Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cubdriver]

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?



 

I dunno about anyone else, but in my head I reached about 28 and stopped.  Sadly the calendar has not...  (And I often miss the passage of the entire decade from 2000-2010 - the 90s do NOT feel like they were thirty years ago, and there's no way in hell that more than two decades have passed since all the Y2k craziness.)

-Pat

[Robert763]

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.

Hey, Vince found a meter for you see Reply #112737

[Cubdriver]

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.

Exactly.  It's frustrating at a glance, but that's entirely true.  There's no way to know how much the other person was willing to pay, the only thing you can be sure of is that it was more than you by whatever the minimum bid increment was.  It might have been $0.50; it might have been $1000.00; it might have been anywhere in between.

-Pat

[BU508A]

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.

Exactly.  It's frustrating at a glance, but that's entirely true.  There's no way to know how much the other person was willing to pay, the only thing you can be sure of is that it was more than you by whatever the minimum bid increment was.  It might have been $0.50; it might have been $1000.00; it might have been anywhere in between.

-Pat

Not necessarily. If the minimum step bid is 1 euro but the other person won with 50 cents more, then that was probably his highest bid. If Neomys had bid 1 euro more, he might have won the auction with 50 cents.

[THDplusN_bad]

Oh dear, I knew it would come to this! 

TI invaders, anyone? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI_Invaders

Have a fine evening, all.

Cheers,

THDpluNs_verybadtoday

[mansaxel]

There are only a few local options for used switches:

Cisco WS-C2960G-TC-L V03 for $75.  Too good to be true; might be a good candidate?
https://www.kijiji.ca/v-computer-networking/ottawa/cisco-2960g-24-port-gigabit-switch-several-available/1599508675

Cisco 3750x 24 ports for $150.  Not much info; worth asking more about it?
https://www.kijiji.ca/v-computer-networking/ottawa/cisco-3750x-24-ports-gigabits-switch/1592307609

These two are the only interesting ones, and I'd 100% chose the 3750, providing it's got gig ports. (there IIRC are some 3750 that have Fast Ethernet, and that ain't fun.  100Mbit might be OK speed, but the 100Base-TX standard is, frankly, pretty bad. If for nothing else, gig ports are good because they actually manage to autonegotiate and set MDI-X if needed. )

The only thing that's missing is Power over Ethernet, and that is something I'd be prepared to downgrade from 3750 or 3650 to 2960 models to get, at least if I have another box to do routing. The 3750 probably can be made to do all the routing you need too; if it's got the right software image. Such things tend to show up on the Internet.

Fan noise, providing you can get a door in front of it and not overheat it, is IMNSHO bearable.

I went from a 3750G with 24 ports and no PoE to a 2960 with 48 gig ports, 10gig uplink, and PoE. That was an OK swap.

[mansaxel]

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.

Add me as fan of step drills. When you need exactly what they can do, they're a godsend. I'm all with you on the potential risks, and have been exposed to consequences through my own sloppyness a couple times. Still, I like my step drill, and will keep using it.

Better for big holes in sheet metal and thin materials are Q.Max punches

Oh, yeah, once you've got them, the punch path is the one to take. I've got a small selection, among which the 22,5mm one is frequently used; makes for very nice installs of signal lamps, buttons, and similar stuff in control panels et c.

[Vince]

Some more sorting. If I do a little bit every day, I will get there.. eventually... I hope...

Have not done anything as I was so sick when I woke up, I thought it was the end for me.
Been recovering progressively today.. this evening I am back in business so I sorted some stuff.

Today was switches day !!   

Yes I know, not terribly exciting...

I had way more tactile switches than I thought ! Hundreds of the little bastard... and you would not believe just how many variations of these, are out there ! 
I tried to rationalize a bit otherwise it would take the entire 50 drawer unit to sort them.
In the end, I spread them over 4 drawers, each split in 3 sections.

Then a drawer dedicated to all the micro-switches, unsorted.

Then another drawer with misc small switches, ie not mains rater by the looks of it.

So 6 drawers worth of little switches ! 


QUESTION : I dug out some old connectors.  x3 male/female plugs. I am wondering whether I should keep the or not ?
I don't know what they are for (I didn't buy them nor salvage them, it was in an old box full of electrical stuff my dad gave me... I sorted that as well)

It looks like some old DIN style plug or something ?  Idea is to throw them away to make space, if they have no reasonable chance of being used before I die...

I am wondering if maybe this style of plug could be used in some old TE ??  Any example that would spring to mind  ??
If not, I get rid of them...

They have two pins. One is round and thin, the other is flat and beefier. See pics below.

[med6753]

Pat, I pulled out S/N B010425 and it is wired identical to yours. I measured the resistance to ground on the low side of R233 and it's 1.82K. The voltage drop across R233 is 110.2V. That should give you what you need to determine if that circuit is drawing too much current.

[Cerebus]

Oh, yeah, once you've got them, the punch path is the one to take. I've got a small selection, among which the 22,5mm one is frequently used; makes for very nice installs of signal lamps, buttons, and similar stuff in control panels et c.

22.5 mm sounds suspiciously like Neutrik XLR territory, if memory serves correctly. Done more than a few of them in my time.

[BU508A]

Damn, bunch of enablers you are!     

Just bought my first step drill ever.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/254480042021



Reason why I've bought it at this seller:
I've bought two drill sets there and I'm very pleased about the quality.
So, besides being a happy customer there are no further affiliations with that seller.

[BU508A]

Oh, yeah, once you've got them, the punch path is the one to take. I've got a small selection, among which the 22,5mm one is frequently used; makes for very nice installs of signal lamps, buttons, and similar stuff in control panels et c.

22.5 mm sounds suspiciously like Neutrik XLR territory, if memory serves correctly. Done more than a few of them in my time.

Don't you know? The second name of Mans is Neutrik. 

[BU508A]

QUESTION : I dug out some old connectors.  x3 male/female plugs. I am wondering whether I should keep the or not ?
I don't know what they are for (I didn't buy them nor salvage them, it was in an old box full of electrical stuff my dad gave me... I sorted that as well)

It looks like some old DIN style plug or something ?  Idea is to throw them away to make space, if they have no reasonable chance of being used before I die...

I am wondering if maybe this style of plug could be used in some old TE ??  Any example that would spring to mind  ??
If not, I get rid of them...

They have two pins. One is round and thin, the other is flat and beefier. See pics below.

Those are plugs for loudspeakers, to be exact "Lautsprecherstecker nach DIN 41529" and they are horrible!
Burn them with fire!

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lautsprecherstecker#Lautsprecherstecker_nach_DIN_41529

[Brumby]

Those are plugs for loudspeakers, to be exact "Lautsprecherstecker nach DIN 41529" and they are horrible!
Burn them with fire!

Yes, exactly.  I knew them as soon as I saw the close-up ... and I 100% agree with the above recommendation.  Even if I was stuck and needed something for a 2W bookshelf speaker I would drive half an hour to get something else.

My first encounter with them was in the 70's - and even being a newbie, I was not impressed ... at all.

[Brumby]

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.

Exactly.  It's frustrating at a glance, but that's entirely true.  There's no way to know how much the other person was willing to pay, the only thing you can be sure of is that it was more than you by whatever the minimum bid increment was.  It might have been $0.50; it might have been $1000.00; it might have been anywhere in between.

-Pat

Not necessarily. If the minimum step bid is 1 euro but the other person won with 50 cents more, then that was probably his highest bid. If Neomys had bid 1 euro more, he might have won the auction with 50 cents.

Precisely this.  We would need to know the bid increment at the level of the final price to know which way the "almost" falls.

[Cerebus]

Those are plugs for loudspeakers, to be exact "Lautsprecherstecker nach DIN 41529" and they are horrible!
Burn them with fire!

Not good enough. Anything short of full conversion to monatomic plasma is insufficient.

[Vince]

QUESTION : I dug out some old connectors.  x3 male/female plugs. I am wondering whether I should keep the or not ?
I don't know what they are for (I didn't buy them nor salvage them, it was in an old box full of electrical stuff my dad gave me... I sorted that as well)

It looks like some old DIN style plug or something ?  Idea is to throw them away to make space, if they have no reasonable chance of being used before I die...

I am wondering if maybe this style of plug could be used in some old TE ??  Any example that would spring to mind  ??
If not, I get rid of them...

They have two pins. One is round and thin, the other is flat and beefier. See pics below.

Those are plugs for loudspeakers, to be exact "Lautsprecherstecker nach DIN 41529" and they are horrible!
Burn them with fire!

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lautsprecherstecker#Lautsprecherstecker_nach_DIN_41529

Thanks ! 

OK will put them in the trash and make some space, cool !

[Brumby]

Those are plugs for loudspeakers, to be exact "Lautsprecherstecker nach DIN 41529" and they are horrible!
Burn them with fire!

Not good enough. Anything short of full conversion to monatomic plasma is insufficient.

Perhaps a bit extreme ... but quite understandable and I support your freedom to do so.  (Please post pics if you do  )

[Zucca]

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!

Gixen my friend!

[Zucca]

Damn, bunch of enablers you are!     

Just bought my first step drill ever.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/254480042021

Oh yeas!!!! Everybody should have a step drill, night and day difference!

[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.

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.

https://games.aarp.org/games/atari-asteroids


https://www.myabandonware.com/game/battlezone-1np/play-1np

[mansaxel]

QUESTION : I dug out some old connectors.  x3 male/female plugs. I am wondering whether I should keep the or not ?
I don't know what they are for (I didn't buy them nor salvage them, it was in an old box full of electrical stuff my dad gave me... I sorted that as well)

It looks like some old DIN style plug or something ?  Idea is to throw them away to make space, if they have no reasonable chance of being used before I die...

Speaker connector according to DIN 41529. Mostly useful if you've got an older European hifi amp which does not use the barbaric binding post :-)  I have a bunch, because my Quad 303 power amp uses them. (It later came with banana jacks, but my model is an early one.)

It is "not recommended for new construction"

Some amps had a feature where there was two round holes and one flat o|o, and you could select if inserting headphones would break off speakers or not by turning the plug over 180°.

[mansaxel]

Oh, yeah, once you've got them, the punch path is the one to take. I've got a small selection, among which the 22,5mm one is frequently used; makes for very nice installs of signal lamps, buttons, and similar stuff in control panels et c.

22.5 mm sounds suspiciously like Neutrik XLR territory, if memory serves correctly. Done more than a few of them in my time.

No, the male old school XLR (the narrow one) is 19mm or 3/4"; the female is 24mm. The "new" series unisex D-type hole (new as in 30 years old, not 50+!) is also 24mm.  All have 2 off 3mm mounting holes; the D-type and the "old female" differ in where the mounting holes are placed. (There also was a Switchcraft variant with a bigger flange, and another with 1-hole mount and threaded body, dunno if they make them any more. Probably, though. Switchcraft are "keepers of the faith", not product evolvers...)

Edit: the 22,5mm standard is for actuators in control cabinets and similar. Specmaster territory :-)

Edit: Of course the placement of holes for the 19mm male also differs ;-)

[Robert763]

Damn, bunch of enablers you are!     

Just bought my first step drill ever.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/254480042021



Reason why I've bought it at this seller:
I've bought two drill sets there and I'm very pleased about the quality.
So, besides being a happy customer there are no further affiliations with that seller.

Generally I'd go for a straght flute step drill. They don't get drawn into the workpiece the way spiral flute does. They are also easier to sharpen. As they re basically a thin material, through hole cutter they don't need a spiral to clear swarf.

[Peter_O]

QUESTION : I dug out some old connectors.  x3 male/female plugs. I am wondering whether I should keep the or not ?
I don't know what they are for (I didn't buy them nor salvage them, it was in an old box full of electrical stuff my dad gave me... I sorted that as well)

It looks like some old DIN style plug or something ?  Idea is to throw them away to make space, if they have no reasonable chance of being used before I die...

I am wondering if maybe this style of plug could be used in some old TE ??  Any example that would spring to mind  ??
If not, I get rid of them...

They have two pins. One is round and thin, the other is flat and beefier. See pics below.

Those are plugs for loudspeakers, to be exact "Lautsprecherstecker nach DIN 41529" and they are horrible!
Burn them with fire!

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lautsprecherstecker#Lautsprecherstecker_nach_DIN_41529

Thanks ! 

OK will put them in the trash and make some space, cool !

There is some cool vintage BRAUN receiver and amplifier stuff with timeless iconic design.
(Some people say, that Apple was inspired by design principles of BRAUN. Just put "Apple Braun" into a search engine and have a look at the pictures coming up.)
The Braun electronics of those days do use these DIN loudspeaker connections. Might be a reason to keep them and start collecting Braun stuff.   
https://www.ebay.de/itm/144246668688