Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Before anyone gets on an "USA is Best" rant, note that the Milwaukee pliers are marked Solingen, that's GERMANY 

Of course they all broke, it was a test to destruction. Knipex had lowest cutting force. and best (my subjective opinion) finish.
More practically I'd like to know the weights of the various pliers. It's a significant factor if using them a lot.

If that's the case then they should not have been labelled "USA". 

[bd139]

Recently in Australia:

Clearly The Upside Down leaking again.

[med6753]

Progress report on packages across the ponds....

My Type 547 HV assembly appears to be at BU508A's local PO for possible delivery. 

The knobs and shaft for TERRA Operative have not yet reached US Customs. I don't know if it with go to Newark Customs (Fast turnaround) or JFK Customs (Whenever we get to it) but I suspect it will go to JFK Customs because I don't think Japanese airlines fly out of Newark. We'll see.   

Edit....and currently waiting on an Ebay package which will be sent to me and then I'll forward because the seller refuses to deal internationally.

Papa Smurf's Shade Tree Export Service. 

[BU508A]

Recently in Australia:

Clearly The Upside Down leaking again.

The Guardian has an explanation. Spoiler: It contains of lots of red and blue LEDs.

[med6753]

Recently in Australia:

Clearly The Upside Down leaking again.

The Guardian has an explanation. Spoiler: It contains of lots of red and blue LEDs.

Were they too high to realize they left the blinds open? Can't sell the product if you smoke it first. 

[BU508A]

Just saw this video on YT. Looks like, med6753 has a follower. 

[med6753]

Just saw this video on YT. Looks like, med6753 has a follower. 

Along with Carlson. Capacitors are the devil. 

[tggzzz]

Not long afterwards I saw this car, and sniggered!

It's an Audi. No-one is surprised.

Having just covered around 7000km of European roads, and having a puny 410 km left to get home, I have now formed an opinion on motorway drivers in several countries.

It's a well established fact that in Germany, and Sweden, BMW and Audi drivers sort of gang-thug-assertive-but-still-nervously expect everyone to move when they come. Mercedes drivers are much more relaxed; they know you'll move.

In France, the rôle of the bully is taken by Peugeot drivers. They are much more aggressive while not more competent than all the other brands. Citroën drivers (both "DS" and normal) are the kindest, and Renault drivers are like Volvos in Sweden or VW in Germany; they're so many that they're all over the spectrum.

All Belgian drivers are thugs, and more so if they're driving a premium car. Rude and assertive driving. I give those number plates on an Audi wide berth. It's going to be needed.

Italians are generally reasonably good, and mostly kind. Unless you're being a prick.

All these are stellar and very competent compared to the average US driver. Though.

While I've no sympathy for Audi drivers whatsoever, in this case "Audi" was irrelevant.

Those idiotic tombstone bollards were manifestly and obviously an accident waiting to happen. Yup, I did predict it!

FFI:
http://bristol.mag-uk.org/Tombstones.htm
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-34527784

[Specmaster]

This was both entertaining, and informative.



Do the Knipex pliers win?

How so? Regardless of the total destructive force required to break them which one still at least still had some function? But we can't have that, can we? Oh no....never. 

So my contention is that none of them won. They all broke. 

I think that the true facts are that almost any of the ones with insulated handles will be adequate for the type of use they are going to be receiving on any electronics bench. 

[m k]

Anyone know how to see what file system is formatted on a floppy disk in MS DOS?

I may have a bad/marginal disk, or it may be formatted in something other than a standard 1.44Mb FAT file system..

FAT-12; but better check the the (TE)manufacturer forum/(news)group/discussions.
BTW, did you get your FD-505? 

I do have a fully rebuilt 5.25" Teac FD-55BV, and even managed to find an unused new-in-original-plastic 3.5" Mitsumi D353M30 FDD, the latter of which I was able to read the disk. Just gotta figure out what format  the disk is. 
Does Win10 not like FAT-12 for some reason?

I'd try the command 'file' from linux (as in file /dev/whatever_the_floppy), or just try to mount it with linux, it recognizes a lot of file systems automatically.

I'll have to see what version of Linux I can run on a Dual-CPU Pentium 3 Dell Precision 410 workstation.

You need a software that can go under the formatting.
It used to be a regular thing for hex editors.

Then you just start reading from block/sector 0.
In case of DOS it ends to 0x55 0xAA.

Best route would be Linux and ddrescue, don't forget a log file.
Afterwards you can write it back to other disk if needed.

[m k]

This started with the very faulty 5340A I got from the PP auction last year, one of the control PROMs was futzed, I ended up copying good ones to USSR clones and archived the code in text files on here a while ago, will carry on archiving other PROMs I find in the future, probably have loads in my stored HP kit.
I really need to sort out the 386 motherboard (from the free, please take this crap away box, at one of the Hack Green bunker sales) & an old enough programmer, so I don't have to kept using the redundant machine at work (which they still won't let me buy ), which will probably get thrown out if they get their way, or die of either tant failure, or Trintron problems (desperately needs a re-capicide).

David

I have few motherboards but programmer I've unfortunately scrapped, 4x ZIF socket box I saved, doesn't help much alone.

Full sized motherboards are not very easy to use so I've tried to find an alternative.
Almost new single ISA board CPU stuff seems to be still available, simple few slot backplane is more difficult.

E,
and almost instantly found one.
https://www.rackmountnet.com/product/3-slot-isa-passive-backplane/

[mnementh]

This was both entertaining, and informative.



Do the Knipex pliers win?

Yes, Knipex wins if you compare the ratio of force to cut the sample nail and the force at failure.  You have a reasonable margin and are unlikely to ever break the Knipex in normal use.

Milwaukee was pretty good too.  The pliers from 1970 were very strong, but the force of use on the sample nail was approaching the force of failure, leaving not so much margin.

EDIT:  We need to stop!  My tool boxes are getting loaded up with various sets of very nice pliers.  That leaves not a lot left in the budget for TEA  (though I tell SWMBO that the pliers are part of the house repairs and are saving money by not hiring contractors, it still means I have no money left)

MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Bought for $8 NIP at a RONA store closeout while still up in the GWN... a joy in the hand, and just the right size for my ol' dwagon paws. 

mnem
*still toolish after all these years*

[Neper]

Some time in 2007, IIRC, the Volvo P2 platform got control arms from cast steel having had alloy (Al+Mg?) arms before; and I've swapped both kinds, so know the kind of part intimately. Whatever snaps one of those must be a lot of violence -- unless it's defective.  I concur on the "defective" guess.

I have a deep mistrust for everything made from cast metals, especially light alloys. From car parts to spring hooks. Had one of the latter fail on a photo bag and was only able to save my complete medium-format  from dropping into the Albert canal by the skin of my teeth.

[bd139]

Marconi 2022 out for delivery. Wonder what turd I'm going to be snarfing this evening 

[AVGresponding]

Recently in Australia:

It's the quiescent current of Dave's micro-inverters leaking out through his solar panels...

[Vince]

 


Overall it went really well, though that doesn't mean squat, from experience.

They have positions right now that they are desperate to fill it looks like... Airbus is impatient, as always.

Three different jobs. First two were inline with my previous work experience, working in the aircraft to control airframe work orders. Another one slightly different / better, where you take the time to tell the workers/blue collars what they did wrong, how to improve, and get their feedback, to improve the work instructions, make them clearer, whatever is required to make the worker's life easier so he can do a better job and more reliably / consistently. 

Both jobs require working shifts, which I hate, killed me for the past 10 years. But well if no choice, short term I would do it again of course, need money here...

However at the last minute, they came up with a third and last position...  that sounds much more interesting to me. Never did it before.

Mostly an office job this time, but well the A/C is still right behind the office door so it's not too far, I can go see it and touch it when I miss it !

Job consists of keeping track of all 'C' suffix concessions (the ones that need to be brought to the attention of the client), make a quick Powerpoint presentation to summarize what the concession is about, what has been done to resolve it / fix it, the current state of things, what actions have been taken to try to avoid the problem happening again. So track every such concession for every A/C. Daily you must do conf calls with some guy located in a German Airbus plant, to discuss all these concessions.

So this would be a good step up for me. Would allow me to switch from working inside the A/C which already caused me two really bad accidents in the past, switch from shifts.... to office hours, and a comfy desk, which is the only way to preserve what's left of my body and health. That's what I want, need to be reasonable now, I am not 20 year old anymore.... Crawling in every nook and cranny of an A/C is fun only for a short while... then your body says stop.

Of course needing to speak English and exchange e-mails in English, is a huge added value that I can then (try to at least...) monetize. I mean very few people speak or write English to any decent level at Airbus or any sub-contractor, you would be surprised. A guy that ACTUALLY can handle English decently well, is not at all common around here, would you believe it.

So if I can survive if just 6 months at this position, that would be an excellent point on my CV to then move to even better positions with even better money.
So I told them I was really interested in that position. Plus, they said the guy currently doing this, sucks big time, can't even tell an LGP from a Hilite fastener, they told me... which is like hiring an electronic engineer that literally can't tell a resistor from a capacitor, and has trouble remembering ohm's law ! 
It 's really really bad...

Then at the very last 30 seconds the HR girl asked me how much I wanted... said XX for work order inspections, working in the A/C, but for that position where  you need to speak and write English, sorry but you will have to pay extra. English skills don't come cheap around here, and you know it.

Company website : https://expleo.com/global/en/

Well let's see if that gives me a job or not 

Just two weeks since I did that video conferencing job interview.

Got a reply two days ago but there was too much traffic on here so was waiting for a calm spot, but of course there is no such thing here so... well, here we go.

The young HR girl that conducted the interview from Paris was on hols, so instead she passed the burden to her boss, the HR big boss guy in Toulouse HQ.
He phoned me saying "Hi, I was told you made a very good impression so I am here to make you an offer " ! 

They want me for that position I was favoring, with office hours at a computer, not working shifts risking my life in the aircraft, and where I would need to write and speak English to some German Airbus guy.
Better yet : for that position I asked 30K gross per annum and they gave me just that, didn't even try to negotiate !?  Well, they offered 29.5 not 30K, just to say fuck you I am the boss, I guess, while still giving me what I wanted... fair enough.
Previous employer... was making barely 25K after 10 years of service ! 
And right now, I hear my ex employer is offering 23K during the interview, but when they guy later meets in person to sign the contract, 23K turned into 21 ! So some people say fuck you I am outta here !
So... getting 30K for me is like winning the lottery...especially since I am almost 45 hence totally obsolete from an HR point of view (they only want 25-35yo people here), plus one year out of employment hence not exactly in a position to say no... So really, this is like magic, and only goes to show I was right to let some time pass before searching for a new job : wanted to wait 'til the aero industry picks up again after the massive layoffs due to COVID, let the market thin down so that employers would have no choice but offer decent salaries if they want people to come back to their old job that they got kicked out of a year prior.

What a strategist I make ! 

There is a catch though : during the interview they said the guy currently occupying that position, would train me for 2 weeks before leaving me on my own.
However the team leader phoned me just after I hung up with the HR guy, and she said oh BTW, you will have only 2 DAYS not two weeks !
Then she sends me an e-mail with a two page description of the job and bad surprise, it involves a lot more stuff, that I have never done, like " SQCDP " stuff that I would need to manage.
Also I would not be a mere participant to dealing with the 'C' suffix concessions, but I would instead be the one DRIVING the whole resolution process, contacting all the various services /depts involved, to get things moving and fixed, like production, supply chain, R&D, tooling, what have you ! 
I have never dealt with all those people, I mean from a managerial perspective ! 
Oh, and of course she said "present guy is worthless and the client / Airbus is very angry, so we count on you to regain their trust and square things up !!! ".

Yeah, no pressure !

All that, in 2 days.... it is factually, impossible, of course.... so this can not go well, the third day once I will be alone, I won't be able to do what they expect me to do, so I will be fired... or I will just leave on my own out of anger, and slam the door.

So it's a bit of a mixed bag you see ! 

However.... since I have basically nothing to lose and since the job provides the quality of life I am after, along with an unexpectedly high salary (though still only a day's worth of IT contracting work for BD....).... me think what the hell, let's give it a try we will see what happens ! 

So I think I will accept their job offer anyway. I have one week to reply to their offer via e-mail. So, next Wednesday dead line. Think I will e-mail them on Monday.  You don't want to reply the same day, makes you look desperate 

So, well, very anxious that I might not make it past the first week, but at the same very excited to have job and a decent salary for the first time in my 20 years of professional life !

Oh, forgot, they want me to start in a couple weeks, Monday 8th of August. Last week of July and first of August, that's when Airbus closes, every year. So I will start once they reopen.

Oh, and it looks like they want to force me to wear a polo shirt (Airbus "requirement" for office workers, T-shirts for workers in the workshop). I despise polo shirts and shirts or anything that has plastic buttons on it, I will never wear one. I hope I can negotiate and get a T-shirt instead. Me being very big is hoping they will not have my size and let me use my personal T-shirts instead.


Normal pliers reviews can now resume, sorry for the disturbance.

[Bud]

Good man! How much the 30K will become after tax?

[Zucca]

Do you guys use the the term "cooked data" as opposite of "raw data"?

Today first time I heard it....

[ch_scr]

Do you guys use the the term "cooked data" as opposite of "raw data"?

Today first time I heard it....

Over here, "cooked data" is specially processed to fulfill all customer requirements (even the impossible ones) 

[Kosmic]

Cheap (65$) Tek p6046 differential probe on ebay. Working order and with all accessories. I would go for it, but already have one.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/185500027746

... and it is already sold 

Sorry.     The auction ended this afternoon at 1:00, and I fully expected to be outbid on it; was surprised when no one else took a crack at it and the notification came in from the bay.

-Pat

No shipping to Canada; otherwise you've seen my 2s bidding

If you're not too far from the border you can use Kinek. They receive your package and charge around 5$ for a small one and 10$ a big one. I normally accumulate couple of items and then do the trip to collect everything.

[Zucca]

Normal pliers reviews can now resume, sorry for the disturbance.

I had an interview with a company in Italy (seems not too far away from France standards....). They really liked me and I smashing them down with technical questions and discussion. It was fun.
Then the HR lady asked me how much I was making in my current position in Germany, and I told them.

20sec of silence and temperature went quickly.

The next 5 minutes were small talk, and goodbye.

 

[mnementh]

...So I think I will accept their job offer anyway. I have one week to reply to their offer via e-mail. So, next Wednesday dead line. Think I will e-mail them on Monday.  You don't want to reply the same day, makes you look desperate 

So, well, very anxious that I might not make it past the first week, but at the same very excited to have job and a decent salary for the first time in my 20 years of professional life !

Oh, forgot, they want me to start in a couple weeks, Monday 8th of August. Last week of July and first of August, that's when Airbus closes, every year. So I will start once they reopen.

Oh, and it looks like they want to force me to wear a polo shirt (Airbus "requirement" for office workers, T-shirts for workers in the workshop). I despise polo shirts and shirts or anything that has plastic buttons on it, I will never wear one. I hope I can negotiate and get a T-shirt instead. Me being very big is hoping they will not have my size and let me use my personal T-shirts instead.

Normal pliers reviews can now resume, sorry for the disturbance.

Good for you, V. 

Seeing how you generally adapt pretty well once you get into problem-solving mode... I don't think you'll have any trouble "self-starting" in this new position. And i suspect you undersold yourself heavily... any entry-level lower-management position nowadays is probably more like 40-45K, so that's probably why they jumped on your offer. Hell, I grossed more than that as a independent contractor decades ago.

As for the polo shirt... just make sure you get decent, medium-to-heavyweight 100% cotton and you'll never miss your T-shirts. See below for a much younger IT Dwagon back when he was a ASP for HP (and several other enterprise-class tech brands):



mnem
 

[mnementh]

Do you guys use the the term "cooked data" as opposite of "raw data"?

Today first time I heard it....

Over here, "cooked data" is specially processed to fulfill all customer requirements (even the impossible ones) 

*cough*STATISTICS*cough* As used by market anal-ists and their ilk to make numbers lie. 

mnem

[Cerebus]

Yes, it must take some effort to always successfully achieve the worst case scenario.

I'm beginning to believe that there are two critical questions asked when they interview applicants for a traffic planner's job: "What vehicles do you use on the roads?" and if they answer anything other than "None" they are deselected. Then "Do you hate roads users?" and then they are deselected if they say "No".

I hate the things also.  And yes, I am a cyclist.  They may help slightly in protecting cyclists in long straight sections, but the spacing is always so tight that anything crossing the cycle path becomes a compressed high-stress conflict zone.  Driveways, intersections and turning lanes all get worse.  As already said, clearing the roadway for emergency vehicles or a breakdown lead to chaos among the posts.

I also drive a truck.  My mirrors are high enough and large enough to extend OVER the posts.  Other cyclists who believe the posts are magical and it is okay to ride right up beside the post may be in for a rude surprise...

Mini quasi-rant about 'politics' in place of sound engineering.

I'm also a cyclist, though rarely nowadays.

As I've already mentioned, the posts on that style of cycle lane seem to make motor vehicles think it's OK to go as close to the posts as they like, way closer than even the moderately careless would go to a bike rider. The constrained space behind the posts means that a cyclist has to stick themselves in the gutter to get adequate clearance from the vehicles the other side of the posts, making the kerb and the crud in the gutter constant hazards. Ride in the centre of the lane and you're uncomfortably close to the kerb, the posts and any close passing vehicles, meaning anything that puts you off course puts you heading immediately for a hazard. Personally I'd be more comfortable on the open road that hasn't had the space nicked from the carriageway for a cycle lane, three feet out from the kerb for the most part, tucking in and slowing if I hear traffic approaching from behind.

Contrary to what one will hear from the loud and mouthy Lycra nutter "cyclists can do no wrong" brigade, most motorists have treated me with adequate respect when out cycling, and what's needed isn't more cycling infrastructure that inconveniences both cyclists and motorists. What's needed is a bit of education about and more enforcement of the rules against motorists that are careless, and lots of education and enforcement of the rules against careless cyclists (e.g. the aforementioned Lycra nutter club who seem to actively seek out conflict with motorists, any little shit who thinks give way signs, stopping at red lights and pedestrian crossings doesn't apply to them, and any adult caught cycling on the pavement when there are any pedestrians around.)

The only cycle lanes that I've found helpful are the type that are segregated by a proper strip with kerbs on both the cycle and main highway side. Of course, making these is expensive, whereas any idiot can be sent out with a lorry full of posts and install 100s of yards of the things a day, and the people who sent them can issue greenwashing press releases about how much they are doing to build out cycle infrastructure and reduce the carbon footprint of their city while in truth the congestion and carbon footprint increase because of their actions, and still just as many cyclists are killed or seriously injured on their roads. Postmodern politics has substituted gestures and soundbites in place of finding actual, workable, effective solutions, appeals to emotion in place of actual scientifically evaluated engineering solutions.

Even then, the properly segregated type of cycle lane aren't regularly swept so they accumulate crud at a much higher rate than the roads or even a cycle lane that is just painted on the main carriageway. It seems that nobody other than the actual cyclist users appreciate how much that loose crap affects them. In ten years of cycling before the days of cycle lanes in Brighton and Hove I had hardly any punctures at all, maybe one in every 1000 miles if that. Cycling in London on a mix of roads with and without cycle lanes my puncture rate has been much higher, 50-100 miles between punctures almost all acquired by something picked up in a cycle lane.

I had a friend who worked at the Transport and Roads Research Laboratory (TRRL) in the early 1980 when they were still a publicly owned government laboratory. They undertook a large, expensive research effort to design road humps that caused effective speed reduction without creating a hazard in themselves. They were successful. They came up with a sinusoidal shape that provokes resonance in vehicle suspensions that makes them uncomfortable to drive over above their design speed while not significantly reducing the driver's control, and perfectly comfortable to drive over at or below their design speed (or on a bicycle).

For a while, if a local authority wanted to use road humps for speed reduction, they were required by regulations to use a design that was compliant with TRRLs findings. They are relatively expensive to build, so subsequent governments weakened the regulations to permit a wider range of designs, less effective, less safe. A later government removed all restrictions on the size, shape and layout of speed control humps so we now have speed control humps everywhere that are ineffective (ones on a local 30 mph road can't be driven over safely above about 15 mph if you stay in lane, but can easily be passed at any speed if you straddle the centre line or drive in the gutter incidentally driving over a cycle lane), uncomfortable or even damaging to drive over even at very low speeds below the intended design speed, cause vehicles to become less controllable as they pass over them, and are sited in places that are downright dangerous. The shear stupidity of eschewing an effective design, to substitute a cheap, ineffective, dangerous design to make it easier to introduce traffic calming as a gesture rather than an effective solution where needed dumbfounds me. And of course, exactly the same policy has been followed with cycle lanes.



Mini quasi-rant over.

[Zenith]

Marconi 2022 out for delivery. Wonder what turd I'm going to be snarfing this evening 

You're a glass half full type.

I'm cautiously optimistic that after a little TLC, which you will enjoy giving it, it will be a magnificent instrument that graces your workbench. It will greatly exceed your expectations.

There and again, I haven't bought it!