Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

I hate submitting my data to the Hive. It's just like buying covid vaccine from Umbrella Corporation.

I've run out of fucks to give these days.

[THDplusN_bad]

Project time!

Some really low brow, low digits T&M action this evening: testing an old analogue panel meter I have. This is being used shortly for a project which I will detail.



So the project in question has been on the go for the best part of 10 years and materialised in reality about 4 years ago. The ultimate goal is to build a fairly boring sounding voltmeter. This went through several incarnations already.

The first was a simple 2n3819 based differential amplifier which required some nulling and a high supply voltage.





The second was a slightly improved version with an RCA jack for probes. This had an interchangeable RF, AC and DC voltage probe sets (not pictured). The ranges weren't good enough on this one. It did develop a power LED reminding the end user that the battery would melt if you left it on.



The last one I did used a CMOS opamp and worked off single rail and 9v battery. This had better ranges. But the meter movement was crappy as was my labelling which made it a chore to use. Also the thing didn't have a massive battery in it so kept falling over.



So bring on 2021 and the nice 10/30 ranged 1mA movement turns up. As does a nice black Eddystone box that will fit it.

New incarnation incoming...

Why am I building these crappy things? Well at the end of the day there's something about using something you built to solve problems and create more things that is magical 

Edit: these are still packed away in a box somewhere too 

Hello bd139,

aaah, the unbeatable charm of self-made instruments and analogue scales. I really like it when people are creating something new with analogue meters. Keep those pictures coming and good luck with your current DIY-project.

Cheers,

THDplusN_bad

[FransW]

@med6753:
Found, ordered and paid for.
Thanks.

[med6753]

@med6753:
Found, ordered and paid for.
Thanks.

They fab them to order in groups of 3 so you will have 2 extra.

[FransW]

Med,

Not this time. Only 1 for around $7.50 pp, incl postage.
I will probably receive another invoice for the other 2.
In the past I did quite some business with them and probably established a certain basis.
All with sets of 3 from the site.
I do not believe in inventing the spare wheel again and again and their portfolio is impressive.

[mansaxel]

New world: buy any old PC with windows OEM install. Pick corporate login on provision. Sign in with Azure AD. Whole machine is provisioned automatically and remotely and all software set up right down to full disk encryption. Plus the contents of onedrive appear on it.  And it even changes the windows SKU to the right one is Pro or Enterprise.

I hate the cloud (it is just a way to make me pay several times for a pig with makeup), and I hate Azure a bit extra. Am hurt by it at work. Not an option for a system where I'm not paid except by having happy children gaming along.

[mnementh]

That’s dead easy but you need active directory so designed for corporate use only.

Best option for the end user on windows is to install onedrive and just use that. Works pretty well.

Onedrive is in Dante's 8th circuit. I have a Samba AD. Will do another attempt. Actually found a guide for it.

Having said that, roaming profiles, as they're implemented, is something that makes me think Redmond deserves nukes from orbit. Once more, just to be certain.

Roaming profiles were ok until some idiot decided to turn all the stuff in peoples home directory into hard links to make it user friendly. Then it became a shit show. So they hacked it by adding LocalLow and Local directories which just made it worse.

As for onedrive, that and Azure AD together under O365 are pretty nice. For once it just works. The domain is dead as we knew it. And I’m glad because I was an AD and Exchange admin in a couple of small businesses over the years and I’d rather electrocute myself to death via my balls than do it again.

New world: buy any old PC with windows OEM install. Pick corporate login on provision. Sign in with Azure AD. Whole machine is provisioned automatically and remotely and all software set up right down to full disk encryption. Plus the contents of onedrive appear on it.  And it even changes the windows SKU to the right one is Pro or Enterprise.

AD (l)user management was more than half of my day-to-day at the ISD... the other half was physically tracking down laptops that had gotten so far behind on policy updates they couldn't even talk to the Radius servers to log on and get their policy updates...

I actually got to fix a broken PC or laptop on the bench... oh, maybe 3 or 5 a week. 

Eet's all yobb  see-cyoo-ruh-tee, mang!    

mnem

[mnementh]

Med,

Not this time. Only 1 for around $7.50 pp, incl postage. I will probably receive another invoice for the other 2. In the past I did quite some business with them and probably established a certain basis. All with sets of 3 from the site. I do not believe in inventing the spare wheel again and again and their portfolio is impressive.

Ummm... unless I've lost all grasp of the English language (which I'll admit is entirely possible; I'm still only halfway through my first cuppa), your screenshot there says that you did, in fact, pay $7.45 for three copies of the little capacitor discus. 

mnem
 

[bd139]

New world: buy any old PC with windows OEM install. Pick corporate login on provision. Sign in with Azure AD. Whole machine is provisioned automatically and remotely and all software set up right down to full disk encryption. Plus the contents of onedrive appear on it.  And it even changes the windows SKU to the right one is Pro or Enterprise.

I hate the cloud (it is just a way to make me pay several times for a pig with makeup), and I hate Azure a bit extra. Am hurt by it at work. Not an option for a system where I'm not paid except by having happy children gaming along.

I'm no complainer about the cloud these days. It solves the immediate problem of dealing with individual MSPs which are a far larger shit show. A big chunk of our current client base is small to large corporates with third party MSPs and IT teams and the only ones that aren't a shit show are the ones that subcontracted out their core to Azure AD, O365 etc or are self managed single users etc. The rest are a hodgepodge of Citrix nightmares and MSPs who hire the lowest bidder. I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. But much worse I've seen three poor staff sitting on the end of a Citrix install that takes 40 minutes to log in and hasn't been patched since 2014 because they have to pay the MSP to get patches.

[bd139]

AD (l)user management was more than half of my day-to-day at the ISD... the other half was physically tracking down laptops that had gotten so far behind on policy updates they couldn't even talk to the Radius servers to log on and get their policy updates...

I actually got to fix a broken PC or laptop on the bench... oh, maybe 3 or 5 a week. 

Yeah that AD amnesia issue is gone as of 2018 fortunately when they shot some of the older Kerberos buggerage. It's all over OAuth2/HTTPS now on that front, at least for the Azure AD sign ups. The remains of the desktop estate is being disposed of now so the old way is gone.

As for fixing broken laptops, nope don't do that any more. All onsite service for our users.

[bd139]

Med,

Not this time. Only 1 for around $7.50 pp, incl postage. I will probably receive another invoice for the other 2. In the past I did quite some business with them and probably established a certain basis. All with sets of 3 from the site. I do not believe in inventing the spare wheel again and again and their portfolio is impressive.

Ummm... unless I've lost all grasp of the English language (which I'll admit is entirely possible; I'm still only halfway through my first cuppa), your screenshot there says that you did, in fact, pay $7.45 for three copies of the little capacitor discus. 

mnem
 

That's fairly expensive. Worth having a look at JLCPCB in the future if that's an open source Gerber output. Probably land 30 of the things for $15 shipped and bounce the rest on ebay 

Also one thing that really pisses me off about OSHpark is they always put mousebites on your design when they panelise it. I mean look at this shite on the bottom edge - looks like a chinese toy PCB from the 1990s.



Edit: don't even mention the fucked up SMA lands on this board  . I learned my lesson on that one 

[nixiefreqq]

just got back from ebay.

could not find a find a voight-kampff machine.

advise that everyone stay away from bd until one shows up.

[Kosmic]

Med,

Not this time. Only 1 for around $7.50 pp, incl postage. I will probably receive another invoice for the other 2. In the past I did quite some business with them and probably established a certain basis. All with sets of 3 from the site. I do not believe in inventing the spare wheel again and again and their portfolio is impressive.

Ummm... unless I've lost all grasp of the English language (which I'll admit is entirely possible; I'm still only halfway through my first cuppa), your screenshot there says that you did, in fact, pay $7.45 for three copies of the little capacitor discus. 

mnem
 

That's fairly expensive. Worth having a look at JLCPCB in the future if that's an open source Gerber output. Probably land 30 of the things for $15 shipped and bounce the rest on ebay 

Also one thing that really pisses me off about OSHpark is they always put mousebites on your design when they panelise it. I mean look at this shite on the bottom edge - looks like a chinese toy PCB from the 1990s.



Edit: don't even mention the fucked up SMA lands on this board  . I learned my lesson on that one 

They offer FR408 boards though, which is a better dielectric than FR4. Only matter if you are doing RF or high voltage / Impedance stuffs.

[bd139]

Think you can get away with anything lumped and use transmission lines on standard FR4 fine well into 2-3GHz. It sort of falls apart when you want to do distributed fancy wizard stuff. PCBWAY do Rogers for that apparently.

[Specmaster]

<snip>
 I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
<snip>

Blade Runner 1982

[Ice-Tea]

Awhhh! Look at him going all "locked" on me! 

[mnementh]

AD (l)user management was more than half of my day-to-day at the ISD... the other half was physically tracking down laptops that had gotten so far behind on policy updates they couldn't even talk to the Radius servers to log on and get their policy updates...

I actually got to fix a broken PC or laptop on the bench... oh, maybe 3 or 5 a week. 

Yeah that AD amnesia issue is gone as of 2018 fortunately when they shot some of the older Kerberos buggerage. It's all over OAuth2/HTTPS now on that front, at least for the Azure AD sign ups. The remains of the desktop estate is being disposed of now so the old way is gone.

As for fixing broken laptops, nope don't do that any more. All onsite service for our users.

Yeah, remember... the "Onsite Service" part is my bread & butter. So I'm not gonna be out of work as long as (l)users don't forget how to drop the fukkin' things. 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

just got back from ebay. could not find a find a voight-kampff machine. advise that everyone stay away from bd until one shows up.

*nods towards the forum*

You're in that machine, buddy.

mnem

[Saskia]

In answer to your query, It's a test designed to provoke an emotional response.
Now, tell me in single words only the good things that come into your mind - about your mother ?

[mnementh]

Today's Before the Kids Wake Up and Bug The Shit Outta Me All Day Project...

Cheap LiCE Brand batteries arrived yesterday... the only ones that wouldn't take more than a week to get to me, aside from some 99% sure they're counterfeit Energizers for $3 more.

A little Kapton tape mask-off, a little steel wool abuse, a little jeweler's rouge to make the worst scratches in the case go away... now soaking the leather band in vegetable oil and going to try stretching it a wee bit to see if I can get that "one more hole's worth" of adjustment I need to make it comfortable.

mnem
Oh crap... I hear my little sqweaker prattling away with her plushies...

[mansaxel]

I'm no complainer about the cloud these days. It solves the immediate problem of dealing with individual MSPs which are a far larger shit show.

Shit IT is shit IT, regardless. No disagreement there. My windows-operating colleagues are as good can be found, period, so I don't understand why the all-cloud-trend has to smear poop on their work too.

The reason Gartner says something is cool  is that they earn money saying it, not that it is true or sensible. The rest of the trade rags just sing along in the clueless choir.

Fucking PHB herd mentality, that's what it is.

[Kosmic]

Think you can get away with anything lumped and use transmission lines on standard FR4 fine well into 2-3GHz. It sort of falls apart when you want to do distributed fancy wizard stuff. PCBWAY do Rogers for that apparently.

Ho, I didn't know. Will try PCBWAY then.

[Zucca]

Shit IT is shit IT, regardless

Last week because of HR circus (long story), I had to print in color 160 pages.
Problem is I needed those page at 08:30 AM and it was 07:10 AM. Yes it was more than important...
(HR kindly told me to print that the night before about 22:30  ).

So File, Print, Ok... go to the corporate printer and RF badge so it will start to print.
ehhhmmm it seems slow... let me stopwatch one page: 1 fuuu minute and 05 seconds....
Oh nice on the third page that big image crashed the entire process... nice. Show stopper.

Called the IT-Helpdesk with no hope. After 3 minutes they told me:" try to print just 10 pages at a time". Muppet alert confirmed.

So back to the printer, I got the IP address by punching in the menus. Back to the PC, add network printer pointing to the right IP address.

20 minutes later I had all those 160 colored pages.

I never tried LSD, but I think it could be similar to deal constantly with the IT-Helpdesk.

Can you imagine a Thread "Tell your IT-Helpdesk story?"

[mnementh]

...Fucking PHB herd mentality, that's what it is.

PHBs are a herd animal; their entire survival strategy is to throw everybody else to the outer circles of the herd so they get picked off by the roving hyenas first.

If they had any useful skills, they'd be selling those instead of yours.

mnem
*proud global sponsor of Elbonian Airlines First Class Service Packages*

[mansaxel]

So back to the printer, I got the IP address by punching in the menus. Back to the PC, add network printer pointing to the right IP address.

...

Can you imagine a Thread "Tell your IT-Helpdesk story?"

I am the IT helpdesk. Or actually, 3rd level something behind.

Yes, always bypass the network print server, go LPD directly. That's been true since 1993 or so.