Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 14407115 times)

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Offline lazarusr

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20925 on: December 09, 2018, 10:52:38 am »
Depends. Do you have a matching arbitrary generator?

That sort of demonstrates why the RTB2004 is such an extravagant purchase. You can buy the waveform generator upgrade for it (in the UK) for £433+tax. But for less than that you can get a SDG2042X which outperforms it in every way (particularly when you hack it up to 120MHz).
 

Offline Cerebus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20926 on: December 09, 2018, 01:49:58 pm »
I'll just leave this here:-

Breadboarding:


Vegemite has enough salt to be conductive, and is viscous enough to draw distinct traces with on suitable medium (say, toast that has been cooked such that most of the water has evaporated, making it a good insulator), as Luke Weston has ably demonstrated.



Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20927 on: December 09, 2018, 01:55:53 pm »
A for effort. That’s more impressive than RevK’s ADSL over wet string.

EE prank in future: replace potting compound with vegemite  :-DD
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20928 on: December 09, 2018, 02:20:14 pm »
I had to look up vegemite since I've never heard of it and I don't think it's available here....although perhaps in a specialty store. Looking over the ingredients on first take it sounds freaking disgusting but I'd probably like it.  :-DD
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Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20929 on: December 09, 2018, 02:31:05 pm »
I had to look up vegemite since I've never heard of it and I don't think it's available here....although perhaps in a specialty store. Looking over the ingredients on first take it sounds freaking disgusting but I'd probably like it.  :-DD
Long story short, everyone thinks it's disgusting unless indoctrinated from a young age or just a contrarian.
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20930 on: December 09, 2018, 02:41:47 pm »
I had to look up vegemite since I've never heard of it and I don't think it's available here....although perhaps in a specialty store. Looking over the ingredients on first take it sounds freaking disgusting but I'd probably like it.  :-DD
Long story short, everyone thinks it's disgusting unless indoctrinated from a young age or just a contrarian.

Reminds me of this stuff:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta_(soft_drink)

My Puerto Rican ex used to drink this stuff often. They even give it to children and infants. It is definitely an acquired taste but I never acquired it.  :--   
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Online beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20931 on: December 09, 2018, 05:03:13 pm »
Mmm Sneak attack on one of our National Icons while we sleep eh you Pommie B......  :horse:  :-DD

Was owned by the Yanks (Kraft) for a long long time and is hated by the first time tasters from the USA almost universally

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/vegemite-back-in-australian-hands-after-bega-cheese-strikes-460-million-deal/news-story/a77efb34159bc06bbdae8dbcce393f6f




3.45am here and my over amorous Possum couple on the roof run the risk of becoming socks (Kiwi solution) shame they are a protected native species unlike in New Zealand where we sent some to. Honest it was a joke gift Kiwi's we didn't mean you to keep it >:D

https://www.smh.com.au/technology/new-zealand-vows-to-eradicate-the-feral-aussie-possum-by-2050-20160726-gqdwpb.html
Coffee, Food, R/C and electronics nerd in no particular order. Also CNC wannabe, 3D printer and Laser Cutter Junkie and just don't mention my TEA addiction....
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20932 on: December 09, 2018, 05:07:58 pm »
As an English person I would point the Americans in the direction of Baconaise and Twinkies, while I sit here smugly forgetting we invented marmite which is basically yeast poop.
 
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20933 on: December 09, 2018, 05:17:55 pm »
Possibly an obtuse question, but a PTC heater should have the same temperature regardless of the environment right? Providing the environment's temperature is lower. Any environmental difference should just contribute to getting to temperature quicker.

There's a bit of confusion here. The heater in the bed is controlled by a PTC sensor, most are not a "PTC Heating element" as the temp needs to be adjustable. With the heated bed, the PTC sensor is attached to the underside of the printbed in a calculated voidspace in the middle of the heating element. As designed, this presents a pretty good closed loop for temp control. When you go adding material, like a 3mm mirror tile, on top of that, you add multiple covalent layers between the heat source/sensor and the print surface. This tends to make the control loop a little bit more... pear-shaped, if you will.

If I smeared some thermal grease between the mirror tile and the Tevo-Tak, it would probably be right on. But that would pretty much destroy the "cheap & convenient" part of the mirror tile equation.

A for effort. That’s more impressive than RevK’s ADSL over wet string.

EE prank in future: replace potting compound with vegemite  :-DD

Heh. I remember getting into an argument with an "armchair engineer" over how important "Arctic Silver" type thermal compounds were. I explained that they just became popular with processors that had a very bad thermal design, like early pentium-xx with the bare core exposed. Later designs that had a proper envelope with sufficient covalent area didn't need it, even under duress.

I explained that with a properly designed component that had adequate covalent area, what was more important was stability of formula and manufacturing process of the paste.  I proved my point by replacing the thermal paste on  a P4 with peanut butter, and overclocking it to 3GHz. It got a few degrees warmer than with the arctic silver then stabilized and was quite happy. Now if we'd left it that way long enough to cook away all the oil in the PB, things would've gotten hairy... but it made the whole shop smell like Christmas baking.  :-DD

mnem
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Online beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20934 on: December 09, 2018, 05:23:45 pm »
We sort of 'borrowed' Marmite as the basis for Vegemite both are yeast poo and used to be made from brewery leftovers  :popcorn:
Coffee, Food, R/C and electronics nerd in no particular order. Also CNC wannabe, 3D printer and Laser Cutter Junkie and just don't mention my TEA addiction....
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20935 on: December 09, 2018, 05:30:39 pm »
A for effort. That’s more impressive than RevK’s ADSL over wet string.

EE prank in future: replace potting compound with vegemite  :-DD

Heh. I remember getting into an argument with an "armchair engineer" over how important "Arctic Silver" type thermal compounds were. I explained that they just became popular with processors that had a very bad thermal design, like early pentium-xx with the bare core exposed. Later designs that had a proper envelope with sufficient covalent area didn't need it, even under duress.

I explained that with a properly designed component that had adequate covalent area, what was more important was stability of formula and manufacturing process of the paste.  I proved my point by replacing the thermal paste on  a P4 with peanut butter, and overclocking it to 3GHz. It got a few degrees warmer than with the arctic silver then stabilized and was quite happy. Now if we'd left it that way long enough to cook away all the oil in the PB, things would've gotten hairy... but it made the whole shop smell like Christmas baking.  :-DD

Yeah I had a massive tube of arctic silver which only ran out last year. Last time I used it was when fan went fum in an old thinkpad mobile CPU. It got to bond a lot of TO220 packages to things more than CPUs. When they put the spreader on it I never needed it either.

Also a lot of the earlier AMD flip chip CPUs would let the magic smoke out if they weren’t properly covered. Intel ones were just “whatever dude” and slowed down. I killed an Athlon XP back in the day due to improper thermal bonding  :-DD

Now I haven’t had to change a CPU out for about 5 years so meh. Too slow? Buy another machine  :-DD
 

Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20936 on: December 09, 2018, 05:41:31 pm »
...and before anyone asks... creamy, NOT crunchy.  :-DD

mnem
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Online nfmax

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20937 on: December 09, 2018, 05:46:12 pm »
@bd -    I've been using Silicone Self-fusing Tape to seal up outdoor connections for decades; ever since my teenage years doing DirecTV/Hughes satellite TV installs. Stuff is effing magic for sealing against weather, though the claims of it holding against pressure are greatly exaggerated.

mnem
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Yes that tape is really something else I have used it before  :-+

Strangely enough I used it (or the local equivalent of it) just the other day, to repair the hose attached to the pond pump, which had started to fail where it bends each time I lift the pump out for filter cleaning. I used a piece of flexible conduit - that corrugated PVC stuff - with a slit sawed into it, sprung over the pipe where it had split, and splinted over with a wrapping of self-amalgamating tape. It works underwater!
 

Offline tggzzz

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20938 on: December 09, 2018, 06:20:59 pm »
I had to look up vegemite since I've never heard of it and I don't think it's available here....although perhaps in a specialty store. Looking over the ingredients on first take it sounds freaking disgusting but I'd probably like it.  :-DD

Vegemite is too sweet. Marmite is The Real Deal.

Vegans occasionally claim that they can get vitamin B12 from marmite/vegemite. They never answer the question "how much do you have to eat to get the RDA/RNI, and could you do it?".
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20939 on: December 09, 2018, 06:28:26 pm »
We sort of 'borrowed' Marmite as the basis for Vegemite both are yeast poo and used to be made from brewery leftovers  :popcorn:
I just assumed that they were the same thing but you Aussies changed the name  :popcorn:
Who let Murphy in?

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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20940 on: December 09, 2018, 06:44:11 pm »
After much sleuthing I have managed to get my hands on a Tektronix 2235 multiplier (and half a dead 2235) for the price of a crate of strongbow (£12 at the moment). Unfortunately won’t get it until around mid January as the owner is in the US until then and doesn’t trust his wife not to give me one of the good scopes by accident  :-DD

Edit: well that's depressing. It's a "max £1 fees" day on ebay today, 10pm here and literally nothing interesting has been listed.  :--
« Last Edit: December 09, 2018, 09:51:09 pm by bd139 »
 

Offline neo

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20941 on: December 09, 2018, 10:11:19 pm »
Heres an interesting thought experiment, which would you lot prefer? A 6236B HP power supply or a TM506 with a PS503A. The tek doing the same thing but with higher current. Electrically speaking, factors like space occupied non relevant, which is better?


Then again there is the factor that i have lots of hp in rack and no tek in there... yes i, of course, realize the one true solution would be to pick both but lets just assume both together are impractical.
A hopeless addict (and slave) to TEA and a firm believer that high frequency is little more than modern hoodoo.
 

Offline nixiefreqq

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20942 on: December 09, 2018, 10:26:18 pm »
After much sleuthing I have managed to get my hands on a Tektronix 2235 multiplier (and half a dead 2235) for the price of a crate of strongbow (£12 at the moment). Unfortunately won’t get it until around mid January as the owner is in the US until then and doesn’t trust his wife not to give me one of the good scopes by accident  :-DD

Edit: well that's depressing. It's a "max £1 fees" day on ebay today, 10pm here and literally nothing interesting has been listed.  :--


home brewed a tripler once for that monster Dumont solid state "porta scope".


really only did it just to see if it was possible.   worked great.  lots of space in that old Dumont though.


100x voltage divider and my carefully ground referenced 3466a said 10.9 Kv vs the 12Kv in the manual.  meh.  expected that bathtub seal to arc....but it never did.

sometimes stuff works and surprises ya'.
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20943 on: December 09, 2018, 10:29:14 pm »
Heres an interesting thought experiment, which would you lot prefer? A 6236B HP power supply or a TM506 with a PS503A. The tek doing the same thing but with higher current. Electrically speaking, factors like space occupied non relevant, which is better?


Then again there is the factor that i have lots of hp in rack and no tek in there... yes i, of course, realize the one true solution would be to pick both but lets just assume both together are impractical.

I'd take the 6236B myself. Five reasons:

1. Built in meters. They're analogue but that's just fine.
2. Less overall space (see picture further down)
3. Output and controls are rather cramped on the PS503A.
4. The third output on the 6236B is variable so you can use it for 3.3V stuff without having to futz with an additional LDO
5. It's really nice to just look at because I'm weird.

The PS503A does have an output switch and variable current limit however. In practice, the main switch works nicely on the 6236B and the current limit of 500mA isn't enough to do terrible amounts of damage if you do something stupid. Plus I have a PL154 sitting on top of it which does have current limit :D



After much sleuthing I have managed to get my hands on a Tektronix 2235 multiplier (and half a dead 2235) for the price of a crate of strongbow (£12 at the moment). Unfortunately won’t get it until around mid January as the owner is in the US until then and doesn’t trust his wife not to give me one of the good scopes by accident  :-DD

Edit: well that's depressing. It's a "max £1 fees" day on ebay today, 10pm here and literally nothing interesting has been listed.  :--


home brewed a tripler once for that monster Dumont solid state "porta scope".


really only did it just to see if it was possible.   worked great.  lots of space in that old Dumont though.


100x voltage divider and my carefully ground referenced 3466a said 10.9 Kv vs the 12Kv in the manual.  meh.  expected that bathtub seal to arc....but it never did.

sometimes stuff works and surprises ya'.


I have considered building one as a last resort. Bit of a PITA though as it has a -2KV and +12KV out for 2KV in. And it's not very big!
 

Offline tggzzz

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20944 on: December 09, 2018, 10:29:51 pm »
As an English person I would point the Americans in the direction of Baconaise and Twinkies, while I sit here smugly forgetting we invented marmite which is basically yeast poop.

I admire anyone who can sell something that is otherwise waste. Doing more with less, and all that.

Hence my admiration for the Swiss "milk serum" Rivella canned drink
There are lies, damned lies, statistics - and ADC/DAC specs.
Glider pilot's aphorism: "there is no substitute for span". Retort: "There is a substitute: skill+imagination. But you can buy span".
Having fun doing more, with less
 

Offline Neomys Sapiens

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20945 on: December 09, 2018, 10:39:03 pm »
A for effort. That’s more impressive than RevK’s ADSL over wet string.

EE prank in future: replace potting compound with vegemite  :-DD
Better: replace vegemite with potting compound!
 

Offline Neomys Sapiens

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20946 on: December 09, 2018, 10:58:52 pm »
Heres an interesting thought experiment, which would you lot prefer? A 6236B HP power supply or a TM506 with a PS503A. The tek doing the same thing but with higher current. Electrically speaking, factors like space occupied non relevant, which is better?


Then again there is the factor that i have lots of hp in rack and no tek in there... yes i, of course, realize the one true solution would be to pick both but lets just assume both together are impractical.
Not exactly. My preference would be the Oltronix Labpac B202.
And as a TM500 system is in place, I wouldn't part with the PS503 either. Backup, backup, backup!
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20947 on: December 09, 2018, 11:04:59 pm »
One thing to mention with the HP is service is a hell of a lot easier than just about any other power supply ever made thanks to the industrial design and the excellent manual. No other manufacturer comes close there IMHO.
 

Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20948 on: December 09, 2018, 11:40:41 pm »
I'd throw my weight behind the HP6236B as well, having some HP DMM's and also having had a HP 1740A CRT, their manuals are about the best I have ever seen and include very detailed strip down instructions as well, so there's no lets suck and see and risk doing more damage trying to get at various parts.
Who let Murphy in?

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Online beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #20949 on: December 09, 2018, 11:41:06 pm »
A for effort. That’s more impressive than RevK’s ADSL over wet string.

EE prank in future: replace potting compound with vegemite  :-DD
Better: replace vegemite with potting compound!

Using Vegemite as potting compound has bit of an issue with being conductive as shown above. The other way around us Aussies would know that rich intoxicating aroma anywhere so only non Aussies would suffer :-DD
Coffee, Food, R/C and electronics nerd in no particular order. Also CNC wannabe, 3D printer and Laser Cutter Junkie and just don't mention my TEA addiction....
 


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