Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Cerebus]

And I shall eat my steak tartare...

Real Men eat shark tartare. 

[mnementh]

And I shall eat my steak tartare...

Real Men eat shark tartare. 

Dragons don't eat shark; professional courtesy. 

mnem

[mnementh]

   

mnem
 

Finnish fish pasty. Sort of a travel snack.

huh...?

mnem
   

[mansaxel]

   

yummmm.

As always the US are all about finesse and nuance !     It's not an apple pie... it's BUCKET pie !   

Take a bucket load of apple chunks, wrap it in a bag, and you're done ! Is that how you intend to tackle your diet now you have moved to Connecticut ?! 


This is an apple pie in reasonable countries :   

This is my first day off in 4 weeks. I am actually taking several days off, and eating a broad variety of foods including a lot of raw veggies, to try and restore my gut fauna which was very obviously wiped out by the antibiotics taken for my kidney infection.

That... that... abomination is no apple pie; it is a tart. Which is a whirly, swirly sissy pie; the triumph of style over substance.    It belongs at some government state dinner, and has no place on any normal person's dinner table.

The lack of a top crust shows a complete lack of understanding of how the balance of flaky layer crust and cinnamon sugar/apples is supposed to taste. You cannot have a proper apple pie without a top crust, and "pretty" pies are almost never tasty. 

If it is done right, the crust rises away from the filling as this one has done; that bubble of air underneath is what makes the best crispy, flaky layers without drying it out. When the slice is cut, the crust falls down and it looks like a "normal" apple pie.

Yes, that is my opinion, but it is the opinion of someone who grew up in apple orchard country, on a farm with its own orchards, and whose grandmomma's apple, cherry and strawberry-rhubarb pies were literally coveted over 3 counties, and every spring & fall she had a list of people to buy the several dozen pies she made to sell.

Maybe not world-class, or even "best of the county fair"... but definitely excellent. On this, and quality of fruit preserves, I will stack my experience up against anyone's with pride.

As for this one... the crust is excellent. The filling is average at best; it needs either Red Delicious apples and honey added, or to be mixed with Honeycrisp apples. And a wee bit more cinnamon.

mnem

Even if my pies are more like yours, albeit with crumbs rather than dough, I feel I need to state something important:

In Sweden, we have a lot of buns and cookies for our "fika", the coffee pause that is the reason we're only bested by Finland in coffee consumption per capita. In the entire world.  Among those pastries, the cinnamon bun is special. According to people who want to sell it, so special that they've given it a day, "Cinnamon roll day".

I'm OK with this, because it means that to me, every day of the year that isn't October 4th, is Cardamom Roll Day.

The cardamom is the primary spice to accompany apples in a pie, cinnamon playing a distinct second viola here. Unless you've tried, you've not lived.

And, I find the french concept of a pie superior. Because one will not fall over and snore after a portion. If we were not having "semla" (not an Austrian Semmel!) tonight, I'd make a pie, because now I'm hungry.

[Saskia]

it will be greekish meatballs tonite.

No need to grind any swedish ...

[mnementh]

Even if my pies are more like yours, albeit with crumbs rather than dough, I feel I need to state something important:

In Sweden, we have a lot of buns and cookies for our "fika", the coffee pause that is the reason we're only bested by Finland in coffee consumption per capita. In the entire world.  Among those pastries, the cinnamon bun is special. According to people who want to sell it, so special that they've given it a day, "Cinnamon roll day".

I'm OK with this, because it means that to me, every day of the year that isn't October 4th, is Cardamom Roll Day.

The cardamom is the primary spice to accompany apples in a pie, cinnamon playing a distinct second viola here. Unless you've tried, you've not lived.

And, I find the french concept of a pie superior. Because one will not fall over and snore after a portion. If we were not having "semla" (not an Austrian Semmel!) tonight, I'd make a pie, because now I'm hungry.

Grandmomma's holy trinity of spices for fruit pies were cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg in varying amounts depending on the fruit. Also sometimes a tiny bit of ground red pepper.

Apple pie is supposed to be the capstone to a proper holiday feast. If you don't feel the need to go take a nap afterwards, neither feast nor pie were done right. 

Served other times, it is supposed to evoke those happy memories of home & hearth... a small, rare moment of simple joy in today's crazy world.

mnem
*mnemories*

[Vince]

Just went through my ribbon cables...

Looks like I have a pretty fair 50/50 split between old 34 pin MFM drive cables and 40 pin IDE ones.

Some IDE cables have a high density / 1.27mm pitch cable, can't remember why that got introduced, what was the point of it over regular 2.54mm / 0.1" cables ?!

MFM connectors are either card edge (older/original style I guess) or some are HE10 (a later revision of the standard I guess ? )

Have one 50 pin cable, I guess for SCSI drives/peripherals.

[img width= 200]https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/?action=dlattach;attach=1431019;image[/img]

ST-412 had two cables, control and data.
The narrow one is clearly data for that.

Yeah foind a pic on WIkipedia of such drives, did notice on the pic it needed this narrow cable on top of the wide one.. thought maybe it was data/power split like SATA drives... it's not then, it's control and data, OK OK... so I have only one single control cable then, oops... I better not lose it ! 

For Leboncoin,
I've used it so that first selecting a general term and then following the flow and picking what comes up from below.
Some interesting things have been around but I have a small problem, I don't speak French and Google translator is famous.

Wow, you look on Leboncoin ?!
How comes ? Is there stuff on there taht you cn't find in Finland ?? 
There is nothing but junk here, way overprice as well...
The only good side of being in France is that I can find lots of old Metrix MX 53/54/56 DMM's, which are excellent meters, super value for money... whereas finding them in any other country is difficult.
Other than that... there is just junk here 

As for shipping, well no regrets : most sellers can't even be bothered to ship locally, within France, so asking them to ship to Finland or god knows where, is day dreaming.
PLUS... you probably would NOT want them to ship anything, because they for the life of them they are incapable of packing anything decently, never ind "properly", so it would arrive in Finland in a millon pieces and you would be mad, rightly so.
Shipping would also be prohibitive...

So to sum it up, I do'nt think buying any TE from France makes any sense sadly !

That said of course if you find something you REALLY badly want, and you are willing to pay the high costs for shipping and (properly) packing... I can be the middle man, repackage it properly and ship it to you.

The easiest it to buy from Ebay rather than Leboncoin...

[tonyalbus]

Yes! Yes!.. that was exciting,
Connecting your 30 year old Tektronix to Tektronicx Field Alignment Software (DOS) to calibrate.
That is fun, You need:
1. Old PC with ISA Slot
2. DOS or 95, 98
3. NI ISA PCIIA Card. (finding this affordable is also fun, i took a camble)

how did that work again with IRQ and DMA's and stuff.



But its talking ))) 

Pity there is no windows software for FAS so you do need those old ISA cards.
i have seen on the forum some projects on linux with dos emulators and adres converters but not sure that is working or finished.
So tried it the old way.

[mnementh]

   

mnem
 

Finnish fish pasty. Sort of a travel snack.

huh...?      

   https://www.appetitemag.co.uk/fish-pasties/

So... something like this then...? 

mnem
Sesame seeds and fish...?

[mansaxel]

So if you want a useful language you could actually use in England, Polish wins. We should start teaching it in schools and because it's a Slavic language it'd introduce a whole new language group that didn't have Romance or Germanic roots.

Linguistically true. How about trade weighting? We teach English as first language, and then most students can select between German, French and Spanish.  IIRC, German is the most popular, because that's where trade goes. I studied German for 6 years, French three years, and had a small serving of Latin last 2 years of Gymnasium.

I'd guess that UK will have most trade with Germany or France, and in general, that's what drives communication. Not in the public eye, because they've either been sunburned and hung over in Spain or been infected with STD's while high on pot in Amsterdam (my 2 major impressions of UK tourists, how's that for sample weighting?).  Now, the UK seems set on not doing any trade at all, so the bets are off..

[Specmaster]

   

yummmm.

As always the US are all about finesse and nuance !     It's not an apple pie... it's BUCKET pie !   

Take a bucket load of apple chunks, wrap it in a bag, and you're done ! Is that how you intend to tackle your diet now you have moved to Connecticut ?! 


This is an apple pie in reasonable countries :   

This is my first day off in 4 weeks. I am actually taking several days off, and eating a broad variety of foods including a lot of raw veggies, to try and restore my gut fauna which was very obviously wiped out by the antibiotics taken for my kidney infection.

That... that... abomination is no apple pie; it is a tart. Which is a whirly, swirly sissy pie; the triumph of style over substance.    It belongs at some government state dinner, and has no place on any normal person's dinner table.

The lack of a top crust shows a complete lack of understanding of how the balance of flaky layer crust and cinnamon sugar/apples is supposed to taste. You cannot have a proper apple pie without a top crust, and "pretty" pies are almost never tasty. 

If it is done right, the crust rises away from the filling as this one has done; that bubble of air underneath is what makes the best crispy, flaky layers without drying it out. When the slice is cut, the crust falls down and it looks like a "normal" apple pie.

Yes, that is my opinion, but it is the opinion of someone who grew up in apple orchard country, on a farm with its own orchards, and whose grandmomma's apple, cherry and strawberry-rhubarb pies were literally coveted over 3 counties, and every spring & fall she had a list of people to buy the several dozen pies she made to sell.

Maybe not world-class, or even "best of the county fair"... but definitely excellent. On this, and quality of fruit preserves, I will stack my experience up against anyone's with pride.

As for this one... the crust is excellent. The filling is average at best; it needs either Red Delicious apples and honey added, or to be mixed with Honeycrisp apples. And a wee bit more cinnamon.

mnem

Totally agree with you, Vince's pie is a titillation of a pie, designed to make it appeal more to someone with sufficient dosh in their pocket to be able to pay a premium price for it in a shop because it looks good and pleasing to the eye, instead of relying on good old-fashioned taste of what is essentially homemade food.

Its Saturday which means discord tonight, I shall try to be there this time 

[med6753]

Is this the Food Channel or TEA? Anyway, now I want to go pig out on a genuine apple pie. 

More re-capping of the Type 105.

These 3 caps were dual 20uf/450V all connected in parallel. So one 120uf/450V replaced them all. And as I mentioned yesterday left the negative wiring in place which makes the install easier.

 

Upper right can was dual 20uf/450V in parallel. One 47uf/450V replaced it. Left can was also dual 20uf/450V but they are separate. So two 22uf/450V replaced them.



There are 3 capacitors left to do. And they are buried way up top and it's going to be tricky to get at them. And note the brass sheeting used as interconnects. First time I've seen that in Tek equipment.



Once those 3 caps are replaced it will be time for first power up. 

[m k]

Just went through my ribbon cables...

Looks like I have a pretty fair 50/50 split between old 34 pin MFM drive cables and 40 pin IDE ones.

Some IDE cables have a high density / 1.27mm pitch cable, can't remember why that got introduced, what was the point of it over regular 2.54mm / 0.1" cables ?!

MFM connectors are either card edge (older/original style I guess) or some are HE10 (a later revision of the standard I guess ? )

Have one 50 pin cable, I guess for SCSI drives/peripherals.

[img width= 200]https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/?action=dlattach;attach=1431019;image[/img]

ST-412 had two cables, control and data.
The narrow one is clearly data for that.

Yeah foind a pic on WIkipedia of such drives, did notice on the pic it needed this narrow cable on top of the wide one.. thought maybe it was data/power split like SATA drives... it's not then, it's control and data, OK OK... so I have only one single control cable then, oops... I better not lose it ! 

For Leboncoin,
I've used it so that first selecting a general term and then following the flow and picking what comes up from below.
Some interesting things have been around but I have a small problem, I don't speak French and Google translator is famous.

Wow, you look on Leboncoin ?!
How comes ? Is there stuff on there taht you cn't find in Finland ?? 
There is nothing but junk here, way overprice as well...
The only good side of being in France is that I can find lots of old Metrix MX 53/54/56 DMM's, which are excellent meters, super value for money... whereas finding them in any other country is difficult.
Other than that... there is just junk here 

As for shipping, well no regrets : most sellers can't even be bothered to ship locally, within France, so asking them to ship to Finland or god knows where, is day dreaming.
PLUS... you probably would NOT want them to ship anything, because they for the life of them they are incapable of packing anything decently, never ind "properly", so it would arrive in Finland in a millon pieces and you would be mad, rightly so.
Shipping would also be prohibitive...

So to sum it up, I do'nt think buying any TE from France makes any sense sadly !

That said of course if you find something you REALLY badly want, and you are willing to pay the high costs for shipping and (properly) packing... I can be the middle man, repackage it properly and ship it to you.

The easiest it to buy from Ebay rather than Leboncoin...

My problem is that I'm missing few cases and other people are pretty interested in what they have eaten.
I've also tried several categories but it seems to be the same everywhere.

Like <10MHz single channel scope, some phool is after tubes.
Amplifiers, same phools.

It seems that I must change the plan.

EU ebay would be fine, or some EU surplus sale but those seems to be surprisingly rare cases.
Maybe I just use wrong search terms.

An ebay example,
enclosure big, europe, no match, third hit, camping tent, China.
Oscilloscope, europe, Telequipment S54A, 138€.
(what is Unaohm, Italian something)

Maybe I should do a roadtrip next summer since Leboncoin is only place I've found where low prices are actually low.
Or maybe I get tools for square holes.
But wait, wooden box tuners, those are still pretty unknown, slim ones are probably even w/o tubes.

BTW,
data cable, it's R/W head, pretty directly.

[m k]

   

mnem
 

Finnish fish pasty. Sort of a travel snack.

huh...?      

   https://www.appetitemag.co.uk/fish-pasties/

So... something like this then...? 

mnem
Sesame seeds and fish...?

Fish = kala
Rooster = kukko

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalakukko

[tautech]

Its Saturday which means discord tonight, I shall try to be there this time 

Despite stated best intentions someone should give you a reminder poke ! 

bd139 indicated he'd be participating again.

[mansaxel]

Yes med, it's the food channel!

Today, it's a special mention, a forum member who ships gifts all over happened to land me a bottle of wine. And tonight it was time to slice a filet mignon de porc, fry it, make a cream sauce, a tomato/feta cheese salad, and serve it with croquettes pommes de terre.

(if SMF not was a stinking piece of shit PHP fulhack⁰, it would have been possible to place "regent.jpeg" here)

As I mentioned when we were discussing pie, we're having Semla for dessert. It's a cardamom-spiced sweet wheat bun, sliced open, dug out and filled with almond paste, over which whipped cream is applied, then the lid is put back, and powdered sugar is sifted on top.  It's the last filling meal before Lent, so is traditionally eaten on Mardi Gras.

(if SMF not was a stinking piece of shit PHP fulhack⁰, it would have been possible to place "temla.jpeg" here)


Footnote 0: "Fulhack" means "Kludge" or "Bodge Job".

[AVGresponding]

Its Saturday which means discord tonight, I shall try to be there this time 

Despite stated best intentions someone should give you a reminder poke ! 

bd139 indicated he'd be participating again.

Discord HOOOOooOOO!

[mnementh]

Yes med, it's the food channel!

Today, it's a special mention, a forum member who ships gifts all over happened to land me a bottle of wine. And tonight it was time to slice a filet mignon de porc, fry it, make a cream sauce, a tomato/feta cheese salad, and serve it with croquettes pommes de terre.

(if SMF not was a stinking piece of shit PHP fulhack⁰, it would have been possible to place "regent.jpeg" here)   

As I mentioned when we were discussing pie, we're having Semla for dessert. It's a cardamom-spiced sweet wheat bun, sliced open, dug out and filled with almond paste, over which whipped cream is applied, then the lid is put back, and powdered sugar is sifted on top.  It's the last filling meal before Lent, so is traditionally eaten on Mardi Gras.

(if SMF not was a stinking piece of shit PHP fulhack⁰, it would have been possible to place "temla.jpeg" here)   

Footnote 0: "Fulhack" means "Kludge" or "Bodge Job".

You mean like this...?

The reason inline images don't work on eevBlog is that Dave disabled the handler plugin while trying to evict the wandering [img]-eating singularity.

I mean, yeah... SMF is a steaming pile of kludge, but this particular issue relates to poor server/propagation management, not that particular bit of steam.

mnem
*toddles off to peek into Discord*

[Cubdriver]

Is this the Food Channel or TEA? Anyway, now I want to go pig out on a genuine apple pie. 

More re-capping of the Type 105.

These 3 caps were dual 20uf/450V all connected in parallel. So one 120uf/450V replaced them all. And as I mentioned yesterday left the negative wiring in place which makes the install easier.

 

Upper right can was dual 20uf/450V in parallel. One 47uf/450V replaced it. Left can was also dual 20uf/450V but they are separate. So two 22uf/450V replaced them.



There are 3 capacitors left to do. And they are buried way up top and it's going to be tricky to get at them. And note the brass sheeting used as interconnects. First time I've seen that in Tek equipment.



Once those 3 caps are replaced it will be time for first power up. 

I’ll be recapping mine, too - took a crack yesterday at reforming C41 & 42; no joy.  C42 totally toast, never got below a few mA of leakage current.  C41 was a bit better, but it was still in the hundreds of uA, well above acceptable.  Now plan to shotgun the lot of the filter caps.



It needs a good cleaning-out, too, as it’s rather disgusting compared to the one Mike has.

-Pat

[Robert763]

Sorry Vince, I couldn't resist.... I bought a Metrix 
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165368998958

[Vince]

Wow, well done Sir Rob !

This is deserving of a multi jammy git biscuit award, even with ice sugar as well.

I am jealous... was waiting for a nice MX51/52 to add to my collection but not many here and never found the right one for me... an EX is as good as it can get, pretty much NIB as well.. and for 30 quid....
Well well well !!!

When you get bored with it you can sell it to me (at cost of course !  ) . OR, make that "when your wife is so full of it / TE that you need to choose between her and the Metrix "... you keep the wife and I will look after the Metrix ! 

I can exchange it for one of my MX 53/C if you want... much better specs, and not an EX so it does have a 10A range...

I know, I know.... I will go get lost, I know.... just saying ! 

I guess I should check Ebay every now and then, but I never do ! 
Well I did... 4 years ago... and this is where I got the 51EX's big brother, my 57EX.. funnily also from Ebay UK and also for 30+ quid IIRC !
Maybe the same seller ! 

I am glad it went your way, not some moron who would destroy it.

I assume you know these meters so I won't tell you how to proceed to open them up (both the case, or the battery compartment) withOUT damaging the plastic with screwdriver blades like 100% of users do !! 

... especially since yours looks NIB or pretty much, so likely not to have been damaged to much if at all... so would like it to stay that way ! 

TL;DR : use the detachable plastic tool at the back of the case (if it's still there)... it's not a tilting bale, it's the specific tool designed to crack the meter open without damaging the plastic edges...

[bitseeker]

Thanks to @BU508A, we have a lot of new test equipment links that I've added to the POI section of Post #1.

In fact, he has dug up so many posts from this thread that Post #1 has now run out of character space. So, I've continued the test equipment index in Post #2.

If you haven't checked out the POI before, it's a great resource to Ctrl+F/Command+F to find posts about particular test equipment that's been shared in here.

[Vince]

Almost 1AM here, going to bed in a minute.. but was a good evening for me 

Ddozens of sorting stuff sessions finally paid of : after playing Tetris for an hour shuffling things around the lab/living room, lab now is starting to look decent and almost usable, it's promising, I am excited.
It's amazing how many boxes you can stuff in a tight space if you dare taking advantage of the vertical dimension.... praying that the stack of boxes doesn't collapse 

As soon as bedroom is finished, lab will should be able to have enough room to be usable, less stacking boxes up to the ceiling required... stuff should be  more easily accessible.
Can't wait.

While shuffling stuff around, I relocated my 4 big boxes of scrap boards... emptied all of them in search of the few remaining transformers I was pretty sure were hiding in there somewhere...
Was successful, found 7 of them, quite beefy, not shitty tiny ones. 6 "standard" ones and .... the last one, la pièce de résistance I absolutely wanted to find... that big ass toroïdal transformer ! 
Salvaged from that huge monstrously cheap/crap Hyundai Home Cinema A/V amplifier. Yes apparently they don't make just cars, the also make consumer amps... which are just as crap as their vehicles !     Guy who gave me that amp also happens to drive a Hyundai... bought it brand new, 2 years later the white paint on it started flaking badly all over that car, then rusting... known problem, Hyundai told them "too bad"... 

Then I opened the very last "what the hell is in there " box... only to find out it was my collection of heat sinks ! 
No more mystery boxes now... think I have dug out, opened, emptied, sorted.. every box and container I had.... all done ! 

Then as I get back to my computer to type this very message, I see that I just received a new e-mail... an automated message from Leboncoin.fr , saying someone just hit the "Buy" button on my ad for my vintage Metrix Wobuloscope  type 232 !!!    He didn't even try to negotiate the price ?! 

https://www.leboncoin.fr/bricolage/2106119112.htm

I put it up for sale 3.5 months ago at 150 Euros (paid only 60 for it but that was a bargain...) because well you got to be a bit greedy at first hey... but other than someone offering me 60 for it, no takers.
Relisted it at 120 a month later, no takers... 6 weeks ago relisted it at 110... got 159 "views", but still no takers.... until 10 minutes ago !

So 110 Euros in my pocket ! Well more like 95... 'cause I need to buy stuff to package it properly now. Still about 100 Euros coming my way, much needed, and will free a big spot in the lab as well, that is PRICELESS ! 



 

[vk6zgo]

And I shall eat my steak tartare...

Real Men eat shark tartare. 

Real Sharks eat man tartare.

[vk6zgo]

And I shall eat my steak tartare...

Real Men eat shark tartare. 

Dragons don't eat shark; professional courtesy. 

mnem

Would you fancy a "Crocodile burger"?