Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[neo]

-snip-
WERA  skips sizes too, at least in the automotive-sized sets. I've started filling my work box with Tekton, as they have a whole "no skipped sizes" product line. No idea how long that will hold out though. You shouldn't have to spend several hundred dollars on a "Master Set" to get that; the whole "Master Set" concept is just marketing wank. Which would be semi-tolerable, I suppose... except you can't just go back and buy "the one you need right now", even at ridiculously inflated prices because they can't be arsed to stock individuals for warranty.

A SET THAT'S MISSING SIZES IS NOT A SET. PERIOD. If you don't know this, you need to get the fuck out of the tool business. FUCK OFF AND DIE.
-snip-

I see you took my recommendation to heart and found them satisfactory?

[Specmaster]

The 7504 was the first version of the Tektronix 7000 series. They lasted from about 1969 to 1973. Then the redesigned units took over.

I think there was a peak of electronic design around 1964 - 1974 period where people considered the mechanical engineering as well as electrical engineering. Before that it was all tubes. After that it was all shit until about 1994 at which point everything went to "FRU replacement" which was 1960s tech but not at component level any more.

While that 7504 is a thing of great beauty, I bet is stuffed full to the rafters with loads of unobtanium items 

[Specmaster]

Come to Australia we keep a revolving door of Prime Ministers dumped by their own parties in and out of charge. I think we have had 5 sitting Prime Ministers dumped while in charge (one of them twice) in about 10 years. 

Time to move to a country with stable government like Russia - Putin for life........

Yeh, that life might well be yours if recent events are anything to go by......

[bd139]

While that 7504 is a thing of great beauty, I bet is stuffed full to the rafters with loads of unobtanium items 

That's why you need more than one of them 

[bitseeker]

Never heard of a "ton" (2000 pounds = 1 ton) referred to as a "short ton". Other than a metric ton (1000 kg) never distinguished it from any other unit of weight.

Oh you crazy Americans and your 'freedom units' 

I used to work with Farmers way back when some still talked in chains, rods and inch acres of water

Viva La Metric System I reckon.

The short ton (or simply "ton" in these here parts) is probably the closest we've come to a metric system-like value. Such a nice round 2000 lbs.

[bitseeker]

No one else in here road rages behind the wheel? I'm the only one?  I find that hard to believe. 

No road rage, here. However, I do get annoyed by many people, including other drivers. Licenses are attained too easily, in my opinion. Anyway...go to YouTube and binge watch dashcam videos from Russia while practicing deep breathing techniques. That may provide some desensitization therapy.

[bitseeker]

Wish I had more space too. I had to decline an offer of a full height rack enclosure with free delivery yesterday

One thing I’ve been doing is looking for houses with a spare room with a concrete floor

Yeah, racks save space, but they certainly aren't floor-friendly. A full-size rack with sides and doors weighs a fair bit all on its own.

[Specmaster]

No one else in here road rages behind the wheel? I'm the only one?  I find that hard to believe. 

No road rage, here. However, I do get annoyed by many people, including other drivers. Licenses are attained too easily, in my opinion. Anyway...go to YouTube and binge watch dashcam videos from Russia while practicing deep breathing techniques. That may provide some desensitization therapy.

Russian drivers are the world's worst, don't agree? Just watch those YouTube videos and you will then I'm sure[emoji6]

[bd139]

Spend 5 minutes observing the school run around here. It’s like a bloody pinball machine.

Back in the summer of 2014 on one day, just on my road there was a motorcycle death (wheelie dickhead hit a bus front on), a head on collision because someone was going round the wrong side of the traffic island without his headlights on, and a naked man hit by a car while being chased by the police. Then a day later someone drove a van through the petrol pumps at the local garage.

Get through more police tape down my road than any other in London I reckon

Edit: On road rage, it’s pretty nasty round here. Got me a road hawk 360 degree set of cameras. Wanna fuck around? Say cheese!

[tggzzz]

Morning grumpy, surely a imperial ton is far more than a metric ton 

And it is also more than the "short ton"  used in the USA. Which is conclusive proof that we are more generous, or that we expect more

Both imperial and short tons are 20cwt. For reasons that I have never understood, our hundredweight contains 112lbs.

Never heard of a "ton" (2000 pounds = 1 ton) referred to as a "short ton". Other than a metric ton (1000 kg) never distinguished it from any other unit of weight.

That's because a real man's ton contains 2240lbs (i.e. 20*112)

[mnementh]

(SNIP)
I think 40 years of "fighting the good fight" is enough; I'm looking for a small pocket of semi-sanity to raise my kids in, even if I have to freeze my keister off to get it. I'd much prefer Sweden or Finland, but no way in 'ell I could possibly make it happen. At least in Canada I wouldn't be ashamed if I were seen in public having dinner with the leader of the nation.

mnem
"In times of universal deceit, speaking the truth becomes a revolutionary act."

While I agree with you 100% (Chump is an egotistical ass) I have some Canadian friends who wouldn't be caught dead having dinner with pretty boy Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. 

No one else in here road rages behind the wheel? I'm the only one?  I find that hard to believe. 

I know... some folks NEED their leaders to be dumb and ugly; smart and pretty is just too much for them to handle. 

Dude... I live in Texas; here they've raised "road rage" to an art form. I think they vote that way too. 

-snip-
WERA  skips sizes too, at least in the automotive-sized sets. I've started filling my work box with Tekton, as they have a whole "no skipped sizes" product line. No idea how long that will hold out though. You shouldn't have to spend several hundred dollars on a "Master Set" to get that; the whole "Master Set" concept is just marketing wank. Which would be semi-tolerable, I suppose... except you can't just go back and buy "the one you need right now", even at ridiculously inflated prices because they can't be arsed to stock individuals for warranty.

A SET THAT'S MISSING SIZES IS NOT A SET. PERIOD. If you don't know this, you need to get the fuck out of the tool business. FUCK OFF AND DIE.
-snip-

I see you took my recommendation to heart and found them satisfactory?

Yup. Not as good as my vintage full-polish wrenches leftover from Cornwell and New Britain sets when I was a mechanic, but definitely  decent quality and reasonably priced.  And now that they have a large part of their catalog on Amazon, they're on my wish list too! 

Morning grumpy, surely a imperial ton is far more than a metric ton 

And it is also more than the "short ton"  used in the USA. Which is conclusive proof that we are more generous, or that we expect more Both imperial and short tons are 20cwt. For reasons that I have never understood, our hundredweight contains 112lbs.

Never heard of a "ton" (2000 pounds = 1 ton) referred to as a "short ton". Other than a metric ton (1000 kg) never distinguished it from any other unit of weight.

That's because a real man's ton contains 2240lbs (i.e. 20*112)

Here we call that a crap-ton. 

mnem
Happiness... we're full of it!

[Specmaster]

Yeah, that's why I've made it a habit to look for listings offering "Fast N Free" shipping. As long as it isn't more than a few dollars more, I'll go with the Fast N Free vendor. Usually, the folks who offer that also have top-notch feedback as well. Of course, I know I'm spoiled living in the middle of the US, and once I move to Toronto, that convenient shipping will vaporize...

mnem
Why is my car?

Are you trying to run away from chump 

*Solemn sigh*

No, more like trying to put as much distance as I can between myself and the disease that made Resident Chump possible. I really should've done it back when it was the Puppet-Shrub with Cheney's hand up his ass; I could see exactly where our raging corporatism was heading way back then. But I was stubborn and decided to fight the decay a little longer in hopes of saving the America I loved; I really believed it was still possible.

I think 40 years of "fighting the good fight" is enough; I'm looking for a small pocket of semi-sanity to raise my kids in, even if I have to freeze my keister off to get it. I'd much prefer Sweden or Finland, but no way in 'ell I could possibly make it happen. At least in Canada I wouldn't be ashamed if I were seen in public having dinner with the leader of the nation.

mnem
"In times of universal deceit, speaking the truth becomes a revolutionary act."

While I agree with you 100% (Chump is an egotistical ass) I have some Canadian friends who wouldn't be caught dead having dinner with pretty boy Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. 

No one else in here road rages behind the wheel? I'm the only one?  I find that hard to believe. 

Fraid so, it gets you nothing except high blood pressure and in a land where guns are everywhere and it seems that some people don't think twice before using them, it strikes me a very dangerous thing to do.

[GregDunn]

No one else in here road rages behind the wheel? I'm the only one?  I find that hard to believe. 

No road rage, here. However, I do get annoyed by many people, including other drivers. Licenses are attained too easily, in my opinion. Anyway...go to YouTube and binge watch dashcam videos from Russia while practicing deep breathing techniques. That may provide some desensitization therapy.

The people around here apparently forget everything they were ever taught once they start driving without an instructor in the car.  Blown stop/yield signs, running red lights, crossing the centerline, parking in strict NO PARKING zones, taking up three parking spots at a time, going the wrong way down marked streets, cutting people off who have right of way... and they either go 20 mph over the speed limit or 10 mph under, depending on whether it's a two- or four-lane road.  There's also a clearly marked separate lane (NOT a merge lane) coming off the interstate nearby, and some of them just randomly stop in the middle of the road to wait for something.  Forget guns, I need an idiot-seeking missile.  Except it would get confused and hit a different idiot from the one I was aiming at.

I would never actually confront someone, but my language inside the car is very loud and un-polite when I encounter one of these blithering self-entitled numpties.  I'm all in favor of mandatory driving tests.  Every year.  Forever.  It should also include a timed obstacle course, parking test, and a skid pad on wet or icy road.

Now, back downstairs to take out my frustrations on the queue of broken Fluke 8600A meters!

[Neomys Sapiens]

Also, I seem to have luck regarding TM500 gear. A DC503, which is supposedly tested and refurbished and which sports a OCXO (Option 001) jumped into my lap for a laughable 40.-! This was quite unexpected, as the one going before did not have an OCXO, was not fully functional and yielded about as much! Yay!

Good luck with that DC503. 40 bucks with OCXO is really nice. Hopefully you'll never have to repair it - if it is like my DC505A. I vividly remember my repair, which was an absolute nightmare!

That wouldn't be much of a problem. I would have a lot of options. I could extract the OCXO and put it into my DC503A if it fits. Then set it aside where it would remain in the back of the TM500 contigency pool. Together with the stash of original and reproduced proto-boards. To be honest, I consider all TM500 grabs under 50.- (80.- for double width) as a win-win situation that way.
But right now, I have no reason to assume that there is something wrong with it.

[Neomys Sapiens]

Why is it that Asian-made sockets and wrenches in SAE sizes, which sell only to one benighted nation, ALWAYS come in complete sets... while the metric sets which the WHOLE WORLD (fuck you, Whitworth) USES, even the "good ones", always have several missing?  It's not like you don't NEED those missing sizes; there's ALWAYS one of them you have to fight with,    and it's getting now so you can't even buy the missing ones as singles, either... 

The 'missing sizes' lesson is always taught the hard way. The 'classic' DIN hex screw/nut for M10 is/was 17. (I'm not referring to extra-wide or -slim types) Then came the ISO, which was (and still is) widely ignored in Germany, where the default for M10 is still 17. But the COMECON countries (eastern europe) were quite comitted to the ISO before their breakdown. So, when a western german company ordered fasteners from local czech stock for the machinery they were going to erect in former Czechoslovakia without going into detail, they were supplied with a truckload of M10 fasteners - wrench size 16.
When our mechanics started hollering, I pulled the Friedrich (Technical reference) on them and send them off to buy tools.

[bd139]

Fucks sake my laptop charger just exploded. Went with a proper bang! No visible sign of damage. Think a cap went.

 

[bitseeker]

Word gets around, bd. The caps are striking back!

[bd139]

Yeah I think I must have executed too many of them. Got a revenge suicide bombing.

Really annoyed about this. Got 67% battery fortunately so plenty of time to run a backup and migrate to the backup machine. Had this laptop for 5 years now (from new) and very little trouble with it though so I probably shouldn't complain too hard. Back to the spare Thinkpad now

[Specmaster]

What?? Revolting caps, must be those tants, their coming back to get their revenge, be afraid very afraid 

[bd139]

Indeed. Going to crack the charger open in the morning and see what the deal is.

Probably a RIFA 

[Specmaster]

Yeah I think I must have executed too many of them. Got a revenge suicide bombing.

Really annoyed about this. Got 67% battery fortunately so plenty of time to run a backup and migrate to the backup machine. Had this laptop for 5 years now (from new) and very little trouble with it though so I probably shouldn't complain too hard. Back to the spare Thinkpad now

Can't you just swap over chargers 

[bd139]

I will buy a replacement one for sure but will take a couple of days to arrive which is no good when you need it now. At that point I think I'm going to sell the thing as it's on the tail end of reliability then use the proceeds to offset a new one. Someone else can be there for the funeral  The intention was to use it until applecare ran out then dump it and buy another one but it lasted 3 years past that before the first sign of trouble (other than when i killed the screen).

I await the next £1 listing day 

Anyway, annoying bit is this will dink any TEA spending now 

[Specmaster]

Bad timing that was, just finished a 3 day £1 listing as well  That said though you could argue that a computer is an essential part of TEA, at least for me it is as I read my schematics on it anyway 

[bd139]

Yes it is indeed. I spend a huge amount of time reading service manuals and stuff on it so that's a good point. Don't fancy fishing out Apple prices this time though as I want to wind my finances down a bit now and don't have a ton of space for a large desktop machine / display on the bench really.

Rethink time... wonder if I should just grab a shit desktop and put up with the thing. I don't really use it away from the bench. If I'm out on contract or something I tend to take the thinkpad out as I don't care if I lose or break that as it cost bugger all

HP 6236B makes a nice monitor stand anyway 

[Specmaster]

I use a 23" LCD monitor on the bench with a bloody great tower pc under the bench, seems to be the best compromise, you have all the grunt you need, cheap source of hard drives are old Sky Plus boxes which you can get for nixie on the various recycle sites, keeps the expense down.