Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

   

Currently channeling my inner Donatello. 

18 inch New York thin crust pizza/extra 🍕 cheese, meatball Calzone for me. All fresh out the fire and slightly cooler than the surface of the sun. 

mnem
*lunch of champions*

[Saskia]

that ain't keto ...

[mnementh]

Nope. Taking the week off while visiting dad.

Same as you a while back. If you don't, you lose sight of the reason why you're depriving yourself the rest of the time. 

mnem

[Saskia]

makes sense. my favorite backfisch (fishnchips) joint went into winter hiding. will reopen for christmas. eagerly awaiting that time. I want my effing Backfisch.

In different news there is one thing that I am gonna pack today.
My original Fender Strat.

[Robert763]

effing word order. did up to 20 km/day to build up my fitness. best week so far was 104 km walking distance and 25000 kcal burnt.
Did that for about 5 months.
weight loss currently at 33 kg, tummy circumference reduced by at least 8 inches.
This certainly helps when lugging the stuff up and down staircases.
Biggest single box todate: Roadshow pinball
PINBALL GAME ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS
ROAD SHOW IS A FOUR BALL GAME
Domestic 120V @ 60Hz
Foreign 230V @ 50Hz
Japan 1 OOV @ 50HZ
32°F to 100° F, (0°C to 38°C)
Not to exceed 95% relative.
Dimensions: Width: 22" approx.
Depth: 52" approx.
Height: 75" approx.
Weight: 325 lbs approx. (crated)

Ahh memories. I used to install pinball machines single handed. That was nearly 40 years ago though. Move on a sack truck, standbase on end, put on front legs, tip onto front legs, prop back up with one leg underneath while fitting the first of the rear legs. No health and safety risk assement back then.
Mind you if think an electronic pinball is heavy, try one of the old electro-mechanical ones 

[Neomys Sapiens]

Found one instrument at the back of the garage that I had forgotten about. A Wavetek 191 20 MHz pulse / Function generator. Good all round instrument if you don't need digital setting accuracy.
This will be coming back into the workshop

I know that beast! When I last used it at a company from the United Technologies conglomerate, I noticed that a significant percentage of engineers are totally lacking understanding of what pulse generators can do for them. Maybe it is the naming. Using it as a pulse delay simply doesn't occur to them.
I used it in conjunction with a fast thyristor to make a short appear precisely where I wanted it - current or voltage maximum.

[mansaxel]

Currently putting ferrules on old sins in barrier strips.

You see, I have issues with common Bluetooth speakers. These boom-box descendants might be portable, but they lack stereo output (in which I'm including things like speaker placement et c.) and they don't sound really well.

So, I'm integrating a BT receiver chinesium PCB into my True Multi-Room stereo. Pulled the lines from where I'm placing the receiver into the main equipment rack yesterday, and am currently prepping the connection box barrier strips for soldering same lines. So far today, I've built and laced a loom from the female DB-25 connector that is my standard balancing line amp interface (mimicking the Tascam pinout but the last two channels taking positive and negative voltage to the card). Chinesium card included two header cables to hardwire output. I've cut one and soldered it in, and also made twisted pair tails to the barrier strip. Finally dual supply voltages from the local regulator PCB, also via barrier strip. Tomorrow I'll make a bracket to hold the DB25 and wire up the barrier strips. Until the antenna that's in my Mouser cart arrives, the BT receiver card is to live outside the metal connection box.

In the other end, in the main equipment rack, I'm going to shuffle the inputs to the matrix a bit, so that I have a proper input allocated for this; I can always bodge it, but I've got some improvements planned that will coördinate well with this. Also, this involves soldering in awkward positions. Not looking forward to it. But I designed it myself, so I'll better live with it...

I, in this process, realised I had some ferrulisation opportunities, which I've now taken up.

[mansaxel]

I want my effing Backfisch.

That Backfisch place is on my radar for the next trans-german travel. Not exactly on Autobahn 1, which is what we've usually taken southwards, but if you say it's worth the detour, I'm game.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Vince,

What I'll do is go over to his house (well his garage, where he and his ham hobby have been relegated to) and bring a test rig with me. It'll be a small VHF handy-talkie that outputs ~1 W on low power (+30 dBm). I'll put a 30 dB attenuator on the output of the HT, so the Boonton power meter should read ~0 dBm (1 mW) when transmitting. I'd give it a 50 / 50 chance the Boonton meter is not working - meaning, in most cases, the sensor element got fried (technical term) by one of the last users.

I'm already committed to [ hp ] power meters so I don't want to try to get a sensor for the Boonton which might be over $100. The way the pricing of these things work is that the power meters are not that expensive - it's the sensors that will cost you. The power meter is almost useless without a sensor. Well, the sensor isn't much good without the power meter either, but the market charges for the sensor.

Knowing him, if the meter doesn't respond, he'll just say "Well shucks, you can just have it if you want it."

Will I want it? Stay tuned ...

Concerning the not-so-seldom arising need to bring some defined RF with me, I have decided that I will aquire some of THOSE:
https://www.crystek.com/home/rfpro/rfpro.aspx
(Both PPRO and RFPRO) In comparison to some other companies, I regard the pricing as acceptable.
Build like an attenuator or adaptor in BNC or SMA, you feed DC in one end and get a signal out the other. And they definitely fit in any portable kit.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Currently putting ferrules on old sins in barrier strips.
.
.
.
In the other end, in the main equipment rack, I'm going to shuffle the inputs to the matrix a bit, so that I have a proper input allocated for this; I can always bodge it, but I've got some improvements planned that will coördinate well with this. Also, this involves soldering in awkward positions. Not looking forward to it. But I designed it myself, so I'll better live with it...

Pictures please! 

[Saskia]

effing word order. did up to 20 km/day to build up my fitness. best week so far was 104 km walking distance and 25000 kcal burnt.
Did that for about 5 months.
weight loss currently at 33 kg, tummy circumference reduced by at least 8 inches.
This certainly helps when lugging the stuff up and down staircases.
Biggest single box todate: Roadshow pinball
PINBALL GAME ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS
ROAD SHOW IS A FOUR BALL GAME
Domestic 120V @ 60Hz
Foreign 230V @ 50Hz
Japan 1 OOV @ 50HZ
32°F to 100° F, (0°C to 38°C)
Not to exceed 95% relative.
Dimensions: Width: 22" approx.
Depth: 52" approx.
Height: 75" approx.
Weight: 325 lbs approx. (crated)

Ahh memories. I used to install pinball machines single handed. That was nearly 40 years ago though. Move on a sack truck, standbase on end, put on front legs, tip onto front legs, prop back up with one leg underneath while fitting the first of the rear legs. No health and safety risk assement back then.
Mind you if think an electronic pinball is heavy, try one of the old electro-mechanical ones 

The wide Jersey Jack pins come in at 370 lbs, my Twilight zone is 179 kg (as is the STTNG)
One of the less nice things of moving is the pin collection ... it is small, but it is mine.
Currently:
Twilight Zone, Fish Tales, The Shadow, Starship Troopers, Road Show, Earth Shaker, Jokerz!, Judge Dredd, Terminator 2 (in parts), Flintstones, Grand Lizard, Bram Stokers Dracula, High Speed - about 2 metric tonnes if you add in my arcades as well (Elevator Action full size, 3 cocktail tables plus 4 Arcade1ups)
This should be sufficient for the TEA arcade ...

@mansaxel I think the backfisch is totally worth driving 100 km. However our taste buds may be tuned differently. And you should give them a call to make sure they are open.

[Specmaster]

Currently putting ferrules on old sins in barrier strips.

You see, I have issues with common Bluetooth speakers. These boom-box descendants might be portable, but they lack stereo output (in which I'm including things like speaker placement et c.) and they don't sound really well.

So, I'm integrating a BT receiver chinesium PCB into my True Multi-Room stereo. Pulled the lines from where I'm placing the receiver into the main equipment rack yesterday, and am currently prepping the connection box barrier strips for soldering same lines. So far today, I've built and laced a loom from the female DB-25 connector that is my standard balancing line amp interface (mimicking the Tascam pinout but the last two channels taking positive and negative voltage to the card). Chinesium card included two header cables to hardwire output. I've cut one and soldered it in, and also made twisted pair tails to the barrier strip. Finally dual supply voltages from the local regulator PCB, also via barrier strip. Tomorrow I'll make a bracket to hold the DB25 and wire up the barrier strips. Until the antenna that's in my Mouser cart arrives, the BT receiver card is to live outside the metal connection box.

In the other end, in the main equipment rack, I'm going to shuffle the inputs to the matrix a bit, so that I have a proper input allocated for this; I can always bodge it, but I've got some improvements planned that will coördinate well with this. Also, this involves soldering in awkward positions. Not looking forward to it. But I designed it myself, so I'll better live with it...

I, in this process, realised I had some ferrulisation opportunities, which I've now taken up.

You can actually get some decent stereo BT speakers, but they are way more expensive than the average person wants to spend on speakers, given that they cost over double what most people would consider spending on a complete stereo unit with radio, CD, amplifier and speakers. A few years back I picked up a couple of these bad boys from Sainsbury's (a supermarket here in the UK) and I had been watching them for a few years before I purchased them. I watched because they were IRRC over £200 each even then and people just ignored them as a result. They did eventually decide to reduce them to a bargain price in their sale, around £50 each I think, so I grabbed them.  They are a complete stereo speaker in a cabinet with the mid and tweeters angled outwards for imagery and a central subwoofer, weigh an absolute metric ton each as there is a massive linear power supply in each. I currently have one in my lab and the other in the lounge, SWMBO did not like my true Hi-Fi with massive Wharfedale speakers with 15" subwoofers as it took up too much space, so it had to go 

Yes I realise that the BT speakers are not true Hi-Fi speakers but believe me when I say that they do sound truly amazing and the base is solid and full on and is more than capable of making things in the room rattle and vibrate if I turn them up slightly.  You can also pair them up with smart home speakers and the sound is instantly transformed to another league, not that most smart speakers these days are that bad.

[TERRA Operative]

Oh, Ifni save me... I fuxxoring hate spinning rust now; it is so mind-numbingly slooooooowwwwwww...

I'm currently downloading the latest Win10 updater to my wife's dead-SSD laptop; all I had lying around was a old HDD that came in my son's laptop. Over hotel WiFi which obviously has BW-capping to keep you from watching streaming TV... *blerk and a half*

Fuck! does anybody know if the Win10 updater will still do a clean install? I haven't done a "not from media" install in like years...

mnem
STEP 1 of 3: DOWNLOADING...

Download percent:

14%...



meh. I gave up and nuked my MOVIES USB to have installation media.

How is it that waiting for 40GB to copy off the USB so to nuke it, and then DLing the ISO is STILL faster than waiting for the damned UPDATER to DL...?

I could send you a couple 240Gb Intel D3-S4510 SSD's, very lightly used from work (decommissioned from servers) for the cost of shipping, but shipping to USA is either EMS ($20-30 for 1 week shipping) or on the slow boat (see you in 3 months).... Stupid covid has Japan Post suspending the cheap-fast shipping methods... 

[mnementh]

my sympathies

good thing is that I seem to be burning off calories. even though the weight loss was stagnating I already lost the 2 kg that I put on during cheat week.

Also, if I had not done a rather rude regimen with my walking I would not have been able to do the physical moving part. Also I was actually able to lift that bloody logic analyzer. A feast that was most strenuous for me before. (laugh all you want, it's an Agilent Mainframe 16702B fully loaded ... blooody hell ...)

Nope not laughing at all, however I do admit being a little curious about your "rather rude regimen walking", might have been interesting to observe 

Speaking of "rude walking regimens", today we walked to that pizzeria then a local grocery store. Google Maps sez about 1.8 kliks total; half of that loaded with grocery bags. 

The trek was definitely rude to my hamstrings, which evidently shortened up a wee bit after about a week spent either driving or passenging in the car across two countries and 3 sovereign nations. They are just singing at me right now... in stereo. 

   

We walked a long circle around this little corner of Long Island City (a recently-gentrified region of Queens, by the look of the stores); including surviving the march across this little can o' worms under the train trestle with my daughter in tow, who still has edge and step anxiety issues due to developmental delay and motor skills.

mnem
*itinewant dwagon in da big city*

[Kosmic]

The way the pricing of these things work is that the power meters are not that expensive - it's the sensors that will cost you. The power meter is almost useless without a sensor. Well, the sensor isn't much good without the power meter either, but the market charges for the sensor.

Well, you can use any multimeter with those sensors but it's not super convenient.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3297588/#msg3297588

[xrunner]

Well, you can use any multimeter with those sensors but it's not super convenient.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg3297588/#msg3297588

The hp power meters are a little useful too (with no sensor). You have a calibrated rf source 50 MHz 0.0 dBm. If you have a decent set of attenuators you can obtain a different calibrated power level as long as it's 50 MHz. Well the frequency isn't exactly 50 MHz because it's not necessary for it to be so, for the purposes of a calibrated power level.

[mnementh]

Oh, Ifni save me... I fuxxoring hate spinning rust now; it is so mind-numbingly slooooooowwwwwww...

I could send you a couple 240Gb Intel D3-S4510 SSD's, very lightly used from work (decommissioned from servers) for the cost of shipping, but shipping to USA is either EMS ($20-30 for 1 week shipping) or on the slow boat (see you in 3 months).... Stupid covid has Japan Post suspending the cheap-fast shipping methods... 

Thanks for the offer, but I have a new 500GB 870 EVO on the way via slAmazon for $65; they're just taking their sweet ol' time  (as in 2.5 days, even with Prime   ) getting it to me. Wifey wanted to take over my laptop for "where are we gonna land that's good for teachers" research.

As you might imagine, getting hers up (and at least limping on spinning rust) online for this most important task has become a top priority.

mnem
Hmmmm... anybody here know anything about cost of living in Hartford, Connecticut...?

[cyclin_al]

Med, at least one of them scope carts needs a dose of Krylon Gloss Bahama Sea.

Good scores. 

I don't think either will need paint once I clean them up. My plan is to spray them down with a cleaner such as "Simple Green" then hose them off. Problem is at night temps are below freezing and aren't warming up too much during the day.

LOL of course I forgot you lot are just about to start freezing your gonads off whereas us downunder are about to start sweating like rapists ! 
Yep, there's painting weather and NOT painting weather.

And any day now gonna wake up one morning to white stuff on the ground. 

I did see white stuff today.  Mind you, there were three idle machines in the vicinity.  Last night, the machines were connected to water, compressed air and electricity 

[cyclin_al]

To all the TM500 aficionados here, here is a cheap one !

https://www.leboncoin.fr/bricolage/2075409013.htm

A big double width one (sold without the rack just the plugin)... a " distortion analyzer " !
Is it rare enough and sought after enough to really be worth 650 Euros  (800USD) ?!   
I am glad I am not in the TM500 game, I could not afford it ! 

For those of us on the other side of the pond, a triple width (TM503) and a quadruple width (TM504) just showed up.
instinctively, I was about to say they are located halfway between dwagon and myself. I guess I have to now say somewhere between 25_CPS and myself.

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-view-details.html?adId=1594865046

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-general-electronics/belleville/tektronix-tm504-test-measurement-set/1594822914

The prices here are far more affordable!

[tautech]

Med, at least one of them scope carts needs a dose of Krylon Gloss Bahama Sea.

Good scores. 

I don't think either will need paint once I clean them up. My plan is to spray them down with a cleaner such as "Simple Green" then hose them off. Problem is at night temps are below freezing and aren't warming up too much during the day.

LOL of course I forgot you lot are just about to start freezing your gonads off whereas us downunder are about to start sweating like rapists ! 
Yep, there's painting weather and NOT painting weather.

And any day now gonna wake up one morning to white stuff on the ground. 

I did see white stuff today.  Mind you, there were three idle machines in the vicinity.  Last night, the machines were connected to water, compressed air and electricity 

That's cheating ! 

[Zucca]

Sorry I was busy, now I am back... more or less.

Please consider:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/frasers-gofundme-page/
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/off-topic-but-food-for-thought-)/

He is the pope of infrared here at EEVBlog.

[Zucca]

Also very very interesting.....



I confess my sin, until today I was thinking VxI electric power flows inside the electric cables.

Just ignore the misleading part.... 

[mansaxel]

They are a complete stereo speaker in a cabinet

That is, in my experience, impossible, unless the box is 2m+ big. (Headphones are also excluded, for obvious reasons) Proper placement of speakers is fundamental, and the compromises made to squeeze stereo into one portable box are in my strongly experience-based opinion completely unacceptable.

This is why I place speakers so we cover the intended listening area with a wide and balanced stereo picture.

[vk6zgo]

now for an English flat-joke ...
what do you call a dog with a surround-system ?

a sub-woofer ...

Another definition of "sub woofer" is what we called our Labrador cross back when we had a swimming pool.
She delighted in putting her head underwater & barking!

[vk6zgo]

Ok then, how about this

"Er hat ein paar Kängurus los im oberen Fahrerlager!!"  =  He's got a couple of kangaroos going on in the upper paddock !!

Or in original Oz form:-
"He's got a few Roos loose in the top paddock!"
(The online translator freaked at "Roos", so I had to use the full name of these wondrous furry friends.)

"Er ist ein paar Blechbüchsen weniger als ein 'Sixpack' !" = It's a few tin cans less than a six-pack!

Again in Oztalk;- "He's a few tinnies short of a sixpack"!"

So, in both cases, the retranslation loses a bit!

Which I suppose we Brits would say, "He's a sandwich short of a picnic"