Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Saskia]

I think it's working because it goes through what appears to be the normal boot sequence when turned on - lamp test on initial power up, assorted drive noises and relay clicks, then into what looks to be the last state it was left in - channel 1 active, trigger ready, and is responsive if I select the other channels - the indicator lights change as I'd expect.  You just prompted me to move it a bit and look - it does in fact have a VGA output on the back.  I'll excavate it later and dig out my old LCD monitor and plug it in to check things out.  In the back of my head I suspected it might have a monitor output on it, but hadn't been inclined to check because of how it's stacked.  Thanks for the nudge to do so, Tony.

Pull the case off and boot the scope and take a look at the 7-seg display on the top board. Under normal operation it should have two segments alternately flashing.
If it stops on a number, let us know what it is and we can narrow down what might be wrong.
I know from experience a hang on number 8 means your NVRAM is toast due to low battery or other corruption, for example.

Houston, it appears we have a display problem.


Took a half hour to find a damned VGA cable.  Of course I had shitcanned a pair of them two weeks ago because I was tired of tripping over the damned things.   Looks like I'll need to dig into the display.

-Pat

swap out the tube, put in a small vga capable LCD and reroute the VGA signal to aforementioned LCD ?
Just an idea ... probably not perfect, but would keep it running

[Robert763]

I think it's working because it goes through what appears to be the normal boot sequence when turned on - lamp test on initial power up, assorted drive noises and relay clicks, then into what looks to be the last state it was left in - channel 1 active, trigger ready, and is responsive if I select the other channels - the indicator lights change as I'd expect.  You just prompted me to move it a bit and look - it does in fact have a VGA output on the back.  I'll excavate it later and dig out my old LCD monitor and plug it in to check things out.  In the back of my head I suspected it might have a monitor output on it, but hadn't been inclined to check because of how it's stacked.  Thanks for the nudge to do so, Tony.

Pull the case off and boot the scope and take a look at the 7-seg display on the top board. Under normal operation it should have two segments alternately flashing.
If it stops on a number, let us know what it is and we can narrow down what might be wrong.
I know from experience a hang on number 8 means your NVRAM is toast due to low battery or other corruption, for example.

Houston, it appears we have a display problem.


Took a half hour to find a damned VGA cable.  Of course I had shitcanned a pair of them two weeks ago because I was tired of tripping over the damned things.   Looks like I'll need to dig into the display.

-Pat

If all else fails you can get bare LCDs with interface cards inteded for use in cars (DVD's, reversing cameras) that accept VGA on ebay. Only issue is the choice of 4:3 ones is getting smaller.

Edit Saskia was quicker, just.

[mansaxel]

They shut the idea down and wouldn't do it because Mr. Youth Softball Coach has rights under Canada's Privacy Act.  I walked out of the police station completely stunned when I heard that.  He has a right to privacy.  I still have trouble comprehending that.

It is quite common to be baffled about this, but think of it at an angle:

If criminals are forever marked as such, how are we ever going to get rid of crime?  If society tells the convicted person that it's never going to forget, there is zero incentive to improve. Some criminals make honest mistakes putting them on the wrong side of the law and if they're then stamped as such, the threshold to keep doing things the easy way just all but disappeared.  This is the general problem with using increasing oppression and things like three strikes out policy; there are no incentives for people on the line to stay clean. 

If we, OTOH, treat them as people, they have a reasons to behave like people, but:
I'm often reminded about a quote from one of the most experienced computer-crime police officers over here; "Luckily for society, the average criminal is pretty stupid".   One can't always expect law-breakers to act rationally; if they did they would stay out of trouble. The incentives must be tailored to this.

Naturally this comes to an extreme in the case of the child abuser; since they commit horrible crimes, and additionally very often are repeat offenders, there might seem to be argument for a "throw away the key" policy.  Also, no-one wants to be found endorsing them. This means that they in addition to being people we need to keep an eye on, they are the perfect tool for people who want to take our rights away.  "Think of the children!" et c. is a trigger phrase for me, as a result.

In the end, it might be a reasonable compromise that the police have an eye on the offender and we can be content with that.  Even if it seems illogical at first.

Over here, you, if you're working with children, must ask the police for a selected register printout and show it to your employer at regular intervals.  I'm not very impressed by it, but it's at least better than lynch mobs.

[m k]

I think it's working because it goes through what appears to be the normal boot sequence when turned on - lamp test on initial power up, assorted drive noises and relay clicks, then into what looks to be the last state it was left in - channel 1 active, trigger ready, and is responsive if I select the other channels - the indicator lights change as I'd expect.  You just prompted me to move it a bit and look - it does in fact have a VGA output on the back.  I'll excavate it later and dig out my old LCD monitor and plug it in to check things out.  In the back of my head I suspected it might have a monitor output on it, but hadn't been inclined to check because of how it's stacked.  Thanks for the nudge to do so, Tony.

Pull the case off and boot the scope and take a look at the 7-seg display on the top board. Under normal operation it should have two segments alternately flashing.
If it stops on a number, let us know what it is and we can narrow down what might be wrong.
I know from experience a hang on number 8 means your NVRAM is toast due to low battery or other corruption, for example.

Houston, it appears we have a display problem.


Took a half hour to find a damned VGA cable.  Of course I had shitcanned a pair of them two weeks ago because I was tired of tripping over the damned things.   Looks like I'll need to dig into the display.

-Pat

If all else fails you can get bare LCDs with interface cards inteded for use in cars (DVD's, reversing cameras) that accept VGA on ebay. Only issue is the choice of 4:3 ones is getting smaller.

Edit Saskia was quicker, just.

Sigmatek has all kinds of old panels.

[med6753]

They shut the idea down and wouldn't do it because Mr. Youth Softball Coach has rights under Canada's Privacy Act.  I walked out of the police station completely stunned when I heard that.  He has a right to privacy.  I still have trouble comprehending that.

It is quite common to be baffled about this, but think of it at an angle:

If criminals are forever marked as such, how are we ever going to get rid of crime?  If society tells the convicted person that it's never going to forget, there is zero incentive to improve. Some criminals make honest mistakes putting them on the wrong side of the law and if they're then stamped as such, the threshold to keep doing things the easy way just all but disappeared.  This is the general problem with using increasing oppression and things like three strikes out policy; there are no incentives for people on the line to stay clean. 

If we, OTOH, treat them as people, they have a reasons to behave like people, but:
I'm often reminded about a quote from one of the most experienced computer-crime police officers over here; "Luckily for society, the average criminal is pretty stupid".   One can't always expect law-breakers to act rationally; if they did they would stay out of trouble. The incentives must be tailored to this.

Naturally this comes to an extreme in the case of the child abuser; since they commit horrible crimes, and additionally very often are repeat offenders, there might seem to be argument for a "throw away the key" policy.  Also, no-one wants to be found endorsing them. This means that they in addition to being people we need to keep an eye on, they are the perfect tool for people who want to take our rights away.  "Think of the children!" et c. is a trigger phrase for me, as a result.

In the end, it might be a reasonable compromise that the police have an eye on the offender and we can be content with that.  Even if it seems illogical at first.

Over here, you, if you're working with children, must ask the police for a selected register printout and show it to your employer at regular intervals.  I'm not very impressed by it, but it's at least better than lynch mobs.

No privacy for level 2 and 3 sex offenders here. They are on a public registry and if you know their surname you can check if they are living near you.  https://www.ny.gov/services/search-sex-offender-registry

Edit....a few months ago the local police came by dropping off flyers warning everyone within a mile or so that an offender was moving into a nearby residence.   

[Cerebus]

Stepdrills are much better than standard twist drills for diecast boxes and thin sheet materials. 12.7mm is of course 1/2 inch.....

And bugger all use for anything else. I'm deeply suspicious of step drills, all that rotating mass, all that stick-out, having to have lots of free space the other side of the workpiece for all the smaller steps waiting to foul on your vice or another part of the workpiece. I generally use stub drills whenever I can and I'm much happier seeing perhaps 50mm of bit sticking out of the collet rather than 6 inches of heavy rotating tool. Also I've no idea how you would sharpen a step drill. I think the thing that convinces me more than anything else is that I've never seen one in any proper machinists workshop or the catalogues of suppliers like Dormer who sell drills to proper machinists. That I've never seen a set for more than £15 for three does little to convince me of their quality. Whether it's fair or not, step drills have always smacked of amateur hour to me.

Anyway, any hole you want from 0.3mm to 8mm in 0.1 mm steps I've got covered. Well, I've got covered with twist drills; I can't pretend to have even a fraction of the reamers required to call those accurate holes. It's just when you get any bigger than 8.0mm (in metal) that I have to reach for odd sizes bought for particular jobs that required them.

Better for big holes in sheet metal and thin materials are Q.Max punches (other brands are available, as they say on the BBC), of which I've had a selection over the years. They will work on die cast boxes but frankly it's a bit toward the top end of their capabilities (official capacity 2mm of aluminium) but that hasn't stopped me over the years - a little bit of lube can cover a multitude of sins. Where they really excel is non-round holes. Q.Max used to make punches for D connectors but they seem to have been discontinued. Ditto those awkward holes with a non-rotation flat on one side (which is what I could really have done with for the 12.7mm hole). They also have the advantage that if one is less than precise at getting one's holes in the right place one can make the pilot hole a fraction oversize and align the die precisely while initially tightening it; this can work the other way, because the pilot hole needs clearance one has to be careful not to wander off centre when fitting up the punch.

[Cerebus]

On the matter of the Keithley 2400:
German Justice is cheap - for the foreign perps.
They closed the enquiry because THEY JUST DO NOT KNOW WHERE THE ASSHOLE WHICH RIPPED ME OFF is currently located. I will ask for the complete file now via my attorney. We are talking about somewhere in south-eastern Europe.
Then I will have at least nationality, date and place of birth. Then any entertaining rogues from the region are cordially invited to apply.
If I can't have my Sourcemeter, I'll have at least a large photoprint of an asshole in intensive care!

in a similar case ( not rip off, but severe bodily harm) the da told me that they did not investigate thebperp because his personality rights were to be rated higher than my rights as a victim.

German justice ? forget it.

Stories like this make me seethe.

I'm really sorry you went through that and then had your rights traded away by the law enforcement people that should have been protecting you.  Canadian justice is much the same in that you're on your own but criminals have rights.  I remember you wrote about being in Burlington and getting nowhere with the police after your car was broken into so I guess you've had your own encounter with the Canadian version of it.  The first time I ran into it was 9 years ago when I was looking at houses and I wanted to be certain, absolutely certain, that I was not about to buy a place near this rotten former youth softball coach who might have still had some ties to the area I was looking in.  Canada has a sex offender registry and he has to keep his address up to date on it so my first thought was to check there, and that's when I found out that only law enforcement has access to it.  The next thought I had was to ask a cop and that's when the idea came to mind to go ask the person at the desk at the local police station, so I worked up the courage to do it, went over, explained the situation and the background on it, said I don't need or want an address, just tell me if he's nowhere nearby and I should be fine to put an offer in on the house I wanted or if I should drop the idea and start looking somewhere else.  They shut the idea down and wouldn't do it because Mr. Youth Softball Coach has rights under Canada's Privacy Act.  I walked out of the police station completely stunned when I heard that.  He has a right to privacy.  I still have trouble comprehending that.

Canadian justice isn't any better.

What Mr. Youth Softball Coach has is a right to not to be beaten senseless three times a year for something he has already been punished by the law for, by a bunch of thugs who can't tell the difference between paedophile and paediatrician. The existence of people who think it's OK for them to mete out their own brand of summary justice is what has created the need to protect the privacy of individuals who have arguably otherwise forfeited their right to anonymity.

[BU508A]

Please, can we leave such discussions for Discord on Saturday evening?

Thanks.

[Saskia]

working on my relaxation room ...

[Robert763]

Stepdrills are much better than standard twist drills for diecast boxes and thin sheet materials. 12.7mm is of course 1/2 inch.....

And bugger all use for anything else. I'm deeply suspicious of step drills, all that rotating mass, all that stick-out, having to have lots of free space the other side of the workpiece for all the smaller steps waiting to foul on your vice or another part of the workpiece. I generally use stub drills whenever I can and I'm much happier seeing perhaps 50mm of bit sticking out of the collet rather than 6 inches of heavy rotating tool. Also I've no idea how you would sharpen a step drill. I think the thing that convinces me more than anything else is that I've never seen one in any proper machinists workshop or the catalogues of suppliers like Dormer who sell drills to proper machinists. That I've never seen a set for more than £15 for three does little to convince me of their quality. Whether it's fair or not, step drills have always smacked of amateur hour to me.

Anyway, any hole you want from 0.3mm to 8mm in 0.1 mm steps I've got covered. Well, I've got covered with twist drills; I can't pretend to have even a fraction of the reamers required to call those accurate holes. It's just when you get any bigger than 8.0mm (in metal) that I have to reach for odd sizes bought for particular jobs that required them.

Better for big holes in sheet metal and thin materials are Q.Max punches (other brands are available, as they say on the BBC), of which I've had a selection over the years. They will work on die cast boxes but frankly it's a bit toward the top end of their capabilities (official capacity 2mm of aluminium) but that hasn't stopped me over the years - a little bit of lube can cover a multitude of sins. Where they really excel is non-round holes. Q.Max used to make punches for D connectors but they seem to have been discontinued. Ditto those awkward holes with a non-rotation flat on one side (which is what I could really have done with for the 12.7mm hole). They also have the advantage that if one is less than precise at getting one's holes in the right place one can make the pilot hole a fraction oversize and align the die precisely while initially tightening it; this can work the other way, because the pilot hole needs clearance one has to be careful not to wander off centre when fitting up the punch.

Dormer sell step drills, "reassuring expensive" at "£114
https://www.cromwell.co.uk/shop/cutting-tools/sheet-and-tube-drills/series-g314-hss-conical-drill-step-drill-metric-2mm-increments-/f/68205

Problem with most twist drills is they are not ground for thin materials and tend to grab.
"proper" machine shops have wnough work to sock all sizes and grinds of drill and / or equipment and skills to re-grind for a particular application.

Step drills just need a couple of rubs with a flat diamond file on the flat face to sharpen them.

[m k]

I think it's working because it goes through what appears to be the normal boot sequence when turned on - lamp test on initial power up, assorted drive noises and relay clicks, then into what looks to be the last state it was left in - channel 1 active, trigger ready, and is responsive if I select the other channels - the indicator lights change as I'd expect.  You just prompted me to move it a bit and look - it does in fact have a VGA output on the back.  I'll excavate it later and dig out my old LCD monitor and plug it in to check things out.  In the back of my head I suspected it might have a monitor output on it, but hadn't been inclined to check because of how it's stacked.  Thanks for the nudge to do so, Tony.

Pull the case off and boot the scope and take a look at the 7-seg display on the top board. Under normal operation it should have two segments alternately flashing.
If it stops on a number, let us know what it is and we can narrow down what might be wrong.
I know from experience a hang on number 8 means your NVRAM is toast due to low battery or other corruption, for example.

Houston, it appears we have a display problem.


Took a half hour to find a damned VGA cable.  Of course I had shitcanned a pair of them two weeks ago because I was tired of tripping over the damned things.   Looks like I'll need to dig into the display.

-Pat

If all else fails you can get bare LCDs with interface cards inteded for use in cars (DVD's, reversing cameras) that accept VGA on ebay. Only issue is the choice of 4:3 ones is getting smaller.

Edit Saskia was quicker, just.

Sigmatek has all kinds of old panels.

My ebuy didn't support that argument.
With those cheap LCD controller boards you can add some panel selection width.

If the panel needs a new backlight be careful when getting it.

I got one from RS Components and they have some measurement issues, like thicknesses less than 2 mm are all 1 mm and so on.
The original I had included wires but RS had only plane tubes, and so the new one was few mm too long.

[TERRA Operative]

The TDS500/600/700 scopes use a CRT with LCD shutter, they don't use a backlight.

[Zucca]

working on my relaxation room ...

I played Asteroids until I was wasted when I was a little one.
If I become stupid and/or rich, I want one in my basement.

[Robert763]

working on my relaxation room ...

I played Asteroids until I was wasted when I was a little one.
If I become stupid and/or rich, I want one in my basement.

I must have said this before, but my first job ws repairing arcade machines. Early video and electronic pintables. Started part time wile still in school in '76 and full time in '78.
Repairing Asteriod boards were fun to fix because you can play the game on a 'scope in X-Y mode.
Some of the rarly videogames used separate PROMs for the "sprites". His meant you could swap them around and have racing cars on the ocean  (submarine commander) and ships on a race track...

 

[AVGresponding]

Stepdrills are much better than standard twist drills for diecast boxes and thin sheet materials. 12.7mm is of course 1/2 inch.....

And bugger all use for anything else. I'm deeply suspicious of step drills, all that rotating mass, all that stick-out, having to have lots of free space the other side of the workpiece for all the smaller steps waiting to foul on your vice or another part of the workpiece. I generally use stub drills whenever I can and I'm much happier seeing perhaps 50mm of bit sticking out of the collet rather than 6 inches of heavy rotating tool. Also I've no idea how you would sharpen a step drill. I think the thing that convinces me more than anything else is that I've never seen one in any proper machinists workshop or the catalogues of suppliers like Dormer who sell drills to proper machinists. That I've never seen a set for more than £15 for three does little to convince me of their quality. Whether it's fair or not, step drills have always smacked of amateur hour to me.

Anyway, any hole you want from 0.3mm to 8mm in 0.1 mm steps I've got covered. Well, I've got covered with twist drills; I can't pretend to have even a fraction of the reamers required to call those accurate holes. It's just when you get any bigger than 8.0mm (in metal) that I have to reach for odd sizes bought for particular jobs that required them.

Better for big holes in sheet metal and thin materials are Q.Max punches (other brands are available, as they say on the BBC), of which I've had a selection over the years. They will work on die cast boxes but frankly it's a bit toward the top end of their capabilities (official capacity 2mm of aluminium) but that hasn't stopped me over the years - a little bit of lube can cover a multitude of sins. Where they really excel is non-round holes. Q.Max used to make punches for D connectors but they seem to have been discontinued. Ditto those awkward holes with a non-rotation flat on one side (which is what I could really have done with for the 12.7mm hole). They also have the advantage that if one is less than precise at getting one's holes in the right place one can make the pilot hole a fraction oversize and align the die precisely while initially tightening it; this can work the other way, because the pilot hole needs clearance one has to be careful not to wander off centre when fitting up the punch.

The increased mass is often a benefit as it'll help prevent grabbing, as the bit will better resist slowing down and digging in.

The protrusion can be a problem though. As ever, skilled use produces good results; ham-fisted use results in more material for the fuck-it bucket.

I have gotten fed up of telling people about choosing the correct drill speed for the bit/workpiece, sometimes have to remind myself that new apprentices aren't necessarily likely to know.
Did have a pleasant surprise the other day though. Checked a BS1363 13A plug-top I'd told an apprentice to make off, it was as well done as one of mine. When I asked who showed him how to do it so well, he said no-one, it just seemed the right way to do it. I've high hopes for this one...

[AVGresponding]

you got some serious signal gen kit with that HP8614A

Thanks! I expect it'll be a good deal more reliable than that ebay piece of tat I'm currently trying to get a refund on.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Reminder to self, buy some proper engineering blue.



I'm just beating a hammond box into shape to make all the holes to fit the assorted bits that have to go on it (mains filter, voltage selector, switch, fuse holders, and some 4mm sockets) and I discover that not only do I not have a 12mm drill bit that the 4mm sockets need, but I also don't have the 12.7mm drill bit that the fuse holders need. Bah!

I could swear I found both when I tidied up all the tooling last year and finally put it all in a nice big tool chest. Ha! Oh well, as everything is now actually organised I know I must have been dreaming but it's still a pain to have had to order them and maybe get them by Friday if I'm lucky.

Stepdrills are much better than standard twist drills for diecast boxes and thin sheet materials. 12.7mm is of course 1/2 inch.....

The difference from 12mm or 12.5mm should be also achievable by judicious application (from alternating sides) of a conical reamer or conical sheetmetal drill (Blechschälbohrer)
 

[Neomys Sapiens]

working on my relaxation room ...

I played Asteroids until I was wasted when I was a little one.
If I become stupid and/or rich, I want one in my basement.

If there ever was a game that got me hooked (in my early youth or childhood), it was the tank game with the green vector graphics.

[Neomys Sapiens]

working on my relaxation room ...

I played Asteroids until I was wasted when I was a little one.
If I become stupid and/or rich, I want one in my basement.

I must have said this before, but my first job ws repairing arcade machines. Early video and electronic pintables. Started part time wile still in school in '76 and full time in '78.
Repairing Asteriod boards were fun to fix because you can play the game on a 'scope in X-Y mode.
Some of the rarly videogames used separate PROMs for the "sprites". His meant you could swap them around and have racing cars on the ocean  (submarine commander) and ships on a race track...

 

This reminds me of a wall calendar which EADS did once give away. The products, ranging from the Eurofighter´, various helos, ships, ground systems and space vehicles, were separate cutouts from the landscape/background  pictures in the calendar sheets. So you could have a frigate in a cornfield, a NH90 whirling through space, or a satellite sitting seemingly unmoved in the ocean. Of course the originally intended audience might have done otherwise, but the insider usage did show almost a competition for the most absurd combinations. Maybe that was the reason why it was not continued. 

[AVGresponding]

working on my relaxation room ...

I played Asteroids until I was wasted when I was a little one.
If I become stupid and/or rich, I want one in my basement.

If there ever was a game that got me hooked (in my early youth or childhood), it was the tank game with the green vector graphics.

Battlezone. That and Asteroids got me hooked too!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlezone_(1980_video_game)

[Neomys Sapiens]

Sometimes I want to kick my own behind. I entered a bid today at the early morning and went to sleep. Due to a unforeseen call from work I was even awake around nine, before I did crash again for 2 more hours. But my sluggish brrain was not aware to the fact that shortly after nine the auction for a Pulse Instruments programmable Pulse driver for the TM500 system was due. So I lost that bid by 50 cent. Aaargh!

[m k]

The TDS500/600/700 scopes use a CRT with LCD shutter, they don't use a backlight.

I meant for possible correctly shaped but old and dim replacement LCD.

One block diagram is showing a video signal but w/o sync, so not composite video ready but not far either.

BTW,
I had to ditch my rotating tower of those drawer cases.
It's quite practical if you have the space, otherwise not so much.
Having a side of the other case facing you is also good for notes.
Though nothing seems to be enough for multi person low amount alarm system.

[Neomys Sapiens]

working on my relaxation room ...

I played Asteroids until I was wasted when I was a little one.
If I become stupid and/or rich, I want one in my basement.

If there ever was a game that got me hooked (in my early youth or childhood), it was the tank game with the green vector graphics.

Battlezone. That and Asteroids got me hooked too!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlezone_(1980_video_game)

The description matches, but I would have placed it several years earlier. Strange.

[BU508A]

working on my relaxation room ...

I played Asteroids until I was wasted when I was a little one.
If I become stupid and/or rich, I want one in my basement.

If there ever was a game that got me hooked (in my early youth or childhood), it was the tank game with the green vector graphics.

Battlezone. That and Asteroids got me hooked too!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlezone_(1980_video_game)

The description matches, but I would have placed it several years earlier. Strange.

Maybe you just feel a few years older than you really are?



 

[Neper]

So I lost that bid by 50 cent. Aaargh!

You only know that it took 50 cents more to outbid you after your bid maxed out. The other person's maximum bid could have been way higher.