Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

I really wish people wouldn't post geekporn pictures.

Shhh, don't say stuff like that. It increases the probability of the opposite occurring.

Quite right. Now I'm going to have to get my own back; consider it aversion therapy.

These aren't my pictures, but I did see them - and you might be able to see them on the 15th and 16th September, https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/measuring-voltage-conrad-hoffmann-style-with-a-weston-cell/msg1631129/#msg1631129

The first is modern, the second is from 1962 but has better ergonomics than modern DSOs and doesn't contain any digital ICs - the digital logic uses discrete transistors.

[bd139]

The second one I’ve seen before and is one of my favourite photos of test gear. It captures the essence and warmth of kit of that age perfectly.

[Specmaster]

Now that scope does look like it means business and with decent controls that indicate what's happening [emoji106] I bet that is equivelant to 2 normal boat anchors at least [emoji41]



From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

[bitseeker]

Scope + Nixies + knobs = TEA time

[Zucca]

Agree on all points. I'd probably pay £400 if it had a recent cal cert on it to avoid that arse ache

TEA Memeber deal

TEA Memeber deal: you can get one 34401a for 400€ shipped to your front door in Germany, calibrated in 2014 with papers.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/zucca-sales-(d)-two-venerable-34401a-(calibrated-in-2014-with-papers)/

TEA Memeber deal: Keithley 220 for 500€ shipped to your front door in Germany, with two expensive keithley triax cable (value >140€) and some triax panel plugs. Details per PM.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/zucca-sales-(d)-keithley-220/

Please don't spread the word, this is only for you mad addicted people like me.

PS: Trying to patch the K DMM7510 hole in my bank account.

[Cerebus]

Oh dear.

I think I'll have to get an 8800A, just so I can fondle those switches.

I really wish people wouldn't post geekporn pictures.

I always think those look like a stunted pdp-8 or DG Nova 820 front panel.

[tggzzz]

Oh dear.

I think I'll have to get an 8800A, just so I can fondle those switches.

I really wish people wouldn't post geekporn pictures.

I always think those look like a stunted pdp-8 or DG Nova 820 front panel.

Precisely Although I would have said a PDP-11, since some PDP8s had rocker switches rather than piano keys.

[Brumby]

I thought PDP-8 as well.

It was the first computer to which I ever had hands on access.

[tggzzz]

I thought PDP-8 as well.

It was the first computer to which I ever had hands on access.

Mine was one of these, with a 39-bit word (2 instructions, each 6-bit opcode 13-bit address, plus a "modifier" bit).

You can see one operating at TNMoC, which also contains the world's oldest operating computer.

[bd139]

Glad I started in the microprocessor era. Hand me down ZX80 and what a pile of excrement that was. Managed to brow beat my parents into buying me a BBC in the end. Had to wait until a relative died before I could afford a disk drive for it.

[Specmaster]

Don't be to hard on the poor old ZX80, with that and the Mk14 by Sinclair, the BBC micro might not have been made. Rubbish the ZX80 and 81 were, they kick started the home computing revolution and the BBC, Acorn, Commodore, Tandy, New Brain, Oric, Atari, Sony, etc came along as a result of Sinclair's efforts.

I wanted a BBC, couldn't afford it so ended with a SX Spectrum and then went on to heavily mod it by adding 3.5" disc drive, proper keyboard, printer etc.

[bd139]

I think that's technically that the other vendors came along despite Sinclair's attempt at laying a steamer on the market. Yes the BBC was insanely expensive at the time compared to the others. Joy to my father's ability to avoid spending money, he found a model B at a bankruptcy auction and got it for under a 100 compared to the 300 or so it would have cost. Was new in box!

Or that's probably what he told my mother.

Seeing a pattern here with TEA 

[Specmaster]

Yep, he taught you well [emoji41]

From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

[bd139]

Yeah one of his tricks was keeping all the boxes for everything so when he bought something new on the sly he could explain it away as the person kept the box because after all that’s what he did with his things.

[Specmaster]

Yeah one of his tricks was keeping all the boxes for everything so when he bought something new on the sly he could explain it away as the person kept the box because after all that’s what he did with his things.

Problem today is that we have so much and to keep the boxes needs another house to put them in.
Sent from my mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

[tggzzz]

Don't be to hard on the poor old ZX80, with that and the Mk14 by Sinclair, the BBC micro might not have been made. Rubbish the ZX80 and 81 were, they kick started the home computing revolution and the BBC, Acorn, Commodore, Tandy, New Brain, Oric, Atari, Sony, etc came along as a result of Sinclair's efforts.

Not quite, if you look at the timelines.

I was using a NASCOM 1 Z80 machine in 1978, and got my company to purchase an Acorn System One in 1980. (The latter enabled me to demo a concept in 3 weeks when other guesstimate was 6 months:) )

The Sinclair 1000 didn't materialise until 1982. Most people presumed it would have the traditional mark of quality Sinclair had demonstrated since the 60s (with the exception of his calculators).

[nfmax]

I had a NASCOM 1 I built from a kit! One of the 100nF ceramic decoupling capacitors was short. I had to find it by measuring the voltage across each using my AVO 8 and looking for the lowest value.

[bd139]

got my company to purchase an Acorn System One in 1980. (The latter enabled me to demo a concept in 3 weeks when other guesstimate was 6 months:) )

Acorn System series machines were pretty top notch. I found a System 3 in a skip at university and nursed it back to health. Had 6809 FLEX manuals and disks in the skip with it. Had rained all night but fortunately was all saved by a well placed door. Was like a System 1 but eurocard format. Basically a rack mounted Acorn Atom.  I think it is still in my parents' loft. I don't remember selling or trashing it. There are lots of vintage computer bits up there. Probably should sort it.

Edit: there's also a VME SPARCserver and a couple of VAXstation 3100s up there too.

[Specmaster]

Wasn't the BBC basically an Acorn Atom?

2 more pages and we will have 500 pages

[bd139]

It was the successor to the Atom, originally called Proton. More memory, different IO and peripherals etc. Plus The Tube which turned it into the original IO host of the first ARM processor which has basically wiggled its way into the fabric of society now.  And that's what happens when you don't start a race to the bottom like Clive did.

The TF930 has an ARM CPU and is made in UK so there's a little bit of an approving nod towards that as a descendent of such things.

[bitseeker]

TEA Memeber deal

Thanks for the special TEA member deals, zucca.

Keithley 220..., with two expensive keithley triax cable (value >140€) and some triax panel plugs.

Yeah, those cables are really pricey. Anyone know of a more economical source for two-slot triax cables or adapters? Pomona makes one (4725) with alligator/crocodile clips on the other end, which looks good for general bench use, but they're pricey too (over $100 each).

Pomona has a triax-to-BNC adapter (5090), but it shorts the outer shield to the inner one.

I have a K220 and a K614, both of which use the old two-lug panel connectors.

PS: Trying to patch the K DMM7510 hole in my bank account.

Sounds like par for the course around here.

[mnementh]

I really wish people wouldn't post geekporn pictures.

Shhh, don't say stuff like that. It increases the probability of the opposite occurring.

Quite right. Now I'm going to have to get my own back; consider it aversion therapy.

These aren't my pictures, but I did see them - and you might be able to see them on the 15th and 16th September, https://www.eevblog.com/forum/metrology/measuring-voltage-conrad-hoffmann-style-with-a-weston-cell/msg1631129/#msg1631129

The first is modern, the second is from 1962 but has better ergonomics than modern DSOs and doesn't contain any digital ICs - the digital logic uses discrete transistors.

 

That first one... it looks like something from a Star Trek movie. But that 567... it looks like something from The Outer Limits. Damn, that gives me serious wood.

got my company to purchase an Acorn System One in 1980. (The latter enabled me to demo a concept in 3 weeks when other guesstimate was 6 months:) )

Acorn System series machines were pretty top notch. I found a System 3 in a skip at university and nursed it back to health. Had 6809 FLEX manuals and disks in the skip with it. Had rained all night but fortunately was all saved by a well placed door. Was like a System 1 but eurocard format. Basically a rack mounted Acorn Atom.  I think it is still in my parents' loft. I don't remember selling or trashing it. There are lots of vintage computer bits up there. Probably should sort it.

Edit: there's also a VME SPARCserver and a couple of VAXstation 3100s up there too.

I dunno if this is a badge of honor, or a scarlet letter on my chest... but this was my third computer. It ran a version of CP/M, and I learned GWBASIC on it. Yes that is a 5GB Winchester drive, and up til about 5 years ago when the PSU board died of rotten caps, it would boot up and run if you tapped the side of the HDD. Yes, I still have it.

My first was a Data General all-in-one desktop with 8086 processor that ran MP-OS (A variant of CP/M). My second was a cluster of NASTEC workstations and EMP-hardened CASE2000 server, which I actually got up & running on two terminals but all applications on it were contract-dependent, so would never do anything but command-line functions. I eventually modded the Server case into my first gaming PC; a blistering 386-25 (Or was it a 386SX-40?) with a whole 2048 MB RAM and an EEGA monitor from a surplus house in the back of Computer Shopper. That came bare-chassis, and I made an enclosure for it out of aluminum sheetmetal.

Duke Nukem FTW, yo!

mnem


Nobody ever told THIS GUY that pink was for sissies!

[mnementh]

Oh, you GOTTA be kidding me... ALMOST 500 pages?


mnem
Here, have some letters.

[mnementh]

Dammit, Dammit, Dammitt!


mnem
Increment +1

[mnementh]

Can you hear my eyes rolling from all the way over here?


mnem
No, I really don't have anything better to do with my life right now.