Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

I spy a blue Philips crapacitor in both versions. 

'tis actually a late 1975 vintage Sprague (note no waist pinch, which seesm to be common on the Philips ones IIRC):   

I haven't tested it yet.   -Pat
Edit to add - guess I should have read a few posts further along before replying.   

Make sure you keep the leads as short as possible on the new replacement. 

mnem
       
"Agitating... moi?"

[med6753]

Now working on the enclosure - those stains are rather stubborn.


-Pat

Good luck getting that clean. You might have to resort to spray paint. Might I suggest a shade of blue? 

Papa Smurf's Shade Tree Painting Service ready to help.   

[factory]

Both of mine seem to be a later revision, one is so late that the serial number sticker is missing, bloody cheapskates for not stamping them on both. 


David

Mine's a 1538A s/n prefix.  Did they switch to a label from the stamped serial number on the later units, or is it possible that the enclosure bottom was replaced at some point?   A replacement part could be one possible explanation for the lack of serial number...

-Pat

Good question, I don't have the answer though, but some other HP TE here, does have a paper S/N label.
Board in the later 3476A is a Rev E, the one with the 1619A prefix is Rev B.


Got another that I haven't taken any pictures of yet, the time interval multimeter wart, option 035 on the top of my 1725A scope.

David

[mansaxel]

In Japan the Shaken (pronounced with a hard 'a' as in cat or shat) costs roughly between US$800 and USD$1600 and is performed every 2 years on passenger vehicles.

In Sweden, it's about 45€ and done annually. Mine just passed with no errors. "Empty paper" as the saying goes.

If you have errors, they come in 3 categories, 1,2,3 where 1 is "fix this, or", 2 is "fix this, and prove it within a month", and 3 is "You shall be towed." Shops can take out #2 if they're audited and hold a clearance to do it -- in principle, they are allowed to fix the error and report the fix to the authorities as OK.

[Cerebus]

0 to 60 of 10 seconds, where did you get that from, I can assure you that the quoted figure for my car is 8.6 seconds to 62mph.

Like I said, I didn't know which model you have, and 10 is the middle of the range for the "Superb".

So, 8.6? The last time I had a car that slow was the 1980s. 

Likewise I'm not sure that a car that measures just 4.8 metres long can be called a land yacht, there are plenty of cars longer ...

And 'twas not me that described it as a land yacht, but 4.8 metres sounds pretty much at the upper end of car lengths, 95%ile or thereabout. In Euro-NCAP terms it would be E-segment "executive cars" the next size up from D-segment which is labelled as "large family cars". The British Parking Association recommends 4.8 metres for the length of a parking space (2.4 wide) and that includes an allowance for access to the boot, space between vehicles and so on, so your car is too big for a "standard" parking space. So Land Yacht? Probably not. Land Gin Palace? Maybe.

I'm not going to be drawn into a long debate here, but I'd just like to point out the following:
By your own admission, you have had mid-engined cars, which by default are sports cars surely?, you also stated that you had a MGF (which was introduced in 1995), length of 3.9 metres, (assumed you had the biggest engine, 118 Kw) kerb weight of 1060Kg 0-60mph time of 6.9 seconds.

Mine is only 900mm longer, 125Kw but has a kerb weight of 1634Kg and is designed to carry 5 people who are 1.93m tall, so that was the car that I needed and no more to transport my family, of which 4 of us are 1.93m in height.

Given that your MGF had to move just 9Kg per 1Kw to my 13Kg per 1Kw so its not to shabby for a Skoda and 8.6 seconds 0-60 is plenty fast enough for all my needs, it can leave most cars in its wake at traffic lights.

You're the one making it into a debate, I originally said that you were less likely to notice the turbo lag compared to a performance car driver. You're the one who reacted to a ballpark 10s 0-60 guess as if I'd said your dick was too small with a "it's 8.6 seconds I'll have you know". That's not performance car territory anytime in the last two decades so the comparison still applies, you're not driving the kind of car where you'd be likely to notice turbo lag. Now, simmer down, have a G&T and make sure you don't spill it while you drive round a corner.

[mansaxel]

The MOT is, if done properly, quite extensive and takes an absolute minimum of half an hour, ties up a rolling road brake tester, an actual exhaust gas analyser (none of this "what does the ODBII port say" rubbish), light alignment analyser and lift while it's being done.

Same here.

[mansaxel]

You may well be right, istr the last stuff made here was the Vivaro van, and they maybe did announce its imminent demise/offshoring. Bloody scandalous is the murder of our car manufacturing industry.

Most of it actually deserved it.

[Specmaster]

You may well be right, istr the last stuff made here was the Vivaro van, and they maybe did announce its imminent demise/offshoring. Bloody scandalous is the murder of our car manufacturing industry.

Most of it actually deserved it.

Ouch, that hurts. We did at one time have an industry that was highly prized, but we got complacent and let the world overtake us instead of making them play catchup.

[bd139]

Being complacent, incompetent, bureaucratic sell outs is our national pastime.

May have been using Mullard smartphones if we weren’t so good at that!

I have this world in my head of a British dystopian parallel 2022 where we had stuff like that with some 1960s anachronistic technology and impracticality applied to it. For example drunk chavs tumbling out of a brown Vauxhall Chevette limousine.

[Cerebus]

You may well be right, istr the last stuff made here was the Vivaro van, and they maybe did announce its imminent demise/offshoring. Bloody scandalous is the murder of our car manufacturing industry.

Most of it actually deserved it.

Most. I had a Corsa for a couple of weeks as a loaner from the garage a few years back. Horrible car; if you tried to pivot between the accelerator and brake, as recommended by most driving instructors, your foot crashed into the side of the brake and you had to lift another 4-6 inches to get onto the brake - potentially lethal in my opinion. On the other hand I had a Cavalier 2.0 SRi as a company car back in the middle of the 80s and that wasn't bad at all, no real vices, reliable, decent handling compared to most other rep-mobiles, comfortable, nothing special but nothing to really moan about.

[mnementh]

On my way back up from the dwagon-cave, I made the mistake of peeking in on the Anniversary Project table...

How the fuck do you get a run in the top of a perfectly leveled table...?   

mnem
*toddles off to shop finish grits of sandpaper and a sanding block*

I ordered the "Sanding Discs by the Foot" packet from Amazon... free delivery in aboot a week, but it only cost $11. That's less than a dollar a inch! I know a lot of guys and gals who'd gladly pay that! 

Anyhoo... it has discs from 40 grit up to 1500 grit; so far I've used one 320 grit disc and have all the runs & orange-peel spots smoothed out. Next will be finish pass; I'm thinking 600 grit. Might do it tonight, but likelier tomorrow AM when it's semi-cool out there.

mnem
*toddles off to cook dinner*

[Cerebus]

It's usually at this point, the first proper flat sanding, that you find the divot in the middle of the thing that you should have filled and levelled with epoxy before you started. Do not ask me how I know that this is how it goes...

[Cubdriver]

Now working on the enclosure - those stains are rather stubborn.


-Pat

Good luck getting that clean. You might have to resort to spray paint. Might I suggest a shade of blue? 

Papa Smurf's Shade Tree Painting Service ready to help. 

LOL - at first I was thinking of painting, but it's starting to come clean with some elbow grease.  Waiting on some UV curing adhesive to try to fix the cracks and glue up/rebuild the broken bosses on the cover (left side of the photo, near the front of the instrument):


-Pat

[Specmaster]

Being complacent, incompetent, bureaucratic sell outs is our national pastime.

May have been using Mullard smartphones if we weren’t so good at that!

I have this world in my head of a British dystopian parallel 2022 where we had stuff like that with some 1960s anachronistic technology and impracticality applied to it. For example drunk chavs tumbling out of a brown Vauxhall Chevette limousine.

Or thjis?

[Specmaster]

You may well be right, istr the last stuff made here was the Vivaro van, and they maybe did announce its imminent demise/offshoring. Bloody scandalous is the murder of our car manufacturing industry.

Most of it actually deserved it.

Most. I had a Corsa for a couple of weeks as a loaner from the garage a few years back. Horrible car; if you tried to pivot between the accelerator and brake, as recommended by most driving instructors, your foot crashed into the side of the brake and you had to lift another 4-6 inches to get onto the brake - potentially lethal in my opinion. On the other hand I had a Cavalier 2.0 SRi as a company car back in the middle of the 80s and that wasn't bad at all, no real vices, reliable, decent handling compared to most other rep-mobiles, comfortable, nothing special but nothing to really moan about.

Agreed to a point, the Cavalier was not a good car, it was at best a mediocre one that suffered from bad build quality. I had 2 as company cars, the best company cars I've had have been Volkswagen Passats and dare I say it, the outright winner has to be Skoda Superbs, these cars have just performed and performed faultlessly. Previous company cars have been Ford Cortina's, Ford Sierra's, Rover 200. Another great car I had as a company car was an Austin Montego, not only was it a very comfortable car but it had a seriously gutsy engine.

The modern version of the Cavalier is the Insigna and that is IMO a horrible little shitbox. I had a hire car once while mine was in for accident repair and the hire car was 2 weeks old, and it creaked and squeaked, moaned and groaned like a 20 year old one, horrible thing.

[bd139]

Being complacent, incompetent, bureaucratic sell outs is our national pastime.

May have been using Mullard smartphones if we weren’t so good at that!

I have this world in my head of a British dystopian parallel 2022 where we had stuff like that with some 1960s anachronistic technology and impracticality applied to it. For example drunk chavs tumbling out of a brown Vauxhall Chevette limousine.

Or thjis?

Not bad but I used to eat my lunch in the Barbican centre so location is a bit cheesy now 

[mnementh]

It's usually at this point, the first proper flat sanding, that you find the divot in the middle of the thing that you should have filled and levelled with epoxy before you started. Do not ask me how I know that this is how it goes...

You shut your dirty, dirty mouth!!! 

LOL... you have no idea how many times I ran hands over this thing... I wound up doing 3 separate rounds of filling with epoxy and sanding. That said... the wife has seen and declared it "amazing after how it was chewed up before"... so of course, the only taskmaster I have to answer to now is me. 

mnem
Between the heat and my aching back, I might have a result that bastard can live with by Christmas... 

[mnementh]

Now working on the enclosure - those stains are rather stubborn.      -Pat

Good luck getting that clean. You might have to resort to spray paint. Might I suggest a shade of blue? 

Papa Smurf's Shade Tree Painting Service ready to help. 

LOL - at first I was thinking of painting, but it's starting to come clean with some elbow grease.  Waiting on some UV curing adhesive to try to fix the cracks and glue up/rebuild the broken bosses on the cover (left side of the photo, near the front of the instrument):      -Pat

If that doesn't work, you can always just glue some gears on it and call it SteamPunk; it's already got that industrial-revolution-era patina. 

mnem
No mercy; no regrets. 

[mnementh]

...I removed the white fuzz with a gentle brushing using an old toothbrush, then cleaned the exposed pins with a DeOxit-soaked piece of green Scotchbrite:      -Pat

Oh, gawrd...

Part of me is cringing, part is screaming that even after all your hard work, I still want to douse that connector bridge in flux and re-tin the legs to protect that exposed copper.

mnem
*smacks paw* "NO! Put down the Metcal and back slowly away..."

[Cubdriver]

...I removed the white fuzz with a gentle brushing using an old toothbrush, then cleaned the exposed pins with a DeOxit-soaked piece of green Scotchbrite:      -Pat

Oh, gawrd...

Part of me is cringing, part is screaming that even after all your hard work, I still want to douse that connector bridge in flux and re-tin the legs to protect that exposed copper.

mnem
*smacks paw* "NO! Put down the Metcal and back slowly away..."

Don't think I'm not considering that - the Metcal heats up quickly.  I first wanted to make sure the damned thing worked; now that I know it does I will likely do that.  Perhaps even with my 2% silver solder.

-Pat

[vk6zgo]

Yep. Rocking the 0.99L 3 cyl here 

Sounds like a V8 if you stick kangaroo juice in it.

I think you've been drinking too much of the kangaroo juice. Nothing sound like a V-8 except a V-8.

I have no problem with folks keeping the heavy metal of yesteryear alive... I'll always be a motorhead, and there still is no replacement for displacement. But this is a different world; these toys of yesteryear have to be treated as toys, not as a way of life if we are to survive as a species. We cannot afford for those lovely beasts to be anybody's "daily driver" any longer.

mnem

Aaaaand this has always been utter nonsense. This is why Colin Chapman's designs blew all the primitive displacement based ones into the weeds.

The only thing adding displacement is good for is going fast in a straight line. For anything else, weight reduction is the real answer. Hence how Mini Coopers could beat 7-litre+ yank tanks in the early days of touring cars.

And it's equally arguable that your line of reasoning is just wankers spankin' it because they can't get their hands on a real car.

Anything you can do to a tiny engine you can do to a big engine and get even more power. Simple physics.

You don't have a right to judge how people like to play, or their choice of toys... don't be a dick, man.

mnem
 

You're completely missing the point, not sure if deliberately or not, but w/e.

The Point: Weight reduction improves EVERY aspect of a car's performance. Putting a bigger engine in it, or for that matter keeping the same engine and increasing the power by boring/stroking it, ONLY improves (assuming you have the traction and gearing headroom) straight line acceleration and top speed. That is simple physics.

I have not at any point criticised or judged other people's method or means of playing, that's entirely in your head. I put it to you that it is not I that is "being a dick".

Power/weight is why many Brit cars of the pre Mini/Cortina era were such slugs.(although my Series II Morrie Minor could do 70mph, which was seriously scary).
Heavy bodies & low powered engines gave you the worst of both worlds for most of the "bread n' butter" Brit stuff of those years.

Amazingly, the Triumph TR3 had a worse power/weight ratio than my EH Holden Station wagon.
OK, the Triumph had a 4 speed box, the overall gearing gave it a better top speed, it had better roadholding & brakes, but one was a sports car, & the other a six seater wagon!

I never had the chance to check the fuel economy of the TR3, but some of the lesser lights of the Brit stuff had amazingly poor mpg.
The Austin A95 I had in the UK during my 1970/71 visit could "gas guzzle" with the best/worst of 'em, & even when we ditched it for a tiny little Ford 100E "Popular", that turned in 20/25 mpg---worse than my EH!
And that was with red blooded Brit gallons, not US "gallonettes"!

[Cubdriver]

If that doesn't work, you can always just glue some gears on it and call it SteamPunk; it's already got that industrial-revolution-era patina. 

mnem
No mercy; no regrets. 

Brilliant!!  That gives me a great idea!   

Behold!!!



  <runs for cover>

-Pat

[mnementh]

BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

mnem
*runs for cover too, in case the projectiles miss Pat*

[mnementh]

Shopping Prime Day... so far, the only thing that really caught my attention was the Kindle for Kids and this: GrubHub free for a year. We don't order takeout often, but especially for my day off, more choices is a nice thing.

https://www.amazon.com/ADATA-Legend-Internal-Gaming-ALEG-840-512GCS/dp/B09H8R24SL

ADATA 500GB/1TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSDs - $35 & $85 with $10 off coupon

https://www.amazon.com/ADATA-SU760-512GB-Internal-ASU760SS-512GT-C/dp/B07TDW86SQ/

ADATA 500GB SATA SSD w/SDRAM cache - $35 with $10 off coupon (good to wake up older laptop or PC; ADATA is known decent "B" brand)

Still looking...

mnem

   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09P8BL7CW

Looked in again, found this UNI-T UTi120S IR Camera...

Sub-$200 for a 120x90 IR Resolution model seems too good to be true; that's almost usable resolution for our kind of troubleshooting. What's the gotcha? Something horrible, like it's really inaccurate, or 2 seconds per frame update...?

mnem
*toddles off to do a Time Machine on his MacPro*

[Cubdriver]

BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

mnem
*runs for cover too, in case the projectiles miss Pat*

And it motivated me to put the LED puck light that I'd gotten months ago into the crawlspace so I could steal the ceramic lampholder.   

-Pat