Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

I remember a professor at Imperial College, who also did some industrial design gigs at an art and design college.

He pointed out that if you asked them to design an egg, they would all create something which was the right size and shape. Better designers' eggs would have the right coloration. The best designers' eggs would have the right weight. None of them would have anything inside.

Typical industrial designer's attitude. They always leave it up to the long-suffering engineer to figure out a way to fit the contents into the "beautiful", but too small, enclosure that they designed.

The engineer is never, ever allowed to make modifications to the enclosure to make it more functional or easier to manufacture as that would destroy the "purity" of the designer's concept.

Very few "design concepts" ever get anywhere near being implemented. Seeing those words is a useful filter causing me to ignore the article and flip to the next article.

[med6753]

Today must be "1st World Engineer Bitch Day". I know why I'm not on that memo distribution. 

[bd139]

Today must be "1st World Engineer Bitch Day". I know why I'm not on that memo distribution. 

Because you live in the 3rd world 

[BU508A]

I remember a professor at Imperial College, who also did some industrial design gigs at an art and design college.

He pointed out that if you asked them to design an egg, they would all create something which was the right size and shape. Better designers' eggs would have the right coloration. The best designers' eggs would have the right weight. None of them would have anything inside.

Typical industrial designer's attitude. They always leave it up to the long-suffering engineer to figure out a way to fit the contents into the "beautiful", but too small, enclosure that they designed.

The engineer is never, ever allowed to make modifications to the enclosure to make it more functional or easier to manufacture as that would destroy the "purity" of the designer's concept.

Very few "design concepts" ever get anywhere near being implemented. Seeing those words is a useful filter causing me to ignore the article and flip to the next article.

There is only one true design concept: Form follows function!

[Cerebus]

I remember a professor at Imperial College, who also did some industrial design gigs at an art and design college.

He pointed out that if you asked them to design an egg, they would all create something which was the right size and shape. Better designers' eggs would have the right coloration. The best designers' eggs would have the right weight. None of them would have anything inside.

I'll feed my belly before I feed my eye

That's just the old engineers' canard about design being just about appearances. It isn't. Good design includes ergonomics, suitability to task, and also appearances.

It's a bit like picking a partner. Sure, a pleasing appearance is nice to have, but having a good heart and temperament, and being nice to hold is more important, and great cooking is a plus. But great cooking with a face like a bag of spanners, the temperament of a rattlesnake with a hangover, and the tactile qualities of a leather bag of oobleck is what you'd get if the design task is left to most engineers.

[Cerebus]

Today must be "1st World Engineer Bitch Day". I know why I'm not on that memo distribution. 

Because you live in the 3rd world 

Hey, at least he's only near to Jersey, not in it.

[med6753]

Today must be "1st World Engineer Bitch Day". I know why I'm not on that memo distribution. 

Because you live in the 3rd world 

Hey, at least he's only near to Jersey, not in it.

But I did have to go to Jersey to pick up the 2235. I barely escaped. 

[tggzzz]

I remember a professor at Imperial College, who also did some industrial design gigs at an art and design college.

He pointed out that if you asked them to design an egg, they would all create something which was the right size and shape. Better designers' eggs would have the right coloration. The best designers' eggs would have the right weight. None of them would have anything inside.

Typical industrial designer's attitude. They always leave it up to the long-suffering engineer to figure out a way to fit the contents into the "beautiful", but too small, enclosure that they designed.

The engineer is never, ever allowed to make modifications to the enclosure to make it more functional or easier to manufacture as that would destroy the "purity" of the designer's concept.

Very few "design concepts" ever get anywhere near being implemented. Seeing those words is a useful filter causing me to ignore the article and flip to the next article.

There is only one true design concept: Form follows function!

Amazing to realise that the Bauhaus philosophy is now into its second century of indicating what is good, right, and proper!

[tggzzz]

I remember a professor at Imperial College, who also did some industrial design gigs at an art and design college.

He pointed out that if you asked them to design an egg, they would all create something which was the right size and shape. Better designers' eggs would have the right coloration. The best designers' eggs would have the right weight. None of them would have anything inside.

I'll feed my belly before I feed my eye

That's just the old engineers' canard about design being just about appearances. It isn't. Good design includes ergonomics, suitability to task, and also appearances.

It's a bit like picking a partner. Sure, a pleasing appearance is nice to have, but having a good heart and temperament, and being nice to hold is more important, and great cooking is a plus. But great cooking with a face like a bag of spanners, the temperament of a rattlesnake with a hangover, and the tactile qualities of a leather bag of oobleck is what you'd get if the design task is left to most engineers.

Not always. Modern gliders are the sexiest things in the air. Ditto racing eights on the water.

[mnementh]

   

https://apps.apple.com/app/aliens-motion-tracker/id832823029
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joesdomain.motiontracker

Tripped over this vid by accident the other day... thought it was an amusing diversion.  App links are above; cost a buck or two.

mnem
yes, I am a total SciFi nerd.

[Cerebus]

There is only one true design concept: Form follows function!

That's idiomatic in a purely mechanical world. It's always going to be true of a good spanner, and the inverse "form indicates function" is a natural consequence.

But that all rather falls flat on its face when faced with our favourite subject, test gear. The function of a frequency counter is a mile away from a signal generator, or scope, or SA, or measurement receiver, etc., but they all end up as rectilinear boxes of roughly the same order of magnitude and highly similar appearance. Indeed it's often necessary to understand the language that the scales and controls are labelled in to understand the function of such a device.

So it would appear that there has to exist more than "one true design concept".

[Cerebus]

I remember a professor at Imperial College, who also did some industrial design gigs at an art and design college.

He pointed out that if you asked them to design an egg, they would all create something which was the right size and shape. Better designers' eggs would have the right coloration. The best designers' eggs would have the right weight. None of them would have anything inside.

I'll feed my belly before I feed my eye

That's just the old engineers' canard about design being just about appearances. It isn't. Good design includes ergonomics, suitability to task, and also appearances.

It's a bit like picking a partner. Sure, a pleasing appearance is nice to have, but having a good heart and temperament, and being nice to hold is more important, and great cooking is a plus. But great cooking with a face like a bag of spanners, the temperament of a rattlesnake with a hangover, and the tactile qualities of a leather bag of oobleck is what you'd get if the design task is left to most engineers.

Not always. Modern gliders are the sexiest things in the air. Ditto racing eights on the water.

Designed by physics, thus nature, not by engineers.

[mnementh]

<snip>

I managed to muddle through 3 generations of Eagle. Do I stand a chance of surviving Christian's tutorial...?   

mnemories:
I remember my grand-dad's F-150 after putting the 500 Caddy/TH400 in... I hadn't finished boxing in the shifter and crap, so when I first drove it I sat on a 5-gallon bucket and almost killed myself when it tipped over. Then my best buddy Drucker hadda drive it... he came back with a big ol' shite-eating grin: "That thing is siiiick!"

Oh crap, have I inadvertently landed Christian into doing a tutorial now, oops sorry Christian, I didn't mean to do that, honest. 

Let's do a hang out on Discord with screen sharing when you're ready, it'll be fine 

I'm in!

Maybe if we gang up on LT-Spice, we can beat it into submission...?   

mnem
"nope. we're still outnumbered." ~mom

[Cerebus]

   

https://apps.apple.com/app/aliens-motion-tracker/id832823029
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joesdomain.motiontracker

Tripped over this vid by accident the other day... thought it was an amusing diversion.  App links are above; cost a buck or two.

mnem
yes, I am a total SciFi nerd.

It'd be more fun, and more practical, if it actually detected something. Perhaps different coloured blobs for "Ham Hobo", "5G nutter", "someone who's about to spend 30 minutes telling you that they're a Vegan", "likely to bitch for an hour if you use the wrong pronoun" and so on.

[mnementh]

Today must be "1st World Engineer Bitch Day". I know why I'm not on that memo distribution. 

Because you live in the 3rd world 

Sad, but true.

mnem
c'mon med, we better go... before the roving packs of hyenas catch up widduss...

[bd139]

   

https://apps.apple.com/app/aliens-motion-tracker/id832823029
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joesdomain.motiontracker

Tripped over this vid by accident the other day... thought it was an amusing diversion.  App links are above; cost a buck or two.

mnem
yes, I am a total SciFi nerd.

It'd be more fun, and more practical, if it actually detected something. Perhaps different coloured blobs for "Ham Hobo", "5G nutter", "someone who's about to spend 30 minutes telling you that they're a Vegan", "likely to bitch for an hour if you use the wrong pronoun" and so on.

I know someone who ticks all those boxes 

[Cerebus]

I know someone who ticks all those boxes 

That's not "needs an app" that's "needs official broadcasts to avoid the area" territory.

[Robert763]

And, as is custom, I'm presenting the Page Instrument:   

Some history: This is my first vintage TE.  It came to me, working, as a gift when I worked at the Royal Institute of Technology. I ran it with various inputs as a display, which through "being-left-on" cooked its PSU  ,  and made me repair it.

This then turned out to be my first TE repair, where one gets a badly scanned manual and finds new parts; IIRC a resistor that had gone O/C and a broken cap.  It's got the dreaded PH-163 input connector, and the 50Hz option. Which is good because: It uses, IIRC, the mains frequency as time base, and is as accurate as one can ask.

Bonus question: What are its neighbours? I've cropped the pic, but there are enough clues.

On the left HP 432A on the right HP 427A

100% correct.

Robert, please take this as the compliment it's intended... but you are one scary motherfucker sometimes. 

mnem
 

I'm good at spotting stuff at hamfests too 

[bd139]

I know someone who ticks all those boxes 

That's not "needs an app" that's "needs official broadcasts to avoid the area" territory.

They are very active on instagram so I know where to avoid them 

[bd139]

And, as is custom, I'm presenting the Page Instrument:   

Some history: This is my first vintage TE.  It came to me, working, as a gift when I worked at the Royal Institute of Technology. I ran it with various inputs as a display, which through "being-left-on" cooked its PSU  ,  and made me repair it.

This then turned out to be my first TE repair, where one gets a badly scanned manual and finds new parts; IIRC a resistor that had gone O/C and a broken cap.  It's got the dreaded PH-163 input connector, and the 50Hz option. Which is good because: It uses, IIRC, the mains frequency as time base, and is as accurate as one can ask.

Bonus question: What are its neighbours? I've cropped the pic, but there are enough clues.

On the left HP 432A on the right HP 427A

100% correct.

Robert, please take this as the compliment it's intended... but you are one scary motherfucker sometimes. 

mnem
 

I'm good at spotting stuff at hamfests too 

After that car load you showed me I would be inclined to agree 

[Specmaster]

I remember a professor at Imperial College, who also did some industrial design gigs at an art and design college.

He pointed out that if you asked them to design an egg, they would all create something which was the right size and shape. Better designers' eggs would have the right coloration. The best designers' eggs would have the right weight. None of them would have anything inside.

I'll feed my belly before I feed my eye

That's just the old engineers' canard about design being just about appearances. It isn't. Good design includes ergonomics, suitability to task, and also appearances.

It's a bit like picking a partner. Sure, a pleasing appearance is nice to have, but having a good heart and temperament, and being nice to hold is more important, and great cooking is a plus. But great cooking with a face like a bag of spanners, the temperament of a rattlesnake with a hangover, and the tactile qualities of a leather bag of oobleck is what you'd get if the design task is left to most engineers.

While a lot of what you say is true, but when it comes to servicing things like TE, cars etc it is also true that they are easier to service if designed by an engineer because they appreciate the need for easy access to the parts that need to be accessed?

[mnementh]

mnem
When I worked as a mechanic, I would swear that automotive engineers hated us fixers... Many times I imagined them standing around the water cooler showing off their latest blueprints: "No, you see there? If we'd put that one bolt in the hinge half a inch further that way, you'd be able to get a wrench on it. This way, you have to take the fender off before you can take the door off.  MUAHAHAHAHA!!!"

[bd139]

Lol indeed. Tek 4xx HT transformers for example 

[Specmaster]

   

https://apps.apple.com/app/aliens-motion-tracker/id832823029
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joesdomain.motiontracker

Tripped over this vid by accident the other day... thought it was an amusing diversion.  App links are above; cost a buck or two.

mnem
yes, I am a total SciFi nerd.

It'd be more fun, and more practical, if it actually detected something. Perhaps different coloured blobs for "Ham Hobo", "5G nutter", "someone who's about to spend 30 minutes telling you that they're a Vegan", "likely to bitch for an hour if you use the wrong pronoun" and so on.

I could have used such an app last Saturday, if it could warn me about nerds who can jaw the hind leg of a donkey about nothing in particular of interest and a bullshitter of a name-dropper in the bargain 

[mnementh]

Wait, what...? I didn't see you in the Discord on Saturday...

mnem