Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Ice-Tea]

Bleh.. Again some minor damage of a heavy item. Checking out Instapak options. May have to bite the bullet after all.

[Specmaster]

EDIT:  Oh yes, the dog demonstrated that she can go on walks by herself by bending 9 AWG wires of a chain-link fence 

Daughter's dog is similar. He is as sharp as a tack and instantly finds tiny gaps in fencing, even in the pitch dark. The only explanation is that he is scent/noise following.

Sometimes he returns the way he departed. Other times he finds a different way back through 4 neighbour's gardens and along the road.

One of my favourite pictures of him is when he decided he didn't want to be left behind.

Ditto,
Orli, sadly no longer with us, hated it when a suitcase came out. Obviously didn't think I needed space for clothes.

Lovely dog.

[mnementh]

Apart from my dislike of Teams, I do not think that Microsoft is to blame here. If those lazy cretins in the IT department can't be bothered to make such a disruptive change at a weekend, or at night, and with suitable resources from the mother company on standby, then I ask myself why we even try to keep a certain standard up or if it is time to leave.

What Cerebus writes, basically. Microsoft don't want you to run S4B. They want you to pay rent in Azure for Teams. Therefore, it is not unlikely that they will remove support for S4B at critical update events, forcing those who refuse to follow the herd into the IBM business model of renting compute at elevated prices, to stay with old insecure systems. And, Teams of course is a stinking pile of shit; it after all is a Microsoft product, but it is a turd that's been polished considerably since it was imposed on me for the first time. 

However, trying to run desk phones against Lync/S4B/whatever is just plain stupid. IP telephony is not bad, but the aggregated stupid of the Microsoft "SIP" stack is completely unable to deliver.

Z, you made me snort coffee out my nose...   

In case you didn't know, S4B has been IRC/online slang for decades; means Shit 4 Brains probably in more scenarios than it means Skype 4 Business.

I'll let all y'alls make the appropriate inappropriate connections with M$ yourselves.   

mnem

[TERRA Operative]

Latest TE acquisition, just won the auction now. A Tek 178 Linear IC Test Fixture for my 577 Curve Tracer (That I still have yet to repair).

Paid roughly equal to US$100 including postage. 

Dunno if it's jammy git time, but I think I can just smell the cookie (sorry, biscuit ) at least.

[Robert763]

Short lunch break today but I managed to have a quick look at the TA520. Looks like new and passes allth self tests which seem to include input loop-back 

[mnementh]

Teams. Microsoft.   Nuke them from Orbit. It's the only way to be sure ...

mnem
alternately...   

[mnementh]

If those lazy cretins in the IT department

IT department is always so professional. I miss bd139 here. He had always "colorful" comments on IT people.

Comments on IT people do not need colours beside green and blue. If you beat them up enough, that's all you will see.

I'll swear that the forum just swallowed a message. What I said was:

If the IT person is me or BD the only colour you will see is blue sky as you are defenestrated.

And we'll have a chit that says we're allowed to do it! 

IT dwagons use the window a little differently...   

mnem

[mnementh]

Was somebody missing some HP 437B stuff, govplanet has few in Texas.
It's constantly creating localized links so use the search.

From PP I could use #13.
Assuming it's a normal DOS based thing.

Thanks!    The search was not easy to find the box of really useful stuff.
Does anyone have experience dealing with govplanet, especially using their shipping and import service partner into Canada?

Still looking for the cable to hook it up to the HP 436A though...

Then again, if I actually got the box then I would need to add a HP 437B and more to use them all up.

mnem
*toddles off to fry up some eggs & bacon*

[mnementh]

...I want to print a "working" mini TEK 2465 ornament. I have a tiny CRT (viewfinder of an old VHS Camcorder) so that it can display real waves.

McBryce.

Sounds like it could be fun; I toyed with a similar project long, long ago when I found a extrusion project box with correctly shaped ends and big enough to house a CRT sourced similarly. Prolly will be a bit out of proportion (longer than it should be) like mine was. I never did get around to the detail work; painting it and the front panel... but got it working enough (TIP120s and a 555 timer for the sweep) to display a sine wave off a generator as long as I fed it a volt or 2 p-p. Mine was about the size of a Marlboro box; maybe a little thicker.

Good luck!

This is the CRT I have (pen in picture for scale purposes). As it is, I can feed it with a Composite Video signal. My plan was to feed it with picture of a wave rather than giving it a real wave signal. That way I can maybe feed it with the "Tek Wizard" or Tek Logo from a small PIC or AVR.

McBryce.

Yeah... that looks like one of the CRTs I had. I used the driver PCB off of one with a much smaller CRT (like 15mm or so) on a 1" CRT as the PCB was much smaller and all SMD. On that one, you can most likely remove all of that plastic around the face of the CRT and wrap the area where the anode lead connects with several layers of Kapton tape. Given the application, even if it does contain a ferrite you can prolly still chunk it; the tiny bit of correction it gives will be unimportant to display a line graphic.

Did I mention I did this like forever ago...?  A µPC board the size of a postage stamp with built-in composite video out was undreamt of...

mnem

[TERRA Operative]

Oh hey guys, what's going on? 

[mnementh]

     BWAHAHAHA!!!

mnem
I think we may have unleashed a new monster on the TEA...   

[TERRA Operative]

My standing plan for these is to make the worlds smallest video-wall.

[mnementh]

Latest TE acquisition, just won the auction now. A Tek 178 Linear IC Test Fixture for my 577 Curve Tracer (That I still have yet to repair).

Paid roughly equal to US$100 including postage. 

Dunno if it's jammy git time, but I think I can just smell the cookie (sorry, biscuit ) at least.

ANY original accessory for the 577 for $100 is Jammy time, I'd wager.

Here ya go:

mnem
This space For Rent.

[McBryce]

Oh hey guys, what's going on? 

And you intend making what out of that lot?

McBryce.

[mnementh]

Short lunch break today but I managed to have a quick look at the TA520. Looks like new and passes all the self tests which seem to include input loop-back.

Damn you Robert...

mnem
Okay... how much wallet pain to get the other one to Hartford, CT USA...? 

[mnementh]

   Oh hey guys, what's going on? 

And you intend making what out of that lot?

McBryce.

A headache for you and me, I'll wager. 

mnem
 

[TERRA Operative]

Oh hey guys, what's going on? 

And you intend making what out of that lot?

McBryce.

Hook them up to a bunch of Raspberry Pi's one day for the worlds smallest video-wall. Or a recreation of that scene when Neo meets the Architect in The Matrix.

[mnementh]

TEAMS is (CENSORED). Glad it's not just me who can't get on with it.

As I've not had the joy personally...
*goes and Googles*
Oh, wait... maybe I have... So short version is... MS Ticketing with integrated Video Chat...? *lets that sink in*



mnem
as if the misery of Ticketing wasn't enough already, let's add having some brain-dead (l)user watch you pull your hair out trying to walk them through rebooting their workstation for the 17th time... 

[Cerebus]

I've spent the best part of 3 decades in IT and I can honestly say I have never taken deliberate decisions that would cause anything less than optimal implementations.

That's not to say I've never supervised a less-than-ideal exercise.

The fun fact about those ones is that the decisions that led to them were made by others.  Ones that have less idea of the technical implications and future impacts, but more interest in how to look good today.  You, know - management.

I don't know how many times I've had system designs compromised by people who don't have the appropriate understanding

I've always said that the best philosophy for computer systems is "Don't give people what they want, give them what they need.".

However, that is hard, very hard, to actually bring to fruition while navigating the politics of doing so, and sometimes one has to compromise and put oneself in a position where you give them what they say they want, and have the documentation to prove that is what they said they wanted, even if they were advised against it, that you have delivered it, and therefore the blame goes "That way ->". I'll swear that on aggregate, 50% of my professional life in management was proper work, and 50% avoiding other people's blame avoidance schemes or managerial incompetence.

[Robert763]

Short lunch break today but I managed to have a quick look at the TA520. Looks like new and passes all the self tests which seem to include input loop-back.

Damn you Robert...

mnem
Okay... how much wallet pain to get the other one to Hartford, CT USA...? 

Looks like I'll be in Washington DC in the next couple of months....

[Cerebus]

If those lazy cretins in the IT department

IT department is always so professional. I miss bd139 here. He had always "colorful" comments on IT people.

Comments on IT people do not need colours beside green and blue. If you beat them up enough, that's all you will see.

I'll swear that the forum just swallowed a message. What I said was:

If the IT person is me or BD the only colour you will see is blue sky as you are defenestrated.

And we'll have a chit that says we're allowed to do it! 

Ooh that's a posh word for the old phrase of "Pick a Window", I had to google for the meaning 

That is how you get a chit for it:

BD139: Here Gov, can you sign this for me? It's to allow me to give anybody windows who needs windows.

BD139 has official permission to defenestrate anyone, without exception, when it is, in his sole opinion, necessary or useful to do so.

Signed
Da Management

Manager: What's "defenestrate"?
BD139: Means give someone a window. Technical term of the art, innit.
Manager: Oh, OK, [Signs chit.]

[mnementh]

So if to defenestrate someone is to eject them from a window against their will... then to fenestrate them would look something like this...? 

mnem

[mnementh]

This is shocking! There are people on this forum which try actively to get hapless newbies infected with TEA!

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/it-all-started-with-an-old-bench-meter/msg4004893/#msg4004893

Noted, visited, and inappropriate comments made, as usual. 

mnem
 

[tonyalbus]

For those who wondered where it went 

Very rare Keithley 167 Auto-Probe DMM
from 1972, was able to clean it to near new.
https://youtu.be/qZYwC7Y-kE8

[Specmaster]

If those lazy cretins in the IT department

IT department is always so professional. I miss bd139 here. He had always "colorful" comments on IT people.

Comments on IT people do not need colours beside green and blue. If you beat them up enough, that's all you will see.

I'll swear that the forum just swallowed a message. What I said was:

If the IT person is me or BD the only colour you will see is blue sky as you are defenestrated.

And we'll have a chit that says we're allowed to do it! 

Ooh that's a posh word for the old phrase of "Pick a Window", I had to google for the meaning 

That is how you get a chit for it:

BD139: Here Gov, can you sign this for me? It's to allow me to give anybody windows who needs windows.

BD139 has official permission to defenestrate anyone, without exception, when it is, in his sole opinion, necessary or useful to do so.

Signed
Da Management

Manager: What's "defenestrate"?
BD139: Means give someone a window. Technical term of the art, innit.
Manager: Oh, OK, [Signs chit.]

Picturing in my mind a points system for how uniform you can get the red splatter marks on the ground