Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

The official story is that we're off to the Bauhaus store for one (live one, if it's not a real tree, there is no point in having it) today, and that will be the cover too, as we're shopping new office chairs for the children. An IKEA office chair is a lot sturdier, better built, higher quality parts, and much more comfortable, than one of those "Gaming chairs" kids are being fooled into wanting. Also, the IKEA is half the price.

You're going to Dessau in eastern Germany just for a tree? 

[Cerebus]

Ebay picks time:



Nice LCR meter from the rude named manufacturer: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324944893072

Cerebus already has a bid on that. Cerebus would be 'disappointed' to be outbid by someone here. Cerebus could always soften any disappointment he might feel with a hour or two in the armoury sharpening things.

[Cerebus]

May be worth an offer if you live near Oxford: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133963568864

Those go down to 50Hz on the low range, no I didn't mistype 50kHz it's really 50Hz, which makes this a bit of a rara avis in Spec An terms.

Would be a decent BIN price, if it were one meter, and not put together from the remains of others...  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133967798060

What makes you believe it's a Frankenmeter? There's nothing in the listing to that effect and the internal construction of the 34401A is pretty much unitary, there's a main board, a display/front panel board, a transformer and that's about it - not a lot to make a mix and match out of.

[Andrew_Debbie]

  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275064598867

"lamp missing"   

Someone bid on it.

[Cerebus]

Well I never expected that there would be quite so many Bah Humbug its bleeding Christmas folk on here. What were you all like as a child, didn't

This is probably a very bad topic for this thread. But since you ask, why would I look forward to something I don't believe in? Sure as a child I did, but as a child we don't have the training to critically think about these things. That's all I should probably say ...

What's not to believe in in a midwinter feast, every culture has had one all the way down the ages. You don't have to call it Christmas, call it Kwanzaa, call it Yule, call it Saturnalia, call it Dong Zhi, call it Shab-e Yalda, or Inti Raymi, or Shalako, or Soyal, or Toji, or just plain Midwinter. It doesn't have to be associated with any particular religion's sky fairy. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you get frostbite in your toes.

A bunch of people I know used to get together for Saturnalia on the 21st December, either in a central London pub upper room or occasionally at Conway Hall in Red Lion Square if it looked like a particularly big one. We'd eat, drink and there was a tradition of people preparing a 'turn' for the event - a comic sketch, telling a favourite shaggy dog story (Conroy's "Flea's Holiday" was an annual fixture*) and the memorable occasion when Gareth and others did "The Full Monty". AH, happy days...

Edited to add:

* This one was so well known that one year, when Conroy was there but had advanced sufficiently in years (he'd have been 85ish at the time) that he didn't feel up to standing up and telling it, that the popular demand for the telling was such that myself and Ian took the floor and told the tale between us, taking alternative lines of the story.

[Andrew_Debbie]

Scratch and dent special:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275068607323

(on my watch list. Doubt I will bid on it)

[Robert763]

Someone paid £349 for a Tek 7603A 
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-7603-Oscilloscope-Dual-Trace-Time-Base-Amplifiers-7B53A-7A26-7A18A-/403346283980

[mnementh]

Well I never expected that there would be quite so many Bah Humbug its bleeding Christmas folk on here. What were you all like as a child, didn't you look forward to Christmas then either?

I can understand the lack of enthusiasm for the commercial aspect of it but the actual decorating, especially the tree and lights I've always enjoyed that part of it 

Same here. Christmas is for the children... let them have a few weeks a year when almost everyone is nice to them.

It's the one time of year people treat each other the way they should all the time.

Decorating is one of those family activities that makes treasured memories for your offspring. I get that some of us have already done that and shipped them off to make their own way in the world; that's when you shift into grandparents mode and it's all for the grandkids.

mnem
As always YMMV, Not absolutely EVERYONE, Yes horrible things happen this time of year too, etc...

[mnementh]

I say humbug. Since it's just me why bother? Now I'll go to Son's with the grand kids and enjoy their tree and the decorations and such. So I'm not a total Scrooge. 

And in years past when I did decorate and put up a tree everyone was enthusiastic and helped out. But when it came time to take the tree down and put everything away they suddenly became ghosts of Christmas past and guess who was left holding the candy canes?

Humbug I say. 

To you Scrooges out there:

May the fleas of all the wise-men's camels infest your balls, and your arms too short to reach.

mnem

[tggzzz]

Same here. Christmas is for the children...

In the UK Christmas is also for the family.

We don't have any equivalent to Thanksgiving Day, nor to St Niklaus on the 6th December. Hence we conflate the religion, the commerce and the family into one event.

[med6753]

Someone paid £349 for a Tek 7603A 
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-7603-Oscilloscope-Dual-Trace-Time-Base-Amplifiers-7B53A-7A26-7A18A-/403346283980

Some one made a good buck and some one is a dumb ass. 

[mnementh]

  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275064598867   "lamp missing" Someone bid on it.

If it were close enuf to Local Pickup or even $15-20 shipping, I'd buy it. That case would make a damn nice PSU or other homebrew project enclosure, and enough passive heatsink to be completely silent. 

mnem
*tzzzzt* 

[Robert763]

I'm going to bid on the Racal because I have a FRK to put in it. Please don't outbid me for the case!

[mnementh]

Sorry if I stirred up interest unnecessarily... 

I'm not gonna; shipping to me is unsane.

mnem
*toddles off to look for Christmas in the back of the ToD*

[mnementh]

naked

There's worse things.

*sigh*

There was a weird confluence of events, back when my wife and I were courting; we'd met online, in one of the fandoms associated with the TV show Farscape. We attended several of the fan-launched conventions for the show, and at one of them, Signal Room, a band formed by two of the show's actors, debuted their first album.

https://music.apple.com/album/697141331

The debut album was only available at the convention, and sold out quickly; primarily because of the FS fans, but aside from that, they were actually rather good, and my wife & I listen to their albums even today.

So... there is a point... I just spent over half a hour looking for one of their songs online: naked, but sadly I cannot share it with y'all, as it was only on the debut album, and they'd promised that album was only for the fans.

*mnemories*

Signal Room - #96

naked

"Maneuver slowly...
remove it boldly;
I've got to feel... I turn you on.

Remove the notion
that love's a token
best expressed through words alone.

Let's face it:
I like you naked!
Let's face it...

I'd rather see your underwear
than any thought you'd care to share;
I'd rather see you slide up to me... completely naked..."

there's more, but you know...

[mansaxel]

The official story is that we're off to the Bauhaus store for one (live one, if it's not a real tree, there is no point in having it) today, and that will be the cover too, as we're shopping new office chairs for the children. An IKEA office chair is a lot sturdier, better built, higher quality parts, and much more comfortable, than one of those "Gaming chairs" kids are being fooled into wanting. Also, the IKEA is half the price.

You're going to Dessau in eastern Germany just for a tree? 

I sure hope I could. But, alas, it's the Baumarkt. I'm strongly against supporting the local sportsing who are the ones selling trees around here, to finance their misleading the youth business. Filling the pockets of the Swiss lumber and bidets merchant is much more noble than financing ice hockey.

[Specmaster]

I say humbug. Since it's just me why bother? Now I'll go to Son's with the grand kids and enjoy their tree and the decorations and such. So I'm not a total Scrooge. 

And in years past when I did decorate and put up a tree everyone was enthusiastic and helped out. But when it came time to take the tree down and put everything away they suddenly became ghosts of Christmas past and guess who was left holding the candy canes?

Humbug I say.     

I just wish the putting the tree up etc was just as quick as taking it down though

Lady Cop is Ms Scrooge and she doesn't put up a tree or decorate either. And she has all that stuff. Packed away and in her words that's where it's going to stay. She even takes it a step further and hates wrapping presents and you get your gift naked. 

Yep, and it also, at least in your case  glows in the dark we understand   

[BU508A]

Well I never expected that there would be quite so many Bah Humbug its bleeding Christmas folk on here. What were you all like as a child, didn't

This is probably a very bad topic for this thread. But since you ask, why would I look forward to something I don't believe in? Sure as a child I did, but as a child we don't have the training to critically think about these things. That's all I should probably say ...

What's not to believe in in a midwinter feast, every culture has had one all the way down the ages. You don't have to call it Christmas, call it Kwanzaa, call it Yule, call it Saturnalia, call it Dong Zhi, call it Shab-e Yalda, or Inti Raymi, or Shalako, or Soyal, or Toji, or just plain Midwinter. It doesn't have to be associated with any particular religion's sky fairy. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you get frostbite in your toes.
[...]

I do really like both of them.   



Of course.

[Specmaster]

Someone paid £349 for a Tek 7603A 
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tektronix-7603-Oscilloscope-Dual-Trace-Time-Base-Amplifiers-7B53A-7A26-7A18A-/403346283980

I never find such buyers 

[med6753]

First use of the 500 series plug-in extender. Type 1A1 plug-in where channel 1 suddenly decided to no longer play nice.



Traced it all the way to the board in the rear. Q404 bit the dust. (Upper right) This would have been impossible to troubleshoot without an extender. And as always it's nice to have a parts mule. Grabbed an exact replacement transistor.




Back up and running. I'll have to check gain/compensation again. But since that has to be done with the plug-in OFF the extender and the Type 547 on it's side going to hold off until I troubleshoot the Type 1A4 plug-in. I'm sure I'll have to perform those same tasks after I repair that plug-in too. I may not get to that plug-in this week.

[0culus]

First use of the 500 series plug-in extender. Type 1A1 plug-in where channel 1 suddenly decided to no longer play nice.



Traced it all the way to the board in the rear. Q404 bit the dust. (Upper right) This would have been impossible to troubleshoot without an extender. And as always it's nice to have a parts mule. Grabbed an exact replacement transistor.




Back up and running. I'll have to check gain/compensation again. But since that has to be done with the plug-in OFF the extender and the Type 547 on it's side going to hold off until I troubleshoot the Type 1A4 plug-in. I'm sure I'll have to perform those same tasks after I repair that plug-in too. I may not get to that plug-in this week.

[emphasis mine] not quite true, you would have found this with a curve tracer too. 

[med6753]

[emphasis mine] not quite true, you would have found this with a curve tracer too. 

Do you know how many transistors are in that plug-in? That's only 1 of 2 fully populated boards. I would have had to pull them individually to test them. 

That don't sound like much fun to me. 

[med6753]

Post 9999.

[med6753]

Post 10000. There, got that done and over with. 

 

[0culus]

[emphasis mine] not quite true, you would have found this with a curve tracer too. 

Do you know how many transistors are in that plug-in? That's only 1 of 2 fully populated boards. I would have had to pull them individually to test them. 

That don't sound like much fun to me. 

I did it when I was working on that 454. It's not that hard, other than making sure you keep track of which ones you removed.