Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[BU508A]

Just bought two of these LTZ1000 coffee mugs:



They were designed by forum fellow Noopy. He is doing some hi-res pictures of various chips, eg. the LTZ1000 but also from the dies of power transistors. This is his website: https://www.richis-lab.de/

The mug can be purchased here: https://www.redbubble.com/de/i/tasse/LTZ1000-von-Richis-Lab/63614214.9Q0AD
No further affiliations with him.

[med6753]

I finally got the 3456A adapter for capacitor C5 in the PSU. So tomorrow I'll start the re-cap. If you notice I have 3, but I only need 1. When you order it the part is fabbed in groups of three. So.........



Kosmic and BU508A, heads up. I know you each have a 3456A. Do you want an adapter? And if yes, I think I know how I can get it to you with no customs, no duty, no VAT, no other BS.

These adapters are extremely light. If I take one and tape it to the center of a piece of paper.... 



Then fold the paper as shown.....



Then place it in a 1st class envelope. You don't even know it's there and I doubt it exceeds weight limit for 1st class mail.



So if you want one PM me your full name and address and when I get a chance visit my local PO and see if I can pull this off. All you'll owe me is cost of 1st class to your location.

[BU508A]

@med6753:
PM sent.

Twice. 
Forgot in the first PM to add my snail mail address...     

Thanks for your generous offer, let me know, if I can do something in favour for you. 

[mnementh]

Just bought two of these LTZ1000 coffee mugs:      They were designed by forum fellow Noopy.

He is doing some hi-res pictures of various chips, eg. the LTZ1000 but also from the dies of power transistors. This is his website: https://www.richis-lab.de/

The mug can be purchased here: https://www.redbubble.com/de/i/tasse/LTZ1000-von-Richis-Lab/63614214.9Q0ADNo further affiliations with him.

For those playing along at home, ED has a really good article on this seminal device and why it is so important:

https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/analog/article/21804689/whats-all-this-ltz1000-stuff-anyway

mnem
 

[mnementh]

I finally got the 3456A adapter for capacitor C5 in the PSU. So tomorrow I'll start the re-cap. If you notice I have 3, but I only need 1. When you order it the part is fabbed in groups of three. So......... 

   Kosmic and BU508A, heads up. I know you each have a 3456A. Do you want an adapter? And if yes, I think I know how I can get it to you with no customs, no duty, no VAT, no other BS...

What's really gonna suck is when you get that 321 home and find there's a cap in it you could use that adapter on "with just a little modding"... it always happens to me that way. 

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

Spotted on bidspotter:



Ideal for making your neighbour's teeth rattle.

Yup, that has a decent low bass response, feed it with a few watts and the place will be vibrating like mad.

[mnementh]

Woa  is me, the Microsoft 950 arrived today, in superb condition but sadly upon setting it up and updating the OS it became apparent that it used to be owned by a corporate company who had their own profiles installed to allow them to control certain aspects of the phone. This made very clear during updating the OS with the first update of many it required, when the screen displayed a message that some parameters were being restricted / setup by "my organization"  . A couple of things I noticed after setting up my email client, was that I was unable to click on any links in a email, very useful that. Another is that sometimes sites will freeze and refuse to scroll up or down and I have to crash out.

Dispute has been lodged with the evilbay, more as I get a response from the seller. 

Standard windows phone then . Sounds like it has an MDM profile on it at which point it's a brick.

Is that something burned into the BIOS/NVRAM of the phone, or do they associate it with the serial no in their activation servers and push the profile along with? Any clue?

Just idly wondering if clearing that could be a script-kiddie level hack or if it absolutely requires replacing a mainboard like so many flagship phones...

mnem
*time to go b-day shopping*

[Specmaster]

Woa  is me, the Microsoft 950 arrived today, in superb condition but sadly upon setting it up and updating the OS it became apparent that it used to be owned by a corporate company who had their own profiles installed to allow them to control certain aspects of the phone. This made very clear during updating the OS with the first update of many it required, when the screen displayed a message that some parameters were being restricted / setup by "my organization"  . A couple of things I noticed after setting up my email client, was that I was unable to click on any links in a email, very useful that. Another is that sometimes sites will freeze and refuse to scroll up or down and I have to crash out.

Dispute has been lodged with the evilbay, more as I get a response from the seller. 

Standard windows phone then . Sounds like it has an MDM profile on it at which point it's a brick.

Sounds like you're correct. It does work as a phone, but I want so much more from it though. The good news is that eBay did not drag their feet, although the seller had marked it as returns not accepted, once eBay contacted him about the error message, he has sent me a pre-paid returns label for it and once returned I'll get a refund.

[BU508A]

Just bought two of these LTZ1000 coffee mugs:      They were designed by forum fellow Noopy.

He is doing some hi-res pictures of various chips, eg. the LTZ1000 but also from the dies of power transistors. This is his website: https://www.richis-lab.de/

The mug can be purchased here: https://www.redbubble.com/de/i/tasse/LTZ1000-von-Richis-Lab/63614214.9Q0ADNo further affiliations with him.

For those playing along at home, ED has a really good article on this seminal device and why it is so important:

https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/analog/article/21804689/whats-all-this-ltz1000-stuff-anyway

mnem
 

Nice article, thanks for that. 

But there is one point which I do slightly disagree. 
"It is considered the most stable voltage reference short of a standard cell. Glen Brisebois, an application engineer at Linear Tech, points out “The LTZ1000 is still at the heart of all the highest-grade meters (Fig. 1), until the Josephson junction takes over."

There is a second chip which has nearly the same stability and quality and is also used as a reference in very high grade and high precision devices: the mysterious LTFLU-1, designed and produced in a collaboration with Linear Technology and Fluke and the successor of the SZA263 which has been designed by Motorola.

[Cerebus]

Nice article, thanks for that. 

But there is one point which I do slightly disagree. 
"It is considered the most stable voltage reference short of a standard cell. Glen Brisebois, an application engineer at Linear Tech, points out “The LTZ1000 is still at the heart of all the highest-grade meters (Fig. 1), until the Josephson junction takes over."

There is a second chip which has nearly the same stability and quality and is also used as a reference in very high grade and high precision devices: the mysterious LTFLU-1, designed and produced in a collaboration with Linear Technology and Fluke and the successor of the SZA263 which has been designed by Motorola.

Yeah but Paul Rako (who works for Linear [now Analog]) writing in Electronic Design is going to big up the part he can sell, not the part he can't sell even though they make it too. (Side fact: He used to be at National with Bob Pease, hence the "What's all this" tagline on the article.)

[mnementh]

Woa  is me, the Microsoft 950 arrived today, in superb condition but sadly upon setting it up and updating the OS it became apparent that it used to be owned by a corporate company who had their own profiles installed to allow them to control certain aspects of the phone. This made very clear during updating the OS with the first update of many it required, when the screen displayed a message that some parameters were being restricted / setup by "my organization"  . A couple of things I noticed after setting up my email client, was that I was unable to click on any links in a email, very useful that. Another is that sometimes sites will freeze and refuse to scroll up or down and I have to crash out.

Dispute has been lodged with the evilbay, more as I get a response from the seller. 

Standard windows phone then . Sounds like it has an MDM profile on it at which point it's a brick.

Sounds like you're correct. It does work as a phone, but I want so much more from it though. The good news is that eBay did not drag their feet, although the seller had marked it as returns not accepted, once eBay contacted him about the error message, he has sent me a pre-paid returns label for it and once returned I'll get a refund.

Is it maybe worth the hassle of cracking open and swapping mainboards with a unit that is not in such pristine condition...?

mnem
 

[Specmaster]

Woa  is me, the Microsoft 950 arrived today, in superb condition but sadly upon setting it up and updating the OS it became apparent that it used to be owned by a corporate company who had their own profiles installed to allow them to control certain aspects of the phone. This made very clear during updating the OS with the first update of many it required, when the screen displayed a message that some parameters were being restricted / setup by "my organization"  . A couple of things I noticed after setting up my email client, was that I was unable to click on any links in a email, very useful that. Another is that sometimes sites will freeze and refuse to scroll up or down and I have to crash out.

Dispute has been lodged with the evilbay, more as I get a response from the seller. 

Standard windows phone then . Sounds like it has an MDM profile on it at which point it's a brick.

Sounds like you're correct. It does work as a phone, but I want so much more from it though. The good news is that eBay did not drag their feet, although the seller had marked it as returns not accepted, once eBay contacted him about the error message, he has sent me a pre-paid returns label for it and once returned I'll get a refund.

Is it maybe worth the hassle of cracking open and swapping mainboards with a unit that is not in such pristine condition...?

mnem
 

I was wondering much the same myself. I'm currently attempting to set it up again after doing a complete master reset according to the manual back to factory defaults but I still get a message, see attached. I have tried Google Fu and drawn a blank on this or how to rest that part of it. 

[mnementh]

Looking at this disassembly vid... it appears the MB replacement will be a total cakewalk. Even ol' Shrek-hands here should be able to do it without effin' anythin' up. 

Looks like the only thing standing in your way will be whether the phone is worth buying twice to get a single nice one. Also appears you need to make sure whether you have a single or dual SIM version.

mnem
 

[Cerebus]

I was wondering much the same myself. I'm currently attempting to set it up again after doing a complete master reset according to the manual back to factory defaults but I still get a message, see attached. I have tried Google Fu and drawn a blank on this or how to rest that part of it. 

Looking at that photo I see the phrase that strikes terror into my soul every time I encounter it displayed on a Windows box: "Preparing to install updates".

[Brumby]

First use of my TinySA in anger! .... Checking my wireless doorbell.

Yes, the transmitter works - around 315.2MHz.  Shows up quite nicely.


On to the receiver.......

[cyclin_al]

Woa  is me, the Microsoft 950 arrived today, in superb condition but sadly upon setting it up and updating the OS it became apparent that it used to be owned by a corporate company who had their own profiles installed to allow them to control certain aspects of the phone. This made very clear during updating the OS with the first update of many it required, when the screen displayed a message that some parameters were being restricted / setup by "my organization"  . A couple of things I noticed after setting up my email client, was that I was unable to click on any links in a email, very useful that. Another is that sometimes sites will freeze and refuse to scroll up or down and I have to crash out.

Dispute has been lodged with the evilbay, more as I get a response from the seller. 

Standard windows phone then . Sounds like it has an MDM profile on it at which point it's a brick.

Sounds like you're correct. It does work as a phone, but I want so much more from it though. The good news is that eBay did not drag their feet, although the seller had marked it as returns not accepted, once eBay contacted him about the error message, he has sent me a pre-paid returns label for it and once returned I'll get a refund.

Is it maybe worth the hassle of cracking open and swapping mainboards with a unit that is not in such pristine condition...?

mnem
 

I was wondering much the same myself. I'm currently attempting to set it up again after doing a complete master reset according to the manual back to factory defaults but I still get a message, see attached. I have tried Google Fu and drawn a blank on this or how to rest that part of it. 

Is there any value in looking into that Windows 10 Mobile build number?  There is a chance that it is a custom build for that organization, which would only update to other builds for that organization.  I am wondering if you could somehow force installation of another regular build of the OS that you would get back the regular configuration?

I know my work tablet has an organization-specific Windows 10 build on it.  The IT guy had to factory reset it one time, and it definitely did not come back up as vanilla Windows 10.  The IT guy said the OS had cherry-picked modules in the build.  So, I wonder if this is a similar case?

[bd139]

It’s not a custom build. The MDM policy survives a full reset on WP. This was a security guarantee similar to the iOS device lock. It even survives a complete reflash.

Ultimately and I’ll probably get kicked for this one: it’s a brick. It’s a brick even if it works. I think it’s September this year and the device won’t even register or sign into MS any more. They’re turning that off along with the update sources. They already killed the firmware distribution tools.

I know it’s a relatively nice instance of one but it’s a dead platform that is vendor locked and unlike iOS no effort is being made to keep the cogs spinning on older versions.

Buy a different handset or you’re going to wake up one day and fine it’s not even a phone.

Edit: 950 was released in 2015. I’ve got an iPhone 6s here as my backup phone which was released at the same time. This has full and latest iOS 14 support. Apple are still providing security updates for the 5S as of Jan 2021 which was released in 2013!  You get what you pay for. Talking of which I need to get the battery swapped out on the 6s as it’s had it - lasted 6 years which was good 

[mansaxel]

Ultimately and I’ll probably get kicked for this one: it’s a brick. It’s a brick even if it works.

The military gave me one for work. I agree. The windows phones were "bricks" back then too -- but with an astonishing battery time, mostly because there neither are nor were any apps that could run and consume power! 

I used mine for SMS, phone and email, and as hotspot, since we were given free data plans, globally, with the cunning, stated, plan being that we'd bring them on vacation. We went Interrailing with children one time. Very convenient.

[bd139]

Yes I had a few of them myself until I got fed up of being screwed by Microsoft. I invested heavily in the platform about bought the very first Lumia that came out which was great but was abandoned when they switched the kernel from CE to NT. Most of the app vendors decided there wasn't enough market share for a rewrite. Then they abandoned everyone again when they moved from WP 8 to WP 10. That wasn't even architectural changes and they managed to screw the end users, the hardware vendors and the app vendors at the same time, twice. They *always* do this with everything. Their development frameworks are just as bad. Have to rewrite the entire universe ever few years.

I was out.

[BU508A]

There is a new video from Marco Reps.
Topic today: a 8.5 digit voltmeter from CERN

[Zucca]

Not sure where in the US you are moving, but if it's minimally civilized in an reasonably urban area power should be stable enough. Over here I never add any incident and I simply use the typical power bar you can buy everywhere.

By the way, you can find 220v in most installation in North-America. It's normally used for the oven, heating etc.. so you could potentially have a dedicated circuit for your European instruments.

SC.
One day I came back home, lights were acting funny, spider senses activated, let me measure: 230VAC between hot and cold wire. I quickly turned off the main switch. The internet modem PSU was melted, thank God it was the only damage. Since that day I never trusted again the USA main grid.

Yes I know about the 220VAC 60Hz in the US grid that's why I want to add a small europe main sub-distr. line in my US home (60Hz does not matter).

I am sorry but the US mains, plugs and general safety are a paleolithic no sense teenager game compared to european standards.
Oh thank God not all the US homes are made with flammable wood... oh ops ermmm....

And I don't want to mention the rodant problem since all the main cable are just slapped in the walls...

I can't stop thinking this situation like someone smoking in a barn with gasoline tank open in the other hand, and yes I worried and scared about a thermal event in my USA home. It would be a spectacular failure.

It could be my first youtube video in my channel, comparing mains north america with european standards.

[Specmaster]

Looking at this disassembly vid... it appears the MB replacement will be a total cakewalk. Even ol' Shrek-hands here should be able to do it without effin' anythin' up. 

Looks like the only thing standing in your way will be whether the phone is worth buying twice to get a single nice one. Also appears you need to make sure whether you have a single or dual SIM version.

mnem
 

Yeah, I know, but where is the MDM located, sub engine or main engine board and the video is assuming you have new parts for throw away bits, which I don't. The other problem is how do I know that any replacement engine bits are not also taken from ex company phone with another bloody MDM file stored it?

This is the version phone I have, not the XL one.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

[bd139]

It’s in the SoC chip. Snapdragon 808 has hardware crypto.

[Specmaster]

It’s in the SoC chip. Snapdragon 808 has hardware crypto.

So that on the main board or as they call it, main engine board yes?

I was aware of Windows ceasing support for it later this year, but then, they also said that about Win7 years ago but last time I checked, I believe that were still releasing security updates for that version of windows.

The other reason for getting one at the right price is, the camera is supposed to be capable of 4K video, there is also small docking station allowing it to be connected to a keyboard, mouse and a monitor, so becomes a small very low power consumption PC.

[med6753]

What's this about no MS support past September of this year? Will my Win8 OS powered Nokia 925 stop working completely?

MS abandoned Win8 years ago although the phone still works fine but some apps have quit working. Voice/text/email/etc are OK. I really hate to toss it because it does what I need.