Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Well it’s more a trade off on time vs money. Throwing off the shelf parts and some thermal control at it is probably easier to produce lots of units on a small scale. I have to say that I rather like the power module design.

Vapour phase reflow is very interesting though. I’m getting bored of TH boards and that looks like a suitable replacement for the PCB chemicals living under my sink  . But genuinely don’t look at the prices for it 

Edit: considering buying a BM789 meter as I need a fourth DMM and they are fairly cheap  (another wallet victim of that video!)

[wizard69]

@Zucca, sorry, eyeing something like this.
https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?action=parkItem&id=315648788

@SilverSolder you forgot the Trannies. Over here you must include the d for diverse ...
 
( I have nothing at all against trans- oder intersexuals. Anybody should be able to live their life the way they want to. But they should not emboss their choices on anybody else and make them mandatory ...)

when I once mentioned "handicapped" that redhead started yelling at me, so I said that I was legally handicapped so I was absolutely free to use that word and that she should eat her tongue and stop discriminating against me ....

We will not be friends.

There is definitely a continuum when it comes to sensitivity to gender related issues:

Insensitive (prejudiced)  -->  Normal  -->  Oversensitive (Apophenia, Pareidolia)

Insensitive isn't prejudiced, it just means you don't care or can't grasp their issues.   If somebody is suffering form a birth defect, it is not prejudiced to not care about that defect.    In fact most people would rather that your didn't get overly involved because of it.   Locally we have a lot of death people due to the educational opportunities.   I'm left with the impression that they would rather just be treated as people and would prefer avoiding those overly sensitive to their condition.   In other words making a fuss over somebodies disability generally will offend them more often than not. 

In the end it doesn't matter if you are born with a sexual defect, blind, death or with three breasts, you don't want to be looked at in a negative light.   In fact you probably don't want anybody taking note at all.

[tautech]

Vapour phase reflow is very interesting though. I’m getting bored of TH boards and that looks like a suitable replacement for the PCB chemicals living under my sink  . But genuinely don’t look at the prices for it 

There's a couple of good VP threads on the forum with a plie of ideas for rolling your builds and profile control.

[Cerebus]

Well it’s more a trade off on time vs money. Throwing off the shelf parts and some thermal control at it is probably easier to produce lots of units on a small scale. I have to say that I rather like the power module design.

To be fair I think my complaint is "These guys are supposed to be smarter than me. I want them to think of something that I can't think of too, so that I can steal it.". Basically, it's entirely selfish.

Vapour phase reflow is very interesting though. I’m getting bored of TH boards and that looks like a suitable replacement for the PCB chemicals living under my sink  . But genuinely don’t look at the prices for it 

I'm aware of the scary prices, but I'm also aware that if one is careful one can reuse it indefinitely as long as you don't let any of the [very heavy] vapour escape. The basic vapour-phase principle looks so superior to IR/convection reflow ovens, especially in terms of getting guaranteed, complete reflow every time, that an [essentially] one-off payment for a 'consumable' looks attractive in comparison to shelling out for a successive series of not-quite satisfactory reflow hardware.

[bd139]

I think I’d rather buy some vodka to steady my hand with the metcal 

[Brumby]

when I once mentioned "handicapped" that redhead started yelling at me, so I said that I was legally handicapped so I was absolutely free to use that word and that she should eat her tongue and stop discriminating against me ....

In Australia at least, we have been "educated" to refer to such things as a "disability", not a "handicap".  The argument being fairly straightforward and easily understood by anyone who spends 5 seconds thinking about it.....
(n.b. - these are my words)
A Disability refers to a physical or mental condition.
A Handicap refers to a person not being able to perform tasks.

The argument against using the word "handicap" is that just because a disabled person may not be able to perform a task in the same way as one who is not, does not mean they are incapable a doing so in alternate ways.

A different way of looking at this is this: "Diasbled" is descriptive; "Handicapped" is judgemental.

[tautech]

Vapour phase reflow is very interesting though. I’m getting bored of TH boards and that looks like a suitable replacement for the PCB chemicals living under my sink  . But genuinely don’t look at the prices for it 

There's a couple pile of good VP threads on the forum with ideas for rolling your own builds and profile control.

Assortment of threads on this subject:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/finally!!-vapor-phase-reflow-oven-in-reach-of-the-diy-hobbyist!!!/
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/manufacture/practical-diy-or-modest-cost-vapor-phase-does-it-exist-yet/
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/diy-vapour-phase-frying-pan-project/
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/automatic-vapor-phase-oven/

[Cerebus]

A different way of looking at this is this: "Diasbled" is descriptive; "Handicapped" is judgemental.

I would say only because you've been told/taught/browbeaten into perceiving it as such. There's nothing essentially judgemental in the words handicap or handicapped - "SWMBO never having learned to drive is sometimes a handicap", "I'm handicapped by being a fat old man when it comes to chasing young scallywags off my lawn".

It having become an "offensive" term to use was, I believe, entirely driven by the kind of people we've been talking about, the 'right on', 'look at me I'm so good, can't you see' crowd. Its general usage has always been descriptive, not judgemental. I have never, ever, heard someone use 'handicapped' offensively, except people who would still sound equally offensive if they constructed the exact same sentence with the word 'disabled' substituted. When you consider the other use of 'handicap', to deliberately place a burden on someone to reduce their performance, as in golf or horse racing, it becomes ironic to quasi-ban it because it's also aptly descriptive of the unnecessary burdens that society often places on disabled people, we handicap them. Anyone who has had to watch a disabled friend go through a government disability benefit assessment, or been out with a friend in a wheelchair and discovered that public transport that is mandated to be wheelchair accessible by law still isn't, will know exactly what I mean by that.

I could even argue for 'disabled' being more potentially offensive. There was a standing joke at university about the 'disabled toilet' in the SU building; given that it was frequently in sorry disrepair and incapable of performing the function of a toilet there was a double entendre that the disabled toilet was also a disabled toilet. What does that make a disabled person, incapable of functioning as a person?

Technically I'm "disabled". I have asthma, and it restricts some things that I can do, and it's led to me spending more time in a hospital bed than I care to remember. If somebody asked inappropriate questions at a job interview and denied me a job because of it I could legitimately bring a case against them under the Disability Discrimination Act. I don't think of myself as disabled, I still function, and I might well take umbridge at someone telling me I'm disabled. It carries a connotation of 'not working', "The mains supply to Specmaster's house has been disabled until the water leak has been fixed". Whereas if someone said that my asthma handicapped me, I wouldn't disagree - it means there are things that I cannot do, but not that I've been disabled, turned off, only fit to be put out to pasture*. I'd differentiate between saying someone has a disability (neutral) and saying that someone has been disabled, or is disabled (both capable of carrying the meaning that I'm saying is potentially offensive).

There are words that were once neutral and have become genuinely offensive but I don't think 'handicapped' was ever one of them. The "Spastics Society" was a charity that worked to help people with cerebral palsy. By my school days "spastic" had become a term of general abuse - one of my schoolfriends, Jimmy, was very fond of calling people "spaz" or "spazes". There's no doubt of the deliberate offense being generated there. The "Spastics Society" is now called "Scope".

I'm quite happy to follow fashion and call people "disabled" if only because there are some "disabled" people who have been taught to take the word as indicating intended offense, but it is a fashion, judgemental or offensive intent is not innate to the word 'handicapped'.

* Some may disagree on that particular point. 

[Brumby]

I was never brought up with any spin on the use of these terms, but I will admit to the word "handicapped" as being commonly used - and having a negative connotation.

Looking back, I see the encouragement for the use of the word "disabled" - and a clarification of its intended usage - as being the means for attitudes to become less focused on the negative aspect.

A classic example, IMHO, is Dylan Alcott.  I don't see the wheelchair any more ... I see a guy who's funny and lives life.

[Cerebus]

And... on the TEA front.

My Keithley 197, that I've had a few years now, came with a handle/stand that had clearly been broken into 4 pieces and repaired. Not too badly done, but nowhere near as strong as the original. Anyway, a couple or more months back it was sitting on a shelf in the box room, handle poking out the front and I managed to whack it with something. I forget what I was moving around when I whacked it, but all of a sudden I had 4 pieces again. I collected the bits up and put them aside until I could be arsed to fix it. That time finally came around recently.

When things of a glue-able nature have done beyond 'invisible' repair it's become my practice to repair them by first gluing with whatever's most appropriate for the substrate to hand and then putting a wrap of carbon fibre tape and epoxy resin on them. It's not the prettiest repair going, but nothing I've fixed this way has ever come apart again.

I started on the Keithley handle two days ago. Fixed the bits together with a solvent glue suitable for ABS (which is my best guess to what the handle's made from) and left it 24 hours to dry. Yesterday I wrapped the front two corners with CF and epoxy and left it to cure overnight. Tested today and it's clearly stronger than the original ever was. Tonight was wrapping the break in one of the side arms, and giving the front wraps a gloss of epoxy to make them less fugly. The side arm is clamped up and curing at the moment.



Photos of the finished repair tomorrow, as long as it's not too fugly for public show.

All the messing around has prompted me to pass on two tips.

(1) A while back I picked up some silicone rubber mixing cups intended for use by dentists off of eBay. A little set of 4 ranging in size from about 4ml to perhaps 50ml. They're great. You can just leave epoxy to set to part cured in them with your used mixing stick in and the cured pellet of any left over resin just pops out. They're moderately flexible which helps with evenly and quickly mixing the resin, and you can accurately mix small quantities in them as long as you've got some suitable scales - I mixed up a batch of only 2.2 grams in one yesterday. Highly recommended.

(2) I'm sure that everybody knows that isopropanol is a good solvent for cleaning up uncured epoxy. If like me, you're good at coating your hands with the stuff as well as your workpiece, you'll know that isopropanol will also get uncured resin off your hands. However, it's very drying to your skin, can take several goes, and you have to wash with soap and water afterward anyway.

A few weeks back, partially experimentally and partially out of lazyness, I squirted some liquid hand soap and then some isopropanol (no water) onto my hands to get some resin off, rubbed as you normally would when washing your hands, then rinsed them off with water. Bosh! All resin gone, hands clean, and they didn't get dryed out.

[beanflying]

Increasing Grey in beard and hair. Stronger Hair growth from ears and nose than on top of head. Finding yourself drawn toward RF.....

At least it's only a Scanner so I may be savable before full blown HAM'itis sets in

BCD325P2-AU Paid more than I should have but it is a current model.

[Cerebus]

Increasing Grey in beard and hair. Stronger Hair growth from ears and nose than on top of head. Finding yourself drawn toward RF.....

Is this accompanied by thicker, longer chest and back hair, by a desire to howl at certain times of the month? It may not be age...

[mnementh]

I think I’d rather buy some vodka to steady my hand with the metcal 

Beat me to it. 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

Yeah, I'm totally procrastinating here. On my laptop, gonna read my threads and finish my coffee before I even think aboot the ages-old conodrum of "do I let Windoze try and fix it or do I tear the band-aid off right now, tear the box open, reseat both drives and hope Windoze hasn't already molested the MBR on drive zero in my RAID?"

The horrifying part is that after looking into my portable drive, I just realized I haven't done even a incremental BU since before I moved from the other house in September. Because... you guessed it... I couldn't find the USB3.1 cable that matches it.

mnem
*bitten in the arse by the 11th Commandment... again*

You in a "up the shits creek" situation. Hopefully the boat don't sink and you escape intact. 

PC lives again; no histrionics when it booted after reseating everything electrical and dusting it out proper. Configured case fans to draw in from the top rear fan and blow out the front, with thermo control curves set  to engage & max out aboot 20° before CPU & GPU rad fan curves such that positive airflow should still be maintained.

I've had enough joy for one day. I think I'm gonna start a backup & go to bed.

mnem
 

[med6753]

Increasing Grey in beard and hair. Stronger Hair growth from ears and nose than on top of head. Finding yourself drawn toward RF.....

Is this accompanied by thicker, longer chest and back hair, by a desire to howl at certain times of the month? It may not be age...

Yep.

[coppercone2]

keithley nanovolt amplifier 

[beanflying]

Jenga Time to play tomorrow I hope.

[bd139]

A different way of looking at this is this: "Diasbled" is descriptive; "Handicapped" is judgemental.

I would say only because you've been told/taught/browbeaten into perceiving it as such. There's nothing essentially judgemental in the words handicap or handicapped - "SWMBO never having learned to drive is sometimes a handicap", "I'm handicapped by being a fat old man when it comes to chasing young scallywags off my lawn".

It having become an "offensive" term to use was, I believe, entirely driven by the kind of people we've been talking about, the 'right on', 'look at me I'm so good, can't you see' crowd. Its general usage has always been descriptive, not judgemental. I have never, ever, heard someone use 'handicapped' offensively, except people who would still sound equally offensive if they constructed the exact same sentence with the word 'disabled' substituted. When you consider the other use of 'handicap', to deliberately place a burden on someone to reduce their performance, as in golf or horse racing, it becomes ironic to quasi-ban it because it's also aptly descriptive of the unnecessary burdens that society often places on disabled people, we handicap them. Anyone who has had to watch a disabled friend go through a government disability benefit assessment, or been out with a friend in a wheelchair and discovered that public transport that is mandated to be wheelchair accessible by law still isn't, will know exactly what I mean by that.

I could even argue for 'disabled' being more potentially offensive. There was a standing joke at university about the 'disabled toilet' in the SU building; given that it was frequently in sorry disrepair and incapable of performing the function of a toilet there was a double entendre that the disabled toilet was also a disabled toilet. What does that make a disabled person, incapable of functioning as a person?

Technically I'm "disabled". I have asthma, and it restricts some things that I can do, and it's led to me spending more time in a hospital bed than I care to remember. If somebody asked inappropriate questions at a job interview and denied me a job because of it I could legitimately bring a case against them under the Disability Discrimination Act. I don't think of myself as disabled, I still function, and I might well take umbridge at someone telling me I'm disabled. It carries a connotation of 'not working', "The mains supply to Specmaster's house has been disabled until the water leak has been fixed". Whereas if someone said that my asthma handicapped me, I wouldn't disagree - it means there are things that I cannot do, but not that I've been disabled, turned off, only fit to be put out to pasture*. I'd differentiate between saying someone has a disability (neutral) and saying that someone has been disabled, or is disabled (both capable of carrying the meaning that I'm saying is potentially offensive).

There are words that were once neutral and have become genuinely offensive but I don't think 'handicapped' was ever one of them. The "Spastics Society" was a charity that worked to help people with cerebral palsy. By my school days "spastic" had become a term of general abuse - one of my schoolfriends, Jimmy, was very fond of calling people "spaz" or "spazes". There's no doubt of the deliberate offense being generated there. The "Spastics Society" is now called "Scope".

I'm quite happy to follow fashion and call people "disabled" if only because there are some "disabled" people who have been taught to take the word as indicating intended offense, but it is a fashion, judgemental or offensive intent is not innate to the word 'handicapped'.

* Some may disagree on that particular point. 

There is some hope for the younger generations here in London. They throw insults around casually between all races, colours, sexual orientations, mental health status and genders without any judgment or offence taken. They are terms of endearment and acknowledgement 

[Saskia]

I was talking about (handicapped / disabled) vs physically / mentally / emotionally... challenged

This snowflake/I feel hurt because you said a word that I don't like/PC speak is sooooo getting on my nerves. If those snowflakes feel attacked because of a word like disabled/handicapped and need to flee to their "safe space" to recover from the soooo abusive world, how are they going to fare if life throws a challenge at them ?

We call them Weicheier around here. Translation would be soft eggs vs hard boiled, but I think snowflake is appropriate ...

But. Who controls speech and vocabulary wants to control opinion. PC is just another way of fascist oppression and making sure, diverging opinions are not heard and dissenting voices silenced.

[AVGresponding]

just wanted to play a quick game of Battletech ...
and found out that it is a 35 GB download.

WTF ...

BS4E is a much smaller download... avoid the forums though, the one of the admins is truly toxic.



I missed out on a Wavetek Wandel Goltermann SDA 4040D, went for just under £70 shipped. I have the nagging suspicion I should have bid a little more...

[Saskia]

what is BS4E ?

[Cerebus]

Keithley glue-fest finished.



Not pretty, but not as fugly as I expected it to turn out. At least the bloody handle isn't going to break again any time soon.

[med6753]

Going to go pick up that Type 321 this morning. Hopefully will have some pictures before our Discord session later today. 

[Zucca]

Keithley glue-fest finished.
Not pretty, but not as fugly as I expected it to turn out. At least the bloody handle isn't going to break again any time soon.

Do you apply epoxy before and after you put the tape?

[Robert763]

just wanted to play a quick game of Battletech ...
and found out that it is a 35 GB download.

WTF ...

BS4E is a much smaller download... avoid the forums though, the one of the admins is truly toxic.



I missed out on a Wavetek Wandel Goltermann SDA 4040D, went for just under £70 shipped. I have the nagging suspicion I should have bid a little more...

That one from Pro-avit? Fully tesed and working but can't be arsed to show a picture of it powered up? The charger is a special too.
That said I have a 4040D and they are a nice little unit. The 1GHz spectrum analyser is very usable. Lot cheaper hre than in NA.