Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[AVGresponding]

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

Quite agree, it seemed to me that the school years just seemed to drag along so slowly as if time had been suspended, but since leaving school and entering the work place, time has been passing too quickly that I keep looking for the brakes, but there aren't any 

My theory on that is that there are several things at play.

The first is simply that as we get older, each passing year equates to a smaller percentage of the time we've been here - at the age of ten, a year is a tenth of our life; at 25 it's 0.04; by 35 it has dropped to 0.029 - each less than the last.

The other, and more prominent thing IMO is that when we're school aged, there are bigger milestones in life - using the US for example as it's what I'm familiar with, there is the start of school in September, at which point as a kid you begin looking forward to Halloween in October, then on to Thanksgiving in November, then Christmas/New Years break in December.  There (at least were) a few days off some time in Februaryish for a 'winter break', then comes Easter and finally the end of the school year in June, followed by summer vacation.  A series of very distinct milestones that are big deals as a kid and at the time, seem to take forever to come, and clearly mark the passage of time.  Now as an adult, I get up and go to work.  The year starts cold and snowy with short days and long nights and occasionally snow to shovel.  I get up and go to work.  The days begin to grow longer, the nights shorter and the snow melts.  Wow, Easter already...  I get up and go to work.  The shift in night/dark continues and it gets warm then hot out.  I get up and go to work, then cut grass and do yard work.  Then the daylight shift goes the other way and it gets cooler and I clean up leaves.  I get up and go to work.  Holy crap, how is it Thanksgiving next week?  I could have sworn it was Easter a month ago, and Halloween slipped past without me noticing!  I get up and go to work.  Wow, Christmas already?  Thanksgiving seemed like last friggin' week, FFS!!  And now it's time to remember to write a new date on things.  Where did the past year go?  It all merges into a big blur that moves ever faster, like rolling down a long hill.  Not saying it can't be a fun ride, just that it keeps getting faster.

-Pat

There is quite a bit of research on this, the last I remember reading was it's related to the way we form memories, and how new vs repeated experiences are laid down. Basically if you do the same thing a lot, ie get a job and commute to work, shuffle papers all day, time passes much faster than if you're doing something that's new to you, interestingly in retrospect rather than real time, which seems to slow down when you get bored doing repetitive tasks.
I'm not going to try and find the article, it was in the New Scientist, probably at least 15 years ago. There'll be much more recent research to read than that.

[BU508A]

+++ Memory flash from the 90's +++

Creature Comforts

A dishwasher has been involved, too.



 

[SoundTech-LG]

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...


Even pricy Bang & Olufsen used those chintzy connectors...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234390846318?hash=item3692c87b6e:g:CsMAAOSw0Wdh7mkk



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.

I'm pretty sure I have some sockets to fit those speaker plugs if you want to use them (Tip: You DON'T want to use them!).

McBryce.

Oh no thanks ! 

as I said yesterday I have already thrown them away. I am not into vintage audio at all, so there is no point keeping them around taking valuable space...

[Cubdriver]

There is quite a bit of research on this, the last I remember reading was it's related to the way we form memories, and how new vs repeated experiences are laid down. Basically if you do the same thing a lot, ie get a job and commute to work, shuffle papers all day, time passes much faster than if you're doing something that's new to you, interestingly in retrospect rather than real time, which seems to slow down when you get bored doing repetitive tasks.
I'm not going to try and find the article, it was in the New Scientist, probably at least 15 years ago. There'll be much more recent research to read than that.

That does make perfect sense, given that with the insanity of the past two years on a day to day basis time has slogged, but overall it does not seem possible that two years have gone by already.

-Pat

[AVGresponding]

Oooooohhh, this one is naaasstaayyy 

Definitely gonna see some dishwasher action when the wife isn't around.. 

I know it's been standard practice forever to hose down Tek's with DI water and detergent but I just can't bring myself to do it. The covers, yes. But not the internals. And I don't have the proper drying oven. I hand clean as best as I can but there will always be some vintage dirt in it.

I haven't been able to bring myself to do it, either, though I routinely use solder with water soluble flux when I build boards here, then wash them with hot water in the sink and blow them dry in the garage.  Never use that solder on wire, though, and for sure wash the boards within a few days of finishing them - the flux residue MUST be cleaned off because it's hygroscopic and corrosive if left in place - discovered that the hard way at my last job when someone made a bunch of boards but didn't clean them, then they sat in stock for a few months and corroded.

One of the guys on the antique radio forum advocates using a pressure washer on really dirty old chassis, says he does it routinely in the summer, then lets them cook dry in the sun for a few days.  He suggested it to me as something to try on an old HP 330B Distortions Analyzer that will otherwise be scrap as it had a large mouse condo in it and is rather skeevy and corroded inside.  I never got to it this past summer, but may this year.  At this point I've nothing to lose as far as it goes on this piece.







-Pat

I think I'd just admit defeat on that one and donate it to the zoo as enrichment for the rodent exhibit...

[Peter_O]

Just put "Apple Braun" into a search engine

🤔







🤮

When I run a search with that selector, I got this:



Might be a filter bubble issue?! 

[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.

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

Brings back old memories working at Atari on Pong PCBAs etc. troubleshooting 7400 series logic...
1973-75 along with Jobs on nightshift.

Original Pong was mostly strings of SN7474 flipflops. Before we got a 'scope we used a 6 digit digital counter (the Heathkit / Yaesu style type) for fault finding  just checking the frequency on the output was half the input. 
 few yers later they had a clearout and I rescued a stack of original PCBs. I wish I'd kept them. Worth some money now.

[AVGresponding]

Might be a filter bubble issue?! 

Not in the least; I searched for images of brown apples, and that's what I got...   

[Cubdriver]

Oooooohhh, this one is naaasstaayyy 

Definitely gonna see some dishwasher action when the wife isn't around.. 

I know it's been standard practice forever to hose down Tek's with DI water and detergent but I just can't bring myself to do it. The covers, yes. But not the internals. And I don't have the proper drying oven. I hand clean as best as I can but there will always be some vintage dirt in it.

I haven't been able to bring myself to do it, either, though I routinely use solder with water soluble flux when I build boards here, then wash them with hot water in the sink and blow them dry in the garage.  Never use that solder on wire, though, and for sure wash the boards within a few days of finishing them - the flux residue MUST be cleaned off because it's hygroscopic and corrosive if left in place - discovered that the hard way at my last job when someone made a bunch of boards but didn't clean them, then they sat in stock for a few months and corroded.

One of the guys on the antique radio forum advocates using a pressure washer on really dirty old chassis, says he does it routinely in the summer, then lets them cook dry in the sun for a few days.  He suggested it to me as something to try on an old HP 330B Distortions Analyzer that will otherwise be scrap as it had a large mouse condo in it and is rather skeevy and corroded inside.  I never got to it this past summer, but may this year.  At this point I've nothing to lose as far as it goes on this piece.







-Pat

I think I'd just admit defeat on that one and donate it to the zoo as enrichment for the rodent exhibit...

I figure it's a good guinea pig to try extreme cleaning techniques on, seeing as it's so far gone at this point there's really nothing to lose, and it is a cool old piece of gear if I can fix it - it's pre-1960 based on the serial number.

-Pat

[Neomys Sapiens]

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°.

Aaah - thanks!

[SoundTech-LG]

Still have a few Pong, and maybe a World Cup board. I don't think they are worth that much...  are they???

[SoundTech-LG]

Oh...  maybe I'm wrong I see clones for $295

https://www.ebay.com/itm/383668185425?hash=item595467e951:g:XfYAAOSwETZfLZrI

Mine are original. None showing there though.

Seems like last time i looked a few years ago they were like $35

[mansaxel]

I think everybody who could do so, stopped using Switchcraft the minute Neutrik arrived.

Indeed, even before the -X series (which is the series everyone associates with Neutrik) it was obvious that the first generation Neutrik were an improvement. I have of course lost shell ground screws on those, and all used ones that still are on my cables are pretty fragile. But they work.

[Cerebus]

I think everybody who could do so, stopped using Switchcraft the minute Neutrik arrived.

Indeed, even before the -X series (which is the series everyone associates with Neutrik) it was obvious that the first generation Neutrik were an improvement. I have of course lost shell ground screws on those, and all used ones that still are on my cables are pretty fragile. But they work.

I figured out where that memory of 22.5 mm came from, it's the cutout for the rear mounting A series Neutrik female XLRs (Those are the plastic ones without a metal shell primarily intended for PCB mounting although there are, from memory, solder pot ones too but it was always the PCB mounting ones that I've used.).

[factory]

Oooooohhh, this one is naaasstaayyy 

Definitely gonna see some dishwasher action when the wife isn't around.. 

I know it's been standard practice forever to hose down Tek's with DI water and detergent but I just can't bring myself to do it. The covers, yes. But not the internals. And I don't have the proper drying oven. I hand clean as best as I can but there will always be some vintage dirt in it.

I haven't been able to bring myself to do it, either, though I routinely use solder with water soluble flux when I build boards here, then wash them with hot water in the sink and blow them dry in the garage.  Never use that solder on wire, though, and for sure wash the boards within a few days of finishing them - the flux residue MUST be cleaned off because it's hygroscopic and corrosive if left in place - discovered that the hard way at my last job when someone made a bunch of boards but didn't clean them, then they sat in stock for a few months and corroded.

One of the guys on the antique radio forum advocates using a pressure washer on really dirty old chassis, says he does it routinely in the summer, then lets them cook dry in the sun for a few days.  He suggested it to me as something to try on an old HP 330B Distortions Analyzer that will otherwise be scrap as it had a large mouse condo in it and is rather skeevy and corroded inside.  I never got to it this past summer, but may this year.  At this point I've nothing to lose as far as it goes on this piece.







-Pat

I think I'd just admit defeat on that one and donate it to the zoo as enrichment for the rodent exhibit...

I figure it's a good guinea pig to try extreme cleaning techniques on, seeing as it's so far gone at this point there's really nothing to lose, and it is a cool old piece of gear if I can fix it - it's pre-1960 based on the serial number.

-Pat

That style of control knobs disappeared in the mid to late 1950s, metal binding post nuts put it in the early 1950s at least and the wood cases were used into the early 1950s too.
Dating info here, mostly based on 200 series oscillators. https://www.kennethkuhn.com/hpmuseum/dating/vintage_dating.htm

Shango066 did a jet wash of a TV chassis last year, despite being left out in the sun, ISTR some tubular ceramic capacitors & some coils didn't like it, the caps ended up shorting out after a time delay. He seems to enjoy getting trashed sets working with as much of the rodent nest(s) intact as possible. 

David

[factory]

Just put "Apple Braun" into a search engine

🤔







🤮

I can't quite tell if the second picture is a genuine apple iTurd, or one of the Bad-Dogs* newest creations. 

*the seller from the other day with the Keithley DMM & AVO timepieces.

Edit: can't be the iTurd as that is here; https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00d15w7

David

[Specmaster]

Just put "Apple Braun" into a search engine

🤔







🤮

When I run a search with that selector, I got this:



Might be a filter bubble issue?! 

Ditto

[Specmaster]

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

Quite agree, it seemed to me that the school years just seemed to drag along so slowly as if time had been suspended, but since leaving school and entering the work place, time has been passing too quickly that I keep looking for the brakes, but there aren't any 

My theory on that is that there are several things at play.

The first is simply that as we get older, each passing year equates to a smaller percentage of the time we've been here - at the age of ten, a year is a tenth of our life; at 25 it's 0.04; by 35 it has dropped to 0.029 - each less than the last.

The other, and more prominent thing IMO is that when we're school aged, there are bigger milestones in life - using the US for example as it's what I'm familiar with, there is the start of school in September, at which point as a kid you begin looking forward to Halloween in October, then on to Thanksgiving in November, then Christmas/New Years break in December.  There (at least were) a few days off some time in Februaryish for a 'winter break', then comes Easter and finally the end of the school year in June, followed by summer vacation.  A series of very distinct milestones that are big deals as a kid and at the time, seem to take forever to come, and clearly mark the passage of time.  Now as an adult, I get up and go to work.  The year starts cold and snowy with short days and long nights and occasionally snow to shovel.  I get up and go to work.  The days begin to grow longer, the nights shorter and the snow melts.  Wow, Easter already...  I get up and go to work.  The shift in night/dark continues and it gets warm then hot out.  I get up and go to work, then cut grass and do yard work.  Then the daylight shift goes the other way and it gets cooler and I clean up leaves.  I get up and go to work.  Holy crap, how is it Thanksgiving next week?  I could have sworn it was Easter a month ago, and Halloween slipped past without me noticing!  I get up and go to work.  Wow, Christmas already?  Thanksgiving seemed like last friggin' week, FFS!!  And now it's time to remember to write a new date on things.  Where did the past year go?  It all merges into a big blur that moves ever faster, like rolling down a long hill.  Not saying it can't be a fun ride, just that it keeps getting faster.

-Pat

Here's another thing that I have never quite been able to grasp either, if I'm driving somewhere, let's say I'm driving from Chelmsford (home), to Lakenheath, something that I've done many times, why does it always without fail seem to be far quicker driving back home again afterwards 

[THDplusN_bad]

Oooooohhh, this one is naaasstaayyy 

Definitely gonna see some dishwasher action when the wife isn't around.. 

I know it's been standard practice forever to hose down Tek's with DI water and detergent but I just can't bring myself to do it. The covers, yes. But not the internals. And I don't have the proper drying oven. I hand clean as best as I can but there will always be some vintage dirt in it.

Oh, yes, I recall the paper from Tektronix. It was standard practice at their factory; at least for some time: https://w140.com/tekwiki/images/1/18/Tek-wet-washing.pdf

Cheers,

THDplusN_bad

[mansaxel]

I just spent some time with a a BOM, a Mouser shopping cart, and my parts bins. Managed to shave off 25+ € from the cart by just cross-checking what I've got already. 

A real pity that the only FOSS software that does parts inventory, PartKeepr, is a festering PHP infection.  I could use the functionality. 

I HAVE been pondering an "I can do that" attempt, in my preferred perfidity, Perl + Postgres, (FAPP, as it's known*) but that would take a serious supply of round tuits and some intense boredom to want to escape. But it would Feel Right. So 2001. Before the PHP shitstorm and before the JavaScript avalanche.  (of course, one does take advantage of CSS to build the UI, because CSS is not a piece of crap; it's actually reasonably clever. )


* FreeBSD, Apache, Perl, Postgres

[Neper]

Here's another thing that I have never quite been able to grasp either, if I'm driving somewhere, let's say I'm driving from Chelmsford (home), to Lakenheath, something that I've done many times, why does it always without fail seem to be far quicker driving back home again afterwards 

Your horse smelling the stable?

[Neomys Sapiens]

That style of control knobs disappeared in the mid to late 1950s, metal binding post nuts put it in the early 1950s at least and the wood cases were used into the early 1950s too.
Dating info here, mostly based on 200 series oscillators. https://www.kennethkuhn.com/hpmuseum/dating/vintage_dating.htm
.
.
David

Thanks for a good laugh! When I flew over the page in order to find the last-read post, this sentence gave me a real WTF? moment! OTOH, maybe there is something to build on...although the base needs to be a bit wider than just HP 200 series.
 

[Neomys Sapiens]

When I touch a topic in the naive expectation to come to a solution today and build it, let's say, next week, I should be forewarned. Whether actual paid work is involved does not seem to be the driver here - disaster is impending.
After the story of the GPS receiver signal booster (about 2 years ago), I found time to do some measurements on the interface cable with the aim of replacing the coupled lengths of actual cable with a nice little dummy cable box.
Then I saw what makes up the model of a multiple wire shielded cable.
 
Even partial solutions seem to involve complex matrices of parameters. The measurement gives some rather straightforward data, like capacitance from a conductor against its neighbours, against the shield and against a conductor at a position across the cable. And here starts the crap. Is the capacitance across the cable real or is it made up by the various capacitances towards neighbouring conductors and the screen, and those of the neighbouring conductors as well as the one's across the cable towards the screen?
Maybe I should hit the reset button now and stay with the multiple 10m cables. Until now, I luckily told no one to expect such a box. 

[25 CPS]

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!

For what it's worth, there was a local advertisement for some equipment nearby that was listed for quite a long time and there were a couple of things that would've been nice but some shift work and some bad weather got in the way.  I thought maybe now that things are clearing up and I have the weekend off, I'd contact the seller and start negotiations.  And the ad's gone.  I guess I should've made contact earlier and asked if the guy could hold the equipment I was looking at for a week.  Hopefully the ad just expired and it'll get relisted.  Admittedly, it is a long shot but I've gotten lucky with that a couple of times.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Here's another thing that I have never quite been able to grasp either, if I'm driving somewhere, let's say I'm driving from Chelmsford (home), to Lakenheath, something that I've done many times, why does it always without fail seem to be far quicker driving back home again afterwards 

Your horse smelling the stable?

This opens the question whether it is the smell of the stable or the smell of the rider which causes the often cited increase of a person-bearing equines' velocity on the return leg of a journey!