Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tautech]

If you must know, I did win an auction for the girl version of something similar to the Inspector Callahan style slug thrower.

Pink grips or just it's only a 357 and not a 44M ?

[tautech]

I did snipe something today, but not the Keithley. I promise ...

With you I'm never sure so I'll ask... Snipe as in "pick up a good bargain" or Snipe as in "hang around on a roof top with a high powered rifle"? 

McBryce.

I'm mostly harmless ...

Unless you know our coordinates ! 

[ch_scr]

Ugh so my middle one wants a gaming PC. She has a T495 Ryzen 5 3500U pro laptop which isn't cutting the mustard now. Plus the constant fan noise is pissing me off 

Anyone care to comment on the following idea:

- Ryzen 5600G
- 16Gb corsair LPX 3200 RAM (2x 8Gb)
- 500Gb Samsung 870 Evo Plus
- Be quiet 600W supply
- Lian Li Liancool 205M
- have monitor, keyboard, mouse, MSI B550 board, be quiet cooler floating around already which can go in it. Oh and a ripped off win 10 pro license 

Will upgrade the GPU next year...

+1 for 3600 RAM low CL.  Also, do not skimp, as you are making up for a GPU which nowadays have 12GB on their own.

Here in the GWN, the Ryzen 3700G is almost the same price as the 3600G...

Depending on the future GPU, you might be needing to upgrade the PSU.  This is something I missed when I got a SuperNova 550; it is not going to be up to the task to power a future RTX 3060 GPU...

Yep, for graphics performance you have to go 5700G. Comes highly recommended, even with the extra flat Noctua cooler in the tiny case, it runs 65°C in games. Real all-core workload is 75°C, stress test up to 82°C But I also came by to say what you want to build (including GTX 1660) fits in a 6.9L "SGPC K49" case, desktop ram and all - for the price of an SFX-size power supply. Thats about the volume limit without doing crazy stuff - even the NUC12 extreme "Dragon Canyon" with it's Dragon Price is at 8L (~17% more volume!) - and these guys had the "whole PC" (exkl. power supply and graphics card) on a thick PCIe-card as a head start!

[Saskia]

@tautech a 357 highway patrolman w/ 5" barrel, abount 50 rounds total, 334 brussels pesos.
I don't need a 44, even though I am able to handle it (double tap ....)
but let us not deep dive into that here, I am sure, the natives are getting restless/nervous ...

[tautech]

Schlumberger / Enertec 4002 on the bench. Works , but looks a bit "off" to my eye. Now on to the task of figuring out if my understanding of SA operation is off, the unit is poor but witin spec or something is indeed not OK.

Reduce the span and see if that improves the peak's location. There are surprising tolerances on the frequency accuracy of SAs, related to the span.

Or simply use a frequency counter!

Can't wrap my head around of what actually bothers me or at least not how to explain it without sounding like a moron. Will set up camera and report back

Simplest way to fix such eye catching worriers is to feed it a 10M reference and sweep the same 10M reference.
If things don't magically line up, well Houston we have a problem ! 

[nixiefreqq]

@tautech a 357 highway patrolman w/ 5" barrel, abount 50 rounds total, 334 brussels pesos.
I don't need a 44, even though I am able to handle it (double tap ....)
but let us not deep dive into that here, I am sure, the natives are getting restless/nervous ...

sweeeeeeeeeet!!! 

[nixiefreqq]

this is why i should stay the hell away from hamfests.

the guy said 40 for the pair.

the freqq said 30.

the guy started to say no, but what came out was na....yes.

at least i did not buy a slotted line.

ps  they both function as designed.

pps  but the 260 is a series 7.  now where did i put those damn reverse bannana leads.....off to ebay.

[factory]

I have to disagree with you there, unless the outside environment is very dry, i.e the desert mine dumps, that a certain Youtuber has found old TVs & radios to resurrect.
In the UK outside with plenty of rain, or damp leaky sheds, lofts, garages etc. is more typical. The tube pins corrode to the point they crack the glass and you can say goodbye to the vacuum, or the neon fill for volt-ref & display tubes.

Example from a 50MHz hp scope, 2/3rds of the glassware was cracked and it didn't matter it they were German, British, Dutch, US or Japanese, etc. brands, they failed they same way. 
I was able to rescue enough OK tubes to get the vertical input plug-in going and a couple for the delayed timebase plug-in, but that was it. The rest became a parts donor, as I have three of them that are in much better condition.

P.S. the modified TV flyback transformer is not something it left the factory with.

David

What is unique about the British environment that would cause that? I have seen vacuum tubes salvaged from TV's, radios, etc that have been left out in damp and wet conditions for years and while the tube pins did indeed have some corrosion the tube itself had in tact vacuum. I've never seen a mass loss of vacuum like that.

Are you sure someone didn't maliciously tap each tube with a heavy screwdriver or hammer?   

We have the dampest sheds on this planet, the most negligent owners of stuff and enough pigeon shit to burn a hole through to the earth’s core. We just do bad things better 

Another example of neglect of a much scarcer hp scope, these connections concern me, I do keep hoping a spare CRT will appear one day.


To be fair, apart from a few extreme examples, it's not that common to come across cracked tubes, but they almost always seem to crack from the join of the pins & glass base, or the top cap connection.

David

[tautech]

bd on Discord asked for EMEX pics, well here's just one part way through setting up our stand with hendorog's help.
Finished, it will look very different and we'll do a further show and tell when it's all finished and functional.

Like our pissed off center sign ? ....well that's another story and I'll fill you all in later but hey, it does catch the eye. 

Off-center not a problem... since it is perfectly aligned to the right corner. So it still looks tidy. Would look crap I agree, if it were neither center nor left/right aligned... but as long as it is aligned to something, it makes OCD happy I think ?!

We had the opportunity to bend the rules with our overhead signage with no other exhibitor to our right otherwise we would have to keep signage 1m from the edge of our stand. The GM of the expo alerted us to this and specifically gave us dispensation to go fully to the RH edge.

All that black is a bit depressing... they didn't allow participants to come with their own "walls" ?! 

They do and yes I see your point however when the layout is finished and all units lit up there'll be sufficient color to pull in the punters eye.....plus we'll have some instruments configured with activity on their displays and not just some boring old repetitive waveform.
I think how we have it set up will work out just fine.....more pics to follow.

" Taupaki Technonologies " !  Now your avatar makes perfect sense ! 

Not only my avatar but the bigger part of my email is tautech, an abbreviation dreamed up last century before we even set up a company but dreaming that someday we might.

" Taupaki " also sounds exactly the same as the French " Taupe à qui ? ", interrogative sentence that means " Whose mole is that ?! " 
Do you have moles in Australian Gardens ? I have one here in my back garden... well I used to... since I dug the ground and made the foundations for my 60m2 garage, I have not seen it...
" Taupe " here is also a popular word for a Spy....

Taupaki is the indigenous name for our location but according to a website just checked it does have a meaning:
Taupaki:
A kilt or loin-mat (rapaki) also fine-weather season.

The only spy I'm aware of around her is this fella that peddles TE which keeps a close eye on what all the other TE manufacturers are up to. 

I am surprised by one thing.... the Siglent logo is tiny and hard to read, low contrast, barely noticeable ! Be it on your own banner or the promotional posters from Siglent's on the walls.

I took that pic some 25m away from the stand zoomed in on the cellphone to introduce granularity partly to protect hendorog's identity but also as it's looking straight down the access lane where all the punters walk.....and site 1002 was very carefully selected way back in 2019 for it's excellent visibility.
This is what we had to work from at that time as to where we'd like to be:
https://www.emex.co.nz/assets/Floorplans/Emex-2022-1-4-v14-Sold-150322.pdf

Now in your case that's OK.. means you care about your business more than Siglent, which is logical, so would turn to another brand if a better one came up, you don't feel tied to Siglent that much.
However, in the case of Siglent OWN promotional  posters, that's more weird... it makes it look like they want to flog you scopes but are ashamed of themselves somehow and don't want you to know they are the ones making these scopes... strange.

Well just 5 years ago almost no one had even heard of Siglent and yet now how many TEA members own one ?
I think it started when they selected a company name that in some small way poked a stick in the eye of Agilent whom changed their name to Keysight which goes to show even some jumped up little squirt upstart can make a difference in an industry like this.
Really it's been a meteoric rise for them and us and we can only be proud of being along for the ride.

Well regardless, wishing you the expo will bring you more customers ! 

Thank you very much Vince. 

[img
bd on Discord asked for EMEX pics, well here's just one part way through setting up our stand with hendorog's help.
Finished, it will look very different and we'll do a further show and tell when it's all finished and functional.

Like our pissed off center sign ? ....well that's another story and I'll fill you all in later but hey, it does catch the eye. 

Ummm... I dunno aboot pissed off... but the guy in the hazard vest looks like he's doin' the "White-boy 2-step" and shuffling off to Buffalo... 

mnem
At least give him a microphone to hold up to his face so he doesn't look like a total deer in the headlights.

I'll tell hendorog to practice his moves and try and snap him doing those on you back floor spins....whatever they're called.

[xrunner]

Mini project (or not) -

Looking through a closet, I found this AC mains voltage / freq. box I put together a few years ago . I remember the AC voltage display was really dim and I didn't like it. The camera makes the voltage backlight look brighter than it actually appears. The single blue LED is embedded in a diffuser. Measuring across the LED I read 2.7 V. Testing a spare blue LED I get 20 mA @ 3.3 V. However the spare blue LED I have @ 2.7 V is a lot brighter than the one in the diffuser. Something is not right here.

I removed the light panel from the meter and inspected the LED under my microscope. It looks like a real mucked-up design. I thought it would be an SMD LED in there pointing straight out into the plastic, but I'm not sure what I'm looking at - WTF is that they have there? I turned on the voltage supply and increased it until I just saw the blue light. It looks to me that the LED is pointed backwards. 

Oh for Pete's sake ... is this thing really worth repairing? 

Oh I know exactly what to do to match these displays - increase the current limiting resistor in the other display to dim it!

[Neomys Sapiens]

this is why i should stay the hell away from hamfests.

the guy said 40 for the pair.

the freqq said 30.

the guy started to say no, but what came out was na....yes.

at least i did not buy a slotted line.

ps  they both function as designed.

pps  but the 260 is a series 7.  now where did i put those damn reverse bannana leads.....off to ebay.

What exactly was the slotted line?  General Radio? If it was a nice one, you really should have bought it!

[hendorog]

bd on Discord asked for EMEX pics, well here's just one part way through setting up our stand with hendorog's help.
Finished, it will look very different and we'll do a further show and tell when it's all finished and functional.

Like our pissed off center sign ? ....well that's another story and I'll fill you all in later but hey, it does catch the eye. 

Off-center not a problem... since it is perfectly aligned to the right corner. So it still looks tidy. Would look crap I agree, if it were neither center nor left/right aligned... but as long as it is aligned to something, it makes OCD happy I think ?!

We had the opportunity to bend the rules with our overhead signage with no other exhibitor to our right otherwise we would have to keep signage 1m from the edge of our stand. The GM of the expo alerted us to this and specifically gave us dispensation to go fully to the RH edge.

All that black is a bit depressing... they didn't allow participants to come with their own "walls" ?! 

They do and yes I see your point however when the layout is finished and all units lit up there'll be sufficient color to pull in the punters eye.....plus we'll have some instruments configured with activity on their displays and not just some boring old repetitive waveform.
I think how we have it set up will work out just fine.....more pics to follow.

" Taupaki Technonologies " !  Now your avatar makes perfect sense ! 

Not only my avatar but the bigger part of my email is tautech, an abbreviation dreamed up last century before we even set up a company but dreaming that someday we might.

" Taupaki " also sounds exactly the same as the French " Taupe à qui ? ", interrogative sentence that means " Whose mole is that ?! " 
Do you have moles in Australian Gardens ? I have one here in my back garden... well I used to... since I dug the ground and made the foundations for my 60m2 garage, I have not seen it...
" Taupe " here is also a popular word for a Spy....

Taupaki is the indigenous name for our location but according to a website just checked it does have a meaning:
Taupaki:
A kilt or loin-mat (rapaki) also fine-weather season.

The only spy I'm aware of around her is this fella that peddles TE which keeps a close eye on what all the other TE manufacturers are up to. 

I am surprised by one thing.... the Siglent logo is tiny and hard to read, low contrast, barely noticeable ! Be it on your own banner or the promotional posters from Siglent's on the walls.

I took that pic some 25m away from the stand zoomed in on the cellphone to introduce granularity partly to protect hendorog's identity but also as it's looking straight down the access lane where all the punters walk.....and site 1002 was very carefully selected way back in 2019 for it's excellent visibility.
This is what we had to work from at that time as to where we'd like to be:
https://www.emex.co.nz/assets/Floorplans/Emex-2022-1-4-v14-Sold-150322.pdf

Now in your case that's OK.. means you care about your business more than Siglent, which is logical, so would turn to another brand if a better one came up, you don't feel tied to Siglent that much.
However, in the case of Siglent OWN promotional  posters, that's more weird... it makes it look like they want to flog you scopes but are ashamed of themselves somehow and don't want you to know they are the ones making these scopes... strange.

Well just 5 years ago almost no one had even heard of Siglent and yet now how many TEA members own one ?
I think it started when they selected a company name that in some small way poked a stick in the eye of Agilent whom changed their name to Keysight which goes to show even some jumped up little squirt upstart can make a difference in an industry like this.
Really it's been a meteoric rise for them and us and we can only be proud of being along for the ride.

Well regardless, wishing you the expo will bring you more customers ! 

Thank you very much Vince. 

[img
bd on Discord asked for EMEX pics, well here's just one part way through setting up our stand with hendorog's help.
Finished, it will look very different and we'll do a further show and tell when it's all finished and functional.

Like our pissed off center sign ? ....well that's another story and I'll fill you all in later but hey, it does catch the eye. 

Ummm... I dunno aboot pissed off... but the guy in the hazard vest looks like he's doin' the "White-boy 2-step" and shuffling off to Buffalo... 

mnem
At least give him a microphone to hold up to his face so he doesn't look like a total deer in the headlights.

I'll tell hendorog to practice his moves and try and snap him doing those on you back floor spins....whatever they're called.

Watch your back!

[mnementh]

*tosses hendorog a mic so he can drop it*

mnem
 

[mnementh]

I did snipe something today, but not the Keithley. I promise ...

Something, or someone...? 

mnem
"Serpentine pattern kids... serpentine!!!"

[mnementh]

That reminds me... my son came home yesterday from shopping with mum... he and his sister are now both sporting mullets. 

Take a photo; useful blackmail material later.

“Keep a diary and one day it'll keep you.” ― Mae West

"OMG, son! I just realized who your new haircut reminds me of...!"

*scowling slightly* "Okay... who?"

...


...


...


...




He's not talking to me right now...   


mnem
"ummm... not seeing a down side here...?"

[vk6zgo]

I have to disagree with you there, unless the outside environment is very dry, i.e the desert mine dumps, that a certain Youtuber has found old TVs & radios to resurrect.
In the UK outside with plenty of rain, or damp leaky sheds, lofts, garages etc. is more typical. The tube pins corrode to the point they crack the glass and you can say goodbye to the vacuum, or the neon fill for volt-ref & display tubes.

Example from a 50MHz hp scope, 2/3rds of the glassware was cracked and it didn't matter it they were German, British, Dutch, US or Japanese, etc. brands, they failed they same way. 
I was able to rescue enough OK tubes to get the vertical input plug-in going and a couple for the delayed timebase plug-in, but that was it. The rest became a parts donor, as I have three of them that are in much better condition.

P.S. the modified TV flyback transformer is not something it left the factory with.

David

What is unique about the British environment that would cause that? I have seen vacuum tubes salvaged from TV's, radios, etc that have been left out in damp and wet conditions for years and while the tube pins did indeed have some corrosion the tube itself had in tact vacuum. I've never seen a mass loss of vacuum like that.

Are you sure someone didn't maliciously tap each tube with a heavy screwdriver or hammer?   

We have the dampest sheds on this planet, the most negligent owners of stuff and enough pigeon shit to burn a hole through to the earth’s core. We just do bad things better 

That explains Marconi equipment!

[cyclin_al]

there are so many different sorts of sake ... all with their very peculiar taste.
I want to go back to Japan for a visit. I honestly quite enjoyed it there. Need to brush up on my japanese, though.

Never got around to trying sake; not really my thing.
Still want to go back to Japan for another visit.  Did try amasake; properly ... outdoors during a winter festival with the locals 
Need to start all over to learn some Japanese again...

[Zucca]

Oh I am late to the party, was sleeping..... so what was it then ? I guess your freezer has had enough time to defrost by now, does it work OK now ?! 

Defrosted, reassembled, running fine for the first 24h, let's see for how long

BTW: it's official, wife is stuck in a unreasonable universe. She don't want front loader washer (they smell) and the dryer capacity MUST be >=7 cu. ft., even if the crappy washer she bought/wanted is 4.8 cu. ft.

*10³

[Zucca]

Watched TG Maverick at the movie theater near an us air base.
Half of the people where sobbing at the end, it was the biggest american experience I survived.

I liked the movie, even if does not make any sense (at the military strategy level). This reminds me about my wife.

Okay I will not talk about my wife anymore... sorry.

[nixiefreqq]

this is why i should stay the hell away from hamfests.

the guy said 40 for the pair.

the freqq said 30.

the guy started to say no, but what came out was na....yes.

at least i did not buy a slotted line.

ps  they both function as designed.

pps  but the 260 is a series 7.  now where did i put those damn reverse bannana leads.....off to ebay.

What exactly was the slotted line?  General Radio? If it was a nice one, you really should have bought it!

don't know.  from a distance it looked crusty and possibly incomplete.  kept far away to avoid temptation.

assumed the same posture with a guy who had a box of 8 or 10 of those tiny tektronix mini scopes.  it didn't hurt that there was a big dude pawing thru them like he had discovered buried treasure.

the guy with the gumball meter had at least a dozen more simpson meters and an entire trailer full of tek scopes.  saw at 3 hp 3435's buried under the scopes............and at least one hp8501a storage normalizer.

good thing i walked away because i really really wanted the 8501a since my storage is pretty abnormal.

[vk6zgo]

Oh I am late to the party, was sleeping..... so what was it then ? I guess your freezer has had enough time to defrost by now, does it work OK now ?! 

Defrosted, reassembled, running fine for the first 24h, let's see for how long

BTW: it's official, wife is stuck in a unreasonable universe. She don't want front loader washer (they smell) and the dryer capacity MUST be >=7 cu. ft., even if the crappy washer she bought/wanted is 4.8 cu. ft.

*10³

We bought a frontloader when our old machine died after a reasonably long life, & regretted it.
Silly things, like when you start a wash, the thing locks so you can't open it & drop in things you forgot.

A toploader lets you do that, & you have a couple of minutes to do so, before the real washing begins.

We don't normally use a hot wash, but if we did, the toploader used the water from our Solar HWS---the frontloader used its own heater----you save on water, but your power bill goes up.

The worst bit is that the only bearing the drum has is at the rear, & then is supported from that by a spoke like structure made of "pot metal", which breaks after a relatively short lifetime, with the replacement costing more than a new washing machine,
We accordingly, bought a new machine-------a toploader!!

[Zucca]

Don't want to fight for a top loader here. It was enough the past two weeks at home.
May I ask which brand and model of top loader you got? Sounds like you didn't got a good one.

[Zucca]

On other news starting to play with stocks soon....  $$$ burn baby burn....

[Brumby]

...
In the UK outside with plenty of rain, or damp leaky sheds, lofts, garages etc. is more typical....

What is unique about the British environment that would cause that? I have seen vacuum tubes salvaged from TV's, radios, etc that have been left out in damp and wet conditions for years and while the tube pins did indeed have some corrosion the tube itself had in tact vacuum. I've never seen a mass loss of vacuum like that.

Are you sure someone didn't maliciously tap each tube with a heavy screwdriver or hammer?   

We have the dampest sheds on this planet, the most negligent owners of stuff and enough pigeon shit to burn a hole through to the earth’s core. We just do bad things better 

I was going to say something based on my observations ... but this comment surpasses anything I could offer.   

[mnementh]

Oh I am late to the party, was sleeping..... so what was it then ? I guess your freezer has had enough time to defrost by now, does it work OK now ?! 

Defrosted, reassembled, running fine for the first 24h, let's see for how long

BTW: it's official, wife is stuck in a unreasonable universe. She don't want front loader washer (they smell) and the dryer capacity MUST be >=7 cu. ft., even if the crappy washer she bought/wanted is 4.8 cu. ft.

*10³

This is not unreasonable. A dryer needs more space to do its job, as it is literally fluffing up the stuff a washer wet-crushes into a small soggy mass.

All super capacity dryers have a much larger cavity than the washer which matches. I've never measured, even when I worked in the Ding & Dent store, but if you guys have a Queen or King bed, the comforters that fit will def need that big a dryer to get it dry in a single cycle. 

Cheers,

mnem
*veteran of a thousand psychic wars refurb washer/dryer combos*