Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Or she'll end up here, hoarding questionably operating gear in an attempt to fill that hole in her soul with endless tinkering. 

Hey it keeps us off the streets 

Edit: changed avatar. Ferengi mode activated 

[BU508A]

How time flies. This is my grand daughter. Senior prom. Wasn't it just yesterday I held this little baby in my arms? 

Anyway. The girl has a 3.9 GPA and wants to major in AI. You go girl!  I'm not sure what college she decided upon yet. I'll find out at her graduation party on the 26th.

Congratulations to your granddaughter! 

Please forgive me my ignorance, but what is a "3.9 GPA" and a major in "AI"? For the last one my guess would be "Artificial Intelligence" as a part of computer scieneces.

OK. GPA = Grade Point Average. Maximum is 4.0. So she essentially has a 95% or better high school course average. She be a smart cookie.  And yes.....AI = Artificial Intelligence. She wants to be an engineer like you geeks. 

I've added a missing person to the picture. 

[BU508A]

Uh-oh!
Be aware kids!
bd139 has switched to Ferengi-mode.

I for myself will hide and duck for now. 

[tggzzz]

As for the colour scheme, it's fine. It'd be worse if they let engineers design it 

Evidently our tastes differ

OK. GPA = Grade Point Average. Maximum is 4.0. So she essentially has a 95% or better high school course average. She be a smart cookie.  And yes.....AI = Artificial Intelligence. She wants to be an engineer like you geeks. 

So she's going to end up in the IT trade crying into a keyboard like most of us while what we really wanted to do is being done for pittance in China 

That's not funny.

Retirement has its advantages But not if you've had your pensionable age delayed

[med6753]

How time flies. This is my grand daughter. Senior prom. Wasn't it just yesterday I held this little baby in my arms? 

Anyway. The girl has a 3.9 GPA and wants to major in AI. You go girl!  I'm not sure what college she decided upon yet. I'll find out at her graduation party on the 26th.

Congratulations to your granddaughter! 

Please forgive me my ignorance, but what is a "3.9 GPA" and a major in "AI"? For the last one my guess would be "Artificial Intelligence" as a part of computer scieneces.

OK. GPA = Grade Point Average. Maximum is 4.0. So she essentially has a 95% or better high school course average. She be a smart cookie.  And yes.....AI = Artificial Intelligence. She wants to be an engineer like you geeks. 

I've added a missing person to the picture. 

 

[TERRA Operative]

Quick test of the TDS794D with the Leo Bodnar pulse generator.

0.35/0.1546 = 2.26GHz. Nice.

Similar performance on all 4 channels too, this project is officially finished with a success.

[Cerebus]

At least, it looks quite similar to mine. But wasn't able to recognize because of the different case.



Mine, from school days.

Unfortunately the second one is jammed. Anybody know a good idiot's introduction to repairing them?

Back in the day, when I still used a slide rule, it happened to me a few times. Here's what a remember from fixing them.

What's jammed? The slide or the cursor?

If it's the cursor it's usually because the little bent tension spring has jumped a track - they can often be persuaded back into line by sliding a shim under them.

If it's the slide try soaking the whole thing in a mixture of detergent and water for a few minutes. Enough detergent for the mixture to feel slightly viscous and slippy. 1%? 2%? 5%? 10%? 20%? Not really sure.  Then, while immersed,  flex the whole rule gently back and forward, and try to repeatedly push and pull the slide. Eventually enough works in to lubricate the thing and free it. Disassemble, rinse and dry, and look for any galling on the bearing surfaces. If you find any, scrape it flat again with a square edged scraper. Reassemble with a little dry lubricant - talc, graphite, ptfe, whatever you have to hand. YMMV.

[Brumby]

Retirement has its advantages But not if you've had your pensionable age delayed

Australia is in the process of pushing that back - by 6 months every year.  It's currently 66 years and 6 months for people born from 1 July 1955 to 31 December 1956, inclusive.  If your birthdate is on or after 1 January 1957, you'll have to wait until you turn 67.

I forget when they are going to put the brakes on - but I think it's 70.

[mnementh]

Uggghh... HVAC misery. We're still having problems with the upstairs AC, but while we try to find a different AC tech who knows his/her ass from a hole in the ground, I'm trying to at least modernize enough to use smart thermostats so we can have periodic air circulation. This means pulling new wires that have enuf conductors for the COMMON back to the XFMR that the T-Stat needs.

Oh, and both AC units are relay-relay logic, with wire-nutted connections. And the AC units are not only on a different leg of the mains from the boiler, they're actually on a different CB panel, which may be a separate feed into the house; so far I can't tell.

Means probably choosing AC unit or boiler to power the smart T-stat, then isolating the other via relay(s).

mnem
Fun, fun, fun... 

[Zucca]

I'm trying to at least modernize enough to use smart thermostats so we can have periodic air circulation.

Air Circulation = No fresh air from out side? Just closed loop inside the home like mine?

Beside that why there are no thermostats with dew point management on the market?

In other news, they just installed the new stone age technology dryer (but wife approved!). About 5.8KW out the window.... happy wife happy life yeah....

Me: "Are you sure the yellow-green [PE] cable goes with white [Neutral]?"
Professional installation guy in uniform : "Yes, I've done it for the last ten years"

I will unfuck it later...

 

[med6753]

Finally got some time to complete the 475A PSU re-cap. There are also some tants I'll be replacing but that's after I do an initial power up. Performed some continuity checks for shorts and all is well. Left to do is install the trigger board and adjust the +50V reference.

Capacitors replaced were:

C1412. Was 350uf/75V now 390uf/80V
C1414. Was 1000uf/75V now 1000uf/80V
C1442. Was 5500uf/30V now 2X 2700uf/35V in parallel.
C1452. Was 5000uf/25V now 4700uf/25V
C1462. Was 5500uf/30V now 2X 2700uf/35V in parallel
C1472. Was 3000uf/35V now 3300uf/35V

[med6753]

I'm trying to at least modernize enough to use smart thermostats so we can have periodic air circulation.

Air Circulation = No fresh air from out side? Just closed loop inside the home like mine?

Beside that why there are no thermostats with dew point management on the market?

In other news, they just installed the new stone age technology dryer (but wife approved!). About 5.8KW out the window.... happy wife happy life yeah....

Me: "Are you sure the yellow-green [PE] cable goes with white [Neutral]?"
Professional installation guy in uniform : "Yes, I've done it for the last ten years"

I will unfuck it later...

 

Wait...WTF?  Is that a 2 wire plus ground 240V install or 3 wire plus ground 240V install?

Depending upon local codes 240V installs can be black - hot, white - hot, green - ground. Or.....black - hot, red- hot, white - neutral, green - ground. 

[AVGresponding]

BUMP ! 

BU ? Anyone ?

Anyone has a datasheet in English I can actually read/use, or are they just regular 723 and I can just download any random 723 datasheet instead of the original Cyrillic one (attached) that I can't read ?

Merci / Thanks / Danke Schôn,

Yours Truly.

Options:

1. Google translate. Czech to English.
2. Assume it's the same as a LM723.
3. Buy some RCA ones instead

Philistine! These are hermetically sealed MIL-Spec 723's in a TO-99 case, not some plastic dipshit package!

[mnementh]

I'm trying to at least modernize enough to use smart thermostats so we can have periodic air circulation.

Air Circulation = No fresh air from out side? Just closed loop inside the home like mine?

Beside that why there are no thermostats with dew point management on the market?

In other news, they just installed the new stone age technology dryer (but wife approved!). About 5.8KW out the window.... happy wife happy life yeah....

Me: "Are you sure the yellow-green [PE] cable goes with white [Neutral]?"
Professional installation guy in uniform : "Yes, I've done it for the last ten years"

I will unfuck it later...

 

Yup... this is normal for a 3-prong plug in the US; depending on the unit, GND and N may need to be tied together inside the dryer. If you only connect the GND terminal, on many models the motor will not run. Only recent (well, like last 20 years) construction/renovation is required to have 4-prong outlet/plug so that GND and N are kept properly separate. But hey! At least we have a GND/N on our 220V outlets, unlike a lot of old wiring across the pond.

Yes, our house is old enuf that existing wiring doesn't support smart T-Stat with humidity, air circulation (yes, just running the AC blower), etc modes. This house does, however, have a 42in attic fan in the ceiling of the upstairs hallway that will pull outside air throughout the house and dumps it in the attic. Loverly old-school twist-timer, gravity-operated automatic louvers and all. 

One of my future projects will be to replace the screen door on the back of the house so that can get more regular use. 
mnem
 

[Cerebus]

But that colour scheme; WTF?! Looks like it was designed by a 9yo girl that thought the girl's toys in Toys-R-Us are the height of sophistication!

That's not Apple's fault, that's BD's choice of system colours. Vis, his versus mine:

[mnementh]

Yup... as I suggested earlier, that's a result of the theme set on the computing device, not the app. Same way on my daughter's iPud.

mnem
*toddles off to Homeowner Hell for some T-Stat wire*

[bd139]

I like my wallpaper 

Attached if anyone wants it. Absolutely the least distracting and most contrasty background I could find that doesn’t look like boiled arsehole on a decent screen. Annoyingly not a 5k one

Works well on phones too

[bd139]

BUMP ! 

BU ? Anyone ?

Anyone has a datasheet in English I can actually read/use, or are they just regular 723 and I can just download any random 723 datasheet instead of the original Cyrillic one (attached) that I can't read ?

Merci / Thanks / Danke Schôn,

Yours Truly.

Options:

1. Google translate. Czech to English.
2. Assume it's the same as a LM723.
3. Buy some RCA ones instead

Philistine! These are hermetically sealed MIL-Spec 723's in a TO-99 case, not some plastic dipshit package!

So are the RCA ones. With buried zener!

[AVGresponding]

BUMP ! 

BU ? Anyone ?

Anyone has a datasheet in English I can actually read/use, or are they just regular 723 and I can just download any random 723 datasheet instead of the original Cyrillic one (attached) that I can't read ?

Merci / Thanks / Danke Schôn,

Yours Truly.

Options:

1. Google translate. Czech to English.
2. Assume it's the same as a LM723.
3. Buy some RCA ones instead

Philistine! These are hermetically sealed MIL-Spec 723's in a TO-99 case, not some plastic dipshit package!

So are the RCA ones. With buried zener!

Hmm ok, though the MAA723's were sent to him for free by Mounty, so that at least should mollify your inner (and outer) Ferenginess.

[med6753]

I like my wallpaper 

Attached if anyone wants it. Absolutely the least distracting and most contrasty background I could find that doesn’t look like boiled arsehole on a decent screen. Annoyingly not a 5k one

Works well on phones too

Looks like tant smoke. No thanks. 

[mansaxel]

NAWTS

I have ordered 20 RC4194D from here: https://www.utsource.net/itm/p/404529.html

Quite interesting! But, isn't there really a current alternative?

[Specmaster]

I slept late today and I log in and....eek.....find myself surrounded with engineers with slide rules.  Am I still having a nightmare? Need coffee. Lots of coffee. 


My slide rule vanished somewhere around 1973 never to be seen again

We had a couple at school and they were relics too. My science teacher used to use a Faber one to threaten us with and that was it 

I still have one, of course, don't use it, calculator is so much more usable 

[med6753]

Or she'll end up here, hoarding questionably operating gear in an attempt to fill that hole in her soul with endless tinkering. 

If that happens I'll have to be a good boy and clean myself up. Can't have that. 

[mansaxel]

this is sick and perverted.

and yet........i am tempted to take a walk on the wild side.


https://paxer.net/voyager/

That is one sexy build. But not for me; I never was much for the "horizontal format" calculators. Much prefer the standing format.  Also, I've got a DM42, so am complete.

There's a decent GPL HP15 emulator, the one I normally use on my desktop...
H E W L E T T · P A C K A R D 15C
A Simulator for Windows, Linux and macOS
COPYRIGHT © 1997-2014, Torsten Manz Home page:  http://hp-15c.homepage.t-online.de

Or for Android...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.efalk.rpncalc

I use Free42 on Android. It's basically the same as my SwissMicros DM42.

[mansaxel]

I slept late today and I log in and....eek.....find myself surrounded with engineers with slide rules.  Am I still having a nightmare? Need coffee. Lots of coffee. 


My slide rule vanished somewhere around 1973 never to be seen again

We had a couple at school and they were relics too. My science teacher used to use a Faber one to threaten us with and that was it 

My maths teacher in first year of gymnasium (year 10-12, not compulsory) had a demo model, about 1 metre wide, and did some simple examples on it, just to prove that it can be done.  We were Latin students, so had only one year math. He was really good, and made us "sniff" as he said on many different math subjects, just to make us aware they existed, and we also had to try our hand on most of it. I was surrounded by math escapees, so much of it was lost, but still managed to get some orientation.

But I'm basically still a math luser, in every aspect.