Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[25 CPS]

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.

That's similar to what the government was in the process of doing here about 7-8 years ago.  It was going to be bumped to 67 from 65 and there was talk of moving it to 70 but I don't think a date had been set for that.  In any event, that got scratched after a new government was elected so it's still 65.  For now.  Frankly, after the eyepopping increase in Canada Pension Plan premiums the last two years (contribution rates went up because they are determined based on average wages which skewed upward due to a lot of low paying jobs being shut down over the pandemic), the plan ought to be healthy enough for people to continue to retire at 65.

this is sick and perverted.   https://paxer.net/voyager/

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

   

You're right... it really is... Welcome to the pervy side. 

PX-15c Kit: https://www.tindie.com/products/24750/

PX-16c Kit: https://www.tindie.com/products/24844/

PX-41c Kit: https://www.tindie.com/products/24965/

mnem
They're also available fully assembled/tested for only +$20... 

That is seriously cool.  I actually broke down and ordered one.  It'll be a fun little build.

[kleiner Rainer]

I do like to use the datasheets from TI (LM723, see attachement).
There is another one from TI for the uA723, attached it as well.

If you want to have a look at the die, check out this thread: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/lm723-die-pictures/

For more details, check out the website from Wolfgang (TEA fellow here as well): https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/power-supplies/a-collection-of-proper-design-practices-using-the-lm723-ic-regulator/

The TI datasheet for the LM723 shows a modification National did sometime in the 80s: they replaced the zener reference with a Brokaw bandgap reference. Look at page 15, Q21 and Q22: classic Brokaw reference. Assuming 1.23V at the base of Q22, and ignoring Q23 and Q24 (probably curvature correction), we arrive at a reference voltage of 7.09something V. Noopys die picture of the National LM723J https://www.richis-lab.de/LM723_02.htm clearly shows the 10:1 area difference of the two bandgap transistors. Another hint are the two test pads to zener zap the reference to the correct value - never seen that on the classic zener based 723.
BTW the zener in the classic 723 is NOT a buried zener - it is a reverse biased B-E junction. See Noopys picture here: https://www.richis-lab.de/LM723_08.htm

Greetings,

Rainer

old hand at working with 723s - first time 40 years ago during my internship, repairing Interdata computer power supplies (linear, several 100W output (5V, +-12V, fan-cooled and heavy as hell).

[mnementh]

...Have some vermin in one of the Jeffreys tubes / crawlways in 1st floor. Need to think of a way to get rid of it without causing too much damage to the house. Obviously a Claymore is not an option.

Obviously... no room to swing a Claymore. This is what you need:



mnem
                                                                Full-res Wallpaper here.

[Vince]

April 2016, so about 6 years old.. and already unrepairable in several accounts.  And they dare to sell this thing still TODAY, for freaking 120 Euros !!! 

So it cost €1.67 a month

Clearly that value was derived from it. Recycle it and move on.

Have to realistically look at everything like that now.

 

What a crap world we live in... it's going a bit more south with each passing year, pfff....

Just buttoned the turd back up, and now the CD open/close switch works perfectly ?!     

Which means I guess it might as well stop working any time. Not my problem.... want me to fix it.. gimme schematics and parts. Else, go away and don't complain...

So the CD player is now "operable".. you just need to help the tray by hand to open and close it, but other than that it works. Takes half an hour to read the TOC though, so the transport might be tired... or not, and it was just crap from day one. Don't care.... it can read a CD eventually, what else do you want...  Just noticed there isn't even a way / controls available to fast forward or rewind ! You can just play, stop, or change track.. that's it. In 2022, for 120 Euros.... really ? 

[factory]

Nope, most things these days have the bare minimum amount of buttons, everything else is either on a remote control, or some bullshit app or voice control garbage. 

I see Shango066 fell for a modern retro-styled Crosley tape/radio/MP3 piece of shite, the radio is garbage, tape mono only, who knows how long the MP3 thingy will work for, also bet the mode slider switch will wear our very quickly.


PS: he did EOL a retro Crosley turn table a few years ago, it got some nice lawnmower action. 

David

[mansaxel]

Today, after all that sailing, I and Middle Boy spent the day doing the last of the "yearly suspension renovation". We swapped out springs and shocks in the rear, a job much easier on the AWD model than the FWD one. The AWD has a McPherson style strut that goes out of the car in compressed mode, and is then renovated on the bench, whereas the FWD clamps the spring between a control arm and the chassis. It takes lots of jury-rigged jacks and swearing to fix the FWD. I won't do that again, not without the special tool Volvo prescribes. The AWD takes a pillar-style jack between the control arm and the rubber anti-bottoming-out dumper "shoe" in the chassis, which bends the suspension down, unloads the strut which comes out like nothing, once all 4 screws are out!, and then the swearing and cursing part can take place at the bench, where spring compressors can be at play.



We gathered nearly all of the swapped-out parts in a box, to tell the previous owners (They're family) what we'd done.

[bd139]

Nope, most things these days have the bare minimum amount of buttons, everything else is either on a remote control, or some bullshit app or voice control garbage. 

I see Shango066 fell for a retro Crosley tape/radio/MP3 piece of shite, the radio is garbage, tape mono only, who knows how long the MP3 thingy will work for, also bet the mode slider switch will wear our very quickly.


David

I'm actually fine with this. The first thing that used to fail on all 1970s-2010s consumer electronics from experience were the tactile and physical controls followed immediately by any media transport. That hasn't changed really but the effort to minimise the number of physical controls and remove mechanical complexity is a decent improvement on device longevity and quality.

Even if I compare phones, back in the day I wore a hole through several keys on my Nokia 3510i in under a year. Modern smartphones can look and work like new after 2 years, if the vendor hasn't abandoned the infernal things. We can do the same with other consumer electronics.

[mansaxel]

I'm actually fine with this. The first thing that used to fail on all 1970s-2010s consumer electronics from experience were the tactile and physical controls followed immediately by any media transport. That hasn't changed really but the effort to minimise the number of physical controls and remove mechanical complexity is a decent improvement on device longevity and quality.

Even if I compare phones, back in the day I wore a hole through several keys on my Nokia 3510i in under a year. Modern smartphones can look and work like new after 2 years, if the vendor hasn't abandoned the infernal things. We can do the same with other consumer electronics.

You are 100% right.  The only thing that makes me do the things I do to my home sound system, is that I want to be in control as much as possible about what I can play. I've got a Squeezebox, and I run it in the local server mode. Because then I can point it to an area in my file storage, and it will play every format known from there, not counting the Tidal snake oil,of course.  It also plays all the Internet radio I can find. Most of it in nicely curated preset lists.  There's a FLOSS client for Android that I can use to control the system. Locally, also when I've got no Internet connection. The client has an entry field for the address of the server, so I don't have to go all mDNS / everything on one LAN security nightmare crap.

I also have a 100% analog multi-room system, because I don't trust companies like Sonos to refrain from doing a Nest.

Recently I added a BT receiver to the multiroom system. Very convenient. It's like all those app shite systems but without the lock-in.

I fully appreciate the ease of those new solutions, but being in control -- where it matters -- is important to me. Also, TE-grade record players like my SL1000 Swedish Radio Edition need this to actually play along.

What I miss is a good RS232 or IP  controlled FM tuner. With balanced outputs.

[Robert763]

Not much TEA going on here.
Spent mos of the long weekend painting and decorating to keep SWMBO happy.
I did pick up a document scanner. I've been thinking about one of the little desktop duplex scanners for a while. I've used a Fuji ScanSnap at work which was OK but they seem to have high prices used. My multifunction laser printer can scan but it's simplex and runn a full manual through it by hand is a pain. I have a unobtanium TE manual that I needed to scan so had another look on ebay. I found a Brother ADS-2100e pretty cheap but made an offer anyway and got it for £34 including shipping 
It arrived today and while packing was barely adequate, it seemed to have survived. The ADS-2100e can scan directly to PDF on a USB stick so I tried that first. A quick trial had big chunks of image missing. It looked like a digital issue rather than optical. Then I had a thought, the USB stick I'd grabbed was an old no-name one. Tried a newer Sandisk and it all works fine. So I'll be scanning a lot of older manuals and databooks.

[med6753]

Question for you apple juice lovers.

Can you get Mozilla Firefox for iPhone and iPad?

Edit.....nevermind. Yes you can.

[mnementh]

Submitted for Your Approval: Teryaki Pork Roast

10lb pork shoulder roast bought on special for $10; heavily molested with the Jaccard, then oodles of Teryaki sauce rubbed into the perforations. After that, seared both sides and my usual garlic, onions and Red Bell pepper rub and laid on a bed of carrots to start cooking while I chop up my usual mix of onions, celery, yukon gold taters and portobello shrooms. Now done with the Texas Crutch and in the oven at 275° Funkentstört (hey, I want the noise floor as low as possible on my pork roast  ) until the alarm goes off at 190° F.

Gonna bake some taters and maybe some steamed Normandy blend veggies; maybe a big pot of rice for the wife & kiddles.

mnem

[mnementh]

Question for you apple juice lovers.

Can you get Mozilla Firefox for iPhone and iPad?

Any iPwn/iPud with iOS 13.0 and above.

mnem
Safari was made for AOL users.

[med6753]

Question for you apple juice lovers.

Can you get Mozilla Firefox for iPhone and iPad?

Any iPwn/iPud with iOS 13.0 and above.

mnem
Safari was made for AOL users.

Thanks. Already got answer. Google was my friend.

[BU508A]

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?

I looked and googled around but haven't found anything better so far.
Maybe, with some luck, one can find them on a ham fest.

[BU508A]

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

My backround picture since years is the full moon picture made by Hubble. It was composed of many individual images.
I've attached the highest resolution (8211 x 8652) which I've downloaded in 2008 from nasa.gov.
For my purposes I'm just cutting out the part I want and try not to resize the picture.
The .jpg has a size of ca. 3.6 MByte.

[Specmaster]

As requested, here is a link to some footage of the Steam Gala I  attended on 3rd June at Epping and Ongar railway. Still getting to grips with the editing software, still some schoolboy mistakes in this compilation that I need to address in due course. Also, it is evident that I need to invest in a tripod and external microphone. The sun was way too bright to really use the flip out screen, so I had to use the viewfinder and not only can you hear plenty of wind noise but also sometimes my breathing, due to the location of the built-in microphones 

Still almost an hour's footage, including some shot from the train as it passed through part of Epping forest, to process.
https://youtu.be/r_eXuVU_9Wo

[med6753]

As requested, here is a link to some footage of the Steam Gala I  attended on 3rd June at Epping and Ongar railway. Still getting to grips with the editing software, still some schoolboy mistakes in this compilation that I need to address in due course. Also, it is evident that I need to invest in a tripod and external microphone. The sun was way too bright to really use the flip out screen, so I had to use the viewfinder and not only can you hear plenty of wind noise but also sometimes my breathing, due to the location of the built-in microphones 

Still almost an hour's footage, including some shot from the train as it passed through part of Epping forest, to process.
https://youtu.be/r_eXuVU_9Wo

The video is set to private.

[bd139]

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?

I looked and googled around but haven't found anything better so far.
Maybe, with some luck, one can find them on a ham fest.

Oh those buggers. One of the only production bit of electronics I ever designed replaced the Motorola equivalent of one of them with a daughter board.

It used an LM317 as the main reference and positive rail and a LM358 to drive the PNP pass transistor for the negative rail and a voltage divider chain. I can’t remember how it was wired up though now. Could probably design it again.

[Specmaster]

As requested, here is a link to some footage of the Steam Gala I  attended on 3rd June at Epping and Ongar railway. Still getting to grips with the editing software, still some schoolboy mistakes in this compilation that I need to address in due course. Also, it is evident that I need to invest in a tripod and external microphone. The sun was way too bright to really use the flip out screen, so I had to use the viewfinder and not only can you hear plenty of wind noise but also sometimes my breathing, due to the location of the built-in microphones 

Still almost an hour's footage, including some shot from the train as it passed through part of Epping forest, to process.
https://youtu.be/r_eXuVU_9Wo

The video is set to private.

Sorry, try again.

[mnementh]

mn3m
*diversionary tactic*

[DH7DN]

Took some photographs of a Keysight N5743A System DC Power Supply (12.5 V, 60 A, 750 W). I got it very cheap because of a minor fault: the Over Voltage Protection is tripping whenever the output is turned on. It boots up, seems to have no other fail modes. There is probably a blown fuse/diode/transistor in the OVP circuit somewhere. Gotta find it (and hopefully not kill myself) 

Shameless self-promotion: I have some pictures of test equipment in my Blog and in my Test Equipment Photon Gallery! Feel free to explore! 

Front


Back


Top


AC input


AC input daughter board


DC output stage


DC output connectors


Digital processing (GPIB, LAN, basically it's a small computer with an embedded web server)

[Cubdriver]

Took some photographs of a Keysight N5743A System DC Power Supply (12.5 V, 60 A, 750 W). I got it very cheap because of a minor fault: the Over Voltage Protection is tripping whenever the output is turned on. It boots up, seems to have no other fail modes. There is probably a blown fuse/diode/transistor in the OVP circuit somewhere. Gotta find it (and hopefully not kill myself) 

Shameless self-promotion: I have some pictures of test equipment in my Blog and in my Test Equipment Photon Gallery! Feel free to explore! 

Front


Back


Top


AC input


AC input daughter board


DC output stage


DC output connectors


Digital processing (GPIB, LAN, basically it's a small computer with an embedded web server)

Nice photos - excellent, smooth, even lighting! (Almost always a challenge in my experience, though better since I've gotten a few additional lights)

Good luck with the repair; please keep us up on your progress.

-Pat

[mnementh]

When Toyota makes a Rolls Royce:



mnem
Even Toyota knows Lexus is for posers. 

[med6753]

As requested, here is a link to some footage of the Steam Gala I  attended on 3rd June at Epping and Ongar railway. Still getting to grips with the editing software, still some schoolboy mistakes in this compilation that I need to address in due course. Also, it is evident that I need to invest in a tripod and external microphone. The sun was way too bright to really use the flip out screen, so I had to use the viewfinder and not only can you hear plenty of wind noise but also sometimes my breathing, due to the location of the built-in microphones 

Still almost an hour's footage, including some shot from the train as it passed through part of Epping forest, to process.
https://youtu.be/r_eXuVU_9Wo

The video is set to private.

Nice video.  But that whistle is much too polite. "Please give way to me".

Needs "Get the fuck out of my way" 

[Specmaster]

When Toyota makes a Rolls Royce:



mnem
Even Toyota knows Lexus is for posers. 

I watched that same video last week, impressive car in many ways. Many of the features they discuss, footrests etc, my car has as well and that drop down panel in the front passenger seat, my car can also have that in just about every country where they are sold, except the UK