Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 14562374 times)

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Offline Cerebus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65375 on: August 03, 2020, 03:42:05 pm »
Don't know what is worst:

1) Stickers

Ohh I need to buy something now...

My new stickers have just arrived, ready to help avoid me picking up other people's laptop/tablet/etc.

The five interesting numbers in one highly useful and relevant equation - what's not to like.

A personal favourite, but too common among a certain class of people. I favour a black and yellow biohazard symbol with "virology lab" written on it marker and a convincing looking stain or two.
Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 
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Online bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65376 on: August 03, 2020, 03:43:35 pm »
Don't know what is worst:

1) Stickers

Ohh I need to buy something now...

My new stickers have just arrived, ready to help avoid me picking up other people's laptop/tablet/etc.

The five interesting numbers in one highly useful and relevant equation - what's not to like.

A personal favourite, but too common among a certain class of people. I favour a black and yellow biohazard symbol with "virology lab" written on it marker and a convincing looking stain or two.

I had some bags labelled like that for my sandwiches a few years back at work :)
 
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65377 on: August 03, 2020, 03:50:06 pm »
guys i have seen the term RIFA a lot...what kind of caps are those... other then smelly things if they go wrong on you? any pictures? With what you replace them?

   That's the inside of my old PM3217 after one blew. I replace them with RIFAs. They are excellent parts and do the job required well but they do have a lifespan.

Wait... what trickery is this... is somebody else saying that some variety of non-electrolytic capacitor might be... *gulp* livestock...?

mnem
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Offline drussell

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65378 on: August 03, 2020, 03:53:02 pm »
Yeah, see, that's the problem. Up here, it doesn't appear you CAN buy anything but the minis; I haven't seen a regular BIC lighter since I escaped the DFU territories. Maybe it's some safety regulation about the amount of liquid butane per unit, I dunno. The single most common lighter I've seen is a 3-pack of BIC minis.  :-//

Weird...  Must be a local or Ontario thing.  Out West here the standard (big) ones are the norm, with the minis more difficult to find, not that I have any idea why you'd want the minis. 

I buy the big ones in the 5-packs, usually about $6 or so, the individual prices are insane now at most stores.

(As an aside, the novelty Extra-Large and EXTRA-HUGE ones that I've seen are all just a regular sized BIC in a massive piece of plastic, it's not like you get any more gas.)  Also, you used to be able to find ones with randomly smaller and larger flames (after they stopped making the adjustable ones) and I would always try to find ones with smaller flames if I was buying individually, since they last so much longer, but now they have their QC to the point where they always have giant flames to make you burn up the gas faster.  The bastards.

As for size comparison objects, +1 on an "obviously AA" batterycell.  That was going to be my suggestion the other day but forgot to actually post it.
 

Offline FransW

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65379 on: August 03, 2020, 03:57:29 pm »
Hi all,

I am looking for a Panaplex gas discharge display, the BR09450 (9 digits) for one of my
Philips-Fluke counters.
Once they were part of the Radioshack EC-1000 calculator.

Any suggestions?

Frans
PE1CCN, Systems Engineering, HP, Philips, TEK, BRYMAN, Fluke, Keithley
 

Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65380 on: August 03, 2020, 04:04:09 pm »
Bic lighter.

A palpable hit. Yes, as Mnem says a little further down there are size variants, but I think that they're visually distinguishable enough that you'd not be fooled by anything other than the very cunning substitution of a mini-bic variant. Hits the "you know what one feels like in your hands" psychological sweet spot.

That's not what I was getting at. What I was getting at was the fact that which BIC lighters are commonly available seems to differ with region. Pretty sure most people around here would consider the mini-BIC as the "standard", and would judge based on the "feel" of that size. :o

I dunno... maybe a Zippo lighter instead? Real Zippos have been the same for over a century. Except that of course, they have a "slim" variant as well, and very few, except hardcore smokers (I was one once), are willing to put up with the smell and chemical burns on the thighs if you overfill... so how universal is that as a standard?

I still think that the AA cell is probably going to be the most universal standard of size, and also fills that "you know what it feels like in your hand" visceral component. :-//

mnem
 :-/O
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65381 on: August 03, 2020, 04:16:26 pm »
Question for all of you. What common object, other than a ruler, would one use for scale in a photograph that is universal? Yeah, a ruler works but it doesn't have that same visceral feel that, say, a box of matches does.

For the Brits, a standard box of matches would work, but the "standard box of matches" varies in size around the world. A packet of Gitanes is the same size the world over but most people don't have a pack of French Cancer Sticks to hand. A bunch of keys? Pretty universal but you don't really want to embed the key profile of your front door key in a photo for publication. I've been over a few other things in my mind and discounted all of them as not universal enough. Pencil? The ubiquitous Bic? Too long and thin. Cups and cutlery are too variable in size.

I finally hit on a standard pack of playing cards. Right kind of scale, the same size all over the world, something that fits in the hand.

So, can anyone else think of a common household object that is truly universal worldwide, and that fits the bill better than a pack of cards? Thoughts? Something obvious that I've missed?

I'd suggest D6 (Dice, six-sided). They are very common and the standard size of them is 16x16x16mm³   

Good, undoubtedly. I'm not sure that I like the fact that the two 'best' results so far are playing cards and dice - both standardised worldwide as the result of commercial gambling (the only lawful vice that I find myself tutting over and condemning whenever I encounter it).

That's a good one too... hindsight agrees with you about the penny. I think the two best so far are this and a AA cell. What about a can of soda?

mnem
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65382 on: August 03, 2020, 04:31:08 pm »
Question for all of you. What common object, other than a ruler, would one use for scale in a photograph that is universal? Yeah, a ruler works but it doesn't have that same visceral feel that, say, a box of matches does.

For the Brits, a standard box of matches would work, but the "standard box of matches" varies in size around the world. A packet of Gitanes is the same size the world over but most people don't have a pack of French Cancer Sticks to hand. A bunch of keys? Pretty universal but you don't really want to embed the key profile of your front door key in a photo for publication. I've been over a few other things in my mind and discounted all of them as not universal enough. Pencil? The ubiquitous Bic? Too long and thin. Cups and cutlery are too variable in size.

I finally hit on a standard pack of playing cards. Right kind of scale, the same size all over the world, something that fits in the hand.

So, can anyone else think of a common household object that is truly universal worldwide, and that fits the bill better than a pack of cards? Thoughts? Something obvious that I've missed?
Not to sure about worldwide but certainly UK wide, a £1 coin. Playing cards don't hack it for me because you certainly can get different sized packs of playing cards, for instance, you can get tiny ones in Xmas crackers for a start  >:D

Standard full size cards are really incredibly consistent. I've just pulled out the three packs I have: a set from the NHS promoting Hepatitis-C awareness (yes, really), a novelty set featuring pictures of wild cats, and a plain pack from WH Smith. I've pulled a random card pulled from each pack and stacked them together - perhaps 0.5mm variance between them. Yes, there are miniature novelty cards that are highly variable but hopefully only a muppet would either use then to indicate scale or expect that someone else had used them to indicate scale.

There are ~13 industry standard sizes tho... the most popular in North America are Poker size (63mm x 88mm, 2.5" x 3.5") and Bridge size (56mm x 88mm, 2.25" x 3.5") with Jumbo size cards (89mm x 146mm, 3.5" x 5.75") a distant third, but still quite popular with the reading glasses age group. What about over there?

mnem
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Offline Cerebus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65383 on: August 03, 2020, 04:41:26 pm »
Good, undoubtedly. I'm not sure that I like the fact that the two 'best' results so far are playing cards and dice - both standardised worldwide as the result of commercial gambling (the only lawful vice that I find myself tutting over and condemning whenever I encounter it).

I have to disagree. Playing games with cards or dices aren't necessarily commercial gambling games.
One of my hobbies is playing board games and role playing. Those are coming with huge loads of dices of all kind.

As a one time enthusiastic card and backgammon player I have no problem with that. My thesis is that it is commercial gambling that has driven the standardisation. It's of little matter that the cards or dice one uses at home or in the pub vary a little from a 'standard' size.  At a casino table it does matter because of the opportunities for cheating that are offered by messing with some size parameters.
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Online bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65384 on: August 03, 2020, 04:51:20 pm »
Ok fixed the TG320 already. T'was not too difficult. Not going to argue with the seller over it as I was expecting some problems.

Two small issues. One of the output transistors had been damaged during "Friday afternoon assembly" by the looks and had given up, causing the output to sit at 15V. Secondarily the output attenuator switches were slightly iffy. Have been fixed trivially with WD40 zero residue contact cleaner.

Fortunately the output transistor that was munted happened to be a ubiquitous 2N2219A and I had a couple of Philips ones floating around. Popped a new one in and done:

British QA for you  :-DD:

 
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65385 on: August 03, 2020, 04:51:33 pm »
@bd139, Those batteries on the 3478A are a BT701 and are only 3V anyway so I would say that it is fine safely leave the battery as it is.
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Offline Cerebus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65386 on: August 03, 2020, 04:52:50 pm »
guys i have seen the term RIFA a lot...what kind of caps are those... other then smelly things if they go wrong on you? any pictures? With what you replace them?

   That's the inside of my old PM3217 after one blew. I replace them with RIFAs. They are excellent parts and do the job required well but they do have a lifespan.

Wait... what trickery is this... is somebody else saying that some variety of non-electrolytic capacitor might be... *gulp* livestock...?

mnem


Yes, some. But not "most non-ceramic capacitors" as recently asserted by some party who really should know better.

Quote from: dictionary
most | məʊst |
determiner
greatest in amount, quantity, or degree: they've had the most success | the candidate with most votes wins.
• the majority of; nearly all of: most oranges are sweeter than these.

 >:D (Yes, I know I'm being snarky, but I felt like giving in to the urge for once.)
Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 

Offline SilverSolder

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65387 on: August 03, 2020, 04:53:05 pm »
Question for all of you. What common object, other than a ruler, would one use for scale in a photograph that is universal? Yeah, a ruler works but it doesn't have that same visceral feel that, say, a box of matches does.

For the Brits, a standard box of matches would work, but the "standard box of matches" varies in size around the world. A packet of Gitanes is the same size the world over but most people don't have a pack of French Cancer Sticks to hand. A bunch of keys? Pretty universal but you don't really want to embed the key profile of your front door key in a photo for publication. I've been over a few other things in my mind and discounted all of them as not universal enough. Pencil? The ubiquitous Bic? Too long and thin. Cups and cutlery are too variable in size.

I finally hit on a standard pack of playing cards. Right kind of scale, the same size all over the world, something that fits in the hand.

So, can anyone else think of a common household object that is truly universal worldwide, and that fits the bill better than a pack of cards? Thoughts? Something obvious that I've missed?

I'd suggest D6 (Dice, six-sided). They are very common and the standard size of them is 16x16x16mm³



Good, undoubtedly. I'm not sure that I like the fact that the two 'best' results so far are playing cards and dice - both standardised worldwide as the result of commercial gambling (the only lawful vice that I find myself tutting over and condemning whenever I encounter it).

I have to disagree. Playing games with cards or dices aren't necessarily commercial gambling games.
One of my hobbies is playing board games and role playing. Those are coming with huge loads of dices of all kind.

(From one non-native English speaker to another)  Dice is a funny word in English.   It is actually:  one Die, and two (or more) Dice!  :D

 
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Online bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65388 on: August 03, 2020, 04:53:33 pm »
@bd139, Those batteries on the 3478A are a BT701 and are only 3V anyway so I would say that it is fine safely leave the battery as it is.

Thanks - that's the plan. I will lurk for a USB GPIB interface I think and grab one if it turns up, then tackle it after I've backed up the cal data  :-DD
 

Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65389 on: August 03, 2020, 05:02:41 pm »
My cousin had one crash in his back garden a couple of years ago. His dog had a go at it before the owner got there and chewed a couple of the blades off.  :-DD
Why did the owner chew a couple blades off? :-DD

If it was a fukkin' Phantom, no need to ask further. Statistically, Phantom owners appear to be as dumb as a bag of hammers. Probably just taking advantage of how much easier they are to chew when they aren't spinning.  >:D

mnem
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65390 on: August 03, 2020, 05:08:19 pm »
Yeah, see, that's the problem. Up here, it doesn't appear you CAN buy anything but the minis; I haven't seen a regular BIC lighter since I escaped the DFU territories. Maybe it's some safety regulation about the amount of liquid butane per unit, I dunno. The single most common lighter I've seen is a 3-pack of BIC minis.  :-//

Weird...  Must be a local or Ontario thing.  Out West here the standard (big) ones are the norm, with the minis more difficult to find, not that I have any idea why you'd want the minis. 

I buy the big ones in the 5-packs, usually about $6 or so, the individual prices are insane now at most stores.

(As an aside, the novelty Extra-Large and EXTRA-HUGE ones that I've seen are all just a regular sized BIC in a massive piece of plastic, it's not like you get any more gas.)  Also, you used to be able to find ones with randomly smaller and larger flames (after they stopped making the adjustable ones) and I would always try to find ones with smaller flames if I was buying individually, since they last so much longer, but now they have their QC to the point where they always have giant flames to make you burn up the gas faster.  The bastards.

As for size comparison objects, +1 on an "obviously AA" batterycell.  That was going to be my suggestion the other day but forgot to actually post it.

I swear, I have LOOKED for the full-size BICs several times as I too prefer them on a visceral level. Also strangely, none of the Cricket or Scripto econo-lighters.  ??? Mostly all I found was either mini-BICs or some variant of the cheap Chinese pocket blowtorch/jet-flame lighter. :-//

mnem
Of course I bought one of those as well. >:D
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Offline Cerebus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65391 on: August 03, 2020, 05:10:25 pm »
There are ~13 industry standard sizes tho... the most popular in North America are Poker size (63mm x 88mm, 2.5" x 3.5") and Bridge size (56mm x 88mm, 2.25" x 3.5") with Jumbo size cards (89mm x 146mm, 3.5" x 5.75") a distant third, but still quite popular with the reading glasses age group. What about over there?

I guess I mean "standard contract bridge" cards which is all you ever see here if you go and buy a pack of cards from any shop. I was vaguely aware of standardized poker cards but have never knowingly seen a pack in real life. Jumbo magician's cards are, obviously, right out. By "standard playing card" the intent was what the average Joe would recognise as a fair indicator of scale in a picture, not some precisely quantifiable card that someone could use to reconstruct the dimensions of the pictured object. For the purposes at hand either bridge or poker cards would do the trick quite satisfactorily.
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65392 on: August 03, 2020, 05:16:31 pm »
Yeah... that's what I was asking. In the US, you go into any general merchant and you're likely to find any or all of those three variants. Didn't know if that was the case over there.

mnem
 :popcorn:

« Last Edit: August 03, 2020, 05:24:42 pm by mnementh »
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65393 on: August 03, 2020, 05:21:38 pm »
guys i have seen the term RIFA a lot...what kind of caps are those... other then smelly things if they go wrong on you? any pictures? With what you replace them?

   That's the inside of my old PM3217 after one blew. I replace them with RIFAs. They are excellent parts and do the job required well but they do have a lifespan.

Wait... what trickery is this... is somebody else saying that some variety of non-electrolytic capacitor might be... *gulp* livestock...?

mnem


Yes, some. But not "most non-ceramic capacitors" as recently asserted by some party who really should know better.

Quote from: dictionary
most | məʊst |
determiner
greatest in amount, quantity, or degree: they've had the most success | the candidate with most votes wins.
• the majority of; nearly all of: most oranges are sweeter than these.

 >:D (Yes, I know I'm being snarky, but I felt like giving in to the urge for once.)

Fair enough. In THIS CASE, however, I remain unconvinced that non-ceramic, non-electrolytic capacitors are in fact a majority ANYWHERE but in Mr. Carlson's Lab, and maybe cubdriver's basement. ;) I'd love to see evidence to the contrary.  >:D

[EDIT] I see dipped mylar/polyester variants being the most likely to tip the balance; but I'm still not sure. I should have included them in my "broad generalization", but I didn't at the time; so the die is now set.  :P

mnem
« Last Edit: August 03, 2020, 05:58:08 pm by mnementh »
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65394 on: August 03, 2020, 05:24:01 pm »
"Does the bear shit in the woods"? Don't bet on it.  :-DD

I believe that you'll find the phrase is "Is the bear catholic, does the pope shit in the woods?".

Yes, I have used that phase many times. However, since I have not seen a funny old man in long robes and a beanie hat walking around the woods I have to assume the responsible party this time was the bear.  ;D

Oh yeah... that was sommmme party...  :-DD

mnem
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65395 on: August 03, 2020, 05:24:45 pm »
@bd139, Those batteries on the 3478A are a BT701 and are only 3V anyway so I would say that it is fine safely leave the battery as it is.

Thanks - that's the plan. I will lurk for a USB GPIB interface I think and grab one if it turns up, then tackle it after I've backed up the cal data  :-DD
Absolutely no need to do that, pull down a data sheet on the RAM chip and you'll be pleasantly surprised to see that it is down to 1.6V
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Offline Cerebus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65396 on: August 03, 2020, 05:28:35 pm »
Yeah, see, that's the problem. Up here, it doesn't appear you CAN buy anything but the minis; I haven't seen a regular BIC lighter since I escaped the DFU territories. Maybe it's some safety regulation about the amount of liquid butane per unit, I dunno. The single most common lighter I've seen is a 3-pack of BIC minis.  :-//

Missed the bit about "amount of liquid butane per unit" the first time around. Some might think that sounds a bit 'nanny state' and usually I'd agree. But, many years ago a friend/colleague had a disposable light shatter in his hand just as he was striking it. Ye gods it made a mess of him. He eventually recovered but it took months, a lot of pain and left scars. So this is one occasion where, if that is the reason behind the local absence of 'full size' Bics, I'm not going to criticise.

Weird...  Must be a local or Ontario thing.  Out West here the standard (big) ones are the norm, with the minis more difficult to find, not that I have any idea why you'd want the minis. 

They are very convenient if you want portable fire but you don't want it to take up space or weight. Now, that sounds like statin' the bleedin' obvious but it's not meant to be. A smoker is quite happy to devote space to a lighter, but someone who just wants constant access to fire might carry one in the same way someone will put one of those single AAA Maglites on their keyring  "just in case". It's so small that the extra burden is acceptable for something that may get little frequent use.
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65397 on: August 03, 2020, 05:51:35 pm »
No argument here. When I was a smoker I had a nearly new one of the cheap crystal-plastic econo-lighters explode in my hand just from absently flexing it. Dunno if it was a manufacturing defect or if it had been damaged in my pocket; I was working in a auto boneyard at the time so impact damage was quite likely.

It drove a couple shards into the palm of my hand and the cloud of vapor literally engulfed my upper body, making me cough and gag fur a couple breaths until I realized what had happened and moved. The skin of my entire hand was flash-frozen for almost a minute; it hurt like a mofo until several minutes after it thawed. As you might imagine, even at that age I had sense enough to seriously consider "What if...?" the lighter had actually ignited. :scared:

After that I went back to my Zippo; then when I got tired of chemical burns on my leg I started buying BICs. Never again on the cheapies.

*mnemories*
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Offline factory

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65398 on: August 03, 2020, 05:55:32 pm »
Ok 3478A test report:

1. RIFAs are good. No sign of cracking. Will replace anyway.
2. Main filter cap tests good for ESR.
3. Battery backup at 3.044V. Need to work out if that's ok to leave or not.
4. Self test passes.
5. DC volts -> works fine. Agrees to the mV with the 8060A
6. AC volts -> works fine. Agrees to the mV with the 8060A.
7. DC amps -> works fine. Agrees to the mA with the 8060A.
8. Resistance -> works fine. Agress to the ohm with the 8060A.
9. All keyboard buttons work.
10. Front and rear jacks work fine as does the switch.
11. AC amps untested. I'll do that another day but I don't need it really.

That's a win!

Definite win!  :-+

guys i have seen the term RIFA a lot...what kind of caps are those... other then smelly things if they go wrong on you?
any pictures?
With what you replace them?

Try this

Replacing them with corresponding X2 and Y2 capacitors from other brands, e.g. WIMA, Kemet, ...

Kemet took over RIFA and WIMA also make some paper crapacitors too. I really don't know why they still make these, they should have disappeared decades ago, at work we have had RIFA/Kemet paper crapacitors go open circuit after less than 5 years in service.

Note: not all the RIFA capacitors in the translucent yellow casings are paper based, you need to read the data-sheets to find out if they are paper or plastic film types.

A long thread about these crapacitors on the vintage radio forum; https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=69128

David
« Last Edit: August 03, 2020, 06:03:32 pm by factory »
 
The following users thanked this post: bitseeker, BU508A, tonyalbus

Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #65399 on: August 03, 2020, 06:00:49 pm »
Yebbutt... don't all of them in that package eventually craze and crack, making them a liability anyways...?

mnem
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