Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Mr. Scram]

Most of our stuff already is

Unfortunately my job for the weekend involves ferrying people around because I’m the only member of the family who owns a car with more than two seats and a driving license and insurance and hasn’t been banned from driving or is medically unfit to drive and the car isn’t stolen. My daughter managed to get out of it because her foot is still bandaged up. I’m trying to persuade her to hang around for the package.

I’m secretly hoping the wheels fall off the car in the night.

You could leave the keys in the car overnight to see what happens 

[bd139]

It’s a Fiat. Someone would just fill it up with rubbish.

[Mr. Scram]

It’s a Fiat. Someone would just fill it up with rubbish.

As a bonus, it'd be worth twice as much!


But seriously, I like Fiats, though certainly not every model.

[Cerebus]

... because I’m the only member of the family who owns a car with more than two seats and a driving license and insurance and hasn’t been banned from driving or is medically unfit to drive and the car isn’t stolen.

Ah, I see. Like me, you don't have in-laws, you have outlaws.

[bd139]

Hahaha I shall have to remember that one 

It’s a Fiat. Someone would just fill it up with rubbish.

As a bonus, it'd be worth twice as much!


But seriously, I like Fiats, though certainly not every model.

There’s nothing likeable about it. It’s like a boat: the best two days owning it are they day you get it and the day it sinks.

eBay has been VERY boring this week

[Specmaster]

Most of our stuff already is

Unfortunately my job for the weekend involves ferrying people around because I’m the only member of the family who owns a car with more than two seats and a driving license and insurance and hasn’t been banned from driving or is medically unfit to drive and the car isn’t stolen. My daughter managed to get out of it because her foot is still bandaged up. I’m trying to persuade her to hang around for the package.

I’m secretly hoping the wheels fall off the car in the night.

Stick your address on here and maybe someone might make that happen 

[Specmaster]

It’s a Fiat. Someone would just fill it up with rubbish.

Ha ha, I thought thats only supposed to happen to Skoda's.

[Fungus]

It’s a Fiat. Someone would just fill it up with rubbish.

Ha ha, I thought thats only supposed to happen to Skoda's.

You're lucky it doesn't have twin exhaust pipes. Somebody might fill it with rubbish and wheel it away. 

[Specmaster]

It’s a Fiat. Someone would just fill it up with rubbish.

Ha ha, I thought thats only supposed to happen to Skoda's.

You're lucky it doesn't have twin exhaust pipes. Somebody might fill it with rubbish and wheel it away. 

As it happens mine is a Skoda and it has twin exhausts but I'd like them try and wheel it away like a wheelbarrow, its a top of the range Superb and weighs in at about 1.5 tons (without being loaded with rubbish) but the twin exhausts are both on the same side 

[Mr. Scram]

As it happens mine is a Skoda and it has twin exhausts but I'd like them try and wheel it away like a wheelbarrow, its a top of the range Superb and weighs in at about 1.5 tons (without being loaded with rubbish) but the twin exhausts are both on the same side 

At least the name is superb!

[bd139]

My second car was a Škoda Favorit. It rained inside for five minutes after the rain stopped outside.

[Specmaster]

This my third one and they have all been very good cars, no problems with any of them. Sounds like you needed the Superbs party piece, an umbrella in the door that you can use . Something it shares with a certain other car, unless anyone knows otherwise, a Rolls Royce is the only other car that has that feature as standard. 

[bd139]

They’re certainly decent cars now. We laugh at the name only out of respect for the old cars

I had a vehicle with an umbrella holder, an ex army Land Rover Defender Wolf. It was supposed to be for guns but it held an umbrella and the dog’s tennis ball launcher instead

Another thing I regret selling

[Specmaster]

Hopefully it provided funds for the acquisition of more test gear?

[bd139]

Unfortunately not. It funded a vehicle with more doors so you could put children in it. They’d be fine rolling around in the back if you chucked some pillows in it! 

I actually remember driving up to Hull from Stansted in the thing to pick up a Tektronix 465B I’d scored on yahoo auctions. On the way back, life felt complete. Replaced my 20MHz LG shitbox with a proper scope. I think that was when I caught TEA actually.

Anyway gotta drive. At Watford Gap services eating dinner. Boo hiss.

[Specmaster]

Oh, Stansted, you're not far from me then, Chelmsford and I see you're a man after my own heart, preferring to drive and collect the more delicate equipment like scopes. The first one of recent times I purchased came from Scotland and thought I'll have it delivered, big mistake.

It was only a about a year old and in pristine condition when I scored it on Ebay, the courier managed to smash the handle and feet into dust almost and put a nasty dent in the casing as well, since then I have never let another be delivered to me. 

[med6753]

It’s a Fiat. Someone would just fill it up with rubbish.

As a bonus, it'd be worth twice as much!


But seriously, I like Fiats, though certainly not every model.

On this side of the pond Fiat is Fix It Again Tony. 

[Cubdriver]

Or "Fix It Again Tomorrow".

A friend of mine got a rotted out Fiat roadster when we were in high school in the early 80s.  We never really tried to restore it as upon close inspection it was way too far gone.  I swear, if you listened closely you could hear the damned thing rusting!

-Pat

[bitseeker]

I supposed if it died, you could Flintstone it to the destination.

[bd139]

Ferrari In Affordable Trim

Oh, Stansted, you're not far from me then, Chelmsford and I see you're a man after my own heart, preferring to drive and collect the more delicate equipment like scopes. The first one of recent times I purchased came from Scotland and thought I'll have it delivered, big mistake.

It was only a about a year old and in pristine condition when I scored it on Ebay, the courier managed to smash the handle and feet into dust almost and put a nasty dent in the casing as well, since then I have never let another be delivered to me. 

No longer. In London now. The diametric opposite side to Essex. Actually went to college in Chelmsford at anglia poly.

Well it’s out for delivery now. Place your bets!

Due to a massive fuck up I’ll be back tomorrow to play with it. Funeral is this afternoon. Apparently my relatives are too dumb to even work out what day a date is.

[Specmaster]

Ferrari In Affordable Trim

Oh, Stansted, you're not far from me then, Chelmsford and I see you're a man after my own heart, preferring to drive and collect the more delicate equipment like scopes. The first one of recent times I purchased came from Scotland and thought I'll have it delivered, big mistake.

It was only a about a year old and in pristine condition when I scored it on Ebay, the courier managed to smash the handle and feet into dust almost and put a nasty dent in the casing as well, since then I have never let another be delivered to me. 

No longer. In London now. The diametric opposite side to Essex. Actually went to college in Chelmsford at anglia poly.

Well it’s out for delivery now. Place your bets!

Due to a massive fuck up I’ll be back tomorrow to play with it. Funeral is this afternoon. Apparently my relatives are too dumb to even work out what day a date is.

Oh I see, I went to college in Chelmsford, Dovedales and the Poly and also later in Colchester. The Poly has now gone, its a building site at the moment with offices and flats being built.

Strange, I didn't think that funerals took place on weekends, maybe they just so busy at the moment, anyway look on the brighter side, you'll be able to either play with or patch up the damage tomorrow.

[bd139]

Yeah probably a good thing it’s gone now. It was a bit of a tangled mess and falling apart. One of the buildings, which I can’t remember the name of, was like a hospital inside. Also parking in Chelmsford was hell.

Funeral kicking off after lunch. Apparently Saturday morning is the most popular time but they managed to slide him in (terrible pun) just after lunch. Buggering off straight away because “I’ve been called out” hahaha. VTVM evening will occur.

[bd139]

It arrived. She was under strict orders to open it and photograph it which she did. Looks like it’s been pissed around with. We have an extra what looks like wire wound resistor on the line and an LED instead of pilot lamp. Meter looks good. Battery holder also good. AC decoupling cap is clearly shot. Doesn’t look earthed!

Frankenmeter time!

[Specmaster]

The meters are not earthed, apparently designed to be floating, that said however I do intend to earth mine at some point in the future when time permits. The LED is a good thing to have as the heaters should be at 6.3v but in reality run just below 6v as the transformer is overloaded although it does not run hot.

The wire wound resistor will be the dropper for the LED, the pilot lamp was a 6.3v one.

My capacitor is original and working fine, as is the meter itself although the resistance reading are slightly out so I suspect the range resistors have fallen out of spec. Maybe I'll look at them later, but I have plenty of good accurate meters for resistance checking so its not high on my list of things to do.

[bd139]

The other one I have is earthed. Not sure I trust it to be floating

Heathkit’s design methodology was run everything hard.  I had a counter that needed from them that needed more than an amp through the regulator so they just whacked a big 3W carbon comp resistor across it to bleed current. Worked but ran hot!

This one is in series with the blue wire returned from the mains switch. I’d post the picture but I want to avoid eating up data on the road.

Check the 9.1 ohm resistor on the top of the range wafer switch. This is usually the cause of ohms measurement errors. When a numpty sticks it in ohms and measures D.C. volts it goes pop! Mine had a big hole in it. I replaced it with a selected 10 and 100 ohm pair in parallel and it’s bang on now. I’m quite impressed at how stable and accurate the resistors in it were. They were panclimatic ones.

Anyway driving back now...