Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[m k]

Now that I have cleared all the GPIB stuff from the bench, I can resume sorting the few remaining IC's I had dug out the other day.

A few were nice ones.

FTFY
Antistatic management nowhere to be seen ! 

Still can't sleep. Will stir the pot.

Anti-static gear is mostly pointless for hobby use unless you're dealing with really old MOSFETs, really old 4000 series while walking around in a shell suit scuffing your crocs on your nylon rug 

So basically you're saying that "If you're a Scouser, get some anti-static gear."? 

I rarely bother with any formal anti-static gear at home. I'll use anti-static materials for packaging and work surfaces and that's about it. I'll make a vague effort to get myself, boards and parts to equipotential if circumstances such as very low humidity or devices I know to be very static sensitive are in play. I do have a couple of ESD safe "toothbrushes" I use if I have to scrub a board to get flux off, there is such a thing as tempting fate and rubbing two different insulating synthetic materials vigorously over each other would I think fall into that category. I won't let myself do anything stupid like using dry compressed air to dust off a tray of parts or using the cat or a synthetic microfibre cloth as a duster to clean a board up.

So far I haven't knowingly killed anything with static and only had one mysterious failure that *might* have been attributable to static but equally probably wasn't.

Your stuff, your problem.

Generally the issue is not what you know.
If I remember correctly partially damaged cases were 3/4 or something like that.

Wrist wrap is pretty easy and stuff are generally packed and package, like a pink bag, is not very difficult to keep.

With computers I keep power cord connected and balance the situation every now and then by touching the metal case or frame.

[pcprogrammer]

All this doomsday crap. I say "fuck it". Live for today. Enjoy the toys and TE now. None of us can control what happens tomorrow. When the good lord or whatever decides to collect your ticket you can't take it with you anyway.

But if the world shit does get real you just need to maintain the ability to bend over and kiss your arse goodbye. 

and

And in the event of a total world collapse everybody is again f...d and no amount of money in the bank will get you food if there ain't any around.
...
So rather hope on another 20-30 years of reasonable sanity in the world that things won't go sour, but with nowadays shit going on

Time will tell.

The "real doomsday" scenario is not particularly interesting; you realise that after having lived with the though of what would happen if there was a nuclear war (e.g. "Threads", definitely not "The Day After"). Nobody can know how they would deal with such scenarios, nor even whether they would want to.

The more interesting cases to consider are the "plausible extremes" that have been seen recently.

I remember 15% inflation; we are currently at >10% and possibly still increasing. The UK feels generally febrile, and can't be sure it won't (politicallly) emulate the Weimar Republic. That inflation is already eating away at pensions and savings; 10%=>halving in ~7 years, and that's too short a time to thought of as "the I'll-be-dead-by-then future".

I remember eating and revising for exams by candlelight, due to regular 4 hour powercuts. Current news is 'The Electricity System Operator [part of the national Grid] has admitted that the UK’s electricity grid faces some “tight” periods this winter amid the ongoing pressures on energy prices. ... But it added: “Our operational modelling indicates that there could be some tight periods this winter, which are most likely to occur in the first half of December.” ... As part of these efforts, [ESO] called for delays in the closure of five coal units which would deliver around 2 GW de-rated capacity.' WTF?! Why is it "...calling for..."?!

Indeed, the extremes in what is going on at the moment are concerning. Gas shortage and power outages can make things go bad and drive up prices to extremes. But here in France things are not that bad yet. We heat with wood and most of Frances electricity comes from nuclear power stations and also hydroelectric power stations. Power cuts are not frequent and prices remain under government control.

Even though food prices are going up it is not to concerning to us. As I wrote before, even when they triple we can manage, and when they go up further it is not just us who have a problem it is the whole country / world and well we will see what happens then.

But in the Netherlands relatives and friends were not to happy, because both gas and electricity prices were going through the roof

[Zenith]

Far more fun sitting on the deck in the rocking chair with the shotgun protecting ones wares ! 

That may be possible in your neck of the woods, but in France, or the Netherlands for that matter, guns are not easily obtainable. Sure you can join a hunting club, but then you need to follow courses and get a license and go hunting. Not my sport. Upside not a lot of guns around to do harm And yet every year a couple of people get killed during the hunting season

From what I've seen of it, gun laws in France are a lot more relaxed than in the UK.

As for the chasseurs I've seen in France in October, no normal gun handling discipline, kids and dogs (obviously not trained gun dogs) running about with them. They're not bloody safe. I'm not surprised people are killed and walkers injured etc. I wouldn't shoot with them.

[Saskia]

https://free-markt.de/sony-ta-nr1-und-sony-ta-er1-monoblocke_i12081
*sigh*
*WANT*

[Saskia]

As for some more widespread collapse, I'm investing in tins of baked beans, tins of sardines, bars of soap, bogrolls and shotgun cartridges. 

This is far more widespread than you could imagine.
A reloading forum I frequent has had constant bitching about reloading component shortages and price increases for the last couple years that probably aligns very well with the eviction of that Chump fella in the US.
Now with what poor Ukraine is undergoing everyone has doubled down with ammo and HV particle accelerators that despite the UN's underhanded disarmament polices their efforts are falling on deaf ears and about furking time ! 

*cough* Let's not deep dive into that, the natives are getting restless.

[pcprogrammer]

Far more fun sitting on the deck in the rocking chair with the shotgun protecting ones wares ! 

That may be possible in your neck of the woods, but in France, or the Netherlands for that matter, guns are not easily obtainable. Sure you can join a hunting club, but then you need to follow courses and get a license and go hunting. Not my sport. Upside not a lot of guns around to do harm

Now I'm gunna get political....what you experience in your part of the world is only associated with one thing....the UN disarmament policy !  Go Google it and see. 

That is not something new. Has been that way as long as I live. And I don't mind. But a well know statement "It is not a gun that kills, it is the person using it" and when you look at the statistics there are a lot of killers in the USA. 

And yet every year a couple of people get killed during the hunting season

Don't ever let that be used an an excuse for curtailing the wonderful sport and opportunity to provide from the outdoors for your family when instead it falls directly at the feet of your gubbermints failings in education of safe use of firearms. 

Says a very strong and outspoken defender of the right of firearm ownership for hunting, pest control and sporting competition shooting for all ages and all levels of skill. I better stop there .............. 

I'm not against hunting as long as it is done for food and in a fair manner where the animals have some chance of escape. So a single hunter with his gun roaming through the woods to find a pray, and not a large group supported by beaters who push the animals towards the hunters, or a bunch of idiots with 4x4 cars chasing the animals and scaring the living daylights out of them.

The problem here is that idiots fall through the cracks and are allowed to hunt, and then shoot at whatever moves without thinking. During hunting season we wear yellow or orange vests and talk a bit louder then normal when out for a walk, just to be safe.

[Specmaster]

<huge snip>

You don't fix your vision anywhere, you scan, just like you would when piloting an aircraft. You don't need a TomTom or other similar device to be a safe driver; you just need to be focused on your task and be paying attention. If you aren't prepared to do that, you shouldn't be driving.

The only problem I have with speed cameras et al is that TPTB tend to see them as a means of reducing the budget for police patrols, and it's far more likely for people to get away with all kinds of horrifically bad driving nowadays. A perfect example happened on my way home yesterday; a couple of complete cunts racing each other, in busy traffic I might add. One veered across the road and nearly took me out, in order to go the wrong side of a traffic island.
Whenever something like this happens, I mourn for the days of police being allowed to beat people to a pulp in the cells, though not for long when I remember the innocents that have suffered so.

Agreed, you need to be scanning, but while you are doing that, you still cannot survey the entire scene around you at the same time, so you will miss the odd road sign as you are scanning another part of the road. Remember scanning on an open road, with no other traffic like buses, lorries etc or trees that could block signs, is one thing, in cities and towns, there are always plenty of things can and do cause you to miss certain things.

I for one, do not set out to deliberately speed, but I admit to accidentally speeding on the odd occasion, but then my TomTom kicks in and reminds me that I'm being a c**t, and I slow down, I will not accept that anyone here can honestly put their hand on their heart and swear that they are never guilty of speeding, they might claim that they don't but take from me, they are lying.

Your point about over reliance on cameras and the lack of traffic patrols is a very valid point and is one that I myself often make, another issue for me is very often traffic lights are badly sited. How often do you stop at lights, you are at the front and looking around you cannot see any lights aimed at you. This forces you to become a contortionist in order to see when they go green 

Another thing I hate is when the TPTB decide to set a 20mph limit, maybe because there is a school etc, but they never bother to erect the large 20mph sign, often relying on it being painted on the road (FFS), this cannot be seen if covered by another vehicle and when it is uncovered, you could be scanning a side road junction etc and so miss it. Such a stupid sign also cannot be seen if covered by a dusting of snow, or is worn away, they also paint  school on the road, this in my case is worn away and unreadable. The school is actually behind a row of houses so to a driver, the school is completely hidden from view. The only thing that tells you that its a 20mph zone is the very occasional small repeater sign.  This road is over half a mile long, has a major cross road with lights about half way, has parking bays in one half of it.

Now imagine you were a stranger to the area, parked in a bay and went to the train station, bus station, theatre, or even went shopping. Came back to your car and drove off, looking around the street it looks like any other street in a city or town, so you assume 30mph, fair enough? There are no cameras currently on this road, but there is a major police station, so a police car clocks you driving at 30 in a 20mph zone, you're now guilty of driving at speed limit plus 50%, you are going to have the book thrown at you. This is why it is not possible to guess what the limit is just by looking around you, but a device like TomTom will tell you what the limit is, and if you assume its 30, when it is 20, it will sound an alarm to warn you, so it is a driving aid, aimed at improving safety, not a device to aid speeding.

Edit, spot the school, it behind the houses on the left and the entrance is just in front of the white car on the left. To a driver it has the appearance of a road junction 

[bd139]

Some TE for a change. Checking out the CTI OCXO batch with some slightly more modern equipment for a change 

Yes I know about the ringing. I just want rough frequency and red/green for this phase.

[mnementh]

That quality of print would be perfect for printing very genuine broken HP feet 

In defense of broken HP feet, in my experience their demise is typically the result of the wonderful 'packing' job that many sellers do.  Truth be told, I'm surprised that more of them don't break!


I'll never understand the thinking process behind "Oh, a layer or two of corrugated cardboard and no other cushioning is adequate to ship a heavy instrument!"   

There are far too many idiots in the world - we need to remove most warning labels and let Darwin resume his noble work.

-Pat

I know someone who makes a large part of his income selling antiques, and particularly model trains, on ebay. He said that when he first started, he didn't realise how well packed things had to be. He soon found out.

Someone comes by a piece of test equipment like that. They picked it up at an auction or it came from a deceased family member. They sell it on ebay. They are struggling to find a box to put it in. They have to go out and buy plastic chips and bubble pack, so they are tempted not to.

I've heard stories of bakelite radios turning up in pieces, packed in a couple of plastic carrier bags. That is plain stupid.

Then there's the treatment these things receive at the hands of the courier. That can be anything from normal rough treatment, chucked in the back of vans, to thrown 5 ft onto concrete.

Everyone posting in this board will be interested to hear that I am in the process of creating a site to compete with ebay. My site will specialize in large, heavy, old TE. I will streamline the entire process thusly: you click on an item and I will smash it to bits.

In order to properly duplicate the eBay Experience™, you'll need to actually ship a random percentage of the product bits to the customer in a recycled Amazon bubble mailer. 

I suggest you roll a nice shiny crystal 1d20; can't go wrong with the classics. You could even make a video of the die roll for every customer; that would add some curb appeal. 

mnem

[pcprogrammer]

Far more fun sitting on the deck in the rocking chair with the shotgun protecting ones wares ! 

That may be possible in your neck of the woods, but in France, or the Netherlands for that matter, guns are not easily obtainable. Sure you can join a hunting club, but then you need to follow courses and get a license and go hunting. Not my sport. Upside not a lot of guns around to do harm And yet every year a couple of people get killed during the hunting season

From what I've seen of it, gun laws in France are a lot more relaxed than in the UK.

As for the chasseurs I've seen in France in October, no normal gun handling discipline, kids and dogs (obviously not trained gun dogs) running about with them. They're not bloody safe. I'm not surprised people are killed and walkers injured etc. I wouldn't shoot with them.

True that it happens, but laws are there, only they are not well uphold.

Same as for burning your garden trimmings. Since a couple of years it is prohibited to burn them, but that does not stop the farmers, hell they are just not well informed about it. Even a young farmer who recently graduated from farming school was happily burning a load of sticks and slightly wet hay. The whole house smelled horrible for over a week. We asked him if he knew it was illegal, and his response was "no it is fine, only in the summer it is not allowed". Wrong

[mnementh]

Some TE for a change. Checking out the CTI OCXO batch with some slightly more modern equipment for a change 

Yes I know about the ringing. I just want rough frequency and red/green for this phase.

*puts hands over ears*   

HOW did you know about the ringing? I thought that was only in my head! Get out of my head!!!

mnem
Do you think he knows about the voices too...?
Ssssshhh... he'll hear us.
Shut up, you!!!

[tggzzz]

All this doomsday crap. I say "fuck it". Live for today. Enjoy the toys and TE now. None of us can control what happens tomorrow. When the good lord or whatever decides to collect your ticket you can't take it with you anyway.

But if the world shit does get real you just need to maintain the ability to bend over and kiss your arse goodbye. 

and

And in the event of a total world collapse everybody is again f...d and no amount of money in the bank will get you food if there ain't any around.
...
So rather hope on another 20-30 years of reasonable sanity in the world that things won't go sour, but with nowadays shit going on

Time will tell.

The "real doomsday" scenario is not particularly interesting; you realise that after having lived with the though of what would happen if there was a nuclear war (e.g. "Threads", definitely not "The Day After"). Nobody can know how they would deal with such scenarios, nor even whether they would want to.

The more interesting cases to consider are the "plausible extremes" that have been seen recently.

I remember 15% inflation; we are currently at >10% and possibly still increasing. The UK feels generally febrile, and can't be sure it won't (politicallly) emulate the Weimar Republic. That inflation is already eating away at pensions and savings; 10%=>halving in ~7 years, and that's too short a time to thought of as "the I'll-be-dead-by-then future".

I remember eating and revising for exams by candlelight, due to regular 4 hour powercuts. Current news is 'The Electricity System Operator [part of the national Grid] has admitted that the UK’s electricity grid faces some “tight” periods this winter amid the ongoing pressures on energy prices. ... But it added: “Our operational modelling indicates that there could be some tight periods this winter, which are most likely to occur in the first half of December.” ... As part of these efforts, [ESO] called for delays in the closure of five coal units which would deliver around 2 GW de-rated capacity.' WTF?! Why is it "...calling for..."?!

Indeed, the extremes in what is going on at the moment are concerning. Gas shortage and power outages can make things go bad and drive up prices to extremes. But here in France things are not that bad yet. We heat with wood and most of Frances electricity comes from nuclear power stations and also hydroelectric power stations. Power cuts are not frequent and prices remain under government control.

Even though food prices are going up it is not to concerning to us. As I wrote before, even when they triple we can manage, and when they go up further it is not just us who have a problem it is the whole country / world and well we will see what happens then.

But in the Netherlands relatives and friends were not to happy, because both gas and electricity prices were going through the roof

I find http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ interesting. It shows current and historic plots (and spreadsheet data) of the state of the UK generating system. Of particular interest is the "ICT" (interconnector) information.

Normally at this time of year we are importing up to 4GW from France. This year we are steadily exporting 2GW. We are also importing 1GW from each of Belgium and the Netherlands. Go figure. Presumably that "figuring" will involve spot prices in varius countries.

Here the energy prices are (currently) effectively government controlled on a 3 month basis, via a price cap. We are expecting another large increase in a couple of months.

[Atomillo]

All this doomsday crap. I say "fuck it". Live for today. Enjoy the toys and TE now. None of us can control what happens tomorrow. When the good lord or whatever decides to collect your ticket you can't take it with you anyway.

But if the world shit does get real you just need to maintain the ability to bend over and kiss your arse goodbye. 

and

And in the event of a total world collapse everybody is again f...d and no amount of money in the bank will get you food if there ain't any around.
...
So rather hope on another 20-30 years of reasonable sanity in the world that things won't go sour, but with nowadays shit going on

Time will tell.

The "real doomsday" scenario is not particularly interesting; you realise that after having lived with the though of what would happen if there was a nuclear war (e.g. "Threads", definitely not "The Day After"). Nobody can know how they would deal with such scenarios, nor even whether they would want to.

The more interesting cases to consider are the "plausible extremes" that have been seen recently.

I remember 15% inflation; we are currently at >10% and possibly still increasing. The UK feels generally febrile, and can't be sure it won't (politicallly) emulate the Weimar Republic. That inflation is already eating away at pensions and savings; 10%=>halving in ~7 years, and that's too short a time to thought of as "the I'll-be-dead-by-then future".

I remember eating and revising for exams by candlelight, due to regular 4 hour powercuts. Current news is 'The Electricity System Operator [part of the national Grid] has admitted that the UK’s electricity grid faces some “tight” periods this winter amid the ongoing pressures on energy prices. ... But it added: “Our operational modelling indicates that there could be some tight periods this winter, which are most likely to occur in the first half of December.” ... As part of these efforts, [ESO] called for delays in the closure of five coal units which would deliver around 2 GW de-rated capacity.' WTF?! Why is it "...calling for..."?!

Indeed, the extremes in what is going on at the moment are concerning. Gas shortage and power outages can make things go bad and drive up prices to extremes. But here in France things are not that bad yet. We heat with wood and most of Frances electricity comes from nuclear power stations and also hydroelectric power stations. Power cuts are not frequent and prices remain under government control.

Even though food prices are going up it is not to concerning to us. As I wrote before, even when they triple we can manage, and when they go up further it is not just us who have a problem it is the whole country / world and well we will see what happens then.

But in the Netherlands relatives and friends were not to happy, because both gas and electricity prices were going through the roof

Here in Spain our electricity prices are going crazy but of course we must close and not build any nuclear because "the atom"!
Then we buy lots of electricity to France whose nuclear power plant is so close to the Pyrenees it might as well be Vandellos 

[Specmaster]

And of course to top it all off, we are making the switch to electric cars which will further increase demand at a time when we supposed to be shutting down nuclear and fossil fuelled generation which further impact the chronic shortages, it has all the hallmarks of a perfect storm. 

[Zenith]

And of course to top it all off, we are making the switch to electric cars which will further increase demand at a time when we supposed to be shutting down nuclear and fossil fuelled generation which further impact the chronic shortages, it has all the hallmarks of a perfect storm. 

Getting rid of gas boilers and replacing them with heat pumps too. Now there's a well thought out and carefully considered plan, if ever there was one.

[med6753]

Since everyone is in a bitchy mood today with all this OT stuff let me add my 1st world issue. The spin cycle on our only washer is broke. Spins for about 30 seconds then machine shuts off. Clothes come out soaking wet. Will require two full cycles at $1.50 USD each in the dryer.

Informed the landlord. This shattering event has ruined my entire day. I may have to take up drinking to console myself.

If I recover sufficiently I will have some on topic stuff to post later.

Carry on.

 

[TERRA Operative]

Awwww geeeeez. I did it again...

I bought a faulty Tek TDS644A for a tiny bit more than USD$20 plus shipping...


Will get repaired, upgraded and put on the 'to sell for fun and profit' pile.

[mnementh]

On the Bench Tonight: Thrift Score IR Thermometer...


Ahhh... squaddie-resistant design. The important settings are actual switches right under the flip-door so even auto mechanics should be able to figure out what they care aboot... 

Hmmmm... it would appear the wandering pic-eating singularity is still roaming eevBlog...      This pic disappeared while I was posting last night, then it was missing again this morning. Yet when I checked on my dwagon-cave PC which still had the page open, it showed in the attached pics. Until I F5'd.     Hopefully it'll stay put this time.

mnem
 

[Zenith]

True that it happens, but laws are there, only they are not well uphold.

Same as for burning your garden trimmings. Since a couple of years it is prohibited to burn them, but that does not stop the farmers, hell they are just not well informed about it. Even a young farmer who recently graduated from farming school was happily burning a load of sticks and slightly wet hay. The whole house smelled horrible for over a week. We asked him if he knew it was illegal, and his response was "no it is fine, only in the summer it is not allowed". Wrong

As I understood it, it applies to properties less than 4,000 sq metres.

I have a friend who lives in a rural village in France, who's affected by it. He asked the Maire about it, and the Maire told him to be careful and not to create a lot of smoke. He asked his cleaner, she was going to burn her rubbish at night when there was no one around. He asked his neighbours, mainly retired French professional people, they thought it was silly and were going to ignore it. No one takes any notice of it.

He waits until the pile is thoroughly dry so as to limit the smoke, and the weather conditions are right not to cause a nuisance.

[McBryce]

Oh no, I went and built more shelving for the TE that's currently piled in the corner, but it's twice as big as it needs to be and now the void keeps telling me to browse ebay!! 

McBryce.

[bd139]

Oh no, I went and built more shelving for the TE that's currently piled in the corner, but it's twice as big as it needs to be and now the void keeps telling me to browse ebay!! 

McBryce.

LOL. I just did something similar. Bought three large plastic crates to move TE stuff in and worked out they are now not even half full. Need padding. Quick!!!

[capt bullshot]

While doing some real work, but having to wait for results:

Went for a short time into Vince mode and sorted some stuff into these neat boxes:

Arduino type jumpers (some others might call them dupont cables or whatever):


Wires and connectors for thermo couple measurement:


Banana plugs and similar:


Various kinds of test clips:

[Cerebus]

Talking of the cat, I'm sure most people have seen that thing cats do when they're not sure that something is safe but they are still curious. They will stretch their nose towards the thing, suddenly flinch back a bit, stretch a bit more, flinch back and so on until they decide whether it's safe to properly sniff or to bugger off. I just almost pissed myself watching the cat do exactly that to one of my socks poking out of a discarded trainer - three flinches and a bugger off. 

So he obviously got enough of a sniff to decide that buggering off was the best option, then.   

How close did he get before coming to this realization?

-Pat

What was making me laugh was the way she innately realised that approaching a used sock required use of the "this may be dangerous" protocol.

I note today that the sock is no longer inside the trainer, it's now on the floor. So some time during the night it was used as a toy so it can't have been too toxic.

[mnementh]

Talking of the cat, I'm sure most people have seen that thing cats do when they're not sure that something is safe but they are still curious. They will stretch their nose towards the thing, suddenly flinch back a bit, stretch a bit more, flinch back and so on until they decide whether it's safe to properly sniff or to bugger off. I just almost pissed myself watching the cat do exactly that to one of my socks poking out of a discarded trainer - three flinches and a bugger off. 

So he obviously got enough of a sniff to decide that buggering off was the best option, then.   

How close did he get before coming to this realization?

-Pat

What was making me laugh was the way she innately realised that approaching a used sock required use of the "this may be dangerous" protocol.

I note today that the sock is no longer inside the trainer, it's now on the floor. So some time during the night it was used as a toy so it can't have been too toxic.

Just toxic enough to substitute for catnip, evidently... 

mnem

[Cerebus]

Talking of the cat, I'm sure most people have seen that thing cats do when they're not sure that something is safe but they are still curious. They will stretch their nose towards the thing, suddenly flinch back a bit, stretch a bit more, flinch back and so on until they decide whether it's safe to properly sniff or to bugger off. I just almost pissed myself watching the cat do exactly that to one of my socks poking out of a discarded trainer - three flinches and a bugger off. 

They might have been getting an ESD zap to the nose. They really don't like that but the urge to sniff an object is often stronger than the discouragement from a zap.

I get the logic but it's a basic built in cat behaviour for approaching with caution. You can watch a leopard do it a porcupine, a lion to an unfamiliar flower blowing in the wind and so on. It always amuses me, nature's "long backed, retractable clawed, killing machines" timidly approaching something harmless like an EE approaching an HV cap with the back of their hand where they aren't sure of the state of charge, inching closer and closer, wincing all the time.