Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

OK OK.... so indeed we don't have the sam egas at the pump.. .weird.. and I thought Europe was leveling everything ?!
Apparently tehy have not decided yet what gas to sue for cars ! 

So, if I go to Germany to fill my car with Methane instead of my French LPG... my car will go faster !!! 

In Germany you will find way more LPG than CNG Gas stations. Main reason for this is for CNG you need a pipe to the Gas station. This is quite expensive to realize. For LPG they could use even an outside tank for storage.

Also problematic with CNG is the hazard inherent in having a pretty sophisticated high-pressure pump applied to a highly explosive gas which ultimately is a) used near/by average 1d10t motorists and 2) not continuously monitored by qualified personnel but rather periodic maintenance/inspection.

Most people in the fuel sales business would much rather deal with gasoline, whether the perceived greater safety of that substance is real or imaginary; and IIRC, in many cases, due to regulations you cannot have both on the same premises or at least within a convenient distance of each other. Whether those regulations are in fact the result of real safety concerns or the result of pressure by certain dominant fuel distribution entities is also something I'm not certain of.

My experience, at least in NA, has been that CNG is mostly used by delivery and transit fleets where the vehicles all come home to a central location every day.

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

Can't even reply to the dragon, was well motivated but the forum denies me this right : when I click on "Quote"... it quotes.... some random message but not the one I want to reply to.  Bloody forum...  I guess Dragon wins again. But since he said his wife always wins, I guess that explains why he needs TEA to vent all his frustration to balance things out and keep his dragon heart happy. It all makes sense now, I understand.... it's about universe equilibrium, it needs to be in equilibrium, it's a physical, fundamental requirement, there is absolutely no way around it. It's like conservation of energy.

This means it's all hopeless, fighting is useless, and we are all doomed.

Only way out is to leave TEA but I can't resort myself to doing that, as I have grown quite fond of this place already. I despise social media and don't use any... but objectively this TEA place is a social media of sorts.. so I guess I am no better than all the people I laugh at... I just needed to come across "my" type of social media... I guess.

Don't leave. I enjoy having you here. In fact, I enjoy everyone here including...ahem....the dragon when he stays off his soap box. 

I don't use social media either like Twitter, etc. Why would I? I've made it plain many times I hate people. I do have a Facebook page but only because I'm a member of an Old Tek Scopes group. I rarely post on my home page and even more rarely read the drivel other people post. When Facebook/Twitter went down several weeks ago I LMAO because all those numb nuts that update their status every 5 minutes were having shit fits.

If there were a page dedicated to grouchy old bastards I might consider joining but then again, I don't need justification for who am I. 

I shall stay Papa Smurf, I am hooked to this TEA thing. I don't read any forum, not even the rest of EEVBlog. TEA is the only web space I am willing to devote time checking and participating in... means a lot to me ! 

I will just have to constantly remind myself to never ever reply to Dwgon even when he is wrong or mean or provocative or or or or... I will probably need to consult a psychiatrist once a week to keep my sanity, but that's OK I will send the bill to Dwagon, he can pay me via Paypal, or via Dwagon Airline postal services... Dwagons fly after all, I am sure they can cross the Atlantic...

Vince, I agree with you, this TEA thread is compelling, even if we do stray off the theme occasionally, but when we do 99% of the time is very amicable and informative, and we learn much from and about each other and makes this TEA considerably less one dimensional and reflects the rich tapestry of normal everyday life, that's the secret of this thread being the huge success it is, long live TEA.

[Saskia]

Over here it is the least expensive fuel ...
The Octavia burns less than 4 kg/ 100 km. That's approximately 4€/100 km. With super unleaded we would be talking 5-6 l , approximately 8€ ...
I

[tggzzz]

Can't believe it..... what are the odds of coming across such an odd device, HERE, never mind while we are discussing it ?!

I will probably never see another one for sale here, for sure !

Guy wants 25 Euros, that's like what, 20 pounds or something ??
Fair price  ?

Guy refuses to ship anyway, so neither you nor I will get it...

EDIT : OH !!  Just looked, by some miracle the seller actually lives nearby, like 25 miles away from me or so ! Hmmm... could pick it up for you if you want...

It is not as rare as you might think. I've seen several on Ebay Germany and was not very tempted.
But that depends on the needs and preferences.

Ah OK... was just the first time I saw one in France...
Well it's up to tggzzz, I am just offering my help should he want this one, trying to be nice that's all ! 

Personally yes, it's not my cup of TEA either, so I am not going to steal it from him.

Two Sinclair devices (I.e. scientific calculator plus scope) is more than sufficient, thanks. I value my sanity (bwah-ha-ha).

[Neper]

Also problematic with CNG is the hazard inherent...

Statistics here in Europe show that there is no increased risk with gas-powered vehicles, either CNG or LPG.

Most people in the fuel sales business would much rather deal with gasoline, whether the perceived greater safety of that substance is real or imaginary; and IIRC, in many cases, due to regulations you cannot have both on the same premises or at least within a convenient distance of each other.

Not here. The Dutch and Belgians have many cars running on LPG and many petrol stations sell petrol as well as LPG.

My experience in NA at least has been that CNG is mostly used by delivery and transit fleets where the vehicles all come home to a central location every day.

Same here. CNG filling stations catering for the general public are very few and far between in Western Europe. 

[mnementh]

I wasn't talking aboot the safety of the vehicles, but rather the dispensing station itself and the high-pressure gas pump. Such things are not as low-maintenance as gravity-fed LPG tanks or petrol pumps.

Sadly, the rest of this information seems to point more towards unnatural influence by entities in competition with Natural Gas as a motor fuel, then. 

mnem
 

[cyclin_al]

vehicles that carry at most a driver and a navigator

No No and NO !!!

Any car that carries a driver and navigator is a rally car, notwithstanding body styles.

This would be SWMBO's car except hers is the 2004 model and not complete (it's on my ToDo list):


-- Agitatingly 

[mnementh]

wife qualifies as Navigator. 

And we were talking aboot body styles, not necessarily actual application. A lot of the terms we use for automobiles date back to a time when they were really more "hobbyist" things than actual daily transportation, and are actually derived from the horse & buggy/carriage industries.

mnem
*agitating right back atcha*

[cyclin_al]

On the TinkerDwagon's Bench today:   


If I can't get the BMS to charge, I'll probably have to remove it and solder a JST/XH pigtail on the cell cluster so I can balance charge with the Reaktor.

Normally this kind of dickery with individual cells is a fool's errand; one is better off rebuilding the pack with known-good or new matched cells. But given the model, this pack is probably 3-5 years old; so it is possible I'll get lucky.

Ugggh. BMS is totes being a whiny little bitch. 

Refuses to start/turn on to charge, so balance charging the pack on the Reaktor. Safety fuse tests good, each voltage monitor leg tests the same resistance FWD/REV EXCEPT cell 1; it measures approx 630KΩ/10MΩ where the others measure ~5MΩ/10MΩ. This may or may not be a bad thing; cell 1 is where the BMS usually draws power for the supervisor chip.

It is entirely possible the pack sat unused long enough for this miniscule drain to have drawn cell 1 down to the point where the BMS shut down due to imbalance; only time will tell.

mnem
 

Exactly this happens in older Makita cordless tools and their smart chargers  would reject a well drained and forgotten pack after 3 attempts to charge it. 
We learnt to connect them to another source to get that one cell up some so the pack would be accepted and go on to charge. 
Really pissed off our eldest son Larry Major enough to use only Milwaukee tools now.

Thanks tautech!  I have to remember this in case I need it some day 

[cyclin_al]

Could somebody help me with this addiction? With all the ideas floating around in my head I see me falling into a rabbit hole that costs more and more money.

I think that the "help" that is on offer here may not be be in the best interests of your checking account balance.

This weekend I was hiking with the family and my phone pings. I check it and it's results from a saved search for "Fluke" on craigslist.org. Someone is selling a Fluke 77 with test leads for USD30 ( https://seattle.craigslist.org/est/ele/d/kirkland-fluke-77-multimeter/7398312523.html ). My wife recognized my expression and looked at the screen. "No way!" she said.

"What?" I asked with mock surprise "I'm just looking..."

"You are like a heroin addict looking at different flavors of heroin."

I already have more Flukes than I am likely to ever use, so she's probably right. Someone buy that damn 77. That being said, I just made an offer on Ebay for a Fluke clamp-meter so I can get startup and running loads on some home electrical circuits to help me size an electrical generator. The wind in the Pacific Northwest just knocked out power for over 30,000 electrical customers (including me) yesterday. After we moved here it was fun the first couple of times, but it's just a pain in the neck now.

Yes, electrical generators are very useful.

Surprisingly, last night had no wind issues.  In this case, someone was moving a sailboat at the local yacht club and touched a kV power transmission line with a mast.
I was out walking the dog after dark around 9:45pm.  We are 30km away and it looked like lightning and sounded like the neighbour was using an arc welder.
Power was restored by 7:00am according to SWMBO; I have no idea .... 

[tautech]

On the TinkerDwagon's Bench today:   


If I can't get the BMS to charge, I'll probably have to remove it and solder a JST/XH pigtail on the cell cluster so I can balance charge with the Reaktor.

Normally this kind of dickery with individual cells is a fool's errand; one is better off rebuilding the pack with known-good or new matched cells. But given the model, this pack is probably 3-5 years old; so it is possible I'll get lucky.

Ugggh. BMS is totes being a whiny little bitch. 

Refuses to start/turn on to charge, so balance charging the pack on the Reaktor. Safety fuse tests good, each voltage monitor leg tests the same resistance FWD/REV EXCEPT cell 1; it measures approx 630KΩ/10MΩ where the others measure ~5MΩ/10MΩ. This may or may not be a bad thing; cell 1 is where the BMS usually draws power for the supervisor chip.

It is entirely possible the pack sat unused long enough for this miniscule drain to have drawn cell 1 down to the point where the BMS shut down due to imbalance; only time will tell.

mnem
 

Exactly this happens in older Makita cordless tools and their smart chargers  would reject a well drained and forgotten pack after 3 attempts to charge it. 
We learnt to connect them to another source to get that one cell up some so the pack would be accepted and go on to charge. 
Really pissed off our eldest son Larry Major enough to use only Milwaukee tools now.

Thanks tautech!  I have to remember this in case I need it some day 

Larry Major saved a few packs that way and even some scored thrown away ones.
Never used the charge connectors but the pack outputs just connected to a 12V plugpack/wallwart.
Apparently every pack had an ID# so chargers could lock them out after 3 charge fails but IIRC there was some aftermarket hack BMS PCB's available to make them charge again.
However once his tools/skins had done a few years of daily use/flogging it ended up better to ditch them all and go to Milwaukee especially when his company got in on a group buy when he replaced everything !
Larry Major's tool buy pic:

[mnementh]

Yeeeowwwch! I can hear my wallet clenching involuntarily from across the room!

Also, yummm. 

That said... I had a similar experience with DeWalt as a youth and have never regretted the money spent on Makita in the interim. But since I no longer make my living with such tools, I've been quite liking my 6S brushless Kobalt drills/impact drivers/saws/gadgets. As well as the MaKobalt Sawzall I built  a few weeks ago. 

mnem
 

[tautech]

Yeeeowwwch! I can hear my wallet clenching involuntarily from across the room!

Also, yummm. 

Larry is on the left with the biggest stack all ready to go into his new company ute collected just the day before.

IIRC to his right is his younger boss and they were looking for a larger factory such was the amount of work they had and now grown further still laying down graphite resin hulls of a new design.
The lad loves his work in Perth where he gets to use all his skills as a marine cabby from making precision resin molds to finishing with the most beautiful exotic timbers.
Before he fell for skirt in Perth he did a couple of 3mth stints in Gulfport Mississippi fitting out superyachts which is his core trade.
Some of the stuff he's worked on was real yummmm !
Back in them days $1M/meter was retail for such boats/palaces. 

Crying bloody shame Covid walls/borders won't let us get to see him for a whlie yet. 

[vk6zgo]

Cng is cow farts at 200 bar. LPG is liquified propane/butane . Vol o offered both version the energy density of cow farts is considerably higher than LPG

Ah OK thanks for the details, didn't know you could have different kind of gases in these cars. Here at the pumps we have LPG, so according to Google, a mix of butane and propane, mostly, as you said. So cow gas is more energetic then ? That's cool... I mean they all say how cow farts is tremendously more dangerous for the ozone layer than CO2 emissions... so let's make use of it to power cars rather letting it blow a hole in the ozone layer ! 

It's the usual media (over-)simplification with methane from cows - yes they always produce methane, yes methane is a more powerfull "greenhouse effect gas" than CO2 but a cow on a pasture feeding naturally has low emissions. A "high octane" milk cow that lives inside, gets fed much soy protein and other stuff to pump out 13000L milk a year - now that one has worrysome amounts of methane emission (and, TBH lives a shitty live IMHO). It does allow to fuel a biogas reactor from it's manure alone, that can be readily collected in such an environment - so it is exploited to the end, in a way...

Why imply CNG is a agricultural byproduct when it's not ! 
As CNG's last 2 letters implies it's a natural gas from the bowels of the earth and a byproduct of oil wells and in many cases targeted from natural gas fields then compressed to provide better density and therefore greater range when used for ICE fuel. In low pressure form it's domestic and industrial fuel used for all manner of generally heating requirements.

Here I register my offence in CNG being associated with agricultural emissions !   

OK I am lost now, was this CNG a joke of Saskia I didn't get, and it's just another name for the LPG/GPL stuff we have in France...

Sorry Saskia, I guess I was not 100% today.... 

CNG in Oz is stuff that comes out of the ground, is compressed, & used as fuel for industrial processes, home cooking, & electricity generators, as well as city buses.

Western Australia had the foresight to reserve a reasonable proportion of the CNG produced in the State for local use.
The other States "went ape" about the export earnings & sold most of theirs overseas, now being in the embarrassing position of having to "buy it bacK!"

Of course, CNG is a fossil fuel, & is not sustainable in the long term, but it is a lot more environmentally friendly than Coal, which quite a bit of East coast power generation relies upon.

The WA gas is from "deep wells" offshore, & doesn't use "fracking".

[tautech]

Cng is cow farts at 200 bar. LPG is liquified propane/butane . Vol o offered both version the energy density of cow farts is considerably higher than LPG

Ah OK thanks for the details, didn't know you could have different kind of gases in these cars. Here at the pumps we have LPG, so according to Google, a mix of butane and propane, mostly, as you said. So cow gas is more energetic then ? That's cool... I mean they all say how cow farts is tremendously more dangerous for the ozone layer than CO2 emissions... so let's make use of it to power cars rather letting it blow a hole in the ozone layer ! 

It's the usual media (over-)simplification with methane from cows - yes they always produce methane, yes methane is a more powerfull "greenhouse effect gas" than CO2 but a cow on a pasture feeding naturally has low emissions. A "high octane" milk cow that lives inside, gets fed much soy protein and other stuff to pump out 13000L milk a year - now that one has worrysome amounts of methane emission (and, TBH lives a shitty live IMHO). It does allow to fuel a biogas reactor from it's manure alone, that can be readily collected in such an environment - so it is exploited to the end, in a way...

Why imply CNG is a agricultural byproduct when it's not ! 
As CNG's last 2 letters implies it's a natural gas from the bowels of the earth and a byproduct of oil wells and in many cases targeted from natural gas fields then compressed to provide better density and therefore greater range when used for ICE fuel. In low pressure form it's domestic and industrial fuel used for all manner of generally heating requirements.

Here I register my offence in CNG being associated with agricultural emissions !   

OK I am lost now, was this CNG a joke of Saskia I didn't get, and it's just another name for the LPG/GPL stuff we have in France...

Sorry Saskia, I guess I was not 100% today.... 

CNG in Oz is stuff that comes out of the ground, is compressed, & used as fuel for industrial processes, home cooking, & electricity generators, as well as city buses.

Western Australia had the foresight to reserve a reasonable proportion of the CNG produced in the State for local use.
The other States "went ape" about the export earnings & sold most of theirs overseas, now being in the embarrassing position of having to "buy it bacK!"

Of course, CNG is a fossil fuel, & is not sustainable in the long term, but it is a lot more environmentally friendly than Coal, which quite a bit of East coast power generation relies upon.

The WA gas is from "deep wells" offshore, & doesn't use "fracking".

Before CNG became available and into wide use all town gas was derived from coal and even the production byproducts were valuable for some industries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gas

[vk6zgo]

Cng is cow farts at 200 bar. LPG is liquified propane/butane . Vol o offered both version the energy density of cow farts is considerably higher than LPG

Ah OK thanks for the details, didn't know you could have different kind of gases in these cars. Here at the pumps we have LPG, so according to Google, a mix of butane and propane, mostly, as you said. So cow gas is more energetic then ? That's cool... I mean they all say how cow farts is tremendously more dangerous for the ozone layer than CO2 emissions... so let's make use of it to power cars rather letting it blow a hole in the ozone layer ! 

It's the usual media (over-)simplification with methane from cows - yes they always produce methane, yes methane is a more powerfull "greenhouse effect gas" than CO2 but a cow on a pasture feeding naturally has low emissions. A "high octane" milk cow that lives inside, gets fed much soy protein and other stuff to pump out 13000L milk a year - now that one has worrysome amounts of methane emission (and, TBH lives a shitty live IMHO). It does allow to fuel a biogas reactor from it's manure alone, that can be readily collected in such an environment - so it is exploited to the end, in a way...

Why imply CNG is a agricultural byproduct when it's not ! 
As CNG's last 2 letters implies it's a natural gas from the bowels of the earth and a byproduct of oil wells and in many cases targeted from natural gas fields then compressed to provide better density and therefore greater range when used for ICE fuel. In low pressure form it's domestic and industrial fuel used for all manner of generally heating requirements.

Here I register my offence in CNG being associated with agricultural emissions !   

OK I am lost now, was this CNG a joke of Saskia I didn't get, and it's just another name for the LPG/GPL stuff we have in France...

Sorry Saskia, I guess I was not 100% today.... 

CNG in Oz is stuff that comes out of the ground, is compressed, & used as fuel for industrial processes, home cooking, & electricity generators, as well as city buses.

Western Australia had the foresight to reserve a reasonable proportion of the CNG produced in the State for local use.
The other States "went ape" about the export earnings & sold most of theirs overseas, now being in the embarrassing position of having to "buy it bacK!"

Of course, CNG is a fossil fuel, & is not sustainable in the long term, but it is a lot more environmentally friendly than Coal, which quite a bit of East coast power generation relies upon.

The WA gas is from "deep wells" offshore, & doesn't use "fracking".

Before CNG became available and into wide use all town gas was derived from coal and even the production byproducts were valuable for some industries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gas

Yes, in WA,(mainly Perth) it used Collie coal---I well remember the "Gasometer" which maintained constant gas pressure.
Such things were landmarks in many countries---certainly, they were "all over the place" in England in 1971!

Country areas mainly used LPG bottles from Kwinana, so as far as I know there was only the one Gasometer in WA.

[Zucca]

Holy shit I could not imagine so many posts about cars after I posted a pic of a Volvo with EU S license plate in USA.

[Zucca]

Only way out is to leave TEA but I can't resort myself to doing that, as I have grown quite fond of this place already. I despise social media and don't use any... but objectively this TEA place is a social media of sorts.. so I guess I am no better than all the people I laugh at... I just needed to come across "my" type of social media... I guess.

Do not leave Vince, we need some French here.

[cyclin_al]

wife qualifies as Navigator. 

And we were talking aboot body styles, not necessarily actual application. A lot of the terms we use for automobiles date back to a time when they were really more "hobbyist" things than actual daily transportation, and are actually derived from the horse & buggy/carriage industries.

mnem
*agitating right back atcha*

Nope, wife here qualifies as driver.  She claims car-sickness as a passenger/navigator, but never makes that claim when passenger in the truck...


I knew we were talkin' aboot body styles, but the opportunity to agitate with my context was too perfect, according to me (not necessarily according to others ...)
Hey, I learned to drive in a Buick with body by Fischer.  Except that Fischer took over from Tudhope.  I worked at Tudhope at one time, but long after they left the car/buggy body business... I suppose that makes me an armchair expert about nothing on cars? 

-- having an agitatingly good day.  Or else loopy from fatigue...

[tautech]

Cng is cow farts at 200 bar. LPG is liquified propane/butane . Vol o offered both version the energy density of cow farts is considerably higher than LPG

Ah OK thanks for the details, didn't know you could have different kind of gases in these cars. Here at the pumps we have LPG, so according to Google, a mix of butane and propane, mostly, as you said. So cow gas is more energetic then ? That's cool... I mean they all say how cow farts is tremendously more dangerous for the ozone layer than CO2 emissions... so let's make use of it to power cars rather letting it blow a hole in the ozone layer ! 

It's the usual media (over-)simplification with methane from cows - yes they always produce methane, yes methane is a more powerfull "greenhouse effect gas" than CO2 but a cow on a pasture feeding naturally has low emissions. A "high octane" milk cow that lives inside, gets fed much soy protein and other stuff to pump out 13000L milk a year - now that one has worrysome amounts of methane emission (and, TBH lives a shitty live IMHO). It does allow to fuel a biogas reactor from it's manure alone, that can be readily collected in such an environment - so it is exploited to the end, in a way...

Why imply CNG is a agricultural byproduct when it's not ! 
As CNG's last 2 letters implies it's a natural gas from the bowels of the earth and a byproduct of oil wells and in many cases targeted from natural gas fields then compressed to provide better density and therefore greater range when used for ICE fuel. In low pressure form it's domestic and industrial fuel used for all manner of generally heating requirements.

Here I register my offence in CNG being associated with agricultural emissions !   

OK I am lost now, was this CNG a joke of Saskia I didn't get, and it's just another name for the LPG/GPL stuff we have in France...

Sorry Saskia, I guess I was not 100% today.... 

CNG in Oz is stuff that comes out of the ground, is compressed, & used as fuel for industrial processes, home cooking, & electricity generators, as well as city buses.

Western Australia had the foresight to reserve a reasonable proportion of the CNG produced in the State for local use.
The other States "went ape" about the export earnings & sold most of theirs overseas, now being in the embarrassing position of having to "buy it bacK!"

Of course, CNG is a fossil fuel, & is not sustainable in the long term, but it is a lot more environmentally friendly than Coal, which quite a bit of East coast power generation relies upon.

The WA gas is from "deep wells" offshore, & doesn't use "fracking".

Before CNG became available and into wide use all town gas was derived from coal and even the production byproducts were valuable for some industries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gas

Yes, in WA,(mainly Perth) it used Collie coal---I well remember the "Gasometer" which maintained constant gas pressure.
Such things were landmarks in many countries---certainly, they were "all over the place" in England in 1971!

Country areas mainly used LPG bottles from Kwinana, so as far as I know there was only the one Gasometer in WA.

Ah Kwinana, just up the road from where our Larry is in Warnbro.
Is that where the WA gasometer used to be ?

We had one near downtown Auckland when I was a lad but of course now long gone for the valuable real estate it covered. 

[Cubdriver]

News from the nixies: The 5245L is counting!

Refilled the cans, see photos below.

I fixed the decimal counter assembly with a silicon. The problem was the cap C21 I measured OK broke its leg, the tiny gap was non-obvious. After resoldering the shortened leg, the "carry bit" now works. While experimenting with the board, I managed to kill the other 2N2455 Q10 on the board  Fixed with a silicon PNP too. The needle pulses I was missing are clearly visible with a faster scope (500MHz instead of 100MHz).

The high speed display assembly 05232-6010 with the dead nixie is counting, but the photocoupler is bad. Digits 0 and 6 are not working OK, digit 3 is somehow blurred. Sometimes the 4 is displayed for a short time instead of the 6. Swapped a good nixie from another board to this for tests. Will try to repair it later, currently this one has no display.

All other display boards are counting and displaying OK.

Several decimal neon bulbs are dead (broken legs at the glass suspected to corrosion), have to remove and refit new neons to it. Will do that in the next days, I hope.

The scaler output at the back has some glitches when scaling down to 100, 10 or 1cps. Have to look into it.

The fan is alarmingly loud, have to remove and rework it.

The oven is working but the frequency is off by several Hz, this has to be adjusted as the last step.

Very nicely done!  Looks like the cap roll was still wet, and that the connection ribbons had corroded away - I've seen that happen on a few that I've done from the mid sixties, too.  One dead one was dry as a bone; the others were still moist but with the connection(s) to the outside world rotted away.  Amazing how much smaller the modern replacements are.

Bone dry:


Wet and corroded:


-Pat

[cyclin_al]

Time to go somewhat recursive and somewhat to the topic of TEA.

I have decided that I need a toque torque screwdriver. (EDIT: was toque a Freudian slip with winter coming?)
The main use would be for electrical work as part of house renovations and for working on TEA.
The tool may also be used in the repair of personal transportation vehicle by whatever terminology we decide to use here (yep, still an agitatingly good day).
Back in July, right around this message (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3615444/?topicseen#msg3615444)
the clear choice was to get something from Wiha.

I took a look at Wiha, found a kit that I liked, then looked at the price in the GWN 
That is more than a mortgage payment on the house!
Also, I am not sure what Wiha mean by Slimline and whether these tools might be used with bits that have 1/4" hex shanks?

Any suggestions for something that has a better price per use ratio?
(price per use, especially price per km for sports equipment, is generally accepted by SWMBO, but I suspect there is an algorithm to convert to peace & quiet time while the boys are out of the house)
Something that accepts 1/4" hex shanks would be great, since all sorts of bits in NA are made with these shanks.
My lowest torque wrench starts at scales of 25 in-lbs or 3.61 Nm.  I would like something for a lower range, with some overlap.

I looked at Greenlee (aka Brymen) and those are almost as expensive as Wiha.
Snap-On would need two tools to cover a similar range, so would end up close to the same expense as Wiha.
Are Wera tools any good; I am not familiar with them?
Crappy Tire had nothing .... that is, well ... crappy.
DigiKey also has Gedore, Weidmüller and PhoenixConact; none of which I am familiar with.

-- If it's not TEA, at least it can be found to fix TEA

[Neomys Sapiens]

Time to go somewhat recursive and somewhat to the topic of TEA.

I have decided that I need a toque torque screwdriver. (EDIT: was toque a Freudian slip with winter coming?)
The main use would be for electrical work as part of house renovations and for working on TEA.
The tool may also be used in the repair of personal transportation vehicle by whatever terminology we decide to use here (yep, still an agitatingly good day).
Back in July, right around this message (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3615444/?topicseen#msg3615444)
the clear choice was to get something from Wiha.

I took a look at Wiha, found a kit that I liked, then looked at the price in the GWN 
That is more than a mortgage payment on the house!
Also, I am not sure what Wiha mean by Slimline and whether these tools might be used with bits that have 1/4" hex shanks?

Any suggestions for something that has a better price per use ratio?
(price per use, especially price per km for sports equipment, is generally accepted by SWMBO, but I suspect there is an algorithm to convert to peace & quiet time while the boys are out of the house)
Something that accepts 1/4" hex shanks would be great, since all sorts of bits in NA are made with these shanks.
My lowest torque wrench starts at scales of 25 in-lbs or 3.61 Nm.  I would like something for a lower range, with some overlap.

I looked at Greenlee (aka Brymen) and those are almost as expensive as Wiha.
Snap-On would need two tools to cover a similar range, so would end up close to the same expense as Wiha.
Are Wera tools any good; I am not familiar with them?
Crappy Tire had nothing .... that is, well ... crappy.
DigiKey also has Gedore, Weidmüller and PhoenixConact; none of which I am familiar with.

-- If it's not TEA, at least it can be found to fix TEA

Wera is as good as Wiha.

[bitseeker]

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.

Precisely why, after much hemming and hawing, I went in with cyclin_al on the twins to save a few shekels on shipping. I think it'll be good company for my 189.

mnem
 

Yep, way ahead of you there, I already have 2 of them, in their MOD cases, complete with normal leads and manuals in my collection.

I haven't yet succumb. Who knows how long that'll last.

[bitseeker]

Good morning, day, evening my fellow test gear addicted.
I think I'm not that addicted than a lot of you but feel the urge to purchase more test gear. So there is already a addiction and the times between each shot become shorter.

...

Could somebody help me with this addiction? With all the ideas floating around in my head I see me falling into a rabbit hole that costs more and more money.

Looks like you're off to a right and proper start, Trymon. Welcome to the TEA House.

As for helping, we're all great at helping your addiction. Some are even experts at helping. But we don't have nor administer cures. Just so we're clear.