Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Inverted18650]

Then I shall make them other than HAM, maybe remove the case and send it later, and call it a frequency oscillator, broken, for parts only.

[VK5RC]

My camping expresso machine, a Phillips /Saeco at home, Nespresso at work.
Life is too short for bad coffee (and bad women!)

Cool portable espresso machine, Rob. At home, I also have a Saeco...and in true TEA fashion, I have a dead parts mule to keep the live one going.

In my hometown Adelaide, we had a whole lot of immigrants from Italy around 1930s, they settled into several suburbs, in some coffee shops and delicatessens, you felt out of place if you spoke English. The expresso coffee culture was all pervasive - the coffee machine of choice was Saeco. I always tend to go with the flow - usually there is a really good reason!
Re swearing - I got put off in my student year holidays - working with one guy - I took note - for an entire morning - he didn't say one sentence without the f word. I am no prude - but he was so limited in his vocabulary that was his only adjective, pronoun etc. He was so boring to work with - it made me realize the joy of a good conversation.
Rob

[Inverted18650]

I've worked with someone who does some importing - and I'm familiar with some of the basics, but, to be honest, I was only thinking of myself as being a way-point for items that already have a name and address on them.  The concept of a business importing test gear was somewhat outside my vision.

That's not to say I'm against the idea - but there would need to be some serious costing and market examination to see where the point of viability sits.

I leanred a long tim e ago that if you think to much and hang onto the other things that pay your bills; f you are not ALL IN on the new business, it will fail. Its only when you rely on it to pay the bills that you will make sure ti succeeds.

[syau]

no syau, you cannot buy the 5440A...lol...but I do love you!

Maybe if its cheaper from China, I can send it to you first, we can figure it out. I think we have the IQ necessary to make this work..AND yes, I will buy a damn boat and make the trip, it would be SOOO much fun!

China has very strict import and export license (including export duty) on electronics goods this why most item you got from Aliexpress not directly ship from China. The stuff we got from taobao always ship through some forwarders 

[Inverted18650]

I am going to start working on details and get this 5440A data recorded. I started to get excited but I realize there are not many others like me that will gamble on a better future. I love calculated risks, and statistics in general. If I can find a group of like minded people, we could change the way electronic items flow around the world. We could find the areas that allow US to make them FLOW. And if that happens everyone wins.

[syau]

no syau, you cannot buy the 5440A...lol...but I do love you!

Maybe if its cheaper from China, I can send it to you first, we can figure it out. I think we have the IQ necessary to make this work..AND yes, I will buy a damn boat and make the trip, it would be SOOO much fun!

China has very strict import and export license (including export duty) on electronics goods this why most item you got from Aliexpress not directly ship from China. The stuff we got from taobao always ship through some forwarders 

Lucky in Hong Kong, although it became part of China, we still enjoying most of the free trading system left by the British governor 

[Brumby]

I've worked with someone who does some importing - and I'm familiar with some of the basics, but, to be honest, I was only thinking of myself as being a way-point for items that already have a name and address on them.  The concept of a business importing test gear was somewhat outside my vision.

That's not to say I'm against the idea - but there would need to be some serious costing and market examination to see where the point of viability sits.

I leanred a long tim e ago that if you think to much and hang onto the other things that pay your bills; f you are not ALL IN on the new business, it will fail. Its only when you rely on it to pay the bills that you will make sure ti succeeds.

Fair comment - but I have absolutely no idea about the Australian second hand test equipment market.  But, this is a much further reach than what I first thought I'd volunteered for...

I started to get excited but I realize there are not many others like me that will gamble on a better future. I love calculated risks, and statistics in general. If I can find a group of like minded people, we could change the way electronic items flow around the world. We could find the areas that allow US to make them FLOW. And if that happens everyone wins.

Great idea.  I haven't quite caught up with it .... yet.

[beanflying]

My camping expresso machine, a Phillips /Saeco at home, Nespresso at work.
Life is too short for bad coffee (and bad women!)

Cool portable espresso machine, Rob. At home, I also have a Saeco...and in true TEA fashion, I have a dead parts mule to keep the live one going.

In my hometown Adelaide, we had a whole lot of immigrants from Italy around 1930s, they settled into several suburbs, in some coffee shops and delicatessens, you felt out of place if you spoke English. The expresso coffee culture was all pervasive - the coffee machine of choice was Saeco. I always tend to go with the flow - usually there is a really good reason!
Re swearing - I got put off in my student year holidays - working with one guy - I took note - for an entire morning - he didn't say one sentence without the f word. I am no prude - but he was so limited in his vocabulary that was his only adjective, pronoun etc. He was so boring to work with - it made me realize the joy of a good conversation.
Rob

EXspresso please the Italians will find you and sort you out  Italian tends not to use X in it's grammer.

Double shot Espresso (Italian origin) based Flat White (kiwi origin from Wellington) made in the shack over TEA in Oz. 

Paralleled 200  3W Vishay Flower. Tested at better than 0.02% with switch resistance 

[Inverted18650]

Just posted this 5440A for sale. Need to cash for my export license and I still have another one inbound. I listed the DMM7510 with it. A quick search puts my fees around $4000 but Ill give it a go and see what we can accomplish together.

[VK5RC]

@beanflying - so true re the espresso. I also USA spelt realise (realize).

[beanflying]

@beanflying - so true re the espresso. I also USA spelt realise (realize).

Encouraged me to realise I hadn't installed the 'proper' Australian English add on to Firefox so Strewth I can now catalogue my colours and have it not throw a red squiggle under the 'misspelt' words

[mnementh]

I missed the battery repack thread..damn. I even started 3D printing my own battery packs for some drills. I have the STL files and will gladly share but I havent done a Kobalt yet, just Dewalt and Craftsman...I built extended life packs for both models using my 18650's and home brew BMS; right now I am focused on Calibration stuff anyway...

   The Kobalts are already a 6S 18650 pack; there are 6S2P & 6S3P varieties as well. And due to their design, you can stack 'em as many deep as you want; I saw this Darwin award candidate made one that was 6S6P, evidently just for "Dumbass bragging rights". 

How I know when my infamous split-pea soup is done. Seriously. 

Mmm. I like the look of that. Tasty.

I prefer my coffee perc'd; or worse yet, ranch style (boil the grounds in the water, filter it through yer teeth). But there are mornings when I need my fix of caffeine to be able to brew a pot.

Hehe, I've done ranch/cowboy style while backpacking. If you take your time, you can pour quite a bit without the need for too much teeth filtering.

Yup; my secret for split-pea soup is the leftover ham. I take the leftover part after the spiral, and it ALL goes in there. The stuff that's easy to hack off gets cubed, and the rest is lurking just under the surface there waiting to be scraped off with a serving fork.  I also boil then rinse the peas before actually cooking; it sounds crazy, but it does appear to help quite a bit with the usual complaint about Split-Pea soup: excessive gasification of the diner's afterparty.

I learned to pack a few of the cheap cone filters in my backpack to "civilize" my ranch brew; they weigh nothing and are actually useful for a number of things.

mnem
Calling Elvis...

[VK5RC]

@beanflying - so true re the espresso. I also USA spelt realise (realize).

Encouraged me to realise I hadn't installed the 'proper' Australian English add on to Firefox so Strewth I can now catalogue my colours and have it not throw a red squiggle under the 'misspelt' words

Don't get me wrong, I don't really care how anybody spells program / programme etc - so long as the message gets through and is a reasonably accepted community norm for how to spell that word.
The internet has really shrunk the world - a lot of USA spellings have spread far, mainly because of the success of the USA - as all languages have done before.
No wuckies!

[mnementh]

   No wookies...?   

mnem
 

[VK5RC]

Part of the fun of Australian slang is working out the meaning.
Abbreviation including joining two words, rhyming and adding 'y' or ie/s to the end. It has its basis in cockney rhyming slang - but has its own flavour (flavor).
Do you want some dead horse with that?
No wuckies = no wuckin furries =.........

[bd139]

Ah like the old cunch of bunts 

[beanflying]

So my 10,000mAh batteries are maxing out at 4600mAh and two are under 4000mAh - EVILBAY return case time 

May the Sellers Chooks turn into Emus and kick their Dunny Door down 

[bd139]

I would never buy batteries on eBay. So many lies out there it’s unreal. A colleague of mine bought a Nikon battery a couple of weeks back and it exploded while it was on charge. 

[beanflying]

These are NiMh and are just mislabelled as per evilbay. Aussie seller so the result will be ok in some form. They either go back for no cost with evilbay plus or I get a chunk of change back and I don't put them in the HP frequency counter project but into the Null meters instead where I don't need the capacity.

PITA but I am only out of the time for testing either way. 

[Specmaster]

I'm starting to get somewhat intrigued, very nervous........ 

.... and just a little bit excited (but that excitement might have a sleeping bag in the garage attached to it).



I can't offer up any capital at this point, however.

Thats far better than a watery bed even if it is under the bay bridge

[bd139]

Jesus Christ just had an argument in Tesco over some fucking tomatoes. I was congratulated on buying British tomatoes and that we’d be fine growing our own food like we did in the war. I replied so you’d welcome rationing and malnutrition and eating horses again? Got some diatribe, got called a traitor. Replied if I’m a traitor I’m proud of it. Hell is other people.


TEA related. Did a boo boo. When I bought the HP 33120A I sold my Rigol DG1022Z. Figured I’d not need two signal sources. What did I need yesterday? Two damn sources. One of which needed to be keyed. Fortunately only 600Hz required. So an hour in LTspice and some bob please style prototyping and it works! Nice clean sine. No Arduino or digital shit.



Keyed twin-t oscillator, buffer, shit attenuator, gain stage, push pull stage. Nice stable output impedance.

Lead lengths because (a) I don't care and (b) this is going to be rebuilt on a manhattan board later.

edit: you can see the scribblings where LTspice didn't match reality. Bob Pease was right about spice.

[Wolfgang]

Wanna see some *real* SPICE desaster ?

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/a-5mhz-low-phase-noise-crystal-oscillator/

[tggzzz]

Jesus Christ just had an argument in Tesco over some fucking tomatoes. I was congratulated on buying British tomatoes and that we’d be fine growing our own food like we did in the war. I replied so you’d welcome rationing and malnutrition and eating horses again? Got some diatribe, got called a traitor. Replied if I’m a traitor I’m proud of it. Hell is other people.

... well if you insist on going to Tescos, what do you expect?

Ask them if they have pets. Remind them that people were encouraged to kill their pets, so as to save food.

The point about malunitrition is poor; many people would benefit from a calorie reduced diet. Maybe that will save £350m/wk for the NH(I)S.

I wonder what test equipment would be beneficial to help there. Certainly there are many medical auctions, and my local overpriced commercial recycler has has a fleabay advert for small animal bloodflow meters, e.g. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Transonic-Systems-T206-T108-Small-Animal-Blood-Flow-Meters-L/254116420723

[bd139]

Yes. Waitrose next time 

That's a good one with the pets. On malnutrition, it was valid. Lots of people had problems with rickets back then. A condition you rarely hear of now. Agree with calorie reduction, although I prefer to eat it and run it off afterwards (can still run a good 10 miles)

They make test gear for idiots:

[bd139]

Wanna see some *real* SPICE desaster ?

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/a-5mhz-low-phase-noise-crystal-oscillator/

I have nowhere near your requirements there but that's quite funny. I literally never get any luck with any oscillators in LTspice. It's just a joke. Real world parts have so many differing characteristics it's unreal. You really need to know what you're doing up front before approaching anything in that space.  I've put together a few LC oscillators that were so out that it is no longer even worth starting there.