Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Oh they are terrible. Hence why the project I was working on ended up in the national press for going extremely over budget, then spiralled down the toilet, got renamed twice and then got scrapped before the end of its service life  . Everyone got paid though!

If it was renamed twice, it couldn't have been the Nimrod ASW aircraft.

I alway regarded it as remarkable that the first variant was designed to use an obsolete commercial 1950s airframe, albeit heavily modified.

They then repeated that, with a 2003 variant built on the same airframes!

Not far off it. Bombardier Global Express was the airframe though.

There were numerous comedy cock ups on that project. I will write a book one day.

[Robert763]

Oh they are terrible. Hence why the project I was working on ended up in the national press for going extremely over budget, then spiralled down the toilet, got renamed twice and then got scrapped before the end of its service life  . Everyone got paid though!

If it was renamed twice, it couldn't have been the Nimrod ASW aircraft.

I alway regarded it as remarkable that the first variant was designed to use an obsolete commercial 1950s airframe, albeit heavily modified.

They then repeated that, with a 2003 variant built on the same airframes!

Then finally smashed it into tiny pieces for scrap, what a monumental waste of our hard-earned cash, hate to think how many hospitals and the staff to run that would pay for  Government heads should have rolled for that stupid decision 

It always seemed to me tha BAe were very fast to physically destroy the fuselages. I assume they wanted to prevent any review or U turn on the decision.

[bd139]

Sounds very much business thinking that. Same line as the portable crematoriums on the Russian front line. Efficient hiding of problems 

[xrunner]

Well I'm between computer upgrade projects (the MOBO I just swapped in still needs a M.2 drive and a Ryzen 5 5600G) so might as well fix this LED backlight abortion.

The LED assembly for the AC voltmeter was glued into the diffuser so had to use my inner gorilla to get it hacked out. I took a pic of the thing. It reminds me somewhat of what you find on LED strips, but whatever it came from it's outta here.

I have as assortment of blue LEDs but for a quick test I just used what you see in the pic to do a quick test. Yes indeed it looks like it's supposed to. So if you point the LED into the diffused it looks better - go figure ...

 

Next, I am going for a better fit using a different shaped LED from my blue collection with perhaps a little shaping with a file.

WARNING: This junk is still coming - containers and containers of it every day

[tggzzz]

Oh they are terrible. Hence why the project I was working on ended up in the national press for going extremely over budget, then spiralled down the toilet, got renamed twice and then got scrapped before the end of its service life  . Everyone got paid though!

If it was renamed twice, it couldn't have been the Nimrod ASW aircraft.

I alway regarded it as remarkable that the first variant was designed to use an obsolete commercial 1950s airframe, albeit heavily modified.

They then repeated that, with a 2003 variant built on the same airframes!

Then finally smashed it into tiny pieces for scrap, what a monumental waste of our hard-earned cash, hate to think how many hospitals and the staff to run that would pay for  Government heads should have rolled for that stupid decision 

It always seemed to me tha BAe were very fast to physically destroy the fuselages. I assume they wanted to prevent any review or U turn on the decision.

That surprised me too. ISTR chainsaws were used.

It wasn't a pretty aircraft from any angle...

[mnementh]

   This is far superior. It measures consistently 2.35 to 2.40 milliohms "plug" to "plug". I tweaked the "plugs" for a gentle fit into a 4mm socket, it works well...

Plus you can stick it in a drill and whisk your omelettes on Sunday morning. 

mnem

[tggzzz]

Oh they are terrible. Hence why the project I was working on ended up in the national press for going extremely over budget, then spiralled down the toilet, got renamed twice and then got scrapped before the end of its service life  . Everyone got paid though!

If it was renamed twice, it couldn't have been the Nimrod ASW aircraft.

I alway regarded it as remarkable that the first variant was designed to use an obsolete commercial 1950s airframe, albeit heavily modified.

They then repeated that, with a 2003 variant built on the same airframes!

Not far off it. Bombardier Global Express was the airframe though.

The originals were Comets. The later ones were apparently heavily modified, but kept the rather strange fuselage shape. I can't think why they would do that if they were starting from a new airframe amd wings.

There were numerous comedy cock ups on that project. I will write a book one day.

The choice of early computer was stifling, ISTR. I presume, without knowledge, that many people spent their lives removing individual instructions from the code.

[Vince]

I was unhappy with the results I was getting testing the resistance across the banana plugs on that last design, they were very inconsistent, between about 80 microohms and 4 milliohms. I seriously doubt the credibility of the 80 microohms reading, I think I'm getting noise from the TE effect between the plug and wire, and some inconsistent contact also.

So I changed tack, and decided to make a short using only copper:



This is far superior. It measures consistently 2.35 to 2.40 milliohms "plug" to "plug". I tweaked the "plugs" for a gentle fit into a 4mm socket, it works well.


EDIT: The inductance between plugs measures <20nH, which is basically in the noise as far as this LCR meter is concerned.

Sorry if this is being stupid... why not simply take an oxy-acetylene torch and melt / fuse the 4 copper wires together ? That would make for a reliable and low impedance connection wouldn't it, and no TE effect. Just.. a blob of copper. 

[BU508A]

That was quick!

Got an email from ebay at 13:06 (MEST) and 13:39 (MEST) it was gone.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/203971421809

[tggzzz]

I was unhappy with the results I was getting testing the resistance across the banana plugs on that last design, they were very inconsistent, between about 80 microohms and 4 milliohms. I seriously doubt the credibility of the 80 microohms reading, I think I'm getting noise from the TE effect between the plug and wire, and some inconsistent contact also.

So I changed tack, and decided to make a short using only copper:


This is far superior. It measures consistently 2.35 to 2.40 milliohms "plug" to "plug". I tweaked the "plugs" for a gentle fit into a 4mm socket, it works well.

That piqued my curiosity. My  version of https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224995985811 measures 40mohm reliably (2 wire) and ~100µohm reliably (4 wire). Agilent 34410A, OCOMP on, 100NPLC.

[mnementh]

   This setup is still error-free after 3 years. 

That post was a monster.

These points are my opinion as a gamer PC builder, and I may have misremembered something or be completely wrong on another. 

mnem
As always, take anything I say with a grain of salt big enuf to pickle a dwagon. YMMV, IANAL, DQMOT, WTFBBQ, DILLIGAF...?

I run MS Flight Sim on a Core i9 11K with an nVidia 3060 / 4K Monitor with a 750W PSU, but it rarely pulls more than 300W total. For MSFS it's not the graphics card that's going to ruin your experience (as it did with FSX), it's the speed of your internet connection that decides your level of disappointment as it's permanently pulling data from the net.

McBryce.

I haven't run MSFS in over decade; I was going by reported resource demands and comparison to my own drone flight sims and VR gaming. Even at 1440P I'm hitting peak current demands well above 600W, particularly with multiple bogies running at the same time as me. Even Beat Saber can make some heavy surge! 

Supposedly, the 3090 can slam your PSU with peak current demands twice as high as the 3060... it's almost like they're not even the same family of card.

mnem
 

[Vince]

That was quick!

Got an email from ebay at 13:06 (MEST) and 13:39 (MEST) it was gone.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/203971421809

8.5 digits and nearly 3,000 Euros... sounds a bit overkill when all you really wanted, be honest, was a quick check of the 9V battery in your handheld DMM !!! 

I wonder how many hundreds or  thousands of Euros it would cost to calibrate such a thing.... could well be nearly as expensive as the meter itself.... 

[mnementh]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234570662657

   
      Ugh.           Déjà vu.

Déjà vu uggh. From a year or two back.   

mnem
Oh, hey... smiley face. 

[mnementh]

Oh they are terrible. Hence why the project I was working on ended up in the national press for going extremely over budget, then spiralled down the toilet, got renamed twice and then got scrapped before the end of its service life  . Everyone got paid though!

If it was renamed twice, it couldn't have been the Nimrod ASW aircraft.

I alway regarded it as remarkable that the first variant was designed to use an obsolete commercial 1950s airframe, albeit heavily modified.

They then repeated that, with a 2003 variant built on the same airframes!

Not far off it. Bombardier Global Express was the airframe though.

There were numerous comedy cock ups on that project. I will write a book one day.

Hmmm... it seems the bar wasn't set terribly high to begin with; it was the then ~40-year-old Avro Shackleton that they were supposed to be replacing, right?


mnem
   

[mnementh]

IN OTHER NEWS...




https://deadline.com/2022/03/john-dimaggio-return-futurama-revival-hulu-bendergate-1234968435/

It appears I'm gonna have to binge Futurama with the boi again... they're coming back for a 4th go-round, this time on Hulu. 

mnem
What they do to Trump should be... disturbing.

[tggzzz]

Oh they are terrible. Hence why the project I was working on ended up in the national press for going extremely over budget, then spiralled down the toilet, got renamed twice and then got scrapped before the end of its service life  . Everyone got paid though!

If it was renamed twice, it couldn't have been the Nimrod ASW aircraft.

I alway regarded it as remarkable that the first variant was designed to use an obsolete commercial 1950s airframe, albeit heavily modified.

They then repeated that, with a 2003 variant built on the same airframes!

Not far off it. Bombardier Global Express was the airframe though.

The originals were Comets. The later ones were apparently heavily modified, but kept the rather strange fuselage shape. I can't think why they would do that if they were starting from a new airframe amd wings.

There were numerous comedy cock ups on that project. I will write a book one day.

The choice of early computer was stifling, ISTR. I presume, without knowledge, that many people spent their lives removing individual instructions from the code.

A little spelunking indicates I was right.

They used Elliott 920 computers, derived from the 1950s Elliott 803 computers. 18-bit(!), 8kWord 6µs core store, diode-transistor logic. But at least it was parallel logic, rather than the bit-serial 803.

Apparently they were required to have a hardware stack and floating point, so some carbuncles were accreted to the design.

http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/32480/Elliott-903/
https://github.com/andrewjherbert/Elliott-900-documentation/blob/master/920ATC.txt
more generally https://github.com/andrewjherbert/Elliott-900-documentation
and yes, it is that Andy Herbert OBE https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/aherbert/

[mnementh]

...So if you point the LED into the diffused it looks better - go figure ...   

Speaking from some considerable experience building diffusers/LED backlighting from scratch... my guess would be that decision was a compromise use of indirect illumination intended to alleviate the hotspot "footlighting" effect you're demonstrating so well with this pic.

Myself I'd probably just try increasing the drive current a wee bit, or as you suggested earlier, decreasing it on the other meter.

   

mnem
 

[Cerebus]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234570662657

Ugh

Aside from the innate philistinism, the buggers couldn't even be bothered to give it a clean before they wrecked it forever, it's filthy.  It's not like they had the excuse that they to be carefully how it was cleaned to protect any components.

[Specmaster]

Oh they are terrible. Hence why the project I was working on ended up in the national press for going extremely over budget, then spiralled down the toilet, got renamed twice and then got scrapped before the end of its service life  . Everyone got paid though!

If it was renamed twice, it couldn't have been the Nimrod ASW aircraft.

I alway regarded it as remarkable that the first variant was designed to use an obsolete commercial 1950s airframe, albeit heavily modified.

They then repeated that, with a 2003 variant built on the same airframes!

Then finally smashed it into tiny pieces for scrap, what a monumental waste of our hard-earned cash, hate to think how many hospitals and the staff to run that would pay for  Government heads should have rolled for that stupid decision 

It always seemed to me tha BAe were very fast to physically destroy the fuselages. I assume they wanted to prevent any review or U turn on the decision.

That surprised me too. ISTR chainsaws were used.

It wasn't a pretty aircraft from any angle...

I saw pictures of them using JCB's as well to rip it apart..

[Specmaster]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234570662657

   
      Ugh.           Déjà vu.

Déjà vu uggh. From a year or two back.   

mnem
Oh, hey... smiley face. 

Folk who do that to these lovely meters should be hung by their testes 

[Neomys Sapiens]

Oh they are terrible. Hence why the project I was working on ended up in the national press for going extremely over budget, then spiralled down the toilet, got renamed twice and then got scrapped before the end of its service life  . Everyone got paid though!

If it was renamed twice, it couldn't have been the Nimrod ASW aircraft.

I alway regarded it as remarkable that the first variant was designed to use an obsolete commercial 1950s airframe, albeit heavily modified.

They then repeated that, with a 2003 variant built on the same airframes!

Then finally smashed it into tiny pieces for scrap, what a monumental waste of our hard-earned cash, hate to think how many hospitals and the staff to run that would pay for  Government heads should have rolled for that stupid decision 

It always seemed to me tha BAe were very fast to physically destroy the fuselages. I assume they wanted to prevent any review or U turn on the decision.

That surprised me too. ISTR chainsaws were used.

It wasn't a pretty aircraft from any angle...

Whoa!

[bd139]

Please refrain from posting picture of my sister 

[Cerebus]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234570662657

Ugh

Didn't even have the imagination to invert it to show a smiley face.

Vendor is in London; go and remonstrate with him.

You can tell someone is a country bumpkin when they think that two people both being in London means that they must be 'close' to each other.  To travel from Coppermill Lane in the London Borough of Hillingdon, to Biggin Hill Airport in the London Borough of Bromley is a journey of 35 miles and is a 12 1/2 hour walk or a 2 1/2 hour drive.

Just because I can say "Watch it mate, I know where you live.  " to BD139 doesn't make it an effective threat. Once I'd either walked the 17 mile shortest route between us for 6 1/4 hours, or driven the fastest 28 mile route for 1 1/2 hours, or endured the 1 1/2 hours, inevitable delays, missed connections, and four changes of public transport, I'd be too exhausted to do more than quietly wheeze "Boo!".

On the other hand, the radial nature of London means that if I said to BD "Meet you at the Hole In The Wall in Waterloo for a beer in an hour." we could probably both make it without breaking a sweat. But it requires active cooperation for this to work. So getting the miscreant behind  'the lamp' into the right place for a good kicking would require tempting them with some world class subterfuge; perhaps an invitation to meet a designer who's so hip that nobody has ever heard of him at the rear entrance of the Groucho Club ("He thinks going in the front way is so gauche, don't you agree.") or some pub "Just off Columbia Road, Hoxton's so 2020 isn't it?" might be adequate.

[tggzzz]

Please refrain from posting picture of my sister 

Why don't you follow Private Eye tradition and post a picture of a proboscis monkey

[tggzzz]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234570662657

Ugh

Didn't even have the imagination to invert it to show a smiley face.

Vendor is in London; go and remonstrate with him.

You can tell someone is a country bumpkin when they think that two people both being in London means that they must be 'close' to each other.  To travel from Coppermill Lane in the London Borough of Hillingdon, to Biggin Hill Airport in the London Borough of Bromley is a journey of 35 miles and is a 12 1/2 hour walk or a 2 1/2 hour drive.

Just because I can say "Watch it mate, I know where you live.  " to BD139 doesn't make it an effective threat. Once I'd either walked the 17 mile shortest route between us for 6 1/4 hours, or driven the fastest 28 mile route for 1 1/2 hours, or endured the 1 1/2 hours, inevitable delays, missed connections, and four changes of public transport, I'd be too exhausted to do more than quietly wheeze "Boo!".

On the other hand, the radial nature of London means that if I said to BD "Meet you at the Hole In The Wall in Waterloo for a beer in an hour." we could probably both make it without breaking a sweat. But it requires active cooperation for this to work. So getting the miscreant behind  'the lamp' into the right place for a good kicking would require tempting them with some world class subterfuge; perhaps an invitation to meet a designer who's so hip that nobody has ever heard of him at the rear entrance of the Groucho Club ("He thinks going in the front way is so gauche, don't you agree.") or some pub "Just off Columbia Road, Hoxton's so 2020 isn't it?" might be adequate.

I was dragged up in Epsom.

As far as I'm concerned it is easy to walk across the worthwhile parts of London in 3 hours. I've done it.