mile claim is a bunch of crap.

It hasn't gone below freezing at night yet. But I expect in the next week or so it will.   

[wolfy007]

Finally made it, was looking for this cup for a while, with the blue and black HP logo. Also 1970s HP PaperMate pencils.

[cyclin_al]

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?

Cat F ... I have no idea why the boyz did not show up...