Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mansaxel]

Consumer side is a shit show these days. Total one trick pony. They’re still stuck in pre 2010 thinking culture ie before the rise of the smartphone. The last Sony product I bought was a W880i phone. Typically it was what Sony always did by then: crappy user interface designed to look nice but having major software, electrical and mechanical flaws. Same story across their phone, television, car radio and hifi lines by then.

I've got one Sony consumer thing: A smartphone.  And I'm largely happy with it.

Your W880i is more of a Ericsson device than a Sony. The before-Androids are very much rebranded Sausage Factory. (Sausage Factory is what we call Ericsson in Sweden because the logo looks like three bangers, sans mash: ///. )

[BU508A]

Sony Xperia Z1 here. In use since 2015 and still happy with it. I do like the cam but I think todays smartphone cameras are much better.

[bd139]

Consumer side is a shit show these days. Total one trick pony. They’re still stuck in pre 2010 thinking culture ie before the rise of the smartphone. The last Sony product I bought was a W880i phone. Typically it was what Sony always did by then: crappy user interface designed to look nice but having major software, electrical and mechanical flaws. Same story across their phone, television, car radio and hifi lines by then.

I've got one Sony consumer thing: A smartphone.  And I'm largely happy with it.

Your W880i is more of a Ericsson device than a Sony. The before-Androids are very much rebranded Sausage Factory. (Sausage Factory is what we call Ericsson in Sweden because the logo looks like three bangers, sans mash: ///. )

W880i was Sony all over. Proprietary headphones and charger port (that wore out after a month), stupid interface, lurid branding, Walkman as primary function etc. They removed all the sensible sausage bits

One thing you can tell about Sony stuff is it sounds like Sony stuff. If you go in M&S here and buy their own brand stuff it tastes of MSG etc; Sony is the sound equivalent.

Sony Xperia Z1 here. In use since 2015 and still happy with it. I do like the cam but I think todays smartphone cameras are much better.

Isn’t that thoroughly abandoned by Sony now? Around 2015 was the time smartphone cameras got reasonably usable.

[BU508A]

Sony Xperia Z1 here. In use since 2015 and still happy with it. I do like the cam but I think todays smartphone cameras are much better.

Isn’t that thoroughly abandoned by Sony now? Around 2015 was the time smartphone cameras got reasonably usable.

Perhaps, I'm not sure about that. I've bought it second hand and I do not follow the smartphone hype. 

[bd139]

Abandoned as in no security patches. No hype there.

[BU508A]

I hate it to be forced to buy a new phone because the vendor stopped delivering security updates.   

Edit:

Wikipedia about the Xperia Z1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Xperia_Z1

[bd139]

Yes so do I. It’s why I refuse to buy another android handset. Got screwed by HTC and Motorola. Also why it’s universally banned for BYOD and company provided handsets at the last three places I’ve worked now. People keep telling me it’s improving but they haven’t really. Even Google’s offerings aren’t good.

Selling an iPhone 6s I’ve had since 2015 at the moment. Latest iOS and updates. Still supported on iOS 14 but will be stopped on iOS 15 at EOY but will be patched until end of 2022. Why can’t everyone do that

Edit: to be honest my principle complaint is about this stuff turning into corporate ewaste almost immediately because the vendor doesn’t see it as profitable to maintain a device on the software and hardware front. I’d rather invest in a company that does consider longevity both in software and hardware and ewaste and recycling and doesn’t force the end user to accept security risks if they want to retain a device for a reasonable amount of time.

[Zucca]

Jelly 2 is my dream. I let now the kickstarter army to test it for me...

I have a Samsung S8, until its heart beats I will never burn other money in a phone. I like the Jelly 2 idea A LOT.

Other interesting shit,
Librem
Fairphone

 

[bd139]

I love the idea of those but they get abandoned faster than anything when no one buys them 

[Zucca]

hey bd let's team up and do it   

PS: why I am forced to buy always what everybody buys the most... I want my FREEDOM back! 

[tggzzz]

I need a phone that fits in my trouser pocket along with keys and wallet, and has a speaker so that I can hear it.

That rules out computers containing a phone.

Fortunately Doro still make nice and cheap clamshell phones for the deaf

[BU508A]

you mean something like this?



 

[bd139]

hey bd let's team up and do it   

PS: why I am forced to buy always what everybody buys the most... I want my FREEDOM back! 

Freedom is just another form of slavery. Someone I know who moved out to the sticks to a small holding is learning that at the moment 

There’s a mid point. Which is embrace the logical best but always have an exit plan.

[tggzzz]

you mean something like this?



 

More like

[Specmaster]

Jelly 2 is my dream. I let now the kickstarter army to test it for me...

I have a Samsung S8, until its heart beats I will never burn other money in a phone. I like the Jelly 2 idea A LOT.

Other interesting shit,
Librem
Fairphone

 

No good for me, i Have huge hands, so I need a large phone. I hate using my phone in reality as apart from using as a phone

[mansaxel]

W880i was Sony all over. Proprietary headphones and charger port (that wore out after a month), stupid interface, lurid branding, Walkman as primary function etc. They removed all the sensible sausage bits

I have to disagree here. The "Proprietary headphones and charger port" is an Ericsson invention; it is a direct grandchild of the late-90s plugs/interfaces they had long before Sony stopped doing reel-to-reel machines ;-)  I still have both chargers and headsets for that and the previous generation.

The W880i was branded Sony Ericsson (as an expression of the joint venture between the companies that eventually led to Sony buying the entire phone side.) but was designed in Sweden (and the walkman bits poured in pretty late) and is very much a product of the stylish house in Lund where they designed "terminals" which is ///-speak for "mobile phone".

[BU508A]

Bought today a MASTECH MS8911 on ebay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/283341251476

Arrived today. Looking good so far. 
Pictures will follow this evening.

[Cerebus]

Final Product:



happiness in the air

Looking good.

So, what process did you use in the end?

[med6753]

Classic Sony.

[Zucca]

So, what process did you use in the end?

This    and 140 € shipped and drilled.

[mnementh]

Yup. Sometimes, the ol' credit card simply is the best tool for the job. 

mnem
$$$ vs assache, yo.

[Cerebus]

Consumer side is a shit show these days. Total one trick pony. They’re still stuck in pre 2010 thinking culture ie before the rise of the smartphone. The last Sony product I bought was a W880i phone. Typically it was what Sony always did by then: crappy user interface designed to look nice but having major software, electrical and mechanical flaws. Same story across their phone, television, car radio and hifi lines by then.

If I survey across people I know these days, their entire product line is a bit of a dead end. People don’t own hifi stacks any more, half the people I know don’t have cars and most of them seem to watch stuff on their phones and tablets. And none of them own anything Sony.

RIP but they’re dead to me on the consumer side of things. Apple replaced them.

Edit: actually it has got to the point the TV hasn’t been on here for two weeks now. It’s not even plugged in after I rewired everything. It may go. I’ve got a Sony 26EX320 I’m trying to get rid of too which hasn’t been turned on for months.

I wonder if they were the architects of their own demise. Like Mnem I used to be a bit of a Sony fanboy, I've bought a lot of Sony kit over the years (commercial and professional). They were always at the top of the "take a look" list when I wanted something new and more often than not it was Sony I bought in the end. Then came the root kit scandal when I vowed that I'd never buy Sony again and I haven't bought anything Sony since, not even second hand.

I suspect that I, and my fellow techonerds, made up a significant proportion of Sony's customer base; I certainly used to see a lot of Sony product in fellow geek's houses. If that market segment, or a significant chunk of it worldwide, went away I'd expect it to hurt Sony. Sony were always a bit pricier, and you needed a reason to buy Sony - geeks had it, the general consumer population less so. So if my reaction to the root kit scandal was echoed elsewhere in that market segment then it probably hurt Sony badly. Less sales, less money for R&D, more pressure to find production economies, lower quality product with weaker design to sell.

[mnementh]

Sadly, everything bd said is the case 110%. The only people who buy SONY now is my dad, and then only because some little electronic gewgaw shop still had some NOS Walkman AM/FM radios.

I lied, BTW, on the list... I had forgotten aboot a SONY 30-pin interface iPud alarm-clock/bedside stereo. I used it myself for a while; sound was passable canned rock & roll, just as bd said: full of MSG. The HT receiver is exactly the same. It really only sounds half-decent in ProLogic II/Concert mode; pretty much zero processing, EQ a few ticks up on treble and bass to balance out the mids. I think their blueprint for audio hi-fidelity was an old-school AT&T analog POTS line. 

It's like they took the old HiFi wonk saying (aboot their home stereo speakers) "No highs, no lows, must be BOSE." and made it their raison d'etre.

mnem
Nice pants.

[med6753]

.....snip

I suspect that I, and my fellow techonerds, made up a significant proportion of Sony's customer base; I certainly used to see a lot of Sony product in fellow geek's houses. If that market segment, or a significant chunk of it worldwide, went away I'd expect it to hurt Sony. Sony were always a bit pricier, and you needed a reason to buy Sony - geeks had it, the general consumer population less so. So if my reaction to the root kit scandal was echoed elsewhere in that market segment then it probably hurt Sony badly. Less sales, less money for R&D, more pressure to find production economies, lower quality product with weaker design to sell.

Exactly, That ICF-5500W I posted above cost $110 USD in 1975 which was a significant chunk of change back then when most other similar radios were $50 USD or less. It's needed a few minor repairs over the years and survived a fall to the floor from the top of a refrigerator but still works.

[Cerebus]

Well the HP 66312A turned up here today.

Bummer: despite what ought to have been reasonable packaging by the seller, Parcelfarce managed to smash the shrouds on the terminals.



I've given it a brief functional checkout and the basics all work. In doing so I discovered an interesting feature, the fan speed is directly proportional to the measured output current (or perhaps power). It doesn't change after a thermal lag, it changes immediately the measured output current changes. Neat.

By the way, this is the heaviest 40W PSU I've ever encountered. In fact, I'd go for it being the heaviest PSU in terms of kg/W that I've ever encountered - excluding PSUs that only put out a 100 mW or so, where they're hitting the limits of how small/light you can practically make something that plugs into the mains.

Edit: Just calculated from the specifications: 4.54 W/kg.