Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Good lord... we all better get outta here before somebody comes back with a "Oh Yeah?!?", a "Sez YOU!!!" or *GASP!* "Yo momma!!!" 

And just to be clear... THAT winking smiley means I'm speaking in jest... though a little bit serious about all this blowing stuff out of proportion. 

mnem

Who's butthurt? Not me and I don't think anyone else is either. I was just pointing out that those particular words have an entirely different meaning here and the PC crowd will have a field day with you. That's all. 

Resume our regular programming. And if you are butthurt there's the door.....don't let it hit you on the arse on the way out. 

Topic's all used up man... stand down. No butts were harmed in the production of this installment of the TEA Newsletter. 

And fuck the PC crowd. With a shovel...

mnem
...in the room.   

[0culus]

Oh one thing about trains...the Washington Metro is 1000x easier to navigate if you're unfamiliar with it. The NYC Subway is a hot, confusing mess. I was lucky to have a native with me to help me. Metro trains stop at every station, while the Subway has local and express trains...if you accidentally get on the latter you can end up flying right through the station you thought you were stopping at.

[bd139]

Thanks all for the input. Much appreciated. Will look through everything and come up with an itinerary!

NYC subway doesn't scare me....

London tube / rail map (I'm in square B4): http://content.tfl.gov.uk/london-rail-and-tube-services-map.pdf (plus my local bus spider map: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/twickenham-a4-150717.pdf )

If you think any city is confusing, come to London 

[med6753]

NYC Subway map. London is definitely more complex.

[mnementh]

Question for you American folk. I have an opportunity to travel to NY on business free of charge and then take a week off afterwards. Was thinking, if I can manipulate the schedule enough, of hiring a turd with wheels and driving down the East Coast then doing National Air and Space Museum, trying to catch a SpaceX launch, skipping the fuck out of Orlando and hitting Miami for a weekend. I may be able to claim the car on expenses, but not an internal flight. Anything else interesting to do down that route?

Was considering trying to nail some high value surplus (in UK) stuff, ship them back hooky brown box to myself as well then sell in UK to pay the rest of it off  . Any retailers / surplus suppliers down that side of the coast?

0culus gave some good suggestions for DC. I'll expand on NYC a little.

If you go to Times Square do NOT, I repeat, do NOT visit any restaurant within 5 blocks of it unless you want to blow your entire meal allowance on one meal. Trust me, I know.
He mentioned the USS Intrepid, definite thumbs up. 
Ground Zero, the 911 museum, and the new Freedom Tower. Up to you. Frankly it gives me the heebie jeebies to go anywhere near it. And my Lady Cop wants absolutely nothing to do with it. She witnessed the whole damn towers hit and collapse.
Staten Island Ferry. It runs ever half hour and is free. You see the harbor and the Statue of Liberty. When the ferry gets to Staten Island simply hitch the next one back to Manhattan.
Speaking of the Statue of Liberty. If you want to visit it's best to get to it from the New Jersey side if you a renting a car.

If you are planning on driving down to Miami you'll be taking I-95 all the way down. After DC there really isn't a whole lot to see except Waffle House restaurants every 5 miles.  But if you want to get a feel for American Redneck I invite you to stop at one. The food ain't bad really but the atmosphere is definitely Southern.

About 200 miles away from the actual location on the South Carolina border you'll start to see signs for "South Of The Border". Stay away. Big tourist trap. 

If I think of more I'll post up.

I guess my question is "Why the eff Miami?" It's almost as much of a tourist shithole as Times Square. They only have two things to do; endless miles of Cuba & Puerto-Rico flavored Vegas-wannabe night clubs, or similar "spring break crowd" venues sprawled out over klicks of dirty privately-own beaches that smell like a gym locker full of old grease-trap runoff stuffed into a rotting fish carcass. And the occasional drive-by-shooting-on-Jet-Skis.

If you're going that far, may as well go the extra 3-ish hours down 1 to Key West or catch the Ferry. Much more adult fare overall, much better bang for the buck, and "laid back" is the word of the day. Every day. 

mnem
"Key West is amazing. Half the people walk funny, and the other half don't care." ~me

[0culus]

Thanks all for the input. Much appreciated. Will look through everything and come up with an itinerary!

NYC subway doesn't scare me....

London tube / rail map (I'm in square B4): http://content.tfl.gov.uk/london-rail-and-tube-services-map.pdf (plus my local bus spider map: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/twickenham-a4-150717.pdf )

If you think any city is confusing, come to London 

Eff that tube map hahaha 

[med6753]

Yep, been the Key West. And the drive down the Florida Keys is definite a must do.

[bd139]

I guess my question is "Why the eff Miami?" It's almost as much of a tourist shithole as Times Square. They only have two things to do; endless miles of Cuba & Puerto-Rico flavored Vegas-wannabe night clubs, or similar "spring break crowd" venues sprawled out over klicks of dirty privately-own beaches that smell like a gym locker full of old grease-trap runoff stuffed into a rotting fish carcass. And the occasional drive-by-shooting-on-Jet-Skis.

If you're going that far, may as well go the extra 3-ish hours down 1 to Key West or catch the Ferry. Much more adult fare overall, much better bang for the buck, and "laid back" is the word of the day. Every day. 

mnem
"Key West is amazing. Half the people walk funny, and the other half don't care." ~me

I'm going on out of date advice on Miami 



More seriously my uncle lives there (retired - not sure what he did for a living but it was in NY and probably illegal) so I can crash at his place and the flights back are convenient as they land at Heathrow which I live near

Key West - why the hell not - looks nice 

[mnementh]

Was considering trying to nail some high value surplus (in UK) stuff, ship them back hooky brown box to myself as well then sell in UK to pay the rest of it off  . Any retailers / surplus suppliers down that side of the coast?

Sorry... totally missed this part. There are a number of electronics wholesalers (consumer electronics and components) in Tampa-St Pete and around Orlando; or at least there were 20 years ago.  You'll be going close past Orlando on your way down; Tampa-St Pete would be about a 2-hour detour.

MPJA is somewhere around Orlando; slightly more expensive China-direct parts & widgets.

Looks like Dalbani And Doral Electronics are both still alive & well in Miami, though. 

mnem
 

[0culus]

Here's a question for the Brits in this thread: does Marmite require refrigeration? I got myself a small pot of it at a nice store that, among other things, carries international products. The jar doesn't say anything about putting it in the refrigerator?

[tggzzz]

Here's a question for the Brits in this thread: does Marmite require refrigeration?

No; the salt content is more than sufficient

Don't know about Vegemite, though. 

[tggzzz]

* Georgetown, cupcakes if you're into that fad ( ). Oldest existing house in Washington.

Over here 100 miles is a long way, over there 100 years is a long time.

My mother's house was built in 1840; her grandmother was born before that. The pub at one end of my village is from 1495. And that's not really old.

Old is the second largest stone circle, about 10 miles and 4-5kyears away. Much better than Stonehenge since you can still climb on the stones and use them as a picnic table. (Yes, I did both of those at Stonehenge when I was a kid). And then there are the even older neolithic barrows, which are fun to crawl into. Memo to self: go to the Orkneys.

[0culus]

Here's a question for the Brits in this thread: does Marmite require refrigeration?

No; the salt content is more than sufficient

Don't know about Vegemite, though. 

 Figured. Thanks!

* Georgetown, cupcakes if you're into that fad ( ). Oldest existing house in Washington.

Over here 100 miles is a long way, over there 100 years is a long time.

My mother's house was built in 1840; her grandmother was born before that. The pub at one end of my village is from 1495. And that's not really old.

Old is the second largest stone circle, about 10 miles and 4-5kyears away. Much better than Stonehenge since you can still climb on the stones and use them as a picnic table. (Yes, I did both of those at Stonehenge when I was a kid). And then there are the even older neolithic barrows, which are fun to crawl into. Memo to self: go to the Orkneys.

The Old Stone House, as it's called, was built in 1765. 

[tggzzz]

Thanks all for the input. Much appreciated. Will look through everything and come up with an itinerary!

NYC subway doesn't scare me....

London tube / rail map (I'm in square B4): http://content.tfl.gov.uk/london-rail-and-tube-services-map.pdf (plus my local bus spider map: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/twickenham-a4-150717.pdf )

If you think any city is confusing, come to London 

Beat me to it!

But London is easy if you realise it isn't a city, but is a series of villages that have grown together.

When driving, don't navigate by road or road number; do navigate by going from village to village.

[bitseeker]

Interesting little surplus store find today, my first bit of "older" HP gear. A 431B power meter. It's missing all it's cords and cables and the back foot and the fuse is blown, but otherwise it's not beat up at all and should make a fun restoration project.

I have a B and a C that I got primarily for the feet, but figure I can repurpose the nice mirrored analog meter, and the enclosure with power supply are perfectly reusable for projects.

Nevertheless, I'd be interested in your restoration. It might tempt me to restore mine instead of repurposing them.

I also don't have sensors and associated cables for mine.

[0culus]

Interesting little surplus store find today, my first bit of "older" HP gear. A 431B power meter. It's missing all it's cords and cables and the back foot and the fuse is blown, but otherwise it's not beat up at all and should make a fun restoration project.

I have a B and a C that I got primarily for the feet, but figure I can repurpose the nice mirrored analog meter, and the enclosure with power supply are perfectly reusable for projects.

Nevertheless, I'd be interested in your restoration. It might tempt me to restore mine instead of repurposing them.

I also don't have sensors and associated cables for mine.

I'll definitely post up pics. This is definitely a unit I can work on in my currently limited bench space.

Unfortunately, the thermistor mounts are NOT cheap it seems. The ones I've seen on fleabay are priced $300 and up.

[worsthorse]

Well, I (the the flea market / FS forum / ebay virgin) am going to give this selling thing a try. I've been sorting through the treasure house (whose gates are sadly closed now and guarded by a fierce auctioneer being of some sort) crates and decided to list stuff that is easy to test and doesn't need rehab work first:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/fs-terminators-plugins-other-gear-from-retired-tektronix-engineers-stash/new/#new

I am running a TEA special   ... mention our forum and get a ten percent discount. Offer to buy the whole lot at once and I'll make you a deal! What could be better than that? 

[mnementh]

Was considering trying to nail some high value surplus (in UK) stuff, ship them back hooky brown box to myself as well then sell in UK to pay the rest of it off  . Any retailers / surplus suppliers down that side of the coast?

Sorry... totally missed this part. There are a number of electronics wholesalers (consumer electronics and components) in Tampa-St Pete and around Orlando; or at least there were 20 years ago.  You'll be going close past Orlando on your way down; Tampa-St Pete would be about a 2-hour detour.

MPJA is somewhere around Orlando; slightly more expensive China-direct parts & widgets.

Looks like Dalbani And Doral Electronics are both still alive & well in Miami, though. 

mnem
 

Oh hey... looks like there will be a number of ARRL HAMfests to choose from on your way if you go in the next few weeks...

http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/search/Location.division_id:SE/model:Event

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

Thanks all for the input. Much appreciated. Will look through everything and come up with an itinerary!

NYC subway doesn't scare me....

London tube / rail map (I'm in square B4): http://content.tfl.gov.uk/london-rail-and-tube-services-map.pdf (plus my local bus spider map: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/twickenham-a4-150717.pdf )

If you think any city is confusing, come to London 

Beat me to it!

But London is easy if you realise it isn't a city, but is a series of villages that have grown together.

When driving, don't navigate by road or road number; do navigate by going from village to village.

What do you mean London isn't a city, but is a series of villages that have grown together?? That is precisely how every old city like London, Manchester, Birmingham etc came to be a city only modern cities were designed from the ground up to be a city, like Dubai.

[med6753]

Was considering trying to nail some high value surplus (in UK) stuff, ship them back hooky brown box to myself as well then sell in UK to pay the rest of it off  . Any retailers / surplus suppliers down that side of the coast?

Sorry... totally missed this part. There are a number of electronics wholesalers (consumer electronics and components) in Tampa-St Pete and around Orlando; or at least there were 20 years ago.  You'll be going close past Orlando on your way down; Tampa-St Pete would be about a 2-hour detour.

MPJA is somewhere around Orlando; slightly more expensive China-direct parts & widgets.

Looks like Dalbani And Doral Electronics are both still alive & well in Miami, though. 

mnem
 

Oh hey... looks like there will be a number of ARRL HAMfests to choose from on your way if you go in the next few weeks...

http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/search/Location.division_id:SE/model:Event

mnem
 

We'll send him to the ones in Alabama. And if he hears banjos playing to run like hell. 

[mnementh]

Dude... Florida's no better. They got gator-fuckers down in the Everglades. Around Okefenokee & Okeechobee too.

mnem
worst. beer goggles. EVER.

[Specmaster]

Spent a couple of hours on the Tek 2225 this morning. Determined to finish something off for once. Went through all the calibration steps. Channel 2 was slightly out, Channel 1 was good. Timebase was all over the place. However it was all pretty straightforward to sort and is all in perfect cal now. DG1022Z makes a wonderful cal source for this sort of stuff. This was followed by a cosmetic makeover with only a stiff paint brush, waitrose essentials squirty spray and some kitchen roll. You don't need anything else to clean stuff up. There's a tiny bit of sticker residue on the front panel which was being difficult but I'll work that off with my finger as and when I use it over a couple of weeks.

Outcome, which is not bad for a 32 year old:



One project complete at last!  This one's a keeper!

Wowie, it looks like it was just taken out of the box for the first time, well done

[beanflying]

Here's a question for the Brits in this thread: does Marmite require refrigeration?

No; the salt content is more than sufficient

Don't know about Vegemite, though. 

Vegemite in the home of an Aussie consumer of the product doesn't last long enough to be a worry even in our hotter climate. Marmite would probably cry heatwave and become a puddle of salty sweat in the bottle 

[tggzzz]

Thanks all for the input. Much appreciated. Will look through everything and come up with an itinerary!

NYC subway doesn't scare me....

London tube / rail map (I'm in square B4): http://content.tfl.gov.uk/london-rail-and-tube-services-map.pdf (plus my local bus spider map: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/twickenham-a4-150717.pdf )

If you think any city is confusing, come to London 

Beat me to it!

But London is easy if you realise it isn't a city, but is a series of villages that have grown together.

When driving, don't navigate by road or road number; do navigate by going from village to village.

What do you mean London isn't a city, but is a series of villages that have grown together?? That is precisely how every old city like London, Manchester, Birmingham etc came to be a city only modern cities were designed from the ground up to be a city, like Dubai.

I've had to point out that characteristic to quite a few people from many backgrounds. Usually they have come round to see its validity.

Just because I mention it in connection with London doesn't mean it doesn't apply to other metropolises.

[xrunner]

Just a quick follow up on my new 3D printer.

I'm very pleased! I just tried these N scale gas tanks for my model railroad and it really pulled it off well. Wow, I can't wait to try it more (sounds like some kind of new drug I discovered).