Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Zucca]

Well done Vince, you are the best french I ever met.

[Vince]

You're welcome, anytime ! 

[Andrew_Debbie]

Spotted a couple of old Racal frequency counters on eBay.

There is this 520 - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384663905868   - This is the version with individual lamps in a vertical column.    Starting bid is £20.

Racal 832   6 digit Nixie tube  30MHz  -- https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324991526216  BIN at £150.  No thank you.

I know nothing about the sellers or the

I won't be bidding or making offers on either one.   

 

[GreyWoolfe]

I did try just that 3 years ago when I filled this container of power cords in preparation for the house move. Didn't work. Ties are way to fragile and often broke/snapped while I was tightening them onto the cord. Those that managed to survive the tightening, snapped a short while later on their own once in the box, or when digging into the cords to pick one up. Maybe the French fries ties are more fragile than the Canadian ones, I don't know, but they are what they are... I think I used them none the less but not for power cords, rather for the container of plug packs, as their wire is very thin and flexible in comparison to a beefy power cord.  So IIRC these ties worked fine for the plug packs.. though I don't really know because 3 years later I have not yet had a reason to look at them yet. Maybe they have snapped by now.

I don't like wire ties either. Much prefer hook & loop straps.  Home Depot has a cheap pack with around 50 gray and 50 black on two different rolls. They are around 6" long and you can cut them smaller they work just as good. Price is very reasonable but I don't remember how much. Only way to fly for me.

I use the same thing.  I store my probes and cables in the flat plastic Chinese take away containers with the clear plastic lids.  They stack and take P-Touch labels easy.  I like the clear lids as right now I am storing them in one of the deep drawers of my office rolling tool chest.  I just look for the ones I need as I can't see the labels.

On the totes that have power chords, misc cables and wall warts, I use regular wire ties to control the chaos.  I bought a huge amount from a yard sale for dirt cheap so I don't worry about using as many as is necessary.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Arrival on Monday from Mouser:
some SMD prototype PCBs. Got the hint from the captain. Thanks again. 

Material in every case is FR4 with a thickness of 1.7mm except for the big one (160x100).
It comes with a thickness of ~0.8mm (1/32") and the label is saying it can be cut with a scissor.

Now I need to think of a nice little project to tinker with them. 
.
..

Not bad, but I think they need to put some more work into it, Maybe try some mixed layouts. Something like stations for SOIC but also SOP and grids for discretes around them. Wanting to work with SOIC at least (for DIP the conventional cards can still be used), I do not see the placement shown in the document as viable for 0805. And that is for many still the preferred SMD size for prototyping.

[Neomys Sapiens]

OK so I emptied my container of power cords and sorted everything.
.
.

That is how the Laokoon legend came into being! He said to his sons: 'let's just sort that big box of cables before lunch' and we have all heard what has happened to them. 
Will you have a serving of Kabeljau today?

[Neomys Sapiens]

I got a little power bank for measly 2€. Not exactly a state of the art model, but well....Tek.

[mnementh]

It's orificial... the ToD is empty, and the cartage company has been called.

Engaging Somebody Else's Problem Field now...

*toddles off to soak my aching scales*

mnem

[mansaxel]

It's orificial... the ToD is empty, and the cartage company has been called.

Excellent! Congratulations!

[mnementh]

Sounds to me like you're ready to go to work for AWS. You should give bd139 a ping. 

There's this young whipper-snapper I know. He's  peering coördinator for Amazon EMEA. Basically "Boss of all external AWS IP connectivity in Europe", and 10 years my junior, at least. I can't go work for them unless I'm higher in the pecking order than him.

Give 3 correct answers in a row with zero dumb blank stares, and I think you'll probably have him on the ropes.

mnem
 

[Vince]

OK so I emptied my container of power cords and sorted everything.
.
.

That is how the Laokoon legend came into being! He said to his sons: 'let's just sort that big box of cables before lunch' and we have all heard what has happened to them. 
Will you have a serving of Kabeljau today?

Not up to snif with legends but I trust you !    Quick Google said the god s sent two giant snakes that killed his two sons, not cool !

" Kabeljau " you are testing my Google skills again ! 
Thank Goodness for Google and the interweb...

So your German Kabeljau is apparently what we call here " Cabillaud " or "Morue", but most of the time Cabillaud because Morue is not a sexy name, even a swear word targetted at women... so I find it has been deprecated...

Well I don't like Cabillaud that much, and don't like fish that much in general, and it stinks in the kichen once cooked, it's a nightmare to get rid of the smell !
So I rarely eat fish. I do like Salmon though, to be honest...

I do  love  some sea products though, mostly " Langoustine " and "Coquilles Saint-Jacques ".  Google says the latter is called " scallop shell ", and the former " Lobster ", though that must be wrong because I looked at pics of Lobsters and it's the huge fancy expensive stuff you buy only for X-mas. What I am talking about is the intermediate size / type : much smaller than  a lobster, but bigger than a mere prawn. It's like a cross between the two. Pics below.

Both live in the channel so it's a local product as well, as a bonus 

[mnementh]

Entertaining video about building a sorting machine for coins. 
Please note the installation of motherboards on the wall of his lab. 

His machine is a bit misleading. The wooden section has no part in the sorting. The coins were sorted at the top before entering the "maze".

McBryce.

Not exactly true. While mostly interesting in a Pachinko Machine manner, the last bit of sorting is done in the plastic windows. There are 8 slots, 4 layers. Each layer routes its respective coins to the correct slot in order based on value.

Which is part of the sorting process; without doing so, that top "sorting/counting" section would just dump them into piles based on physical size rather than monetary value.

mnem
 

?? The metal sorter sorts them into 8 individual sections based on size. There are no Euro coins with the same physical size but with a different monetary value. After the wooden part they are still in exactly the same piles as the metal sorter sorted them. The metal sorter has even labels with monetary values to show this. So although two types of coins are using the same layer in the wooden section, there is no sorting involved.

McBryce.

Watch the video again in full screen around 15:10-15:40. Look at the order of the values of coins in the top sorting section; they are sorted according to physical size. The bottom part deposits them in order of monetary value, which as you can clearly see is not the same. It deposits the .50€ coin in the 3rd slot and the .05€ coin in the 6th slot, when they are 2nd and 5th slots in the sorting/counting section at the top.

I think what mnem meant is: at first the coins are sorted by their physical size, but this does not correspond with their value.
The first sorting goes like this: 2€, 0.5€, 1€, 0.2€, 0.05€, 0.1€, 0.02€ and 0.01€.

Then the wooden maze comes into play and at the bottom the coins are sorted by their monetary value.   Just my 0.02€

Cheers,

mnem
 

[Neomys Sapiens]

Well I don't like Cabillaud that much, and don't like fish that much in general, and it stinks in the kichen once cooked, it's a nightmare to get rid of the smell !
So I rarely eat fish. I do like Salmon though, to be honest...

I do  love  some sea products though, mostly " Langoustine " and "Coquilles Saint-Jacques ".  Google says the latter is called " scallop shell ", and the former " Lobster ", though that must be wrong because I looked at pics of Lobsters and it's the huge fancy expensive stuff you buy only for X-mas. What I am talking about is the intermediate size / type : much smaller than  a lobster, but bigger than a mere prawn. It's like a cross between the two. Pics below.

Both live in the channel so it's a local product as well, as a bonus 

Well, I like fish but honestly, I like many other fish much more than that 'Cabillaud'.
Your pictures makes me hope that a normal vacation is possible this year.
I totally gorged on seafood both in Cornwall and on the Isle of Man. At the latter,  they fish for your "Coquilles Saint-Jacques " too. It's a big thing there. They are known as 'Queenies'.

[mnementh]

    ...Will you have a serving of Kabeljau today?

There... FTFY.   

mnem
 

[BU508A]

If you are interested in hepatitis A infection, raw mussels are just the thing.
And even cooked isn't a guarantee for not getting infected. 

https://www.sueddeutsche.de/reise/hepatitis-a-kochen-schuetzt-nicht-vor-gelbsucht-1.227797
Article is in German.

*shudder*

[Cerebus]

Well I don't like Cabillaud that much, and don't like fish that much in general, and it stinks in the kichen once cooked, it's a nightmare to get rid of the smell !

Fresh fish doesn't smell worth a damn, and certainly doesn't one need to worry about the smell in the kitchen afterward. Even the smell of Mackerel has gone by the time you've eaten and gone back to the kitchen for the washing up, as long as you start with a fresh Mackerel.

What has happened to French gastronomy when you can't get fresh fish and people don't recognise when it's not? And to think us English used to look up to the French when it came to food. Has it come to the point where Coq au vin means liaison amoureuse sur un camion? 

I do  love  some sea products though, mostly " Langoustine " and "Coquilles Saint-Jacques ".  Google says the latter is called " scallop shell ", and the former " Lobster ", though that must be wrong because I looked at pics of Lobsters and it's the huge fancy expensive stuff you buy only for X-mas. What I am talking about is the intermediate size / type : much smaller than  a lobster, but bigger than a mere prawn. It's like a cross between the two.

Generally nowadays the English just call langoustine exactly that. In the past the commonest English name for them was "scampi" but that name got stretched so often in commercial use that if you asked for a dish of scampi then you had no idea what you were really getting. Scampi in a restaurant in the 70s or 80s usually meaning battered fried scampi tails, thus handily disguising what was under the batter - bits of monkfish was a favourite substitute until monkfish also got expensive. If you ask for langoustine there's not much they can put on your plate except langoustine or use the excuse that "scampi" has taken on a meaning of its own that doesn't necessarily mean langoustine anymore.

Languostine also go by the name Norway Lobster, it's uncommon usage but accurate, langoustine are indeed a species of lobster, just not the large blue lobsters that attract the name 'lobster' when we're talking about food. A lot of the langoustine eaten in Europe come from Scotland, and certainly the best ones do. In Ireland they will call them Dublin Bay Prawns.

In general usage just "scallops", not "scallop shells". If you said "scallop shells" people would think you meant the shells and just the shells - back in the days when people still smoked in restaurants, cleaned scallop shells were often used as ashtrays in bistro style places.

[Brumby]

It's orificial... the ToD is empty, and the cartage company has been called.

* Checking image to see if it's been Photoshopped.... *

[duckduck]

I did try just that 3 years ago when I filled this container of power cords in preparation for the house move. Didn't work. Ties are way to fragile and often broke/snapped while I was tightening them onto the cord. Those that managed to survive the tightening, snapped a short while later on their own once in the box, or when digging into the cords to pick one up. Maybe the French fries ties are more fragile than the Canadian ones, I don't know, but they are what they are... I think I used them none the less but not for power cords, rather for the container of plug packs, as their wire is very thin and flexible in comparison to a beefy power cord.  So IIRC these ties worked fine for the plug packs.. though I don't really know because 3 years later I have not yet had a reason to look at them yet. Maybe they have snapped by now.

I don't like wire ties either. Much prefer hook & loop straps.  Home Depot has a cheap pack with around 50 gray and 50 black on two different rolls. They are around 6" long and you can cut them smaller they work just as good. Price is very reasonable but I don't remember how much. Only way to fly for me.

I use those very ones for cords on tools and the cables I keep in my "Go bag" and laptop bag. Actually, pretty much any cord I use frequently; as they have a little loop so you can actually attach them to the cable.

IEC/heavy power cords... actually any heavy cord or cable you actually give a damn about... are best stored coiled, not squished flat. Squishing them flat puts permanent kinks in the cord every n inches, which is just a PITA. If they came to you this way, well... my condolences.  Storing them coiled is much easier to tie, plus they stack vertically on a bench or in a drawer very tidily.

<IMG SNIPPED>

That said... if you must make them so they're bundled flat-ish instead of coiled, there is a different technique which is almost as kind to the cord and almost as compact as squishing: the old "figure 8 cord wrap".

Essentially, you coil the cord into a circle approx 20-30% smaller than the length you want the bundle to be.

Align the ends so they overlap on the same side of the loop, then twist the coil into a figure 8.

Now, wrap your garden tie around the "waist" of the figure 8. If you aligned the ends properly when you started, the plug and the IEC socket will now be held snugly right at the wire tie.

If you are handling thick or otherwise unwieldy cable, don't be afraid to use enough of the gardening tie to go around the cable twice or 3x. Every additional loop makes it twice as strong as the first.

I like the fact that gardening tie lets you get exactly the length of tie you need, but the main reason I prefer it is cost vs attrition: My collection of cables isn't just my personal hoard; they're work supplies that get "deployed" as part of my work and as needed by friends and family. I can shrug off  a penny or two worth of garden tie a lot easier than a Velcro tie that costs a dime or a quarter, especially if the job needs a half-dozen of assorted cables.

<IMG SNIPPED>

And finally... for large cables/long extension cords, I prefer bobble ties, aka ball bungees. *snerk* 

It is my understanding these were first developed for tarp canopies, but they are one of the handiest things on the planet, and can be bought as most Homeowner Hell type stores in large quantities for cheap; like 25 pieces/$10.

They're often most useful where you find yourself wishing for "a 3rd hand"; one of my worst "misuses" is to temporarily defeat the dead-man lever on my lawnmower when I'm on flat level terrain so my hands can get a rest, and so I can let it run at idle for a few minutes to cool down/temperature equalize before I put it away.

mnem

I recently learned of using large spring clamps (or whatever they are called) to hold onto the thing you might be trying to solder a wire onto. mansaxel (and many others) will know exactly what's going on in the picture. mnementh, an added bonus is that I use this same clamp to hold the deadman lever on my smaller lawnmower while it warms up. I now keep one (a spring clamp, not a lawnmower, smart-ass) on my lab bench since discovering its usefulness in the art of cable making.

Credit where credit is due:
http://edcarlson.com/blog/?p=259

I mostly use zip ties to tie up my miscellaneous cables and then store them in shoebox-size clear bins stacked on the shelf. Costco sells the bins for ~USD11 for a pack of four. For cables that I am liable to use more frequently, I'll use velcro. I find that I use most stored cables very infrequently and the cost and organizational benefits of zip-tying outweigh the additional time it takes me to cut them. I always have a pair of sharp flush-cut pliers handy in the lab.

EDIT:

I like these storage containers. I don't pay this much. The plastic doesn't break easily and they stack and also nest well. They also work well for junior's Lego sets and the 65,536 other toys he has.

https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/iris-buckle-up-storage-box%2c-12.9-quart%2c-clear%2c-4-ct.product.100374385.html

[Zucca]

I just registered my first .com domain.

it ends with ___tronics.com .

I hope to make some money with it. Let me work on it and I will reveal the full name.....

[BU508A]

I just registered my first .com domain.

it ends with ___tronics.com .

I hope to make some money with it. Let me work on it and I will reveal the full name.....

Hmmm, zuccatronics.com is a fail. 

Code: [Select]

mounty@jupiter:~$ whois zuccatronics.com
No match for domain "ZUCCATRONICS.COM".
>>> Last update of whois database: 2022-01-12T07:02:55Z <<<


[Cerebus]

Nor for this:

Code: [Select]

cerebus@shu:~$ whois zucca-has-cooties.com
% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

refer:        whois.verisign-grs.com
...
No match for domain "ZUCCA-HAS-COOTIES.COM".
>>> Last update of whois database: 2022-01-12T06:57:54Z <<<

cerebus@shu:~$

[Fx: Muttley snigger]

[vk6zgo]

Entertaining video about building a sorting machine for coins. 
Please note the installation of motherboards on the wall of his lab. 

His machine is a bit misleading. The wooden section has no part in the sorting. The coins were sorted at the top before entering the "maze".

McBryce.

Not exactly true. While mostly interesting in a Pachinko Machine manner, the last bit of sorting is done in the plastic windows. There are 8 slots, 4 layers. Each layer routes its respective coins to the correct slot in order based on value.

Which is part of the sorting process; without doing so, that top "sorting/counting" section would just dump them into piles based on physical size rather than monetary value.

mnem
 

?? The metal sorter sorts them into 8 individual sections based on size. There are no Euro coins with the same physical size but with a different monetary value. After the wooden part they are still in exactly the same piles as the metal sorter sorted them. The metal sorter has even labels with monetary values to show this. So although two types of coins are using the same layer in the wooden section, there is no sorting involved.

McBryce.

in Oz they use a series of metal trays with holes in them.
As there are no two denominations with coins exactly the same size, the first pass finds the largest coins, the second the second largest & so on!
I've only ever seen this done manually, but it quite lends itself to automation.

[mansaxel]

I recently learned of using large spring clamps (or whatever they are called) to hold onto the thing you might be trying to solder a wire onto. mansaxel (and many others) will know exactly what's going on in the picture. mnementh, an added bonus is that I use this same clamp to hold the deadman lever on my smaller lawnmower while it warms up. I now keep one (a spring clamp, not a lawnmower, smart-ass) on my lab bench since discovering its usefulness in the art of cable making.

Credit where credit is due:
http://edcarlson.com/blog/?p=259

Yeah. If you're bent on mass production of XLRs, it does pay to make a holder from a chassis connector and clamp it to the bench.  I just stripped out two used Neutriks last night, and also did a lot of prep on my little 12-pair multicore cable; the fan-out end. It's Belden Brilliance 12-pair, not star-quad as in the link, but it is AES3 quality, which means they fixed the impedance of it. There will be pictures. Any year now.

I mostly use zip ties to tie up my miscellaneous cables and then store them in shoebox-size clear bins stacked on the shelf. Costco sells the bins for ~USD11 for a pack of four. For cables that I am liable to use more frequently, I'll use velcro. I find that I use most stored cables very infrequently and the cost and organizational benefits of zip-tying outweigh the additional time it takes me to cut them. I always have a pair of sharp flush-cut pliers handy in the lab.

I tend to use thinner PVC tape, not electric grade. Or velcro. Or, for mains longer than say 5 meters, like extension cords and three-phase; I use webbing straps with mechanical locks, so called Arno straps. I like them since they can be re-used and they're very strong; the locking mechanism easily holds 50 kilos.  Every sound company seems to have bought a custom set, and they usually don't mind losing a few. I've got a strap or two from every place I've worked with, it seems.   Minimum order is 300m  aggregate length.  The drawback is that they're pretty large, and on small cables they are too cumbersome.

I like these storage containers. I don't pay this much. The plastic doesn't break easily and they stack and also nest well. They also work well for junior's Lego sets and the 65,536 other toys he has.

https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/iris-buckle-up-storage-box%2c-12.9-quart%2c-clear%2c-4-ct.product.100374385.html

My favourite is another Swedish, very similar, product, the SmartStore.

[med6753]

Reason #24789 why I hate people.

I always do my laundry at 0300 or 0400 in the morning so I don't have to compete for the single washer/dryer in our complex. It's not unusual for me to find either the washer or dryer full of someone else's laundry that they were too lazy to remove and leave overnight. It gets removed and thrown on top of the machines. Too freaking bad if they don't like it. Take care of it on a timely basis. It ain't hard.

Anyway, do laundry this morning. Both machines were empty. Just pulled my clothes out of the dryer and all my t-shirts have multiple stains. The reason? Some jackass left a chap stick in the dryer. Yep, part of that is on me for not looking in the dryer. But a chap stick would be easy to miss. And I missed it. So now I'm re-washing the t-shirts after applying a stain remover. But I have a suspicion it's not going to work. And I will air dry the t-shirts. Not going back into the dryer.

And people wonder why I'm a grouchy old bastard. 

[tggzzz]

I do  love  some sea products though, mostly " Langoustine " and "Coquilles Saint-Jacques ".  Google says the latter is called " scallop shell ", and the former " Lobster ", though that must be wrong because I looked at pics of Lobsters and it's the huge fancy expensive stuff you buy only for X-mas. What I am talking about is the intermediate size / type : much smaller than  a lobster, but bigger than a mere prawn. It's like a cross between the two. Pics below.

Both live in the channel so it's a local product as well, as a bonus 

Ah, crustaceans, the source of many confusing names...

Here langoustines used to be called scampi (when fried in breadcrumbs as a cheap pub meal that used up locally worthless fish!) or Dublin-bay prawns, but are now often called ... langoustines.

Here "Coquilles Saint-Jacques" is a restuarant dish, i.e. scallops with cream/cheese/mashed potato served on their shell.