Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Vince]

@Vince,
Or you could try WIN98 SP2 

Win98 XYZ as we saw can't work since it does not use the proper version of KERNELL32.DLL that TEKTOOL requires... only W2K does, or XP or later, but these won't run on my old machine of course, so itsw W2K or nothing for me.

Win98 SP2 or SE or whatever is the latest, would still be interesting though, to install along side W2K, as presently. It would probably be able to get USB working which would be great. Could use a more modern Web browser which maybe would actually be useful / work unlike Netscape.

I would need Zoli's 8GB CF drive though...because my 2GB HDD doens't cut it. I just looked at it... W2K on its 1GB partition is almost out of room : only 80+ MB of free space left !!! 
Scary. Can't even be sure I would have enough space to install a web borwer and the NI GPIB suite, never mind whatever other S/W I might need.

So...I think the plan for this machine would be :

1) Get a CF / IDE adapter
2) Fit Zoli' 8GB CF drive in it
3) partition it with say 2GB for Win98SE/SP2 (is it the same thing ?), 2GB for W2K, and 4GB for Linux.

I do have a PCI NI GPIB card........

You want to bankrupt me Robert ! 
I still have not started that job, I am supposed to be counting pennies...
But I am tempted, just so I can say I tried everything...
PM me with your price so I can see if I can afford it right now, or if I should rather be reasonable and wait a month for my first pay check to clear...

[Cerebus]

Discord is attempting to boot

With tons of Dad jokes!

Really!!


 

FTFY

I suspected as much. I treat my predilection for telling dad jokes honestly, as a vice, some people around here treat their's as a virtue.

[Saskia]

Making progress. And fixed the power board issue the way it should have been fixed.
Will show gorilla brzling later

Additional gorilla thingie: they also toasted the battery holder on the CPU board.

Bloody cunts.

[25 CPS]

The discussion about older PCs reminded me that I have two of them that I got from an estate giveaway that was maybe a couple of minutes drive from my house just on the other side of the next major street.

Am I going to get in trouble for talking about the estate giveaway?  I'm probably going to get in trouble for talking about estate giveaway.

An estate with a lot of vintage test equipment including several Hewlett-Packard spectrum analyzers, scopes, a ton of components, among other things was being given away a few blocks away from me, just on the other side of the next major street.  I contacted the person and he'd been overwhelmed with response because he used the word "FREE" in the Kijiji listing to empty out his father's workshop fast so the house could be put up for sale.  We made contact and I drove over and pretty much all the equipment was gone and the guy told me that a ham radio operator loaded up his van until it was riding low on its suspension and wouldn't leave anything for the others who expressed an interest.  The only thing the guy didn't take was an 8640B signal generator and so the two of us were standing there looking at it.  The person giving away his father's estate told me that another ham radio operator from London, Ont. was on his way to get it but I was welcome to the other odds and ends that the first ham radio operator passed on.

Yeah, I'm totally getting in trouble for telling this story.

Anyways, I took a box full of cables that were useful to me, a bunch of clamp mount desk lamps that solved my work area lighting in one go, and two old lab PCs.  The second ham radio operator called to postpone picking up the 8640B until the next day and the guy said he had someone standing right here who would be happy to take it.  That sure caused some indignant squawking from the other end of the cell phone and the guy agreed to hold the 8640B that this ham radio operator was getting for free so he could pick it up at his own convenience.

I know, I know, I know, I'm not supposed to talk about lived experience.  I know, I know, I know, I'm not supposed to form an opinion based on what my encounters with ham radio to date have been.  I do have British citizenship.  I do have a box of PG Tips in the kitchen cupboard.  I can make a cup of PG Tips and start sneering at people.  Would that be ok?  Would it be alright if I make a cup of PG Tips and sneer at people?  Would there be any objections if I do that?  I can do that if it's necessary.

I've never needed the PCs for anything, they're older, and I already had running machines on hand for what I need, so I've never started them up.  I really should look them over to see what they have and see if they boot.  They were lab PCs so they might be interesting.

[Specmaster]

Suddenly the good old days don't seem to be as good as we remembered them to be, eh?

What do you mean ?
I have no "old days" of FTP, never used it.

All I see if that in just 5 minutes and a few instructions fro Mansaxel, I managed to achieve cool stuff starting from dead zero knowledge.
It's the best IT bang for buck I have had in the last 20+ years of computing, I am to the contrary extremely happy with the outcome, and am now asking for more.
I dreaded the moment where I would have to computerize my lab and make a local network including the ADSL box and hopefully a NAS thing for backup... am now not so scared anymore, looks like I might be able to manage something, and it excites me no end...

I was meaning as opposed to modern day stuff that normally just works when you plug it in 

[Vince]

Ah.. but well, I was using modern day stuff, my Linux box is current... the FTP stuff on it as well then, yet it's still the same as the FTP in Win95, same prompt, same commands.... and it did work out of the box... it's just that I can't log into the Windows machine that's all, because I don't know what I am doing. But accessing the Linux box from the old Win PC was a walk in the park.

Honestly I don't see how FTP could be more plug and play than this... I literally had only one command line to type to install it, then it was ready to go 

The USB stick I plugged into the ADSL box also showed up all by magic on the Win95 and Linux machines, it was automagically available in their respective file/network explorers, it was literally plug and play 

Win95 and Win2K also connected automatically to the ADSL box and internet, had nothing to do, at all.

I don't see how it could be easier than this...

[bd139]

You hit the optimum solution on the head there. That's all that matters 

[AVGresponding]

@Vince, your input would be welcomed on the TEA Discord, ijs...

[tautech]

@Vince, your input would be welcomed on the TEA Discord, ijs...

He made it  and announced his presence.
Truly amazing what a working PC can do. 

[AVGresponding]

Apologies to anyone that believed Discord content was interesting and/or intelligible. I have no intention of accepting responsibility for any divergence of reality from imagination in this context.

[tautech]

Apologies to anyone that believed Discord content was interesting and/or intelligible. I have no intention of accepting responsibility for any divergence of reality from imagination in this context.

The Dwagon is preparing to make magic smoke, what's wrong with that ?

[Vince]

@Vince, your input would be welcomed on the TEA Discord, ijs...

He made it  and announced his presence.
Truly amazing what a working PC can do. 

My 15 year old Core2Duo computer has always been able to make it on Discord. The only reason I was there today was because of AVG.
I won't be fooled twice... I know his tricks now.

To be fair I got something out of this. I learned what " TPTB " means.
I am not saying it's good enough  value for money, but at least it's something 

[25 CPS]

I just did a quick check of the local classified ads.  The Hewlett-Packard meter listed for $75 that I offered $50 on a few weeks ago is still listed.  The $50 offer was rejected out of hand.

I showed the ad to a couple of friends and the consensus was that I was being way to generous with the lady who's selling it.  I'm debating how much longer to let it sit and wait before I send another message saying I've reconsidered, and I'd be delighted to offer her $30 so she can double her money from the $14.99 she paid for it at Value Village from the price tag she didn't remove before taking pictures to post it for sale?

[tautech]

@Vince, your input would be welcomed on the TEA Discord, ijs...

He made it  and announced his presence.
Truly amazing what a working PC can do. 

My 15 year old Core2Duo computer has always been able to make it on Discord. The only reason I was there today was because of AVG.
I won't be fooled twice... I know his tricks now.

To be fair I got something out of this. I learned what " TPTB " means.
I am not saying it's good enough  value for money, but at least it's something 

Newbies to Discord are not qualified to make such judgements ! 

[Specmaster]

Heads up for UK members, the eBay 80% of final price fees offer is doing the rounds again this weekend. Been sifting through my pile of gear for flipping 

[mnementh]

I just did a quick check of the local classified ads.  The Hewlett-Packard meter listed for $75 that I offered $50 on a few weeks ago is still listed.  The $50 offer was rejected out of hand.

I showed the ad to a couple of friends and the consensus was that I was being way to generous with the lady who's selling it.  I'm debating how much longer to let it sit and wait before I send another message saying I've reconsidered, and I'd be delighted to offer her $30 so she can double her money from the $14.99 she paid for it at Value Village from the price tag she didn't remove before taking pictures to post it for sale?

*sigh*

I miss Value Village. The ones I frequented had the best stuff... And their prices weren't batshit cray-cray like most of the thrift shops around here.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Apologies to anyone that believed Discord content was interesting and/or intelligible. I have no intention of accepting responsibility for any divergence of reality from imagination in this context.

The Dwagon is preparing to make magic smoke, what's wrong with that ?

As soon as we get home from the train station I'll be uploading video. 

mnem
no further comment.

[mnementh]

@Vince, your input would be welcomed on the TEA Discord, ijs...

He made it  and announced his presence.
Truly amazing what a working PC can do. 

My 15 year old Core2Duo computer has always been able to make it on Discord. The only reason I was there today was because of AVG.
I won't be fooled twice... I know his tricks now.

To be fair I got something out of this. I learned what " TPTB " means.
I am not saying it's good enough  value for money, but at least it's something 

Huh? How a trick? He asked nicely for you to join the mayhem.

Or did you actually expect Discord with us maniacs to somehow be less manic in real-time than it is in here...? 

Oh, and you're welcome for TPTB.

mnem
I don't have the powah...

[mnementh]

@Vince, your input would be welcomed on the TEA Discord, ijs...

He made it  and announced his presence.
Truly amazing what a working PC can do. 

My 15 year old Core2Duo computer has always been able to make it on Discord. The only reason I was there today was because of AVG.
I won't be fooled twice... I know his tricks now.

To be fair I got something out of this. I learned what " TPTB " means.
I am not saying it's good enough  value for money, but at least it's something 

Newbies to Discord are not qualified to make such judgements ! 

In his defense, tautech... Posting stoopit shit, being rude, crude & socially unacceptable, and passing judgement on what we think is stoopit are like easily the top 3 things we do in Discord.

Ifni save anyone who dares expect it to make a whit of sense...

mnem
 

[Vince]

@Vince, your input would be welcomed on the TEA Discord, ijs...

He made it  and announced his presence.
Truly amazing what a working PC can do. 

My 15 year old Core2Duo computer has always been able to make it on Discord. The only reason I was there today was because of AVG.
I won't be fooled twice... I know his tricks now.

To be fair I got something out of this. I learned what " TPTB " means.
I am not saying it's good enough  value for money, but at least it's something 

Huh? How a trick? He asked nicely for you to join the mayhem.
mnem
I don't have the powah...

The way he worded it, to me, made it sound like something particular on Discord was going on, that called for my presence, some French related matter, I don't know.
So I thought it would be rude not to try and help if I could. But there was no such thing as a need for my presence at all. Hence I consider it a trick, he fooled me.

He himself admitted it BTW, so you can't deny it. It's just a fact.

BTW I may have talked BS on Discord. Can't remember exactly but I may have said that the H160, successor of the Dauphin, was co-developed with the Chinese. Brain fart. That applies to the H175, the H160 bigger brother. I don't know the specifics of the H160, so I will assume it's still a 100% Airbus design, no Chinese involved, until proven otherwise.

[Specmaster]

@Vince, your input would be welcomed on the TEA Discord, ijs...

He made it  and announced his presence.
Truly amazing what a working PC can do. 

My 15 year old Core2Duo computer has always been able to make it on Discord. The only reason I was there today was because of AVG.
I won't be fooled twice... I know his tricks now.

To be fair I got something out of this. I learned what " TPTB " means.
I am not saying it's good enough  value for money, but at least it's something 

Huh? How a trick? He asked nicely for you to join the mayhem.
mnem
I don't have the powah...

The way he worded it, to me, made it sound like something particular on Discord was going on, that called for my presence, some French related matter, I don't know.
So I thought it would be rude not to try and help if I could. But there was no such thing as a need for my presence at all. Hence I consider it a trick, he fooled me.

He himself admitted it BTW, so you can't deny it. It's just a fact.

BTW I may have talked BS on Discord. Can't remember exactly but I may have said that the H160, successor of the Dauphin, was co-developed with the Chinese. Brain fart. That applies to the H175, the H160 bigger brother. I don't know the specifics of the H160, so I will assume it's still a 100% Airbus design, no Chinese involved, until proven otherwise.

Don't worry, most of us talk BS on there, we can let our hair down and go for it, no topic is off limits  One day I might have nothing better to do and pop on as well, it usually is total mayhem on discord.

[vk6zgo]

Suddenly the good old days don't seem to be as good as we remembered them to be, eh?

What do you mean ?
I have no "old days" of FTP, never used it.

All I see if that in just 5 minutes and a few instructions fro Mansaxel, I managed to achieve cool stuff starting from dead zero knowledge.
It's the best IT bang for buck I have had in the last 20+ years of computing, I am to the contrary extremely happy with the outcome, and am now asking for more.
I dreaded the moment where I would have to computerize my lab and make a local network including the ADSL box and hopefully a NAS thing for backup... am now not so scared anymore, looks like I might be able to manage something, and it excites me no end...

I was meaning as opposed to modern day stuff that normally just works when you plug it in 

Or not, if it is W10! 

My "you beaut" little nanoVNA arrived recently, & after playing with it for a while, I decided to download one of the software packages readily available on the Internet.

It looks like it is downloading, & even asks you "if you want to open it".
I told it "yes", & it proceeded to make a few beeps & do nothing---rather reminiscent of loading "Frogger" into a C64 from a Datasette, & with less result.

At least the C64 thing would load properly about every tenth time you tried.
Hang on, maybe I have to try this 10 times? 

[Zoli]

...
At least the C64 thing would load properly about every tenth time you tried.
Hang on, maybe I have to try this 10 times? 

Of course; is Windows 10

[mnementh]

On the Bench Tonight: 12 dollah Battery Tab Welder: Is It Full Of Fire or just WTF...?




One bored afternoon aboot a year ago, I bought literally the cheapest battery tab welder I could find on AliEx; paid a whopping 12 bux delivered for it. This looks like the same as the one I bought:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256803318551771.html

Since I recently unearthed it, I haven't really had a need to weld a battery tab... until DigiKey pissed me off and left me with nothing to do on a Saturday afternoon.

This will not end well. 




I've read the horror stories about voltage sag causing these to all die a fiery death; so I'm gonna give it all the chance to survive I can muster by doing the tricks I learned modding high-current high-frequency ESCs used in our quadcopters.  12ga solid copper wire reinforcement on the rails, 4mm HXT connectors, plus I added dual 12 ga power leads and screwed the thing direct to 30000 uF of Aero M capacitors. Then I'm gonna power it with a 13.5V modded DPS-1200FB server PSU I've personally drawn 80A from. 




I love fine-strand silicone wires; you can dump 150W right on there making up your ends and they just take it. I love my PanaVise JR too; I use this one more than all my others put together any more.

Enabler-wife FTW, yo! 




Here's one set of power cables: Crimped as best I can with the wrong size crimpers, then soldered for safety; I am mildly ashamed. These will go directly under the screws through the PCB into the caps. The other set is a wee bit more assache; they get soldered to the PCB and continue out as pigtails to the other two sets of terminals on the caps.




MUTHA-EFFING OWWWWW!

I accidentally crimped my finger doing a dumbass thing: Using pliers to hold a nut instead of going upstairs to get a wrench.



I deserved that. 




Ooooh... all those wires and schizz all over the place; looks like Doc Brown wuz here.  Hey, I wanna inconvenience those angry pixies just as little as I possibly can. Give them nice fat pipes so they can just fly down to the workpiece!   




This is as ready as it'll ever be... time to fire it up. Hope my scale insurance is paid up.   




But wait... I should make a video so all y'alls can point and laugh! Here, have a little popcorn...





But uhhh... don't double-down on the dumbass-ness like I did... take off your jewelry before you start playing around with electrical crap.

DUH!!!   




But wait... I didn't embarrass myself enuf with that vid? I made another one...?

Yup... all y'alls gonna get a double-feature of the tinkerdwagon doing something that's probably stoopit... just to see if he can. 




For good or evil... there it is. A fucking 2 dollar battery. Made with a 12-dollar spot-welder. 

A bored tinkerdwagon is a dangerous thing... but if that coin cell doesn't spontaneously combust sitting on that tile overnight, I'm gonna put it in that 54621D. Fuck DigiKey and their stoopit Canadian account BS...

mnem

[med6753]

Next project already in queue on bench 1. B&K Precision 2120 scope. I purchased this scope new in 1991 and was for many years my only scope. That all changed about 2013 when I was given a duff 2465 DMS for repair which got me back into the hobby. And that started that never ending rabbit hole and the extensive collection I have today. 

So what's needed on this 2120? Both channel attenuator decks are extremely spotty with no easy access to clean them. The top board shown in the 2nd pix must be removed. And then unsolder shields surrounding the switch assemblies. And I figure since I have it apart I might as well re-cap it. So a BOM has been submitted to Mouser and should be delivered Wednesday.