Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[McBryce]

At least - something without nixies.

Speaking of which, do you guys have a nixies clock? I can't decide if I want one or not.

Yes, built my own (DCF77 controlled, not suitable for places that children get get near). The wooden housing was the foot of a sofa
that we had just got rid of. And YES you NEED one

McBryce.

[beanflying]

No Vegans allowed. Tonight's 'free' steak due to a stuff up by the Butcher 600g+ of red meat 

[Ero-Shan]

...

(Attachment Link)

 

If only I didn't have this hearty dislike for all things with the name GRUNDIG on it ...

[BU508A]

Why? What's wrong with GRUNDIG? 

[Ero-Shan]

Why? What's wrong with GRUNDIG? 

Before I became a real engineer ("zweiter Bildungsweg") I was a radio and tv technician. My dislike stems from repairing lots of their products. There certainly were worse, like Kuba or Loewe, but somehow I just didn't like them - starting at the very top, Max Grundig (no, I've never met him).
Telefunken, Saba, Nordmende, Philips have left no such bad impression with me.

Grundig had one color tv chassis with a big and heavy isolation transformer and modules houses in metal boxes. Having to get that up to the 5th story in Stuttgart's old houses (no lift, of course) was no enviable job, even if 2 men were carrying. With the rounded edges that were en vogue then, the damn monster always wanted to slip from your fingers.

I do not regret entering school again.

[bd139]

Grundig were great. My parents bought a Grundig TV that passed out after a year. After three repair attempts they just gave us a new one. Didn't even take the old one away! Guess who got it for parts? 

[BU508A]

Why? What's wrong with GRUNDIG? 

Before I became a real engineer ("zweiter Bildungsweg") I was a radio and tv technician. My dislike stems from repairing lots of their products. There certainly were worse, like Kuba or Loewe, but somehow I just didn't like them - starting at the very top, Max Grundig (no, I've never met him).
Telefunken, Saba, Nordmende, Philips have left no such bad impression with me.

Grundig had one color tv chassis with a big and heavy isolation transformer and modules houses in metal boxes. Having to get that up to the 5th story in Stuttgart's old houses (no lift, of course) was no enviable job, even if 2 men were carrying. With the rounded edges that were en vogue then, the damn monster always wanted to slip from your fingers.

I do not regret entering school again.

Same here. I learned "radio and tv technician" end of the 80's before I went to university.
I always wanted to become a radio and tv technician. 
But I didn't have that worse memories regarding to Grundig. I've repaired several  devices from them.
But since our store sold much more Telefunken, Saba, Nordmende, Loewe or Braun stuff, I did not have
that much contact with Grundig devices. 

And I liked always the measurement equipment from Grundig, for example the signal tracer they built (the SV41).

But I'm with you about those bloody heavy TV sets. Loewe had them as well. And not to speak of the good Sony Trinitrons 

Edit:
David Levinson from "Independence Day": "Every repairman can do this, dad." 

[bd139]

I owned 2x 21" FD trinitrons for a bit. Totally agree there. 

Edit: when I took them off my desk, I saw the desk had sagged!

[med6753]

I am surrounded by engineers again today.  Should I get the popcorn ready? 

I'm off to the doctor's for my 6 month checkup. You guys play nice.   

[BU508A]

I am surrounded by engineers again today.  Should I get the popcorn ready? 

I'm off to the doctor's for my 6 month checkup. You guys play nice.   

"Yes Dad!"

 

[Kosmic]

 

[mnementh]

I get where you're coming from... I only dabble, so not really proficient in ANY of them. 

The GPIOs on STM32Fxxx are actually a bit of a marvel. As bad of an idea as they SEEM, in practice they really do seem to work better than advertised.

In all honesty, debugging isn't that much of a problem thanks to the nature of the bootloader. As long as your driver installs both serial and DFU interfaces correctly, which you can easily determine through Device Manager, it's going to connect and respond from within the terminal. If you have a comms problem it's the driver, period.

I wasn't trying to be a dick. It seems obvious to me that STM32 dominance is pretty much inevitable, so if you're in the "making stuff using uPCs" game it's better to get into them sooner rather than later.  My own weak skillz is all that stands in MY way.

As for PowerShell... My own weak skillz is all that stands in my way. 

mnem
*packing my life away*

100% agree on STM32 dominance. It’s cheap, fast and available in crazy quantities. My next project will rely on a Cortex M4 so that should be interesting and will probably head down that road.

PowerShell is something I recommend people walk away from. It has more nuances than an unusually highly nuanced thing from planet nuance. It’s so vastly different to anything else that it has a lot of newly discovered mistakes baked in. They should have started with plan 9’s rc and worked out how to cram objects in that. In principle it’s a good idea let down by a steamer of an implementation

Trawl GITHub for libraries. You'll shit yourself.   If it's been dreamt of for Ardu, somebody has made a library for STM32.

Yes, it's horrible. Unfortunately, it is still the default for mass-management of AD clients and is what everybody is still taught in school because of how heavily MS subsidizes education with free material. And the orgs who've been infected with MS HelpDesk Ticketing or whatever they call it now (which seems to be at least half the planet, I'm guessing because it is also what is taught in school) love PowerShell because of how similarly the environments think. Both are heavily weighted towards management-think as opposed to engineer-think, neither of which aspect are readily accessible to normal human beings with an ACTUAL SOUL. 

Spend any amount of time working Corporate IT, and YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED. You may deposit your soul in the compost shredder conveniently located right by the employee entrance.

mnem
moo?

[horo]

EMACS is not alone an editor, it is a complete OS.   

It's almost a complete OS, only a good editor is missing.

SCNR

[xrunner]

I am surrounded by engineers again today.  Should I get the popcorn ready? 

You making us a treat? Make sure you don't forget the coke. 

[mnementh]

vi/vim/gvim since ages

When I manage to do something useful with vi I open a bottle of Prosecco everytime. It's hard to learn it, but it's very powerful once you manage to control that blind beast.

My problem is two days later I forgot everything and I have to start from beginner level every time.

I have exactly this problem EVERY DAMNED TIME I sit down at a console. ANY console. For ANY environment. 

vim user here. Spent at least 4 hours a day in it and have done for over 20 years. It's built into my firmware now.

And talking of which, my day today is evaluation of centos 8. Fun fun fun. Can't be arsed!

You are forgiven. Just this once.   This... explains SO-O-O MUCH.

blasphemer. 

mnem
*stirring the TEA*

[mnementh]

I am surrounded by engineers again today.  Should I get the popcorn ready? 

I'm off to the doctor's for my 6 month checkup. You guys play nice.   

Popcorn chicken, maybe. Popcorn shrimp HELLS YES!!!

Play nice...? Hello... I'm mnem. Have we met...?

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

mnem
All things are relative.

i made a calibrator unit for  350.000 scovilles.

(Attachment Link)

Yikes I spend a couple of days away from the forum and when I logged in this morning I find 9 whole pages waiting for me so I'll have tp speed read them and catch up.

As to the matter of a calibrator unit for 350.000 scovilles, then it springs to my mind that only a dragon could attest to its accuracy 

[Specmaster]

Yeah incredibly busy and distracted. I had the reminder pop up on my phone "auction ends in 14m" but between then and it finishing I put out about three child related fires  . I'm basically a full time single parent for three as well as a full time IT contractor at the moment 

A modern day Mrs Doubtfire then. 

[Specmaster]

@med, that really does look really nice, good job, keep this up and all of your TEA kit in your lab will soon be colour coordinated 

[Specmaster]

I wasn't looking for another scope but this appeared yesterday, it looked complete, nice condition and in working order. I put in an offer then got a counteroffer of £60, I resisted for about half an hour but failed and ending up buying it.
(Attachment Link)

David

Looks good and I hope that you enjoy it when you receive it.

[nixiefreqq]

ok.....seriously guys.....talk me off the ledge.

it weighs 64 lbs!  more even than the 141t that went out the door years ago because it was too bulky and too heavy.

(BUT it is easily within local pick up range.)

somebody tell me it is useless and prone to spontaneous combustion.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hewlett-Packard-8569B-0-01-to-22-GHz-Spectrum-Analyzer/264435222431?epid=2254505184&hash=item3d9191479f:g:5H4AAOSwOKldWdDx

[McBryce]

ok.....seriously guys.....talk me off the ledge.

it weighs 64 lbs!  more even than the 141t that went out the door years ago because it was too bulky and too heavy.

(BUT it is easily within local pick up range.)

somebody tell me it is useless and prone to spontaneous combustion.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hewlett-Packard-8569B-0-01-to-22-GHz-Spectrum-Analyzer/264435222431?epid=2254505184&hash=item3d9191479f:g:5H4AAOSwOKldWdDx

But it covers up to 22GHz and has a cool 7-seg display and lots of buttons!!!

I'm not helping am I?

McBryce.

[Specmaster]

Ok so after much research, I just ordered a Peak LCR45 and not a 3d printer. Well not yet anyway!

I think you did the right thing, the LCR45 will be used far far more than a 3D printer would be. I like you would love a 3D printer,. but cannot justify it either space wise as I have zero space for it and I can't say that if I had one that it would really be used enough to make it viable.

[bd139]

Talking of that, it just arrived and the battery was flat  . Off out to Tesco quick 

[nixiefreqq]

ok.....seriously guys.....talk me off the ledge.

it weighs 64 lbs!  more even than the 141t that went out the door years ago because it was too bulky and too heavy.

(BUT it is easily within local pick up range.)

somebody tell me it is useless and prone to spontaneous combustion.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hewlett-Packard-8569B-0-01-to-22-GHz-Spectrum-Analyzer/264435222431?epid=2254505184&hash=item3d9191479f:g:5H4AAOSwOKldWdDx

But it covers up to 22GHz and has a cool 7-seg display and lots of buttons!!!

I'm not helping am I?

McBryce.

no you are not helping.

you were supposed to tell me to run like the wind before my vertebrae get crushed.