Author Topic: Equipment obession on this forum?  (Read 23297 times)

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Offline EEVblog

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #25 on: February 09, 2013, 12:04:55 pm »
Completely agree with the OP's sentiments.
It is not about how good your shoes are, it is about how fast you run.

Sure, but that leaves out the fact that a lot of people find test equipment inherently interesting, and that it can be an end unto itself, and not just a means to an end.
Like some people love cars, but to others it's just a tool to get from A to B.
Like some people love calculators, but to others it's just a tool to calculate stuff.
*insert your favourite thing here*

Dave.
 

Offline BillyD

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #26 on: February 09, 2013, 12:17:55 pm »
Well by its nature, the electronics will be populated by mostly engineers and geeks and these are the people who are most drawn to gadgets and equipment! If I go to the theatre, I'll end up gazing at the lighting and sound equipment, or at the dentist I'll admire all those amazing devices hanging off the chair, etc.
It reminds me of a Dilbert cartoon I saw a couple of years ago where he was at some engineers convention and the presenter asked for a volunteer to operate the projector. He was immediately swamped by a sea of raised hands and shouts of Me! Me! Me! Me!

 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #27 on: February 09, 2013, 12:26:03 pm »
It reminds me of a Dilbert cartoon I saw a couple of years ago where he was at some engineers convention and the presenter asked for a volunteer to operate the projector. He was immediately swamped by a sea of raised hands and shouts of Me! Me! Me! Me!



Dave.
 

Offline Christe4nM

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #28 on: February 09, 2013, 01:22:39 pm »
I can see what the OP means. My first though was that it might be a similar case to GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) for musicians, in particular electric guitarists. Yet where they use the reason "a better sound" to acquire more and more equipment just to have the equipment (and brag about it), I don't think we electronics engineers suffer from GAS.

As engineers we're naturally curious. If the instruments we are to work with incorporate the technology we want to understand, it's only natural that there is a lot of talk about equipment. In some cases it might smell like GAS (pun intended) but in general I'd say the instruments on our bench are literally the closest thing for us to an electronics design, and thus we want to understand and discuss their inner workings. Almost everything in an electronics instrument relates to specific electronics (design) topics, so those discussions are a great starting point for delving deeper into electronics.

(YMMV)
 

Offline SLJ

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #29 on: February 09, 2013, 01:28:29 pm »

Dave.

 :-DD

Other than a new Fluke to check the accuracy of what vintage equipment I restore and maintain and a couple of newer soldering/rework stations, every piece of test equipment on my bench is 20 to 50 years old.  Yes I could fill the bench with all the latest test equipment but for what I like to do it would be a waste. The old stuff works just fine.  I suppose one of these days I will buy one of these new fangled digital scopes to play with but it's not required for what I mostly do now.  Heck, until the later 1950s most service shops didn't even have or need a scope.  I could get by with a meter, soldering gun, some hand tools, and a variac. The rest do make some things a little easier but I've been putting together my bench since the early 1980s so a build up of bench equipment would be expected. 

As far as collecting, that's another story.  As Dave said, my test equipment collection is not unlike someone else collecting vintage computers, calculators, pinball machines, cars, or whatever.  It just depends on what you are interested in. 

I have over 100 tube testers.  Most are pre 1950. Do I use them all now?  No, of course not.  I use two from the 50s and 60s.  I have an interest in their history and design though and keep them around as examples.  Beats having them rot in someones basement, attic, or barn.   Do they sit in my shop?  Yes, and not many people see them.  Is it a waste?  I don't think so.  The more interesting ones I post on the web site along with their data so others can see them and enjoy reading about their history. 

There are more people into test equipment than you think.  I get a constant flood of emails from people looking to restore something and looking for parts and service information.  It's taken many years to build up the collection and library of service information.  It's what I like to do. I gave up designing the latest digital circuit years ago. So what.  Many today don't have a clue as to how a tube works.  Does that mean that that knowledge will eventually be lost?  I hope not. Collectors actually help preserve the technology of the past. Think about that the next time you see an old vacuum tube voltmeter at a garage sale.  It may not be a Fluke but it was a great piece of test equipment.

As far as the guys buying all the latest and greatest test equipment that they probably won't use, that's their choice.  Heck, I know people that spend a lot more on cars, boats, ATVs, and other crap that I'm not interested in and mostly sits in their driveway but so what.   That's their money and their choice.  I happen to like old test equipment.

Offline c4757p

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #30 on: February 09, 2013, 08:48:56 pm »
ErikTheNorwegian, did you see the nearby post about off-topic discussions? You should check it out.  ;)
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Offline c4757p

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #31 on: February 09, 2013, 09:10:45 pm »
ErikTheNorwegian, did you see the nearby post about off-topic discussions? You should check it out.  ;)

;)

I was kidding. No need to be rude. FWIW, I am diagnosed with Asperger's as well, but I'm not so sure it has anything to do with my electronics/test equipment "obsession". I just like them.
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Offline N2IXK

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #32 on: February 09, 2013, 09:29:03 pm »
It should be noted that Asperger's Syndrome is soon to no longer exist as a "legitimate" diagnosis. It is being dropped from the next edition of the DSM:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/dec/02/aspergers-syndrome-dropped-psychiatric-dsm
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Offline c4757p

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #33 on: February 09, 2013, 09:33:36 pm »
Yes, merged with high-functioning autism, which has always been pretty much the same exact thing.

jeroen74, sorry for the hijack, I'm done here.
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Offline c4757p

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #34 on: February 09, 2013, 09:54:13 pm »
Sadly, where I am, there are just enough people out there who act like complete assholes and blame Asperger's or autism to give it a bad name, and having encountered a couple of them at school, I can't say I blame the people who meet them and then end up with a bit of a prejudice. So I see your point about being proud of it, but I generally just keep it to myself. We are all different in our own ways, and we all have our own challenges to deal with. This is mine. I put a lot of effort into acting as "normal" as I can, and I deal with the challenges of doing that myself and with my family.

Quote
Well, you just like them, that's your aspergers showing and shining true..
No, I assure you, I have and have had many "Asperger's obsessions" and this isn't one of them. They're very different things.

Quote
PS,  beeing rude, i thoutght your "off topic" hint was likewise..
I figured it could be interpreted that way, so I added the ;) and hoped for the best. It was on-topic, but only if you read it thoroughly, otherwise it seemed a bit non-sequitur. I thought it was funny (in a "thanks for the laugh" way, not the "I'm laughing at you" way).

jeroen74, sorry for the hijack, I'm done here.

jeroen74, sorry for the lies, I wasn't done here but now I am.  :D
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Offline ftransform

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #35 on: February 09, 2013, 09:54:46 pm »
If you don't wind your inductors out of aluminum foil, use pencil lead as resistors, 9v batteries as references, old radiator as variac, yard sale pewter lamps as solder, scrape your own flux and your tongue as a multimeter then you are a asperger syndrome retard

If your laboratory does not look like this then you are a poser with too much equipment  :palm:



also none of you better ever buy clothing in a place other then the thrift store.
 

Offline jeroen74Topic starter

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #36 on: February 09, 2013, 10:02:42 pm »
I have a soft spot for displays; especially LED and VFD ones. I remember when I bought my first HD44780 display module somewhere in the eighties and how exhilarated I felt. I controlled it with pushbuttons :D Or that controller-less Sharp 400x64 surplus LCD module, that collected dust for nearly two decades before I hooked it up to an Altera Cyclone devboard.

I also have a small collection of VFD and LED based calculators and Casio watches.

So, any (test) gear that either has a LED of VFD readout has quite an extra high coolness factor to me :)
 

Offline c4757p

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #37 on: February 09, 2013, 10:05:13 pm »
If your laboratory does not look like this then you are a poser with too much equipment  :palm:

That guy has way too much equipment - no way he needs that chair. He should just sit on the ground God gave him.
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Offline c4757p

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #38 on: February 09, 2013, 10:08:15 pm »
I have a soft spot for displays; especially LED and VFD ones.

Hell yes. I don't know why, but I love anything with a VFD.
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Offline N2IXK

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #39 on: February 09, 2013, 10:15:30 pm »
The avatar might give it away, but my "geeky collection" would be vacuum tubes, mostly industrial/special purpose/transmitting types.

Of course, with the internet, even the strangest interests can find kindred spirits:

http://www.tubecollectors.org
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Offline jaqie

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #40 on: February 09, 2013, 10:51:34 pm »
You just can't quantify HFA by saying "people with it are x y and/or z"... it's just not that simple.  Asperger's is a subset of HFA which is more specific so you can do that a little with it, but many of the things that people attribute to that even are just false stereotypes.

Yes, I have HFA.

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Something nobody seems to have mentioned is that electronics is in everything, especially in test equipment, which is used in this hobby/profession.  People who make this stuff are EEs and it is a subset of EE, a very large one that is self feeding because of the nature of the mutually required test equipment and electronics engineering.  What I don't get is why people who seem to be EEs here (some of them anyway) seem to be disparaging this subset of the field they are in or interested in.  It just makes no sense.  We are all interested in EE or we wouldn't be here, and this is a self-feeding and symbiotic subset, so IMO it's a given that that will be quite large anywhere EE is, and this whole discussion even existing in the first place just confuses me.
 

Offline SLJ

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #41 on: February 10, 2013, 04:02:01 am »
The avatar might give it away, but my "geeky collection" would be vacuum tubes, mostly industrial/special purpose/transmitting types.
Of course, with the internet, even the strangest interests can find kindred spirits:
http://www.tubecollectors.org

You would probably like my tube pin straightener collection then....  http://www.stevenjohnson.com/tubepinst.htm    :-DD

Offline SeanB

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #42 on: February 10, 2013, 06:47:42 am »
I collect lamps, and have a few that are older than me by decades, probably older than almost all members here, though I do not pay high prices for them, so it must not be too obsessive.
 

Offline c4757p

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #43 on: February 10, 2013, 06:49:55 am »
I collect lamps

That's just a strange enough collection for me to really like it. Kind of cool.
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Offline jaqie

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #44 on: February 10, 2013, 06:55:51 am »
I actually collect x86 compatible computers from all eras, and eventually would love to build my own AT class computer PCBs and parts, including a 386 class motherboard, fully AT compatible.  Coming here was a step toward that, and will help me toward that goal, even if I never reach it.
 

Offline T4P

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #45 on: February 10, 2013, 08:24:34 am »
If it wasn't obvious enough, i like meters.  :P
I've always had aspergers in my life whether what i intensely like. There is nothing called "Like slightly" there's only hate or obsessed to me  :P
 

Offline jeroen74Topic starter

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #46 on: February 10, 2013, 08:39:46 am »
IMO a 'real' AT class computer is a 80286 based one, not 386 and up.
 

Offline Galenbo

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #47 on: February 11, 2013, 10:13:50 am »
... equipment by itself is only a tool to achieve something, not the purpose...

As for me. I buy equipment, the thing I want to archieve is knowing how to work with it, do some uncommercial stuff with it, teach myself, stay off the street. So you could also say (for me) it is the purpose.

This is so for my scope, lathe, cnc mill and skidsteer.

If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a nonworking cat.
 

Offline Galenbo

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #48 on: February 15, 2013, 09:10:51 pm »
.. but a skidsteer is somewhat a little over the topp even for me  ^-^
I dont dear to think what my wife would have siad if i came home with a skidsteer!! (or i have an ide, i just dont want to hear it..)

I built a garage to put the skidsteer in. For building that garage I needed the skidsteer.
The garage also keeps my lathe warm, I previously needed it to repair the skidsteer.
And I moved the 900kg lathe into the new garage with the ... 

:-)

Makes sense to some, not to others. I don't see this absolute, but relative.
Compare it to other "boys" stuff, like football, gaming, 2nd hidden girlfriend, ...
 
If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a nonworking cat.
 

Offline lapm

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Re: Equipment obession on this forum?
« Reply #49 on: February 15, 2013, 10:29:00 pm »
To the OP. Dont worry about it. Some people just have been in business so long they have nothing else to talk about then latest and greatest equipment they have... When your doing electronics professionally or your doing very sensitive electronics, expensive and usually accurate equipment is needed.

Rest of us, we mingle and ask our dump questions in between...

Personally i have cheap no brand multimeter and dirt cheap chinese made small lab power supply. And big pile of components and few solderless proto boards... Yes i newer build a serious lab even when i was doing much much more actively electronics. Those are enough for me now. In future im planning on getting a better multimeter and probably digital osciloscope..

And yes, i do enjoy reading reviews of more expecive equipment, might give me ideas on what money can buy and what to expect in some price class...
Electronics, Linux, Programming, Science... im interested all of it...
 


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