Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Haha, waking the dwagon up is real easy to do, just take or hide his beloved yellow Fluke 189 

Or let med near it with his can of blue Krylon

Wash your mouth out with hand sanitiser!!!

y'all are fukkin' loud.   

mnem
*slaps tail against floor of cave and snorts in disgust*

Whoops there goes the neighbourhood, I told ya, his yellow Fluke is close to his heart   

[mnementh]

grr. clog. furry print fail. going back to bed.

mnem
also, grr.

First:      Then:   

*shamelessly snurches and adds to the dwagon's digital hoard*

grr. clog. furry print fail. going back to bed.

mnem
also, grr.

Why would you print a furry? 

making friends. *rimshot*

mnem

[Saskia]

on a different note HGST has located the long lost hard drive and has sent out a replacement.
Now I can finally rebuild my NAS ...

[ArthurDent]

I seem to have a weakness for buying power supplies. I have more than enough for a small store but I just bought and received another. I have a good number of HP and GW Instek linear programmable supplies like the two shown below but I hadn't seen this Unisource P6100 triple output supply before. It outputs 0-+/-30 VDC at 0-3A and a fixed 5VDC at 2A. It is quite small and light because it is a SMPS but the specs don't look that bad and it will work fine for non-critical applications. Downside is all three outputs have the same common but that doesn't worry me. The price was well under $100 so I couldn't pass it up.

[capt bullshot]

Already done that some time ago ...
https://wunderkis.de/nucleof767/index.html

Now there's a fresh STM32H475 nucleo board waiting for the LED to blink. Dual core - one to turn the LED on, the other one to turn it off ;-þ

OK folks, after some days struggling with the STM32CubeIDE and openocd, it's done: The STM32H475 nucleo board LED blinky demo.
STM32CubeIDE version at http://wunderkis.de/gitweb/?p=test1.git
and the Makefile framework based version here: http://wunderkis.de/gitweb/?p=stm32-demos.git

Both STMCubeIDE and vanilla openocd are bitches regarding this demo. STM32CubeIDE doesn't work on my Ubuntu 18.04 computer, so I tried to use my vendor provided shitty IDE independent Makefile framework first. Used a freshly compiled vanilla openocd from the official repository. Was some work to setup the dual project structure, but eventually compiled and generated valid binaries. Now flashing and debugging gave all kinds of weird results, but no blinking LED.
So to track that damn thing down, I've installed the STM32CubeIDE on a Debian 10 computer and set up a new blinky project there from scratch. The IDE integrated CubeMX (configurator) needs quite a long time to start at all, so at first I thought I was screwed again. Looked like the IDE won't work on this box either, just having different symptoms. Anyway, the project works and flashes and debugs fine. So back to the other machine, switched from the vanilla openocd to the binary that came with the IDE - and it works too. Took quite some time to figure out all these quirks.

[tggzzz]

Haha, waking the dwagon up is real easy to do, just take or hide his beloved yellow Fluke 189 

Or let med near it with his can of blue Krylon

Wash your mouth out with hand sanitiser!!!

Is acetone a hand sanitisier? 

I once washed my mouth out with (a small amount of) acetone in a school chemistry experiment. I was sucking it out of a beaker using a pipette, and there wasn't quite enough in the beaker - so air was entrained.

This is something you should NEVER do.

Indeed, but it was SOP back then.

Teachers handed out bits of sodium and/or potassium for us to play with. We rolled mercury around trays. We used potassium cyanide, albeit with the warning not to mix it with acid when disposing of it in the fume cupboard sink. We inhaled every organic chemical in the stock to learn their smell (this is rats' urine, this is mice urine, indeed!)

https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/things-i-wont-work-with

[tggzzz]

drinking methanol will either blind you or get you the Darwin award.

Acetone will be absorbed through the skin. It will have detrimental effects on your central nervous system, can cause issues with your blood, kidneys, will target anything that contains lipids, etc.

Also it eats through various protective gloves in about no time while not being a disinfectant.

Acetone is not a toy. Treat it with caution.

All very true.

I warned my daughter about methanol while we were backpacking around India, and again before going to university.

Since acetone attacks lipids, presumably it can be used as a CV-19 disinfectant But I wouldn't.

[bd139]

Already done that some time ago ...
https://wunderkis.de/nucleof767/index.html

Now there's a fresh STM32H475 nucleo board waiting for the LED to blink. Dual core - one to turn the LED on, the other one to turn it off ;-þ

OK folks, after some days struggling with the STM32CubeIDE and openocd, it's done: The STM32H475 nucleo board LED blinky demo.
STM32CubeIDE version at http://wunderkis.de/gitweb/?p=test1.git
and the Makefile framework based version here: http://wunderkis.de/gitweb/?p=stm32-demos.git

Both STMCubeIDE and vanilla openocd are bitches regarding this demo. STM32CubeIDE doesn't work on my Ubuntu 18.04 computer, so I tried to use my vendor provided shitty IDE independent Makefile framework first. Used a freshly compiled vanilla openocd from the official repository. Was some work to setup the dual project structure, but eventually compiled and generated valid binaries. Now flashing and debugging gave all kinds of weird results, but no blinking LED.
So to track that damn thing down, I've installed the STM32CubeIDE on a Debian 10 computer and set up a new blinky project there from scratch. The IDE integrated CubeMX (configurator) needs quite a long time to start at all, so at first I thought I was screwed again. Looked like the IDE won't work on this box either, just having different symptoms. Anyway, the project works and flashes and debugs fine. So back to the other machine, switched from the vanilla openocd to the binary that came with the IDE - and it works too. Took quite some time to figure out all these quirks.

Smells familiar. Spending some time trying to throw all this shit together over the last few days actually (between being sick). Target specification is custom production grade STM32F4 mid-range generic processor board, arm-none-eabi-gcc toolchain running FreeRTOS on bare metal ST libs and a generic makefile not some auto generated shit pile, gdb debugging that works all on top of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS with an ST Link. It's a nightmare and I have got virtually nowhere so far other than half way through the board schematics and getting the compiler to compile something simple. Need something with some guts, DSP and FP on board.

Edit: application hint. MIDI in (via USB), audio out.

[GreyWoolfe]

I make no claims as to who has less/more bureaucracy. They all suck as far as I'm concerned. But I should be glad it involves just USPS and the Fed's and NOT New York State. Talk about fee's (taxes) and red tape? I swear if they could figure out a way to tax you every time you took a shit they would. 

They probably do already.  In the Florida town I live in you are taxed on the water that comes out of the tap.  Then you are taxed for an equal amount of water that goes down the drain, whether it actually does or not.  Drink a gallon of water a day?  You are taxed out of the tap and taxed down the drain even though it didn't go there, irregardless of whether you pee it all out or not.  Water the lawn, wash the car?  Same thing.

[AVGresponding]

Haha, waking the dwagon up is real easy to do, just take or hide his beloved yellow Fluke 189 

Or let med near it with his can of blue Krylon

Wash your mouth out with hand sanitiser!!!

Is acetone a hand sanitisier? 

I once washed my mouth out with (a small amount of) acetone in a school chemistry experiment. I was sucking it out of a beaker using a pipette, and there wasn't quite enough in the beaker - so air was entrained.

This is something you should NEVER do.

Indeed, but it was SOP back then.

Teachers handed out bits of sodium and/or potassium for us to play with. We rolled mercury around trays. We used potassium cyanide, albeit with the warning not to mix it with acid when disposing of it in the fume cupboard sink. We inhaled every organic chemical in the stock to learn their smell (this is rats' urine, this is mice urine, indeed!)

https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/things-i-wont-work-with

Yep, fun times. I once got sent to the nurses office for necking a test tube of saturated sodium chloride solution, on a bet. I knew what it was ofc, but the nurse had to look it up ffs...

@Specmaster, we are poles apart on handles then, those are the first things I remove whenever I get a new piece of bench TE!
 

I have quite a collection of disembodied handles and tilting bails   

[bd139]

You savage 

[Saskia]

well, in a nearby town in Germany you are taxed for the water that rains onto your property. And also they are introducing a CO2 tax, basically taxing your exhausts. Given the german tax level with 19% sales tax on about anything you buy, (up to currently 42%) income tax, ~ 15% health insurance tax (on your gross income) and another pension tax (which goes into paying the pension for the previous generation, NOT YOU), you end up at approximately 70% taxes.

[Specmaster]

Haha, waking the dwagon up is real easy to do, just take or hide his beloved yellow Fluke 189 

Or let med near it with his can of blue Krylon

Wash your mouth out with hand sanitiser!!!

Is acetone a hand sanitisier? 

I once washed my mouth out with (a small amount of) acetone in a school chemistry experiment. I was sucking it out of a beaker using a pipette, and there wasn't quite enough in the beaker - so air was entrained.

This is something you should NEVER do.

Indeed, but it was SOP back then.

Teachers handed out bits of sodium and/or potassium for us to play with. We rolled mercury around trays. We used potassium cyanide, albeit with the warning not to mix it with acid when disposing of it in the fume cupboard sink. We inhaled every organic chemical in the stock to learn their smell (this is rats' urine, this is mice urine, indeed!)

https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/things-i-wont-work-with

Yep, fun times. I once got sent to the nurses office for necking a test tube of saturated sodium chloride solution, on a bet. I knew what it was ofc, but the nurse had to look it up ffs...

@Specmaster, we are poles apart on handles then, those are the first things I remove whenever I get a new piece of bench TE!
 

I have quite a collection of disembodied handles and tilting bails   

, in that case then, do you have a handle for a Solartron 7150 in your pile of discarded handles, my 7150 would very much like one back to discourage small bugs etc taking up residence within? 

[Specmaster]

well, in a nearby town in Germany you are taxed for the water that rains onto your property. And also they are introducing a CO2 tax, basically taxing your exhausts. Given the german tax level with 19% sales tax on about anything you buy, (up to currently 42%) income tax, ~ 15% health insurance tax (on your gross income) and another pension tax (which goes into paying the pension for the previous generation, NOT YOU), you end up at approximately 70% taxes.

Thats outrageous, does everyone have to pay that or is just above a certain income level?

[mnementh]

I make no claims as to who has less/more bureaucracy. They all suck as far as I'm concerned. But I should be glad it involves just USPS and the Fed's and NOT New York State. Talk about fee's (taxes) and red tape? I swear if they could figure out a way to tax you every time you took a shit they would. 

They probably do already.  In the Florida town I live in you are taxed on the water that comes out of the tap.  Then you are taxed for an equal amount of water that goes down the drain, whether it actually does or not.  Drink a gallon of water a day?  You are taxed out of the tap and taxed down the drain even though it didn't go there, irregardless of whether you pee it all out or not.  Water the lawn, wash the car?  Same thing.

This is pretty standard means of billing for fresh & wastewater. In a former life I ALMOST took a decades-long gig as the primary operator for my hometown's wastewater facility; worked there for almost a year. I probably have a better handle than most on what's involved with both fresh and wastewater services.

You are paying for a combined service, not "water in plus wastewater out". State taxes added to the billing for these local services go to the parts of that infrastructure (like aquifers that provide fresh water and rivers which receive allegedly inert treated effluent to/from multiple counties and cities) that the state has to provide and has to manage/inspect/certify.

I don't see a problem; it's not like we've gone back to the days of coin-op toilet stalls, FFS. 

mnem
*poot*

[AVGresponding]

Haha, waking the dwagon up is real easy to do, just take or hide his beloved yellow Fluke 189 

Or let med near it with his can of blue Krylon

Wash your mouth out with hand sanitiser!!!

Is acetone a hand sanitisier? 

I once washed my mouth out with (a small amount of) acetone in a school chemistry experiment. I was sucking it out of a beaker using a pipette, and there wasn't quite enough in the beaker - so air was entrained.

This is something you should NEVER do.

Indeed, but it was SOP back then.

Teachers handed out bits of sodium and/or potassium for us to play with. We rolled mercury around trays. We used potassium cyanide, albeit with the warning not to mix it with acid when disposing of it in the fume cupboard sink. We inhaled every organic chemical in the stock to learn their smell (this is rats' urine, this is mice urine, indeed!)

https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/things-i-wont-work-with

Yep, fun times. I once got sent to the nurses office for necking a test tube of saturated sodium chloride solution, on a bet. I knew what it was ofc, but the nurse had to look it up ffs...

@Specmaster, we are poles apart on handles then, those are the first things I remove whenever I get a new piece of bench TE!
 

I have quite a collection of disembodied handles and tilting bails   

, in that case then, do you have a handle for a Solartron 7150 in your pile of discarded handles, my 7150 would very much like one back to discourage small bugs etc taking up residence within? 

Unfortunately, mine had already had its handle removed by a considerate former keeper.

Gaffer tape, maybe?

The reason I do it is purely a space consideration, if I had unlimited space, I'd leave them as the factory intended.

[Mr. Scram]

well, in a nearby town in Germany you are taxed for the water that rains onto your property. And also they are introducing a CO2 tax, basically taxing your exhausts. Given the german tax level with 19% sales tax on about anything you buy, (up to currently 42%) income tax, ~ 15% health insurance tax (on your gross income) and another pension tax (which goes into paying the pension for the previous generation, NOT YOU), you end up at approximately 70% taxes.

Tax in west European nations does tend to be steep indeed, but luckily the quality of living tends to be pretty good too. There seems to be a strong correlation between the tax level or tax paid and how liveable a place is. I'd rather pay my taxes than live in a shithole. Well, I'd rather have that others pay their taxes for me but what can you do. 

[Saskia]

well, in a nearby town in Germany you are taxed for the water that rains onto your property. And also they are introducing a CO2 tax, basically taxing your exhausts. Given the german tax level with 19% sales tax on about anything you buy, (up to currently 42%) income tax, ~ 15% health insurance tax (on your gross income) and another pension tax (which goes into paying the pension for the previous generation, NOT YOU), you end up at approximately 70% taxes.

Thats outrageous, does everyone have to pay that or is just above a certain income level?

Well, there are certain tax brackets for your income tax. However the left party just discussed executing the top percent of the population, reintroducing hard labor camps and setting the highest tax bracket to start at 26thousand euros/year. And no, this is no joke. But I don't want to sidetrack into politics here.
And I do consider Germany not the best place to live in. as far as I am concerned I have to pay outrageous taxes AND live in a shithole country.

[Mr. Scram]

Well, there are certain tax brackets for your income tax. However the left party just discussed executing the top percent of the population, reintroducing hard labor camps and setting the highest tax bracket to start at 26thousand euros/year. And no, this is no joke. But I don't want to sidetrack into politics here.
And I do consider Germany not the best place to live in. as far as I am concerned I have to pay outrageous taxes AND live in a shithole country.

People love shit talking their country but somehow I doubt you'd prefer Bulgaria, Venezuela, Brazil, Ethiopia or Bangladesh over Germany from a services, government and healthcare point of view. If not, there's always the option to move. Very few of the people complaining seem to entertain that option, which appears mystifying but is probably revealing.

[AVGresponding]

Well, there are certain tax brackets for your income tax. However the left party just discussed executing the top percent of the population, reintroducing hard labor camps and setting the highest tax bracket to start at 26thousand euros/year. And no, this is no joke. But I don't want to sidetrack into politics here.
And I do consider Germany not the best place to live in. as far as I am concerned I have to pay outrageous taxes AND live in a shithole country.

People love shit talking their country but somehow I doubt you'd prefer Bulgaria, Venezuela, Brazil, Ethiopia or Bangladesh over Germany from a services, government and healthcare point of view. If not, there's always the option to move. Very few of the people complaining seem to entertain that option, which appears mystifying but is probably revealing.

I have to agree with this. UK, Germany etc etc, all the western world does have its problems, but nowhere near the challenges faced by people living in developing countries.

EDIT: One of my dear friends lives in Serbia. She is a professor at Belgrade University, and because she is a government employee, she still is getting paid, for now (little as it is; her monthly pay is similar to my weekly pay, despite living costs being quite similar). Many people there aren't, and the provision for welfare in places like that are virtually non-existent.

[Mr. Scram]

I have to agree with this. UK, Germany etc etc, all the western world does have its problems, but nowhere near the challenges faced by people living in developing countries.

In no way I'm saying the western world has it all figured out and there aren't people struggling. There's obviously room for improvement, often more than a little. Did you change your name? I'd swear the teal menace was named differently before.

[Saskia]

oh, trust me, I am pursuing the option to relocate and give up my citizenship.
But enough of that, this is not about politics.

[Mr. Scram]

oh, trust me, I am pursuing the option to relocate and give up my citizenship.
But enough of that, this is not about politics.

I gather that's not really about politics. Where are you looking to move?

[bd139]

Interesting points I’m fine with it paying a shit load of tax. I’m quite happy for my tax to go to welfare, infrastructure,  healthcare and defence. I am however pissed off at how each of those concerns has been mismanaged into the least efficient and effective way of executing it. This turns countries into the things we hate by proxy. The engineer in me favours a technocracy at the moment because I run one and it works 

[Saskia]

If I had won the DV lottery some years ago I would have said Texas and taken the pledge of allegiance. However I am to old for that now. Looking back I should never have gone back to Germany from Hawaii, but that opportunity is gone now.
My husband is Austrian and is working for the Dept of State (the US one).
We have not finally decided. But we both want to get out of here, I just have to see my daughter finish school before I can leave.
As far as I am concerned, the Starship Troopers society as painted by Heinlein (not by the movie) does not seem too bad. When I look at what Merkel did to our country I can only say Sauve qui peut.