Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 14408555 times)

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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32800 on: June 08, 2019, 02:34:44 am »


mnem
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Offline Brumby

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32801 on: June 08, 2019, 03:06:35 am »
I love it when things match, so satisfying;



Excellent meter symmetry.

Indeed it is.  A classic example of TEST with a strong EMI result.    :-+
 

Offline Brumby

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32802 on: June 08, 2019, 03:36:04 am »
My 1Gb NIC is the limiting factor  |O



This is the reason my desktop is in Amazon AWS...



It's closer to the actual nodes I use as well. I can get 10 gig between them  :-DD

Feeling like a poor cousin over here.

When the NBN was first announced and FTTP was mentioned, I was getting goose bumps.  Reality is less exciting.  The typical offer around Sydney is HFC - hybrid fibre/cable.  We get fibre to a node somewhere and then coax to the premises.

Just got the NBN.  Had the appointment for some time between 1:00 and 5:00pm on Monday for the NBN tech to do his bit.  I received no less than 4 SMS reminders of this appointment in the 48 hours before and organised the afternoon off to accommodate - but I get a phone call at 11:00am asking if there was anyone at home...?   :wtf:
I said I could be there in half an hour, gave my apologies and left work.  By the time I got home, the guy was just finishing up on the exterior work and I took him inside to finish the job - which was just installing the modem.  Optus had sent me a pre-configured WiFi router which was sent out as a self-install.  That was nice - but we already had a wireless router to which everything in the house had been connected.  Since I wasn't in the mood to go around to every other device in the house, I chose to plug it into the new beast, check on and resolve any DHCP and IP address issues.

I got that sorted then checked on speeds: ~40Mb down and ~20Mb up.  The download was as advertised and the upload was a pleasant surprise.  On the old coax, 30Mb/2Mb was the ceiling.

I then checked the speeds later in the day and got download speeds around 10-13Mbps.. Ah, yes ... all the school kiddies were home now.

*sigh*
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32803 on: June 08, 2019, 04:16:15 am »
Wow, that sucks. They must have one crappy router interface between the fiber (correct spelling  :-DD) and the coax.

Supposedly my ISP can provide up to 400Mbps download over coax. The only thing I don't like is the price. For my current 60Mbps I pay nearly $70 USD/mo after the taxes and bullshit they add on. I can just imagine what 400Mps would cost.  :scared: 
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Online beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32804 on: June 08, 2019, 04:21:00 am »
Just checked and in spite of being on NBN Co's notification about the availability and not being we are now able to get Fiber from the Curb sometime in the last week  :horse:

The ratbagging of the NBN for a hybrid fiber/copper/coax model for 'apparent savings' which were major  :bullshit: by the time they got access to the copper they sold to Telstra years before :palm: and then looked at the piss poor state of it and started bringing it back to higher speed use.  :rant: :horse:

Will I switch from DSL2 @ 10 Mb and 1Mb yep but it is so much less than it should have been.
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 #32805 on: June 08, 2019, 07:54:44 am »
If it’s any consolation I only went up from 11 down and 1.5 up about six months ago. I live in one of the supposedly best parts of London but right in the middle of a NIMBY infested void. You want to see the shit storm they caused when they put LED street lights in.
 

Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32806 on: June 08, 2019, 08:17:27 am »
I've had my 220 down and 20 up for about 5 years now, unlimited and the down has been pretty consistent but the up can change a bit, between 14 to about 30. I'd love to see upload match the download speed. I'm the last house in my street who can access fibre because the rest of the street is surfaced with bricks and the cable companies refuse to dig that up so those poor souls have to live whatever their copper can provide. Also there are many areas that Virgin has not cabled or will not cable as they took over a company that did the install and provide the services, Telewest, many years ago and believe that they have not done any new cabling since then so I consider myself lucky to be able to get such speeds as the next best speed on general release is I believe 60mbs.
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32807 on: June 08, 2019, 08:35:25 am »
Heads everyone, just found some HP3400A goodness on the evilbay if anyone is interested which going by the amount of chat here lately with these meters there is, here's the link and apologizes if this has already done. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hewlett-Packard-HP-3400A-RMS-Voltmeter/333222140602?
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32808 on: June 08, 2019, 08:38:50 am »
There’s a 410C on eBay UK as well. I’m waiting for it to drop a bit in price first though  :-DD
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32809 on: June 08, 2019, 09:04:43 am »
I've had my 220 down and 20 up for about 5 years now, unlimited and the down has been pretty consistent but the up can change a bit, between 14 to about 30. I'd love to see upload match the download speed. I'm the last house in my street who can access fibre because the rest of the street is surfaced with bricks and the cable companies refuse to dig that up so those poor souls have to live whatever their copper can provide. Also there are many areas that Virgin has not cabled or will not cable as they took over a company that did the install and provide the services, Telewest, many years ago and believe that they have not done any new cabling since then so I consider myself lucky to be able to get such speeds as the next best speed on general release is I believe 60mbs.

Nothing wrong with 60mbps. That's what I pay for but generally get over 80mbps.

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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32810 on: June 08, 2019, 09:06:33 am »
Go for it, I saw that as well but I don't want it, to much of a boat anchor for me.

On the Hacker front, all of those nasty lockfit transistors are OK, found the only problem so far has been the AC176, one half of the push pull output stage, having a hfe of 4 and 5 on both amplifiers and the caps have all checked ok but I will recap them as the leads are so dammed short that they don't actually in some cases protrude through the PCB, just finishing flush so it may be possible that some aren't making the connection even  :palm:
« Last Edit: June 08, 2019, 09:17:15 am by Specmaster »
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Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32811 on: June 08, 2019, 09:46:44 am »
Oh good...the HV parts for the RCA scope arrived at my local PO late yesterday. Should be delivered today.  :-+ The CRT for the Heath scope is coming from Kansas and should be here by Tuesday. I hope it was packed well but a 3 inch CRT is very small and light so it should be OK.

This morning I meet my Sister-in-law near the New Jersey border and return the Sony Receiver I worked on for them. Be glad to get that out of the TEA closet. I need the room.  :-DD

 
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Online beanflying

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32812 on: June 08, 2019, 12:23:24 pm »
Cleaned a bench so I can get onto some TEA Calibration, did the deed on a Synology NAS (looked at Freenas) and played with the Laser after doing some CAD living hinge tweakage. Touch of Glue and some magnets tomorrow and dark felt lining I reckon.

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 VK5RC

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32813 on: June 08, 2019, 12:28:38 pm »
I have just finished banging my head against the wall for the last 3 hrs - doing one of the 'dumbest' fault tracing I have done |O 

An old faithful HP 3314A Freq Gen only used to work on USA voltage - I figured some gremlin in the transformer and have 115V to hand in my 'shack' so never really bothered - but I am about to do a desk upgrade - so am tidying stuff up/repairing it.

How hard could it be!!!!!

The manuals on line are for an older version that uses 2 switches for 120/240 and then high/low range but mine has one of those horrible "tumbling dice" multi-cam mains Voltage Selection switch/IEC/Fuse . I opened the cover to also find one connector off as well- replacing it didn't fix the problem.

I bit the bullet and drew out the circuit - those multi-tap transformers and multi-voltage switches do my head head in - it isn't that complex but FFS!!!!!!!!
After lots of simple contact tracing the problem was a couple of those little switch contacts weren't making contact when the cam was supposed to be pressing on it- a little judicious bending fixed it.  :palm:

Bloody Nora!!!!

Rob

Edit @beanflying lovely work

About to get HFC (hybrid-fibre-coax) here - the best we can hope for is 100MB/s, my phone get 70MB/s, our ADSL gets 10!!
« Last Edit: June 08, 2019, 12:33:01 pm by VK5RC »
Whoah! Watch where that landed we might need it later.
 

Offline GreyWoolfe

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32814 on: June 08, 2019, 12:29:33 pm »
I got that sorted then checked on speeds: ~40Mb down and ~20Mb up.  The download was as advertised and the upload was a pleasant surprise.  On the old coax, 30Mb/2Mb was the ceiling.

I then checked the speeds later in the day and got download speeds around 10-13Mbps.. Ah, yes ... all the school kiddies were home now.

*sigh*

Very few kiddies in our subdivision and just outside of it is a building owned by Spectrum.  I have the 100 Mbps service (100 down/10 up) and am consistently 112-118 down and 11-13 up, day or night.  We can get up to 400 Mbps but it is spendy.  I deal with 2 different VPNs for work that loves to slow things down but since we were upgraded it isn't noticeable any more.  Best part is the company pays for most of it.  My net spend is $5.99 a month.  :clap:
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32815 on: June 08, 2019, 01:11:59 pm »
If I don't make it to Toronto this summer, can I camp out in your backyard and plug into your router?  :-DD

mnem
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32816 on: June 08, 2019, 01:24:28 pm »
If I don't make it to Toronto this summer, can I camp out in your backyard and plug into your router?  :-DD

mnem
Hey look! I made a clean spot!
If you're lacking motivation, just pretend chump is after your scaly arse  :-DD
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Offline Brumby

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32817 on: June 08, 2019, 01:56:58 pm »
Wow, that sucks. They must have one crappy router interface between the fiber (correct spelling  :-DD) and the coax.

I think it's a bit more sophisticated than that.   They seem to have very effective speed controls here.  By paying more per month I can get higher speeds.  As competition ramps up, I expect prices will ease - but they are going to squeeze every dollar they can for as long as they can.

Data caps were common a few years ago - and there are still some plans with them - but the majority have unlimited data these days.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2019, 01:58:46 pm by Brumby »
 

Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32818 on: June 08, 2019, 02:59:57 pm »
Well, well....the Heath CRT went overnight from Kansas City to the USPS facility at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. Now if USPS doesn't sit on it I should have it Monday rather than Tuesday.  :-+
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32819 on: June 08, 2019, 03:06:18 pm »
Neat, I'm really looking forward to seeing in action with a decent CRT in it. Job well done Med.
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32820 on: June 08, 2019, 04:28:48 pm »
If I don't make it to Toronto this summer, can I camp out in your backyard and plug into your router?  :-DD

mnem
Hey look! I made a clean spot!
If you're lacking motivation, just pretend chump is after your scaly arse  :-DD

Why do I have to pretend? If you're not one of the 0.1% (as he aspires to be), he IS out to get you, as are those who own his shriveled little turd of a soul. It's class warfare of the basest sort; and they've successfully pitted all the poor against each other for centuries.  |O They've just gotten more brazen about it in the last couple decades.  :palm:

mnem
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32821 on: June 08, 2019, 04:41:26 pm »
If I don't make it to Toronto this summer, can I camp out in your backyard and plug into your router?  :-DD

mnem
Hey look! I made a clean spot!
If you're lacking motivation, just pretend chump is after your scaly arse  :-DD

Why do I have to pretend? If you're not one of the 0.1% (as he aspires to be), he IS out to get you, as are those who own his shriveled little turd of a soul. It's class warfare of the basest sort; and they've successfully pitted all the poor against each other for centuries.  |O They've just gotten more brazen about it in the last couple decades.  :palm:

mnem
*Imagining myself in a sane world*
There you, I gave your embers a rake over and there's a roaring fire burning in the dwagon again, woah there, don't look at when you belch, you already got my eyebrows last time you did, there you go, fixed up again [emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787]

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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32822 on: June 08, 2019, 05:31:23 pm »
Quick "I built some test gear" which I forgot to post a week or so ago as I was knee deep in playing. I was using the Rigol DG1022Z's noise output to align the K2. Turns out the noise out of this isn't really good enough to do the job. There are a few spikes in it, I assume to the DDS approach used. Thus I built the recommended N0SS noise generator.

This is a simple little amplified zener noise source circuit as described here: http://www.mmccs.com/mmarc/n0ss/noise_source.pdf

As I'm a Pomona fanboy I stuffed it in a spare Pomona box I had lying around and used a Pomona BNC to banana adapter. Rather than use the specified transistors I stuffed a couple of 2N2369's I had lying around in it which have a 500MHz fT thus hopefully not tailing off as soon as the usual suspects.

Pictures:



Lazy construction as the whole box is a ground plane:



And it works nicely  :-+

« Last Edit: June 08, 2019, 05:37:48 pm by bd139 »
 
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Offline bitseekerTopic starter

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32823 on: June 08, 2019, 06:12:54 pm »
Neat little noise maker, bd! I like all these "quick, I built some test gear" projects you do. :-+

Regarding internet service, the only choices around here are cable or DSL. I'm too far to get more than 6 Mbps down from DSL. Fiber is limited to businesses or specific neighborhoods that were built along with the fiber installation. So, really, there's no choice. For more than 6 Mbps, I have to get cable.

Cost for "up to" 60 Mbps down and whatever the cable company happens to have this hour for up (i.e., unpublished spec) is currently about $70/mo. on a one-year contract with basic TV service (~30 channels). It would be even higher for internet alone. :palm: Despite opting for a one-year contract, they're still able to raise prices during the term by stuffing increases into various fees. So, technically, your contract price hasn't changed, but they still squeeze more from you. What a sham.

From the 60/?? rating, I effectively get 45/5.

Both the cable and phone companies love their monopolies and successfully blocked Google Fiber from entering the market to provide competition. Hopeless.

The good news is that I've only had two major outages over the past ~10 years. So, at least the service is stable despite being residential (no SLA) and not business.
TEA is the way. | TEA Time channel
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #32824 on: June 08, 2019, 06:42:16 pm »
Heads up for any UK peeps. There's £1 listing again. Check your ebay messages inbox.

That means good buying as well as good selling  :-DD

Edit: note this starts sunday and runs until end of monday
« Last Edit: June 08, 2019, 06:51:07 pm by bd139 »
 


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