Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[cyclin_al]

I swapped out most of my halogen or tungsten bulbs for LEDs a long time ago. It makes a tremendous impact on your energy bill and it will be about the first thing I do when settled in the new house.

oh yes, I need to do the same for my '79 C10



PS: I love my US truck even more than my last car BMW F11 525xd!

Those are good trucks. Before GM went "el cheapo". Will last forever if you take care of it and don't live in the Rust Belt!

After my birth, my parents brought me home in the GMC version of that truck.  Of course, it was an even earlier model year than yours.  It was the base model, with absolutely no accessories.  The only thing innovative on it is the 3-speed automatic transmission.  Total cost including taxes was less than a bi-weekly payment for the modern version...

It gets stored in a garage during winters.  Otherwise, it would no longer exist with all the salt used in the GWN.
My Dad drove it at least once this autumn with a full load!

[cyclin_al]

Some of the last halogen lights at home bit the dust 5 minutes ago; as Wife and I was at the home improvement store (Not the architect/design school, dear aardvark!) I managed to remember that I'd actually remembered what LED lamps I needed to replace them, so found some with the right dispersion (36° and not 130° which the first ones we found were...), bought them, and now they're fitted. From 20W per lamp to 2,6W. Some improvement, close to 8 times.  With energy prices driving the most of inflation here right now (1 liter diesel fuel borders on 20SEK or ~2€ and the spot consumer prices for electricity have been up at 6SEK per KWh momentarily; I managed to secure a fixed rate, albeit a month too late... ) saving power is imperative. Now, I need to kill some more power in the machine room, and we should see results.

Mixed results here with LEDs, Garden floodlight, Kitchen and 2 bedrooms and the lab, all converted to LEDs, the rest of the rooms are still low energy compact fluorescents and so far after 7 years only the Garden, Lab and Kitchen still have the original LEDs, the others have been replaced several times and these LEDs are not cheap to buy either. My son has a fitting in his room that uses 5 LEDs (candle lamps with SES caps, Osram lamps costing around £4 each and they typically last about 3 months. My hall and landing have 4 light fittings with normal candle lamps in them and those lamps have lasted so far well over 5 years.

Mother-in-Law has LEDs in her kitchen and hallway, 4 fittings that take 3 G9 plastic body 2.8W LEDs each, and it seems that these LEDs are always blowing and at £14 for 4, far from cheap and this year alone I have had to replace about 12 of the LEDs, costing some £42. I have just purchased on her behalf 32 halogen 28W G9 lamps at a total cost of £20, and we are going to try those out. The same number of LEDs would have cost her £104 and I seriously that they would consume anywhere near the equivalent amount of power in a year to run them.

I have had similar bad experiences with Luminus or Noma lights... 

The latest brand I am trying is Philips and I have yet to replace a single of those lights in any style including G9 and E19 among others.  They have surpassed the longevity of those other brands, but given the price have not yet surpassed the economics.
Cry once, but I am already saving time for not having to do replacements.

[nixiefreqq]

now have a working 5232L-4b display board.

this one had a dead "A" neon in the BCD to 0-9 nixie converter box.  it also had an open Q1  (to be honest i may have blown Q1 while investigating the dead neon).  the other 5232L-4b donated a neon and a transistor to this one.  it had some really bad scorch marks on the center of the board and so it was sacrificed so that the other may live.

the schematic for the 5232-6010 (A15,A16) in the old army tech manual was very similiar to the 5232L-4b and so troubleshooting was pretty straightforward.

[VK5RC]

Some of the last halogen lights at home bit the dust 5 minutes ago; as Wife and I was at the home improvement store (Not the architect/design school, dear aardvark!) I managed to remember that I'd actually remembered what LED lamps I needed to replace them, so found some with the right dispersion (36° and not 130° which the first ones we found were...), bought them, and now they're fitted. From 20W per lamp to 2,6W. Some improvement, close to 8 times.  With energy prices driving the most of inflation here right now (1 liter diesel fuel borders on 20SEK or ~2€ and the spot consumer prices for electricity have been up at 6SEK per KWh momentarily; I managed to secure a fixed rate, albeit a month too late... ) saving power is imperative. Now, I need to kill some more power in the machine room, and we should see results.

Mixed results here with LEDs, Garden floodlight, Kitchen and 2 bedrooms and the lab, all converted to LEDs, the rest of the rooms are still low energy compact fluorescents and so far after 7 years only the Garden, Lab and Kitchen still have the original LEDs, the others have been replaced several times and these LEDs are not cheap to buy either. My son has a fitting in his room that uses 5 LEDs (candle lamps with SES caps, Osram lamps costing around £4 each and they typically last about 3 months. My hall and landing have 4 light fittings with normal candle lamps in them and those lamps have lasted so far well over 5 years.

Mother-in-Law has LEDs in her kitchen and hallway, 4 fittings that take 3 G9 plastic body 2.8W LEDs each, and it seems that these LEDs are always blowing and at £14 for 4, far from cheap and this year alone I have had to replace about 12 of the LEDs, costing some £42. I have just purchased on her behalf 32 halogen 28W G9 lamps at a total cost of £20, and we are going to try those out. The same number of LEDs would have cost her £104 and I seriously that they would consume anywhere near the equivalent amount of power in a year to run them.

I have had similar bad experiences with Luminus or Noma lights... 

The latest brand I am trying is Philips and I have yet to replace a single of those lights in any style including G9 and E19 among others.  They have surpassed the longevity of those other brands, but given the price have not yet surpassed the economics.
Cry once, but I am already saving time for not having to do replacements.

About 5yrs ago replaced all the halogen mr16 with Phillips Master led, the old ones with the side vents, replaced about 40! Needed a bank loan! But not had to change one since. 👍😁

[mansaxel]

So I suggest that you carry out the same checks on your frozen turkey, just in case, don't anyone getting food poisoning over Christmas.

"This, dear children, is why we don't eat anything as low-fat and tasteless as turkey, but instead focus on the pig."

 

Edit: Yesterday evening packed nearly 4 kgs of home-made tiny (Ø ~ 18mm in average) meatballs. Took Wife, children and me better part of day before yesterday to grind, chop, mix, season, portion, roll, fry, cook, and then lightly freeze them (a couple science degrees below freezing outside) before bagging and properly deep-freeze them. This will not last long enough, but will help us through to the new year.

[Brumby]

Been looking at getting my spot welder sorted out.  Powering it being the challenge.

I came across a battery booster pack which I bought for about $75, which I thought wasn't bad.  Turned out I rocked up the first day it was being sold and the price was wrong.  Next day it was $100.  OK, that's a win.  Has a built in torch and can be used as a USB power brick.



My interest, however, was in the high current connector between the battery pack and the control module with the clips.  Did some poking around and found the pin geometry matched the XT90 connector, so I bought some.  Tried the male on the control module - and it was firm, silky smooth and PERFECT!!!  It felt soooo good.  I don't think I've ever been so impressed with a plug and socket connector before.  I have every confidence it will handle the current required.



BUT I need to use the female connector to connect to the battery pack - and it has to fit into a receptacle which has some physical constraints....



The yellow connector has to fit into a receptacle that the blue connector does.

Sigh.  Could be worse.

[vk6zgo]

So I suggest that you carry out the same checks on your frozen turkey, just in case, don't anyone getting food poisoning over Christmas.

"This, dear children, is why we don't eat anything as low-fat and tasteless as turkey, but instead focus on the pig."

 

Edit: Yesterday evening packed nearly 4 kgs of home-made tiny (Ø ~ 18mm in average) meatballs. Took Wife, children and me better part of day before yesterday to grind, chop, mix, season, portion, roll, fry, cook, and then lightly freeze them (a couple science degrees below freezing outside) before bagging and properly deep-freeze them. This will not last long enough, but will help us through to the new year.

Reminds me of helping my daughter make Pierogis!

Her Nana Gave Nat the recipe, & I must admit, they taste great, & just like hers, but they are so time consuming to make, i don't know how my dear old Mum-in-law made as many as she did back in the day!

[ch_scr]

New acquisition:

Tektronix T912 Oscilloscope (10MHz 2-channel CRO)
[...]

EDIT EDIT:

"Single sweep" doesn't have anything to do with the number of traces. Single sweep is a trigger mode that captures events and then "freezes" the display until it is reset. Pretty neat trick for 1977. RTFM FTW!

That is because you, my friend, you now own an analog storage scope
One of the neatest tricks (IMHO) an analog scope could do!
Mind, the only other option at the time for "Single shot capture" was a camera bolted to the face...
Regarding that octopus tester, ask Neomys for the schematic of the "HAMEG Komponententester".
I've used their units before to great effect.

[Robert763]

Some of the last halogen lights at home bit the dust 5 minutes ago; as Wife and I was at the home improvement store (Not the architect/design school, dear aardvark!) I managed to remember that I'd actually remembered what LED lamps I needed to replace them, so found some with the right dispersion (36° and not 130° which the first ones we found were...), bought them, and now they're fitted. From 20W per lamp to 2,6W. Some improvement, close to 8 times.  With energy prices driving the most of inflation here right now (1 liter diesel fuel borders on 20SEK or ~2€ and the spot consumer prices for electricity have been up at 6SEK per KWh momentarily; I managed to secure a fixed rate, albeit a month too late... ) saving power is imperative. Now, I need to kill some more power in the machine room, and we should see results.

Mixed results here with LEDs, Garden floodlight, Kitchen and 2 bedrooms and the lab, all converted to LEDs, the rest of the rooms are still low energy compact fluorescents and so far after 7 years only the Garden, Lab and Kitchen still have the original LEDs, the others have been replaced several times and these LEDs are not cheap to buy either. My son has a fitting in his room that uses 5 LEDs (candle lamps with SES caps, Osram lamps costing around £4 each and they typically last about 3 months. My hall and landing have 4 light fittings with normal candle lamps in them and those lamps have lasted so far well over 5 years.

Mother-in-Law has LEDs in her kitchen and hallway, 4 fittings that take 3 G9 plastic body 2.8W LEDs each, and it seems that these LEDs are always blowing and at £14 for 4, far from cheap and this year alone I have had to replace about 12 of the LEDs, costing some £42. I have just purchased on her behalf 32 halogen 28W G9 lamps at a total cost of £20, and we are going to try those out. The same number of LEDs would have cost her £104 and I seriously that they would consume anywhere near the equivalent amount of power in a year to run them.

I have had similar bad experiences with Luminus or Noma lights... 

The latest brand I am trying is Philips and I have yet to replace a single of those lights in any style including G9 and E19 among others.  They have surpassed the longevity of those other brands, but given the price have not yet surpassed the economics.
Cry once, but I am already saving time for not having to do replacements.

The best lasting is the "Dubai" Philips
https://hackaday.com/2021/01/17/leds-from-dubai-the-royal-lights-you-cant-buy/

[dl6lr]

Edit: Yesterday evening packed nearly 4 kgs of home-made tiny (Ø ~ 18mm in average) meatballs. Took Wife, children and me better part of day before yesterday to grind, chop, mix, season, portion, roll, fry, cook, and then lightly freeze them (a couple science degrees below freezing outside) before bagging and properly deep-freeze them. This will not last long enough, but will help us through to the new year.

Aah, små Köttbullar! Already have some appetite but my shopping list does not (yet) include them for the next days. Unfortunately we have some restrictions on our food, so baking småkakor was canceled.
Note to self: Phone aunt in Sweden today, as she may not be at home on Xmas.

[Neper]

"This, dear children, is why we don't eat anything as low-fat and tasteless as turkey, but instead focus on the pig."

Let them keep their dead birds. We've stocked up on venison and wild boar. No antibiotics, no hormones, pure taste. Absolutely delicious.

[med6753]

Woke up this morning to the worst form of Winter travel conditions. Freezing rain. Coats everything in a layer of ice. And yes, vehicles are bashing into each other and stationary objects. This little event seems to have caught road crews off guard. The main weapon for this condition is metal eating salt and sand. But I haven't heard the truck come by yet.

I need to run errands today but I can hold off until it warms up and melts. I don't mind driving in snow but I draw the line in driving on ice.   

[m k]

Let them keep their dead birds. We've stocked up on venison and wild boar. No antibiotics, no hormones, pure taste. Absolutely delicious.

Son went to get his leg part.
There were a market tent and a que number.

He asked from where it's coming.
The guy told he can't remember the lastname but firstname is Pekka, and the place is less than 5 km away.

[med6753]

I swapped out most of my halogen or tungsten bulbs for LEDs a long time ago. It makes a tremendous impact on your energy bill and it will be about the first thing I do when settled in the new house.

oh yes, I need to do the same for my '79 C10



PS: I love my US truck even more than my last car BMW F11 525xd!

Those are good trucks. Before GM went "el cheapo". Will last forever if you take care of it and don't live in the Rust Belt!

After my birth, my parents brought me home in the GMC version of that truck.  Of course, it was an even earlier model year than yours.  It was the base model, with absolutely no accessories.  The only thing innovative on it is the 3-speed automatic transmission.  Total cost including taxes was less than a bi-weekly payment for the modern version...

It gets stored in a garage during winters.  Otherwise, it would no longer exist with all the salt used in the GWN.
My Dad drove it at least once this autumn with a full load!

I'd rock that, but only with 4WD.

[nixiefreqq]

you gotta' love those folks south of the mason dixon.

[Specmaster]

Some of the last halogen lights at home bit the dust 5 minutes ago; as Wife and I was at the home improvement store (Not the architect/design school, dear aardvark!) I managed to remember that I'd actually remembered what LED lamps I needed to replace them, so found some with the right dispersion (36° and not 130° which the first ones we found were...), bought them, and now they're fitted. From 20W per lamp to 2,6W. Some improvement, close to 8 times.  With energy prices driving the most of inflation here right now (1 liter diesel fuel borders on 20SEK or ~2€ and the spot consumer prices for electricity have been up at 6SEK per KWh momentarily; I managed to secure a fixed rate, albeit a month too late... ) saving power is imperative. Now, I need to kill some more power in the machine room, and we should see results.

Mixed results here with LEDs, Garden floodlight, Kitchen and 2 bedrooms and the lab, all converted to LEDs, the rest of the rooms are still low energy compact fluorescents and so far after 7 years only the Garden, Lab and Kitchen still have the original LEDs, the others have been replaced several times and these LEDs are not cheap to buy either. My son has a fitting in his room that uses 5 LEDs (candle lamps with SES caps, Osram lamps costing around £4 each and they typically last about 3 months. My hall and landing have 4 light fittings with normal candle lamps in them and those lamps have lasted so far well over 5 years.

Mother-in-Law has LEDs in her kitchen and hallway, 4 fittings that take 3 G9 plastic body 2.8W LEDs each, and it seems that these LEDs are always blowing and at £14 for 4, far from cheap and this year alone I have had to replace about 12 of the LEDs, costing some £42. I have just purchased on her behalf 32 halogen 28W G9 lamps at a total cost of £20, and we are going to try those out. The same number of LEDs would have cost her £104 and I seriously that they would consume anywhere near the equivalent amount of power in a year to run them.

I have had similar bad experiences with Luminus or Noma lights... 

The latest brand I am trying is Philips and I have yet to replace a single of those lights in any style including G9 and E19 among others.  They have surpassed the longevity of those other brands, but given the price have not yet surpassed the economics.
Cry once, but I am already saving time for not having to do replacements.

The best lasting is the "Dubai" Philips
https://hackaday.com/2021/01/17/leds-from-dubai-the-royal-lights-you-cant-buy/

Yeah, I saw that video before, and it is a shame that all LEDs aren't built that way.

[Specmaster]

Woke up this morning to the worst form of Winter travel conditions. Freezing rain. Coats everything in a layer of ice. And yes, vehicles are bashing into each other and stationary objects. This little event seems to have caught road crews off guard. The main weapon for this condition is metal eating salt and sand. But I haven't heard the truck come by yet.

I need to run errands today but I can hold off until it warms up and melts. I don't mind driving in snow but I draw the line in driving on ice.   

Totally agree with you, with snow, you can see that its there are is a constant reminder to you to drive carefully and respect it, but is normally not visible and that's the dangerous bit, plus of course, unlike snow, does not compact to bring your tire (spelt it nicely for you yanks), tread into play, to provide some extra grip. 

[Cerebus]

What is that R2-unit doing in your garage? 

Look away. These are not the droids you are looking for.

[Cerebus]

Contrast this with the recent conversation with the technician when a new dishwasher failed after 18 months...:  "Not worth repairing, the cost of parts and labor is as high as buying a new unit"

This is what happens when people can't differentiate between "cost", "price" and "value". 

[Specmaster]

"This, dear children, is why we don't eat anything as low-fat and tasteless as turkey, but instead focus on the pig."

Let them keep their dead birds. We've stocked up on venison and wild boar. No antibiotics, no hormones, pure taste. Absolutely delicious.

We also have pig as well, this something we always do, bird on Christmas day along with pigs in blankets and then of Boxing day we have cold bird with pig and if we have some left over, pigs in blankets, really delicous , nom nom. 

[Cerebus]

I have two spiral-cut Smithfield honey-glaze hams in the freezer since the day after we got here. 

It's odd how names get reused as a byword for quality, even when their currency is heavily diluted by time and distance. I'm presuming that Smithfield is a well known US brand. I'm betting that the name "Smithfield Market" is pretty much completely unknown in the US; I'd bet that even in England it's not immediately well known outside London.

For those not in the know, Smithfield Market is London's wholesale meat market and has been on the same spot in the City since people would have just known it as "the shambles". The buildings grew up around the market, not the other way around. Also notable as one of the two places in London (the other being Borough Market) that you've always been able to get lawfully served with a pint of beer in a pub at 6 o'clock in the morning even when licensing hours universally restricted other pubs to 12-2pm and 6-11pm.

[Specmaster]

Well I know about Smithfield market, and I'm not a Londoner, but do admit to spending much of my working life in the London area  and about the drinking, having seen many people rolling about the place at all odd hours of the day.

[nixiefreqq]

I have two spiral-cut Smithfield honey-glaze hams in the freezer since the day after we got here. 

It's odd how names get reused as a byword for quality, even when their currency is heavily diluted by time and distance. I'm presuming that Smithfield is a well known US brand. I'm betting that the name "Smithfield Market" is pretty much completely unknown in the US; I'd bet that even in England it's not immediately well known outside London.

For those not in the know, Smithfield Market is London's wholesale meat market and has been on the same spot in the City since people would have just known it as "the shambles". The buildings grew up around the market, not the other way around. Also notable as one of the two places in London (the other being Borough Market) that you've always been able to get lawfully served with a pint of beer in a pub at 6 o'clock in the morning even when licensing hours universally restricted other pubs to 12-2pm and 6-11pm.

am pretty sure our "Smithfield Foods" is called that because its headquarters is in Smithfield Virginia.

edit   look it up on wikipedia.  it is a horror show.

[Cerebus]

I have two spiral-cut Smithfield honey-glaze hams in the freezer since the day after we got here. 

It's odd how names get reused as a byword for quality, even when their currency is heavily diluted by time and distance. I'm presuming that Smithfield is a well known US brand. I'm betting that the name "Smithfield Market" is pretty much completely unknown in the US; I'd bet that even in England it's not immediately well known outside London.

For those not in the know, Smithfield Market is London's wholesale meat market and has been on the same spot in the City since people would have just known it as "the shambles". The buildings grew up around the market, not the other way around. Also notable as one of the two places in London (the other being Borough Market) that you've always been able to get lawfully served with a pint of beer in a pub at 6 o'clock in the morning even when licensing hours universally restricted other pubs to 12-2pm and 6-11pm.

am pretty sure our "Smithfield Foods" is called that because its headquarters is in Smithfield Virginia.

edit   look it up on wikipedia.  it is a horror show.

There's nothing on the Wikipedia entry for Smithfield, in the county "Isle of Wight", Virginia, to say how the town itself got its name but I wouldn't be surprised if better researches proved that it was named after the Smithfield area of London, just as "Isle of Wight" was named after the Isle of Wight, and Virginia was named after Queen Elizabeth I.

You can say what you like about the English colonists, but you can't accuse them of originality. 

[tggzzz]

Interesting. Turkeys here are just as numerous and fresh as they were for Thanksgiving.

But if you want really fresh you can sit in my bedroom window and shoot your own. 

You need to hang them for a while. The rule of thumb with pheasants was "by the neck; when they hit the floor they are ready". While I think that is a little extreme, it makes a point.

<Toddles off to eat some meat that has been kept in a box under the stairs, and is marked BBE Feb 2021>