Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Edit: and a house where I can have a 1.5m depth bench 

No need for such a bench. Just add shelves off appropriate depth.

I like your setup. 

Ditto.

mnem
"Cough it up, boy... it's only lung." ~ HB

[mnementh]

   No need for such a bench. Just add shelves off appropriate depth.

I didn't see that reply before. Perfect! That gap is perfect. Just big enough for bits of BNC connector to roll away and disappear 

I dunno; it appears that desk is deliberately situated so as to be easy to pick one end up and swing out of the the way for access to shelves, etc behind/under working surface.
Of course, once you drop a couple on there all tore apart, that does become a WEE BIT problematic...   

But I do like the test lead rack. Looks quite a bit nicer and more slots than the usual Pomona bunge, especially in contrast with the Escher prints nearby.

mnem
Feeling... "downward spiral-y".

[Specmaster]

I didn't see that reply before. Perfect!

That gap is perfect. Just big enough for bits of BNC connector to roll away and disappear 

Also just right size for the odd screw and tools to roll off and make you scrabble on all fours to retrieve them 

[Cerebus]

Maybe, maybe not. Here's an interesting tidbit. As you know when IBM got out of the PC business they sold everything lock, stock, and barrel to the Chinese company Lenovo. Since then IBM and Lenovo have had a fairly close relationship. For example....need PC's or laptop's for offices? 9 times out 10 Lenovo was purchased. Up until about 2 years ago the SE's (Service Elements) for the Z-Series mainframes were built by Lenovo. One day that suddenly changed and they are now sourced from a U.S. based company who's name escapes at the moment. There have been persistent and unconfirmed rumors that this was requested by the Feds. So...that's all I know and have heard. Related to this stuff? Who can say.

That just sounds like a reasonable level of paranoia. What proportion of zSeries sales go to the Feds? Quite a large proportion I'd imagine, and who better than the Feds to know what kind of shitbags governments are, especially to each other.

Just remember Cisco had a massive problem with US gov intercept and implant. Some of the worst problems are at home under the five eyes.

It never ceases to amaze me the morally bankrupt crap that comes out of western governments nowadays about their "reasonable and necessary" spying on their own citizens that is exactly the same kind of behaviour that a few years back the self-same people would have blown a gasket about when it was, say, East Germany doing it to their own citizens. When Theresa May was Home Secretary I used to refer to her as Frau Honecker because she clearly wasn't going to be happy until we had something that surpassed the Stasi.

[Cerebus]

That gap is perfect. Just big enough for bits of BNC connector to roll away and disappear 

I can mentally see the scrabble for the bench as something rolls across it. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Shit, shit, shit, shit!"

[Oldtestgear]

eBay UK :302908360702      Look for COMPLETED listings. It is there now.
  The full search url is:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=302908360702&_in_kw=1&_ex_kw=&_sacat=0&LH_Complete=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&_samilow=&_samihi=&_sadis=15&_stpos=&_sargn=-1%26saslc%3D1&_salic=3&_sop=12&_dmd=1&_ipg=50


I was feeling just a little bit anxious that I might need another fix of test gear before long & found the above listing on eBay UK. Just had to buy it even though I know it is risky but the challenge is what makes this hobby so interesting. Plus I have sold most of the stuff that I got from a factory closure in March & have found some space to fill up again. Now I just have to tell my wife before the heap arrives.

Phil

[Mr. Scram]

That just sounds like a reasonable level of paranoia. What proportion of zSeries sales go to the Feds? Quite a large proportion I'd imagine, and who better than the Feds to know what kind of shitbags governments are, especially to each other.

It never ceases to amaze me the morally bankrupt crap that comes out of western governments nowadays about their "reasonable and necessary" spying on their own citizens that is exactly the same kind of behaviour that a few years back the self-same people would have blown a gasket about when it was, say, East Germany doing it to their own citizens. When Theresa May was Home Secretary I used to refer to her as Frau Honecker because she clearly wasn't going to be happy until we had something that surpassed the Stasi.

I've said it before, the Stasi had nothing on the NSA or GCHQ. There's a fair chance either of those two have more on any given first world civilian than the Stasi had on any of its actual targets. You can't compare the level of surveillance and the world now revolves around data being pumped all over the place.

[Mr. Scram]

I can mentally see the scrabble for the bench as something rolls across it. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Shit, shit, shit, shit!"

You forgot the "BONK!" followed by the biggest "SHIT!"

[Cerebus]

I've said it before, the Stasi had nothing on the NSA or GCHQ. There's a fair chance either of those two have more on any given first world civilian than the Stasi had on any of its actual targets. You can't compare the level of surveillance and the world now revolves around data being pumped all over the place.

Agreed, but the comparison was a moral one, not a technical one.

[capt bullshot]

   No need for such a bench. Just add shelves off appropriate depth.

I didn't see that reply before. Perfect! That gap is perfect. Just big enough for bits of BNC connector to roll away and disappear 

I dunno; it appears that desk is deliberately situated so as to be easy to pick one end up and swing out of the the way for access to shelves, etc behind/under working surface.

That's an interesting idea, but no, the bench is fixed (mostly by gravity). But the shelves have a special feature: They're accessible from both sides, so I can pull out the boxes from the lower ones and have easy access to all the nasty cabling.

The gap is on purpose, so the boat anchors are somewhat lifted above the bench, and I can run cables through the gap. Anyway, BNC connectors and other stuff still to be lost through the gap, nothing got lost yet, and no BONK happened either way.

Of course, that picture doesn't show the real state, usually the bench is full of garbage ...

[Specmaster]

The listing that you refer does not appear when entering the item number, perhaps if you were post the full link?

[Specmaster]

I can mentally see the scrabble for the bench as something rolls across it. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Shit, shit, shit, shit!"

You forgot the "BONK!" followed by the biggest "SHIT!"

Or perhaps a big FUCK IT or maybe even HOLY SHITBALLS 

[bd139]

I just ignore it and get another one of whatever I dropped out. Once a month I go and collect all the crud and file it

[Cerebus]

Or perhaps a big FUCK IT or maybe even HOLY SHITBALLS 

I think the "Holy Shitballs!" is reserved for the reaction to what you find when you're on hands and knees trying to retrieve the bits of BNC from amongst the dust bunnies and discarded cat toys.

[capt bullshot]

I just ignore it and get another one of whatever I dropped out. Once a month I go and collect all the crud and file it

Yes, perfectly viable. Usually those small things get filed by the vacuum cleaner then.

[Cerebus]

I just ignore it and get another one of whatever I dropped out. Once a month I go and collect all the crud and file it

The mice behind your wainscotting are waiting for just one more 10M resistor to be dropped and then:

[mnementh]

eBay UK :302908360702      Look for COMPLETED listings. It is there now.
The full search url is:
I was feeling just a little bit anxious that I might need another fix of test gear before long & found the above listing on eBay UK. Just had to buy it even though I know it is risky but the challenge is what makes this hobby so interesting. Plus I have sold most of the stuff that I got from a factory closure in March & have found some space to fill up again. Now I just have to tell my wife before the heap arrives.

Phil

The listing that you refer does not appear when entering the item number, perhaps if you were post the full link?

I think he was trying to prevent spambots from attacking by just giving us the listing number.

        

[EDIT]Here are some pics. [/EDIT]



mnem
 

[bd139]

Oh that pile of stuff. That has gone round in circles for a few weeks. Seen that.

I just ignore it and get another one of whatever I dropped out. Once a month I go and collect all the crud and file it

The mice behind your wainscotting are waiting for just one more 10M resistor to be dropped and then:

That legitimately made me laugh out loud. Now everyone knows I’m insane.

[mnementh]

Wait... what?  This was a JOKE?!? I though Cerebus was dead serious. I wouldn't put it past him.

mnem
I for one welcome our new mousy overlords.

[Specmaster]

New playmates for the Lab Cats of the world who will soon restore law and order. 

[mnementh]

   
"You expect me to do WHAT with that mouse?"

Not MY cats; any one of the cats I ever lived with would be like this...

mnem
*Think fuzzy*

[orin]

If you are a British driver and passed a UK manual car test before 1st Jan 97 you get class C1 'grandfathered' onto your license as the UK driving categories used to include that. (There are some other minor classes grandfathered in as well ).

My driving licence is in the form of a pink piece of paper without a photograph, valid until 4 years after statutory retirement age.

Pink?  My UK licence, which was issued in 1979, is a piece of green paper and also has no photo... claims to expire in 2031.   After getting a WA state license in 1986, it's been gathering dust.

It changes when you inform DVLA of a change of address. I haven't moved since the 80s.

Guess I should send it in with change of address then... 

They make us renew the WA licenses every 5 years or so - though last time I renewed online, they were giving random renewal periods of 2 to 5 years.  If you go in person, they used to give you a simple vision check.  If you needed glasses to pass the check, then your license was marked as such.

[Mr. Scram]

I managed to get my fancy bicycle light to turn on again, but it consumes 0,5 mA in standby. I'm not sure that is to be expected or that there might be path with some resistance due to corrosion. I forgot to check the consumption before scratching off some corrosion. 

[Mr. Scram]

That's about a year worth's of standby. I think it did better than that.

[Housedad]

My Wavetek 2410 showed up yesterday.   Looks in fairly good shape.  I powered it up and it works.  Had to have it load default settings to get rid of a unlevel code after having it do all of it's self diagnostics. 

I had ordered a couple of N to BNC adapters and they came in today.  I'v only had a few minutes to check it out.

I did find a couple of issues though.  The Time base Out is not clean.  It has spurious things on the waveform. 
The main output of the generator shows a waveform, but it looks like there are several waves being produced at once slightly off phase and amplitude making a thick trace.  When I show it as single trigger on the scope, I see one nice sine wave.  Keep hitting single and the phase changes back and forth a small amount.

Looks like the time base has issues.

Should I make a thread about it or just post the repairs here over the next several days?