Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[cyclin_al]

Download a different ISO file, 11.04 this time.

I used dd using BU's parameters this time.

Still won't boot.

I give up, moving on....

I don't know what you are doing. 
Download the grml iso image, it comes in a dual-boot version.
Quote:
"Grml provides an excellent selection of software packages for installation, deployment and system rescue. You'll get sysadmin's favourite tools. Choose between a x86 and an amd64 version depending on your needs or just grab the multiboot ISO grml96, providing 64bit and 32bit ISOs in one single place."

With this, you should be able to boot from USB. As I wrote: it never failed to me. 

I seem to recall similar troubles with an Acer Aspire1 netbook of similar vintage.  I chose the latest Xubuntu when I did the same thing.

One difference is that I built my boot USB disk from a Winbloze machine using Rufus software.

Anyways, the problem I ran into was choosing the appropriate options in Rufus to match MBR or GPR so the USB was formatted in a way compatible with how the HDD was formatted.  I understand the BIOS can deal with one or the other, but not both at the same time.  Does my understanding of MBR/GPR effect make sense?

Your .ISO may be fine, but your BIOS needs to be able to work with the bootable USB...

[Zucca]

in case you missed, here the hp 35665a service manual

Peter_0 already knows...

[cyclin_al]

it gives only 4 or 5 choices, like German Spanish or American but NO French ?! 

That's because AZERTY (and to some extent QWERTZ) is  Wrong.

 

Oh, I never realized it was that different!  French Canadian is still QWERTY, but all the punctuation is shuffled and changed, compared to Canadian multilingual (CMS), which has the punctuation is shuffled and changed, compared to US... 

At work, I always think I am using a keyboard setting different in my brain than what Winbloze is doing... 

[Zucca]

RPN Alarm 2 - DM42

eBay auction: #265628143641

Used, good condition for 200USD  ?

Already 5 watchers in 24 hours.

[NCG]

They used to say, that naughty TEA members go to hell after death - everything is exactly the same except interests include biotech and apartment size is like Japanese hotel bathroom. Apparently on rare occasions this may happen also before death, with SEM, centrifuge, -84c freezer, sequencer, autoclave and other torture devices arriving early...

[BU508A]

Your .ISO may be fine, but your BIOS needs to be able to work with the bootable USB...

The trick is: the USB stick is booting the same way as booting from a CD or DVD.
If you have a bootable CD with Linux on it, then you can create from that CD easily a bootable USB stick under Linux.
Let's assume, the dvd device is /dev/sdb and the USB stick /dev/sdc.
Then do:
dd if=/dev/sdb of=/home/cyclin_al/image/iso_image.img status=progress

Once finished, plug in the USB stick and do this:
erase the USB stick:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc status=progress

then copy the image to the USB stick:
dd if=/home/cyclin_al/image/iso_image.img status=progress

The USB stick should now be bootable. The BIOS and its settings should support booting from USB of course.

[TaylorD93]

I have been looking around for a Spectrum Analyser for a little while now, nothing too fancy, but being bit of a fan of HAMEG equipment, I like a few from their range, being the HM-5006 and HM5011 which are 500MHz and 1050MHz Analysers with built in Tracking generators.

But in my travels, ive found what appears to be a near identical Chinese clone, on aliexpress, sold as a MEILI SM-5011, £670 to the door inc taxes etc.

Not sure if its worth taking a risk on it. All kinds of questions can be raised about its quality, but im not finding much online regarding these clones.

Certainly have the money burning a hole in my pocket for it!

[Saskia]

Leaving computers in charge is no substitute for learning to drive properly

AMEN!

Ditto. 100%. 

I never said that a computer can substitute a good driver. I agree with you all.
You seem not to understand that the same computer is design to save your ass, and it can help to learn how to drive properly if you know how it works (in this case do your experiments NOT in public roads, once again).

Just want to be clear, if you deactivate the DSC or any stability system on public road you are risking your life and the lifes of other driver on the same road with you.
D O  N O T   D O   T H A T   I N   A N Y   C I  R C U M S T A N C E S !

If you do not agree with me it is fine, your choice, your freedom, your life.... I sincerely hope you will not regreat your choice one day in the future.

This is my last message about this topic.

With DSC on the Mercedes Benz I had was uncontrollable, the rear decided to overtake the front even at very low speeds. It had to be switched off to be able to drive. This was on a Mercedes C220 T CDI which at that time had just been delivered. It was the worst car I ever had. it broke down 8 times within 5 months. I was told my Mercedes Mainz that as a steenkin C class customer I should be happy that they repaired it under warranty at all ...

The 2nd worst was the 500 SL, directly followed by an A 160 CDI.

Mercedes ? Just say no ...

Never tried BMW yet, but also nasty experience with the Skoda Octavia and controllability. I constantly have to correct with the steering because it constantly tries to break out. No issues were found during service, and the car has been to VW/Skoda dealers regularly, I do not skimp on service intervals.

I never had this kind of problems with Lexus, Jaguar, or Volvo. Even the Ford Expedition never exhibited this kind of problem.

[ch_scr]

Download a different ISO file, 11.04 this time.

I used dd using BU's parameters this time.

Still won't boot.

I give up, moving on....

I don't know what you are doing. 
Download the grml iso image, it comes in a dual-boot version.
Quote:
"Grml provides an excellent selection of software packages for installation, deployment and system rescue. You'll get sysadmin's favourite tools. Choose between a x86 and an amd64 version depending on your needs or just grab the multiboot ISO grml96, providing 64bit and 32bit ISOs in one single place."

With this, you should be able to boot from USB. As I wrote: it never failed to me. 

I seem to recall similar troubles with an Acer Aspire1 netbook of similar vintage.  I chose the latest Xubuntu when I did the same thing.

One difference is that I built my boot USB disk from a Winbloze machine using Rufus software.

Anyways, the problem I ran into was choosing the appropriate options in Rufus to match MBR or GPR so the USB was formatted in a way compatible with how the HDD was formatted.  I understand the BIOS can deal with one or the other, but not both at the same time.  Does my understanding of MBR/GPR effect make sense?

Your .ISO may be fine, but your BIOS needs to be able to work with the bootable USB...

I think a small low-power machine like this (especially with broken display) is most usefull as "headless" server machine (as in it only shows terminal on monitor, no graphical interface).
The use cases would be like a raspberry pi, and 1 GB ram is no serious show stopper in that case. Could log / interface to network data from multimeter, GPSDO, etc. 24/7 and stuff like that...

[Robert763]

I have been looking around for a Spectrum Analyser for a little while now, nothing too fancy, but being bit of a fan of HAMEG equipment, I like a few from their range, being the HM-5006 and HM5011 which are 500MHz and 1050MHz Analysers with built in Tracking generators.

But in my travels, ive found what appears to be a near identical Chinese clone, on aliexpress, sold as a MEILI SM-5011, £670 to the door inc taxes etc.

Not sure if its worth taking a risk on it. All kinds of questions can be raised about its quality, but im not finding much online regarding these clones.

Certainly have the money burning a hole in my pocket for it!

The HM30xx SA are pretty basic analog units with limited performance. They are more like a panoramic recever than a measuring instrument. A SDRPlay receiver and software would give similar results.
What is your use case? Need to know more to make specific recommendations.
If you have a bit more space any of the older HP "portables" will have higher performance. A new Siglent is not that much more than a clone of an obsolete design.

[VK5RC]

Leaving computers in charge is no substitute for learning to drive properly

AMEN!

Ditto. 100%. 

I never said that a computer can substitute a good driver. I agree with you all.
You seem not to understand that the same computer is design to save your ass, and it can help to learn how to drive properly if you know how it works (in this case do your experiments NOT in public roads, once again).

Just want to be clear, if you deactivate the DSC or any stability system on public road you are risking your life and the lifes of other driver on the same road with you.
D O  N O T   D O   T H A T   I N   A N Y   C I  R C U M S T A N C E S !

If you do not agree with me it is fine, your choice, your freedom, your life.... I sincerely hope you will not regreat your choice one day in the future.

This is my last message about this topic.

With DSC on the Mercedes Benz I had was uncontrollable, the rear decided to overtake the front even at very low speeds. It had to be switched off to be able to drive. This was on a Mercedes C220 T CDI which at that time had just been delivered. It was the worst car I ever had. it broke down 8 times within 5 months. I was told my Mercedes Mainz that as a steenkin C class customer I should be happy that they repaired it under warranty at all ...

The 2nd worst was the 500 SL, directly followed by an A 160 CDI.

Mercedes ? Just say no ...

Never tried BMW yet, but also nasty experience with the Skoda Octavia and controllability. I constantly have to correct with the steering because it constantly tries to break out. No issues were found during service, and the car has been to VW/Skoda dealers regularly, I do not skimp on service intervals.

I never had this kind of problems with Lexus, Jaguar, or Volvo. Even the Ford Expedition never exhibited this kind of problem.

Probably the best and the worst cars I have owned were Mercs, a South African built C240 - the worst - best few $k I ever spent was the extended warranty - over the 6yrs I owned it I probably had 15 serious warranty claims. The local dealer knew me by sight and first name 😂.
The best,  an E250CDI drove it from new till 180000km (about 6yrs), then a few bits were getting tired brakes disks etc. No Warranty claims, I laughed when I filled it with Aus diesel (ie rough as guts) drove 800km at open road speed (100-110km/hr) between Adelaide and Melbourne, in Melbourne distance to empty on the same tank 860km! Biggest problem was the 'tall poppy syndrome' - you would never get 'let in' in traffic, I think a uniquely Australian characteristic.
The new drive one of the last VW golf diesels - 3 yr 90k no issues so far 👍

[Specmaster]

As I said "I've been looking at dashcams that have three wire power feeds", I don't think I could have made it any plainer. I know that they have three wire feeds, it's part of my selection criteria because I want it on the car battery, not the internal battery, when it is recording in parking mode.

I have no doubt that you have been looking at 3 wire options, but I'm having difficulties finding any at that price point you mentioned. The BMW ones cost around the £500, and as you rightly said, some of that cost will be for the BMW badge on them  but not £300 surely not 

Quite rightly so, you want the parking mode to be on the car battery supply, not the dashcam's internal battery, if indeed they even have one. I've seen loads that only have a super cap, which is not capable of powering it for longer than a few minutes on its own. Really designed to enable you to remove the dashcam and snap a few photos in the event of an accident occurring, to assist your claim.

So if you have some details of these dashcams with 3 wire control, I'd very much like to see the details please as I'd like to consider getting one myself so my car can have some extra protection while it is sat outside on the road 

[Specmaster]

But, I doubt that "nearside" & "farside" are current usage anywhere else---after all, the Poms call the mudguards (OK, "fenders') "wings"!

Noooo the mudguards may well be called wings but never fenders, those we call bumpers 

[med6753]

But, I doubt that "nearside" & "farside" are current usage anywhere else---after all, the Poms call the mudguards (OK, "fenders') "wings"!

Noooo the mudguards may well be called wings but never fenders, those we call bumpers 

Wait....you call "fenders" as "bumpers" then what do you call the proper "bumpers" at the front and rear? Help me out here. I want to understand. 

You Brits are funny. 

[Specmaster]

With DSC on the Mercedes Benz I had was uncontrollable, the rear decided to overtake the front even at very low speeds. It had to be switched off to be able to drive. This was on a Mercedes C220 T CDI which at that time had just been delivered. It was the worst car I ever had. it broke down 8 times within 5 months. I was told my Mercedes Mainz that as a steenkin C class customer I should be happy that they repaired it under warranty at all ...

The 2nd worst was the 500 SL, directly followed by an A 160 CDI.

Mercedes ? Just say no ...

Never tried BMW yet, but also nasty experience with the Skoda Octavia and controllability. I constantly have to correct with the steering because it constantly tries to break out. No issues were found during service, and the car has been to VW/Skoda dealers regularly, I do not skimp on service intervals.

I never had this kind of problems with Lexus, Jaguar, or Volvo. Even the Ford Expedition never exhibited this kind of problem.

I have had many cars in my time, including a Mercedes C class and there was only 1 type of car that would single out as could be dangerous and potentially a killer car and that was Volkswagen Passats, normally great cars of which I've had 3 as company cars, from new. Out of those 3, 2 could so easily have killed me if the circumstances had been different, but they both on multiple times, on overtaking on normal 2 way roads suddenly dropped into "limp home mode", they lost all throttle input, very scary I can tell when faced with on coming traffic and your engine just wants to idle.

The dealers on these occasions were not able to locate any faults and swapped out the throttle sensors, but the fault still persisted. The only thing I could do about it when that happened was to pull over and switch the engine off and restart it, all was OK again then until the next time.

[Specmaster]

But, I doubt that "nearside" & "farside" are current usage anywhere else---after all, the Poms call the mudguards (OK, "fenders') "wings"!

Noooo the mudguards may well be called wings but never fenders, those we call bumpers 

Wait....you call "fenders" as "bumpers" then what do you call the proper "bumpers" at the front and rear? Help me out here. I want to understand. 

You Brits are funny. 

The bumper is the bit at the front and back of the car, they used be metal and chromed years ago. You Yanks called them fenders as I understand it and hence the term "fender bender" for an accident as the bumpers would be bent. 

[tggzzz]

TE update:  Finally won a 2465, and it's as I've hinted (at least on Discord) a 2465CTS! It's fairly close to me, pickup only, and I'll try organising that during coming week. More info as I have it.

Nice machines. I need to flog my spare (not CTS).

Have fun recapping, take care of the collet, remember the "switched" electrolytics, all described elsewhere.

There's an ebayer (?condor audio?) who flogs kits; you need to send him photos of the boards so he gives you exactly the right parts. That might be the simplest way of finding the right caps.

[tggzzz]

They used to say, that naughty TEA members go to hell after death - everything is exactly the same except interests include biotech and apartment size is like Japanese hotel bathroom. Apparently on rare occasions this may happen also before death, with SEM, centrifuge, -84c freezer, sequencer, autoclave and other torture devices arriving early...

Blade Runner anticipated that 40 years ago (gulp), with the odd-parts man in a freezer in a shop like Akihabara/Lisle St.

Wait until the script kiddies use DNA as their script

[Vince]

Laptop : just woke up. A good night of sleep helped me see the light : I am done with this mini laptop... not worth the trouble. Broken, screen, too low specs, can't boot my Ubuntu ISOs, no serial port....still worth keeping for parts, soldering practice, or having a bit of fun with zero risk, so because it takes very little space, I will keep it for now, at least until I have the funds to buy a proper computing solution for the lab... some time.

Was still fun though. First time I have a laptop, finrst time I take one apart, first time I make a bootable USB stick, or use grml. So I am not mad at the thing.


But now clearing the bench and moving on to other electronic affairs, stay tuned 

..but that will be later, for this evening maybe. This afternoon I will try and use the nice weather to work on my garage construction.

[TERRA Operative]

So if you have some details of these dashcams with 3 wire control, I'd very much like to see the details please as I'd like to consider getting one myself so my car can have some extra protection while it is sat outside on the road 

I have a Blackvue dashcam that is dual (front/rear) cam and 3-wire operation. I can't say how they fit your budget, but mine works great, and I've used it a number of times to prove my innocence to excellent results.
I went and got some OEM connectors so I could connect it to the existing harness without splicing, and installed a high endurance SD card and it 'just works'.

[med6753]

But, I doubt that "nearside" & "farside" are current usage anywhere else---after all, the Poms call the mudguards (OK, "fenders') "wings"!

Noooo the mudguards may well be called wings but never fenders, those we call bumpers 

Wait....you call "fenders" as "bumpers" then what do you call the proper "bumpers" at the front and rear? Help me out here. I want to understand. 

You Brits are funny. 

The bumper is the bit at the front and back of the car, they used be metal and chromed years ago. You Yanks called them fenders as I understand it and hence the term "fender bender" for an accident as the bumpers would be bent. 

Nope. And I see where the confusion is. We called the bumpers same as you described. But when the bumper got it hit it would get bent (pushed in) and contact the fenders (the bodywork over the wheels) and typically cause them to buckle out. Hence the term "fender bender" 

[TERRA Operative]

I've always known the fenders to be the panels over the wheels (Also known as quarter panels), bumpers to be the horizontal bars at the front and rear (traditionally chrome but incorporating the whole area in newer cars) and bumperettes are the little ones that attach to the bumper and can be rubber or metal, mostly oriented vertically.

[med6753]

TE update:  Finally won a 2465, and it's as I've hinted (at least on Discord) a 2465CTS! It's fairly close to me, pickup only, and I'll try organising that during coming week. More info as I have it.

Nice machines. I need to flog my spare (not CTS).

Have fun recapping, take care of the collet, remember the "switched" electrolytics, all described elsewhere.

There's an ebayer (?condor audio?) who flogs kits; you need to send him photos of the boards so he gives you exactly the right parts. That might be the simplest way of finding the right caps.

Or he can talk to me as I have re-capped the PSU in two 2465's which is fully documented as well as dealt with a broken fan collet. And also provide guidance on the manual error gotcha plus parts source.

I'm your one stop source. 

[mnementh]

No, I need an old version that contemporary of that machine (so that the drivers are in the kernel). Modern Linux needs 4GB of RAM, laptop only has one.

Don't care about bugs, have been using Linux for 20 years now, bugs are never fixed. It's just a huge pile of bugs that somehow kinda works, it's a miracle that it works at all...

That is plainly wrong...

...In your case, you'll have serious usability problems from ancient TLS libs and defaults, even before the non-updated CA store will cause you to reject half the world as is.

Honestly mans... I don't think Vince needs a *NIX install to "reject half the world as-is"... he's pretty much there already.

mnem
I mean, come on... he's hanging out in here... isn't that pretty much a prerequisite...?

[med6753]

When I restored the Type 105 a few weeks ago one of the items that I couldn't fully resolve was the excess slop in the armature of the cooling fan. The result is that sometimes it bangs back and forth generating noise. I knew I had this fan from the Type 310A fan mount project which I had replaced with a DC fan. Twice I went out in the garage shuffling through all the TE totes and couldn't find it. Well yesterday after reorganizing that mess I found it, naturally. 

Here it is all pulled apart. I'm just interested in the bushings. They aren't in the best of shape either but I figure if I double up on the spacers I can get rid of most of the slop in the Type 105 fan. Later today I'll pull that fan apart and install additional spacers and see what happens.