Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mansaxel]

We talked about speaker cables in Discord last night, and while AES is a paywall standards organisation from last century, I see fit to at least point out the source I was quoting slightly more formally, and their preview, including the abstract, is as far as you go without paying.

I really must get on with making my employer an institutional member of the AES. I think we have been, and since we're a SMPTE member, as well as founding member (IIRC) of the EBU it's only sensible we get into that club too. Then I can finally read the standards I'm quoting 

[med6753]

We talked about speaker cables in Discord last night, and while AES is a paywall standards organisation from last century, I see fit to at least point out the source I was quoting slightly more formally, and their preview, including the abstract, is as far as you go without paying.

I really must get on with making my employer an institutional member of the AES. I think we have been, and since we're a SMPTE member, as well as founding member (IIRC) of the EBU it's only sensible we get into that club too. Then I can finally read the standards I'm quoting 

Does it include monster cables and oxygen free copper and all that audiophool wizardry?  Oh and what about those cables that must be suspended above the floor for purer sound? 

[med6753]

As I predicted it's getting closer. 2 C here this morning. Albany, 70 miles north, 1 C. Saratoga Springs, 30 miles north of Albany, -1 C. Winter is coming. 

Lake Placid in the Adirondacks is -2 C.

[Specmaster]

As I predicted it's getting closer. 2 C here this morning. Albany, 70 miles north, 1 C. Saratoga Springs, 30 miles north of Albany, -1 C. Winter is coming. 

Lake Placid in the Adirondacks is -2 C.

Positively summer here by comparison then at 14C, mind you it won't be long till we get down to similar temperatures.

[SilverSolder]

As I predicted it's getting closer. 2 C here this morning. Albany, 70 miles north, 1 C. Saratoga Springs, 30 miles north of Albany, -1 C. Winter is coming. 

Lake Placid in the Adirondacks is -2 C.

Ssssssssshhhhh,  don't talk about it, maybe it will go away! 

[mansaxel]

Does it include monster cables and oxygen free copper and all that audiophool wizardry?  Oh and what about those cables that must be suspended above the floor for purer sound? 

The entire point of the article is that the 'phoolery is just that. Few things, if any, improve over twisted 3,32mm² cable, that which non-modern people call 12AWG.  It is actual speaker cable science. Probably wise to up the area a bit these days, though, since amplifiers are almost an order of magnitude more powerful now.  But for anything at home, 2,5mm² or so should be just fine.

[Specmaster]

With all of this discussion of the Fluke 27's here lately, I just revisited the specifications of those, and they must have been really expensive when new because they have a DC specification of 0.1% +1 count whereas a newer Fluke 75 only has an accuracy of 0.4% +1 count. They are every bit as good as the Fluke 85 which a newer meter but with the addition of capacitance and frequency added to its range, neither of which are as good dedicated devices, so anyone getting those meters with the EHV probes are getting a first class meter.

[Robert763]

According to my 1990/1991 Farnell catalogue the 27 was the second most expensive hand held Fluke at £279.
 A 87 was  one pound cheaper at £278. A 73 was £76 and a 77 £139. A huge difference in cost and performance for similar looking meters.
And the most expensive? My favorite, the 8060A at  £371.
All thes price were plus 17.5% tax. So the retail cost of a 27 was £327, a 73 £89 and the 8060A £435.

Edit, the 75 was £108 (£127 retail) so the 27 was £200 more retail, > than two and a half times the 75.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Sooooo, any of you gents got a TDS500, 600 or 700 series scope and a gpib-pc interface?

If so, wanna take 10 mins and dump some firmware for me? I'm specifically looking for the elusive V5.3 firmware for my TDS784C, but any firmware I can get for any of these models I'll upload to the tek wiki.
https://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/TDS784

Just need to follow steps 1-5 and 7 here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/unified-tektool-released-!-(firmware-flash-tools-for-old-tds-series)/msg3758918/#msg3758918

If you can help out, you'll get the adoration and appreciation of at least one person for at least a couple minutes until the next shiny thing distracts me.

644A here, but I doubt that it would be before next WE.

[25 CPS]

According to my 1990/1991 Farnell catalogue the 27 was the second most expensive hand held Fluke at £279.
 A 87 was  one pound cheaper at £278. A 73 was £76 and a 77 £139. A huge difference in cost and performance for similar looking meters.
And the most expensive? My favorite, the 8060A at  £371.
All thes price were plus 17.5% tax. So the retail cost of a 27 was £327, a 73 £89 and the 8060A £435.

Edit, the 75 was £108 (£127 retail) so the 27 was £200 more retail, > than two and a half times the 75.

According to the Bank of England's inflation calculator, the retail pricing works out to a hair over £760 now and converted to C$, that's just over $1293.  That's...not cheap...  The surplus Fluke 27 kits are definitely a great buy for sure.  I know I'm not having any buyer's remorse, especially seeing what the original pricing looks like adjusted for inflation to today.

[25 CPS]

We talked about speaker cables in Discord last night, and while AES is a paywall standards organisation from last century, I see fit to at least point out the source I was quoting slightly more formally, and their preview, including the abstract, is as far as you go without paying.

I really must get on with making my employer an institutional member of the AES. I think we have been, and since we're a SMPTE member, as well as founding member (IIRC) of the EBU it's only sensible we get into that club too. Then I can finally read the standards I'm quoting 

Does it include monster cables and oxygen free copper and all that audiophool wizardry?  Oh and what about those cables that must be suspended above the floor for purer sound? 

Suspending speaker cables above the floor for purer sound only works if the correct reclaimed 19th century telegraph insulators are used.  And even then, only if they're all in mint condition because if there's any damage on them, they won't perform properly.  Or so I have been told.  I think the sound of my eyes rolling when I heard that one ruined the musical experience of the moment...

As I predicted it's getting closer. 2 C here this morning. Albany, 70 miles north, 1 C. Saratoga Springs, 30 miles north of Albany, -1 C. Winter is coming. 

Lake Placid in the Adirondacks is -2 C.

The moderating effect of Lake Ontario is holding us around +10 C during the day and in the single digits at night for now but winter is coming.  I stepped outside work on the 4:00 to midnight shift last night to get a coffee a couple of hours after the sun went down and picked up quite a bit of a chill.

[Cerebus]

Hey mansa,

what are you doing here in South Carolina USA?

It was yesterday in front of me.... 

I would never be caught owning a sedan! I'm strictly a estate person. (I have been known to drive sedans when renting abroad, and I and my employer are cheap, so I usually end up with a small sedan; last time it was a little GM something. )

C'mon decide which version of English you're going to use!  It's either (Saloon, Estate [rarely: shooting brake]) or (Sedan, Station Wagon).

[Cerebus]

@med thx fer asking, he needs to undergo another heart surgery on Nov 5. They need to cut through scarring to free up a clogged blood vessel. They expect a. 4 hour endoscopic surgery and consider this a high risk issue. Not doing it is not an option though as you could count the days before the next cardiac attack. No fun.
In other news the building permit should arrive hopefully next week. we have a notary appointment on Friday.

Well at least it's good to hear that Hubby is making progress, let's all hope that it's the right kind of progress.

[mansaxel]

We talked about speaker cables in Discord last night, and while AES is a paywall standards organisation from last century, I see fit to at least point out the source I was quoting slightly more formally, and their preview, including the abstract, is as far as you go without paying.

I really must get on with making my employer an institutional member of the AES. I think we have been, and since we're a SMPTE member, as well as founding member (IIRC) of the EBU it's only sensible we get into that club too. Then I can finally read the standards I'm quoting 

Does it include monster cables and oxygen free copper and all that audiophool wizardry?  Oh and what about those cables that must be suspended above the floor for purer sound? 

Suspending speaker cables above the floor for purer sound only works if the correct reclaimed 19th century telegraph insulators are used.  And even then, only if they're all in mint condition because if there's any damage on them, they won't perform properly.  Or so I have been told.  I think the sound of my eyes rolling when I heard that one ruined the musical experience of the moment...

It is all about it having a higher "imponance" -- the little known electrical unit that expresses the awestruckness of the beholder.

As I predicted it's getting closer. 2 C here this morning. Albany, 70 miles north, 1 C. Saratoga Springs, 30 miles north of Albany, -1 C. Winter is coming. 

Lake Placid in the Adirondacks is -2 C.

The moderating effect of Lake Ontario is holding us around +10 C during the day and in the single digits at night for now but winter is coming.  I stepped outside work on the 4:00 to midnight shift last night to get a coffee a couple of hours after the sun went down and picked up quite a bit of a chill.

I, who am living in a house where the roof looks flat, but actually slantsis supposed to slant inward towards a drain, was up on said roof for a couple hours today clearing the drains repeatedly while emptying the roofs of water. As I came up, there was a thin crust of ice on the lake..

Still,

Code: [Select]

[envi]> SELECT temp,nao
     FROM readings
     WHERE id = 1004
     AND nao >= DATE_SUB(NOW(),INTERVAL 24 hour)
     ORDER BY temp ASC
     LIMIT 1;
+------+---------------------+
| temp | nao                 |
+------+---------------------+
| 1.50 | 2021-10-23 20:55:01 |
+------+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.10 sec)


Sensor 1004, a DS18s20, sits outside, but, has experience shown, a bit too cosily...

[mansaxel]

C'mon decide which version of English you're going to use!  It's either (Saloon, Estate [rarely: shooting brake]) or (Sedan, Station Wagon).

Ha!

My a posteriori defence is that the the car Zucca took a picture of is in USA. Therefore, it is a sedan. But all cars I've owned have been estates, since none of them has left Europe.

Thanks for the clarification, though. I probably can tease a tea-dumper a bit more calling his sedan a saloon, so will adapt language for maximum cheekyness.

As I went through a Top Gear website article on estates, the phrase "shooting brake" came up frequently and confused me, so thanks for clarifying that too.

[med6753]

Thanks for the clarification, though. I probably can tease a tea-dumper a bit more calling his sedan a saloon, so will adapt language for maximum cheekyness.

Tease all you want. My Civic is a 2 door coupe (not a sedan) and the CR-V is an SUV. And if I want a drink I'll go to the local saloon. 

[Specmaster]

Thanks for the clarification, though. I probably can tease a tea-dumper a bit more calling his sedan a saloon, so will adapt language for maximum cheekyness.

Tease all you want. My Civic is a 2 door coupe (not a sedan) and the CR-V is an SUV. And if I want a drink I'll go to the local saloon. 

Run out of rope then, have we?

[Cerebus]

Thanks for the clarification, though. I probably can tease a tea-dumper a bit more calling his sedan a saloon, so will adapt language for maximum cheekyness.

Tease all you want. My Civic is a 2 door coupe (not a sedan) and the CR-V is an SUV. And if I want a drink I'll go to the local saloon. 

Run out of rope then, have we?

No, but he's run out of rope lubricant, so has to top up with one of the American varieties of said lubricant: Budweiser, Coors, whatever. 

[dl6lr]

Yeah, I've seen that list, but trying to actually find those firmwares for download is a bit of a task....

Would be nice to start uploading them as we can find them for posterity I was thinking.

http://www.ko4bb.com/getsimple/index.php?id=manuals&dir=Tektronix/Tektronix_-_TDS5xx_TDS6xx_TDS7xx_Digital_Phosphore_Oscilloscopes/TDS784D_Firmware_v7.4e

is not an option?

[med6753]

I find myself in a very strange situation. I have no pressing projects for repair/restoration.  It feels very weird. I must go shopping on the bay of evil.   

My wallet went into hiding. 

[med6753]

Thanks for the clarification, though. I probably can tease a tea-dumper a bit more calling his sedan a saloon, so will adapt language for maximum cheekyness.

Tease all you want. My Civic is a 2 door coupe (not a sedan) and the CR-V is an SUV. And if I want a drink I'll go to the local saloon. 

Run out of rope then, have we?

No, but he's run out of rope lubricant, so has to top up with one of the American varieties of said lubricant: Budweiser, Coors, whatever. 

Lubricant? We don't use no stinkin' lubricant. 

[Robert763]

Unexpected Bonus time.
When I picked up the second 8574A VNA yesterday I was given some manuals for the kit I'd aquired. I picked up the 8574A one this evening I noticed it has a sticker on the front saying "This manual contains a supplement for a special version of the equipment".   
Looking inside there is a section for OPTION H26. So what is option H26? "Extended Frequency Range to 2600MHz". So I checked the VNA I picked up yesterday. No options marked 
The first one I picked up is in the storage unit but I have photos, see below.  The marke switch confirms this unit has H26 
Even better this one came with a 8748A S Parameter test set. To match the H26 VNA this is the 3GHz version 
This means I can use the 8748A with the 8753B VNA and get the full frequency range 
I can manually switch the 8748A but am now looking to see if I can make it look like a 85046A for the 8753B

[Specmaster]

A couple of weeks back, we had quite a discussion about Sinclair in this thread, and it brought out a lot of polarisation about Sinclair himself and his often corner cutting price slashing designs and the lack of reliability as a result. Well as it so happens, there is often another side of the equation that not many people ever get to discover, there was another bespoke up market side to Sinclair, and that was making special electronic car instrumentation for some top car marques, Aston Martin is one of them. Now I never knew that, it seems that there are a few Aston Martin Lagonda cars made in the 80's, scattered across the globe that actually have instruments made by Sinclair in them.

This video gives some information about, however I think that this particular car ended up having some instruments fitted that were designed either for, or by the company that designed instruments for the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle fighter jet. 

This is a car that I one time lusted after, safe in the knowledge that I'd never be able to afford one unless I came into loads of money. 

[AVGresponding]

It's a lottery list car for me too, but they are notoriously unreliable on the electronics side (and every other side unfortunately).

[Specmaster]

It's a lottery list car for me too, but they are notoriously unreliable on the electronics side (and every other side unfortunately).

I just don't understand the logic in buying such a car and in over 30 years only doing an average of 1000 miles a year in it?