Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Specmaster]

Fluke industrial design Winning again (Attachment Link) eBay auction: #293256939347

Yep, its a bit ugly, because its trying to be a handheld/portable/bench meter all at the same time. Its essentially a Fluke 27 with the display rotated 90 degrees and storage box grafted on to also provide somewhere to keep the leads.

[beanflying]

Pleased you didn't try and defend the ugly pig that it is

[Ero-Shan]

Since replacing my old workbench, I didn't any longer have the the inrush-current limited extra outlet for my Philips variable isolation transformer. I wanted to use a Grundig (yes, Grundig, me!) one in a more practical housing, but that lacked a few features. So I ordered one of those combo meters, which arrived a week ago.

So, today's project: Replace the moving pointer voltmeter by a combined volt/amps meter. Clean up the very dusty inside, add an inrush current limiter, tighten the loose screws on the transformer.

Mostly (dirty) mechanical work, fastening the cap rail for the meter turned out to be quite a task.

Eventually it was finished. Yes this took most of the day! Still not the most beautiful, but it does its job.



At last I have that important piece of gear ready to use again.

Nicely done! What did you use for the inrush limiting?

About 15 years ago, we (developers) moved to a different building. The DCS guys where transferred to a different place, far away. In the deserted building remained a pile of trash, where I found a small black box with 4 FASTON terminals, labeled OUT L, IN L, IN N, OUT N. Didn't know what it was, but kept it.
When I brought those hauls in - now about 2.5 years ago, there where these isolation transformers I knew to trigger circuit breakers. While rummaging through my belongings, I came across that small box and opened it for the first time. I saw a biggish NTC, a little electronics and a relay.I actually couldn't believe it: That was exactly what I needed!

It is this:



Sorry for the lousy pic, but it was awkward to take.

[nixiefreqq]

Pleased you didn't try and defend the ugly pig that it is

geeeeeze.  that is pretty harsh.

am tempted to buy it now.  gotta' root for the underdog.

edit  low ball offer submitted.   will curse bean if accepted.

[BU508A]

Pleased you didn't try and defend the ugly pig that it is

geeeeeze.  that is pretty harsh.

am tempted to buy it now.  gotta' root for the underdog.

If you're going to buy it, please take a picture from it next to a TI calculator.
The calculator will look much better, then. 

[nixiefreqq]

Pleased you didn't try and defend the ugly pig that it is

geeeeeze.  that is pretty harsh.

am tempted to buy it now.  gotta' root for the underdog.

If you're going to buy it, please take a picture from it next to a TI calculator.
The calculator will look much better, then. 

you guys are mean and ornery. 

[Ero-Shan]

Grrr. I'm not happy at all.

Remember that GPSDO? I decided to allow the backlight brightness to be set with the encoder (switching between time/date and a never changing position wasn't going to exhaust the encoder).
A rather trivial change ...
But now the poor thing crashes after several minutes! (Without the antenna connected, it survives several hours ...)

Stack mark corrupted at 00000000
The system was up since 00:00:00.0
   r0=000013dc     r1=00000008     r2=00000000     r3=08000001
   r4=000020ec     r5=00000002     r6=00000000     r7=000014f8
   r8=00000000     r9=fff81039    r10=00004104    r11=00000000
  r12=fff81025    r13=000022a0    r14=fff810e0    r15=00000010
   pc=00000000    isp=000013dc    usp=00002280   intb=fff9a238
  bpc=00000000  fintv=00000000
  psw=08000001     8 s -- ---C   bpsw=00000000     0 s -- ----
I-Stack:
000013cc  00000000 00000008 00000000 08000001
[...]

While my changes simply cannot account for this, I have the suspicion that my installation of a new toolchain (gcc 9.3.0) might have something to do with it.
As I can't use an emulator, that'll discolor another bunch of hairs. 

[BU508A]

About 15 years ago, we (developers) moved to a different building. The DCS guys where transferred to a different place, far away. In the deserted building remained a pile of trash, where I found a small black box with 4 FASTON terminals, labeled OUT L, IN L, IN N, OUT N. Didn't know what it was, but kept it.
When I brought those hauls in - now about 2.5 years ago, there where these isolation transformers I knew to trigger circuit breakers. While rummaging through my belongings, I came across that small box and opened it for the first time. I saw a biggish NTC, a little electronics and a relay.I actually couldn't believe it: That was exactly what I needed!

It is this:



Sorry for the lousy pic, but it was awkward to take.

Nice! 

This finding has saved you around 42 Euros.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/231403888036

[beanflying]

Pleased you didn't try and defend the ugly pig that it is

geeeeeze.  that is pretty harsh.

am tempted to buy it now.  gotta' root for the underdog.

If you're going to buy it, please take a picture from it next to a TI calculator.
The calculator will look much better, then. 

you guys are mean and ornery.

HP = Calculator  eBay auction: #133375945109 That fluke is still ugly 

[BU508A]

Pleased you didn't try and defend the ugly pig that it is

geeeeeze.  that is pretty harsh.

am tempted to buy it now.  gotta' root for the underdog.

If you're going to buy it, please take a picture from it next to a TI calculator.
The calculator will look much better, then. 

you guys are mean and ornery.

HP = Calculator  eBay auction: #133375945109

*blerk*   

This thing was surely the result of a very unholy HP - Fluke collaboration back in the days. 

 

[Brumby]

In general, I have a soft spot for HP - but that thing can stay outside.

That type of industrial look (to put it nicely) just does not tick any boxes.  Sorry.

*blerk*

Good word choice.

[bd139]

That calculator is a Kinpo made abomination for the office market with an HP logo on it. Remember HP is effectively dead now. Even the RPN guys left out everything into the fucked up miss that is the 39G OS and curled out the Prime.

There’s a market for decent calculators still I reckon.

[Specmaster]

 , a four banger calculator, especially in that shape regardless of the name will not be making its way into my collection, thats for sure 

[nixiefreqq]

in its defense....it does have an equal key.......


oh shit.....*blerk*......


even the freqq could not pretend to like that POS.


look at all the exposed screw heads.....wtf?

[bd139]

Frankencalculator.

[med6753]

I'm gonna bid on it. 


Not! 

[xrunner]

That calculator is a Kinpo made abomination for the office market with an HP logo on it. Remember HP is effectively dead now. Even the RPN guys left out everything into the fucked up miss that is the 39G OS and curled out the Prime.

There’s a market for decent calculators still I reckon.

What is the key with the two white lines supposed to do?

[bd139]

It invokes the ghost of me, at which point I will collect your soul for its sins.

[BU508A]

Frankencalculator.

Please, do not offend this poor Frankenstein monster. He doesn't deserve it.   

[Saskia]

just returned from a shopping trip under PPE which included 400 km of driving. No, once you don the gear and touch something potentially infectious, you cannot take off the gear until you can go throu decon.

picked up a shiny GTX1060 for a hundred, and - in continuation of yesterday's discord session - a Technics SL-Q3 for 10.

Both are still undergoing simmer down procedures, the GTX will be sprayed down with IPA later today, the Technics can just cool off where it currently is.

[Ero-Shan]

in its defense....it does have an equal key.......


oh shit.....*blerk*......


even the freqq could not pretend to like that POS.


look at all the exposed screw heads.....wtf?

I love them. They give it a certain steampunky appearance.

[Specmaster]

That calculator is a Kinpo made abomination for the office market with an HP logo on it. Remember HP is effectively dead now. Even the RPN guys left out everything into the fucked up miss that is the 39G OS and curled out the Prime.

There’s a market for decent calculators still I reckon.

What is the key with the two white lines supposed to do?

That is the "sanity" key. It allows you to check and re-enter the last number if you made a mistake before committing to the result   

[Specmaster]

just returned from a shopping trip under PPE which included 400 km of driving. No, once you don the gear and touch something potentially infectious, you cannot take off the gear until you can go throu decon.

picked up a shiny GTX1060 for a hundred, and - in continuation of yesterday's discord session - a Technics SL 3 for 10.

Both are still undergoing simmer down procedures, the GTX will be sprayed down with IPA later today, the Technics can just cool off where it currently is.

Do a trip like that over here at the moment and your very likely to get tugged by the police, a woman recently was fined £850 for being on a railway platform 90 miles away from home because she refused to say why she was there.

[bd139]

That conviction was quashed. The police had no basis to issue the fine. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-52148020

[Saskia]

I know, it is similar in the state next door (state, not country) ... We do not have a lockdown like that over here, they just prohibited get-togethers where more than 2 folks are involved. So my stunt was not illegal per se, and over here there are many cars on the road.

However: I still kept the social distancing, all that was involved was handing over the money without personal contact and pick up the box. Plus, that was done while wearing an FFP2 mask and disposable gloves. The interior of the car has already been sprayed down with IPA, so that should be ok for now.
And while this may sound like "overkill" I want to keep it reasonably safe for all parties involved. I just could not resist those offers.