Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

"He who does not like cats, will not get a beautiful women" - chinese proverb
...make of that what you will...

I have a feeling that comes out of the same bag as "May you live in interesting times". 

[xrunner]

"He who does not like cats, will not get a beautiful women" - chinese proverb
...make of that what you will...

It's not working. 

[Neper]

Just how does one re-set cats to standard time? They now turn up an hour early for everything.

[mansaxel]

One point to note however: because of the precise construction of solar cell arrays they are much more sensitive to partial shading than an naïve understanding would lead one to expect.

Fully agree. A lot of installers upsell people out of this by installing "optimisers" but that's a mixed blessing, since the devices are built as usual by the lowest bidder, and without much regard to the EMI/RFI performance when installed as a system. Sure, the panel and the optimiser might work pretty well when tested as separate units, but once up on a roof with non-twisted interconnects of significant length, the situation is different. A few panel installs here have been ordered to stop operating by the authorities after they were evaluated. The inquiry usually comes as a consequence of the defence or aviation authorities noticing interference -- the noise is apparently broadband enough to interfere with aviation radio.

[Neper]

I suppose aviation radio is particularly vulnerable to this kind of interference because - for perfectly good reasons - they still use amplitude modulation.

[Andrew_Debbie]

NOS  NS 74188AN  PROMs showed up in today's mail.     Fingers crossed they are still good.     


I have started designing a burner partly designed around parts shortages.   I decided to use TTL and switches instead of a microcontroller.    Stay tuned.

[mansaxel]

I suppose aviation radio is particularly vulnerable to this kind of interference because - for perfectly good reasons - they still use amplitude modulation.

My iCOM multi-bander in the car (aviation RX + 140->512MHz RX/TX) is very sensitive to electric cattle fence systems when listening to airband, for instance.

[Cerebus]

I have started designing a burner partly designed around parts shortages.   I decided to use TTL and switches instead of a microcontroller.    Stay tuned.

Heh, heh.

Perhaps this will start a brief resurgence in proper logic design rather than "Sod it! Just throw a microprocessor at it. Who cares if it's overkill or that most EEs can't program their way out of a wet paper bag".

I doubt it will though because the board area taken up by discrete logic is horrendous by modern standards. You could throw an FPGA/CPLD at it instead, but I know from my pathetic attempts to find a handful at the moment that they are unobtainium too.

(Aside: Just got an Indian "Tech Support" scam call during this. Spoke German to them. That buggered them.)

[Neper]

I doubt it will though because the board area taken up by discrete logic is horrendous by modern standards. You could throw an FPGA/CPLD at it instead, but I know from my pathetic attempts to find a handful at the moment that they are unobtainium too.

I still have a number of MC68705 (MCU with integrated EPROM) if anyone has any use for them.

(Aside: Just got an Indian "Tech Support" scam call during this. Spoke German to them. That buggered them.)

They've become a real pest, here. Just wait for the funny noise and the typically Indian 'Hello?' and then jump in with this one:

"Hello and welcome to the gay and lesbian helpline. Do your family know that you are gay (lesbian) or would you like help with your coming-out?"

They'll hang up within a microsecond.

[Saskia]

Thank you for ordering our kaishaku service. We trust your affairs are in order. Please be sure to have cleansed yourself properly and are dressed in white. A representative will be with you in a moment.

[Neper]

"Ötvenegy nulla hat negyven!" also works very nicely in all situations from Indian scammers to local beggars. Repeat insistently, if required. 

What it means? 51 06 40 - the P.O. Box number of the former Hungarian service of Radio Deutsche Welle.

 

[cyclin_al]

Just how does one re-set cats to standard time? They now turn up an hour early for everything.

The correct question is how does one re-set standard time to cat time?

Madam, Missy and their boyfriends become tripping hazards if they are not fed at before the appropriate cat time.

[Neper]

I am notoriously clumsy and our cats know to keep out of my way.

[Andrew_Debbie]

I have started designing a burner partly designed around parts shortages.   I decided to use TTL and switches instead of a microcontroller.    Stay tuned.

Heh, heh.

I doubt it will though because the board area taken up by discrete logic is horrendous by modern standards. You could throw an FPGA/CPLD at it instead, but I know from my pathetic attempts to find a handful at the moment that they are unobtainium too.

I spot checked a few ATMega parts with an on-board USB controller  (32U4, 16U4...) and they are scarce.     


I've got a spare Elite-C [https://deskthority.net/wiki/Elite-C  that could program the thing  with little more than a boost converter and an FET or two to switch the program voltage.

I haven't committed to anything yet.   The TTL design  came to me when I was looking at the 5100 schematic. 

I also found a manual programmer on the web that works one bit at a time.  ....

[Cerebus]

I spot checked a few ATMega parts with an on-board USB controller  (32U4, 16U4...) and they are scarce.     

I thought I had a spare 32U4 in my parts box that I'd have gladly sent you, but I checked and it turns out it's a humble 328.

[mnementh]

I ate all the Peanut Ms.   *twitch... twitch... twitcha-twitch...*

mnem
*sooo ready to go back on the keto*   

[Specmaster]

Yeah, I get that too from time to time, but overall, they do compensate in other ways, they are great company, one is more of a techno cat, she loves computer screens, in fact anything with a screen on and can play games or interesting videos, and she's there, and she is so predictable when it comes to putting them to bed at night. She is also very vocal and loves to talk to us.

From "time to time" rather than continuously? Probably means that they're building up to something. You'll better get yourself a copy of this book, before it it too late.

She is also very vocal and loves to talk to us.

You do understand that is an unrelenting string of orders, don't you? Orders that you appear to be ignoring. Again, I refer you to the previous volume while you still have time to save yourself.

 

Not in the slightest bit true, she just loves to greet us in the morning, or when we have been out somewhere. Sometimes she is in the window watching for the car to turn into the street, then she goes to the front door and greets us before going back to her bed 

[Wolfgang]

"Ötvenegy nulla hat negyven!" also works very nicely in all situations from Indian scammers to local beggars. Repeat insistently, if required. 

What it means? 51 06 40 - the P.O. Box number of the former Hungarian service of Radio Deutsche Welle.

Also a classic: Your hovercraft is full of eels ! 

[cyclin_al]

I have started designing a burner partly designed around parts shortages.   I decided to use TTL and switches instead of a microcontroller.    Stay tuned.

Heh, heh.

I doubt it will though because the board area taken up by discrete logic is horrendous by modern standards. You could throw an FPGA/CPLD at it instead, but I know from my pathetic attempts to find a handful at the moment that they are unobtainium too.

I spot checked a few ATMega parts with an on-board USB controller  (32U4, 16U4...) and they are scarce.     


I've got a spare Elite-C [https://deskthority.net/wiki/Elite-C  that could program the thing  with little more than a boost converter and an FET or two to switch the program voltage.

I haven't committed to anything yet.   The TTL design  came to me when I was looking at the 5100 schematic. 

I also found a manual programmer on the web that works one bit at a time.  ....

Surprisingly, last week I just received a couple of SOCs with Nordic ARM microprocessor and Broadcom WiFi.
However, take a close look at the shipping date... 
Luckily, I was in no rush at the time as these were ordered to use up a credit.

EDIT:  It was the SOCs with Nordic that did not work out, hence they owed me the credit.

[Andrew_Debbie]

I spot checked a few ATMega parts with an on-board USB controller  (32U4, 16U4...) and they are scarce.     

I thought I had a spare 32U4 in my parts box that I'd have gladly sent you, but I checked and it turns out it's a humble 328.

Well thank you.    What has the world come to?  Are we creeping towards a  Wiliam Gibson  dystopian present?    (in 2015 Gibson wrote The Peripheral, set largely 70 years after a slow moving collapse -  He sort of predicted what is happening now)

=====

There are plenty of  Pro Micros and other similar 32u4 boards out there.   I like the Elite-C  because it brings out more pins than a pro micro and it has a USB-C.   120 in local (UK) stock...   

I'm sure I can get parts to make a burner, I just have to be a little creative. 

[mnementh]

   I ate all the Peanut Ms.   *twitch... twitch... twitcha-twitch...*

mnem
*sooo ready to go back on the keto*   

Feeling almost human draconic now...  I ate avian pre-hatchlings scorched in boiling vegetable fat along with shredded bits of pig stuffed in its own intestines. Washed that down with a large vessel of bitter caffeinated tropical shrub-seeds ground into small particles and infused in boiling water.

yum.

mnem
yes, you may touch it.

[mnementh]

Well Scheiße  , lost the two (defective) Agilent scopes to someone that bit a day ago 20 something EUR, because Gixen failed me  

merde'!

Please elucidate... how exactly did Gixen fail...? Genuine curiosity, as I've never had a Gix fail other than due to user error... 

mnem
*too much blood in my caffeine circulatory system*

[mnementh]

Just had a prime example of the cussedness of cats.
(SNIP)
I now (perhaps 60-90 seconds after the first time) walk back towards the top of the stairs, this time balancing coffee etc. Madam immediately trots downstairs with an over-the-shoulder look that says "What kept you, slave?". I would swear that she calculates "What would be the most inconvenient moment in this whole sequence when I tell the slave what I want, and that I want it now?".

"I am perfection incarnate; Adore me now, dammitt!!" generally covers any situation where one is owned by a feline.

mnem
*cat nudges hand of sleeping human* "Petting machine... ACTIVATE!"

[DC1MC]

Well Scheiße  , lost the two (defective) Agilent scopes to someone that bit a day ago 20 something EUR, because Gixen failed me  

merde'!

Please elucidate... how exactly did Gixen fail...? Genuine curiosity, as I've never had a Gix fail other than due to user error... 

mnem
*too much blood in my caffeine circulatory system*

Well, I was looking as seconds pass, and didn't see my bid commning and the the auction ended, in the Gixen bids list I've got "Unknown Error 3" and the "No error log can be found". It's a first for me as well, but mensch, there were TWO Agilent DSO hackable scopes 

[mnementh]

(Aside: Just got an Indian "Tech Support" scam call during this. Spoke German to them. That buggered them.)

They've become a real pest, here. Just wait for the funny noise and the typically Indian 'Hello?' and then jump in with this one:

"Hello and welcome to the gay and lesbian helpline. Do your family know that you are gay (lesbian) or would you like help with your coming-out?"

They'll hang up within a microsecond.

"Oh good... you have a computer! Can you tell me how to use them...? No, wait a second; let me get a pencil and paper..."

"Oh... awesome; you're just in time for my monthly missionary work. Can you spare a moment for the teachings of Xenu...? The body-Thetans are especially strong this time of year..."

"Ooooooh, baby... that's right... lick it right there. Noooo.... bite it. HARD! *moaaaannnnn* *BAA-AAHH-AAHH-AAHH-BLEEAAAAAAT!*

mnem
*certifiable antisocial ornery old git*