Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Oh ffs:

6216C. 115V. £200. Are they fucking serious?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403768045428

[med6753]

Oh ffs:

6216C. 115V. £200. Are they fucking serious?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403768045428

That's what happens when you Brits have a heat wave. 

Back at you. 

[Cerebus]

TBF I spent four days at a non aircon accommodation block (basically low grade motel) at Edwards AFB once when it was 40 oC and I didn't melt. I'm a lot less of a lard ass now so might survive still  .  Oh and Taco Bell every night 

That was a depressing week. My only trip to the US to date 

Ok dumb question but I really don't know - do you all need AC at all over there at any time of the year?

Nope.

You get it in some offices and some public transport and that’s about it.

We shipped all the pussies to the other side of the pond 

I have it in the car, where it wasn't a choice, it was already there, and I have had one in the bedroom for three summers now.

I'm not fussed by daytime heat, but our hefty Victorian end of terrace just soaks up heat in the summer and doesn't cool down much at night. I'm already a "hot sleeper" and can get too hot in bed in the middle of winter. Once we started getting summers where the bedroom temperature would not fall significantly at night I started getting unpleasantly uncomfortable. So I got a portable 4kW air conditioner and run it for a few hours before bedtime then turn it off.

Here's the Kitchen temperature for the past day as an indication of what the bedroom would be like without cooling:



(Yes, I do have a bunch of Zigbee thermometers feeding into an MQTT instance.  )

I use the car air con because it's there but could happily live without it. The best thing about it is that you can turn it on remotely and so don't have to slap your bare beshorted legs onto a red hot car seat - that alone is worth the price of admission.

[AVGresponding]

Yeah, that's why the wheels flip out a la James Bond's TR7. Too bad these pontoons don't self-deploy like the TR-7's diving planes;

mnem

Dear Mnem,

This is a Lotus Esprit S1:




And this is a Triumph TR7:




Now go and sit in the corner and think about what you've done.

[AVGresponding]

Oh ffs:

6216C. 115V. £200. Are they fucking serious?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403768045428

That's what happens when you Brits have a heat wave. 

Back at you. 

Look at the seller. I'm surprised the price is so low.

[tggzzz]

Hey BD, I think I have found the ultimate mode of transport for you, it gives you a bike, a boat, a camper and it even has space for picking up your local TE purchases and shopping, and it's electric, what do you all think?

https://betriton.com/

So basically they made a shit bike, a shit boat and a shit camper in one unit 

That was always one problem with cars that fly. The other is to meet the regulations for both.

The problem with cars that fly is that idiots that drive are bad enough. Flying idiots would be even worse.

Edit: although I think flying idiots is better than self driving cars.

But when you could have improved in the air, friends tell you and you listen.

My flying has been more along the lines of "Oooh look, that aircraft is doing something interesting; I'll toddle over and play along with them". Other times it has been "oh, he is barrelling upwards towards me; I'll get out of his way then go back and see if I can copy him".

This illustrates an extreme "traffic jam". The photographer thinks there were 43 aircraft, but didn't have time to count twice.

Ooh, that looks like an accident waiting to happen, just how the hell do you recover that number of craft quickly, when the thermal runs out, you're all going to be jockeying for that landing slot before you pile in nose first in the grass.

If they are in a thermal, they are a long way from the end of the flight. If near the end of a flight, a competition pilot will be going as fast as possible (i.e. using energy up as quickly as possible) such that they only have suffcient energy to do a circuit.

That leads almost inevitably to this kind of thing (skip to 6:30).... But that is relatively uncluttered, since it is large field and none of them are crossing the line side-by-side.

"more landings per minute than JFK"


Even pre-solo, my daughter was one of three gliders landing abreast of each other in a much smaller field (at a pinch there could have been another two). You don't get to "go around", so you make best use of the available grass. Good pilots can stop so that they park the wingtip in the hand of a person standing up, so they don't have to stoop to pick it up.

Competition pilots don't always get it right. Skip to 1:30 and see if you can spot the airstrip... (from 2009, before cameras became good!)



More of a concern in that gaggle is that there might be a collision. That's when the seat cushion is used for its main raison d'etre.

Now this is what you call real gliding, must have stones made of steel to sit on this thing 

(At least they aren't using their legs as undercarriage)

How do you think the Luftwaffe managed to train so many pilots ready for WW2? Typical launch method (skip to 1:00, count to twelve)...

[AVGresponding]

Here are some (hopefully) more sensible ebay picks to help take the taste away:



This is a relist, dropped by £20. I'd say it's worth it, unless someone spots something horrid I missed:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225059006338





This one's not working, not sure what's wrong with it exactly...  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354159745871



Not cheap I know, but this is CDL, expect chunky price drops when they relist it.



Another one from CDL to play relisting roulette with:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374172573865





Oddball little DMM:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225050797249





This dusty little number had a stablemate that went for £1 (collection only), was an HP 66xx as new! (Yes I forgot to post that one in time, sorry)  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334492263096





Giant TTi psu for BD to umm and ah over:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204032665041





A couple of these, sort of a set:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144640913709  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144640915004

 

I'm the first bid on both of them, but I'm not serious.



Just in case anyone is thinking of bidding on this, be warned the seller can be a bit flaky:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134169360767





Seller has two of these, seems a reasonable opening bid price:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265775407943





This would be a steal at this price:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225065600106





Dodgy psu?  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165572562462





Yeah, nah mate...  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403766823289





Central screen goodness:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144631693525





Probably some nice parts in this? @Robert763  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325260884419

[tggzzz]

However it turns out that kubernetes doesn’t see the state change where hypervisor nodes disappear as something [which should cause it to be]  rebalancing load. It just doesn’t do anything and 1/3 of your capacity goes offline. And thus we learn the failure modes of a cluster platform written by amateurs on crack backed with marketoids.

Moral of the story, never trust people who treat language in an ugly way to be elegant or correct in implementing anything. The more buzzwords and neologisms, the less likely it is to work.

Oh it's simpler than that. It's just built by people with no experience of reliable distributed systems.

Why bring "distributed" into it; "experience" and "reliable" are sufficient Plus the ability to spout word salad and move on before the mutated salad hits the fan.

[McBryce]

Hey BD, I think I have found the ultimate mode of transport for you, it gives you a bike, a boat, a camper and it even has space for picking up your local TE purchases and shopping, and it's electric, what do you all think?

https://betriton.com/

So basically they made a shit bike, a shit boat and a shit camper in one unit 

That was always one problem with cars that fly. The other is to meet the regulations for both.

The problem with cars that fly is that idiots that drive are bad enough. Flying idiots would be even worse.

Edit: although I think flying idiots is better than self driving cars.

But when you could have improved in the air, friends tell you and you listen.

My flying has been more along the lines of "Oooh look, that aircraft is doing something interesting; I'll toddle over and play along with them". Other times it has been "oh, he is barrelling upwards towards me; I'll get out of his way then go back and see if I can copy him".

This illustrates an extreme "traffic jam". The photographer thinks there were 43 aircraft, but didn't have time to count twice.

Thanks for the reminder. After many years of flying Cessna (172 and 182) a friend suggested I should try gliding. One flight with him was enough to know "never again". Those audible instruments drove me crazy after just a few minutes.

McBryce.

[capt bullshot]

Well, I finally got one! The fabled true 50ohm 1% Tektronix '012-0482-00' coax cable for my SG503. 

Want a 012-0057-01, too?



I have an special offer, since mine is true vintage and apparently made of pure tektronium, it's just 5 times the price tag of this one  :

[factory]

Here are some (hopefully) more sensible ebay picks to help take the taste away:

This one's not working, not sure what's wrong with it exactly...  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354159745871



Not cheap I know, but this is CDL, expect chunky price drops when they relist it.

This dusty little number had a stablemate that went for £1 (collection only), was an HP 66xx as new! (Yes I forgot to post that one in time, sorry)  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334492263096

Was watching that Tek last week, graffiti states PSU U/S (tants or something more serious?) and X amp U/S, the X amp board pictures on Tekwiki show lots of custom hybrids.  Massive doorstop maybe, till you find another frame. 

The HP 66xx ended early of a best offer, must have gone for more than a pound. 

Might have a go at the mA source if it doesn't go stupid high.

David

[bd139]

Well, I finally got one! The fabled true 50ohm 1% Tektronix '012-0482-00' coax cable for my SG503. 

Want a 012-0057-01, too?



I have an special offer, since mine is true vintage and apparently made of pure tektronium, it's just 5 times the price tag of this one  :

FFS they just bought a box of shit ones and picked the 1 out of 10 which did whatever magic with a VNA was required to pass it.

[Specmaster]

TBF I spent four days at a non aircon accommodation block (basically low grade motel) at Edwards AFB once when it was 40 oC and I didn't melt. I'm a lot less of a lard ass now so might survive still  .  Oh and Taco Bell every night 

That was a depressing week. My only trip to the US to date 

Ok dumb question but I really don't know - do you all need AC at all over there at any time of the year?

For most of the year the answer to your question is no, but at times such as now with the temperatures in the high 20s and low 30s, then the answer is yes and I think it is now only a matter of time before we see homes being fitted with some form of AC. It is almost if not impossible to buy a new car these days without it having AC fitted.

[Specmaster]

TBF I spent four days at a non aircon accommodation block (basically low grade motel) at Edwards AFB once when it was 40 oC and I didn't melt. I'm a lot less of a lard ass now so might survive still  .  Oh and Taco Bell every night 

That was a depressing week. My only trip to the US to date 

Ok dumb question but I really don't know - do you all need AC at all over there at any time of the year?

Nope.

You get it in some offices and some public transport and that’s about it.

We shipped all the pussies to the other side of the pond 

I have it in the car, where it wasn't a choice, it was already there, and I have had one in the bedroom for three summers now.

I'm not fussed by daytime heat, but our hefty Victorian end of terrace just soaks up heat in the summer and doesn't cool down much at night. I'm already a "hot sleeper" and can get too hot in bed in the middle of winter. Once we started getting summers where the bedroom temperature would not fall significantly at night I started getting unpleasantly uncomfortable. So I got a portable 4kW air conditioner and run it for a few hours before bedtime then turn it off.

Here's the Kitchen temperature for the past day as an indication of what the bedroom would be like without cooling:



(Yes, I do have a bunch of Zigbee thermometers feeding into an MQTT instance.  )

I use the car air con because it's there but could happily live without it. The best thing about it is that you can turn it on remotely and so don't have to slap your bare beshorted legs onto a red hot car seat - that alone is worth the price of admission.

Hmm, yes well the temperature right now in my bedroom is 32^oC and that is with the curtains drawn to keep the sun out (and my bedroom faces due north so does not direct sun) and with the bedroom door closed to keep warm air from the front of the house (south facing) entering, so my house would certainly benefit from AC. That said however, it would be another matter of paying the running costs.

[mnementh]

On a more serious note. As someone who did quite a lot of messing about in boats in his youth, to me that instinctively looks very top heavy. My guess is if you took that out on anything choppier than a millpond, or leant overboard too far, that thing would be upside down in the blink of an eye. 

   Yeah, that's why the wheels flip out a la James Bond's TR7 Lotus British rustbox.

(1) That's even worse, move more weight UP, and remove what little keel like effect the wheels would have provided.
 
(2) That was NOT a TR7.

THIS is a TR7:   

You've forced me, to force you, to use up your stock of eye-bleach.

You're absolutely right; I beg your pardon. Now corrected.

mnem
 

[bd139]

On a more serious note. As someone who did quite a lot of messing about in boats in his youth, to me that instinctively looks very top heavy. My guess is if you took that out on anything choppier than a millpond, or leant overboard too far, that thing would be upside down in the blink of an eye. 

   Yeah, that's why the wheels flip out a la James Bond's TR7 Lotus British rustbox.

(1) That's even worse, move more weight UP, and remove what little keel like effect the wheels would have provided.
 
(2) That was NOT a TR7.

THIS is a TR7:   

You've forced me, to force you, to use up your stock of eye-bleach.

You're absolutely correct; I beg your pardon. Now corrected.

mnem
 

For reference:

Lotus: will get nicked.
 
TR7: garage around it is more likely to get nicked.

[Specmaster]

Oh ffs:

6216C. 115V. £200. Are they fucking serious?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403768045428

That's what happens when you Brits have a heat wave. 

Back at you. 

Well really its more of a case of, right back at you, seeing as it of course of American origin, it is a 110 to 125V device fitted with an American 3 pin plug and lead. I think that the seller might well have been looking at completed listings on eBay at similar devices from America that have been purchased over here in the UK off the USA eBay site.

[mnementh]

Damn you tggzzz!!! Since I clicked on your prehistoric glider vid, now they're all that comes up in my feed.

mnem
Food for thought, thought from food.

[tggzzz]

Thanks for the reminder. After many years of flying Cessna (172 and 182) a friend suggested I should try gliding. One flight with him was enough to know "never again". Those audible instruments drove me crazy after just a few minutes.

Better a warble encouraging you to go/stay somewhere than a radio giving instructions as to what you can/can't do

[mnementh]

Yeah, that's why the wheels flip out a la James Bond's TR7. Too bad these pontoons don't self-deploy like the TR-7's diving planes;

mnem

Dear mnem - This is a Lotus Esprit S1:       And this is a Triumph TR7:   

Now go and sit in the corner and think about what you've done.

I have: Aside from the fact neither car could keep the water out to save its owner's life, at least Wet Nellie had an excuse for the fact the operator had to wear SCUBA gear. Also... I wish it were me who bought the car for $100 after it'd been lost to a forgotten storage unit in Long Island...

mnem
...just so I could sell it.   

[tggzzz]

Might have a go at the mA source if it doesn't go stupid high.

If it is like the Time voltage source I had for a while, it has lots of internal skeleton pots.

With enough fettling you can select the values which suit the instrument you are calibrating.

[tggzzz]

Now go and sit in the corner and think about what you've done.

Confused one enclosure with too many wheels and too few wings with a similar enclosure?

[simba15]

So I'm not much of a TEA yet but I think its started.

~70 vintage scope probes.
P6139 500mhz*
P6137 400mhz*
P6122 100mhz 10:1
P6109 "                 "
P6105 "                 "
P6101 10mhz 1:1

All but the ones with * are available for an extremely good deal just message me if there in interest before they hit the bin.

[factory]

Well the intermittent display fault has returned to my HP 54615B, trouble is after the second power up, the Hsync/Cal signals don't stay borked for long enough, to see if they are failing at the same time as the display, the signals are correct before the CRT fully warms up and the picture appears. 

Hsync & cal signals measured, before they quickly corrected themselves to 19.72kHz (Hsync) & 1.2kHz (probe cal).


I can't find the "any" key. 


David

Is there warmer than usual?

Our freezer has removable shelves.
Pretty optimal for cooling bigger things.

80Mhz clock and 1/4 slower sync.
How is this clock generated?

A far fetched.
Sort of direct lines out of the machine, says xDevs 54600A schematics.
Pages 22-23/125 there have +5VF_Core, its buddy +5VF_Pad is clipped but component numbers are still present.
Can you show your version of them some cold spray?

I guess it was a little bit warmer when I acquired it (Jan 2021), it hasn't been used much due to this fault, when last used in December, it required about an hour warm up time, before the horizontal display would lock.

Temperature was around 18°C to 23° (depending which crap thermometer I look at) in the workshop when I checked over the weekend. I've no freeze spray ATM and our freezer sleeves are the plumbing, i.e non removable unless you want to destroy it.

Both the HP 54600A & 54654N use a custom IC (Foxy for 54600A & Jackal for 54654N) to provide the H & V Sync signals and the probe cal signal is divided down from the H-Sync by a 74393, the custom IC has a 40MHz clock input, could check this in the future.





I have to thank whoever posted the 54654N CLIP, as the part # of the Jackal IC is the same one used in my 54615B, around it is the 40MHz oscillator & 74393 IC.



David

[BU508A]

Yeah, that's why the wheels flip out a la James Bond's TR7. Too bad these pontoons don't self-deploy like the TR-7's diving planes;

mnem

Dear Mnem,

This is a Lotus Esprit S1:


And this is a Triumph TR7:


Now go and sit in the corner and think about what you've done.

And this is a Fiat X 1/9 (spoken: Fiat X one nine):



Edit:
Yoko Tsuno, a japanese electronic expert (comic written by Belgian Roger Leloup since the 70s) drove also a X 1/9 (here in Wuppertal with a plate from Switzerland):