Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Neomys Sapiens]

TM500/TM5000 owners heads up! I just bought two very nicely made proto boards for those Tektronix systems from a seller on Ebay Kleinanzeigen for 52.- ! Multiple items still available.

They even have labeled terminals for both connector allocations (front/rear) and are 229mm * 113mm ENIG boards with a large prototyping area.

Link is here:
https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/experimentierplatine-fuer-tektronix-tm500-tm5000-vergoldete-kont-/1932002578-82-2642

Just a reminder: Tek 5000 scope plugins are mechanically identic and most of a time far cheaper than the TM500 empty plugins. Known associates from round here can be helped for out-of-EU transfers.

[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...*

Obviously we must adhere to your vision.

You mean the "no visions vision" that has evolved here over years of it's own accord?

You accuse me of bullying, yet you are the one being a dick to me personally and holding the thread hostage with your childish tantrums every time someone posts something that offends you. You are the one incessantly preaching intolerance in a very obviously tolerant forum.

"When I see x I am going to call it out..." is literally a textbook trigger phrase; it is a rhetoric term used so commonly by forum bullies that they warn you about it in most of the informal "moderators' guides" I've seen bandied about the internet since the days of UseNet.

I am deliberately trying to keep a civil tongue when it comes to the personal stuff and asking you to stop preaching intolerance; I'm pretty sure you're the one being a bully here, not me.

Cheers,

mnem
 

[Brumby]

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.

You spoke too soon.

I wonder why all of sudden that has happen?     

Off topic is often temporary, but TEA is forever!!

[mnementh]

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.

No... I do not hate the US. I love America and what it was founded on, and the promise of the American Dream.

What I hate is what it has been turned into by a few hundred insanely greedy people, and how that dream has been stolen away from all but those who are willing to either sell their souls to the corporation or directly to one of those insanely greedy people.

I love what America stands for so much that I spent over 40 years fighting this corruption from the ground up; literally canvassing neighborhoods as a 12-year-old in "Get out the Vote" campaigns and being active both socially and politically to keep those ideals here.

America no longer is what it stands for; it is a hollow mockery thereof. And it really pisses me off when some guy who's never even bothered to try and make a difference and is proud of the fact he "doesn't do politics" has the gall to call me out about my painful disillusionment.

I've spent my time trying to make it work the way it should, and I tried to get my kids away from it so they could grow up away from this sociopathic culture of narcissism.

Revolution is a young man's game, and I'm old. I was trying to run away and get someplace slightly less crazy before I die, for my sake and my kids'.

Whether you like the politics or not, I was answering a direct question earlier, and this post was specifically social commentary on how for a civilized nation, we take some pretty barbaric stuff for granted.

I was actually trying to be satirical and turn the direction of the original post more moderate with humor, but you are the one who turned it political. Admittedly, my attempt at humor might have been a bit weak, but that's not the same thing.

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

[TERRA Operative]

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.

Good to know about the quality of the ebay units, I was weighing them up against the Belden ones on Digikey/Mouser, or building my own from Japanese sourced parts.
I have a 4145A that I've fully reconditioned, besides buttoning up the last bit of an intermittent focus repair, and a recently acquired 4145B.
I plan to recondition the 4145B, sell the 4145A and use those funds for the triax cables.
I even have the test fixture, a handful of inserts and all cables, minus those triax...

TM500/TM5000 owners heads up! I just bought two very nicely made proto boards for those Tektronix systems from a seller on Ebay Kleinanzeigen for 52.- ! Multiple items still available.

They even have labled terminals for both connector allocations (front/rear) and are 229mm * 113mm ENIG boards with a large prototyping area.

Link is here:
https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/experimentierplatine-fuer-tektronix-tm500-tm5000-vergoldete-kont-/1932002578-82-2642

Just a reminder: Tek 5000 scope plugins are mechanically identic and most of a time far cheaper than the TM500 empty plugins. Known associates from round here can be helped for out-of-EU transfers.

This reminds me, I have to finish up my layout of these Tek boards, I got my design 90% done.

[Neomys Sapiens]

TM500/TM5000 owners heads up! I just bought two very nicely made proto boards for those Tektronix systems from a seller on Ebay Kleinanzeigen for 52.- ! Multiple items still available.

They even have labled terminals for both connector allocations (front/rear) and are 229mm * 113mm ENIG boards with a large prototyping area.

Link is here:
https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/experimentierplatine-fuer-tektronix-tm500-tm5000-vergoldete-kont-/1932002578-82-2642

Just a reminder: Tek 5000 scope plugins are mechanically identic and most of a time far cheaper than the TM500 empty plugins. Known associates from round here can be helped for out-of-EU transfers.

This reminds me, I have to finish up my layout of these Tek boards, I got my design 90% done.

Good to know. Maybe you could volunteer for the PCB design of two modules which should be useful in laboratory practice. More of that when the circuits are working.

[mnementh]

Something which occurs a bit late, but still did finally dawn on me. Neither Oculus nor med seem to have a problem with political stuff when it comes from another source like the above, or with a chance to needle the dwagon a little bit as with med's post which started this whole mess.

It wasn't until I responded that they both got their knickers in a twist, and I remember being good friends with med before this whole "I give up, I'm leaving" process.

I'm going to suggest while I'm still able to that maybe this has a lot more to do with the fact that I dare to believe that there might be a better place than America to raise my kids, and that I tried to leave, and they both find that personally offensive.

For that, I am not in the least bit sorry. Part of growing up and becoming an actual adult is learning that words are just words, and you do not have the right to go anywhere and expect not to be offended; and certainly not to demand it.

mnem
*knocks self unconscious with a ballot mallet*

[25 CPS]

@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

There was one large gas station up in the far north end of Toronto back when I lived there about 8 years ago that was still completely equipped with pumps that had Numitron displays.  Ever display on every pump was full of glowing Numitrons.  It was impressive during the day but at night or at dusk, it looked beautiful.  They modernized and got new pumps a few years ago and I've been kicking myself for never taking any pictures before that happened.

[AVGresponding]

[..] FULL WAVE bridge rectum-frier

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

Thanks, but I can't take credit here, it's a mash-up of the way ElectroBOOM and AvE describe bridge rectifiers...

...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...

No modifications are necessary; it has a clock display function (24h format) as part of the scanning/logging functionality. Minor jigsaw repair and cleaning only. It is as described (aside from the damage inflicted by Unprofessional Phytoplankton Suckers) ie for parts/not working and the price reflected that.
It's only purpose currently is donations to my 195A.

[med6753]

Something which occurs a bit late, but still did finally dawn on me. Neither Oculus nor med seem to have a problem with political stuff when it comes from another source like the above, or with a chance to needle the dwagon a little bit as with med's post which started this whole mess.

It wasn't until I responded that they both got their knickers in a twist, and I remember being good friends with med before this whole "I give up, I'm leaving" process.

I'm going to suggest while I'm still able to that maybe this has a lot more to do with the fact that I dare to believe that there might be a better place than America to raise my kids, and that I tried to leave, and they both find that personally offensive.

For that, I am not in the least bit sorry. Part of growing up and becoming an actual adult is learning that words are just words, and you do not have the right to go anywhere and expect not to be offended; and certainly not to demand it.

mnem
*knocks self unconscious with a ballot mallet*

Oh for crying out loud. 

[mansaxel]

Oh for crying out loud. 

I think you were the one at least partially responsible for rekindling this. Your comment about the futility of escaping the US was both cruel and unnecessary. Part of being a community (which this is, people-haters and all) is that you sometimes need to lower the ambitions on getting all your opinion out. Mnem knows this, and he's working on it.  I'm not saying he's free from blame for this but there were definitely differences in amount here. 

You can't push peoples triggers and then yell at them for igniting; that's bullying. 

Also, it's way too much applied evil sociology than proper for a people-hater

[TERRA Operative]

I think we all need to just shut the fuck up about politics etc. and just stick to the title of the thread.

Go start another thread if you want to throw stones at each other.

[Robert763]

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

You re just asking to be bid up
 

[Robert763]

I already have one of those and a Julie Research Labs VDR106/7 so won't be bidding.
It will be interesting to see what it goes for though. 
 

[Vince]

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?!?!

No, no Coffee either, hate the stuff. I already said here that I am not at all your typical Frog and therefore everything I am, say or do is not representative of the country.... The simple fact that I can be conversing with you here via the English language is a proof of that, seeing as your Typical French is hopeless with English and just as hopegless with French too. Hopefless in general I would have to say.
I also don't drink coca-cola/pepsi or any industrially beverage. Only raw products. 100% orange juice, no weird fruit mix full of chemicals.
I also don't watch TV or Netflix or listen to Spotify or go to any social media platform, and don't give a fuck about football or sport, don't give a fuck about SUV or modern cars full of electronics gizmos. "Modern" meaning anything younger than the late '90s.
At the super market I never park my car on the handful of spots that are reserved for disabled people, but every body else does. I even saw a COP car do it once ! 
I say "Hi" to the girl at the checkout... nobody does anymore.

and so on and so on....

However, I think I am still human though, no alien or vampire.... but definitely a kind of human being that's going to be extinct very soon.

A lab assistant ? Can't afford to pay for one but I would not mind a slave/free assistant, he could go through all my boxes of components and stuff, and sort and organize it all neatly so it's easily accessible and I can actually do something with all that stuff, at long last !

[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

You re just asking to be bid up

In some ways I would welcome not getting it! I would be gobsmacked and delighted if nobody bids higher

If someone here tells me they are seriously interested (c'mon Cerebus) then I won't stand in that person's way.

[tggzzz]

I already have one of those and a Julie Research Labs VDR106/7 so won't be bidding.
It will be interesting to see what it goes for though.

Just so.

Have you tried comparing your two KVDs - a quick and dirty differential voltage reading for settings xxxxx for x=0-9 would be amusing.

[Specmaster]

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

I'm sniffing around it but I expect that it will go for much more than I want to pay anyway.

[Specmaster]

@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.

You might well have seen them, there are different manufacturers of petrol pumps.

[Specmaster]

TM500/TM5000 owners heads up! I just bought two very nicely made proto boards for those Tektronix systems from a seller on Ebay Kleinanzeigen for 52.- ! Multiple items still available.

They even have labled terminals for both connector allocations (front/rear) and are 229mm * 113mm ENIG boards with a large prototyping area.

Link is here:
https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/experimentierplatine-fuer-tektronix-tm500-tm5000-vergoldete-kont-/1932002578-82-2642

Just a reminder: Tek 5000 scope plugins are mechanically identic and most of a time far cheaper than the TM500 empty plugins. Known associates from round here can be helped for out-of-EU transfers.

This reminds me, I have to finish up my layout of these Tek boards, I got my design 90% done.

Good to know. Maybe you could volunteer for the PCB design of two modules which should be useful in laboratory practice. More of that when the circuits are working.

With the chatter about TM500/TM5000, I had no idea as to what this was so I googled for it and came across this little video which may be of interest, up to you.

[xrunner]

I think we all need to just shut the fuck up about politics etc. and just stick to the title of the thread.

Go start another thread if you want to throw stones at each other.

Agree. I'll state my opinion here but as I've found it won't do much good. It got back to normal for a short while ... and now it blew up again. The number of views and posts in this thread means nothing to me - it's the quality and on-topic posts that matter. I wouldn't care if it was five posts per day if it was on-topic.

I'll re-post what I got yesterday here but I'm not sure about any more because of the off-topic stuff, off-topic repairs consumer repairs/projects, and off-topic cartoons and videos posted by a few. I get that a few can be OK but it's gone way too much for me. If that doesn't change (it did for a short while) than I'll just post my other test equipment repairs and acquisitions in the other thread for it

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/list-your-test-equipment-score-here!/

or make my own thread so the material I post doesn't get swept away in minutes with silly stuff and rebuttals of rebuttals of rebuttals.

Thank you for reading my opinion.

Anyway ... here's what I got from an Ebay seller near me. Same group I got the last power sensor from. An Agilent 8482A power sensor (+20 to -30 dBm 100 kHz to 4.2 GHz). It's been in the field but it works just fine. Now I have two, because two is better than one. 

[tggzzz]

I'll re-post what I got yesterday here but I'm not sure about any more because of the off-topic stuff, off-topic repairs consumer repairs/projects, and off-topic cartoons and videos posted by a few. I get that a few can be OK but it's gone way too much for me. If that doesn't change (it did for a short while) than I'll just post my other test equipment repairs and acquisitions in the other thread for it

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/list-your-test-equipment-score-here!/

or make my own thread so the material I post doesn't get swept away in minutes with silly stuff and rebuttals of rebuttals of rebuttals.

This thread is not far off a twitter feed centered around test equipment. The he-said-(s)he-said to-and-fro does become tedious, but I can ignore it.

Even if the thread was solely about TE, IMNSHO if the posting contains long-term useful information then it is better posted elsewhere so that people and search engines find it.

[Specmaster]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I have zero problem with political topics as long as they are more of a social comment rather than full on. Most of us here are grown enough surely to grasp what the topic is going to be in the first few words of a post and can then decide for ourselves if we read that post or not. I doubt that there is anyone here who actually reads every post anyway, I expect we exercise our own form of censorship each time we pick up a newspaper etc.

Or am I really the only one here adult enough to decide what I read and what I decide to skip, and as on TV, what I watch and what I won't without having to cause mayor disruption by commenting on other's opinions, which they are perfectly entitled to hold.

Honestly, it is not that difficult to be a little more tolerant of others in life.

[xrunner]

I could debate that with you but I'm not going too - it would be off-topic.

[mansaxel]

Today's score. A TTi CPX200 in near-mint condition. There's a chip in the bezel. Not function affecting.  Price? "We think this will do better on your desk than on our shelf, so please come and get it". Mine for the price of a stroll across the premises, then.

Edit 1: Yes, the display suffers from phone camera <-> display update rate incompatibility, it is pristine.

Edit 2: I will now probably sell my Uni-T 2x32V supply.  The tracking feature the TTi lacks I have available from my 6237b.