Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Brumby]

Just showing that picture wouldn't put me in the garage - or the storage shed - or the garden shed - or even the dog house... it would have me banished from the property altogether.


But .... veeeeery nice haul.   

[tggzzz]

I've put in a low bid for one[1] of my Solartron's service manual, i.e. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275355380246 "Solartron Digital Voltmeter LM 1620 Technical & Instruction Manual".

If I win it then I'll scan and upload it, so there's little need for other people buy it

[1] Top right in this picture

[srb1954]

I've done a bit of poking and prodding at that NLS DVM I mentioned a few days ago.  After replacing a thyratron tube that was cracked and had vented to atmosphere, I've gotten the stepper relays to run fairly reliably and it seems to measure more or less properly.


One big issue is that the relay contacts are cruddy as it sat unused for an unknown length of time in a basement, so unlike the full display in the picture above, in many instances one or more of the digits doesn't light up.


I'm working on making up a longer video showing the troubleshooting (actually sprung for editing software to try to string clips together for a change), but in the meantime, here is a quickie video showing how to clean the stepper relay contacts using Deoxit and a piece of paper.  They're still not perfect (some skips still), but are a whole lot better than they were a few nights ago.
youtube.com/watch?v=eeJXLf0qoNM

Now to do the rest of them...

-Pat

Ooohhhhhh, now that is some real quality porn right there.....

Do want! Tinkering with that at night with some random electronics youtube vids humming in the background is the dream.


Let that deoxit soak for a bit, the contacts will come good eventually with some excersise.

I want to hear the steppers clicking as the voltage varies. 

That's why we Germans would call this a "Klapperatismus"

It reminds me of an old telephone exchange, wonder if it sounds similar....

There are a few noises that, for me, are very evocative of the past. The Merlin aeroengine is one, Strowager exchanges are another, and then there's ASR33 teletypes.

summer of 1982 spent weeks in the ft bragg dco working on some long forgotten project not directly related to the switch.   the stepper sound would drive you nuts!

don't remember how big bragg was.....but somewhere over 10,000 lines.   for some reason the army used the term dco (dial central office) when the commercial world called them CO's.  but a guy from at&t once told me that the army did not own CO's.........just stinkin' pbx's.

in the busy hour this is exactly what it sounded like.

https://archive.org/details/NarboroughStrowgerTelephoneExchange

To get the full effect of how noisy a busy Strowger exchange can be you really need to be there when the local radio station has a phone-in contest. The whole exchange goes totally beserk as the huge number of the callers try to get a line through the exchange. The uniselectors rattle around trying to find to find a free line on the next level selectors but have to repeatedly keep retrying as all the outgoing  lines are tied up.

It all adds up to a complete cacophony of noise like a mad percussion orchestra.

[med6753]

Am I correct in assuming that all mechanical telephone exchanges have been taken off line?

[nixiefreqq]

Am I correct in assuming that all mechanical telephone exchanges have been taken off line?

don't know about the real world.  but iirc the army got rid of its last one in about 1990.  (ft AP Hill?)

we used to hear stories about the contractors who pulled them out selling them to central and south american telcos.

[Cerebus]

That makes it look suspiciously like this was the first ever bit of test kit designed to phone home. 

For the young and confused that's a Strowger reference.

[mnementh]

I've done a bit of poking and prodding at that NLS DVM I mentioned a few days ago.  After replacing a thyratron tube that was cracked and had vented to atmosphere, I've gotten the stepper relays to run fairly reliably and it seems to measure more or less properly.


-Pat

Damn, Pat... Does Ma Bell know you have half the Hartford exchange's relays there in that little box...? 

I know I'm gonna get some *cringe* over suggesting it... but on the reluctant ones, maybe some crocus cloth or 1500 grit wet-dry sanding film, followed by some card stock wetted with alcohol...?

I know I had similar *cringe* when Papa Smurf did it to the switch fingers/contact PCBs in one of his scopes... but here we are years later and they seem to have weathered the assault okay... 

mnem

[Cerebus]

it has not gone away

It never will. We'll get better at dealing with it, both as organisms and organisations of people. But no, it's out there. And that's how it's going to be.

Observation: The same people around a 4-seater table in a danish train (Copenhagen-Hamburg) are not deemed a risk in Denmark, but as soon as Die Bahn takes over in Flensburg, it's Maskenpflicht all over. I knew, having read up and also been to Portugal (where it's mandatory on public transport) so had a box with masks ready. A couple other people (from Sweden) obviously hadn't read the news, and since masks are quite uncommon in Sweden -- only mandated in healthcare at the moment, and never were much mandated apart from there -- they'd sort of forgotten how things are handled in the rest of the world. I and some other people quickly supplied them and all was well. Herr Schaffner was happy. And, of course; there's a story to this, but at the interfaces between systems for managing the epidemic, it becomes sometimes right silly.

I know too little to judge in the matter.

The only thing I'm going to state is that vaccinations are a good thing. As many as possible should take them. There, we have close to 200 years of improving science.

It's interesting when you compare national figures against each other, take the information gleaned from this source https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/28/denmark-the-first-country-to-halt-its-covid-vaccination-program.html and you can see that the number of recorded cases per million people can show how some countries have handled the virus reaction and suppression better than others.

For instance, on Feb 13th 2022, looking at Denmark, Sweden, UK and New Zealand for example, we can see the following results, form your own opinions.
Denmark 7,970
Sweden   1,540
UK          1,060
New Zealand   99.

Those are just numbers, literally. Until you label them properly they could be "number of people arrested on Feb 13th who were also in possession of a tube of Smarties" as far as we know. Take a virtual thwack across the back of the head with a ruler from my Junior Physics teacher.

[mnementh]

mnem

[Cerebus]

Am I correct in assuming that all mechanical telephone exchanges have been taken off line?

I'll have money on there still being some hidden away in Rural England or Wales. They claim to have decommissioned the last Strowger exchange on the British public network on the Isle of Jura in Sept. 1995. There are rumours that Railtrack still have some on their (extensive) private network and I find that all too believable.

[mnementh]

If a UPS is boiling a car battery, it would cook an SLA in half the time; the float voltage should be lower, and if it isn't, it's either (1) badly adjusted and/or (2) a POS.

If you deep discharge any lead acid you reduce its life, including so called deep cycle ones, and you do not deep cycle UPS batteries, unless you (a) have a lot of power cuts and also (b) don't do a controlled power down when the mains fails, and just run the UPS until low battery cutoff.

Maybe you have routinely seen One Hung Low brands in tiny UPSs like that, but I can assure you that the kind of places that use proper machines (50kVA and up) would shit a brick if you put crap like that in their battery string.

Yuasa and the like have much better quality lead. I don't care if it does come from the same place, they use the premium line, and the locals use the value brand.

And we are NOT talking about those machines; I know the difference, man... gimme a fucking break. You're making a straw-man argument here. Completely different class from the ones I serviced regularly, and I specifically stated that. As soon as I said 1.5-5KVA, I KNOW you knew the difference.

Those systems I worked/work on are mostly used used in retail, so aren't going to be the top tier, "failure is not an option" class machines... but even they are not the same class as this decades-old consumer grade unit from CompUSA.

What those classes of deployment use is irrelevant here. That is not appropriate technology for this application. That UPS probably came with a PowerSonic or equivalent Chinesium battery, and spending 40-50 bux on a genuine Yuasa "upgrade" is money wasted in this application.

As for the float charge... I think you need to review that. I know from personal experience that a new known good motorcycle or garden tractor battery used in this application will start to boil in a few days or a week; I've tried it on two different occasions. Shallow-cycle starting batteries do not tolerate constant float-charge the same way that deep-cycle batteries do.

I think you'll find the difference is in fact the IR of the battery... but I don't want to start another shit-flinging match here. 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Has anyone ever seen a calculator like this at all? I can't recall seeing anything like myself.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313959676347

looks like the one the predator wore on his wrist.

      https://www.amazon.com/Boogie-Board-8-5-Inch-Writing-PT01085CYAA0002/dp/B00AFPR68E/


It's just a cheap calcrapulator combined with one of these to jot notes on. The panel is not an input device; it's literally just electrically erasable notepaper.

mnem
 

[nixiefreqq]

Am I correct in assuming that all mechanical telephone exchanges have been taken off line?

I'll have money on there still being some hidden away in Rural England or Wales. They claim to have decommissioned the last Strowger exchange on the British public network on the Isle of Jura in Sept. 1995. There are rumours that Railtrack still have some on their (extensive) private network and I find that all too believable.

are you sure?  might have to dig a little deeper.

would have bet that in the public network there would be a union rule mandating the retention of manual plug switchboards.

[mnementh]

After peeking into some of the "IT closets" in the school where my wife works, I wouldn't be surprised to find some around New England as well. 


mnem

[Cerebus]

Am I correct in assuming that all mechanical telephone exchanges have been taken off line?

I'll have money on there still being some hidden away in Rural England or Wales. They claim to have decommissioned the last Strowger exchange on the British public network on the Isle of Jura in Sept. 1995. There are rumours that Railtrack still have some on their (extensive) private network and I find that all too believable.

are you sure?  might have to dig a little deeper.

would have bet that in the public network there would be a union rule mandating the retention of manual plug switchboards.

 

I think you underestimate quite how effectively the unions were gutted in this country starting in the Thatcher years. Remembering the years when the Communication Worker's Union could command that sort of power would no doubt result in retired members crying into their beer. The days when trades union members could expect to be invited to No. 10 Downing Street for a convivial chat over "beer and sandwiches" disappeared with Harold Wilson's Gannex mac.

[mnementh]

...the game warden advised not to go near it again for at least 4-6 hours when it would be cold to the core and that the virus became de-activated when cold.  no idea if he was right about that but i checked a couple of times during the day and at least once after dark and nothing had disturbed it.  the game warden said there was no need for him to come remove it.  also advised the farmer of its location and he said to just leave it be.

but that was back in about 1986 or so.   today a biohazard team in space suits would probably be airlifted into the cornfield.

heat (as in fire) would destroy the virus as well. Naturally this may be problematic if it's been dry for a prolonged time and the wild fire index is at a critical point ...

Target was dropped in the middle of a dirt road. I agree; kill it with fire.

mnem

[Specmaster]

@Vince,

Please can you refrain from calling Med or Papa Smurf, Allinson, he doesn't like it 

[mnementh]

Am I correct in assuming that all mechanical telephone exchanges have been taken off line?

I'll have money on there still being some hidden away in Rural England or Wales. They claim to have decommissioned the last Strowger exchange on the British public network on the Isle of Jura in Sept. 1995. There are rumours that Railtrack still have some on their (extensive) private network and I find that all too believable.

are you sure?  might have to dig a little deeper.   would have bet that in the public network there would be a union rule mandating the retention of manual plug switchboards.

I think you underestimate quite how effectively the unions were gutted in this country starting in the Thatcher years. Remembering the years when the Communication Worker's Union could command that sort of power would no doubt result in retired members crying into their beer. The days when trades union members could expect to be invited to No. 10 Downing Street for a convivial chat over "beer and sandwiches" disappeared with Harold Wilson's Gannex mac.

I was jess a senseless teenager then, tho I do still remember comedic assertions that Reagan and Thatcher were the respective male/females clones of Mussolini more than once for their union-busting jihads. Which do you suppose infected the other...? How bad was it over there back then...?

I'm just curious how it felt from a "sitting around the pub for a brew" perspective... not the political crap. Was it really as obvious over there what was being stolen away as it was over here?

mnem
*historical theater*

[mnementh]

   An auction score from the FB group Old Tek Scopes. He didn't state how much in total he paid but he did state that the plug-in's were as little as $8/each. Given the total it still adds up to a significant chunk of change but the total amount of gear is unreal.    And I thought two Type 547's, five plug-in's and two carts for $200 was a score.   

Look Allison, it pains me to tell you this, but all that stuff is old worthless junk, a recycler would even CHARGE you to waste his time and petrol to come collect all that stuff.
But because your husband was my best friend, I will empty the garage myself for free. No need to thank me, I am trying to ease your pain, I owe that to your husband...

@Vince,

Please can you refrain from calling Med or Papa Smurf, Allison, he doesn't like it 

mnem

[Specmaster]

it has not gone away

It never will. We'll get better at dealing with it, both as organisms and organisations of people. But no, it's out there. And that's how it's going to be.

Observation: The same people around a 4-seater table in a danish train (Copenhagen-Hamburg) are not deemed a risk in Denmark, but as soon as Die Bahn takes over in Flensburg, it's Maskenpflicht all over. I knew, having read up and also been to Portugal (where it's mandatory on public transport) so had a box with masks ready. A couple other people (from Sweden) obviously hadn't read the news, and since masks are quite uncommon in Sweden -- only mandated in healthcare at the moment, and never were much mandated apart from there -- they'd sort of forgotten how things are handled in the rest of the world. I and some other people quickly supplied them and all was well. Herr Schaffner was happy. And, of course; there's a story to this, but at the interfaces between systems for managing the epidemic, it becomes sometimes right silly.

I know too little to judge in the matter.

The only thing I'm going to state is that vaccinations are a good thing. As many as possible should take them. There, we have close to 200 years of improving science.

It's interesting when you compare national figures against each other, take the information gleaned from this source https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/28/denmark-the-first-country-to-halt-its-covid-vaccination-program.html  and you can see that the number of recorded cases per million people can show how some countries have handled the virus reaction and suppression better than others.

For instance, on Feb 13th 2022, looking at Denmark, Sweden, UK and New Zealand for example, we can see the following results, form your own opinions.
Denmark 7,970
Sweden   1,540
UK          1,060
New Zealand   99.

Those are just numbers, literally. Until you label them properly they could be "number of people arrested on Feb 13th who were also in possession of a tube of Smarties" as far as we know. Take a virtual thwack across the back of the head with a ruler from my Junior Physics teacher.

Oh no they aren't, these are figures pulled off the interactive chart on the CNBC website that the link refers to and I thought that there would no need to elaborate any more because I already stated the relationship in my post (now coloured to make it stand out more) 

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/28/denmark-the-first-country-to-halt-its-covid-vaccination-program.html

So now you take a virtual thwack across the back of the head with a ruler from my Junior Physics teacher. 

Edit: Link added in again as the first link does not working with the colour added to the rest of the message 

[McBryce]

it has not gone away

It never will. We'll get better at dealing with it, both as organisms and organisations of people. But no, it's out there. And that's how it's going to be.

Observation: The same people around a 4-seater table in a danish train (Copenhagen-Hamburg) are not deemed a risk in Denmark, but as soon as Die Bahn takes over in Flensburg, it's Maskenpflicht all over. I knew, having read up and also been to Portugal (where it's mandatory on public transport) so had a box with masks ready. A couple other people (from Sweden) obviously hadn't read the news, and since masks are quite uncommon in Sweden -- only mandated in healthcare at the moment, and never were much mandated apart from there -- they'd sort of forgotten how things are handled in the rest of the world. I and some other people quickly supplied them and all was well. Herr Schaffner was happy. And, of course; there's a story to this, but at the interfaces between systems for managing the epidemic, it becomes sometimes right silly.

I know too little to judge in the matter.

The only thing I'm going to state is that vaccinations are a good thing. As many as possible should take them. There, we have close to 200 years of improving science.

It's interesting when you compare national figures against each other, take the information gleaned from this source https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/28/denmark-the-first-country-to-halt-its-covid-vaccination-program.html and you can see that the number of recorded cases per million people can show how some countries have handled the virus reaction and suppression better than others.

For instance, on Feb 13th 2022, looking at Denmark, Sweden, UK and New Zealand for example, we can see the following results, form your own opinions.
Denmark 7,970
Sweden   1,540
UK          1,060
New Zealand   99.

Those are just numbers, literally. Until you label them properly they could be "number of people arrested on Feb 13th who were also in possession of a tube of Smarties" as far as we know. Take a virtual thwack across the back of the head with a ruler from my Junior Physics teacher.

Oh no they aren't, these are figures pulled off the interactive chart on the CNN website that the link refers to and I thought that there would no need to elaborate any more because I already stated the relationship in my post (now coloured to make it stand out more) 

So now you take a virtual thwack across the back of the head with a ruler from my Junior Physics teacher. 

No matter what the source, if you don't know that all countries are doing the same amount and type of testing then the numbers still have no meaning.

McBryce.

[nixiefreqq]

Am I correct in assuming that all mechanical telephone exchanges have been taken off line?

I'll have money on there still being some hidden away in Rural England or Wales. They claim to have decommissioned the last Strowger exchange on the British public network on the Isle of Jura in Sept. 1995. There are rumours that Railtrack still have some on their (extensive) private network and I find that all too believable.

are you sure?  might have to dig a little deeper.

would have bet that in the public network there would be a union rule mandating the retention of manual plug switchboards.

 

I think you underestimate quite how effectively the unions were gutted in this country starting in the Thatcher years. Remembering the years when the Communication Worker's Union could command that sort of power would no doubt result in retired members crying into their beer. The days when trades union members could expect to be invited to No. 10 Downing Street for a convivial chat over "beer and sandwiches" disappeared with Harold Wilson's Gannex mac.

oh ok.  my comment was prompted by my experience at a large (4 stories tall) dept store in the 70's.  (part time college student years)

it was a closed shop and all sales ladies (or us stock-boys) were in the retail clerks union.  noticed that every cash register had two phones beside them.  one was black and went to a manual plugboard manned by little old ladies.  the other was green and went to a strowger switch. 

so naturally i asked why we had two totally separate and redundant systems in one crappy store.  it was explained to me that the stepper switch was maintained by union communication workers and that the little old ladies on the plugboard were teamsters.  and that if i liked my kneecaps it was time to STFU.

maybe times have changed.

[Neper]

...and then there's ASR33 teletypes.

Or the controller of a German E10 electric loco:

https://youtu.be/0hWA_pKBhVk

[Specmaster]

it has not gone away

It never will. We'll get better at dealing with it, both as organisms and organisations of people. But no, it's out there. And that's how it's going to be.

Observation: The same people around a 4-seater table in a danish train (Copenhagen-Hamburg) are not deemed a risk in Denmark, but as soon as Die Bahn takes over in Flensburg, it's Maskenpflicht all over. I knew, having read up and also been to Portugal (where it's mandatory on public transport) so had a box with masks ready. A couple other people (from Sweden) obviously hadn't read the news, and since masks are quite uncommon in Sweden -- only mandated in healthcare at the moment, and never were much mandated apart from there -- they'd sort of forgotten how things are handled in the rest of the world. I and some other people quickly supplied them and all was well. Herr Schaffner was happy. And, of course; there's a story to this, but at the interfaces between systems for managing the epidemic, it becomes sometimes right silly.

I know too little to judge in the matter.

The only thing I'm going to state is that vaccinations are a good thing. As many as possible should take them. There, we have close to 200 years of improving science.

It's interesting when you compare national figures against each other, take the information gleaned from this source https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/28/denmark-the-first-country-to-halt-its-covid-vaccination-program.html and you can see that the number of recorded cases per million people can show how some countries have handled the virus reaction and suppression better than others.

For instance, on Feb 13th 2022, looking at Denmark, Sweden, UK and New Zealand for example, we can see the following results, form your own opinions.
Denmark 7,970
Sweden   1,540
UK          1,060
New Zealand   99.

Those are just numbers, literally. Until you label them properly they could be "number of people arrested on Feb 13th who were also in possession of a tube of Smarties" as far as we know. Take a virtual thwack across the back of the head with a ruler from my Junior Physics teacher.

Oh no they aren't, these are figures pulled off the interactive chart on the CNN website that the link refers to and I thought that there would no need to elaborate any more because I already stated the relationship in my post (now coloured to make it stand out more) 

So now you take a virtual thwack across the back of the head with a ruler from my Junior Physics teacher. 

No matter what the source, if you don't know that all countries are doing the same amount and type of testing then the numbers still have no meaning.

McBryce.

When a site quotes these kind of figures, you have to take it on the chin that they have done all the due care and diligence, unless of course you know otherwise...   

[mnementh]

Meanwhile, Saskia the resident Valkyrie is thinking this:   

mnem