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General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: dnessett on September 29, 2017, 10:24:02 pm

Title: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: dnessett on September 29, 2017, 10:24:02 pm
I have documented a destructive teardown of a BLILEY NV47M1008, which is a commonly used OCXO module. The description of the teardown, including photos and brief explanatory text, is on my website. Is it an appropriate use of this forum to provide a link to this teardown? If so, where would be the correct place to post?
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: dnessett on September 29, 2017, 10:42:23 pm
OK, thanks. There is nothing in the teardown description that violates any of the principles you specify. I don't mind posting the teardown here. The reason I put it up on my website is there are 7 images, the last two of which have detail that may not show up clearly at low to medium resolution. However, I can note that in the post and direct people to the website if they want higher resolution images.

What do you recommend as the best major topic (e.g., Projects, Designs, Technical Stuff; RF, Microwave, Ham Radio) under which to file the post?

Added subsequent to post: Sorry, just noticed that you specified General Chat or Projects. I will use Projects.
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: DimitriP on September 29, 2017, 11:02:57 pm
Quote
If so, where would be the correct place to post?

In addtion to everything else, add your website to your signature and then you are promoting your website with any post.





Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: MK14 on September 29, 2017, 11:09:49 pm
Quote from: dnessett on September 29, 2017, 10:24:02 pm
OCXO module............ the correct place to post?

Maybe consider Metrology, as they do lots of OCXO stuff, I believe.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/ (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/)
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: dnessett on September 29, 2017, 11:23:18 pm
Well, I attempted to post the teardown description, viewing and editing the post until I had what I wanted. However, when I hit "post", the forum software thought about it for a while and then returned me to an empty message composition page. Is it possible I exceeded some limit on attachment sizes? Is there a log somewhere that might indicate the problem?
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: MK14 on September 29, 2017, 11:27:57 pm
I think it does that if the files are too big or the wrong (disallowed) file extension types.
One workaround, is to make the basic post. Then edit in the attachments later. Then you will know what caused the problem.
As you can add the attachments, one at a time, if necessary.
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: dnessett on September 29, 2017, 11:35:03 pm
Quote from: MK14 on September 29, 2017, 11:27:57 pm
I think it does that if the files are too big or the wrong (disallowed) file extension types.

Thanks I will try the [ img][ /img] descriptor and see if that solves the problem.
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: dnessett on September 29, 2017, 11:55:20 pm
This isn't working. If I use the [ img][ /img] descriptor, all I get is a broken image icon. If I use the [ url][ /url] descriptor, the url is 489 characters long (I use google sites for my website). Furthermore, the image is quite large. On my website I can size the picture properly so it is embedded properly in the text. But, I don't see how to do that on the forum if I use [ url][ /url]. I think I will just post a link to the page on my website and explain why I haven't posted the text on the forum.
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: MK14 on September 30, 2017, 12:18:11 am
Quote from: dnessett on September 29, 2017, 11:55:20 pm
the url is 489 characters long (I use google sites for my website).

I don't know the limit, but 489 sounds really big.

It is only the attachments which are hosted on this forum, where the size matters. Otherwise (if they are hosted elsewhere), there is no size limit, as far as I am aware.
But many forum users, seem to get concerned, if the pictures are excessively big (i.e. forced loading via IMG tags). But clicking on picture links, even if they are huge, should be better.

I.e. IMG is best, but some users don't like the pictures to be needlessly too big, as they have limited internet connections and/or are using portable devices.
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: dnessett on September 30, 2017, 12:48:44 am
Quote from: MK14 on September 30, 2017, 12:18:11 am
Quote from: dnessett on September 29, 2017, 11:55:20 pm
the url is 489 characters long (I use google sites for my website).

I don't know the limit, but 489 sounds really big.

It is only the attachments which are hosted on this forum, where the size matters. Otherwise (if they are hosted elsewhere), there is no size limit, as far as I am aware.
But many forum users, seem to get concerned, if the pictures are excessively big (i.e. forced loading via IMG tags). But clicking on picture links, even if they are huge, should be better.

I.e. IMG is best, but some users don't like the pictures to be needlessly too big, as they have limited internet connections and/or are using portable devices.

I have an hypothesis why I can't get the images to display on the forum using [img][/img]. The links to the images are https links. As far as I an tell the forum itself does not use SSL, so perhaps the necessary SSL software is not installed and therefore it cannot handle https links. Anyone else have trouble with https links?
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: Brumby on September 30, 2017, 03:57:38 am
The issue is not with https.  This site has been upgraded to run with http or https.

I just tried adding an https image using the img tags and it worked just fine.
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: Brumby on September 30, 2017, 04:01:30 am
Can I suggest you just post the URL you have - without worrying about any tags - so we can see what it is you are trying to use?

If you want to isolate it from any forum processing, put it inside the [code][/code] tags.
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: dnessett on September 30, 2017, 04:36:48 am
Quote from: Brumby on September 30, 2017, 04:01:30 am
Can I suggest you just post the URL you have - without worrying about any tags - so we can see what it is you are trying to use?

If you want to isolate it from any forum processing, put it inside the [code][/code] tags.

Here it is:

Code: [Select]
https://66d1d1d6-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/qbdnessett/home/Electronics/investigations/bliley-teardown/BLILEY%20teardown%20Fig%201.jpg?attachauth=ANoY7crWboAasqpkcSc0KHcAwuGY3V4vQ2cPIOPpnLpOY_KadcQ762Na0sbYi8dXSAwly-EhircMfS4kwk_azSVwtW7EDKbuuhJF6BfUDsjCkYf8dKUoM-mD2VJqkliaGx2dbF2NJeuijEgCOKuYSWOg7syz72n9u1DE34iL2FRkpcz8-GbsLFwn1G2EJP5uiDk-HC_FWUtF8fh23bIpmcsIpA2z26_SfFdJnkTDQY2fm8a0mFBwVmSMFHWE6Iuj2g3W_-q_38QcR1E1Yvm73I0UcmWht1P6r7JIso-bhcqnnoo2VkmG6CI%3D&attredirects=0

It may be the attachauth parameter.

Added later: Nope. Tried [img width=100]https://66d1d1d6-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/qbdnessett/home/Electronics/investigations/bliley-teardown/BLILEY%20teardown%20Fig%201.jpg[/img], but that didn't work either.
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: dnessett on September 30, 2017, 05:12:11 am
Quote from: Brumby on September 30, 2017, 04:01:30 am
Can I suggest you just post the URL you have - without worrying about any tags - so we can see what it is you are trying to use?

If you want to isolate it from any forum processing, put it inside the [code][/code] tags.

I thought - will another browser accept the URL and display the image. So, I pasted it (the full version) into Firefox (I normally use Safari) and got the following error:

"Your browser appears to be configured to reject cookies from googlegroups.com. Please set your browser settings to allow cookies from googlegroups.com, or your attachment will not download."

I then changed preferences on Firefox to accept cookies from googlegroups.com and the image displayed.

This suggest another possible problem - the SMF software as configured for the EEVBlog forum does not accept cookies from googlegroups.com.
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: Brumby on September 30, 2017, 05:23:25 am
Sounds like you could have something there - but I would think GNIF would be the person to comment on this.

I was able to see the image in a browser window using the URL directly, but no success in the forum.

In the interim, you could do what I have done - download the image, reduce its size so that it is within the forum limits and have it uploaded with a post....
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: Brumby on September 30, 2017, 05:38:14 am
While you can then put the full image inline with the post, it is not advised.

Opening the page with images on it is not a major problem, so long as there aren't bucketloads and they are small in size - such as thumbnails are.  Some members here have slow connections, so it is really frustrating for them to just "check out" a thread if they have to wait forever while huge images load.  Using the thumbnails means they can get an idea of what the image is - and if they are interested, then can then choose to have the full image downloaded by clicking on the thumbnail.

One last point - Very often, images do not have to have megabytes for them to be detailed enough to show what is important - so if you can reduce file sizes before uploading, it will be appreciated by many.  The other thing is that large file sizes are pointless when the image is not of high quality in the first place - and this one of yours is not the best (but it is better than some we have seen).

Here I have reduced it to 1/20 th of the original file size - and it is small enough that I am comfortable putting it inline...
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/appropriateness-of-a-post/?action=dlattach;attach=355934;image)

Even then ... for what it is showing, it could still be made smaller.
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: Brumby on September 30, 2017, 05:46:11 am
You could also consider cropping out the unnecessary background.

The file size of this image is around 40 times smaller than the original:

(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/appropriateness-of-a-post/?action=dlattach;attach=355938;image)
Title: Re: Appropriateness of a post
Post by: dnessett on October 01, 2017, 02:03:45 am
I have followed your suggestions and reduced the size of each image in the teardown description, which now fits in a single post (see https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/teardown-of-bliley-ocxo-module/msg1314090/#msg1314090 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/teardown-of-bliley-ocxo-module/msg1314090/#msg1314090)). Thanks for the help.