Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 14559968 times)

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Offline tggzzz

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13275 on: July 15, 2018, 02:36:34 pm »
Interesting article. I never knew that. In fact, most people are completely ignorant of how their food is prepared/treated before it reaches the shelf in the store...no matter what country you're in.

In "advanced" countries that's true, but it is less so in less "advanced" countries.

I occasionally tweak people's tails by observing "Most people in big cities can't even change a fuse (if they even know why fuses exist). Someone in the amazonian jungle knows how to do everything to live. Now, who is the ignorant savage?".

The other hot potatoes w.r.t. US food and Brexit are growth hormones and GMOs. Prophylatic use of antibiotics seems to be a problem everywhere.
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Online PartialDischarge

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13276 on: July 15, 2018, 03:02:13 pm »
I wouldn't have thought that hanging meat up like they do Spain would be very hygienic, gathering dust, flies on it not to mention smoke fumes etc

It's not just hanging 'meat', it has undergone a curing process, its covered on the outside by a layer of lard that protects it. It should be hanged during storage, even during transport in trucks, and once it's opened for consumption then it is protected form the "elements"

Quote
but they do and enjoy eating it apperently. I doubt that I would be brave enough to try it though although I do regularly eat food beyond its best by date.

Are you suggesting those hanging legs are beyond their best dates?
A good jamon serrano leg can cost from 250€ to 600€, some even more, so yes we enjoy them and the people around the world who have access to this kind of gourmet appreciate it too.
 

Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13277 on: July 15, 2018, 03:25:46 pm »
No, I was referring to items brought from the supermarket that have a BBD stamped on the packaging, such as bread, soup cheese etc
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13278 on: July 15, 2018, 04:22:47 pm »
Oh, FFS.  :palm: Here, have some .pdf

Thanks, mnem. Yeah,  :palm: moment. Sorry, Spec, brain was elsewhere.
If everyone was to convert their documents into a pdf file then anyone on any platform can open and read the file without any fuss just by using a simple pdf reader which there are many and they are free on the internet. Many pdf creators are paid for programs but there is a lovely free one that works well and also a free pdf editor from the same source which can be downloaded from here www.cutepdf.com/. Once installed you activate the pdf writer in the same way as you select a printer, you select the print option of whatever program you use to create the document, Open Office, Notepad, MS Office, etc etc., select Cutepdf from the list and click print. It will save the file to your desktop as a normal pdf with all formatting preserved.

Perhaps this might be made a "sticky" for all to enjoy the simple means of exchanging text files without all the fuss?

Well, yeah... but the reason bitseeker was embarrassed is that OpenOffice will natively export to .pdf. It was a simple case of getting caught up in your own geekness, which we are all prone to.  ;)

Same deal. Most of my service or user manuals are softcopy. Some both. Hardcopies are kept in separate notebooks.


I apply a method I call "Organized Chaos" in which everything I'm currently working on gets dumped on my desktop. When that space reaches critical mass, (usually due to being overrun with dumb web toons, manuals and datasheets, etc) I spend a few minutes sorting it all into folders. My PC is always equipped with two hot-swap bays; every month I make a new image onto a hard drive that's stored elsewhere. (This gets messy as I often switch between Win7 and Win10 Boot disks depending on how annoyed I am at one version or the other, and to keep both current... but ah, well...) I keep 2 or 3 most recent images for all my computers on this drive, which gets cloned and replaced every couple years as storage density increases and needs increase to match.

Network storage houses most of my family photos and videos and incremental backups using Windoze Backup & restore.

I rarely print any of my manuals; only individual pages as needed to clip up over the workbench for a current project.

I'm not touching you Brits food safety habits with a ten foot pole other than to say that over here if it's moldy or out of date it gets trashed.

We're doing our best not to touch US food safety habits! E.g. chicken contaminated with faeces and bacteria that is "made safe" by allegedly washing it in chlorine.

Have you never eaten a blue cheese of any kind?

I've trashed many things that were "in date" because they had become dangerous.

Of course I have. I love cheese of all types. Especially blue cheese. Along with items such a yogurt. Beneficial molds and bacteria. But to age meat until it shows signs of mold? Not quite.

Dunno about your assertion that chicken is washed in chlorine. I would assume if it were you'd smell it. I have yet to open a package of chicken gotten a whiff of chlorine. It wouldn't take much and I doubt they could get it all washed off.   
I wouldn't have thought that hanging meat up like they do Spain would be very hygienic, gathering dust, flies on it not to mention smoke fumes etc, but they do and enjoy eating it apperently. I doubt that I would be brave enough to try it though although I do regularly eat food beyond its best by date.

All meats over here are treated with chlorine and in some cases ammonia as well (Google "pink slime" for some truly disgusting info-dump about our modern food production; which, joy of joys, is now legal to include in processed meats without warning labels again thanks to Resident Chump); the factory-farming methods we employ are not only barbaric in the way we treat the animals, but also simply filthy due to the demand for greater and greater production speed. The USDA is a joke; most slaughterhouses (ESPECIALLY poultry) have "inspectors" that are employed by the slaughterhouse, and the output of such places is so great that there is statistically no way in hell even 1 piece of meat in 10 actually gets inspected. The poultry industry is the worst offender, with lines running so fast that the birds are still alive when they're scalded for plucking. This is known, it is fact, and it is why you can't trust anything, neither product nor propaganda, that comes from any of them.

Pork production has overtaken beef because pigs can be grown in a factory environment; they spend their entire lives in a pen (now concrete cells where they are also killed so the runoff can be easily hosed away with pressure washers) barely big enough for them to turn around in. This is why pork now produced is so dry and stringy; an animal needs exercise to distribute fat in the muscle tissue to develop the "marbling" that makes a good juicy, flavorful cut of meat.

COOK EVERYTHING. USE A THERMOMETER. Meat produced in America is GARBAGE; there's a reason Japan REFUSES to import American beef, and beef is the cleanest meat we produce by dint of how it has to be produced. Our veggies are similarly dirty; Japan won't buy our rice because it has too high a content of insect parts. The fact our grain combines have lobbied for and and been granted a regulation ALLOWING measurable amounts of insect parts is disgusting to the Japanese, and I can't blame them. American Agri-Business, like every other Corporate Entity, only wants rules so they can break 'em.

We've been battling against GMOs for decades, not just because of the inherently dangerous way in which we approach genetic engineering, but because of the reasons those who employ it do so.

Monsanto uses their industry monopoly power to destroy entire economies; buying off politicians to allow them into traditionally family-operated markets where grains are produced the old-fashioned way, by reserving a portion of the crop for next year's seed. Once Monsato gets in, they force growers to use their seed, which, being gene-altered, is conveniently also STERILE. This means that none of the crop grain will grow if planted. This forces growers into an endless loop of taking out loans to buy seed grain from the very people who set the price of their crops. As you might imagine, it doesn't take long for growers to become so indebted to Monsanto that they essentially become share-croppers on land that has been in their family for hundreds of generations. They've done this in Spain, China, India and are trying to do it in Brazil even now.

But get this... that isn't even the worst of it. The REASON those grains are being gene-altered is this: so they can survive being sprayed with neonincotinids and glyphosate pesticides. Neonics are nothing less than super-concentrated synthetic nicotine, but because it isn't TECHNICALLY nicotine being synthetic, they can keep bribing politicians to keep it legal, unlike nicotine which was outlawed as a pesticide decades ago because cancer. Glyphosates are a relative of Agent Orange; a concentrated form of DDT. Again, same toxic soup of politics, bribery and poisoning the world for fun & profit. Gee-whiz... I wonder why Monsanto has such a hard-on to merge with Bayer, the world's largest producer of these poisons?

And remember... all this poison... once it washes off the grain (and of course, not ALL of it ever does wash off; but you don't know how much, because politicians, payoffs, refusal to allow such actual scientific studies) winds up in the groundwater, and all that grain with Ifni knows how much carcinogenic residue is what goes into all those chickens, pigs and cattle we were just talking about.

So yeah... you REALLY need to be more careful about what you eat. If you aren't disgusted and terrified, you aren't paying attention.  :scared:

The only way you can be even moderately sure of getting food that is safe and clean to eat is to buy only Kosher. At least THAT has been inspected by someone; now as to whether that someone was bought off...  :-//

But that said... aged meat? BLEARRRGH. (Yes, I know the difference between aged and cured  :palm: )



 

Now... to keep this all TEA-related; Here's a bodge wire on a Power Supply tester:


Cheers,


mnem
« Last Edit: July 15, 2018, 06:37:46 pm by mnementh »
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13279 on: July 15, 2018, 06:22:37 pm »
And remember... all this poison... once it washes off the grain (and of course, not ALL of it ever does wash off; but you don't know how much, because politicians, payoffs, refusal to allow such actual scientific studies) winds up in the groundwater, and all that grain with Ifni knows how much carcinogenic residue is what goes into all those chickens, pigs and cattle we were just talking about.
Which also means that its up in your drinking water as well... :palm:

 

Now... to keep this all TEA-related; Here's a bodge wire on a Power Supply tester:


Cheers,


mnem

Nice bodge job  :-DD I have one of these testers, really useful tool those.
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Offline VK5RC

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13280 on: July 15, 2018, 08:56:07 pm »
Hopefully (with all these tales of woe here) ePlay will be delivering shortly a nanovoltmeter (Keithley 181) before too long, no cables though - that is going to be the harder part.

@bitseeker - love the Panaplex - that is the one display I don't have (yet)!  :)
Whoah! Watch where that landed we might need it later.
 

Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13281 on: July 16, 2018, 12:55:16 am »
I apply a method I call "Organized Chaos" in which everything I'm currently working on gets dumped on my desktop. When that space reaches critical mass, (usually due to being overrun with dumb web toons, manuals and datasheets, etc) I spend a few minutes sorting it all into folders. My PC is always equipped with two hot-swap bays; every month I make a new image onto a hard drive that's stored elsewhere. (This gets messy as I often switch between Win7 and Win10 Boot disks depending on how annoyed I am at one version or the other, and to keep both current... but ah, well...) I keep 2 or 3 most recent images for all my computers on this drive, which gets cloned and replaced every couple years as storage density increases and needs increase to match.

Network storage houses most of my family photos and videos and incremental backups using Windoze Backup & restore.

I rarely print any of my manuals; only individual pages as needed to clip up over the workbench for a current project.

Similarly, most of my electronics info (manuals, datasheets, etc.) are soft copy, organized into folders by manufacturer and subfolders by model or series number. Paper is nice for big schematics, but otherwise takes up valuable space.

For backups, I generally have at least three copies of files I want to keep: one on the local machine, one on at least one other computer, one offsite either online (non-confidential stuff) or on external hard drive (confidential stuff), and periodic backups are done to external hard drives.
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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13282 on: July 16, 2018, 01:00:13 am »
Hopefully (with all these tales of woe here) ePlay will be delivering shortly a nanovoltmeter (Keithley 181) before too long, no cables though - that is going to be the harder part.

Yeah, I almost got one of those, but passed because of that connector. I'm having a hard enough time with getting reasonably priced cables with two-slot triax for my 614 and 220. I almost found a two-slot triax to regular BNC adapter, but it was made to short the two outer shields together. That's no bueno.

Quote
@bitseeker - love the Panaplex - that is the one display I don't have (yet)!  :)

It's just a matter of time (and deciding in what kind of device you want it).
TEA is the way. | TEA Time channel
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13283 on: July 16, 2018, 06:49:52 am »
If you want panaplex displays, look out for Heathkit clocks. Some of the earlier models had them. And who doesn’t like early digital clocks?  ;D

I’ve actually got a clock kit arriving today or tomorrow. I’m turning into a time nut. It’s one of these rather cool toys, with another QLG1: https://www.qrp-labs.com/clockn.html
 

Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13284 on: July 16, 2018, 06:56:01 am »
Yeah, I had been watching those Heathkit clocks, but they go pretty high on eBay (or too fast if the price is good). Even no-name clocks with Panaplex have fetched a pretty penny. That's when I switched to calculators. I still keep my eyes open locally (Craigslist, thrift stores, etc.), in case a nice clock does turn up.
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13285 on: July 16, 2018, 07:12:19 am »
They sit around here for weeks in the UK. No one seems to want them.

Also Heathkit did a DMM with Panaplex displays, the IM-2202: http://www.mjlorton.com/forum/index.php?topic=388.0
 

Offline Zucca

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13286 on: July 16, 2018, 07:35:59 am »
The PS-800 is the "consumer" baby brother to the PS-900. The 800 is 35W EDP, the 900 is 50W EDP. Mind you, with the SmartHeat setup, 35W is equivalent to 60-70W resistive. The 800 has a plastic housing and cheaper build on the handset; which means of course that it's still like filet mignon compared to the China T-12 clones.

Arrived yesterday, white smokes with all the delivered tips. We have a new pope, hurray!
I can confirm it is a tasty filet mignon and I can change the tips in few seconds. I love Metcal shit, thank god I did not buy those T12...
Small, light and powerful. Very happy so far.
Bonus: a STTC-136 Tip was delivered in the kit, uh? My MX-5xxx was happy for that.

Ordered some other Metcal cocaine from webstore:
SxV Soldering Tip Chisel   SFV-CH50
SxV Soldering Tip Chisel   SFV-CH10
AC-BP Replacement Brass

TODO:

1) Teardown
2) when PC-CA1 coil dies upgrade to PC-CA2 (or MFR-H2-ST?)
3) Battery mod

Other news... (mnem I like your stile)

Yesterday evening on the couch watching TV. Checked the phone, no messages, put down the phone again on the couch. 15 minutes later, pick up the phone again. Dead. No images. Muerto. Kaputt. Oh well battery is drained, but strange. Plugged in the charger. It will not charge. Power button I see Google splash screen and then nada, nothing it shouts down.
Tried the recovery android circus, again it will not pass the google splash screen. Oh well I took the phone apart and disconnected the battery, waited 10 minuted and reconneted the battery. I had no hope, but who knows. Confirmed it still no pass the google scrap screen. 90% HW Problem. Today I try to reflash image form adb, but again I have no hope.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-5x/help/guide-fix-bootloop-locked-bootloader-t3608679
I think I got stung by the bootloop Nexus 5X.

Bye Bye Nexus, I am in the shopping for a Samsung S8 (I want the 3000mAh battery).

Those mobile phone are splenid devices, they will work 90% for two years and then by design they must fail. That's a clear design spec to me, life span two years no more, customers will  change device anyway.  :horse:
 
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13287 on: July 16, 2018, 07:42:42 am »
The PS-800 is the "consumer" baby brother to the PS-900. The 800 is 35W EDP, the 900 is 50W EDP. Mind you, with the SmartHeat setup, 35W is equivalent to 60-70W resistive. The 800 has a plastic housing and cheaper build on the handset; which means of course that it's still like filet mignon compared to the China T-12 clones.

Arrived yesterday, white smokes with all the delivered tips. We have a new pope, hurray!
I can confirm it is a tasty filet mignon and I can change the tips in few seconds. I love Metcal shit, thank god I did not buy those T12...
Small, light and powerful. Very happy so far.
Bonus: a STTC-136 Tip was delivered in the kit, uh? My MX-5xxx was happy for that.

Ordered some other Metcal cocaine from webstore:
SxV Soldering Tip Chisel   SFV-CH50
SxV Soldering Tip Chisel   SFV-CH10
AC-BP Replacement Brass

TODO:

1) Teardown
2) when PC-CA1 coil dies upgrade to PC-CA2 (or MFR-H2-ST?)
3) Battery mod

Other news... (mnem I like your stile)

Yesterday evening on the couch watching TV. Checked the phone, no messages, put down the phone again on the couch. 15 minutes later, pick up the phone again. Dead. No images. Muerto. Kaputt. Oh well battery is drained, but strange. Plugged in the charger. It will not charge. Power button I see Google splash screen and then nada, nothing it shouts down.
Tried the recovery android circus, again it will not pass the google splash screen. Oh well I took the phone apart and disconnected the battery, waited 10 minuted and reconneted the battery. I had no hope, but who knows. Confirmed it still no pass the google scrap screen. 90% HW Problem. Today I try to reflash image form adb, but again I have no hope.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-5x/help/guide-fix-bootloop-locked-bootloader-t3608679
I think I got stung by the bootloop Nexus 5X.

Bye Bye Nexus, I am in the shopping for a Samsung S8 (I want the 3000mAh battery).

Those mobile phone are splenid devices, they will work 90% for two years and then by design they must fail. That's a clear design spec to me, life span two years no more, customers will  change device anyway.  :horse:
Nah, that's not true, I have a couple of Android phones that are more than 2 years old, more like 6 or 7 years and are  still working OK.
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13288 on: July 16, 2018, 07:58:23 am »
We've got a big box of over 100 android phones from various manufacturers (Samsung, Motorola, Google) that didn't last an entire year let alone two. This is one of the many reasons (apart from security, privacy, MDM, sandbox, flaws) that we just bought a crate of iPhones in the end. In heavy use workloads they last a lot longer and the warranty is actually worth executing unlike every android vendor which is basically "send it to a 3rd party repairer for 4 weeks who will fuck up the handset even more".

Talking of which, how's this for service? I had a duff pixel on my 6s. So I did a warranty swap out. They sent you a refurb handset via post before you have to send your handset in. Then you put the old one in the box and off it goes. Turns out they didn't have any refurbs left, so a brand spanking new 128 gig iPhone 6s turns up with all accessories in a sealed box. They included another box so I didn't have to send the new one back too.  :-+
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13289 on: July 16, 2018, 08:01:34 am »
I'm seeing plenty of very old smartphones around in both my personal and professional life. Make and model doesn't seem to matter much, despite what some of the fanboys here might say.  :box: Four years or more doesn't appear to be an issue. Where things fall apart is software support. You're either woefully vulnerable, or are required to update to a new phone. That's one area where iPhones do score quite well.
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13290 on: July 16, 2018, 08:13:52 am »
To note, the Android ones went in the shit box because it cost us more in staff time to manage the repairs than the phone was worth (2-4 weeks of hassling repairers). Ergo it was cheaper buying new ones. Apple we take 5 handsets at a time to Apple store and just get them swapped out. Less than an hour turnaround.  Software you're right. We have certain security compliance requirements and if we're running out of date software (every damn android phone 2 weeks after you buy it) you're up shit creek.

You just can't win with android in a corporate environment.
 

Offline Zucca

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13291 on: July 16, 2018, 08:19:12 am »
You just can't win with android in a corporate environment.

Agree, but I think at TEA level the Android is still a winner. We love to fix devices  :horse: , and I just have bad luck with phones.
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13292 on: July 16, 2018, 08:32:02 am »
I hate fixing phones. Usually means "dad I've fucked up the USB connector on my phone again; can I have another one". Cue 1 hour pissing around with tiddly screwdrivers and cleaning up boards designed to be thrown away.
 

Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13293 on: July 16, 2018, 08:32:44 am »
We've got a big box of over 100 android phones from various manufacturers (Samsung, Motorola, Google) that didn't last an entire year let alone two. This is one of the many reasons (apart from security, privacy, MDM, sandbox, flaws) that we just bought a crate of iPhones in the end. In heavy use workloads they last a lot longer and the warranty is actually worth executing unlike every android vendor which is basically "send it to a 3rd party repairer for 4 weeks who will fuck up the handset even more".

Talking of which, how's this for service? I had a duff pixel on my 6s. So I did a warranty swap out. They sent you a refurb handset via post before you have to send your handset in. Then you put the old one in the box and off it goes. Turns out they didn't have any refurbs left, so a brand spanking new 128 gig iPhone 6s turns up with all accessories in a sealed box. They included another box so I didn't have to send the new one back too.  :-+

I have a HTC Desire Z since 2010 (sliding out keyboard model), old company phone which I got to keep when the company went over to Windows phones, and it still works OK. I purchased 2nd hand in 2012 a HTC Desire as I didn't really like the sliding keyboard on the Z model, and this phone still works OK. In 2014 I bought myself a nice shiney new  a Samsung Galaxy S III which is still going strong today. I have never had any problems with Android phones.

As to the Apple service, I agree that is really good but I do suspect is because you're a corporate user and have brought so many new Iphones, I know from personal experience from my own immediate family who all have Iphones (5)  and my wider family (10) that is not the normal level of service that Apple provide, their experience has been one of making an appointment at a Apple store and then making a pilgrimage trip there and waiting a long to get sorted. And in the case of one of my Sons, actually having to go through quite a few phones in the store before he got a replacement (same model) for his new phone which was only a couple of months old when it failed and this was 3 years ago.
Who let Murphy in?

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Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13294 on: July 16, 2018, 08:33:53 am »
To note, the Android ones went in the shit box because it cost us more in staff time to manage the repairs than the phone was worth (2-4 weeks of hassling repairers). Ergo it was cheaper buying new ones. Apple we take 5 handsets at a time to Apple store and just get them swapped out. Less than an hour turnaround.  Software you're right. We have certain security compliance requirements and if we're running out of date software (every damn android phone 2 weeks after you buy it) you're up shit creek.

You just can't win with android in a corporate environment.
People would be doing a lot better if they didn't cheap out. There are Android handsets that get updates for a well defined amount of time. Those tend to be more expensive, though. The same generally applies to repairs. Get a proper supplier and they'll take care of the repair process like they should.
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13295 on: July 16, 2018, 08:47:59 am »
As to the Apple service, I agree that is really good but I do suspect is because you're a corporate user and have brought so many new Iphones, I know from personal experience from my own immediate family who all have Iphones (5)  and my wider family (10) that is not the normal level of service that Apple provide, their experience has been one of making an appointment at a Apple store and then making a pilgrimage trip there and waiting a long to get sorted. And in the case of one of my Sons, actually having to go through quite a few phones in the store before he got a replacement (same model) for his new phone which was only a couple of months old when it failed and this was 3 years ago.

To note, we don't have a corporate service contract. We just go in the shop as a normal customer with a credit card. We've bought 131 phones looking at the spreadsheet and all worked out of box. Had 2 hardware failures and 8 have been smashed by the users :palm: ... 13 months not bad.

I'd like to compare your story to the Sony phone a friend of ours purchased. Their flagship. It packed in after two months. This ended up being sent off for repair. It took 9 weeks and came back with the same fault. This happened three times. By which time they had canned support for it.

Also was that Lakeside Apple Store? They aren't a primary service centre. The one at Bluewater is.

People would be doing a lot better if they didn't cheap out. There are Android handsets that get updates for a well defined amount of time. Those tend to be more expensive, though. The same generally applies to repairs. Get a proper supplier and they'll take care of the repair process like they should.

These were flagship Motorola, HTC, Samsung, Google handsets. Same story each time. There are no service centres in the UK which will do decent turnaround. It's all subcontracted out and none of the providers will do better than 2 weeks and then there's no guarantee they won't just fuck the handset up.

Edit: to point out the best option is option (3) which is don't have a smartphone, but I can't get away with that (yet).  :-+
« Last Edit: July 16, 2018, 08:49:43 am by bd139 »
 

Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13296 on: July 16, 2018, 08:49:42 am »
I'm seeing plenty of very old smartphones around in both my personal and professional life. Make and model doesn't seem to matter much, despite what some of the fanboys here might say.  :box: Four years or more doesn't appear to be an issue. Where things fall apart is software support. You're either woefully vulnerable, or are required to update to a new phone. That's one area where iPhones do score quite well.
The biggest problem with mobile phones, be they Android or Apple is in fact software. In the case of Android, the OS stops being supported after a couple of years, which is fine if you use the phone for phone calls, but over time most of the apps will cease to work as they update them but the basic phone will still function as a phone and can still access the internet etc.

Apple again is more software related but this time it both the apps which require the latest OS version, but also apples own built in obsolescence as there comes a point when the software upgrade has a massive negative impact on the way that phone behaves and that in its self forces people into upgrading as the performance is so severely crippled by the latest upgrade not running correctly on the older hardware.

Android do not take this approach to their phones, they just stop updating the software on older phones which still leaves them functioning correctly but some the third party apps stop working as they update them.

I know that I'd rather have an Android phone in my pocket that was a few years old then an Apple one because I know that the phone part will continue to function perfectly as a phone and it will as good as the day it left the factory whereas the Apple will be sluggish and sometimes even bricked.
Who let Murphy in?

Brymen-Fluke-HP-Thurlby-Thander-Tek-Extech-Black Star-GW-Avo-Kyoritsu-Amprobe-ITT-Robin-TTi
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13297 on: July 16, 2018, 08:51:11 am »
Android do not take this approach to their phones, they just stop updating the software on older phones which still leaves them functioning correctly but some the third party apps stop working as they update them.

GOOGLE PLAY SERVICES HAS STOPPED  :-DD
 

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13298 on: July 16, 2018, 09:07:39 am »
Also was that Lakeside Apple Store? They aren't a primary service centre. The one at Bluewater is.

Edit: to point out the best option is option (3) which is don't have a smartphone, but I can't get away with that (yet).  :-+

Yes it was at Lakeside, which was the centre that Apple support line told him to go to. SWMBO also has an Ipad that the home button failed within 3 months and when she rang the support line, they again sent us to the lakeside store for support.

I agree that the best solution is to have no smartphone, I used to have 2 Nokia 6310i phones (just sold them) and they would just work perfectly, a single charge would last them for a full week even as a corporate phone (which they were and I got to keep them at the end of the 2 year contract). Those things just worked, straight out the box and continued to work and the only thing you had to do every now and then was to replace the battery which was as simple as pressing a single button, unclipping the battery and snapping a new on again.
Who let Murphy in?

Brymen-Fluke-HP-Thurlby-Thander-Tek-Extech-Black Star-GW-Avo-Kyoritsu-Amprobe-ITT-Robin-TTi
 

Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #13299 on: July 16, 2018, 09:10:06 am »
Android do not take this approach to their phones, they just stop updating the software on older phones which still leaves them functioning correctly but some the third party apps stop working as they update them.

GOOGLE PLAY SERVICES HAS STOPPED  :-DD

Yep, but the phone still works OK as a phone  :-DD
Who let Murphy in?

Brymen-Fluke-HP-Thurlby-Thander-Tek-Extech-Black Star-GW-Avo-Kyoritsu-Amprobe-ITT-Robin-TTi
 


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