Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Zucca]

Too advanced... I need something more basics and 150% idiot proof.
I will use that device with or for low IQ persons.

[BU508A]

Haven't looked for it, is there somewhere a teardown of those awful things?
maybe, Joe could test one one day ... 

Edit:
There is one on YT:

[BU508A]

Too advanced... I need something more basics and 150% idiot proof.
I will use that device with or for low IQ persons.

As a start:

English version:
http://www.blablameter.com/

German version:
http://www.blablameter.de/

Some years ago I was able to get off the scale with a marketing notice from my employer (bullshit index bigger than 1)
They were deeply impressed by that. 

[Saskia]

There is nothing idiotproof enough to prevent usage by idiots. They are better at being idiots than you will ever be so they will conceive idiotic ways of abusing stuff that you will never be able to imagine even in your wildest hallucinogenic dreams.

[beanflying]

I am a fan of these for idiocy. For individuals a pair of contacts across the frontal lobes. In a group setting get the idiots to stand in a circle holding hands and crank. The weak of grip or sweaty of palm gets a wake up. Repeat as required 

[med6753]

I am a fan of these for idiocy. For individuals a pair of contacts across the frontal lobes. In a group setting get the idiots to stand in a circle holding hands and crank. The weak of grip or sweaty of palm gets a wake up. Repeat as required 

I remember a science teacher in school having the entire class hold hands while he gave it a crank with the resulting hilarity.   

[beanflying]

I am a fan of these for idiocy. For individuals a pair of contacts across the frontal lobes. In a group setting get the idiots to stand in a circle holding hands and crank. The weak of grip or sweaty of palm gets a wake up. Repeat as required 

I remember a science teacher in school having the entire class hold hands while he gave it a crank with the resulting hilarity.   

Thats the one. In a Boys only school the weak grips were always the 'tough' kids 

[med6753]

I am a fan of these for idiocy. For individuals a pair of contacts across the frontal lobes. In a group setting get the idiots to stand in a circle holding hands and crank. The weak of grip or sweaty of palm gets a wake up. Repeat as required 

I remember a science teacher in school having the entire class hold hands while he gave it a crank with the resulting hilarity.   

Thats the one. In a Boys only school the weak grips were always the 'tough' kids 

And having a girl with long hair put her hand on a van de graaff generator and then turned on. 

[BU508A]

    

[med6753]

Yep. And notice she's a redhead. She liked it.  Batshit crazy.

We also convinced one of the "tough kids" to go sniff a pre-charged, but turned off van de graaff generator. It just about knock him on his arse. 

[bd139]

Had some fun with those at school as well. So physics teacher got us to create a chain of three physics students standing on polystyrene blocks with a gen at the other end. He was trying to get the guy on the end to touch a tap on the bench in the lab but the kid thought it’d be more interesting to touch the physics teachers glasses. Only time I ever heard the guy swear 

[Saskia]

my favorite one is to place a bet with them. They will not be able to piss and hit that electric fence. If they can hit it, I will pay them a tenner.

It's worth the money 

[SilverSolder]

my favorite one is to place a bet with them. They will not be able to piss and hit that electric fence. If they can hit it, I will pay them a tenner.

It's worth the money 

You need to hang around with smarter boys, @Saskia!   

[bd139]

my favorite one is to place a bet with them. They will not be able to piss and hit that electric fence. If they can hit it, I will pay them a tenner.

It's worth the money 

Reminds me of this one from a 1950s safety book

[mansaxel]

Had some fun with those at school as well. So physics teacher got us to create a chain of three physics students standing on polystyrene blocks with a gen at the other end. He was trying to get the guy on the end to touch a tap on the bench in the lab but the kid thought it’d be more interesting to touch the physics teachers glasses. Only time I ever heard the guy swear 

That would be justified reason for high grades. If I was the teacher. Applications of science.

[Saskia]

finally received a refund through paypal buyers protection for the dead 3090 graphics card.

If I had waited for alternate to refund the sum, I would have had to go to a lawyer.
I am less than satisfied with alternate and can only warn about their questionable business practice.

[Specmaster]

Best thing for an Avo that.

Together with the 8060A I got an AVO Multiminor and a Hung Chang toy. The Hung Chang is never coming close to being used; it's down right dangerous.  The Multiminor looks superficially OK, but is as of yet untested; my plan is to assess it this weekend. In the repair queue I've also got a Model 7 Avometer that looks OK from the outside but is somehow broken; no reaction on any range is detected.

None of these will be turned into a lamp.

As far as the telephone; I've got an Asterisk PABX at home where one of my Grandstream ATAs has support for pulse dialling, including the Swedish system where -- properly -- 0 is less than 1. So, a rotary phone is not useless here; I've got one by the bench and one in the garage proper. The garage one is a BC560, which is a name collision with the transistor. The phone was first.

That's always the problem with Avos. They always seem to be broken. You can tell by the high price a working one commands 

Rubbish, AVO's can still be had for not a lot of cash, working OK as well and providing the seller understands them, they can be transported reasonably safely. If the meter does not have an official "OFF" position on the switches, then select DC and 50uA ranges on the 2 switches and a shorting link between -&+ terminals and your fine. The meter will be well damped to cope with most jolts which cause the needle to swing violently.  I have purchased 4 Model 8 AVO's, all arrived fine as a result of setting them in their transit modes, 3 are in use today and the 4th was fucked internally by some bloody gorilla but it was really cheap and a source of spares.

One thing with all meters is that the seller must pack them pretty well because of the meter movement is pretty delicate by its very nature. I've brought loads of analogue meters over the years, including some Heathkit VVM's and ever had 1 completely buggered movement, a Heathkit.

The most recent one was that TMK500 which had no way of damping the meter due to the missing switch contact, and it arrived OK without much protection, a single wrap of bubble wrap,  and that movement was what I would consider to be the most delicate of them all as it was a "Taut Band" suspension system for the needle.   

[med6753]

Decided to go ahead with the cosmetic issues with the Type 321A since the replacement capacitors haven't arrived. It appears the earliest I'll get them is Monday. I'm going to give Mouser one more chance at the end of the month with the PSU capacitors for the Type 422. If they are going to give extended delivery again then I'll go with Digi-Key in the future. I figured Mouser's troubles were just due to the ice storm a few weeks ago but apparently not.

Anyway, after cleaning the case pieces there was too much scuffing and scrapes in the paint for my liking so it was re-painted. And I had to cobble together a new rear foot. But it cleaned up nicely and looks good. 


   

[Cubdriver]

There is nothing idiotproof enough to prevent usage by idiots. They are better at being idiots than you will ever be so they will conceive idiotic ways of abusing stuff that you will never be able to imagine even in your wildest hallucinogenic dreams.

It's impossible to make things idiot proof.  The best you can hope for is somewhat idiot resistant, and even that is a tall order.

-Pat

[SilverSolder]

Decided to go ahead with the cosmetic issues with the Type 321A since the replacement capacitors haven't arrived. It appears the earliest I'll get them is Monday. I'm going to give Mouser one more chance at the end of the month with the PSU capacitors for the Type 422. If they are going to give extended delivery again then I'll go with Digi-Key in the future. I figured Mouser's troubles were just due to the ice storm a few weeks ago but apparently not.

Anyway, after cleaning the case pieces there was too much scuffing and scrapes in the paint for my liking so it was re-painted. And I had to cobble together a new rear foot. But it cleaned up nicely and looks good. 

Looks good! 

If the handle is made of plastic, the scuffs may respond favourably to treatment with a heat gun.

[Cerebus]

There is nothing idiotproof enough to prevent usage by idiots. They are better at being idiots than you will ever be so they will conceive idiotic ways of abusing stuff that you will never be able to imagine even in your wildest hallucinogenic dreams.

Oh I don't know.  There's a misunderstanding here that reasonably intelligent people can't also be idiots too. I'm living proof of that. In fact, I suspect that the higher the notional IQ the greater the capacity for idiotic behaviour - look at Spiro Agnew and [Sir] Clive Sinclair. All you have to do is listen to your "inner idiot" when you're doing the design. "Would I use the jaws of a car crusher to hold this meter while I was testing the crusher's battery? Yes, yes I would."

[med6753]

Decided to go ahead with the cosmetic issues with the Type 321A since the replacement capacitors haven't arrived. It appears the earliest I'll get them is Monday. I'm going to give Mouser one more chance at the end of the month with the PSU capacitors for the Type 422. If they are going to give extended delivery again then I'll go with Digi-Key in the future. I figured Mouser's troubles were just due to the ice storm a few weeks ago but apparently not.

Anyway, after cleaning the case pieces there was too much scuffing and scrapes in the paint for my liking so it was re-painted. And I had to cobble together a new rear foot. But it cleaned up nicely and looks good. 

Looks good! 

If the handle is made of plastic, the scuffs may respond favourably to treatment with a heat gun.

The handle is indeed plastic and it's fine. It was just dirty and most of it came off.

[Robert763]

There is nothing idiotproof enough to prevent usage by idiots. They are better at being idiots than you will ever be so they will conceive idiotic ways of abusing stuff that you will never be able to imagine even in your wildest hallucinogenic dreams.

Oh I don't know.  There's a misunderstanding here that reasonably intelligent people can't also be idiots too. I'm living proof of that. In fact, I suspect that the higher the notional IQ the greater the capacity for idiotic behaviour - look at Spiro Agnew and [Sir] Clive Sinclair. All you have to do is listen to your "inner idiot" when you're doing the design. "Would I use the jaws of a car crusher to hold this meter while I was testing the crusher's battery? Yes, yes I would."

Yosemite Park Ranger on why the bear-proof trash cans are not completly bear proof bu hard to open.
"There is a big differential between the smartest bear and the dumbest camper"

[McBryce]

There is nothing idiotproof enough to prevent usage by idiots. They are better at being idiots than you will ever be so they will conceive idiotic ways of abusing stuff that you will never be able to imagine even in your wildest hallucinogenic dreams.

It's impossible to make things idiot proof.  The best you can hope for is somewhat idiot resistant, and even that is a tall order.

-Pat

Quote from someone who guided me through my early engineering years: Don't waste your time trying to make something idiot-proof, the world will just come back with a better idiot.

McBryce.

[Cerebus]

There is nothing idiotproof enough to prevent usage by idiots. They are better at being idiots than you will ever be so they will conceive idiotic ways of abusing stuff that you will never be able to imagine even in your wildest hallucinogenic dreams.

Oh I don't know.  There's a misunderstanding here that reasonably intelligent people can't also be idiots too. I'm living proof of that. In fact, I suspect that the higher the notional IQ the greater the capacity for idiotic behaviour - look at Spiro Agnew and [Sir] Clive Sinclair. All you have to do is listen to your "inner idiot" when you're doing the design. "Would I use the jaws of a car crusher to hold this meter while I was testing the crusher's battery? Yes, yes I would."

Yosemite Park Ranger on why the bear-proof trash cans are not completly bear proof bu hard to open.
"There is a big differential between the smartest bear and the dumbest camper"

Well, at least they don't have to deal with the problems the Yellowstone rangers have: