Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

Ahh can't do that unfortunately. Local planning wankers don't want dropped kerbs here as it will lower the tone of the neighbourhood [1], plus there's a local covenant where the council owns half my fucking hedge, which annoyingly they cut down, replanted a shit one that died after 4 attempts at replacing it in a row and then left me to cut the manky thing and served me a notice because it was in a state.

Also to add, they only replaced the hedge because of a massive event at Twickenham Stadium so it was done as a turd polishing measure.

[1] silly because we're number one customer of police tape here.

Edit: going to move to a nice isolated house in the middle of land I own one day. Trespassers will be shot!

Must be "Keeping Up Appearances" you know. A local TV station here ran those episodes. Some funny shit. It seems that having the typical English Garden is a national past time and almost a civic duty. I'll bet there's competitions with prizes and prestige to go along with it, right? It probably turns those normally gentle little old ladies into raving lunatics.   

[Wolfgang]

RIGOL DP832, anyone ? Hardly to get more bang for the buck. Linear, low ripple and noise, properly cooled (now), ...
Why not ?

[Housedad]

It's been a while since I posted around here.   Been happily busy with life and learning.

But the TEA problem has reared it's ugly head in a most vehement fashion.

I just bought a Wavetek 2410 RF Signal Generator used on Ebay.  Listed as parts not working.  I'm going nuts.  Or just getting old and senile.  Buying stuff sight unseen and hoping I can get it working.  sheesh.  At least I won't lose much if it is a boat anchor.  Got it cheap.  It does power up and show a frequency on the screen

Now to wait for it to come in.

[bd139]

Must be "Keeping Up Appearances" you know. A local TV station here ran those episodes. Some funny shit. It seems that having the typical English Garden is a nation past time and almost a civic duty. I'll bet there's competitions with prizes and prestige to go along with it, right? It probably turns those normally gentle little old ladies into raving lunatics.   

That's surprisingly accurate for suburban towns that show. TBF my neighbour who is in her late 80's and more Mrs Bucket material said to me a couple of weeks back after the hot spell that she is fed up with the bloody garden and is going to let it all die.

I knew it was a rough area but not that rough surely that it uses more of the police tape surely not 

To be fair it's not exactly rough. The current spate of stabbings were inter-gang violence and the road deaths were all scooter idiots using the main road as a speedway and doing wheelies.  "Oh Darren was such a nice boy and will be missed" (after wheelying it into the front of a bus at 40mph on his way to stab someone who owed him £50 for some drugs).

When and if that day dawns that you get your dream house, good luck getting your chinese shit delivered to your door, instead you're going to have to go outside and drive / walk to the gate  etc where the poor old delivery man was shot as a trespasser and climb over the mound of previously shot trespassers delivery men / postmen etc and collect it yourself 

Better start digging a trench when I get that place 

TBH I know someone who lives out in the sticks in Derbyshire at the end of a rotten old dirt track and Amazon still make it out to him fine.

RIGOL DP832, anyone ? Hardly to get more bang for the buck. Linear, low ripple and noise, properly cooled (now), ...
Why not ?

No no no no no.

1. Turn on spikes (bye bye circuit on line power failure)
2. Wonky as feck grounding. It's not three independent supplies
3. Noisy as hell.
4. Latin name is imperium-explodium.

It's been a while since I posted around here.   Been happily busy with life and learning.

But the TEA problem has reared it's ugly head in a most vehement fashion.

I just bought a Wavetek 2410 RF Signal Generator used on Ebay.  Listed as parts not working.  I'm going nuts.  Or just getting old and senile.  Buying stuff sight unseen and hoping I can get it working.  sheesh.  At least I won't lose much if it is a boat anchor.  Got it cheap.  It does power up and show a frequency on the screen

Now to wait for it to come in.

Nice purchase. Good luck with repairs - always worth a punt if it's cheap!

[Specmaster]

Better start digging a trench when I get that place 

TBH I know someone who lives out in the sticks in Derbyshire at the end of a rotten old dirt track and Amazon still make it out to him fine.

Either he didn't declare that trespassers will be shot or he should have gone to "specsavers" 

[bd139]

FFFS just had a CPC order turn up with more repair queue parts.

Opened the box and there's an SSD and some gloves in it and an invoice for someone else

Looks like whoever was on the packing line yesterday was half asleep.

[Cerebus]

Was that the 'old' or 'new' Foyles?  It just wasn't the same last time I was there a few years ago.  To quote their history*: "Gone are the dusty piles, the confusing layout and the archaic queuing system...".  I used to go in the 80s when it was an easy walk from where I used to work just off Oxford St..  I still have a book with a rather faded hand written receipt still inside it from back then.

*https://www.foyles.co.uk/about-foyles

If I remember correctly this was when Foyles were at an intermediate stage when mere mortals could buy books from the general sections on the ground floor fairly straightforwardly, but if you wanted anything academic then at least an advanced certificate, if not a degree, in foylesology was required to find and actually pay for the book you wanted.

There was a certain cachet in being able to negotiate the old Foyles. A right of passage that demonstrated that you were a scholar, not a mere reader. However, what put me off Foyles was that they evidenced little respect for the actual books they stocked, I found many mangled and misshapen volumes on the shelves there. It was not the temple to knowledge that some might have described it as, more the butcher around the corner from the temple that sold animals for the offerings.

[Cerebus]

I knew it was a rough area but not that rough surely that it uses more of the police tape surely not 

Ah, they are trying to keep it quiet, but most of this is down to a repeat offender that the local old bill are calling, strictly between themselves, the "Twickenham Chav Stomper". Chavs are being found battered to death, with imprints of the knobs of some heavy appliance on the corpses. The police have not been able to match the forensics to any know common device and there are suspicions that it is some item of archaic electrical equipment. Enquiries continue.

[bd139]

Was that the 'old' or 'new' Foyles?  It just wasn't the same last time I was there a few years ago.  To quote their history*: "Gone are the dusty piles, the confusing layout and the archaic queuing system...".  I used to go in the 80s when it was an easy walk from where I used to work just off Oxford St..  I still have a book with a rather faded hand written receipt still inside it from back then.

*https://www.foyles.co.uk/about-foyles

If I remember correctly this was when Foyles were at an intermediate stage when mere mortals could buy books from the general sections on the ground floor fairly straightforwardly, but if you wanted anything academic then at least an advanced certificate, if not a degree, in foylesology was required to find and actually pay for the book you wanted.

There was a certain cachet in being able to negotiate the old Foyles. A right of passage that demonstrated that you were a scholar, not a mere reader. However, what put me off Foyles was that they evidenced little respect for the actual books they stocked, I found many mangled and misshapen volumes on the shelves there. It was not the temple to knowledge that some might have described it as, more the butcher around the corner from the temple that sold animals for the offerings.

Totally agree with old Foyles. Total disaster zone of a bookseller. When I started my second semester at university I was recovering from flu (not merely man flu) and couldn't go out and empty the university bookshop before everyone else did. That lead to my trying all the local booksellers. They were out too, and mostly run by Bernard Black. Thus I called up Foyles and spoke to a helpful man who took a list of titles and went searching for me. He phoned me back a whole day later excitedly and told me they were in.

So I jumped on the train the next day and went into the city and turned up at Foyles with a fat wodge of notes (semester book cost was £150 even back then, a massive dent in beer money). Navigated up to the I think first floor where all the engineering books were and found a human who looked like they may have worked there. Turns out they didn't. Some searching later I found some staff who disappeared for an entire hour to find the person who initially spoke to me. Turned out they were off sick and were a bit of a stoner and generally a bit shit and had probably just lied and called in sick because I said I was turning up.

In the end they had ONE title in stock and I had to find it my bloody self which took an hour and yes you are right, the back cover was folded. Grr. Attempts to negotiate a discount for this damage were laughed at with basically the comment "where the hell else are you going to get a copy of that?".

Now roll on to 2018, I just googled the textbook. Albeit first edition I needed then, it's at 4th edition now and took 8 seconds to find: http://swarm.cs.pub.ro/~mbarbulescu/SMPA/CMOS-VLSI-design.pdf

Fuck booksellers and publishers full stop.

Edit: also fuck universities. The bastard reading list had 1st edition on it but they taught the course with a draft of 2nd edition they had got their hands on.

I knew it was a rough area but not that rough surely that it uses more of the police tape surely not 

Ah, they are trying to keep it quiet, but most of this is down to a repeat offender that the local old bill are calling, strictly between themselves, the "Twickenham Chav Stomper". Chavs are being found battered to death, with imprints of the knobs of some heavy appliance on the corpses. The police have not been able to match the forensics to any know common device and there are suspicions that it is some item of archaic electrical equipment. Enquiries continue.

Don't give me ideas. Especially very good ideas. "It loolks like he was beaten to death with a Tektronix 7A18 officer!"

[Specmaster]

I knew it was a rough area but not that rough surely that it uses more of the police tape surely not 

Ah, they are trying to keep it quiet, but most of this is down to a repeat offender that the local old bill are calling, strictly between themselves, the "Twickenham Chav Stomper". Chavs are being found battered to death, with imprints of the knobs of some heavy appliance on the corpses. The police have not been able to match the forensics to any know common device and there are suspicions that it is some item of archaic electrical equipment. Enquiries continue.

Is there any truth that they suspect that at least one 7603 and also maybe a couple of D83's were also involved? 

[Specmaster]

Now roll on to 2018, I just googled the textbook. Albeit first edition I needed then, it's at 4th edition now and took 8 seconds to find: http://swarm.cs.pub.ro/~mbarbulescu/SMPA/CMOS-VLSI-design.pdf

And I downloaded it in 10 seconds 

[xrunner]

It's been a while since I posted around here.   Been happily busy with life and learning.

But the TEA problem has reared it's ugly head in a most vehement fashion.

It has a habit of doing that.

I just bought a Wavetek 2410 RF Signal Generator used on Ebay.  Listed as parts not working.  I'm going nuts.  Or just getting old and senile.  Buying stuff sight unseen and hoping I can get it working.  sheesh.  At least I won't lose much if it is a boat anchor.  Got it cheap.  It does power up and show a frequency on the screen

That's cool - haven't played with that model before. Did you find the service manual for it? Let us know what happens and post some pics of the guts.

 

[tggzzz]

Ahh can't do that unfortunately. Local planning wankers don't want dropped kerbs here as it will lower the tone of the neighbourhood [1], plus there's a local covenant where the council owns half my fucking hedge, which annoyingly they cut down, replanted a shit one that died after 4 attempts at replacing it in a row and then left me to cut the manky thing and served me a notice because it was in a state.

Also to add, they only replaced the hedge because of a massive event at Twickenham Stadium so it was done as a turd polishing measure.

[1] silly because we're number one customer of police tape here.

Edit: going to move to a nice isolated house in the middle of land I own one day. Trespassers will be shot!

Must be "Keeping Up Appearances" you know. A local TV station here ran those episodes. Some funny shit. It seems that having the typical English Garden is a national past time and almost a civic duty. I'll bet there's competitions with prizes and prestige to go along with it, right? It probably turns those normally gentle little old ladies into raving lunatics. 

Yes to all of that.

There was a comedy "Misleading Cases" written by an eminent lawyer in the 1930s in a comic magazine, Punch. It explored the rough edges around British Law, and there are many of those.

In one case neigbours A and B were both entering the local gardening competition. Neighbour A claimed B was thowing snails from B's garden into his, in order to damage his plants. A sued B, and it reached court.

The snail trajectory was not disputed, so the case hinged on whether snails are "tame and domesticated" or "wild and ferocious". Why? Because unless specifically named, the law classifies animal as either one or the other.

[Housedad]

That's cool - haven't played with that model before. Did you find the service manual for it? Let us know what happens and post some pics of the guts.

 

Actually, About the only reason I am trying it is that a seller on Ebay has a scanned copy of the manual plus maintenance and schematics on a CD.    I bought that right after.

I'll be happy to let you know with pics.   Only God knows if I'll be able to get it to work with my mediocre skills, though.  It uses a N connector for the output.  Not really familiar with that connector.

This one has the output and the external modulator connectors on the back.  There are plastic panel  plugs where they would go in the front.

There is a partial manual on the net.  no schematics.  http://userequip.com/files/specs/4922/WAV%202410%202410R%20Instruction.pdf

This is from the Ebay page:

[Specmaster]

Edit: going to move to a nice isolated house in the middle of land I own one day. Trespassers will be shot!

I say much the same thing each week when I do the lottery, if my numbers come up I'm going to buy a nice house in a landscaped garden and a gated driveway with a wall all around the garden. Spikes on top of the wall to keep the pikeys out.

Then I get an email telling me that there's good news about my entry................ I've won a luckily dip....... Arh well perhaps next week?

[tggzzz]

Edit: going to move to a nice isolated house in the middle of land I own one day. Trespassers will be shot!

I say much the same thing each week when I do the lottery, if my numbers come up I'm going to buy a nice house in a landscaped garden and a gated driveway with a wall all around the garden. Spikes on top of the wall to keep the pikeys out.

Then I get an email telling me that there's good news about my entry................ I've won a luckily dip....... Arh well perhaps next week?

Let's put it in perspective... You have a higher chance of dying while the balls are moving than you do of winning the jackpot.

Starting point: assume 600,000 deaths/year in the UK.

[mnementh]

Have poked them with the preverbial messaging stick. Fingers crossed.

Edit: got reply. Hasn't sent it yet. People been sick 

It might have been nice to have sent you a quick message to that effect though. 

*Sigh*

When I was young, "I've been sick" was almost always an excuse, so I assumed it was the case when I heard it from other people.

Now that I'm older and I get sick with annoying frequency (this flu my son brought home has been kicking my ass for a week) and I have kids who have to be taken care of when they get sick, even if I'm sick too, my perspective has greatly changed. I've found I'm much more inclined to feel genuine sympathy (at least a twinge ) rather than annoyance.

Also, I've found that my overall stress level is at least 20 dB lower since I actually listened to my mom. I know, shocking. 

She told me many, many times... but I was too sure my way was the only way, and that EVERYBODY was an asshole...

Well, that part is technically true... another part of human nature is that each and every one of us, at some point, takes our turn being the assh'o.

Anyways, she told me that every aspect of my life would be much happier if I stop assuming the worst of people and just take it as a given that in general most people aren't deliberately being mean or selfish (even those who are mean and selfish), each and every one of us, even the fellow I'm currently annoyed as hell with, whomever it is, is just doing the best they know how at the time, no matter how objectively awful and utterly underwhelming that best may be. Including ME.

Anyways... where I'm going with this: If you really believe someone when they say they're sick, follow that through and think back to the last time YOU were sick or taking care of someone who was sick. Was your judgement the best? Did you remember every last detail of what was going on around you, or were you pretty much just overwhelmed by the tidal wave of endless SHIT and hanging on by your toenails until the worst passed and you could get a handle on things again?

In order to TRULY change your perspective... you have to do BOTH. You have to both assume the best of people in general, AND allow yourself to feel at least a little empathy.  Neither works without the other.

It is REALLY HARD to REALLY change your perspective in this way. But the rewards are definitely worth it.

mnem
*Namaste'*

[Mr. Scram]

Let's put it in perspective... You have a higher chance of dying while the balls are moving than you do of winning the jackpot.

Starting point: assume 600,000 deaths/year in the UK.

Lotteries are solid proof the average person doesn't understand statistics like they think they do.

[xrunner]

Actually, About the only reason I am trying it is that a seller on Ebay has a scanned copy of the manual plus maintenance and schematics on a CD.    I bought that right after.

I'll be happy to let you know with pics.   Only God knows if I'll be able to get it to work with my mediocre skills, though.  It uses a N connector for the output.  Not really familiar with that connector.

Yea an N connector is typical for equipoment for use at frequencies into the GHz range. Ideally you would have cable to connect to the N connector as well ... but often people will just put an N to UHF or BNC adapter on it and call it a day.

It may actually work though. If the seller does not specifically know all functions work they aren't supposed to list it as "used" because that means that it is not new but all functions work as they are supposed to. So to avoid a return they will list it as "for parts or not working". So I would say there's a good chance it works OK.

[mnementh]

What does the family think of that, especially the SWMBO?

She's surprisingly not bothered. Although I think that might be leverage for something else.

If you hate it so much do what we do here. Just plant grass, mow it, and be done with it. 

I'm already there. I'm thinking about planting some concrete. The rest of the gardening involves going round with an industrial sized bottle of Roundup and killing everything else growing like it was agent orange in The 'Nam.

Actually that is precisely what is in Roundup. Glyphosates are a synthetic derivative of agent orange... and much of the scientific community has been arguing that it is no safer than the original 'nam era defoliant and trying to get it outlawed. But you know; we live in an age where money and lies are more important than the health of the general population, so...   

Point being... don't be the willing agent of your own demise. Treat Roundup like the plague that it is.

As for the 7000 on the dining room table... seems to me SWMBO already has enough leverage for a lifetime; this is just a drop in the bucket. 

Ahh can't do that unfortunately. Local planning wankers don't want dropped kerbs here as it will lower the tone of the neighbourhood [1], plus there's a local covenant where the council owns half my fucking hedge, which annoyingly they cut down, replanted a shit one that died after 4 attempts at replacing it in a row and then left me to cut the manky thing and served me a notice because it was in a state.

Also to add, they only replaced the hedge because of a massive event at Twickenham Stadium so it was done as a turd polishing measure.

[1] silly because we're number one customer of police tape here.

Edit: going to move to a nice isolated house in the middle of land I own one day. Trespassers will be shot!

Must be "Keeping Up Appearances" you know. A local TV station here ran those episodes. Some funny shit. It seems that having the typical English Garden is a national past time and almost a civic duty. I'll bet there's competitions with prizes and prestige to go along with it, right? It probably turns those normally gentle little old ladies into raving lunatics. 

That is the definition of conservative here in America. Appearances are the ONLY thing that matter.     It is far more important when someone calls you a self-important asshole that THEY used the word asshole than the fact that YOU ARE an asshole and refuse to do anything about it. Fuck the whole world straight down the shitter, vote "conservative" no matter what, even though your party hasn't actually been conservative for 50 years and is now owned outright by regressive sociopaths who are literally stripmining and poisoning the entire planet for fun & profit.

I've seriously considered doing the whole Chinese rock garden thing; but alas, over here they literally charge by the pound for the materials. Where I lived in San Antonio I was lucky; we had a quarry north of town that would sell by the skid-loader bucketload to the general public, as long as you had a vehicle that could traverse the loop same as the semis with lowboys. I'd drive through in ol' Pepe, my leetle burr-rro, and they'd pour 1/2 a yard or so in the back and weigh me out just like the big rigs.  I laid down 1 1/2 crusher run as drainage all around the house (so I wouldn't have to mow the dozen clumps of grass that grew in the mud-pits that otherwise formed), as a foundation for a 10x10 shed, and 4' wide walkways down either side of the drive and sidewalks with a top layer of 3/4 marble so we could actually park 2 vehicles wide in it. It was all perfectly legal, and even the local Homeowner's Asshole-ciation couldn't say a fucking word about it, as it was all maintenance landscaping to prevent erosion.

RIGOL DP832, anyone ? Hardly to get more bang for the buck. Linear, low ripple and noise, properly cooled (now), ...
Why not ?

I'd rather stand in a 4-way intersection and drill screws through my feet. They are infamous for poor grounding and being, and I quote, "A fire waiting for a place to happen." They have a good transformer in them... if you want to build your own from scratch.

mnem
What IS that smell?

[Wolfgang]

Hi,

my "Imperium Explodium" never let me down. Pyrotechnic examples, please !

[mnementh]

Let's put it in perspective... You have a higher chance of dying while the balls are moving than you do of winning the jackpot.

Starting point: assume 600,000 deaths/year in the UK.

Lotteries are solid proof the average person doesn't understand statistics like they think they do.

Lotteries are a tax on people who are bad at math.

No idea how I've managed to evade their grip; aside from an overdeveloped cynicism augmented by an utterly atavistic allergy to bullshit in all forms. 

mnem
"The truth is far more frightening... Nobody is in control; the world is rudderless.” ~ Alan Moore

[mnementh]

Hi,

my "Imperium Explodium" never let me down. Pyrotechnic examples, please !

"Proof please!" is just internet garble for "I can't be arsed to do my own research to refute you."   

mnem
I am not my pants. No, I am not your pants either.

[Mr. Scram]

"Proof please!" is just internet garble for "I can't be arsed to do my own research to refute you."   

mnem
I am not my pants. No, I am not your pants either.

I'm inclined to disagree. The internet is full of people claiming all sorts of things without a shred of evidence. The only valid response to that is "proof please!" Generally they will make a fuss but never provide any proof. We should remember that most people haven't been brought up with the scientific method and that this is evident when discussing matters on the web.

[bd139]

DP832 three notable things with these I've seen:

1. Watching Dave's blow up on Youtube.
2. There was a thread on here where one was rattling on receipt and didn't work properly after the rattling was fixed. Overheating since.
3. Someone down the amateur radio club bought one and it blew a MOSFET out after running near full load for about 30 minutes testing a transmitter into a dummy load with both channels in parallel 

But it's half the price of Keysight.

Also the number buttons - wtf? Did Sony have a hand in that design?