Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

Bread makers for making bread are to limiting in particular if you like proper bread. When I had a Cafe and less than Zero life I used to make the all the Bread and Dough we used. Loaf 1 is actually a Gluten Free one of mine. The Triple loaves are my take on an English Bloomer light Rye Loaf, slow rise overnight the middle one is loaded with 300g of rough chopped dried fruits. And the last one is one of the 'proper' uses of Fresh Turkish Breads 

Still make Bread at home and for markets.

Edit added some more just because  Bit of Crumpet for the Pom's, Danish Pastries because Fruit is Healthy and a Cutaway of the Fruit Loaf.

Wow, bean! It's a good thing you don't live next door. I'd be a perpetual customer of Beanflying Bakery.

I know, right? Between his bread and his coffee, all I'd need is my Philly Cream Cheese, some homemade jam and and I'd never leave... well, until the emergency crews rolled me out the garage door at 400lbs after I died with a huge grin on my face...

mnem

[mnementh]

It's funny how whenever we mention either bread or bacon that everyone gets the munchies on and tucks into some[emoji16]

Okay... now THAT is something that could pry my ass off the bench at beanflying's Bakery... you win. 

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

It's funny how whenever we mention either bread or bacon that everyone gets the munchies on and tucks into some[emoji16]

Okay... now THAT is something that could pry my ass off the bench at beanflying's Bakery... you win. 

mnem
 

Bacon FTW[emoji1641][emoji1641][emoji1641][emoji1641]

[bd139]

Indeed. I had bacon for lunch after it was mentioned in this thread 

Edit: minor UPS rant .... so their tracking system says .... and I've been waiting in all day for this bastard:



So I wondered why they hadn't been yet. Expanded it...



So basically FFS it's coming tomorrow if it was picked up 161 miles away just after I ate the aforementioned bacon. 

[mnementh]

   We also sometimes make and play with TEA stuff

Today I built two rails and worked on a Hole for my 1-10Ω power decade. The heatsink brick is now one piece held to the Case by 6 4mm tapped holes. Fans and duct to go then some wiring. Only taken two months in between life and such to get this far

Fans will be on the outside, in front? Or planning to sandwich some screen between the front cover and the gubbins with fans on the back?

Still, very Doc Brown overall... I heartily approve!

mnem
Empirical Engineering at its finest. 

[mnementh]

When something you bought from eBay arrives in bad condition...   just raise a case with eBay, you are entitled to return the item if it was not packaged properly.  I always return stuff that arrives crushed...  otherwise, how are the silly senders ever going to learn?

It's not that simple. You make a killer deal on a one-of-a-kind piece of equipment, like Oculus did, and now you have a bit of a dilemma: Just because some underpaid muppet damages the goods in shipping (as seen above); do you really want to lose out on that great deal if the damage is entirely cosmetic? 

If you lead out of the gate with a seller-rep-damaging dispute, you've already used your big guns. All the seller has to do is call your bluff and demand return of the goods, and you're hosed out of the deal you made and the hassle of repacking and return shipping. 

Requesting that they initiate a shipping damage claim, but not initiating a dispute is still well within your rights as a customer; and if you couch it in terms of not wanting to harm their rep as a seller, you still have the high ground. It takes longer, and you may STILL have to file a dispute; but it is also a LOT of hassle for the seller. This is your leverage. 

All these fly-by-night China-direct sellers use this tactic to aggravate you as a buyer out of completing a return... The hassle and cost of actually making it happen is more than the item is worth. The eBay platform makes this possible; I say turn it back on them and use it to your advantage.

And lastly; NEVER HESITATE to contact eBay customer support if the seller isn't cooperative. Their number is 866.540.3229, and over the last few years, they've gotten a LOT better at reasonable wait times and actually helping, even if the phone banks are outsourced to wherever they can find people cheapest (I've had a couple times when I had to request a different agent because the one I got had an accent so thick I literally couldn't understand them).

If I feel it is time to initiate a dispute, I'll usually do it this way with an agent; you can ask them to walk you through posting pics (even if you've sent them to the seller in a PM, it's a good idea to do this to make the pics part of the actual dispute process) and if you remain patient, you'll usually get a satisfactory outcome.

If you take a polite tone, explain that you've spoken with the seller and you don't want to damage their rep by filing a dispute, but they're really not helping you resolve this, you can usually get the seller's attention. Explain that the purchase is a one-of-a-kind item, and you really DO want it, but it arrived damaged and your seller isn't helping you file a shipping damage claim. They will contact the seller on your behalf, which usually goads them into doing SOMETHING to make it right for you.

Bottom line is the old saw about "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." applies 100% here; keep your cool, but be insistent that you're not satisfied.

Kill 'em with kindness, even though you're the one who's been wronged.  

mnem

[mnementh]

From the "Progress Marches Inexorably Forward Whether It's Progress or Not" Dept...


https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-exascale-aurora-supercomputer-xe-graphics,38851.html

mnem
Anything that douchebag likes is immediately suspect.

[Specmaster]

So here we have the definitive answer to how you should drink your beer, and it seems that us Brits have been doing right all the time despite what some of our friends over the various ponds might say about it, oh how they mock our lukewarm beer, well now it's official 

[med6753]

So here we have the definitive answer to how you should drink your beer, and it seems that us Brits have been doing right all the time despite what some of our friends over the various ponds might say about it, oh how they mock our lukewarm beer, well now it's official 

Oh kiss my arse.  Nothing like a COLD beer on a hot day. 

[mnementh]

Yes, but in the end... it's still beer. 

To quench a thirst, I'll take a good fresh-made iced tea over beer anytime. If I want alcohol, there are dozens of kinds I prefer over beer, and over most wines.

[EDIT] Wine snobbery I can sortof grok... there's literally millennia of history there. But beer snobbery...? Gimme a fucking break.  [/EDIT]

mnem
"We started out with Burgundy, but soon moved to the harder stuff..."

[med6753]

Started on the tant replacement on the 475A. First the main interface board, then the vertical board. I still have to order more for the trigger board. It's going to be a long and involved process but it's going to be a prudent hedge to hold back Murphy.

Forgot to take a pix of the main board but here's the vertical board.



And here's the start of the pile. Many more to go. That one that looks like an aluminum cap is indeed a 47uf/35V "wet" tantalum. That guy is on the primary of the high voltage oscillator and has a reputation for ruining your day. The 465 uses 2 - 22uf's in parallel rather than this cap. The 465B and 475A use this bad boy. All can be replaced with a modern 47uf/35V beaded tant. 

[mnementh]

That vertical board is a thing of beauty... I positively love Tek's custom ICs, as least from an aesthetic POV. They're delicious. 

When you say "beaded tant", do you mean epoxy-encapsulated ones that look like those above, or the axial ones that look like a ferrite bead on a wire?

mnem
 

[med6753]

That vertical board is a thing of beauty... I positively love Tek's custom ICs, as least from an aesthetic POV. They're delicious. 

When you say "beaded tant", do you mean epoxy-encapsulated ones that look like those above, or the axial ones that look like a ferrite bead on a wire?

mnem
 

Just like the radial beaded ones as shown. Axial leaded caps are getting hard to find and stupid expensive.

[GreyWoolfe]

Yes, but in the end... it's still beer. 

To quench a thirst, I'll take a good fresh-made iced tea over beer anytime. If I want alcohol, there are dozens of kinds I prefer over beer, and over most wines.

[EDIT] Wine snobbery I can sortof grok... there's literally millennia of history there. But beer snobbery...? Gimme a fucking break.  [/EDIT]

mnem
"We started out with Burgundy, but soon moved to the harder stuff..."

Good fresh brewed iced tea is awesome but sadly, I severely limit my caffeine intake to sleep better at night.  I do appreciate a good glass of beer or wine or a shot of Grey Goose out of the freezer-no snobbery allowed.  I find Burgundy an affront to the taste buds but about a cup added to a large pot of home made marinara sauce instead of sugar to break the acid of the tomatoes doesn't make the sauce sweet and adds to the depth of flavor.  I buy the smallest, cheapest bottle so I have no qualms of dumping the left over down the sink and the pot of sauce is large enough that plenty is frozen into portions a quite a number of meals and allows to odd package to be sold to friends for a nominal sum.

[med6753]

Other projects. The 2430 is now taking a solid boot up fail. It appears to be an issue checking the cal points on channel 1. The service manual has what appears to be excellent troubleshooting charts. I'll report what I find and the parts mule might come in handy again. 

[mnementh]

If it's like the 2230, there should be a sub-menu or step-by-step diag so you can see exactly where the POST is when it throws a code. Of course, since you've got the SM, you probably already know that.

@ GreyWooolfe - There is a thing commonly sold as "Burgundy" which is a "fortified wine" little better than Thunderbird.    

Actual vin de Bourgogne wines from the Burgundy regions of France tend to be drier and quite palatable (and actual wine, as opposed to "bathtub slop"), in both Red and White varieties. I'm afraid my own palate is quite unrefined; I enjoy a sweet red wine, so my tolerance for any "proper Burgundy" is a glass or two at most. 

If you brew your tea VERY STRONG, like I prefer for iced tea, it is naturally decaffeinated by the tannin produced. This was in fact the earliest manner of decaffeinated coffee production.

mnem
Grey Goose goes with everything.

[GregDunn]

Yes, but in the end... it's still beer. 

To quench a thirst, I'll take a good fresh-made iced tea over beer anytime. If I want alcohol, there are dozens of kinds I prefer over beer, and over most wines.

[EDIT] Wine snobbery I can sortof grok... there's literally millennia of history there. But beer snobbery...? Gimme a fucking break.  [/EDIT]

I drink iced tea about 99% of the time... but the occasional beer with friends is still a joy (maybe 1 or at most 2 per week).  And if it's "snobbery" to want a beer that actually has some flavor to it instead of the horse p!$$ that the major breweries turn out - so be it.  In my group, we call dreck like Miller and Bud "making love in a canoe" because it's f*ing close to water.   

[tggzzz]

Yes, but in the end... it's still beer. 

To quench a thirst, I'll take a good fresh-made iced tea over beer anytime. If I want alcohol, there are dozens of kinds I prefer over beer, and over most wines.

[EDIT] Wine snobbery I can sortof grok... there's literally millennia of history there. But beer snobbery...? Gimme a fucking break.  [/EDIT]

mnem
"We started out with Burgundy, but soon moved to the harder stuff..."

Beer is at least 7 millenia old.

With a few isolated exceptions, there is no beer in the US - merely gnatspiss with the sole selling point that it is cold.

[bd139]

Today's lesson kids. Don't take a CD4066BE and connect Vdd to +15V and Vss to -15V  ... 1 hour past RS cut off as well so project shelved until Thursday now 

[0culus]

Did you at least get a worthwhile explosion?

[worsthorse]

Sadly, the portal to the treasure house closed today but not before I received a (big) box of Tektronix probes of all sorts and this:





It is in pristine condition, so I opened quite carefully. Nothing to fix here...



I did a quick setup, with a 6061A signal generator on the input, set to 1V, and my SA and oscilloscope (terminated with a 50 ohm feedthrough) to check the outputs. I am not much of a bench photographer, so just this one photo for now:



I didn't take photos but input and output frequency spectrum and oscilloscope voltages are indistinguishable from one another. Man, this is a nice piece of gear!

Of course, timing is everything... I just bought (and haven't received yet), an Extron video distribution amp on Ebay that I was going to use to dole out 10Mhz on the test bench.  Using this is probably a better idea.

[worsthorse]

Started on the tant replacement on the 475A. First the main interface board, then the vertical board. I still have to order more for the trigger board. It's going to be a long and involved process but it's going to be a prudent hedge to hold back Murphy.

And here's the start of the pile. Many more to go. That one that looks like an aluminum cap is indeed a 47uf/35V "wet" tantalum. That guy is on the primary of the high voltage oscillator and has a reputation for ruining your day. The 465 uses 2 - 22uf's in parallel rather than this cap. The 465B and 475A use this bad boy. All can be replaced with a modern 47uf/35V beaded tant. 

I am watching with interest, since this is on my to do list. I've actually become so paranoid about s--t blowing up in my favorite scope, that I have taken out of rotation until I take care of it.    How many tants do you estimate you will have to replace?

[Specmaster]

Yes, but in the end... it's still beer. 

To quench a thirst, I'll take a good fresh-made iced tea over beer anytime. If I want alcohol, there are dozens of kinds I prefer over beer, and over most wines.

[EDIT] Wine snobbery I can sortof grok... there's literally millennia of history there. But beer snobbery...? Gimme a fucking break.  [/EDIT]

mnem
"We started out with Burgundy, but soon moved to the harder stuff..."

I tend to agree with you, but not sure about iced tea, but certainly something cold and non-alcoholic as alcohol actually dehydrates you and makes you drink more and possibly more than is good for you until you become drunk.

[Specmaster]

Today's lesson kids. Don't take a CD4066BE and connect Vdd to +15V and Vss to -15V  ... 1 hour past RS cut off as well so project shelved until Thursday now 

Oh dear, queue magic smoke and just maybe a little pop?

[Specmaster]

With all the talking of bread and bacon here today, I had some lovely farmhouse wholemeal granary bread at lunchtime and tonight, some chicken and bacon pasta, lovely grub...burp

Getting back to TEA, ebay is bleeding dead at the moment, anxious for new toys I can't believe it but I'm even looking at 3.5 digit bench meters  , I need one of those don't I, I mean I don't any bench meters less than 4.5 and I have stacks of handhelds at 3.5....how many meters does a person require FFS?