Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Would just like to add that apart from all that, I get to choose WHEN I want to listen to content. Life is too complicated in 2022 to conform to a media company's schedule. I do not own a TV license as of Friday this week either. That is gone and dead too.

On TE, just found the Farnell power supply I bought under a bed. Forgot to pack that 

[mansaxel]

Would just like to add that apart from all that, I get to choose WHEN I want to listen to content. Life is too complicated in 2022 to conform to a media company's schedule. I do not own a TV license as of Friday this week either. That is gone and dead too.

On TE, just found the Farnell power supply I bought under a bed. Forgot to pack that 

I agree fully. This is a very strong trend. Media companies are struggling to adapt. We're very aware of it.

[med6753]

OT: Commercial FM radio over here is indeed crap. All the "Classic Rock" stations for example are owned by large media companies and they have a set playlist and never deviate from it which results in the same set of songs played over and over and over ad nauseam.  The DJ's are never given the freedom to play anything else.

TE content: BOM has been prepared for the 2235 re-cap. Also prep'ed the cabinet for re-spray which I'll probably complete later today.

 

[TERRA Operative]

I like the Roland TR808 that used rejected faulty transistors, to save costs I guess, but they gave it its distinctive sound.
They picked up a bunch of bad 2SC828-R transistors and characterised them, marking them with a white dot and numbering them 2SC828-RNZ
No more transistors that are faulty in that particular special way means no more TR808 drum machines.


So good luck repairing a busted machine... You can get 2SC828 transistors, but not those 2SC828 transistors..

This is precisely the kind of voodoo I was talking aboot with my "Devil's Advocate Mode" post. There is some tiny grain of truth in all that mumbo-jumbo. It's when people build a belief system around that grain of truth that we lose our minds. 

I dare say that if someone were to take the time and expense to tear apart a working TR808, then properly characterize the 2SC828s in them with our modern TE, that one could find a similar current Chinesium trannysistor, buy oodles of the absolute cheapest of them, and find ones that "fail" similarly.

Bam! New-old TR808s.

mnem
*drops back and punts*

Yeah, apparently the faulty parts used are likely to be exhibiting something similar to zener noise, which would make sense since transistors are not that much different besides the extra wire hanging out of them.

[Cerebus]

Considering YT didn’t do anything for bullshit pedalling anti 5G wankers I wouldn’t even bother.

Sod 5G, it needs tons of antenna masts to propagate anywhere. It's practically useless.

A bit DAB radio then, that sucks big time in a car

I'd heard that, and avoided DAB for car radios that I've bought but, touch wood, the DAB radio that came with the BMW has been fine so far; no worse than FM certainly.

[Robert763]

Used the freshly milled current probe test fixture today.
Sweep is 500kHz to 50MHz. The step at 10 MHz is a artifact of the signal generator.  This was with the terminating resistor box in circuit (2mA setting). So I normalised it with just the terminator resulting in a much flatter response for just the probe.

[Cubdriver]

Was too tried after yesterdays OT plumbing/drainage work that went a bit wrong, missed both this & that.





Actually have two of each.

David

Ahh crap! I completely forgot about the 5214A, too.     I have one that double counts and a second in unknown condition.

[TERRA Operative]

Here you go lads and lasses. How to turn your TDS2CM Communications Module in your TDS200 series scope into a TDS2MM Maths Module.
Makes for a more functional unit with FFT and other enhanced measurement options, all for the easy process of burning a ROM chip and replacing a RAM chip.

[tggzzz]

I was trying to be a little restrained.

I did toy once with the idea of selling little magnets that could be clipped onto resistors, which would alter the sound in mystic ways, with some load of bs to explain it. You could change the way the magnets were oriented and they would be in various strengths. Buyers could experiment to their heart's content, fancying they were subtly altering the sound and auditioning the various combinations.

And after that "works", they can be re-purposed to cure all your muscular aches and pains and much much moere. I once asked one such woo vendor whether it would cure my hamstring, which had snapped and was in plaster. He had the wit to remain silent.

[tggzzz]

Is there something I don't know about old TI BC183L trannystors, auction of 20 sold for £210. 
eBay auction: #314026002138



Or much better price from Langrex, 10 for £2.25. https://www.langrex.co.uk/products/bc183l-92-npn-transistor-x1opcs/

David

Every day an idiot wakes up, you only have to *find* him. These transistors are absolutely plain vanilla and can be replaced by a dozen of other types. What about a "blind" transistor degustation event ?

Old English proverb: "a fool and his money are soon parted". I have a sneaking admiration for people that can separate fools from their money, provided the fools aren't harmed in any significant way. Poor and ignorant people are too often harmed by charlatans that prey on them.

[Zenith]

I was trying to be a little restrained.

I did toy once with the idea of selling little magnets that could be clipped onto resistors, which would alter the sound in mystic ways, with some load of bs to explain it. You could change the way the magnets were oriented and they would be in various strengths. Buyers could experiment to their heart's content, fancying they were subtly altering the sound and auditioning the various combinations.

And after that "works", they can be re-purposed to cure all your muscular aches and pains and much much moere. I once asked one such woo vendor whether it would cure my hamstring, which had snapped and was in plaster. He had the wit to remain silent.

I once asked someone doing a course in homeopathic medicine what the homeopathic cure was for gunshot wounds, and he said that some things were best left to conventional medicine. Someone else quipped that you had to shoot the patient with a very small gun.

[tggzzz]

Actually it's fine. It has roughly the same propagation characteristics as 4G did. It sits between existing 4G and 5GHz WiFi. The band 2 range in the 10's of GHz region isn't used in Europe. That has some atmospheric absorption issues associated with it which seem to attract all the comments about propagation. But that isn't intended for outdoor use apparently.

Digging up memories from >25 years ago, that sounds like bands where certain types of conifer needles have a significant effect.

[tggzzz]

FM goes out all of the time as well. It just degrades audio rather than the difficult to recover bitstream. Digital isn’t always the answer is it 

Digital modulation schemes are better until suddenly they aren't.

FM (radio stations) also has a cliff relative to AM.

[Cubdriver]

That's the WINTER amplifier!  (well, one of them, anyway...)

Dynaco ST-70 clone.  I know I've posted these pics here before, but am doing it again because it's purty when it's all warmed up.


-Pat

This is the VTA clone, right?  I was looking at picking up one of the modern kits but the ones that dynakitparts.com sell have been out of stock for quite a long time.  I'm wondering if that was a one and done production run of kits that aren't being restocked.  VTA redesigned the chassis so it doesn't look like an original ST-70 anymore.  I might drop them an email and ask what stock levels and shipping costs look like.

I never kept a Dynaco ST-70 back in the 90's when I started out when they were cheap and plentiful because I had a pair of Mk IV amplifiers, and that was a big mistake.  I finally corrected that when I was looking at the ad for the Stark resistance and capacitance decade boxes and saw the seller also had an ST-70 for sale.  He gave me a great deal on all three:



We spent a nice afternoon in his garage listening to music and talking about electronics and test equipment (he had an HP 333A distortion analyzer but no sine generator to go with it yet) until I had to leave for work.

Yes, that's it - bought the kit in early 2014.  I’ve been very happy with it.  Enjoyed building it, and have enjoyed listening to it since.  (And to add to the FM/MP3 talk currently happening, my source is is a little music server thing called a Brennan B2; CDs are ripped in FLAC format and it can be controlled through an interface on the computer/iPad over WiFi).

It was my first attempt at powder coating as well.  Gallery with build photos here:
https://pmanning.smugmug.com/Electronics/VTATube4hifi-ST-70-Amplifier

I haven’t visited his site recently, but in my experience he makes a good quality kit.  The parts were well packed for shipping, and the assembly instructions were nice and clear.

-Pat

[Specmaster]

FM goes out all of the time as well. It just degrades audio rather than the difficult to recover bitstream. Digital isn’t always the answer is it 

1000x this. fuck broadcast. period.

mnem
 

No, just no  , I wouldn't have a TE problem if I hadn't started collecting equipment, to help repair the broadcast (AM/FM) equipment. Also still listen to both, even if the choice is a little limited these days.

David

Got to agree with mnem here. It's absolute garbage talk or repeating playlists. Don't even get me started on Magic or Classic FM here. I'd rather shoot my ears off.

My entire interest in electronics is a long story but it started in the space of broadcast FM repair. Every bit of electronic gear I had existed only because of that and poverty. It was entirely so I could tape shit off the radio and didn't have to spend money in Woolworths buying LPs and singles.

But due to the rapid commercialisation in the late 1980s, quite frankly, it was a soul sucking state of affairs. Eventually I moved to the numerous excellent London pirate radio stations pushing out jungle and techno. Got involved in one in for a bit (that's one for an off line discussion  ). But after that it was the start of the age of the mp3. Didn't need a radio, could afford mini disc player, didn't need any test gear and interests were focused mostly on beer and floozies so off it went. My job went down the computer route as well.

I have not owned a broadcast radio since other than car radios and none of them have ever been used for that.

But there's a calling towards RF stuff always but from a technical or telemetry side of things. The medium is great but the content is terrible. But you can still play with the medium, and associated test gear, without having to suffer the crap of broadcast radio.

One killer for the magic is that I have a little computer strapped to my arm now which has multiple 2.4GHz radios in it (BT+WiFi), a 5GHz radio (WiFi), a 60GHz radio and multiple GPS receivers. This can actually store and transmit all the music I want to listen to into other BT equipped computers that sit in my ears and I can ask it to play what I want with my voice.  We've come ridiculously far. Someone telling me what to listen to is dead.

But it's still very interesting and open for discovery near the extremes of low power and below the noise floor which is what I'm playing with still. Music, broadcast, screw it.

Now that I can relate to, I did exactly the same thing myself, taping of the radio and making my own compilations, never really got into the MP3 thing until a few years ago and only broadcast radios I have are old Hackers and HMV Diplomats, mainly ones I got to restore for the hell of it rather than listening to them. I still like them in the car as the local stations broadcast alerts of traffic delays and more importantly public announcements like flooding, toxic fires etc, warning people to shut their windows and stay indoors, away from the toxic fumes etc. I have had to tell my late mother about such things in the past because she only ever listened Classic FM and would have been exposed on more one occasion to some very toxic fumes if I hadn't told her.

[tggzzz]

This is now my favourite German compound word. Suffer badly from it to the point I drink soya milk beans ground up.

FTFY. Nutritionally tolerable so long as it is fortified with several industrial chemicals microbial products.

Which reminds me; time to have my prescribed 1200mg Ca + vit D. I get my microbial output from normal food.

Really all this belongs in the https://www.eevblog.com/forum/cooking/ section. No mods action so far, but I've still got a couple of pages to go...

[Specmaster]

Considering YT didn’t do anything for bullshit pedalling anti 5G wankers I wouldn’t even bother.

Sod 5G, it needs tons of antenna masts to propagate anywhere. It's practically useless.

A bit DAB radio then, that sucks big time in a car

I'd heard that, and avoided DAB for car radios that I've bought but, touch wood, the DAB radio that came with the BMW has been fine so far; no worse than FM certainly.

I have no trouble with my DAB in the London area, its when you move out of the main cities into the more remote areas, like Chelmsford etc that it shows it problems.

[bd139]

Ah the badlands. Outside the M25 is risky business. Should build a wall around it 

[Cerebus]

I have no trouble with my DAB in the London area, its when you move out of the main cities into the more remote areas, like Chelmsford etc that it shows it problems.

So far I've only stretched it to a trip through Kent to Dungeness, along the coast to Brighton and back up on the A23/M23/M25/M2, but that covers ares more rural and wild than Chelmsford. In Dungeness reception was good, phone reception so marginal that I couldn't use Apple or Google maps.

[mansaxel]

I still like them in the car as the local stations broadcast alerts of traffic delays and more importantly public announcements like flooding, toxic fires etc, warning people to shut their windows and stay indoors, away from the toxic fumes etc. I have had to tell my late mother about such things in the past because she only ever listened Classic FM and would have been exposed on more one occasion to some very toxic fumes if I hadn't told her.

Here, the commercial stations are required by the regulator to have a RDS-enabled box that'll listen to one of the "oh, shit" PTY codes off the local programme of the public service company, and if trigged, switch over their transmitter to the public service programme as received by that box. We've also got special radios handed out to everyone living within a certain radius around our nuclear power stations, and those also will make a hell of a racket if A Certain PTY is sent.

[mnementh]

Aaaaaaargh! Fuggitt! I just lost another Mini-Maglite to the leakage monster! 

A misery I have not suffered in literally over 2 decades due to moving to Lixx rechargeables and flashlights. In fact, during the move I found 3 Mini-Mags (Krypton incandescent) from my auto mechanicking daze brand-new in package with leaky copper-tops; I took them out of the package and donated the flashlights to the Salvation Army Thrift.

I prefer 14500-size for EDC/side holster... shop carefully and you'll find ones promising 180-220 lumens from a Cree XM-L; these are usually honestly rated.

The one on top was a random thrift score for a buck; 18650 power, but genuine Cree T6 emitter in a decent all-metal drop-in module. I like it because it actually is waterproof with single-piece polycarbonate cap under the anodized ring, and triple o-ring seal.

The one in the middle is a S108; those used to be a UltraFire model, but when I was shopping last AloneFire was the current "cheap knockoff" (doubtless made in the same factory); now it appears that brand is "UniqueFire".

The one on the bottom is one of the first AA/14500-powered EDCs I ever bought off www.Lightmalls.com; a genuine UltraFire C3 SS.

They are still my favorite due to a nearly perfect mix of sane price ($15-25), just the right size head to have a usable spot beam with decent spillover, light enough to keep in a pocket all the time, and a shrouded reverse-clicky in the tail. I cannot tolerate any other config as they invariably get turned on and half-drained in my pocket; I don't notice until I feel the light getting hot against my leg. 



I'd suggest you look for this model, but I just bought the first and last I've seen in the wild in ~5 years off eBay; supposedly a genuine UltraFire one. We'll see what arrives. I do believe you can still buy the C3 in anodized aluminum as a UltraFire or UniqueFire model.

I recommend you shop Lightmalls for the light, and get your batteries/charger off Amazon; they have better deals on known-quality cells, at least over here. Alternately, get you some hi-cap (800-1200mAH in this size) 14500s from your local vape shop.


mnem
*lit AF*

[mnementh]

This is now my favourite German compound word. Suffer badly from it to the point I drink soya milk beans ground up.

FTFY. Nutritionally tolerable so long as it is fortified with several industrial chemicals microbial products.

Which reminds me; time to have my prescribed 1200mg Ca + vit D. I get my microbial output from normal food.

Really all this belongs in the https://www.eevblog.com/forum/cooking/ section. No mods action so far, but I've still got a couple of pages to go...

Coffee is a long-standing discussion point in TEA; it is a foundational topic in this memespace, as it is another Addiction common to most of the long-term members. We had another "Coffee Chronicles" thread for a while; it sortof withered when beanflying (miss you, buddy ) wandered off due to IRL getting in the way.

mnem

[GreyWoolfe]

BLEEEEARRRRGHHH!!! Black coffee is for bitter people with dried up little souls. Like Sid. 

You rang. Sitting here drinking the stuff 

Engineers and IT folk exist on the stuff mostly.

Edit: med knows how to coffee like an engineer 

Apparently I am a heathen and the equal of an audiophool when it comes to coffee.  Folger's medium roast made in a Bunn coffee maker and served with almond/coconut milk and Truvia-----iced.

(Drops to the ground immediately and army crawls out to avoid incoming from nmem's SBC-soggy boot cannon)

[GreyWoolfe]

The 2235 service manual that I downloaded from TekWiki has cut off parts of the schematics which were originally a fold out page. Artek Manuals to the rescue. The schematics are complete since they imaged the entire fold out page as one sheet. I don't know why I bother going to any other source. Artek stuff is always superior and cheap. $6.95 USD for a downloadable link. 

Edit....oh here is some real dumbassery. Heard on scanner. Mental health worker goes to work and leaves keys in car. Comes out later and car is gone. Calls cops. Cops find car further down the road abandoned and wrecked.

D'OH. 

There was an article in the paper here a few days ago that a running car was stolen from a local gas station while the owner was inside the quickie-mart.  All captured perfectly on the surveillance tape - another car (stolen) pulls along side in the other pump lane, guy gets out of passenger door and into running car, both drive off.  Something like 17 seconds total elapsed time, pull up to both vehicles driving off.  Why do people STILL leave their fucking cars running while they 'run in' somewhere?  FFS, I've known to take the keys out of the car since I was like fourteen years old and not even driving yet!  I have no sympathy for the 'victims' of this sort of thing.

-Pat

Edit - my mistake - SEVEN seconds!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rtb4zBL2Viw

Because there are things in my company van that should not be let out in the wild, I will lock it again if I forget something and have to run back in the house.  Drives Mrs GreyWoolfe crazy as that mentality applies to personal vehicles.  If I am not near it like getting gas, it is locked.

[mnementh]

Would just like to add that apart from all that, I get to choose WHEN I want to listen to content. Life is too complicated in 2022 to conform to a media company's schedule. I do not own a TV license as of Friday this week either. That is gone and dead too.

On TE, just found the Farnell power supply I bought under a bed. Forgot to pack that 

I agree fully. This is a very strong trend. Media companies are struggling to adapt. We're very aware of it.

No, they are doing everything thing they can except adapt; up to and including warping the core legal system of the entire developed world with utterly insane anti-piracy legislation that simply cannot be enforced shy of allowing those media conglomerates to have gestapo-like authority over all forms of distribution.

What they are struggling with is the very concept that the pay-for-play business model is fucking dead, and still insist on bludgeoning us with the idea that we have to pay over and over to see/hear/feel the same content either with cash out of pocket or by wasting our time with commercials.

mnem
fuck them all to death with a shovel. Seriously. And that is the family-friendly version of what I think of those pirate/leech/waste-of-skin motherfuckers.