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[chickenHeadKnob]

You can simulate the Tchernobyl catastrophe.

If it doesn't correctly model Xenon poisoning process there  will be  no chernobyl for you.

[paulca]

I learnt that if you are to shut down 1 of the 3 loops (once installed), do NOT shutdown loop 3.  The schematic shows it is the only loop that maintains the pressurizer.... ooops.  I got it all shut down and the red lights out before the entire steam generator dropped to 0% integrety and started spraying steam everywhere.

Can't afford to service the reactor AND replace the steam gen.  So on day 20, I am banking what I have learnt and returning to the start of the game.

I don't know if it was the pressurizer which caused the gen to fail, or if it is something to do with how I shut it down and isolated it.  I'm leaning towards the former.

[paulca]

You can simulate the Tchernobyl catastrophe.

If it doesn't correctly model Xenon poisoning process there  will be  no chernobyl for you.

Nope.  It doesn't mean it's a nice safe reactor either.  it has a "feature" such that when the control rods get above their red line, they become sticky and only move at about 20% the normal rate.  So if you pull the rods out too far, you might not get the back in before you run out of places to put the heat.

Much more likely is a 3 mile island incident with the pressurizer vent values emptying the pressurizer and causing an uncovering or steam explosion.

It's a game.  When your plant starts to run behind on maintenance, all manor of failure and high ware characteristics emerge.  My favourite is, after 50% wear the reactor vessel develops a thermal leak and begins to boil the pond water away.   When the steam gens wear or lose integrity their parameters shift oddly so it's hard to keep 3 in sync when 1 or 2 of them are going daft.  Same thing for all the pumps.  Command 50% and get something close dependant on wear/int.  At even 94% integrity the pressurizer 'self adjusting' stops being effective for anything but a few degrees of core temp and generates constant transient steam alarms every few hours.

It's why I'm starting again.   It's the game element of managing your "compliance" to the grid for "points" while being as frugal as possible with when and in what priority you do maintanence.  Running the reactor at 360*C and the loops flat out with the core at 95% rods for the early game and producing 2 to 3 times what you were required to... is just going to wear out the reactor faster than your "points" are coming in to fix it.

[beanflying]

I hadn't seen little flexy LED's until recently so I ordered a little stash to play with. Don't know the seller but shipped from Oz and some other good bits as well in there store eBay auction: #285360089180



Still deciding if yesterday's Laser Cut OPi5+ case needs added bling or not 

[DiTBho]

A pair of Proton wheels with super rolling hubs modified to be 8 speed for my 90s road bicycle.
With this kind of wheels, I can travel for +40Km with the same level of effort required by Zonda wheels(1).

how can i say that? after 20 measurements on the same bicycle frame with the same setup, drinking the same things, eating the same banana when energy is low, walking the same roads, for no less than 200 Km.

So, talking about average, if by using Zonda wheels after 160K I am tired and I need to stop, with Proton wheels I can travel for other 40Km.

Love that 


(1) they are not "Zonda G3", they are Zonda 90s version.

[BU508A]

Today arrival: 18 ADR1399KHZ
I've ordered them in Feb. 2022.







Interestingly they've used the Linear Technology logo on the plastic caps.

[DiTBho]

Today arrival: 18 ADR1399KHZ
I've ordered them in Feb. 2022.

You're "lucky", I placed my order in Jan 2022, I'm *still* waiting for my two tiny FPGA boards(1) to be delivered.
They say "arrival time, 400 days", what?!?
Payment "pending" on Paypal, so the money is still in my bank account.

you have to be patient and wait... what else? 


(1) nothing special, XILINX SP6 + PRAM, but 6 layers very small PCB!
Frankly I am not able to design such a thing, and I have very stringent mechanical constraints: the board must fit in very little space!

[RAPo]

A tinyPFA in a nice blue box arrived.

[w.v.s.]

Now waiting for proper triax-environment

Meanwhile the questions:
What is the latest firmware version for this?
(Where) Can I buy these rubber-keypads separately?
What exactly is the hardware difference between Keithley 6517 and 6517A
(in the specs I found so far about half settling times for the 6517 preamp at "higher" currents, slightly faster reading rate to front panel for the 6517, no alternating polarity ohms mode for the 6517, no conformity to european union directives specified for 6517)
(@TiN, I hope it is O.K., that I used one of your images as reference. Please tell me if not!)?
I prepared an animated gif for comparison, but with the upload only one frame survived
Did anyone draw some schematics on the input section?
Why does it assume Aug 4th 2023 to be a Saturday?

Manufacturing was 1995. I guess retirement for the electrolytic caps would be fair.

[pdenisowski]

I'm working on some AC power analysis related content (things like measurement of power factor, current harmonics, inrush current, standby power, etc.) and I realized that an older Voltech breakout box would be a lot easier and safer than the way I was doing things

[gamalot]

Now waiting for proper triax-environment

Meanwhile the questions:
What is the latest firmware version for this?
(Where) Can I buy these rubber-keypads separately?
What exactly is the hardware difference between Keithley 6517 and 6517A?
Did anyone draw some schematics on the input section?
Why does it assume Aug 4th 2023 to be a Saturday?

Manufacturing was 1995. I guess retirement for the electrolytic caps would be fair.

If the reason you want to buy rubber keypads is that the contacts are worn out, you can find conductive rubber pads on eBay.

[SeanB]

Bought some ancient power supply. These were the capacitors in it, old enough that they are officially on pension for the one series pair, and well pensioned off for the other pair.Tested just for a laugh, and the one says it might be a capacitor, the other 3 are very poor diodes with high junction capacitance. Crusty Plessey capacitors, new long before I was born. But made in England, along with the germanium PNP transistors, and the diodes.

[sarel.wagner]

New to me,Tek 468, needs some cleaning as most switches and knobs are sticking or very noisy...

[w.v.s.]

New to me,Tek 468, needs some cleaning as most switches and knobs are sticking or very noisy...

It's worth the effort. The second scope, I've bought was from this series and I liked it a lot. Nice piece of equipment!

[DiTBho]

A book about bicycle frames and biomechanics that explains why the more upright frame models, with a taller head tube, will offer a slacker seat tube angle to match your less rotated pelvis.

[w.v.s.]

(Where) Can I buy these rubber-keypads separately?

If the reason you want to buy rubber keypads is that the contacts are worn out, you can find conductive rubber pads on eBay.

Thank you! There is also a 2-component liquid solution on the market, which is much more expansive. Did not try either of them so far, only cleaning with alcohol. You see that the enter-key has been pressed a lot, the printed text is almost completely gone. I think the costs will drive me into a repair, but I am interested if someone ever bought a replacement from the manufacturer and how much was charged for that.

[SeanB]

Here is the recapped PSU, 65 years old, and still works. Home made battery charger, probably designed for NiCd cells, but still can be used to charge modern cells, though it will probably not be exact, but it does work, and has current limiting on the output, though it is not short circuit proof, or very robust against reverse connected batteries.

[RAPo]

A Kadimendium OCXO 10-MHz Frequency standard arrives this evening.

[porter]

Kingst LA2016 from AliExpress for $116.
Works for my budget, skill. Software runs on my linux laptop as well.

[w.v.s.]

A set of concave first surface mirrors.

[w.v.s.]

A 7078-TRX triax cable for my electrometer.

[Aldo22]

I got a cheap RF broadband amplifier.

Since my oscilloscope already contains a simple signal generator and I have a TinySA and a NanoVNA, I don't really need a dedicated signal generator at the moment.

However, I thought it would be nice if the signal from, say, TinySA had a bit more amplitude.
And that's what I can achieve with this cheap unit to a certain degree.

It's not that I would recommend it for serious work, for that the amplitude drops too much with higher frequency and the signal fidelity..., but if you want to have some "steam" in the signal for little money, it's ok.

In the attached image you see 30MHz from TinySA amplified to 6.5VPP.

[Martin72]

A tiny photo light box, arrived today.

[RAPo]

A set of tabbed overlays so I have visual confirmation that one of my DM42's is a C47. And an overlay for the HP15CE to let it work as an HP16C.

[rexbinary]

I received my "free" Fluke 75th Anniversary cap for overpaying for a Fluke 87V.