Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

A real warrior knows when to show your hand! HiHi

There is no way that you're going to convince us that they're doing anything but rolling on the floor laughing at you. I mean, the guy on top is quite clearly trying to slap the other one on the shoulder. Lockdown pudding basin haircut?

 

(Oh lord, I've just realised, I'm making up shaggy dog stories about shaggy dogs.)

[Brumby]

Quick .... fire up the soldering station, melt some solder and inhale the fumes!

If that doesn't do the trick, apply 50V reverse polarity to some 5V tants!!

[VK5RC]

A real warrior knows when to show your hand! HiHi

There is no way that you're going to convince us that they're doing anything but rolling on the floor laughing at you. I mean, the guy on top is quite clearly trying to slap the other one on the shoulder. Lockdown pudding basin haircut?

 

(Oh lord, I've just realised, I'm making up shaggy dog stories about shaggy dogs.)

I would generally agree that these guys if well trained and looked after are the biggest sooks out but I had one Airedale who had been mistreated and we looked after him for his last 3yrs, he managed to bite 3 members of our household despite his age and decrepitude, to the point of us needing stitches, but at other times he really appreciated affection. They are one of the breeds that were used in the military - but also make a good house dog.
If you know Wallace and Grommit cartoons you will almost certainly see the similarities between Grommit and an Airedale 🤣
They are also great at picking up women at the dog park 😁

[Cerebus]

If you know Wallace and Grommit cartoons you will almost certainly see the similarities between Grommit and an Airedale 🤣

So good at welding and general fabrication, acrobat, pilot, master marrow grower, three times smarter than his master, prone to eye-roliing and shaking his head at master's latest schemes, generally put upon, and always pulling his master's irons out of the fire at the last minute. That Grommit? 

[VK5RC]

Yup 🤣
I had one Airedale who would only do a 'trick' once, after that he would give you the eye and not move at all!
Seriously, any dog, cat who has been well cared for generally is a good companion - always exceptions though.

[Saskia]

missing my Collie. *sniff*

[dl6lr]

That pic immediately said "Laplink cable" to me ... from the days where communications between computers - especially laptops - was a sought after dream.

I remember the original Laplink cable being all blue (serial) or yellow (parallel). Still must have one set in a cable box.

And the serial cable has both ends with both DE-9 and DB-25.

[mansaxel]

.... these two cables I don't recall ever seeing. I am clueless.

One has a DB25 female on one end, and that leads to TWO DB9 plugs. As you can see one has an extremely shore cable, like 10cm long, probably so yuo can connect to the device the DB25 was plugged in as well. Then another DB9 at the end of the long cable.

That pic immediately said "Laplink cable" to me ...

Yes, of course. I knew something was nagging at the back of my mind. Concur - pukka Laplink cable.

I have an actual null modem cable with dual-connectors in one end, much like the cable Vince showed us, but the connectors are all female. Typical PS/2 and later serial ports are 9-pin males, so females are required along with the crossover wiring if you are going to connect two up.

Here, the fact that the traditional wiring scheme for RS-232 on 9-pin vs 25 pin flips pins 2 and 3 occurred to me. My brain's been wedged solid at the bench more than once trying to think that right... 

My conclusion it is a modem (DCE-DTE) cable is unhurt, I think.

But, the canonical use for a "dangling extra connectors cable" was Laplink, so it's not strange that this was the "nagging memory".

Fortunately, we've got TE, so this can be resolved. If pin 2 and 3 in the 9-pins are connected straight-through, it's a DCE-DTE. If they're crossed-over, it's a DTE-DTE, a.k.a. "null-modem" or "Laplink".

[mansaxel]

I would generally agree that these guys if well trained and looked after are the biggest sooks out but I had one Airedale who had been mistreated and we looked after him for his last 3yrs, he managed to bite 3 members of our household despite his age and decrepitude, to the point of us needing stitches, but at other times he really appreciated affection. They are one of the breeds that were used in the military - but also make a good house dog.
If you know Wallace and Grommit cartoons you will almost certainly see the similarities between Grommit and an Airedale 🤣
They are also great at picking up women at the dog park 😁

I am very, very much a cat person, but if I was forced to choose a dog, the Airedale Terrier is probably first on the list. Good-looking sturdy working dog, not bred into a nervous hangar queen just to get a pointier nose, but with muscles and a mind of its own.

[BU508A]

What a nice coincidence! Today I received a package from Neomys with two dental probes inside.

Yes. Every one of us should have a friend dentist.

Absolutely!



 

[Robert763]

.... these two cables I don't recall ever seeing. I am clueless.

One has a DB25 female on one end, and that leads to TWO DB9 plugs. As you can see one has an extremely shore cable, like 10cm long, probably so yuo can connect to the device the DB25 was plugged in as well. Then another DB9 at the end of the long cable.

That pic immediately said "Laplink cable" to me ...

Yes, of course. I knew something was nagging at the back of my mind. Concur - pukka Laplink cable.

Not pukka, pukka ones were blue....

[Robert763]

.... these two cables I don't recall ever seeing. I am clueless.

One has a DB25 female on one end, and that leads to TWO DB9 plugs. As you can see one has an extremely shore cable, like 10cm long, probably so yuo can connect to the device the DB25 was plugged in as well. Then another DB9 at the end of the long cable.

That pic immediately said "Laplink cable" to me ...

Yes, of course. I knew something was nagging at the back of my mind. Concur - pukka Laplink cable.

I have an actual null modem cable with dual-connectors in one end, much like the cable Vince showed us, but the connectors are all female. Typical PS/2 and later serial ports are 9-pin males, so females are required along with the crossover wiring if you are going to connect two up.

Here, the fact that the traditional wiring scheme for RS-232 on 9-pin vs 25 pin flips pins 2 and 3 occurred to me. My brain's been wedged solid at the bench more than once trying to think that right... 

My conclusion it is a modem (DCE-DTE) cable is unhurt, I think.

But, the canonical use for a "dangling extra connectors cable" was Laplink, so it's not strange that this was the "nagging memory".

Fortunately, we've got TE, so this can be resolved. If pin 2 and 3 in the 9-pins are connected straight-through, it's a DCE-DTE. If they're crossed-over, it's a DTE-DTE, a.k.a. "null-modem" or "Laplink".

Did no one see my post #114732?

Vince,
The D type lead is 9 pin to 9 pin OR 25 pin serial port. You don't normally use both the 9 and 25 on one end at the same time,  but they are very handy as break-in leads so you can monitr data using th unused connector.
Thay came in null-modem for data transfer and straight through for Modems.

The D to RJ is a "console" connector to run a dumb terminal on a server, router or managed switch.

Thought I had covered all that........

[Robert763]

Manufacturer :" Axel ", made in France it says on the tin.

Model : " AX 3000 ".

I don't know how "dumb" that terminal is...

It is as you've concluded, basically a serial terminal, where you connect your own screen and keyboard, but some of them could also be connected to a network and use Telnet or SSH to log in to a host. I've got one too.

Wow that's quite a fancy terminal there, impressed    Must be a recent one then, not early '80's stuff, I presume..

Anyway, just figured the echo 

info http://www.axel.com/uk/ax3_unix.html  (Bonus "vintage" webpage  )
manual http://www.axel.com/uk/suppo_uk.html

[BU508A]

[mansaxel]

Did no one see my post #114732?

<snip>

Thought I had covered all that........

Yes, I realised that! A bit too late, though. I'd been away all day yesterday (Vince-scaring pic-heavy post on that coming up) and did not read through posts to end before wanting to impose my version of same.

You were first, that is correct.

[VK5RC]

I would generally agree that these guys if well trained and looked after are the biggest sooks out but I had one Airedale who had been mistreated and we looked after him for his last 3yrs, he managed to bite 3 members of our household despite his age and decrepitude, to the point of us needing stitches, but at other times he really appreciated affection. They are one of the breeds that were used in the military - but also make a good house dog.
If you know Wallace and Grommit cartoons you will almost certainly see the similarities between Grommit and an Airedale 🤣
They are also great at picking up women at the dog park 😁

I am very, very much a cat person, but if I was forced to choose a dog, the Airedale Terrier is probably first on the list. Good-looking sturdy working dog, not bred into a nervous hangar queen just to get a pointier nose, but with muscles and a mind of its own.

I would not disagree with you on dog choice (but totally accept my bias) but any dog/cat who is cared for, invariably gives so much back. I have a work colleague who is completely smitten by donkeys - not an easy pet option 😁
@saskia - I try not to think too much about the past great dogs that I have shared time with on this planet.

[med6753]

Like mansaxel I prefer cats. I don't dislike dogs and when I was a kid we had a boxer named "Missy" who went with me everywhere. We also had cats along with rabbits, hamsters, birds, and any creepy crawly thing I could catch including snakes (nonpoisonous). If I could I'd probably have more than one cat like Cubdriver. But landlord has a very strict no pets policy. I asked once if I could get a parakeet and even that was a no.   

[tggzzz]

Watch out for the wolves at vk5rc - lick you to death!

Wolves, OK, we were talking about wolves, but why did you post a picture of some complicated sort of floor mop? Is it for mopping up wolf drool?

A real warrior knows when to show your hand! HiHi

My daughter's dog does that several times a day, while jumping directly at my nose. That's, um, disconcerting in a primal way.

It gets very close and pulls back. It is, of course, merely a classic signal that dogs use to signal that they want to play.

[Brumby]

Did no one see my post #114732?

I did.  I just added the name I knew them as: Laplink

I think that triggered a few more responses, such as...

Yes, of course. I knew something was nagging at the back of my mind. Concur - pukka Laplink cable.

[Vince]

Manufacturer :" Axel ", made in France it says on the tin.

Model : " AX 3000 ".

I don't know how "dumb" that terminal is...

It is as you've concluded, basically a serial terminal, where you connect your own screen and keyboard, but some of them could also be connected to a network and use Telnet or SSH to log in to a host. I've got one too.

Wow that's quite a fancy terminal there, impressed    Must be a recent one then, not early '80's stuff, I presume..

Anyway, just figured the echo 

info http://www.axel.com/uk/ax3_unix.html  (Bonus "vintage" webpage  )
manual http://www.axel.com/uk/suppo_uk.html

Thanks for the links. Oh yeah I love and miss the websites of the early days ! When content was clearly laid out, simple UI, just a click away, no bloat, when a slow site was due to a slow server or modem, hence a legitimate reason, rather than because you have to download 50MB of code just to get a button to work, or because the site hangs not because server is slow but because it's tied to a million other useless servers for ads or statistics or whatnot, and any one of them being slow hangs the entire site. Or when you get siolly huge pic files whereas before you HAD to be mindful of pic resolution and compression/size, otherwise it was a show stopper and you would just give up on that website since you can'"t even load the freaking pics fast enough for the site to make any sense...

Oh yes, bring back the old web sites and the common sense that drove them ! 

@Mansaxel : you can bring your pics... it's OK I just have not to click on them, no harm... it's only if I want to enlarge them that it brings suicide (or murder ! ^^) envies...

But you have already been beaten... someone just posted a 2.9MB file for a 1600 wide pic. Size per Megapixel, that's even 10 times worse than your disaster pics ! You have found your master !


DB / cable : I checked pins 2 and 3, RxD / TxD.    Result : the two DB9 plugs at each end of the cable, are NOT crossed, it's a straight cable. So no Laplnk then if I understand well. HOWEVER.... the DB9 and DB25 plugs which are close together on the same end of the cable.. ARE crossed. So I guess you could use that cable to connect to a modem and the extra plug, crossed, could be used to connect to another serial port to get the echo, I don't know... or just "spy" on the link as Robert said.  I do find this possibility quite attractive when debugging / designing stuff...

All this talk about crossed or not, now gives me an idea... have a good number of DB/DB9 cables.... I guess it could be a good idea to test them all so I can sort them : those who are straight and those who are crossed. This way when I need either type, I can find one instantly and be sure it's wired as I need it to be wired. Yeah, will do that...

[Neper]

Lockdown pudding basin haircut?

Fomerly known around here as NATO pisspot haircut.

[BU508A]

Some interesting parts showed up in the bay of evil:

3 Vishay 1MOhm, 0.005% VHA516-6T
https://www.ebay.com/itm/134041860902


25 NE 5534H, Signetics, NOS
https://www.ebay.com/itm/403513595699


2 voltage divider 100:1, 0.025%, USVD2-B2M-025-02, Caddock, NOS
https://www.ebay.com/itm/134041863567


And, as always: NAWTS.

[Specmaster]

.... these two cables I don't recall ever seeing. I am clueless.

One has a DB25 female on one end, and that leads to TWO DB9 plugs. As you can see one has an extremely shore cable, like 10cm long, probably so yuo can connect to the device the DB25 was plugged in as well. Then another DB9 at the end of the long cable.

That pic immediately said "Laplink cable" to me ...

Yes, of course. I knew something was nagging at the back of my mind. Concur - pukka Laplink cable.

I think I still have one of those around somewhere.

[PA0PBZ]

HOWEVER.... the DB9 and DB25 plugs which are close together on the same end of the cable.. ARE crossed. So I guess you could use that cable to connect to a modem and the extra plug, crossed, could be used to connect to another serial port to get the echo, I don't know... or just "spy" on the link as Robert said.

That's the tricky part with these DB cables, TX and RX are different on DB25 and DB9, so while it looks crossed it's not 

[Vince]

HOWEVER.... the DB9 and DB25 plugs which are close together on the same end of the cable.. ARE crossed. So I guess you could use that cable to connect to a modem and the extra plug, crossed, could be used to connect to another serial port to get the echo, I don't know... or just "spy" on the link as Robert said.

That's the tricky part with these DB cables, TX and RX are different on DB25 and DB9, so while it looks crossed it's not 

UH !! 

Wow I got caught ! 

I only had a quick look on Google for the DB25 pinout, saw that TxD and RxD were on pins 2 and 3 like the DB9.... so I called it a day ! 

Could not imagine they would be pervert enough to swap the pins ! Well, I guess given the DB9 was probably introduced after the DB25, it's more like the DB9 swapped the pins I guess ! 

Well, lesson learned ! 

So it's a straight cable then, OK...