Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Come you two, play nicely, we all have enough in common surely to allow the occasional deviation of topic without calling each other out, it's not as if the discussions get out of hand. In my view, it's just like a social comment, similar to what you hear on the police radio, or discuss the weather etc, not on topic, but it all helps to break the boredom and enables us to get to know a bit more about our fellow members.

Surely you realize that whenever there is a heated disagreement in this thread, whether with me or anyone else, that it's always the same common denominator?

Surely you realize that individuals have left this thread because of the bully tactics of that same common denominator?

Surely if that same common denominator would back off the caustic rhetoric there would no issue? And clearly he can't because he just posted more rhetoric.   

If his posts on occasions winds you up that much, surely its best to just ignore those posts and skip past them to something more appealing to you, no  I have to do this on many occasions because the topic matter is of zero interest to me, such as the discussions on RF, Hams, programming and on occasions some off-topic posts also get to me, but then sometimes, I can learn something from those, if I'm inclined to read them, it all depends on how busy I am with other things. It's much the same with the discord channel, very often a lot of the chat is way over my head, other times not so, and I join in if I think I can add something, otherwise I just lurk in the background.

If people have decided to leave the group, then that is as far as I'm concerned, their decision, but I really can't help but think that they cut their nose off to spite their face, all they had to was be picky about what they read. Its just life, we do it all the time when we read newspapers, magazines, or even watch TV, we select programs / topics that interest us and ignore those that don't, simples. 

[mansaxel]

If I were to drink something I guess it would be " Cointreau ", as it's made in a little village (7500 people or so) by the name of " Saint-Barthélémy d'Anjou ", which is precisely where I grew up from the age of 3 when my parents moved there. I never even tasted the stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cointreau

I have a very bad memory (not as bad as The Tequila Incident, though) of a Cointreau Event in my youth. It took more than 20 years to dare buying a bottle again, and then only because I wanted to try an orange sauce to duck.

Regarding the French Therapists, I this weekend had a nice encounter with a German Pinot Noir, so much made in French style that it did not say "Spätburgunder" on the label. From Philipp Kuhn. I really recommend their “TRADITION” Pinot Noir. We had it with goose, and I'm certain it'll do well with duck too.

[Vince]

@Vince those Minitrons are a nice looking display. I'd hope that if you don't leave it running 8hours a day that they would last a good long time...

Just sent the guy a message asking for more pics and info...

[..] FULL WAVE bridge rectum-frier

Had a good unexpected laugh, thanks for that, I like your style ! 

[tggzzz]

@Vince those Minitrons are a nice looking display. I'd hope that if you don't leave it running 8hours a day that they would last a good long time...

Just sent the guy a message asking for more pics and info...

There used to be similar displays on petrol pumps. They were running continuously. Now they are all LCD, of course

[..] FULL WAVE bridge rectum-frier

Had a good unexpected laugh, thanks for that, I like your style ! 

Rectum paralysers display amplitude as a function of frequency.

[mnementh]

First post in 11 days, my new therapist is golden, shall keep consulting him...

I'm glad that's working out for you.

This thread is my daily therapy. And have you noticed something? All of sudden this thread as gone to 90% on topic content to 10% off topic content. As it should be. After all this IS a test equipment thread and even with our diverse backgrounds we share that common interest. And any off topic content has been drama free.

I wonder why all of sudden that has happen?     

Yup, and looking the numbers, the page count and number of viewers has steadily dropped since bd139 found his MCP and now that I'm not around stirring the shit, the numbers are even lower. A little noise in the SNR is what makes the fun mix that has kept this thread at the top of the charts for so long.

If you get your wish with the OT-Nazi-ing here in the OT thread, you'll also get to enjoy your TE in a lovely vacuum. 

mnem

[Vince]

@Vince those Minitrons are a nice looking display. I'd hope that if you don't leave it running 8hours a day that they would last a good long time...

Just sent the guy a message asking for more pics and info...

There used to be similar displays on petrol pumps. They were running continuously. Now they are all LCD, of course

I thought the petrol pumps used Panaplex displays rather ??

[tggzzz]

Use "separates", and eschew "pre-packaged instruments".

All you need are a "decent" voltage source driving a "decent" KVD, plus a nice low-current moving coil meter. If you only want 3digit resolution, use 1m of resistance wire and a 1m steel rule instead of the KVD:)

And how pray am I to do that whenever a decent KVD crops up cheap somewhere you make off with it? Or if not you then I have Robert as a secondary suspect. 

Oh, stop whining and open your wallet 
https://www.ppauctions.com/lot/161450/lot-202

[med6753]

First post in 11 days, my new therapist is golden, shall keep consulting him...

I'm glad that's working out for you.

This thread is my daily therapy. And have you noticed something? All of sudden this thread as gone to 90% on topic content to 10% off topic content. As it should be. After all this IS a test equipment thread and even with our diverse backgrounds we share that common interest. And any off topic content has been drama free.

I wonder why all of sudden that has happen?     

Yup, and looking the numbers, the page count and number of viewers has steadily dropped since bd139 found his MCP and now that I'm not around stirring the shit, the numbers are even lower. A little noise in the SNR is what makes the fun mix that has kept this thread at the top of the charts for so long.

If you get your wish with the OT-Nazi-ing here in the OT thread, you'll also get to enjoy your TE in a lovely vacuum. 

mnem

It's not about page count or being at the top of charts.  It's about TE content. And yes, it's down. You know why? Because you weren't in here stirring shit as you readily admit. And this isn't an OT thread. So now I'm a knuckle dragging nazi. Thank you. 

What a jackass. 

[mnementh]

Wow, shows what you know, doesn't it?

We did it wrong, our lawyers say the worst that can happen is wait 5 years and try again.

First, it wasn't all about "going to Canada"; it was about getting away from the broken-ness of American culture. There are a lot of places I'd rather move to; Canada was just the shortest line to someplace that approximates our sensibilities.

You clearly don't understand a lot about our homeland; I don't have the time or energy to explain the reasons, as it's all tied up in all that horrible social commentary and political discussion you have shit-fit conniptions about every time anybody mentions it.

So says you. Those discussions never belonged in this thread. Never have, never will. And I will ALWAYS call you out on it and you WILL NOT shut me down. 

And if you think I'm being brutally honest, deal. You are the self-proclaimed knuckle-dragger of the bunch.

I wear the knuckle dragger badge proudly.

You just need to accept that some people operate on a different level, a different set of priorities from you, and I know from hard experience that America eats it's children. I want better for mine.

mnem
America is no longer the promised land; it is the land of broken promises.

So said the draft dodgers in the 1960's. And where did they flee too? Lemme think.

Thank you. This childish display of chest-beating exemplifies my point far better than anything I can possibly say. 

Your tantrum demands that we all adhere to your vision of what this thread should be creates a much higher spike in the noise ratio in most cases, and are far more disruptive overall. And more importantly, you keep bringing it up over and over when most of us have moved forward.

Because nothing is more important than the fact that med is offended. 

mnem
*in no mood to suffer, etc...*

[med6753]

Wow, shows what you know, doesn't it?

We did it wrong, our lawyers say the worst that can happen is wait 5 years and try again.

First, it wasn't all about "going to Canada"; it was about getting away from the broken-ness of American culture. There are a lot of places I'd rather move to; Canada was just the shortest line to someplace that approximates our sensibilities.

You clearly don't understand a lot about our homeland; I don't have the time or energy to explain the reasons, as it's all tied up in all that horrible social commentary and political discussion you have shit-fit conniptions about every time anybody mentions it.

So says you. Those discussions never belonged in this thread. Never have, never will. And I will ALWAYS call you out on it and you WILL NOT shut me down. 

And if you think I'm being brutally honest, deal. You are the self-proclaimed knuckle-dragger of the bunch.

I wear the knuckle dragger badge proudly.

You just need to accept that some people operate on a different level, a different set of priorities from you, and I know from hard experience that America eats it's children. I want better for mine.

mnem
America is no longer the promised land; it is the land of broken promises.

So said the draft dodgers in the 1960's. And where did they flee too? Lemme think.

Thank you. This childish display of chest-beating exemplifies my point far better than anything I can possibly say. 

Your tantrum demands that we all adhere to your vision of what this thread should be creates a much higher spike in the noise ratio in most cases, and are far more disruptive overall. And more importantly, you keep bringing it up over and over when most of us have moved forward.

Because nothing is more important than the fact that med is offended. 

mnem
*in no mood to suffer, etc...*

Obviously we must adhere to your vision.

[tggzzz]

@Vince those Minitrons are a nice looking display. I'd hope that if you don't leave it running 8hours a day that they would last a good long time...

Just sent the guy a message asking for more pics and info...

There used to be similar displays on petrol pumps. They were running continuously. Now they are all LCD, of course

I thought the petrol pumps used Panaplex displays rather ??

I'm sure I saw incandescent filaments, but google isnt cooperating!  Panaplex were probably used too.

[mansaxel]

I have forgotten how painfully slow rotating 2.5" drives are, especially if they're enhanced with Features.

I've got an external encrypted drive that's 1TiB and rotating. As part of upgrading to a supported OS X I had to get a slightly older Xcode than is possible to fetch using the software update-system, so 13GiB archive file was downloaded and was too big to handle internally on the mac; the internal drive was very full and more so by some redundant files related to the upgrade process. I moved it to network storage, tried unpacking it from there, too slow, and then realised this was available. Still slow, but better than all the others right now.

[mnementh]

Come you two, play nicely, we all have enough in common surely to allow the occasional deviation of topic without calling each other out, it's not as if the discussions get out of hand. In my view, it's just like a social comment, similar to what you hear on the police radio, or discuss the weather etc, not on topic, but it all helps to break the boredom and enables us to get to know a bit more about our fellow members.

Surely you realize that whenever there is a heated disagreement in this thread, whether with me or anyone else, that it's always the same common denominator?

Surely you realize that individuals have left this thread because of the bully tactics of that same common denominator?

Surely if that same common denominator would back off the caustic rhetoric there would no issue? And clearly he can't because he just posted more rhetoric.   

Yes... And then when you don't get your way, you just scream louder. 

mnem
 

[Cubdriver]

@Vince those Minitrons are a nice looking display. I'd hope that if you don't leave it running 8hours a day that they would last a good long time...

Just sent the guy a message asking for more pics and info...

There used to be similar displays on petrol pumps. They were running continuously. Now they are all LCD, of course

I thought the petrol pumps used Panaplex displays rather ??

I'm sure I saw incandescent filaments, but google isnt cooperating!  Panaplex were probably used too.

IIRC there were many gas pumps that used Numitron displays back in the day.

-Pat

[TERRA Operative]

Ugh, get a room you two, the tension is palpable.

[mnementh]

...Keithley 705 turned up today, somewhat late and after one official reschedule and one unofficial.

My suspicions were immediately aroused by the three metal-crimp packing bands round an otherwise loose-looking cardboard parcel (calling it a box would be verging on the charitable)...


EDIT: Fuck this broken-assed inline image bollocks

Whuf... That blows. You certainly have a lot more patience than I have ATM...

I look forward to your new clock... Or maybe go totally camp and make it a wrist forearm watch...?

mnem
inline images are even more joy when you're using a tablet...

[mnementh]

Come you two, play nicely, we all have enough in common surely to allow the occasional deviation of topic without calling each other out, it's not as if the discussions get out of hand. In my view, it's just like a social comment, similar to what you hear on the police radio, or discuss the weather etc, not on topic, but it all helps to break the boredom and enables us to get to know a bit more about our fellow members.

Surely you realize that whenever there is a heated disagreement in this thread, whether with me or anyone else, that it's always the same common denominator?

Surely you realize that individuals have left this thread because of the bully tactics of that same common denominator?

Surely if that same common denominator would back off the caustic rhetoric there would no issue? And clearly he can't because he just posted more rhetoric.   

If his posts on occasions winds you up that much, surely its best to just ignore those posts and skip past them to something more appealing to you, no  I have to do this on many occasions because the topic matter is of zero interest to me, such as the discussions on RF, Hams, programming and on occasions some off-topic posts also get to me, but then sometimes, I can learn something from those, if I'm inclined to read them, it all depends on how busy I am with other things. It's much the same with the discord channel, very often a lot of the chat is way over my head, other times not so, and I join in if I think I can add something, otherwise I just lurk in the background.

If people have decided to leave the group, then that is as far as I'm concerned, their decision, but I really can't help but think that they cut their nose off to spite their face, all they had to was be picky about what they read. Its just life, we do it all the time when we read newspapers, magazines, or even watch TV, we select programs / topics that interest us and ignore those that don't, simples. 

I feel the same, and I don't hold grudges. I make a point of responding in kind; when a post is positive, I respond positively, even if I'm annoyed with a poster on other concerns. If negative, I may get my dander up at the time, but I try to limit the dwagon-flaming (everybody who used to know me says I'm a much mellower dwagon than I used to be) to sensible levels; I just can't stay angry.

Life's too short, and staying angry wastes too much energy.

mnem
I can tolerate almost anything except intolerance.

[Vince]

I thought the petrol pumps used Panaplex displays rather ??

I'm sure I saw incandescent filaments, but google isnt cooperating!  Panaplex were probably used too.

IIRC there were many gas pumps that used Numitron displays back in the day.

-Pat

Yeah, Google does cooperate here... "Mini" - tron  not in fuel pumps apparently because well... "mini", DIP package, too small for fuel pumps but... the original/"full size" TRON... the Numitron... same technology, was indeed used in fuel pumps it appears ! Tggzzz was right... I though only Panaplex/fluorescent was used back in the day, it appears not !  I am sure Nixies were available back then so using Numitron displays regardless, meant that somehow they managed to get good life out of them, seeing as they were powered 24/7, a shitty short life display would not do the job.... which means that as incandescent as they are, it does not mean it's shitty as a light bulb that blows every other day ! So.... given that the all the digits on the frequency counter I am contemplating, appear to still be all good, not dim or defective... it means that they still probably are in good enough shape to last a fair bit of hours, which would equate to many years of use, given how little use it would get, in practice. So, maybe not that off-putting.... anyway, waiting for the seller to get back to me, if he does.

[mnementh]

Ugh, get a room you two, the tension is palpable.

No way in 'ell. I enjoy a good hate-fuck as much as the next guy, but I never could understand what makes a guy look at another guy's hairy arse and say "I want a piece o' dat!"

I don't care aboot those who do, it's all aboot what feels good and we're all wired differently.

mnem
...unless he's red-haired and green eyes... Add a little Puerto-rican machine-gun cursing and I might could change my mind...

[Cerebus]

As for me, I run only on 3 beverages : tap water, milk and fresh orange juice.

You don't drink ... wine. Do you have a lab assistant called Igor by any chance?

And. You. Don't. Drink. Coffee?!?!



Run boys, he's either a vampire or a pod. 

[mnementh]

I thought the petrol pumps used Panaplex displays rather ??

I'm sure I saw incandescent filaments, but google isnt cooperating!  Panaplex were probably used too.

IIRC there were many gas pumps that used Numitron displays back in the day.

-Pat

Yeah, Google does cooperate here... "Mini" - tron  not in fuel pumps apparently because well... "mini", DIP package, too small for fuel pumps but... the original/"full size" TRON... the Numitron... same technology, was indeed used in fuel pumps it appears ! Tggzzz was right... I though only Panaplex/fluorescent was used back in the day, it appears not !  I am sure Nixies were available back then so using Numitron displays regardless, meant that somehow they managed to get good life out of them, seeing as they were powered 24/7, a shitty short life display would not do the job.... which means that as incandescent as they are, it does not mean it's shitty as a light bulb that blows every other day ! So.... given that the all the digits on the frequency counter I am contemplating, appear to still be all good, not dim or defective... it means that they still probably are in good enough shape to last a fair bit of hours, which would equate to many years of use, given how little use it would get, in practice. So, maybe not that off-putting.... anyway, waiting for the seller to get back to me, if he does.

That reminds me of the last time I went back to my home town after being away over 15 years...

The Sugar Creek convenience store in the middle of 4 corners was still there (it was known informally as shit crick by most of the locals; yes, you can literally hear the lower case in the way they say it) had the same exact two double-serve pumps in disreputable condition as ever with even more polka-dots of white spray-bomb touchup and not only that, the afternoon-sunward facing jumbo LCD displays had the same exact pattern of bleeding I remembered only much more advanced; to the point where certain digits had completely inverted, and were only readable right at the covalent edge between the segment and field if the light was right and you squinted just so. The only difference was instead of being weak muddy-red fluorescent backlight, they had now been updated to very blue blue-white LED F6 bulbs.

One of those real-life time-lapse moments that make us all think about what all has happened in the intervening years...

mnem
...and still here to tell the tale.

[Cerebus]

Use "separates", and eschew "pre-packaged instruments".

All you need are a "decent" voltage source driving a "decent" KVD, plus a nice low-current moving coil meter. If you only want 3digit resolution, use 1m of resistance wire and a 1m steel rule instead of the KVD:)

And how pray am I to do that whenever a decent KVD crops up cheap somewhere you make off with it? Or if not you then I have Robert as a secondary suspect. 

Oh, stop whining and open your wallet 
https://www.ppauctions.com/lot/161450/lot-202

Bastard!

[beanflying]

Come you two, play nicely, we all have enough in common surely to allow the occasional deviation of topic without calling each other out, it's not as if the discussions get out of hand. In my view, it's just like a social comment, similar to what you hear on the police radio, or discuss the weather etc, not on topic, but it all helps to break the boredom and enables us to get to know a bit more about our fellow members.

Surely you realize that whenever there is a heated disagreement in this thread, whether with me or anyone else, that it's always the same common denominator?

Surely you realize that individuals have left this thread because of the bully tactics of that same common denominator?

Surely if that same common denominator would back off the caustic rhetoric there would no issue? And clearly he can't because he just posted more rhetoric.   

Yes... And then when you don't get your way, you just scream louder. 

mnem
 

Seriously STFU you blowhard!

[tggzzz]

Bastard!

Tee hee.

Currently my high bid is £11. If I know somebody here is seriously after it, I won't bid.

I'll just rely on my 7 decade and  my ESI 3+2 decade KVDs

[0culus]

Only in America could this sort of thing happen, or am I wrong on that???

https://allthatsinteresting.com/marvin-heemeyer-killdozer

Nah, similar contraptions (though not usually based on a bulldozer) are built by militant groups in certain parts of the world in order to improve survivability of their S/VBIEDs. Only has to last long enough for the bomber to detonate though, and it has the added side effect of creating more shrapnel when the armor material spalls. Nice, huh?

I was thinking "nuh, just surprised it didn't happen ages ago..." but it did happen ages ago. Like 20 years ago, if you account for build time.

Not only in America; just that America is the only one of the supposedly "civilized" nations where this kind of crazy is not only tolerated, but in many circles celebrated.

Most of the rest of the world would consider that barbaric rather than an appropriate display of civil disobedience.

mnem
America is the land that invented Top-Fuel/Awful Altereds Drag Racing, just because we were bored.

My point being, you can move anywhere in the world and you will soon find that every single country has crazy people who do screwed up things. At least in the US and Canada, you don't have to live perpetually in fear that someone is going to blow you and your family up while you're out at the market buying food, or the religious police punishing your wife for having an extra square centimeter of her face showing (and probably you too for not punishing her yourself).

You have time and time again made it readily apparent that you hate the USA. That's fine, opinions are like assholes. However, many of us are fucking tired of hearing about it. Sod off to the general discussion area if you want to have a circlejerk about social issues and shit on countries for not measuring up to your ideal of a perfect world. Or may I suggest, to Wordpress. It's off-fucking-topic in the TEA thread.


To get back to the topic, last month after getting Belden sticker shock, I ended up ordering Chinese triax cables off epay for my -hp- 4145B semiconductor parameter analyzer system. The build quality of the cables is pretty good for the money. But, after experience using them with the 16058A test fixture, unfortunately they are not very consistent performance wise. One of the original order was bad (extremely poor performance in pA range measurements), so they sent me another one to replace it. The replacement was better, but if I'm being honest, if you have an application where you need the extra guard shield of triax (like very low current), you should pop for the good stuff (Belden) if you can afford it.

Also, "standard SpeedPAK" is "standard ultraSlowPAK".