Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

In my experience, for winter driving the TIRES are the biggest factor in whether a car is good or bad in the snow.  From 1997 until late 2013, I drove a Miata year round through all kinds of weather (and we get plenty of snow here in Connecticut), the first ten years of it with a 60 mile round trip commute and the latter part with about a 30 mile round trip.  With all season or (even worse) performance summer tires on it, any snow meant it was like driving on a skating rink.  Throw good snow tires (Yokohama Guardex) on all four corners and it was practically unstoppable, and I drove that little bugger through all sorts of nasty crap and never got stuck anywhere other than my driveway a time or three when I tried to blast in without properly shoveling and got hung up.

-Pat

I'll have to disagree... size for size, all other factors equal... FWD is always gonna be better in the snow, particularly thick snow. It has the benefit of engine weight always being right over the drive wheels (with some shocking exceptions, I know), yes, but more importantly, simple fact is that pulling with the front wheels gets more power to the road than pushing with the back.

This is compounded in cases of squishy driving surface, as front wheels are always acting like a plow in the soft stuff. ALWAYS. With RWD, you're pushing against that plowing action, and once the rut you're making overcomes your inertia, the back wheels start digging a hole and you're done.

With FWD, the front wheels are always pulling the vehicle up out of the rut you're making, counteracting that plowing action.

When driving on slippery stuff, FWD is also more sure-footed. While RWD you have to maintain the balance of traction between front and rear, otherwise you lose either drive traction or steering traction or both. With FWD, if you lose steering traction all is not lost... you take control, take your foot off the brake and point the wheels in the direction you need to go and step on the gas. FWD will pull the vehicle out of the spin.

I've driven RWD, FWD, 4WD and AWD in all weather conditions and some racing conditions... and the different approaches to traction control all have their place (except the one implemented by Toyota on the RAV4, which kills throttle when it senses wheel spin... ultimate stupidity... ) depending on how and where you drive.

If you drive mostly on the highway and have to contend with slippery conditions or at most a inch or so of snow... FWD (or AWD... Subaru's implementation is crazy excellent for small vehicles and small wheels) is better in small vehicles and large. If you live in the country and may need to climb a driveway on a hill in the morning with 6-8 inches of snow on the ground, or similar driveway in the muddy season, 4WD and a big vehicle with big aggro tires is your best friend.

My favorite car to drive long-haul in crappy stuff is a Eldorado/Toronado with really aggro winter treads on it. Fucking things are unstoppable, and it's like driving down the road in your living room. 

For the daily commute... little FWDs are better, because... well... they are stoppable. They get around very well, they're cheap to drive (our Saturn still gets 30MPG full or empty, and driving it aggressively only knock 2-4MPG off that) and they don't have 2 tons of inertia, so they'll still stop on the slippery stuff.

Now I'll give credit to Toyota and the major MFRs for one thing... modern implementations of ABS are world-class, and exponentially better. My '80 Eldo had one of the first mostly electro-mechanical implementations... and it was effing horrible. Fucking motor inline with the master cylinder would literally push back against your foot a inch or more, and if it still sensed skid, would pulsate against you. Talk about adding freakout to an already freakout situation!

Other than that... for rural life, my favorite all-around vehicle is gonna be a 1/4-ton pickup (pick your brand)  extended cab, short box, with 4WD, AT and straight-6 power. The combination of 4WD, AT and straight-6 torque will carry you just about anywhere. My personal fave is 80s-90s F150 with 300 straight-six. Flipping things run forever, are cheap and easy to maintain, and if retrofitted with modern EFI/TBI, actually manage 20-ish MPG driven as a daily driver provided you a) keep your foot out of the throttle and 2) keep it in 2WD with mechanical lockouts disengaged.

Modern cars, IMHO, tend to rely too much on software and band-aid solutions to traction control rather than the core engineering of just plain making a vehicle so it has better physical contact with the road and weight distribution. Subaru is actually one of the few that is pushing the envelope on both; if you need a small, sure-footed vehicle they are the way to go. Most of the other manufacturers are either pushing old engineering with shiny gewgaws and/or software that puts lipstick on a pig, and tries to make up for the driver's lack of driving skill.

If you're gonna go there, may as well get an old truck that actually was designed to get around with a driver who knows how to drive. and, you know... Learn how to fucking drive.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Y'all want to get the nice set with a carry case like Cerebus did!  
https://www.engineertools-jp.com/pad02

Once I've got mine, if they're as good to use as they look, I've got existing two crimp tools that are going in the bin, after a long conversation with Mr. Angle Grinder to protect anyone who might be tempted to recycle them from hours of pain and grief.

*SIGH*  Once again this group is inadvertently preventing me from aquiring TE.  I would have taking those two crimp tools, rather than shelling out $$$ for nice tools.  That means my budget is about to be blown... on the good stuff.  Maybe I should see myself out, and go join the Tools Equipment Anonymous.

-- I'm back; it seems the quest for TEA leads only to here

Naaaahhhh... just use it to fix some TE (howzzatt 564 coming along, BTW...?  ) and all will be forgiven.

Also, color me a "slightly jelly tinkerdwagon" re: this acquisition. 

https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=Engineer+crimper&crid=3B54TQ7FNIPZ5&sprefix=engineer+crimper%2Caps%2C51&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Engineer+PAD-02&crid=3MOHR4GV22EJC&sprefix=engineer+pad-02%2Caps%2C126&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Lemme know if you need a US agent to help get you these... I don't see the PAD-02 kit available on Amazon.ca as it is here stateside. 

Good hunting! 

mnem
 

[med6753]

I promised myself I would clean out and organize the garage today. You guys are keeping me from this task. If I don't get it done it's all YOUR fault. 

[Cerebus]

The best way to clear out the garage is with a pressure washer. If you ask nicely the fire department will being their high volume, high pressure one to do the job for you. 

[Robert763]

Well, that was not too hard so far, especially with all the transistors socketed.

Looks like the 7704A blew two transistors in the CRT intensity circuit (Q4163 and Q4175), part number 151-0223-00 for both, apparently they are 2N4275 parts.
Now to see if I have any, or find a substitute. Any ideas?

A couple of 2N2222A will probably work just fine.

[mnementh]

I promised myself I would clean out and organize the garage today. You guys are keeping me from this task. If I don't get it done it's all YOUR fault. 

Here, have a cookie. I promise, by the time you're done eating it, you'll feel right as rain...

mnem
 

[mnementh]

To veer back in the direction of electronics, while not entirely abandoning cars:
(SNIP)
Front of fusebox:      Back of fusebox with some plugs in place.   

Very neat, I like it...

This is very similar approach to the fusepanels in our Saturn. I also liked it for the same reason. I dislike how difficult the car manufacturers make it to get the correct crimps over here... Ifni forbid the vehicle owner should add something electrical to their vehicle. 

You pretty much have to either be a mechanic in a dealership or scour eBay for something that looks like the right part and hope you guess right.

mnem
   

[mnementh]

A very quick post, that will be lost amongst all this car crap. 

Tek 422 with AC/DC power option is now working again.        

You may now resume the usual motor vehicle related nonsense.

Are you gonna make a battery pack too? What solution if so...?

mnem
                         
I vote for 18650s and commodity BMS module...

[mnementh]

Well, that was not too hard so far, especially with all the transistors socketed.

Looks like the 7704A blew two transistors in the CRT intensity circuit (Q4163 and Q4175), part number 151-0223-00 for both, apparently they are 2N4275 parts.
Now to see if I have any, or find a substitute. Any ideas?

NTE123A direct cross. But Amazon is out of stock. NTEPartsDirect has them but doesn't ship to Japan. Have you looked at Ebay for exact replacement?

If you can't get a replacement let me know and I'll buy here and ship to you.

 

Edit......I just checked Ebay and there's many sources but I dunno if they ship to Japan. And most are in plastic cases. I'll bet yours are metal cans which really shouldn't make a difference.

Cool, thanks for the info. I'll see what I can get shipped to Japan before I bother you with errands.

All these transistors in my unit are plastic, it's a 3xxxxx serial number, so maybe a later one. But in practice, metal or plastic is fine, as long as it works. 

NTE123A is the same as ECG123AP only metal can vs plastic (NTE "borrowed" then later took over ECG's Catalog back in the day). Which 123Ass-Protector was, even when I was still in tech school, well-known to be a relabeled 2N2222A.

mnem
Look! I contributed!

[TERRA Operative]

Well, that was not too hard so far, especially with all the transistors socketed.

Looks like the 7704A blew two transistors in the CRT intensity circuit (Q4163 and Q4175), part number 151-0223-00 for both, apparently they are 2N4275 parts.
Now to see if I have any, or find a substitute. Any ideas?

NTE123A direct cross. But Amazon is out of stock. NTEPartsDirect has them but doesn't ship to Japan. Have you looked at Ebay for exact replacement?

If you can't get a replacement let me know and I'll buy here and ship to you.

 

Edit......I just checked Ebay and there's many sources but I dunno if they ship to Japan. And most are in plastic cases. I'll bet yours are metal cans which really shouldn't make a difference.

Cool, thanks for the info. I'll see what I can get shipped to Japan before I bother you with errands.

All these transistors in my unit are plastic, it's a 3xxxxx serial number, so maybe a later one. But in practice, metal or plastic is fine, as long as it works. 

NTE123A is the same as ECG123AP only metal can vs plastic (NTE "borrowed" then later took over ECG's Catalog back in the day). Which 123Ass-Protector was, even when I was still in tech school, well-known to be a relabeled 2N2222A.

mnem
Look! I contributed!

Yeah, I found my bag of 2N2222A's, but no-go so far, even with swapping in the correct part numbers from an unrelated part of the scope. Seems there's something deeper to find.
I've checked all other transistors on the Z Axis Board, and the ebay tester says they are basically what they should be.

I'll have to frown at this schematic a bit longer and hope I get lucky.

[BU508A]

Well, that was not too hard so far, especially with all the transistors socketed.

Looks like the 7704A blew two transistors in the CRT intensity circuit (Q4163 and Q4175), part number 151-0223-00 for both, apparently they are 2N4275 parts.
Now to see if I have any, or find a substitute. Any ideas?

NTE123A direct cross. But Amazon is out of stock. NTEPartsDirect has them but doesn't ship to Japan. Have you looked at Ebay for exact replacement?

If you can't get a replacement let me know and I'll buy here and ship to you.

 

Edit......I just checked Ebay and there's many sources but I dunno if they ship to Japan. And most are in plastic cases. I'll bet yours are metal cans which really shouldn't make a difference.

Cool, thanks for the info. I'll see what I can get shipped to Japan before I bother you with errands.

All these transistors in my unit are plastic, it's a 3xxxxx serial number, so maybe a later one. But in practice, metal or plastic is fine, as long as it works. 

NTE123A is the same as ECG123AP only metal can vs plastic (NTE "borrowed" then later took over ECG's Catalog back in the day). Which 123Ass-Protector was, even when I was still in tech school, well-known to be a relabeled 2N2222A.

mnem
Look! I contributed!

According to a Sylvania/ECG list from 1979 I've found, the replacement for the 2N4275 is the ECG108.
The newer list from 1989 is saying ECG123A as a replacement (on page 420).

I've checked also my ECA vrt replacement list. They suggest as a replacement for the 2N4275 the following types:
- BSV91 or 92
- BSX92 or 93
- 2N2368 or 69

Perhaps this may help to find a replacement in Japan.

[Saskia]

I promised myself I would clean out and organize the garage today. You guys are keeping me from this task. If I don't get it done it's all YOUR fault. 

Very easy. 5 kg of ... should do nicely. No reorganizing required.

[cyclin_al]

Add in that the cars we learnt in had skinny cross-ply tyres that would lose grip if you cornered too quickly.

Speak for yourself grandad!    The only time I've driven a car with crossply tyres was literally sitting on my dad's knee.

Modern safety aids are normally designed to cut in before the tyres reach the point of having no grip, otherwise, they will have zero grip to be exploited by the system before you endup in a ditch or wrapped around some tree etc.

The difference between driver and electronics is that the driver can notice a pattern of loss of grip, like the slippery summer roads I mentioned earlier, and compensate in the medium term. Even if the electronics have a notion of maximum available grip that they can guarantee to stay within they are not going to predict that kind of road surface and alway stay within the actual available grip. The best they can do is to notice that a wheel is slipping now and take action, a good driver will notice that the wheels have slipped a little several times on the current journey and compensate in advance, provided that they haven't been deprived of the feedback that allows them to take that decision.

That belief electronics will do better than a good driver is the kind of thinking driving the car crashes (pun fully intentional) that we are seeing with the wholesale and wrong-minded general adoption of 'AI' at the moment.

I think we are all on the same page here, except that we find ourselves in different environments (and I don't mean just meteorological) which completely changes the context of the conversation.

Anyone who knows anything about driving will agree with "the driver can notice a pattern of loss of grip".  One of the contexts is that the majority of North American drivers will NOT notice any such pattern, even after it is too late.  Heck, they will not even notice a very large truck driving down the street (driven by me) and pull out whenever they please; the laws of physics still apply so they were not able to pull away...

I believe that electronics will do better than a driver who is unaware of their situation and unable to interpret the situation.  Even then, the electronics do better, not save the driver from every possible situation.  There is no magic nor perfection there.

The deeper problem in North America anyway is the reliance on improved electronics, instead of improving basic driver training.  My observation is that the UK, Europe and Japan have far higher standards for basic training than Canada.  I suspect the US is just as bad as Canada.

I have also observed that DSC behaviour is quite different in different vehicles.  However, I do not know how to go about asking for a DSC demonstration when shopping for a car...  With a wide range of electronics at the moment (that may not always be the same in the future), car buying should involve choosing a vehicle with the desired level of DSC intervention.

[McBryce]

I promised myself I would clean out and organize the garage today. You guys are keeping me from this task. If I don't get it done it's all YOUR fault. 

Does your garage contain TE? If not, I doubt anyone here is interested.

McBryce.

[Vince]

IT and consumer electronics junk. Not my cup of tea but well it might be for the next few days.

Just been given this old mini-laptop (10" screen), dated from year 2009 it looks like. Quite a jump from the Tek 180A, 50+ years...

A  Lenovo " IdeaPad S10-2 ". Whatever.  Looked the specs on-line, not stellar, though mine appears to have a faster processor than what the interweb suggests.
1.6GHz Intel Atom, not 1GHz. Has Wifi, Ethernet, VGA and a few USB.
1GB of RAM.

Has a pirated copy of Window 7 at the moment, which I can only use a "Guest" because I don't have the PW of course. I hear it can be easily unlocked though.
No intention of bothering with that though. It's un-usably slow, Win7 probably was not its factory OS, must have been XP or something I guess...

Didn't come with its power brick, but hold on to your hat, I searched my box of plug packs and found one that works. I am stunned. This is the first time this box of junk is actually useful. I knew it was carrying all that junk with me when I moved...

Anyway, the idea is to wipe Windoze and install Linux via the Ethernet port, hopefully, then keep it in the lab as an early form of lab computing. I am to the point where I can afford to computerize the lab the way I would like to. So this free mini laptop would introduce some IT capability.. perhaps. If I can get Linux onto it, I could maybe do some things with it.
I could add an external UART-USB adpater cable so I could do serial stuff with my old TE, oir my own design projects. Could use my old "Dragon" Atmel AVR prgrammer, it's USB too.
Could attach a GPIB-USB adapter. Could be useful. If I can't get it to do that, it's gonna be spares. Practice soldering on 32 layer boards, I don't know... there is always something to do with junk. It's never 100% useless...

Problem is that the LCD screen ius fucked !    Huge white vertical band on the left edge, plus a few colourful vertical lines here and there.
I twisted the screen assembly (easy, it's VERY flimsy !  ), pressed on it all over the place... but the defects/ pattern do no change one iota. So if it's a bad connection I certainly can't act on it 
So I though maybe the video/data cable is fucked. SO I popped the bezel around the LCD so I can get to the cable. Fiddled with it... still no change on the screen.
So I popped the keyboard so I cna access the motherboard, where the screen cable plugs into. I wiggled the cables there, the connector... no joy.

so no matter what I torture, the screen doesn"t give a fuck and still displays &00% the same pattern/defect... so not sure anymore it's a bad connection ?
I mean, one I could physically access that is...
Could it be internal to the LCD itself ? I am fucked I think...

Luckily it has a VGA port, so I attached an external monitor to it.... a defective one I was given and that I fixed recently. I knew it could be useful.... today it is ! 
I entered the BIOS and despite the lack of "visibility", I half-blindingly navigated the menus in there, and found the menu item to switch the external VGA monitor, on.
Phew, I can now look at the BIOS properly. I see in the boot menu that it can boot from USB FDD or a USB CD-ROM or USB-HDD os not sure what they mean by the latter... a USB memory stick ??

Says it can boot from the Network too, but says "Legacy PCI device", so not sure what it means by that exactly.

Anyway, I remember 15+ years go when I started using Ubuntu, there was an option ot install it from the Network. IIRC you first had to download something on USB stick, boot from that, then it would go to the network. Well, IIRC... it was 15+ years ago 
Or maybe I can just do the entire install from a USB stick, or just buy an external USB CD-ROM drive and stick the a normal DVD in there., ot maybe the BIOS meant STRICTLY CD-ROM, not a DVD, I don't know...

Anyway you get the idea, wipe Windoze and try to install Linux on it one way ro another. Just for fun, and it fdoes work, well I could make use of the machine in the lab, which would be cool.
Now for what method to use to get Linux on the thing, will be dictated by my wallet. Budget is 10 euros max. If I can find an old used USB CD drive for that much, cool. If not.. too bad.

[m k]

Make a bootable USB stick and you have USB-HDD.
Lubuntu is light.

My guess for the screen is that it's toasted.

[Vince]

Make a bootable USB stick and you have USB-HDD.
Lubuntu is light.

Just downlaoded an old Ubuntu ISO, 10.10 , that is, which came out right after that laptop was released.
Looking at Ubuntu's website for instructions on how to make a bootable USB stick.
Says to use a special utility called "Startup Disk Creator ", supposedly installed by default.
But... I don't seem have it on my Ubuntu machine (XUbuntu 16.04), nor can I find it in the repositories.
It's not going too well then 
Will keep digging. Maybe I can download a different utility that does that same thing, or find instructions on how to do it from the command line.

My guess for the screen is that it's toasted.

I popped the back cover of the screen assembly. Now have access to the back of the LCD panel.
I reseated the data cable.. no joy.
There is a large electronic board  at the back of the panel. I tortured it, but no joy, it does not change anything at all.
so... yeah, looks like the LCD is dead, it's not a bad connection problem Oh well... 

[med6753]

We use the-one-who-scares.
Though shotgun is much better.

One other thing,
@med, still without 516?

Are you referring to a Tek Type 516? If so, yes....would like to find one at a decent price. Or a Type 515 or Type 502.

Here's a Type 516 currently on Ebay. Dig that price.  Supposedly it works and includes a 2 year warranty. Big deal. It's still thousands of pesos overpriced. 

I'm tempted to toss them an offer of $125 with NO warranty. And I'll come and pick it up. They are in south Jersey about 3 hours away. But price of gas right now is giving me 2nd thoughts. Plus the TE budget is still in the red for at least another month. I'll stick it on the watch list for now.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/233245865699?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3Dc73cdbdc52354fae8d98febefb55e79b%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D233245865699%26itm%3D233245865699%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26brand%3DTektronix&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3A7a3caafc-b37e-11ec-8fc3-5eb722fd03ba%7Cparentrq%3Af0c0aeab17f0a0d30a91b4d4fff9b9c8%7Ciid%3A1     

[med6753]

I promised myself I would clean out and organize the garage today. You guys are keeping me from this task. If I don't get it done it's all YOUR fault. 

Does your garage contain TE? If not, I doubt anyone here is interested.

McBryce.

As a matter of fact the clean out and straighten up was all TE. And the job is done.

Shows what you know. 

[mnementh]

IT and consumer electronics junk. Not my cup of tea but well it might be for the next few days.

Just been given this old mini-laptop (10" screen), dated from year 2009 it looks like. Quite a jump from the Tek 180A, 50+ years...

A  Lenovo " IdeaPad S10-2 ". Whatever.  Looked the specs on-line, not stellar, though mine appears to have a faster processor than what the interweb suggests.

1.6GHz Intel Atom, not 1GHz. Has Wifi, Ethernet, VGA and a few USB. 1GB of RAM...   

The intarwebzz where you searched is wrong; 1.6Ghz is standard for early Atom processor. This netbook was released at the ass-end of WinXP's usable life, purely to capitalize on the pushback against Windows Vista which was superseded by Win7 a few months after this machine debuted. Honestly, I'm surprised it wasn't marketed as a Chromebook. 

https://www.cnet.com/reviews/lenovo-ideapad-s10-2-review/

In short; it was obsolete the day it was made, and didn't get any better with time. 

I'm currently working on a Acer laptop that is 7 years newer, came with Win10, and only needed a $15 keyboard to make work like new. Still unsure if I'll make any profit or just break even on it. Can't even begin to think about the time invested in that equation.

Don't beat yourself up over that little netbook too much. It was barely able to do its primary functions of checking eMail and showing stoopit cat videos when it was new. Today's internet is just too mean for it. 

mnem
 

[m k]

Make a bootable USB stick and you have USB-HDD.
Lubuntu is light.

Just downlaoded an old Ubuntu ISO, 10.10 , that is, which came out right after that laptop was released.
Looking at Ubuntu's website for instructions on how to make a bootable USB stick.
Says to use a special utility called "Startup Disk Creator ", supposedly installed by default.
But... I don't seem have it on my Ubuntu machine (XUbuntu 16.04), nor can I find it in the repositories.
It's not going too well then 
Will keep digging. Maybe I can download a different utility that does that same thing, or find instructions on how to do it from the command line.

My guess for the screen is that it's toasted.

I popped the back cover of the screen assembly. Now have access to the back of the LCD panel.
I reseated the data cable.. no joy.
There is a large electronic board  at the back of the panel. I tortured it, but no joy, it does not change anything at all.
so... yeah, looks like the LCD is dead, it's not a bad connection problem Oh well... 

I've done those boot sticks with Windows.
rufus and YUMI are present but time has passed.

The screen seems to have one of its pixel controllers totally out, if there are five of them.

[mnementh]

Yeah, prolly "chip on flex PCB" construction. fuxxoring things drop like flies...

mnem
 

[ch_scr]

Make a bootable USB stick and you have USB-HDD.
Lubuntu is light.

Just downlaoded an old Ubuntu ISO, 10.10 , that is, which came out right after that laptop was released.
Looking at Ubuntu's website for instructions on how to make a bootable USB stick.
Says to use a special utility called "Startup Disk Creator ", supposedly installed by default.
But... I don't seem have it on my Ubuntu machine (XUbuntu 16.04), nor can I find it in the repositories.
It's not going too well then 
Will keep digging. Maybe I can download a different utility that does that same thing, or find instructions on how to do it from the command line.

My guess for the screen is that it's toasted.

I popped the back cover of the screen assembly. Now have access to the back of the LCD panel.
I reseated the data cable.. no joy.
There is a large electronic board  at the back of the panel. I tortured it, but no joy, it does not change anything at all.
so... yeah, looks like the LCD is dead, it's not a bad connection problem Oh well... 

I've done those boot sticks with Windows.
rufus and YUMI are present but time has passed.

The screen seems to have one of its pixel controllers totally out, if there are five of them.

Agree that the screen is toast. Regarding the image, my "route of least resistance" on Win & Linux is called Balena Etcher. The Linux version comes as "App image", no installing or even compiling necessary! Yes, it is all simplified and has few colorfull big buttons, not like Linux at all  But so far, it has not failed me to do the job!

[BU508A]

Will keep digging. Maybe I can download a different utility that does that same thing, or find instructions on how to do it from the command line.

commands are in blue
warnings are in red

- login to your linux machine
- download bootable linux image, e.g. lubuntu.img
- open two console windows
- on the first console become root: su -
- go to the directory, where lubuntu.img is - let's assume, the image has this path:  /home/vince/download/lubuntu.img and the directory is /home/vince/download/
- on the second console do a:  tail -f /var/log/syslog
- on the second window: press several times enter - this makes it easier to spot the new entries
- now plugin an empty USB stick. recommended size: at least double the size of lubuntu.img
- watch the console window with the running tail command. look out for something like /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc etc.
- write down your finding - let's assume, you've found /dev/sdc
- now on the console window where you are root, do this. Be careful! Using the wrong parameter for "of=" can destroy your OS immediately!
  command:  dd if=/home/vince/download/lubuntu.img of=/dev/sdc bs=512 status=progress
  explanation:
  bs is the blocksize in Byte
  status=progress will give you status updates of the progress
- now wait until dd has finished its work
- unplug the USB stick
- plug it into the computer you want to check
- boot from USB stick
- done

HTH

[Vince]

IT and consumer electronics junk. Not my cup of tea but well it might be for the next few days.

Just been given this old mini-laptop (10" screen), dated from year 2009 it looks like. Quite a jump from the Tek 180A, 50+ years...

A  Lenovo " IdeaPad S10-2 ". Whatever.  Looked the specs on-line, not stellar, though mine appears to have a faster processor than what the interweb suggests.

1.6GHz Intel Atom, not 1GHz. Has Wifi, Ethernet, VGA and a few USB. 1GB of RAM...   

The intarwebzz where you searched is wrong; 1.6Ghz is standard for early Atom processor. This netbook was released at the ass-end of WinXP's usable life, purely to capitalize on the pushback against Windows Vista which was superseded by Win7 a few months after this machine debuted. Honestly, I'm surprised it wasn't marketed as a Chromebook. 

https://www.cnet.com/reviews/lenovo-ideapad-s10-2-review/

In short; it was obsolete the day it was made, and didn't get any better with time. 

I'm currently working on a Acer laptop that is 7 years newer, came with Win10, and only needed a $15 keyboard to make work like new. Still unsure if I'll make any profit or just break even on it. Can't even begin to think about the time invested in that equation.

Don't beat yourself up over that little netbook too much. It was barely able to do its primary functions of checking eMail and showing stoopit cat videos when it was new. Today's internet is just too mean for it. 

mnem
 

OK OK....

As I said I am not going to waste much time, and zero money.... only trying to get an older Linux onto t for fun... I give myself  acouple hours to do it, unti I go to bed.
After that I give up and put the thing on some shelf gathering dust...