Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Randomly...

There are ebay listings for that Velleman handheld at 400USD...   

Out of the blue, one of my missing fedex shipments arrived today and one that has been missing for five days re-appeared in the system, though without a delivery date. The third is still MIA¹.

This morning I picked up a couple of small lambda power supplies, along with a random assortment of Kantronics HF modems, IC sockets, 12VDC linear wall warts, a box of random ICs (mostly TTL and uprocessor stuff) and several coils of unused LM400 cable. It was the last of the garage stuff I've been helping sort through; the remainder goes to salvage on Monday.

¹If today's driver regularly delivered my packages, Fedex would definitely be my exclusive shipper. 

I've seen one on eBay Australia for £199 BIN inclusive of postage to the UK.

[bitseeker]

Kosmic or 25CPS, can you chime in with some common national brands that are known to be good examples or at least edible...?

Brands of what ? candy bar or poutine ?

All of the above. Poutine, Coffee Crisp, Maple Cookies... I'm a damned Yankee from the uncultured US. The restaurants & Canadian brands of common comestibles all look the same to me. Hell, I don't even know which brand of milk is supposed to be "the good stuff", and it ALL tastes different than I'm used to. 

mnem
*uncivilized*

Ha … I have no idea. I thought we all had the same products (brands) across north America 

There is no Coffee Crisp in the USA ?

Milk is different since they favor local producers. So brands vary a lot with region.

Kosmic,

Well shiver me timbers. Coffee Crisp is available in the USA (circa 2006). I hadn't noticed as candy bars aren't the kind of thing I normally shop for.

Mnem,

That means you get to try everything. Pick what you end up liking the most (or hating the least).

[mnementh]

Yeah I looked at that other one, its older design I think and its not got the best of enclosures, but the killer for me was that when I checked the actual size, it was to ffing wide 

Put it on your cart under the 7904. It's probably one of the few MEBBs out there that can actually handle the weight, and all its heat-sinks hang off the back, so thermals should not be a problem.

mnem
*hating all things SMPS ATM*

Gee, don't think Specmaster has a 7904...at least he never mentioned one. I have one and so does Oculus. Do you need more caffeine to unscramble your brain? 

Yeah, just got back from the family annual Xmas dinner in memory of my late Father in Law's birthday and I just logged in and saw this, you are correct I don't have a 7904, don't have either the need or the space for one,  What is a MEBB anyway, I've never heard that one before??

 

That was me having a brain-fart; it's all explained a few posts later. Please ignore the associated mild acrimony. 

MEBB : Man-Eating Black Box.

We don't already have that one in the TEA Glossary...? 

mnem
*just survived another installment of shoveling the driveway*

[bitseeker]

Ok, in 10 min I will be married. Just checking here before my TEA career will change forever.
Sorry misspelled with a phone.

Congratulations or commiserations. Haven’t decided on which yet 

A belated congrats/commiserations, Zucca. What's the prognosis on your TEA career?

[Specmaster]

I'm starting to like how ebay is handling things. Found a cheap Lecroy DDA-260 on ebay last week. The DDA-260 is similar to the WavePro 960 but with 2Ghz bandwidth, 16GS/s sampling, 64Mpts memory. Was supposed to be non functional but in good physical shape.

Received the package couple days ago. Front panel was smashed during shipping (pretty typical for old lecroy scope) 



Contacted the seller, he told me to contact ebay since he shipped via global shipping program. Then contacted ebay, told me to open a case. I explain my case and add bunch of pictures. Then today, the seller asked ebay to intervene in the case.

So ebay just refunded me and I got to keep the scope 

Wow, I think that may be the best GSP outcome story I've heard (if not one of the few positive ones). Getting busted on the way is a bummer, but still.

I've come across a number of incidences where GSP has been used, they normally refund in full as they will inspect the packaging and if need be repack the item before they ship it, hence the cost of GSP shipping, but when dealing with an oversea customer I always use their service. I sold a radio once to a person in China, he claimed it had been damaged in transit and I told him to go eBay GSP, and they refunded his money in full and I got to keep his payment, so, win win all round.

[Cerebus]

Cannabis is no more dangerous than alcohol. Period. The ONLY real damage any legitimate studies have proven is long-term memory loss from chronic, excessive abuse... as in chain-smoking the shit... and shockingly, even THAT has its parallel in alcoholics.

I'd never make the assertion that "Cannabis is no more dangerous than alcohol."; although the former is technically true in a strictly logical sense, booze is, unequivocally, more dangerous.

I've known some heavy dope smokers. Some heavy enough that were it booze they were on they'd be described as alcoholics; they are still alive, some of them pretty useless but then they always were pretty useless without the dope. Some of them are instead what, were they boozers, we'd now call binge drinkers. They are generally productive, functional members of society. Two of them, no names, no pack drill, are highly regarded authors of graphic novels and comic books (the smart variety of the same, not the cheap trash).

All but one of the alcoholics I used to know are dead; the longest any of them survived was to 52 and she looked like 76 the last time I saw her alive, but then her alcoholic husband (49 yrs old) had recently died, she usually looked a mere 69 years old. One of the alcoholics I've known is in recovery and thankfully seems to be staying that way.

Dope and booze taken beyond a certain point can both fuck you up, but booze will fuck you up faster, and in more ways, then dope ever will. It's not just my anecdotal evidence that backs this up, but all the medical research that's been done on both - once you filter out some truly terrible research done on dope in the past that had the heavy hand of politics applied to it (back in the 60s and 70s it was a truism that research on cannabis would always come to a conclusion that suited the biases of the people who had funded that research).

The only thing that supports the idea that cannabis is as dangerous or more dangerous than booze is either ignorance of the facts, entrenched irrational positions, the human bias to over-emphasise isolated contradictory "black swan" evidence, or a lack of political courage to deal in facts rather than pander to people's prejudices.

This not pro-cannabis advocacy, merely a reminder of the factual position that most of our legal recreational drugs are as, or more dangerous. Thankfully, coffee is both legal and remarkably safe or I'd be screwed.

[mnementh]

Agreed on all points.  That is actually where I was going. We as a society bend over backwards to be supportive of alcohol abusers and "see the disease"; even allowing people to use it as a legal defense for some of the most heinous acts. Not so with other intoxicants that are much more benign in general. I loathe the hypocrisy.

And yes, 110%... thank Ifni for that magical arabica bean.

mnem
 

[mnementh]

...All of the above. Poutine, Coffee Crisp, Maple Cookies... I'm a damned Yankee from the uncultured US. The restaurants & Canadian brands of common comestibles all look the same to me. Hell, I don't even know which brand of milk is supposed to be "the good stuff", and it ALL tastes different than I'm used to. 

mnem
*uncivilized*

Ha … I have no idea. I thought we all had the same products (brands) across north America  There is no Coffee Crisp in the USA ? Milk is different since they favor local producers. So brands vary a lot with region.

Kosmic, Well shiver me timbers. Coffee Crisp is available in the USA (circa 2006). I hadn't noticed as candy bars aren't the kind of thing I normally shop for.

Mnem, That means you get to try everything. Pick what you end up liking the most (or hating the least).

*Does a quick Guugle* Oh... I see. Coffee Crisp IS a national brand up here; I had no idea. I thought it was a "crisp to have with coffee" but it appears its more like a Kit Kat with caffeine. NEAT!!! *Adds to shopping list along with Maple Cookies*

As for Poutine... it kindof all looks like barf on french fries to me.  I'd really rather avoid the "error" part of trial and error therein...

mnem
 

[bd139]

Agreed on all points.  That is actually where I was going. We as a society bend over backwards to be supportive of alcohol abusers and "see the disease"; even allowing people to use it as a legal defense for some of the most heinous acts. Not so with other intoxicants that are much more benign in general. I loathe the hypocrisy.

And yes, 110%... thank Ifni for that magical arabica bean.

mnem
 

Agree too on alcohol. Where do you think my fence went 

There’s no hypocrisy here.

[mnementh]

The hypocrisy bit was not directed at you; it was directed at "the social norms" and what is considered "socially acceptable".

Particularly in Western culture; that is just great, steaming layer after layer of hypocrisy and outright moral bankruptcy.

mnem
*morally slightly overdrawn*

[bd139]

Indeed.  Incidentally and on topic of social norms there was a naked dude down the road earlier being arrested. I need to move.

[0culus]

Indeed.  Incidentally and on topic of social norms there was a naked dude down the road earlier being arrested. I need to move.

He was just hot and wanted to cool down. 

https://youtu.be/IKFthgUbCdY?t=95

[beanflying]

Going for a Nudie run is fairly harmless in the right setting like after midnight leaving the Pub  See Alcohol can be dangerous.....

[med6753]

It wasn't your name, it was your cart dumbass. that I had a brain-fart and accidentally attributed to Spec in my frustration-induced state of distraction, as I JUST COPPED TO ABOVE. You know, the part of my response that you conveniently omitted when you decided to chew on my tail just now.  SMEESH.

mnem
I don't drink beer anymore... but I DO live where cannabis is legal. Even for recreational use. Hmmmm...

My response to you was crafted BEFORE you went in to correct your multiple brain farts. I was simply inquiring as to why I was mentioned in something I didn't participate in. If that's being a dumbass then I guess me be a dumbass. I got my big boy pants on, been called worse, just ask the scattered females in my past. 

Truce pal, just busting your balls....but it sounds like that TV already has them in a pair of vice grips. 

Edit....and as far as this ongoing alcohol/mary jane debate.....I'm staying FAR away from that conversation.

Carry on....

[bitseeker]

*Does a quick Guugle* Oh... I see. Coffee Crisp IS a national brand up here; I had no idea. I thought it was a "crisp to have with coffee" but it appears its more like a Kit Kat with caffeine. NEAT!!! *Adds to shopping list along with Maple Cookies*

Yeah, my first exposure to Canadian treats was in Vancouver. Despite having been to various locations in BC, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec, I somehow haven't tried poutine, yet.

But, I have tried squeaky cheese from Wisconsin.

[mnementh]

"We now return to our normal state of abnormal, already in progress..."

mnem

[mnementh]

...All of the above. Poutine, Coffee Crisp, Maple Cookies... I'm a damned Yankee from the uncultured US. The restaurants & Canadian brands of common comestibles all look the same to me. Hell, I don't even know which brand of milk is supposed to be "the good stuff", and it ALL tastes different than I'm used to. 

mnem
*uncivilized*

Ha … I have no idea. I thought we all had the same products (brands) across north America  There is no Coffee Crisp in the USA ? Milk is different since they favor local producers. So brands vary a lot with region.

https://anitalianinmykitchen.com/maple-leaf-sandwich-cookies/

Oklay... so these are "Maple Sandwich Cookies" then...?

I've been looking and it appears there's some confusion as to what exactly they are. Some recipes are for a traditional vanilla-butter cookie with maple-sugar creme between, while others are for a maple-flavored white-flour cookie with a butter-cream filling.

Is one or the other "right"?

mnem
*nom-nom-nom-nom*

[bitseeker]

I like the ones with maple-sugar creme. That's the kind I first tasted as a kid. It's "right" to me, but I'm not Canadian.

e.g.,



Maybe those are just meant for tourists, but they're nummy. Different brands do taste a little different. Enjoy the hunt.

[mnementh]

Yeah, I've had some problem understanding Maple Syrup up here too.

I've MADE Maple Syrup from scratch with my grand-dad; done everything from drilling to tapping the trees to cooking and then reducing the syrup. What he made... what I consider "Real Maple Syrup"... is dark and thick and VERY aromatic and strongly-flavoured with a little smoky/nutty overtone. What I can buy here... what they're really proud of as "Traditional Maple Syrup" for $10+ a bottle... is almost clear and watery, and barely any flavor or sweetness at all. It's like they brought the sap to a boil, then mixed it with corn syrup and called it good.

I mean, the ingredients say "100% Pure Maple Syrup" but everything else about it feels like watered-down corn-syrup.

 

mnem
*nutty & smoky*

[bitseeker]

Yeah, I don't get the watery maple syrup. I like it thick and strongly flavored. Some of the cookies have weaker maple syrup flavor than others. Unfortunately, it's been a coon's age since I've had any, so I don't recall which was the "good" one.

Oh, there are also maple syrup candies. It's like the maple-sugar cream filling without the cookie parts. Sugar overload!

[worsthorse]

* worsthorse pokes his head into the playroom to see if the kids are finished hurling legos and toy trucks at one another.

 

* worsthorse thinks, probably not and decides to do something else for another fifteen or twenty posts.   

[bitseeker]

Come on in, worsthorse. Lots of maple syrup to go around.

[bitseeker]

Nothing too exciting TEA-wise for me, lately. Just snagged one of these Pomona 5698 for $30. Some people hate them, but seems handy and the price was good.

[Cubdriver]

In an effort to get things back on track before we go TOO far off into the weed(s) (poor pun intended), let's get back to the addiction that is the inspiration for this thread.  Here are some quick pics of the additions to my ever lengthening repair queue that have added their mass to my long suffering floor joists over the past month or two.

A very old HP 350B distortion analyzer.  This one is pre-1960 as it has the old style serial number.  I believe that it's actually old enough that the wooden case is its factory enclosure, but haven't yet opened it up.


An old US Navy wigglescope, originally made by Hickock Instruments:




An HP 4350A High Capacitance Meter:


A 3734A Counter.  I hate people/companies that engrave instrument faces.   


A rather forlorn looking 6205B dual power supply:


A 6051A Electronic Load - been watching these for a while, but kept either missing them or they went for too much $$:


And lastly, another one that's been ridden hard and put up wet - an 8654B signal generator.  The innards are mostly tuning cavity:


Fingers crossed this gets us off of intoxicants legal or otherwise, and back to our favorite addiction.

-Pat

[mnementh]

* worsthorse pokes his head into the playroom to see if the kids are finished hurling legos and toy trucks at one another.

 

* worsthorse thinks, probably not and decides to do something else for another fifteen or twenty posts.   

Long ago sorted; just as I said it would be. Stay away too long and you'll miss out on all the sweets. 

mnem
Fuck... now I have a craving for Nutter Butter cookies.