Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Vince]

COMPONENT SORTING


ANother DIP8 to pick your brain, if you know what it is / datasheet :

It's marked " C81DC ".

Again somehow Aliexpress has one for sale :

https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005001738808933.html

But the ad doesn't say what it is, so not much help.

All Goolge can tell me is that most likely, this chip is made by Toshiba, and maybe it's an analog / Linear IC, and maybe just maybe, it could have something to do with fast signals like video signals, most likely in consumer gear I imagine...
Also possible, not sure, that this C81DC a code and not the actual part number, which does not help.

The winner gets a bucket load of ice cubes.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/262980831072

Thanks. So if... if this ebay ad is not full of shite, then it's a little serial EEPROM.... now need the datasheet for it so I can use it.

What ? You still have not found it ? I am waiting... 

Sorry the delay, had to visit a food store, and collect a parcel.
(old days were not better, post was already closed a moment after lunch)

Google "i2c c81dc" and there it is.
Samsung TV and C81DC, 1028x8Bit, 8P, 100mS, 5V, PLASTIC, 10uA, CMOS IC-EEPROM.

Seems to be regular 24C something memory bnut numbering is a bit odd.

E,
I already corrected that nut.

Thanks !

I searched for " C81DC EEPROM " instead of just " C81DC ", and that gave me lots of hits that confirm what you just said, it's Samsung part number for an EEPROM they use in their TV / monitors.

Then eventually found a site that clearly states that this Samsung C81DC is nothing more than a 24C08, success, part identified 100% ! 

Thanks for your help ! 

Already had two 24C08 in stock.... well I guess I have 3 now ! 

[mnementh]

I opened my car windows in good time before setting off home, and the air inside had reduced from blast furnace to merely unpleasantly warm, but the seat back was so hot it felt like I was sitting in a sandwich press.

If it does become necessary to go out in this heat, 25 minutes beforehand I shall press the button that turns my car's air conditioning on remotely. [Fx: adopts particularly smug look]

Saskia, I think we have a secondary target for you. 

mnem
Also, some guy named Pitr is on the phone... something about achieving a parking orbit, and awaiting authorization for delivery...?

[Robert763]

Random spur of the moment TEA Acquisition... Just cos' I've always wanted one, the price was rather low and it seems to be in great condition.

McBryce.

your mileage may vary....but that is my least favorite piece of TE.

bought mine new in about 1993 and it gets very little use.

the little slide on clip ground leads on the probes are dogshit, unreliable, and mostly self destructed in the first couple of years.

had to replace the electroluminescent backlight panel about 10 years ago.  it was not too difficult but the color has never looked right since.

the banana jacks on top are used only for ohms, diode test, and mV up to 3V.  for any voltage test above 3V you have to switch to the bnc jacks and use a probe.  i always forget and it annoys the shit outa' me.

the connector on the power supply is dogshit and practically unobtanium when you have to replace it. and replace it you will.

but it is handy when you need to make isolated/differential measurements.  just slap in some batteries.  then it is for sure isolated and you are good to go.

why do i keep it?  because it is one of the things the evil one wanted out of the divorce in '94.....but i got it.

I've had one since about 1995. While it's not the first tool I reach for, it has it's uses. Isolation is a big one. It also does a good imitation of a pen recorder or MIN/MAX. Back then I didn't have a DMM with decent MIN/MAX.
My one also has a bit of history. It's been supersonic in a car.  The plastic bag is to keep the playa dust out. One is of it in the nose compartment, the other is in the cockpit. I made or repaireed all the instruments in the cockpit and the control boxes other than the one on the left. It's 25 years this October since we took the record.

[mnementh]

The Summer's first genuine heat wave this week.   

Presently, in the Sunshine State of Florida it is 91 F, 32.8 C with a heat index of 107 F, 41.7.  RH is liquid air.  And we are not yet in the hottest months.  Those numbers will increase from 5-9 degrees F.  Thank GOD I don't live in south Florida any more.  They break 100 F multiple times during summer, we rarely do.

When we were in the greater Houston area in October 2016 we usually had > 100F plus thrudaroof humidity. I have no idea how hot it usually is during summer, but I also won't find out.

No difference. Houston has two seasons: 3 weeks of soggy Christmas, the rest of the time it's soggy 4th of July.

mnem
And it's always fire-ant & roach patrol season; they come big enuf to knock on the door like they own the place. I think they have seats on the City Council.

[m k]

I fucking hate Microsoft.
Nuke them from orbit.

Can't we find some way slower and more painful?

I couldn't believe it when I read this article recently by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, who I hardly remember as being a M$ fanboy: https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/13/microsoft_linux_company/

They were always evil and are still the embodiment of evil and always will be. M$'s only interest in open source is as part of their unchanged embrace, extend, extinguish strategy. Employing Poettering is the clearest evidence yet of their long term plan to assimilate Linux.

One difficulty, hardware is available.
When Android came the phone situation was very different.

How is M$ going to close the ecosystem?
People must accept it and free hardware must disappear.

[mnementh]

Not while it’s on intel aka Z80 version 29. Anyway I said I wouldn’t comment further on computer matters. 

Oh, please, please break that promise. That's some of your best hijinks right there! 

mnem
*outwitting personal confusers since Computer Shopper and Ed Bott were a thing*

[mnementh]

...Temperature-wise, here today is the peak / worst day of the heat wave, and it's 17H30 so we have now reached max temp for the day. It's 41°C (106°F) in my little village.

It's freaking 27°C in my living room according to the built-in thermostat in the heater, which is normally lethally high for me (anything above 18°C is uncomfortable for me... hate heat), but somehow I am still alive. Probably because the air is very dry, luckily, zero sweat. Of course I am naked in my living room and take cold showers every now and then, come out soaking wet out of the shower and straight in front of the fan in the living room... physics does the rest and cools me down.

Now I feel a bit ashamed for complaining about only having half my AC working; still better than your lot with that heat and none at all.

Take care of yerself, brother. As someone who grew up on a farm with a fish pond right out back of the house, I know from personal experience that there's only a few things stink worse than a dead frog baking in the sun. 

Unless it's a dozen of 'em. 

mnem
No, this really happened when I was like 12. To this day still a total happened...

Strangely, the air is so dry, desert-like, that although I have never in my entire life experienced such a silly high temperature.... I feel quite OK, zero sweat, not sticky at all.... bone dry. It's incredible. Usually I can be all sweaty at only 20 or 25°C because of the humidity here by the ocean, but today at 41, not even sticky. Humidity is everything !! 

Still, can't complain. 41 outside 27 inside, that's 14 degrees less than the outside temp, for a house that's oriented south and no air-con, I think it's doing pretty well. I think once I install sprinklers on the roof and south wall, it should be enough to drop the temps to 20°C and not even need aircon, which I can't afford anyway, neither to buy the H/W, never mind to pay for the electricity to power it.

Watch yourself and drink more than you think you need; make it enough that you pee frequently. It is so easy to get dehydrated just sitting around the house in that kind of heat. The real danger signs are when you stop sweating and stop peeing.

Cheers,

mnem
 

[Saskia]

when you go pee, do it up a rope. Nothing arouses Papa Smurf more than your doing that.

[bd139]

The real danger signs are when you stop sweating and stop peeing.

I'm good. Spent all day sweating and peeing 

Actually last walk I did out was a bit of a fail. Did 25km walk in 29oC (84oF for the backwards). Took 2.5L of water (85 fl oz for the backwards) with me. Went to the pub after and had two pints of Proper Job. Got home, didn't pee until the morning and it was like treacle. Looked at the water bladder and it was empty. Fail 

Not while it’s on intel aka Z80 version 29. Anyway I said I wouldn’t comment further on computer matters. 

Oh, please, please break that promise. That's some of your best hijinks right there! 

mnem
*outwitting personal confusers since Computer Shopper and Ed Bott were a thing*

Give me a few days to get over the page and a half rant I wrote about Kubernetes somewhere the other day 

[Specmaster]

fully aware of it, however I do not have the strength to listen to him for hours. Unfortunately.
He needs *help* and to provide this is beyond my current capabilities.
Unfortunately.
He is 350 km away. he is suffering from burn out, depression, huge stress due to his mother slowly fading away. It is beyond my capabilities to do more for him than listen to him for 3 - 5 hours/week and try to help him out. He would need someone there full time to take the load of home care off his shoulders, someone out there looking after his mental and physical health, someone to take care of his family house which started to rot away. If I had been a millionaire I would have tried to help with the daycare stuff and the house. But I am not, and we have more than enough on our plate already. I am sorry, but there is only so much I can do.

Don't feel guilty about it, remember charity begins at home, you are already helping him with the donation of the notebook, be thankful that you're in a position to that. Take care of yourself and hubby first.

[mnementh]

Just so.

I suspect the concept of dehydration stems from conflating a headache when you've drunk too much or are dehydrated. The Delicious impurities in the dilute alcohol are more likely culprits than the alcohol itself.

Definitely agree with this. Observations from experimentation with remaining hydrated and pissed at the same time:

Bottle of wine -> banging headache.

Several beers -> banging headache.

Bottle of port -> worst headache I have ever had.

Litre of Pepsi Max -> banging headache.

Couple of glasses of absinthe -> banging headache.

Way too much vodka -> no headache.

So the answer is to drink vodka and remain hydrated. To celebrate that discovery I'm going to ignore the findings and crack open another Punk IPA

Vodka yes, provided it has been fully distilled. If not there can be a tendency to wake up into twilight or darkness. Never seen the point of paying more than the absolute minimum for (pure) vodka; the whole point is it has no distinguishing taste!

Rum is supposed to be particularly bad, but I wouldn't know. Would "white rum" be an attempt to avoid the issue.

And that's why Tito's Handmade Vodka (whatevs, man) is my choice when I need a toddy for my body. I don't like the taste of most forms of alcohol... and Tito's does not color the flavor of anything you mix it with until you start to approach unity gain. Right now my poison of choice is a couple fingers in the bottom of a glass of the local brand of brewed/not-from-concentrate diet iced tea.

mnem
*currently approaching unity gain*

[mnementh]

The real danger signs are when you stop sweating and stop peeing.

I'm good. Spent all day sweating and peeing 

Actually last walk I did out was a bit of a fail. Did 25km walk in 29oC (84oF for the backwards). Took 2.5L of water (85 fl oz for the backwards) with me. Went to the pub after and had two pints of Proper Job. Got home, didn't pee until the morning and it was like treacle. Looked at the water bladder and it was empty. Fail 

Not while it’s on intel aka Z80 version 29. Anyway I said I wouldn’t comment further on computer matters. 

Oh, please, please break that promise. That's some of your best hijinks right there! 

mnem
*outwitting personal confusers since Computer Shopper and Ed Bott were a thing*

Give me a few days to get over the page and a half rant I wrote about Kubernetes somewhere the other day 

This is completely the wrong way to do it... what you need to do is break that up into chunks and serialize it in here, just like BOFH... enough material for a week, I'd wager. 

mnem
*ka-CHINNNG!*

[Specmaster]

In the interests of science you should now go and get absolutely plastered, test your hydration and report back.

Not when I've got work tomorrow, on what may well be the hottest day on UK records. The "welfare" cabin was bad enough today, damn near couldn't breathe in the shitbox, and purely because of the heat, not the smell.

I opened my car windows in good time before setting off home, and the air inside had reduced from blast furnace to merely unpleasantly warm, but the seat back was so hot it felt like I was sitting in a sandwich press.

Today, I decided to pop up the sunroof and just crack the windows down 1/4" all the way round the car as there is no way of escaping the sun outside the house. It did the trick, it allowed enough flow of air through the car to prevent that blast furnace hot air that blasts out when you open the door and with leather seats, they feel like you're sitting on an iron.

[med6753]

This has just been added to this afternoon/evening forecast. 

[med6753]

And yes, they are forming and convecting rapidly. Red patches just west of Kingston/Poughkeepsie.

[grizewald]

When I left my apartment this afternoon for some beer and shopping, the temperature was balmy, but it was extremely unpleasant to be outside! Just to the south of me, a massive fire started in a paper recycling factory on Saturday morning and there had been a large number of fire crews fighting the fire and a helicopter water bombing the surrounding countryside in an attempt to stop the fire spreading.

As far as I was aware, the firefighting operations were over and the fire had been put out. However, since it started, the wind has changed direction and now the still smouldering fire was blowing directly over the area where I live. The stink of acrid smoke was nearly overwhelming and at first I thought I was imagining that the air was hazy as I was walking along. I wasn't imagining anything. At times, thick clouds of smoke swept over the local centre and it really was unpleasant to breathe. I can still taste the smoke and my throat feels raw.

I was told by an acquaintance at the pub that environmental activists had objected strongly to the continued firefighting operation as the water was going to wash all the poisonous chemicals from the fire into the land, so the decision had been made to let the remains of the fire in both the factory and surrounding countryside burn out by itself.

Something tells me that none of these environmental activists actually live in the areas which are being affected by the smoke from the fires. It appears that they place little value on the health of the local residents! I'm relatively fit and healthy but felt decidedly sick when I got back home and I'm still feeling the effects in my throat. How any of the many pensioners who live in this area would cope if they needed to go out is anyone's guess.

Truly amazing.

[Saskia]

these "environmental activists" have glued themselves to the streets over here. Preventing EMTs to get critically ill patients into hospital.

As far as I am concerned, they are terrorists. Funded by Soros btw.

[grizewald]

And yes, they are forming and convecting rapidly. Red patches just west of Kingston/Poughkeepsie.

I love a good storm! I hope yours are not quite as violent as they can be elsewhere in the USA.

I had the pleasure many years ago of watching a massive storm rolling over the Dallas/Fort Worth area and it was a real treat to watch such a terrifying and awe inspiring display of thunder and lightning of a magnitude that many who have never been to Texas would have trouble comprehending.

[grizewald]

these "environmental activists" have glued themselves to the streets over here. Preventing EMTs to get critically ill patients into hospital.

As far as I am concerned, they are terrorists.

They've been doing the same thing here in Stockholm, gluing themselves to major highways just as the morning rush hour starts. Given the geography of the city, blocking any north-south passage during the morning rush hour causes follow on disruption that lasts until the afternoon.

I don't think they are winning much support from the public!

[Saskia]

having had 2 minor hurricanes (average wind speed 160 and 165 mph, gusts to 190 / 195) coming my way I cannot concur. This is nothing you want to experience first hand.
Also may I direct your attention to

You do NOT want to be caught in that ...

[grizewald]

Give me a few days to get over the page and a half rant I wrote about Kubernetes somewhere the other day 

This is completely the wrong way to do it... what you need to do is break that up into chunks and serialize it in here, just like BOFH... enough material for a week, I'd wager. 

"BD139 - The Bastard Consultant From Hell"

[bd139]

Give me a few days to get over the page and a half rant I wrote about Kubernetes somewhere the other day 

This is completely the wrong way to do it... what you need to do is break that up into chunks and serialize it in here, just like BOFH... enough material for a week, I'd wager. 

"BD139 - The Bastard Consultant From Hell"

You’re too kind 

[grizewald]

having had 2 minor hurricanes (average wind speed 160 and 165 mph, gusts to 190 / 195) coming my way I cannot concur. This is nothing you want to experience first hand.

[video]

You do NOT want to be caught in that ...

Totally agree. I have no desire to be anywhere in the path of a hurricane. Experiencing a Texan mega storm from a respectable distance is another matter though. Just the sheer ground shaking volume of almost constant horizon to horizon thunder and lightning is a truly visceral experience.

[Cubdriver]

having had 2 minor hurricanes (average wind speed 160 and 165 mph, gusts to 190 / 195) coming my way I cannot concur. This is nothing you want to experience first hand.

[video]

You do NOT want to be caught in that ...

Totally agree. I have no desire to be anywhere in the path of a hurricane. Experiencing a Texan mega storm from a respectable distance is another matter though. Just the sheer ground shaking volume of almost constant horizon to horizon thunder and lightning is a truly visceral experience.

Yeah, hurricanes are not fun, and I say that based on what we get here which is usually on the wane compared to when they make landfall further south.

-Pat

[Saskia]

umm, if you experience a Texan Mega Tunderstorm there is a certain probability that that cell will start to rotate. When it does you have a very high probability of it developing vorteces that would suck stuff up. Like in a tornado. I have a very healthy respect for such weather, and I have seen a sufficiently hideous storm just outside of Neo-Mogadischu (Minneapolis).


We had a pretty nasty storm (well, 3 consecutive storms) with up to 100 mph winds coming thru in february. The storms took the roof of my garden shed. Approx. 4k in property damage, me being somewhat unhappy with the situation as the bloody insurance stated that we could reuse some of the damaged and torn up roof ... yeah right ...