Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Yes. Waitrose next time 

That's a good one with the pets. On malnutrition, it was valid. Lots of people had problems with rickets back then. A condition you rarely hear of now. Agree with calorie reduction, although I prefer to eat it and run it off afterwards (can still run a good 10 miles)

They make test gear for idiots:

Sounds like your Country is being ripped apart over this brexit fiasco. Welcome to our nightmare.  Different circumstances, same result. 

  What is that?

[bd139]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-meter

[beanflying]

Ask Tom Cruise he will offer you a demo on that bit of test gear

[med6753]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-meter

Holleee shit. 

[Brumby]

I already knew what it was ... thanks to it appearing elsewhere on the EEVblog.

You have to admit, it looks impressive enough.

[bd139]

Yeah I reckon I could turn it into a small transmitter 

[Specmaster]

Yeah I reckon I could turn it into a small transmitter 

Or blow it up[emoji48]
Was that the cashier at Tescos or what?
Ask them if they understand that there is more than just food we rely on our EU friends for, medicine is another. Even access to the satellites for our sat navs could be cut off in the event of a no deal brexit. Most of our energy services and also water services are EU owned while they cannot cut that off, they could hike the prices up[emoji44]

[neo]

-snipped blasphemy- just had an argument in Tesco over some fucking tomatoes. I was congratulated on buying British tomatoes and that we’d be fine growing our own food like we did in the war. I replied so you’d welcome rationing and malnutrition and eating horses again? Got some diatribe, got called a traitor. Replied if I’m a traitor I’m proud of it. Hell is other people.


TEA related. Did a boo boo. When I bought the HP 33120A I sold my Rigol DG1022Z. Figured I’d not need two signal sources. What did I need yesterday? Two damn sources. One of which needed to be keyed. Fortunately only 600Hz required. So an hour in LTspice and some bob please style prototyping and it works! Nice clean sine. No Arduino or digital shit.

-snip-

Keyed twin-t oscillator, buffer, shit attenuator, gain stage, push pull stage. Nice stable output impedance.

Lead lengths because (a) I don't care and (b) this is going to be rebuilt on a manhattan board later.

edit: you can see the scribblings where LTspice didn't match reality. Bob Pease was right about spice.

I learned a long, long time ago that i needed 2 signal sources to get by in this world. That's why i have three.  All HP too, 3312A, 8640B and 8660C. 

[Wolfgang]

Wanna see some *real* SPICE desaster ?

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/a-5mhz-low-phase-noise-crystal-oscillator/

I have nowhere near your requirements there but that's quite funny. I literally never get any luck with any oscillators in LTspice. It's just a joke. Real world parts have so many differing characteristics it's unreal. You really need to know what you're doing up front before approaching anything in that space.  I've put together a few LC oscillators that were so out that it is no longer even worth starting there.

... I wont go that far, but extra caution is absolutely in order. The higher the Q, the worse it gets. Still I know a lot of people that are prepared to take a spice simulation as real. I dont. I simulate, then I prototype every single circuit (Manhattan or Bronx style, as you do), *then* I make a PCB.
Still I am dumb enoufgh to shoot myself in the foot, sometimes.

[bd139]

It takes me three PCB runs after that stage for the thing to work usually too 

Talking of fuck ups, here's a good one. I am refurbishing my 1:1 current balun that has been in service for months outside. I've made 17,000km contacts to Tasmania from UK with it so it worked to some degree. When I was weatherproofing it the adhesive had managed to get between the BNC connector on the bottom and the solder ring on the inside and there was no connection between the shield and the current balun inside at all!! My antenna tuner had tuned this out and I was still making contacts even though the transmission line's shield was not even connected for 3 months 

How did I identify this? Well the SWR was a little high when I stuck it on the MFJ above about 10MHz. I thought, hey there must be something frequency dependent going on here as that should be flat to about 30MHz in theory. So I stuffed a DMM across the feed line. Should read 50 ohms with a 50 ohm load on the balun output. Actually read open circuit for DC entirely. Looks like the actual shield connection turned into a not too terrible capacitor. I reckon I've been throwing 6W down that and only 1-2W has come out of the antenna 

Totally surprised that. Have scrapped it now and am building another one from scratch.

Edit: also possible I got about 5000 miles per watt out which is motivatingly long distance!

[med6753]

You were operating QRP and didn't even know it.  Gonna try for mw/km now?   

[bd139]

I was already running QRP so this turned into QRPp

Think I might have earned myself the QRP-ARCI 1000 Mile per Watt award there but can't prove it now 

[mnementh]

Part of the fun of Australian slang is working out the meaning.
Abbreviation including joining two words, rhyming and adding 'y' or ie/s to the end. It has its basis in cockney rhyming slang - but has its own flavour (flavor).
Do you want some dead horse with that?
No wuckies = no wuckin furries =.........

https://youtu.be/OwWsZQr7ZEk

A'aight... I can go along widdat, I'm the king of "go-oin' a lonnng way furr a jo-oke". I love me some ridiculous puns; I giggled for days when I discovered "tea leaf=thief" and "dog & bone=phone", both of which are archaic forms now.

But that right there is definitely on the far side of The Far Side, even for me, especially when confused with slang from my youth, where "wookie" meant "a woman with a thick, nearly impenetrable bush" due to association with the meme above. Leia was a favorite subject of sexual humor; she still is among certain circles, and this association is especially pervy if you've seen the way she seems to be gazing longingly up at Chewie during several scenes in the Star Wars Christmas Special. 

So "no wookies" has a VERY specific meaning to me and to a lot of people I grew up with; it might even be considered anti-feminist in some circumstances.

mnem

[mnementh]

So my 10,000mAh batteries are maxing out at 4600mAh and two are under 4000mAh - EVILBAY return case time 

May the Sellers Chooks turn into Emus and kick their Dunny Door down 

These are NiMh and are just mislabelled as per evilbay. Aussie seller so the result will be ok in some form. They either go back for no cost with evilbay plus or I get a chunk of change back and I don't put them in the HP frequency counter project but into the Null meters instead where I don't need the capacity.

PITA but I am only out of the time for testing either way. 

Ooooh... okay, so these are either "half-loads" (cells only half-full of electrolyte and plates) or they are a c-cell in a filler container. The latter has been common for decades; even to the point of AA NiMHs in a D-size filler container. 

Either way, grossly overrated. Bust him in the nuts.

If a smaller cell in a filler container, you may prefer to cut the cell free to eliminate wasted space.

mnem
"You putrid puddle of prevaricating afterdrippage... May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your balls, and your arms grow too short to reach." ~ Family curse on swindlers

[mnementh]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-meter

Holleee shit. 

This is the first time you've seen an E-meter? Wow... I thought they were the "EE joke everybody knows about but nobody talks about" for like decades now. Literally the text-book definition of e-quackery. 

mnem
"Here... just let me attach these electrodes to your testicles..."

[Neomys Sapiens]

So I arrive at the last part of the triple score: the Transistor Devices load. Can't test or operate it yet, because:
CAN SOMEONE GIVE ME A CLUE WHAT TYPE OF POWER INPUT CONNECTOR THAT IS?
It is not IEC and I don't have one and I haven't seen it before.

[capt bullshot]

That makes a perfect receptacle for alligator clips

[bd139]

Ah the old "suicide cord" 

[PA0PBZ]

That has the 110/115V smell all over it.

[mnementh]

   So I arrive at the last part of the triple score: the Transistor Devices load. Can't test or operate it yet, because:
CAN SOMEONE GIVE ME A CLUE WHAT TYPE OF POWER INPUT CONNECTOR THAT IS?
It is not IEC and I don't have one and I haven't seen it before.

It is a 110VAC NEMA (?) grounded power cord... literally, a 110/120VAC grounded extension cord plugs directly into it. This was an early attempt at standardized power plugs; IIRC, a female American "Hospital Grade" power socket (counterpart to the "Hospital Grade" plug meant to be used for making "Hospital-safe" extension cords) was made with dimensions specifically to plug into that receptacle.

mnem
*tzzt*

[tggzzz]

That has the 110/115V smell all over it.

I have something that looks similar on the back of my Tek 184 and Tek 191, and both are 115V or 230V.

[Inverted18650]

Yeah its a US Spec "extension cord" plug-in. The circle pin at the bottom is ground/Earth, the two flat spade looking pins are Hot and Neutral/return.

[PA0PBZ]

That has the 110/115V smell all over it.

I have something that looks similar on the back of my Tek 184 and Tek 191, and both are 115V or 230V.

Yeah it was ment as a warning, even if you think you found the right cord look again, and then some.

[bd139]

Every time I see crazy mains sockets they get swapped for IEC ones instantly. Unless it’s 60s heathkit. Not sure what alloy they use but it’s impervious to even my carbide drills.

[Specmaster]

   So I arrive at the last part of the triple score: the Transistor Devices load. Can't test or operate it yet, because:
CAN SOMEONE GIVE ME A CLUE WHAT TYPE OF POWER INPUT CONNECTOR THAT IS?
It is not IEC and I don't have one and I haven't seen it before.

It is a 110VAC NEMA (?) grounded power cord... literally, a 110/120VAC grounded extension cord plugs directly into it. This was an early attempt at standardized power plugs; IIRC, a female American "Hospital Grade" power socket (counterpart to the "Hospital Grade" plug meant to be used for making "Hospital-safe" extension cords) was made with dimensions specifically to plug into that receptacle.

mnem
*tzzt*

I don't think this is the right thing, I think you'll find that the device is fitted the male end, so he needs the female version, cable mounted?