Author Topic: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread  (Read 14551368 times)

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Offline med6753

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11000 on: May 21, 2018, 12:44:34 pm »
You can freeze an analogue scope. Turn the intensity up, stare at it for 10 seconds then shut your eyes  :-DD

As for Arduino, don’t get me started on that :)

Damn I am a grumpy old man :Dwhe

Personally I quite grumpy old men, especially when they are nearly always right and nice with it, hell I'm one of them myself. :-DD

Grumpy old man here too. I turn 65 next month so this past Friday I went to local Social Security Office and signed up for Medicare. A perk for getting grumpy and old. Going to continue to work for another year and then retire completely and collect SSI benefits.

TEA content....I have a Siglent SDS 1052DL DSO here and it's neat but I usually find myself going for the analog scope to troubleshoot something. 

Grumpy old man mantra......"Old age and treachery will beat youth and speed every time".  >:D 

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Offline GerryBags

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11001 on: May 21, 2018, 01:48:49 pm »
I sold a working digital 'scope to buy a broken analog one. I didn't like the digi at all (useful as it would have been in diagnosing the broken one) and... erm... like a challenge... or used to, the shine has worn off this particular challenge a bit. i may not be as old as you guys, but being in pain all the time can make you super-double-grumpy. Plus I probably look older than all of you put together!  :D
 

Offline GreyWoolfe

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11002 on: May 21, 2018, 01:49:49 pm »
Grumpy old man mantra......"Old age and treachery will beat youth and speed every time".  >:D

I thought it was youth and enthusiasm. ;D  That's what I have always said.  Grumpy old man myself in my early 60's but I am trying to be a kinder, gentler GreyWoolfe.  However, it could all just be  :bullshit:
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11003 on: May 21, 2018, 02:40:31 pm »
Specmaster - that's also the beauty of digital cameras. 1200 shots on a 32Gb SD card isn't a big deal, but that would have taken 34 rolls of 35mm film, say £15 each for film & processing, that's over £500! I used to assist a sports photographer back in the filmy days and you had to be fairly well assured that you'd be able to sell your shots before whacking away on the motor-drive.

Oh, and I'd say you're definitely getting good at it. Those pics are very professional looking. if you did a FB page devoted to your aerial photography I know a load of scale modellers who would go a bundle for them. Look up David Brown Photography, he does pretty nicely attending airshows and selling the shots on his website. I can't stand my brother, but he does run a high quality digital printing service in Potters Bar, just North of the M25. He'd definitely be amenable to printing and posting out your orders. Might be worth thinking about, as the actual web-space shouldn't be too pricey and you wouldn't need to stock anything.

I agree with this entire statement. I spent a lot of time scouring the 'net for pics of a certain variant of Piper Cub for my own stick-build; pics of this quality are definitely worth paying for.  :clap: You should for sure set up on one of the bigger photo sites and monetize; it would definitely help pay for both these expensive addictions.  :-+

If you post your "I gotta share shots" here with a [SPACE] instead of a [CR] between images so they show up side x side, and thumb them to ~180 pxl wide, you could put all of those pics up in the space of an average post. I realize this sucks for presentation, but it would tame the debate over "too much vertical scrolling".

I never had a problem using the [PG DN] button; but some folks are so used to their scrollwheel they have to stop and think to use something else. I can sortof understand the gripe; as I get older, I find anything that makes me stop and think a distraction. I suppose the difference is whether you welcome that kind of distraction or get annoyed by it.  :o


Thanks again for sharing,


mnem
 
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11004 on: May 21, 2018, 02:45:22 pm »
Specmaster - that's also the beauty of digital cameras. 1200 shots on a 32Gb SD card isn't a big deal, but that would have taken 34 rolls of 35mm film, say £15 each for film & processing, that's over £500! I used to assist a sports photographer back in the filmy days and you had to be fairly well assured that you'd be able to sell your shots before whacking away on the motor-drive.

Oh, and I'd say you're definitely getting good at it. Those pics are very professional looking. if you did a FB page devoted to your aerial photography I know a load of scale modellers who would go a bundle for them. Look up David Brown Photography, he does pretty nicely attending airshows and selling the shots on his website. I can't stand my brother, but he does run a high quality digital printing service in Potters Bar, just North of the M25. He'd definitely be amenable to printing and posting out your orders. Might be worth thinking about, as the actual web-space shouldn't be too pricey and you wouldn't need to stock anything.

I agree with this entire statement. I spent a lot of time scouring the 'net for pics of a certain variant of Piper Cub for my own stick-build; pics of this quality are definitely worth paying for.  :clap: You should for sure set up on one of the bigger photo sites and monetize; it would definitely help pay for both these expensive addictions.  :-+

If you post your "I gotta share shots" here with a [SPACE] instead of a [CR] between images so they show up side x side, and thumb them to ~180 pxl wide, you could put all of those pics up in the space of an average post. I realize this sucks for presentation, but it would tame the debate over "too much vertical scrolling".

I never had a problem using the [PG DN] button; but some folks are so used to their scrollwheel they have to stop and think to use something else. I can sortof understand the gripe; as I get older, I find anything that makes me stop and think a distraction. I suppose the difference is whether you welcome that kind of distraction or get annoyed by it.  :o


Thanks again for sharing,


mnem
 
*Digital since 1998*
Even without photos and quotes attached, there is still a lot of scrolling to be to reach the bottom of the page, so what's new?

I will however remember your tip and try it, may even put a few photos in that format and give it a test run [emoji23]

From mobile device so predictive text might have struck again [emoji83]

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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11005 on: May 21, 2018, 02:46:46 pm »
I don't hope for anything from Resident Chump except that he ignores the things I care about. He's like penis fingers from hell on crack; everything he touches turns to shit. If we're all lucky he will actually be struck dead by lightning, and his pet turds Pence and Gorsuch right alongside him to make the trifecta. And sooner rather than later; he's trying to start WWIII.

mnem
I am Diogenes.


That was a good hearty chuckle; really helped my perspective this morning. Thanks! :-+


mnem
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11006 on: May 21, 2018, 02:55:42 pm »
Have something on topic instead. This is why I like analogue scopes. This is the output of a discrete product mixer running two signals close in phase and frequency. You can see the frequency relationships here as the mixing product drifts slightly. This sort of stuff looks ugly on a digital scope.

Nice fluid motion alright.

Tho you can get pretty close if you pay enough for your digital scope. That's the reason i'm sticking to my Agilent MSO6000, so far its the most analog like digital scope i have used. Quick few second boot time, all the controls respond instantly, fast update rate(100k waveforms/s) and a display with enough resolution to make it impossible to see the pixels.

Yeah, I know there are good DSOs out there, as long as you're willing to pay a lot. But a really good CRO can be had for a couple hundred almost any day of the week and less if you're an accomplished scrounge, and I'd wager it's a lot more useful tool in general than most of the other stuff we think nothing of plunking that kind of dosh down on. There is no good reason for this "either/or" mentality; DSOs are best for some things (mostly digital comms) while CROs are still better for other things most of the time.


Cheers,


mnem
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11007 on: May 21, 2018, 03:46:19 pm »
Interesting advantage of new DSOs. The shelf in my hall cupboard collapsed about an hour ago under the weight of both the D83's. Went with quite a bang. Scopes are fine but the shelf is knackered. Whoops. Fortunately it only had bin bags full of duvets under it so a nice soft landing although someone's going to get splinters in their arse when they dig that out this winter  :-DD
 

Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11008 on: May 21, 2018, 03:48:08 pm »
Yeah I have to agree. While the DS1054Z is crowed around here as the bee's knees for bottom end DSOs there are too many compromises not to make it frustrating to use. It's noisy, laggy, the UI is crap, the controls are soggy and the probes are just shit. You can get the job done but it's like living in a snake pit.

If I'm honest I'm finding it hard to need a DSO. For digital stuff a Saleae does the job. Really slow stuff, a logging DMM does a beter job as it has some proper measurement resolution (U1241C does 40 readings per second at 10,000 count resolution).

And for that twilight zone in the middle, where the DSO usually wins, the trick is to make your one shot event repetitive! Usually employing the function generator, a BJT and a couple of resistors to accomplish that.

I've said as much myself... I bought my 1054Z primarily for diagnostics regarding my RC modeling hobby, in particular my miniature quadcopter habit.

They are essentially a collection of 4 brushless motors, each one with a microprocessor generating PWM to drive FETs in a dual H-Gate motor driver controlled via bit-banged high-speed PWM or pseudo-serial by another micro with accel & gyro sensors (sometimes GPS and magnetometer as well), which is in turn directed by another processor running a software-defined radio transceiver, which is then in turn controlled in my transmitter by a software-defined radio transceiver, and finally by another micro running a hybrid OS/GUI for parameter control via analog signal from pots and/or ratiometric Hall-effect sensors through its built-in ADCs.

Fortunately (?), all of this is "hobbyist experimental" grade gear; none of it comes close to aero or even commercial/industrial controls in terms of precision or redundancy requirements.

For this, the 1054Z and my 2465 are all I should ever need for the foreseeable future. I put hands on the 1054z and the 1104Z before I bought; the difference is considerable, no doubt. The 1054 is a barely 50MHz DSO you can abuse to 100MHz BW; the 1104 is a 100MHz DSO you can abuse to 200MHz BW and the fundamental shortcomings of the 1054Z are quite visible next to the 1104Z, and those of both are glaringly visible to anyone who's used a good CRO.

But bottom line is I couldn't justify the difference in price to myself for my needs, and certainly couldn't to my wife who bought it for a present.

I have one of the early cheap Chinese clones of the Salae 16-CH LA; I bought it and installed the hacked software from the cloners' site long before I ever discovered it was all ripped off from them. It is actually a surprisingly capable bit of kit, which I used quite a bit when I started tinkering with Arduino due to my interest in ArduPilot. It was fun, but I got "math-defective programmer burnout" multiple times one on top of the other and had to get away before my brain exploded. Haven't been back to Arduino since.


Cheers,

mnem
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11009 on: May 21, 2018, 03:52:39 pm »
Arduino is nasty shit anyway. You saved yourself.

Going to B&Q. I have been instructed to build a new shelf :(
 

Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11010 on: May 21, 2018, 03:54:03 pm »
Interesting advantage of new DSOs. The shelf in my hall cupboard collapsed about an hour ago under the weight of both the D83's. Went with quite a bang. Scopes are fine but the shelf is knackered. Whoops. Fortunately it only had bin bags full of duvets under it so a nice soft landing although someone's going to get splinters in their arse when they dig that out this winter  :-DD
What, I really have difficulty in picturing you putting those D83's on a simple shelf  :palm:, good job nobody was sitting below the shelf or we might have been trying to get you bailed out from the local nick.
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11011 on: May 21, 2018, 04:00:31 pm »
Personally I quite grumpy old men, especially when they are nearly always right and nice with it, hell I'm one of them myself. :-DD

I can't decide whether to be an old punk or a young geezer... I certainly am much too young to feel this old, but being a geezer does come with the advantage of comfortable pants, and being able to wear them (or not) any way I damn well choose.  :-DD


mnem
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11012 on: May 21, 2018, 04:03:55 pm »
Interesting advantage of new DSOs. The shelf in my hall cupboard collapsed about an hour ago under the weight of both the D83's. Went with quite a bang. Scopes are fine but the shelf is knackered. Whoops. Fortunately it only had bin bags full of duvets under it so a nice soft landing although someone's going to get splinters in their arse when they dig that out this winter  :-DD
What, I really have difficulty in picturing you putting those D83's on a simple shelf  :palm:, good job nobody was sitting below the shelf or we might have been trying to get you bailed out from the local nick.

My bad that one. It was a very over engineered shelf. However there was a great big crack on the arse of one of the slats I didn't notice. That snapped and then cascaded. It had something to bear load across it before in the form of boxes but the scopes were sitting on the shelf with about 10Kg of boxes on top.

When I put that shelf in it took my weight of 85Kg quite happily.

Inspected scopes. Literally nothing on them at all apart from a scrape down the rear of the dead one! Things are like tanks. Phew!

 

Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11013 on: May 21, 2018, 04:09:12 pm »
Interesting advantage of new DSOs. The shelf in my hall cupboard collapsed about an hour ago under the weight of both the D83's. Went with quite a bang. Scopes are fine but the shelf is knackered. Whoops. Fortunately it only had bin bags full of duvets under it so a nice soft landing although someone's going to get splinters in their arse when they dig that out this winter  :-DD

So the power/weight ratio is just not there, eh?  :-DD

Arduino is nasty shit anyway. You saved yourself.

Going to B&Q. I have been instructed to build a new shelf :(

Was this actual instruction, or are you listening to your "inner SWMBO" and acting to preempt that whole "thermonuclear stare" scenario?   :o


mnem
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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11014 on: May 21, 2018, 04:22:13 pm »
The humour on this site is every as good as some of that you pay for IMO, never fails to make me smile and sometimes chortle away like I overdosed on nitrous oxide.  >:D
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11015 on: May 21, 2018, 04:33:06 pm »
So it's you leaving all those little gas canisters everywhere :-DD

I am pre-empting real SWMBO.

Getting distracted looking at Ryobi things though.
 

Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11016 on: May 21, 2018, 04:35:24 pm »
On the positive side of things, this arrived today and it confirms that all of my meters are good to go  :-+

The seller claimed it was new and had only ever been used to demonstrate it for the Ebay adverts and I wouldn't dispute that for a single moment, it is pristine, and a good score I think.

Who let Murphy in?

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Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11017 on: May 21, 2018, 04:39:32 pm »
I can recommend Ryobi mini/mouse sander for doing stair spindles with and I'll try and not drop anymore canisters over you garden fence.
Who let Murphy in?

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Offline Cerebus

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11018 on: May 21, 2018, 04:49:04 pm »
Talking of empty gas cannisters everywhere, Monday is shopping day, and SWMBO and yours truly made a rare side trip to Asda today (they often have fantastic Sorrento lemons at this time of year).  Scattered around the parking space next to the one I picked were three empty cartons and about thirty-six empty N2O 'sparklets' bottles, and the trash from a couple of six packs of beer. I'm all for a party, and I try not to judge other people's definition of 'party', but surely of all places to pick for one Asda's car park has to be pretty near the bottom of the list.
Anybody got a syringe I can use to squeeze the magic smoke back into this?
 

Offline Specmaster

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11019 on: May 21, 2018, 04:53:24 pm »
Maybe a couple of swift drinks prior to going to a real party to get into the mood?
Who let Murphy in?

Brymen-Fluke-HP-Thurlby-Thander-Tek-Extech-Black Star-GW-Avo-Kyoritsu-Amprobe-ITT-Robin-TTi
 

Offline tautech

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11020 on: May 21, 2018, 09:01:52 pm »
TEA content....I have a Siglent SDS 1052DL DSO here and it's neat but I usually find myself going for the analog scope to troubleshoot something. 
I'm not at all surprised as they're very low specc'ed compared to more modern stuff.
I looked at stocking them but could never bring myself to selling something I knew was so limited in capability.


@bd139 and D83's...... :phew:
Crazy thing now you could've stacked 10 modern DSO's on that shelf to be of equivalent weight of 2 D83's.
At least they're not busted.  :)
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Offline bd139

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11021 on: May 21, 2018, 09:09:47 pm »
Yeah - to be honest they are pretty nuclear bomb proof physically.
 

Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11022 on: May 21, 2018, 09:38:55 pm »
Yeah - to be honest they are pretty nuclear bomb proof physically.
And if I'm not mistaken, they were also used in the development thereof...  :-DD


mnem
I'm not saying they're ancient but... the timebase in 'em is windup.  *bah-dump-bump*  >:D


* Edited to obviate satire for the non-sarcasm-compliant.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2018, 10:07:30 pm by mnementh »
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Offline tautech

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11023 on: May 21, 2018, 09:44:35 pm »
mnem
I'm not saying they're ancient but... the timebase in 'em is windup.  >:D
Actually no, they had a proper dual delayed timebase and as bd139 has shared a magnificent crisp large display that could show most CRO's up except 7000 Teks.
For their era they were a pretty good CRO.
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Offline mnementh

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Re: Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread
« Reply #11024 on: May 21, 2018, 09:59:18 pm »
Oh for corn's sake... IT WAS A FLUPPING JOKE!!!  :palm: Way to suck all the fun outta the room, man...


mnem


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