Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

No one reads the manuals 

[mnementh]

Cat is clearly the star of the show, for it's him being in focus, the scope's screen is completely out of focus !  I would like a lab cat like your, he looks cool and smart, being interested in TE and electronics. Unfortunately you can't recruit cats on their engineering skills, you just get what you get. I don't want to try then fire 25 cats until I find the right one, so I just don't have one. But lucky you for having this one, you scored big time ! 

Gilmore is quite the character.  He’s one of seven that currently reside here.      (Shame he wasn’t doing this when things were turned on…)   -Pat

One of y'alls needs to get and name a cat 5.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

No one reads the manuals 

If I don't RTFM, how will I know when it joins SkyNet and becomes sentient...? 

mnem
It can already beat me at chess; this is just basic self-preservation...

[mnementh]

Not women... I prefer one woman. Who puts this thing to shame; she can suck a golf-ball through 10 feet of garden hose.

mnem
But this was mostly just me being a tool-dwagon; letting my friends over here in the States know so they can try and get one themselves before they're all gone.

AMEN brother on the first statement, epic fail on the second.  No availability at any store near me.  I would have liked one even though I have a big Rigid shop vac.

Sorry... If I'd knowed aboot it sooner, I'd have posted sooner. 

I did also post in the "What Did You Buy Today?" thread in hopes somebody might benefit; guess I need to spam there with my T3DSO2102 now... 

mnem
   
*RTFM-ing dwagon*

[tautech]

The screen is effing huge and scary Hi-Res; feels the same as going to my 1054Zed after using a TDS210 for years.

LOL but these are just 8", you wait until you get in front of the later 10" models with touch and mouse control.

Did you get a A4 paper Cal cert with it ?   FYI the rear case on these was used on the later X-Plus models also.

Looking forward to more of your 1st impressions..... 

LOL... more first impressions? Let's start with the impression the manuals left on my desktop... "WHUMMMMMMP!!!"

Even the PDFs are heavy; 800+ pages between the User and Programming manuals.



Yup, I got the ISO DOC and a Cal Cert; now we know a lot more of this unit's story.

It looks like they obsoleted the 2CH model and now only carry the 4CH model, and these have been languishing in some warehouse since before COVID. I'd guess the "two weeks to build the unit" is more like "we need to open up these NOS units and do at least a quick hands-on to make sure they're not made of fire after sitting in a warehouse for 4 years"... 

Before I do anything else with it, I need to at least skim the manuals. This thing is smarter than I am. 

Oh, fuck me... even the Quick Start guide is 44 pages thick...   

mnem
   
RTFM, yo.

Did you get real fuckin manuals ? 
The Cal sheet is identical to those that grace real Siglent products. 
As I mentioned earlier these, in fact all 2kX models are EOL:
https://siglentna.com/digital-oscilloscopes/sds2000x/

Old thread about these:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent_s-new-product-sds2000x-series/

[Cubdriver]

Cat is clearly the star of the show, for it's him being in focus, the scope's screen is completely out of focus !  I would like a lab cat like your, he looks cool and smart, being interested in TE and electronics. Unfortunately you can't recruit cats on their engineering skills, you just get what you get. I don't want to try then fire 25 cats until I find the right one, so I just don't have one. But lucky you for having this one, you scored big time ! 

Gilmore is quite the character.  He’s one of seven that currently reside here.      (Shame he wasn’t doing this when things were turned on…)   -Pat

One of y'alls needs to get and name a cat 5.

mnem
 

Too late - I've got seven.

-Pat

[tggzzz]

At my first aircraft design job we still used ink on fiilm. You thought about what you were doing before drawing a line. It's a LOT harder to change than on CAD.

I never used anything other than pencil for schematics, but then I wasn't doing anything where changes were tracked.

Yongsters don't seem to think at all. I was talking to a "design engineer" a couple of weeks ago and despite have a Beng and masters in engineering they didn't know the difference between a machine screw and a bolt 

Ignorance can be cured. Stupidity can't. I know which I do/don't tolerate.

[Cubdriver]

My 2 cats are similar to this, when the mood takes them that is, but these days that is less and less as they are now 12 years old, but both of them still have this strange attraction to plastic bags, love to chew and lick them  and one loves to sit watch TV or the computer screen, especially loves to watch videos of aircraft with their engines running.

There are a couple of them here (Mr. G here being the worst offender) who love to chew up (and later puke up  ) plastic, the favorite being the ziplock bags that come from places like McMaster-Carr, Digi-Key and Mouser.  I need to hide them away well if I want to keep them for later use.  And they WILL find them if even a corner is exposed.

-Pat

[Cubdriver]

Gilmore is quite the character.  He’s one of seven that currently reside here.

(Shame he wasn’t doing this when things were turned on…)

Suggestion .... Turn on the gear and take a photo from the same position as the above, then post it here and I'll try to overlay the displays from that photo onto this one with Gilmore.

That's a thought I had a while back, but unfortunately that picture is several years old, and things have moved around on that rack.  He certainly did look like he was eyeballing the LCR meter in that pose.   

-Pat

<edit - typo>

[tggzzz]

One of y'alls needs to get and name a cat 5.

The member of parliament for my neighbouring constituency is currently "Minister of State for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency". Yes, both of those are laughable, but discussing that would be politics. He looks like an undertaker, and has accurately been dubbed the "Honourable Member for the 18th century".

His sixth child is, believe it or not, called "Sixtus Dominic Boniface Christopher". Either he grew bored or was channelling the Lord of Stormhold. His other sprogs have names including but not limited to Alphege, Anslem, Wulfric Pius. You can choose to believe his explanations for the names, or not.

[bd139]

I think he probably summoned those names from somewhere rather than chose them.

[tggzzz]

I think he probably summoned those names from somewhere rather than chose them.

Smirk. He claims a lot are Roman Catholic, and I'm not going to comment on that since it would be "religion".

I think JR-M would be good in one of the cheesy old Hammer Horror Films. Not sure whether he would be giving or receiving a stake through the heart.

[Vince]

Politics and Religion, combined ?! Yes that would be disastrous indeed, ALMOST as controversial as floppies !!!

[Cerebus]

FTP killed the ZIP drive in its only successful industry, printing. I'm not crying.

Not before Syquest drives had already done for them.

The Syquest was first and then killed by Zip here -- their market share mainly was in the 44MB drives, and they are much earlier than the Zip drives; when the Zip came, it had a brief sejour, after which FTP took over.

Because the Zip drives came in "bigger" than the Syquests there was a brief flirtation with them here for that reason. We'd often find that a print section ran to two or more Syquests and when this happened there was always a risk of something going missing. Zip drives would solve that problem, but when the printers calls you and says "Can't read the disks", you're in London, the Printer is in the extreme West Country, and you'll lose your print slot* if they can't start the presses rolling at 8pm, it kind of puts a dampener on the day. After my publisher had a few brushes with that and paid the exorbitant costs of a bike from London to St Ives a few times, and actually lost a print slot once, an edict came down from on high "Thou shalt not use Zip drives on pain of death and shalt return to using Syquests". Whatever their faults (and they were many) Syquests were an order of magnitude more reliable than Zip drives.

* Cost of losing a print slot - £30,000 from memory.

[mansaxel]

One of y'alls needs to get and name a cat 5.

The member of parliament for my neighbouring constituency is currently "Minister of State for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency".

Politcis be damned. I find that man truly appalling. So, there.

[Cerebus]

Well that was a short lay down 

[Fx: Spike Milligan's "Eccles" voice] Well, stands to reason that it'd be a short lay down because he'd be shorter lying down. Hold on!? Perhaps he isn't shorter lying down - like Neddie Seagoon. [/fx]

[bd139]

I think he probably summoned those names from somewhere rather than chose them.

Smirk. He claims a lot are Roman Catholic, and I'm not going to comment on that since it would be "religion".

I think JR-M would be good in one of the cheesy old Hammer Horror Films. Not sure whether he would be giving or receiving a stake through the heart.

Had a great discussion about ways to dispose of JRM in Nandos the other day and we worked out that with his corporeal state the only viable method would be creating a small singularity within his vicinity.

[Robert763]

FTP killed the ZIP drive in its only successful industry, printing. I'm not crying.

Not before Syquest drives had already done for them.

The Syquest was first and then killed by Zip here -- their market share mainly was in the 44MB drives, and they are much earlier than the Zip drives; when the Zip came, it had a brief sejour, after which FTP took over.

Because the Zip drives came in "bigger" than the Syquests there was a brief flirtation with them here for that reason. We'd often find that a print section ran to two or more Syquests and when this happened there was always a risk of something going missing. Zip drives would solve that problem, but when the printers calls you and says "Can't read the disks", you're in London, the Printer is in the extreme West Country, and you'll lose your print slot* if they can't start the presses rolling at 8pm, it kind of puts a dampener on the day. After my publisher had a few brushes with that and paid the exorbitant costs of a bike from London to St Ives a few times, and actually lost a print slot once, an edict came down from on high "Thou shalt not use Zip drives on pain of death and shalt return to using Syquests". Whatever their faults (and they were many) Syquests were an order of magnitude more reliable than Zip drives.

* Cost of losing a print slot - £30,000 from memory.

Bizzarly, I opend a Really Useful Box in the garage this morning looking for a 2.5mm jack plug and found a Syquest disk in there 130Mb IIRC. No idea why, I've never had a drive. Anybody need a disk?
I've some 8" Dysan's too. At least I had a couple of machines that used those (Cromenco Z2 S100 CPM beast)

[mnementh]

TinkerDwagon SQUEEEEE!!!! 

   I hopped on fleaBay to see if my 54621D had shipped yet... and my dashboard thwapped me upside the head with this alert!!!   w00t!

mnem
*toddles off to stalk the wily UPS driver*

Nice, was a good deal     Mine was apparently shipped today. But I don't see a tracking number so it's a little bit suspect.

Did you get valid tracking yet? I have no doubt you will, as you said, your paperwork all went through.

Also, I forgot to say thanks last night; that was purely exhaustion, I promise. 

Thanks Kosmic for being all that TEA is supposed to be, and sharing a good deal when you find it. 

mnem
Now I don't mind that OWON from ARROW I let slip through my claws nearly as much.

No tracking #. Just marked as shipped. And they are still not answering emails nor ebay messages 

They have good deals but look like they are a pain to deal with.

Is it this bit of eBay feedback that has you uneasy? Yeah; that is a bit worrisome, and of course it weren't there when I ordered. I'm not sure if all the shitposting is reasonable though. This store is part of an international corporation, and they are required to follow very specific regulations regarding where any of their technology gets shipped; in large part because of Homeland Security regulations this guy is whingeing about. I do suspect he's full of shit about them asking him to lie, but rather simply does not meet the export END USE criteria that LeCroy/Teledyne has to apply, and is having a shit-fit about it.

If he's telling the truth about them marking it shipped when it wasn't, I am concerned... I def intend to watch and see how it all plays out.

Another possibility is it was shipped with the paperwork the buyer filled out and they turned it back at the border as paperwork was wrong or somesuch.

mnem
 

[AVGresponding]

I have 0.1, 0.25 and 0.5 isographs. You don't want the 0.1. They are stupid fragile and unreliable as hell.

I actually did my A-level exams with a 0.35 rapidograph years ago. I know you're not supposed to write with them like that but it worked for me

At my first aircraft design job we still used ink on fiilm. You thought about what you were doing before drawing a line. It's a LOT harder to change than on CAD.
Yongsters don't seem to think at all. I was talking to a "design engineer" a couple of weeks ago and despite have a Beng and masters in engineering they didn't know the difference between a machine screw and a bolt 

I treat these kind of people with the same contempt as ones who can't tell the difference between a Pozidriv and a Phillips fastener.

The sparky I'm working with at the moment thinks YZP steel hardware is brass...   

He'll get a shock if he tries to weigh any in!   

[Specmaster]

Cat is clearly the star of the show, for it's him being in focus, the scope's screen is completely out of focus !  I would like a lab cat like your, he looks cool and smart, being interested in TE and electronics. Unfortunately you can't recruit cats on their engineering skills, you just get what you get. I don't want to try then fire 25 cats until I find the right one, so I just don't have one. But lucky you for having this one, you scored big time ! 

Gilmore is quite the character.  He’s one of seven that currently reside here.      (Shame he wasn’t doing this when things were turned on…)   -Pat

One of y'alls needs to get and name a cat 5.

mnem
 

What..bugger that, cat 6

[mnementh]

Not before you have cat 5e...

mnem
 

[mnementh]

...Oh, fuck me... even the Quick Start guide is 44 pages thick...   

mnem
   
RTFM, yo.

Did you get real fuckin manuals ?     The Cal sheet is identical to those that grace real Siglent products.     As I mentioned earlier these, in fact all 2kX models are EOL: https://siglentna.com/digital-oscilloscopes/sds2000x/

Old thread about these: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent_s-new-product-sds2000x-series/

FML... No, I was joking that the manuals are so effing big, even the PDFs go WHUMMMMMP! on my desk... 

I probably missed that about the entire product line being EOL... though DigiKey still lists the T3DSO2104A available for $2780 and the "replacement" T3DSO2204A at $3910. 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

One of y'alls needs to get and name a cat 5.   mnem   

Too late - I've got seven.   -Pat 

Doesn't need to be cat number 5 to be cat 5...

mnem
...and so on, and so forth...

[Zoli]

My contribution to the floppy subject: IMNHO, the floppy era ended around '95.
My experiences while repairing the drives(5 1/4" & 3 1/2"): there is TEAC, then  the rest.
A little details on the rest: die-cast aluminum frame is good, pressed sheet is very bad.
Typical failures:
5 1/4" - rotation motor speed on the RC clock driven units(they has a trimmer for speed adjustment!!!); resonator driven - almost no failures.
3 1/2" - mostly mechanical adjustment issues on almost every pressed sheet unit, barely anything on the die-cast units.
As one unit to spotlight: TEAC FD-505; most stable mechanically and electrically, and has both types.
As side note: LS-100; not much experience with, but I never saw a failed one(out of ~20 laptops).
Now, for the network warriors: IIRC, around '95 it was the following real operating systems available for enterprise use:
SCO UNIX, AIX, HP-UX. Please pick your poison, and state it here 
And no, no VMS for the naughty boys, only Token Ring