Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

I love driving in the rain and beside it'll take the temp right down. That's assuming I have a car then, mine is going in tomorrow to have the cambelt changed which on mine is a big job and they also have to fit a new water pump at the same time, so I'll a quite a few pounds lighter in the old wallet pocket after that. Then another couple of months, it's MOT time, Tax and insurance dipping into my pocket again so not much TEA activity for a while then 

Good luck with that. Mine needs a new DPF so I'm with you on the TEA budget issues. Also why I have listed a load of shit today due to £3 max fee listings (need to pay for that FT-818 too!)

Yeah... that's one of the things they don't tell you about on a passenger vehicle with diesel. The Cat/DPF has a finite lifespan, and it is NOT intended to last the life of the vehicle like the Cat in a gasoline-powered vehicle. You'll be looking at that bill and going " ; this is exhaust repair, not a effing new engine!!!"

As for the water pump/timing belt; you don't HAVE to replace it at the same time... but when the water pump goes it's the same labor as the timing belt, and it ruins the timing belt. And the new belt tensioners required on many vehicles often cause a marginal water pump to fail immediately anyways, so... as I used to phrase it... "Hey, it's YOUR car's funeral! Plan it however you like!" 

Is the FT-818ND working then? I sort had the impression that it was a lame one.

No working fine. Absolutely amazing bit of kit. Really is a wonderful little radio. Got me a QSO with Radio Caroline on a bit of wire around the living room the other day!

That's my fault... I didn't mean to suggest it wasn't a good radio; it's an update on the FT-817, which has been a benchmark XCVR for nearly 2 decades. I was just passing along what others were saying... that it wasn't really a generational upgrade with all new feature set as the new model name might suggest, but rather a refresh to bring the design in step with modern components and manufacturing.  Sorry.

Why over complicate things, there are just 3 items that interest us and they are the important ones, 1) Time, 2) Inside temp, and 3) Outside temp a quick glance at the device tells us all we need to know so that we can back on with the real task of all things TEA related and wasting valuable time studying that mass of useless information to filter out what we need from it. 

Speaking as a resident of a town known for being "steamy hot", I will tell you that as important as temperature in whatever scale you prefer, is % humidity and Heat Index. Over here, none of the popular "Weatherbug" type apps bother anymore... the space is too precious for advertising shite.     But the NOAA app still gives a straightforward hourly forecast with Temp/Heat Index in whichever scale you prefer, % Humidity, Dewpoint, Wind Direction & Speed, and Sky conditions with a short summary outlook.

The suck part is... as long as greedy imbecile politicians keep arguing over whether global warming (fuck the PC term for it... Al Gore was right, and you know it) is real, more and more localities are going to NEED to keep track of the Heat Index. Melting polar caps means more humidity EVERYWHERE.


mnem
Welcome to The Suck.

[Specmaster]

No working fine. Absolutely amazing bit of kit. Really is a wonderful little radio. Got me a QSO with Radio Caroline on a bit of wire around the living room the other day!

WTF, its only moored not far away from me here in the Blackwater, thats not far at all. They also broadcast on the net as well 

[bd139]

No working fine. Absolutely amazing bit of kit. Really is a wonderful little radio. Got me a QSO with Radio Caroline on a bit of wire around the living room the other day!

WTF, its only moored not far away from me here in the Blackwater, thats not far at all. They also broadcast on the net as well 

Yeah this was an amateur station off the boat, not the broadcast one. It's not about how far but getting a nice QSL card out of it

But my antenna was a bit of wire round the living room tuned with a plastic variable cap and running 2.5W though which was quite cool.

I love driving in the rain and beside it'll take the temp right down. That's assuming I have a car then, mine is going in tomorrow to have the cambelt changed which on mine is a big job and they also have to fit a new water pump at the same time, so I'll a quite a few pounds lighter in the old wallet pocket after that. Then another couple of months, it's MOT time, Tax and insurance dipping into my pocket again so not much TEA activity for a while then 

Good luck with that. Mine needs a new DPF so I'm with you on the TEA budget issues. Also why I have listed a load of shit today due to £3 max fee listings (need to pay for that FT-818 too!)

Yeah... that's one of the things they don't tell you about on a passenger vehicle with diesel. The Cat/DPF has a finite lifespan, and it is NOT intended to last the life of the vehicle like the Cat in a gasoline-powered vehicle. You'll be looking at that bill and going " ; this is exhaust repair, not a effing new engine!!!"

Yeah that's very true. I waltzed right into this expecting to pay for a replacement at some point TBH. It lasted longer than I was expecting. I'm going to connect it to the laptop and force a regen a couple of times and do a couple of hundred miles in it non stop and see if I can get it to get the clog factor down as much as possible first. New third party one isn't as expensive as a genuine one though so it's not end of world. TBH it has eaten I think 3 EGR valves now as well. Diesel environmental controls are frustrating as hell. The really annoying bit is the ECU not only fails to understand that the part has failed but can't work out its control parameters afterwards so the engine goes from pissing out white smoke (unburned diesel) to jumping into limp mode occasionally. You can do a rolling start and it drops out of limp mode though.

As for the water pump/timing belt; you don't HAVE to replace it at the same time... but when the water pump goes it's the same labor as the timing belt, and it ruins the timing belt. And the new belt tensioners required on many vehicles often cause a marginal water pump to fail immediately anyways, so... as I used to phrase it... "Hey, it's YOUR car's funeral! Plan it however you like!" 

Yes. That happened to my sister's car. It left bits of car in the road when it went.

Is the FT-818ND working then? I sort had the impression that it was a lame one.

No working fine. Absolutely amazing bit of kit. Really is a wonderful little radio. Got me a QSO with Radio Caroline on a bit of wire around the living room the other day!

That's my fault... I didn't mean to suggest it wasn't a good radio; it's an update on the FT-817, which has been a benchmark XCVR for nearly 2 decades. I was just passing along what others were saying... that it wasn't really a generational upgrade with all new feature set as the new model name might suggest, but rather a refresh to bring the design in step with modern components and manufacturing.  Sorry.

lol I was scratching my head there.

I think people were expecting a colour display, DSP and all sorts. But you're not going to get that in that package. What you do get is a whole load of fun you can take with you anywhere. Cue me with a bit of 2x1 and some cut up bits of tape measure pointing at the sky soon

[mnementh]

None of the numbers your instruments shows is readable by continental Europeans.

This is what a proper instrument would show here:

Now that is a sweet looking data collection system. Engineers love data after all.

I find it disturbing that almost all of your graphs seem to be trending towards zero... "Tonight's forecast: DARK!!! With brief periods of Midnight Sunrise as the ICBMs come over the North Pole... "

Yeah that was until I smoked £12 of AD9834 DDS IC with it.

TBH it's a really nice power supply and I mean really nice but I'm mainly using single rail low current stuff at the moment which is the domain of the PL310 with current limit instead of "insta-smoke" hard 1A limit. The PL154 also happens to be a rather nice power supply to charge and operate the FT-818ND. And you can turn them on and off independently unlike the triple rail output of the 6237B.

Edit to note the futility of build vs buy vs productising an idea, I've spent nearly £400 so far on developing a low cost low power pocket SNA for amateur radio use.

What voltage do you need to operate/charge the FT-818ND? I've found some "other" reasonably priced server power supplies; picked up a pair of 750W HP common-slot supplies for $30 shipped, and picked up a Dell 1100W supply for $16 shipped. Those are the ones from my earlier "Just making some hot water for my TEA..." posts. 


mnem
*Still juicy*

[Specmaster]

I love driving in the rain and beside it'll take the temp right down. That's assuming I have a car then, mine is going in tomorrow to have the cambelt changed which on mine is a big job and they also have to fit a new water pump at the same time, so I'll a quite a few pounds lighter in the old wallet pocket after that. Then another couple of months, it's MOT time, Tax and insurance dipping into my pocket again so not much TEA activity for a while then 

Good luck with that. Mine needs a new DPF so I'm with you on the TEA budget issues. Also why I have listed a load of shit today due to £3 max fee listings (need to pay for that FT-818 too!)

Yeah... that's one of the things they don't tell you about on a passenger vehicle with diesel. The Cat/DPF has a finite lifespan, and it is NOT intended to last the life of the vehicle like the Cat in a gasoline-powered vehicle. You'll be looking at that bill and going " ; this is exhaust repair, not a effing new engine!!!"

As for the water pump/timing belt; you don't HAVE to replace it at the same time... but when the water pump goes it's the same labor as the timing belt, and it ruins the timing belt. And the new belt tensioners required on many vehicles often cause a marginal water pump to fail immediately anyways, so... as I used to phrase it... "Hey, it's YOUR car's funeral! Plan it however you like!" 

mnem
Welcome to The Suck.

My car is a Skoda Superb, a car thats unknown in the states I believe but it is essentially almost a Audi A6 with a steel body instead of an alloy one. and they state that the cambelt has to be replaced at 140,000 miles or 5 years whichever happens first, in my case its the latter. This was my old company car and unlike bd139 who unashamedly admitted to ragging his company car (thought that was meant to be hire cars), I didn't, prefering to treat my cars with respect. When I retired 2 years I ago I brought the car from the leasing company as I knew its history and it had low mileage as well.

Recently I have had to top up the radiator with water a few times for the first time in 5 years, there is no sign of a leak so the garage think its a water pump beginning to fail and as the 5 years is up in November it was decided to do both cambelt and water pump at the sametime to save on labour costs. They have looked after this car since it was new and they know the cars inside out.

As to the DPF, at least on my car, it is self cleaning if the car is driven correctly and should last the lifetime of the car. My handbook details on what to do if the DPF warning light comes on. That is to drive the car at speeds in excess of 60 km/h for at least 15 minutes with rpm's of between 1,800 and 2,500 until the warning light goes off.

bd139, you need to ditch that Ferrari In Affordable Trim and grab VW group car, could be cheaper in the long term 

[bd139]

What voltage do you need to operate/charge the FT-818ND? I've found some "other" reasonably priced server power supplies; picked up a pair of 750W HP common-slot supplies for $30 shipped, and picked up a Dell 1100W supply for $16 shipped. Those are the ones from my earlier "Just making some hot water for my TEA..." posts. 

It'll run off 9.6V+ and charge off 12V+. Internal battery pack limits power to 2.5W though. If you plug an external one in it'll kick out 6W. It only sucks 3A max so it'll run fine off my PL154.

The FT-450D I'm going to grab a leisure battery for and a charger. This gives us some emergency power with some 12V LED site lamps as have had a couple of power cuts recently.

bd139, you need to ditch that Ferrari In Affordable Trim and grab VW group car, could be cheaper in the long term 

Yes I completely agree. Got my eye on an Octavia actually. Know a couple of people who bought them and they are super happy with them. I'm pushing it right until the last minute with the low emissions zone changes here in London and I'll buy a 2-3y old one then.

[Ero-Shan]

Hahaha only a few by accident

I had 8000.  Sold 4000. Used 500. Got 3500 left. Should be good ‘til I’m dead.

Most of the used ones ended up being convenient leg donors for other things.

Ah yes i always keep snipped off resistor pins around.

Someone should find where one can buy a whole spool of the wire that they make them out of because they are perfect for making short sturdy connections.

Do you mean something like that?


But I still keep all snipped off pins.

[Specmaster]

Yes I completely agree. Got my eye on an Octavia actually. Know a couple of people who bought them and they are super happy with them. I'm pushing it right until the last minute with the low emissions zone changes here in London and I'll buy a 2-3y old one then.

Yeah, that low emissions charge zone is going to sting me in 2021 when it starts to operate inside the north and south circular road, it'll cost me an extra £12.50 which I'm very annoyed about seeing as the government were actively encouraging people to buy diesel cars a few years back 

The Octavia is not a bad car as it happens, although its based on the Golf platform and mechanics it pisses all over it in other aspects as the standard kit and space etc is far superior in all aspects.

[bd139]

Yes that pissed me off with the diesel encouragement.

Also TT was based on that platform. I did consider a TT as an option but there’s not enough room in it plus I’d probably crash it. And I’d be an Audi cunt then 

[Specmaster]

And still have less space for TEA goodies so a double whammy of an own goal

[med6753]

None of the numbers your instruments shows is readable by continental Europeans.

This is what a proper instrument would show here:

Now that is a sweet looking data collection system. Engineers love data after all.

I'm no engineer but I like it too. Even though I don't speak German I can figure out most of it. But I have to agree with the group that for a real quick reference I just want to know current inside/outside temperature. And yes, most of that same graphical data is available on the NOAA website . (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or better known as the National Weather Service). And I can also receive direct up to the minute forecast and storm warning information at 162.475 MHz. 

[capt bullshot]

None of the numbers your instruments shows is readable by continental Europeans.

I'm no engineer but I like it too. Even though I don't speak German I can figure out most of it. But I have to agree with the group that for a real quick reference I just want to know current inside/outside temperature. And yes, most of that same graphical data is available on the NOAA website . (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or better known as the National Weather Service). And I can also receive direct up to the minute forecast and storm warning information at 162.475 MHz. 

My original attempt was to rant about the units: Fahrenheit and AM/PM - can't read that, wanted Celsius and 24h clock.

[SeanB]

Tinned copper wire is easy, just get old telephone cable, which is all tinned copper under the PVC insulation, and it solders well. I have a few good lengths of it around in 50 pair cable leftovers, so have all the colours (and a heck of a lot of red in there) for use. As for leads, I use those off the 2 boxes of zener diodes bought for $1 at auction, no way I will use 20k 12V and 24V 0.4W zener diodes, even though they were made in the same fab that Free_electron worked in. those are tinned steel though.

[mnementh]

What voltage do you need to operate/charge the FT-818ND? I've found some "other" reasonably priced server power supplies; picked up a pair of 750W HP common-slot supplies for $30 shipped, and picked up a Dell 1100W supply for $16 shipped. Those are the ones from my earlier "Just making some hot water for my TEA..." posts. 

It'll run off 9.6V+ and charge off 12V+. Internal battery pack limits power to 2.5W though. If you plug an external one in it'll kick out 6W. It only sucks 3A max so it'll run fine off my PL154.

The FT-450D I'm going to grab a leisure battery for and a charger. This gives us some emergency power with some 12V LED site lamps as have had a couple of power cuts recently.

Okay... then either the HP 643932-001 750W or the Dell 1100SA-L0 1100W should be great to power and charge. The HP is rated 94% efficient, and both have thermally-controlled fans with a really nice low minimum RPM, as well as a 12V/2-2.5A standby output. You should watch and see if they come along cheap on your side of the pond.

You're probably going to hate me... but last week when I heard about the FCC citing BaofengRadioUS for their sloppy product management, I decided to finally grab a UV-5R before the spazzmonkeys  all started shitting themselves and they suddenly triple in price. Got it from banggood's US warehouse; with affiliate points I had on tap, it was $23 shipped. Should be here any day now.

Not sure what I'll do with the stock antenna... that tape-measure yagi looked like fun the first time I saw it. 


mnem
Pants.

[bd139]

Excellent. I've got access to a whole box of  HP 643932's I think (assuming they came from DL380 G8's). Will nick a couple.

LOL @ UV-5R. I owned one. In fact the one I owned is for sale on eBay at the moment as I got the FT-818. They're pretty good actually. I did my first licensed QSO on one. The antenna that comes with it is total shit but you can get a cheap one off amazon that does the job reasonably well. Make sure you get a USB data cable for it as it's a pile of shit to program via the interface. Use CHIRP to program it. They're only killing these not because they are dangerous but they allow transmit on emergency channels AFAIK.

The only annoying thing about the radio is that the thing is totally unmanageable with a large antenna on it. Falls over and off everything.

[tautech]

Tinned copper wire is easy, just get old telephone cable, which is all tinned copper under the PVC insulation, and it solders well. I have a few good lengths of it around in 50 pair cable leftovers, so have all the colours (and a heck of a lot of red in there) for use. As for leads, I use those off the 2 boxes of zener diodes bought for $1 at auction, no way I will use 20k 12V and 24V 0.4W zener diodes, even though they were made in the same fab that Free_electron worked in. those are tinned steel though.

What isn't these days ?
Yes I use snipped leads too but have a reserve of old bare 7 strand tinned copper mains earth wire like they used to wind along segmented steel flexy conduit. Makes good 30A fuse wire too. 

Interesting what you say about SA telco cable as all ours is bare copper not tinned. 

[bd139]

If it looked like copper someone would nick it in SA 

[tautech]

If it looked like copper someone would nick it in SA 

We had a run on the 25mm² earth field cables that run down power poles with mongrels snipping them off as high as they could reach and selling them as scrap.
Bastards put everyone at risk by compromising the mains earth system.
New cables (and repair jobs) look the same but are copper coated steel and have a 'not copper' tag on them now.

Some of the worst offenders were ex powerco staff ! F***wits. 

[med6753]

None of the numbers your instruments shows is readable by continental Europeans.

I'm no engineer but I like it too. Even though I don't speak German I can figure out most of it. But I have to agree with the group that for a real quick reference I just want to know current inside/outside temperature. And yes, most of that same graphical data is available on the NOAA website . (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or better known as the National Weather Service). And I can also receive direct up to the minute forecast and storm warning information at 162.475 MHz. 

My original attempt was to rant about the units: Fahrenheit and AM/PM - can't read that, wanted Celsius and 24h clock.

Your rant about my units of measurement was noted the first time. But I chose to ignore it. But since you've brought it up again I feel compelled to respond.

24 clock vs AM/PM : The military uses it. Most government agencies, such as police/fire, use it. But in everyday domestic situations AM/PM prevails. Call me ignorant but I didn't realize that many countries use 24 clock as standard. But in reality going back and forth between the two is ridiculously easy. So what's the issue? 

Other units of measurement: In terms of international trade and goods the USA adopted the “metric system”. But internally we did not. Call it dumb if you want but that's the way it is. So while I can embrace metric measurements I am most comfortable with the old English system. So I prefer feet/miles/quarts/Fahrenheit. Don't understand what 90 degrees F is? Google is you friend.  Simply type 90F to C and you get your answer. (32 C). I do it all the time when presented with temperatures in C and I don't fuss and whine about it. Because I understand and accept that the rest of the world uses that as their standard. We don't. Accept it or move on.

So that's it in a nutshell. Call me arrogant. Call me stupid. Call me backward. I really don't care. 

[tautech]

What works 'near enough' for temps is the +30 then half or double trick.
eg 90-30=60/2= 30, 30*2=60+30=90......near enough. 

[bd139]

If it looked like copper someone would nick it in SA 

We had a run on the 25mm² earth field cables that run down power poles with mongrels snipping them off as high as they could reach and selling them as scrap.
Bastards put everyone at risk by compromising the mains earth system.
New cables (and repair jobs) look the same but are copper coated steel and have a 'not copper' tag on them now.

Some of the worst offenders were ex powerco staff ! F***wits. 

Yeah that doesn't surprise me. Had similar in South East London a few years ago. Someone tried to steal cables from a major substation and took out about 20,000 houses for 5 days. They failed to nick anything but caused a massive fire which took everything out.

On the subject of temperature, you're all wrong. It should be Kelvin.

[med6753]

If it looked like copper someone would nick it in SA 

We had a run on the 25mm² earth field cables that run down power poles with mongrels snipping them off as high as they could reach and selling them as scrap.
Bastards put everyone at risk by compromising the mains earth system.
New cables (and repair jobs) look the same but are copper coated steel and have a 'not copper' tag on them now.

Some of the worst offenders were ex powerco staff ! F***wits. 

Yeah that doesn't surprise me. Had similar in South East London a few years ago. Someone tried to steal cables from a major substation and took out about 20,000 houses for 5 days. They failed to nick anything but caused a massive fire which took everything out.

On the subject of temperature, you're all wrong. It should be Kelvin.

Yep, it's currently 295.928 K in here. Freaking hot! 

[Specmaster]

If it looked like copper someone would nick it in SA 

We had a run on the 25mm² earth field cables that run down power poles with mongrels snipping them off as high as they could reach and selling them as scrap.
Bastards put everyone at risk by compromising the mains earth system.
New cables (and repair jobs) look the same but are copper coated steel and have a 'not copper' tag on them now.

Some of the worst offenders were ex powerco staff ! F***wits. 

Yeah that doesn't surprise me. Had similar in South East London a few years ago. Someone tried to steal cables from a major substation and took out about 20,000 houses for 5 days. They failed to nick anything but caused a massive fire which took everything out.

On the subject of temperature, you're all wrong. It should be Kelvin.

Yep, it's currently 295.928 K in here. Freaking hot! 

Boy do I wish it was that here, currently its 307K, thats freaking hot OK.

[Miti]

Ok, BD139 convinced me to join this therapy thread before my wife leaves me and my kids starve.
So here I am.
I am Miti and I'm a scopoholic...

[Specmaster]

Welcome to you Miti, as bd139 said, you're a prime candidate for this group but what you do ever think that we can cure you because we can't. What we do best to reassure you that you're not alone in this craving of ours, giving you moral support and technical assistance as and when required and more importantly, helping your journey into admitting that you have an addiction problem and be safe in the knowledge that will do our best to make you feel comfortable here as we all do battle together on Ebay trying to find that elusive special score.