Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

I will indeed do that when she’s got her cataracts sorted next week

She'll so pleased and proud of you then for sure.

Or probably smirk, raise one eyebrow and ask when I’m taking away all the other junk in her place 

I will indeed do that when she’s got her cataracts sorted next week

Oh dear ! Hope that goes well !

Those traces will sharpen up more when you finish reworking the EHT area.
Done the EHT divider resistors ?

Yeah sounds horrible. Can’t stand people poking around in eyes  [emoji14]

They might sharpen up more. The HT oscillator isn’t healthy at the moment so there’s some noise on the traces if you look closely. I’m happy if it just starts consistently

That certainly would have been my mum's reaction as I used her spare rooms as storage [emoji23]

[mnementh]

That's the one. It had been replaced already but appears to have been replaced with a wholly inadequate wun hung lo unit.

Also found out the issue with the X channel doing bugger all. I checked the calibrator output and that was suspiciously dead as well. Then I went back and checked the voltages on the power supply on the horizontal board. 24V line was down to 18.05V! Hmm. Schooboy error. Guess who obviously munted the trimmer during assembly. Ah well you live and you learn. Adjusted it back up to 24 volts and bingo. It works. Literally everything is "about right" which wasn't the case when it was received. Big improvement!

HT is still a bit dicky. Drops out and whines for a few seconds occasionally rather than fails to start entirely but that's the old poly caps in it which I will replace when I find some suitable ones I'm willing to pay for. Well I hope it's the poly caps. If it's not it's the transformer. I isolated the whine using a low tech piece of cardboard and nature's second most useful test gear after the nose i.e the ear.

Mainly though, the arse transplant worked and I didn't cock anything up other than the power supply trim!

Regulation victory picture!

I've been consolidating pics, videos, documents and music from various old hard hard drives from the last 10 years into a single contiguous archive (hopefully with minimal file duplication) so I can decommission the hard drives. I've been at it for two shit... three days, and I'm about half done.
(SNIP)

Good luck. I hate doing that. I literally spent 3 months doing it a few years back. Was worth it in the end though 

Congrats on the resurrection! Reminds me of the 454 when it feels like working...

I'm taking a few minutes to breathe while a hard drive formats. Most of what I have left are small ones... those will hopefully be quicker than the last few days. Anything from a computer my wife or I have actually used gets a terminal decommission, as does anything too small to be arsed with or that has failed and I can't get into it to see whats on there. Then I'll give the platters to my kids to play with. 

The rest will get long formatted in a different filesystem, then tossed in the Goodwill box. Anybody who wants to cybersquid them will be rewarded with decades-old .pdf manuals and ascii pr0n; nothing more.

I've been consolidating pics, videos, documents and music from various old hard hard drives from the last 10 years into a single contiguous archive (hopefully with minimal file duplication) so I can decommission the hard drives.

Ah, yes. That's been on my to-do list for some time, along with archiving files from tons of 5-1/4" floppies.

Please shoot me now.

Maybe after you're done.

Where do you think my 200GB collection of ascii pr0n came from?

Fat lot o' 'elp you are... 


mnem
*back in the hole*

[bd139]

I’ve got a pile of drives to decomission. They’re all in the cupboard of doom at the moment. We have a cool machine at work that stuffs a metal punch through the entire assembly. I need to remember to take them in.  Machine is called infomally “the fuckerizer”.

[mnementh]

Mine's called a drill press. Fuck that noise; if I widlarized 'em I'd get no break at all from the eyeball-searing misery of recursive directory review.    

Besides, it's a lot more fun tearing them apart and playing with the little spacers from between the platters, and I get to add lots of tiny "fuck you screws" to my parts drawer. 

mnem
Fuck... Format's done. *toddles off to wash mouth out with soap*

[bitseeker]

I've been consolidating pics, videos, documents and music from various old hard hard drives from the last 10 years into a single contiguous archive (hopefully with minimal file duplication) so I can decommission the hard drives.

Ah, yes. That's been on my to-do list for some time, along with archiving files from tons of 5-1/4" floppies.

Crikey, are you still using 5.26 floppies? They were the drives on my first main stream computer, Amstrad 1512 with twin floppy drives. I later added a hard drive card of 20MB size which was an eye watering £100 plus even secondhand then. These days that equates to approx 4 digital photos [emoji848]

Yep, got a bunch o' stuff on enhanced-density 5.25" floppies for my 8-bit Atari computers and a few hundred 1.2MB 5.25" floppies with archived PC stuff on them. I think the archive database for all those PC floppies is on an old DOS-based 386 in my closet.

[bitseeker]

I've been consolidating pics, videos, documents and music from various old hard hard drives from the last 10 years into a single contiguous archive (hopefully with minimal file duplication) so I can decommission the hard drives.

Ah, yes. That's been on my to-do list for some time, along with archiving files from tons of 5-1/4" floppies.

Please shoot me now.

Maybe after you're done.

Where do you think my 200GB collection of ascii pr0n came from?

Fat lot o' 'elp you are... 

Nice color-coding on those replies. I think that's a first I've seen.

As for the decommissioned drives, in addition to the nice shiny platters, I like the magnets they use for driving the head assembly. Quite strong they are.

[mnementh]

I HAVEN'T LOST MY MIND!!!


It was backed up on this... 

This is a 1.2GB 2.5" Toshiba MK2720FC hard drive... a 18mm thick 2.5" HDD with 5 platters. I had it opened up, ready to scrap out... but I just couldn't bring myself to do it; this thing is a work of art. I just had to close it up and save it for an art project... maybe build a clock with a few LEDS to show off the heads & platters...

Okay... daddy & son TV time now. 


mnem
Neodymium makes me go "SQUEEEE!"

[bitseeker]

Ooh! Shiny!

[Specmaster]

I've been consolidating pics, videos, documents and music from various old hard hard drives from the last 10 years into a single contiguous archive (hopefully with minimal file duplication) so I can decommission the hard drives.

Ah, yes. That's been on my to-do list for some time, along with archiving files from tons of 5-1/4" floppies.

Crikey, are you still using 5.26 floppies? They were the drives on my first main stream computer, Amstrad 1512 with twin floppy drives. I later added a hard drive card of 20MB size which was an eye watering £100 plus even secondhand then. These days that equates to approx 4 digital photos [emoji848]

Yep, got a bunch o' stuff on enhanced-density 5.25" floppies for my 8-bit Atari computers and a few hundred 1.2MB 5.25" floppies with archived PC stuff on them. I think the archive database for all those PC floppies is on an old DOS-based 386 in my closet.

I thought 8 bit Atari computers used 3.5" floppy drives of 720k storage space and later they went onto 1.4M double density discs and drives. 5.25" floppies were really floppy with no sliding shutter to protect the discs when not in use, they had to be put into the it protective paper sleeves?

[Zucca]

Yesterday evening on the couch watching TV. Checked the phone, no messages, put down the phone again on the couch. 15 minutes later, pick up the phone again. Dead. No images. Muerto. Kaputt. Oh well battery is drained, but strange. Plugged in the charger. It will not charge. Power button I see Google splash screen and then nada, nothing it shouts down.
Tried the recovery android circus, again it will not pass the google splash screen. Oh well I took the phone apart and disconnected the battery, waited 10 minuted and reconneted the battery. I had no hope, but who knows. Confirmed it still no pass the google scrap screen. 90% HW Problem. Today I try to reflash image form adb, but again I have no hope.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-5x/help/guide-fix-bootloop-locked-bootloader-t3608679
I think I got stung by the bootloop Nexus 5X.

Bye Bye Nexus, I am in the shopping for a Samsung S8 (I want the 3000mAh battery).

Those mobile phone are splenid devices, they will work 90% for two years and then by design they must fail. That's a clear design spec to me, life span two years no more, customers will  change device anyway. 

Yes, confirmed HW Problem. The bastard gets hot on the back top part of the phone. When it is cool down it somehow works and I was able to erase all my data (data were already bucked up) and reformat.

According to my experience and google the N5x is a ticking bomb, look what you need to do to save the data with this stupid phone...


https://hackaday.com/2018/01/16/a-salty-solution-for-a-dead-nexus-5x/

and of course I will try to repair it...


https://hackaday.com/2017/03/21/fix-a-brick-fighting-the-nexus-5x-bootloop/

Now I will buy something else... sorry Nexus you lost a customer.

[Specmaster]

I HAVEN'T LOST MY MIND!!!


It was backed up on this... 

This is a 1.2GB 2.5" Toshiba MK2720FC hard drive... a 18mm thick 2.5" HDD with 5 platters. I had it opened up, ready to scrap out... but I just couldn't bring myself to do it; this thing is a work of art. I just had to close it up and save it for an art project... maybe build a clock with a few LEDS to show off the heads & platters...

Okay... daddy & son TV time now. 


mnem
Neodymium makes me go "SQUEEEE!"

2.5" drives are laptop drives and far far slower than standard 3.5" drives in order to make the batteries last longer.

[bd139]

Unless 2.5” Samsung 860 pro

[mnementh]

I HAVEN'T LOST MY MIND!!!


It was backed up on this... 

This is a 1.2GB 2.5" Toshiba MK2720FC hard drive... a 18mm thick 2.5" HDD with 5 platters. I had it opened up, ready to scrap out... but I just couldn't bring myself to do it; this thing is a work of art. I just had to close it up and save it for an art project... maybe build a clock with a few LEDS to show off the heads & platters...

Okay... daddy & son TV time now. 


mnem
Neodymium makes me go "SQUEEEE!"

2.5" drives are laptop drives and far far slower than standard 3.5" drives in order to make the batteries last longer.

Ummm... okay.

This thing is 20 years old & it has 10 physical heads in parallel; back then the platters weren't the bottleneck, it was the controller and the PATA bus.

And the processor.... and the RAM... you get the idea.

Laptop HDs have been available in 7200RPM versions for a decade; ever since interface speeds caught up. Sure, no 10K drives that I know of (aside from ones made for server use, which don't have shock prediction tech), but really SSDs came into their own at about the same time as 10k drives, and now they blow them away performance wise and price-wise.

mnem
*zombeh daddeh*

[bd139]

eBay update. Miracle. eBay customer services did good  ... Argos didn't handle the return properly [1] and lost the item by the looks. eBay took full responsibility. They refunded the buyer the full £70 and I was not found at fault and got to keep the £70 too. I have disabled argos click and collect. This is in "site preferences" so go looking if you're in the UK and opt-out of it ASAP.

[1] because they employ zombies dug out of the ground rather than actual staff.

[med6753]

eBay update. Miracle. eBay customer services did good  ... Argos didn't handle the return properly [1] and lost the item by the looks. eBay took full responsibility. They refunded the buyer the full £70 and I was not found at fault and got to keep the £70 too. I have disabled argos click and collect. This is in "site preferences" so go looking if you're in the UK and opt-out of it ASAP.
.
[1] because they employ zombies dug out of the ground rather than actual staff.

Looks like a win-win for everyone.

Needed new BNC jacks for both ch 1 and 2 on this money pit 465. Both are badly worn and make intermittent connection. Ordered them from Qservice Electronics not realizing they are in Greece. Anyway, as of this morning tracking shows them at Athens Airport. With any luck it will be a direct flight to JFK. If true I have an outside shot of getting them by Saturday as long as they don't get hung up in U.S. Customs.

[VK5RC]

Only true nerds would find a HDD a thing of beauty - mmmmmmmmm.

Before we burnt it in a bushfire (along with the house ! FFS) my father had a large - I recall about 2-3 foot diameter -  hard disk from the Unit old computing centre - ferrous on a ceramic-like material as a coffee table - stainless steel legs - what hope did I have!

[Specmaster]

eBay update. Miracle. eBay customer services did good  ... Argos didn't handle the return properly [1] and lost the item by the looks. eBay took full responsibility. They refunded the buyer the full £70 and I was not found at fault and got to keep the £70 too. I have disabled argos click and collect. This is in "site preferences" so go looking if you're in the UK and opt-out of it ASAP.

[1] because they employ zombies dug out of the ground rather than actual staff.

I never doubted for a second that Ebay would come to that decision, they did the same for me when that effing twit returned the sockets to me after I did him a deal as well. 

[Specmaster]

I think I have solved the problem of the T12 soldering iron holders, I have purchased from CPC a nice holder made by "makerlife". there are many similar holders on the market to this one but they all seem based around irons that have a bigger diameter handle that prevents them from doing what the T12 when fitted with the 9501 handle (which provides better balance), does and that is slides down inside the holder and out the bottom of it. Not a good idea.

I chose this holder from the many I have seen with the "spring" approach because it also employs in the centre of the spring a perforated metal tube which I have squashed down with a pair of long nose pliers (about 20mm from the opening) to form a slight narrowing of the tube which prevents the iron from sliding down any further.

The base is made from plastic and is reasonable thick so it does not flex, has a well for a sponge  and thus being plastic does not cause the base to rust. It seems to be ideal and can if required sit on top of the T12 controller.

Part number is BSEL0010 and costs including VAT (20%) just £2.63. It might well be sold by other vendors, I haven't looked.

Data sheet attached

[bd139]

Cheaper than buying a Metcal 

[bitseeker]

Crikey, are you still using 5.26 floppies? They were the drives on my first main stream computer, Amstrad 1512 with twin floppy drives. I later added a hard drive card of 20MB size which was an eye watering £100 plus even secondhand then. These days that equates to approx 4 digital photos [emoji848]

Yep, got a bunch o' stuff on enhanced-density 5.25" floppies for my 8-bit Atari computers and a few hundred 1.2MB 5.25" floppies with archived PC stuff on them. I think the archive database for all those PC floppies is on an old DOS-based 386 in my closet.

I thought 8 bit Atari computers used 3.5" floppy drives of 720k storage space and later they went onto 1.4M double density discs and drives. 5.25" floppies were really floppy with no sliding shutter to protect the discs when not in use, they had to be put into the it protective paper sleeves?

The 16-bit Atari computers started with 3.5" drives. All the 8-bit ones used 5.25" (Atari 810, 1050, XF551). There's a neat page of all kinds of peripherals for the 8-bit machines, including vaporware ones, on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_8-bit_computer_peripherals

[bitseeker]

eBay update. Miracle. eBay customer services did good  ... Argos didn't handle the return properly [1] and lost the item by the looks. eBay took full responsibility.

Amazing. That's great news, bd.

[bitseeker]

Only true nerds would find a HDD a thing of beauty - mmmmmmmmm.

You know it!

Before we burnt it in a bushfire (along with the house ! FFS) my father had a large - I recall about 2-3 foot diameter -  hard disk from the Unit old computing centre - ferrous on a ceramic-like material as a coffee table - stainless steel legs - what hope did I have!

Neat. Have any pics of it?

[Specmaster]

I seem to remember that Dave did a video on something very similar.

[Mr. Scram]

2.5" drives are laptop drives and far far slower than standard 3.5" drives in order to make the batteries last longer.

They're not that bad nowadays. Performance is almost on par with 3,5" drives. The only HDDs faster than that are noisy expensive things that consume a lot of power

There's little reason not to have an SSD as your primary drive anyway. Using a HDD for your OS is the worst of both worlds. However, despite all their shortcomings HDDs are technological things of beauty. Or maybe thanks to them. They really needed to come up with a catalogue of tricks to make them as good as they are.

[mnementh]

Only true nerds would find a HDD a thing of beauty - mmmmmmmmm.

Before we burnt it in a bushfire (along with the house ! FFS) my father had a large - I recall about 2-3 foot diameter -  hard disk from the Unit old computing centre - ferrous on a ceramic-like material as a coffee table - stainless steel legs - what hope did I have!

Damn Skippy! 

2.5" drives are laptop drives and far far slower than standard 3.5" drives in order to make the batteries last longer.

They're not that bad nowadays. Performance is almost on par with 3,5" drives. The only HDDs faster than that are noisy expensive things that consume a lot of power

There's little reason not to have an SSD as your primary drive anyway. Using a HDD for your OS is the worst of both worlds. However, despite all their shortcomings HDDs are technological things of beauty. Or maybe thanks to them. They really needed to come up with a catalogue of tricks to make them as good as they are.

The development of modern hard drives is full of amazing engineering widgetry; the triumphs and epic fails describe a pattern of full-frontal nerdity similar to the development of military aircraft and ground assault vehicles. And whether you know it or not, every bit as world-transforming as the latter. 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/127105/article.html


In other news...

I tried to power through last night; stayed up til half-past "Oh fuck" in the morning, but passed out on the keyboard. When I woke up at 0h-three:mumblety-mumble in the morning, there were 2 hard drives left in the box and my face looked like a belgian waffle. 

Strangely, at an hour past lunchtime today, I am in no rush whatsoever to get back to those last three drives. I'm just... numb.


mnem
I think I may have burned out my "Forensics" circuit.