Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[beanflying]

You guys are being just MEAN. If Tautech needs a jump start for his heart on the farm this is just a custom defibrillator 

Also note the words 'backup pump' was installed still fairly nasty however even for a lashup

[Specmaster]

What do you mean being MEAN, just giving some friendly advice to help look out for a fellow members well being 

[tautech]

You guys are being just MEAN. If Tautech needs a jump start for his heart on the farm this is just a custom defibrillator 

Also note the words 'backup pump' was installed still fairly nasty however even for a lashup

Yeah guys, I'll get onto it. 

In a previous installation it was hard wired.... all safe and neat !
When I needed it in another water pump failure emergency the 3 core flex was hastily installed and a contactor switched single phase supply was added when there previously was only switched 3 phase.
I should and will change the black wall mains socket too (below in bottom of pic) to a IP rated one.


This ^ was when I replaced the antenna so to get reliable remote control from 500m after getting my new VNA.
Project log:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/rf-microwave/antenna-project-log/

I had installations deactivated for less rotten wiring.

The only one that gets to inspect it is me !

Thus, the pump-owner in question should refrain from commenting on safety-related topics until this hovel is up to spec, electrically.

Noted. 

Also peen and paint that poor motor. Really.

Been done once with brown paint after the weasel's piss job done a the Lowara factory.
I'm sure they just waved a spray gun at it from a meter away. 
Actually other than the fan cowling it looks much worse that it really is.
Note, the wet end is a replacement and the blue paint on it is much better than original.....come to think about it, the motor is 35 years old. 

[mnementh]

Some of it is total shit though Wanker Ruined a Perfectly Awesome Gasoline Torch on FleaBay and Wanker Ruined a Perfectly Awesome WattMeter on FleaBay

And I would rather have either of those tools as they were BEFORE those imbeciles got their ignorant little pecker-beaters on 'em. 

mnem
EVEN Assuming they were busted.

[mnementh]

Random rant here.

I've got a good tractor analogy here which is describes the last three months of my life. Company has a perfectly good tractor that does tractor things fine. Unfortunately the tractor mechanic left and a new tractor mechanic was hired. This tractor mechanic went to the local tractor trade fair and got loads of cool ideas about how a tractor should be. Thus the first thing he did was take the working tractor and stick things to it which are trendy. Then he repainted it. Suddenly it's useless as a tractor and looks like a donk car. Management are not happy about this and hire a massive tractor consultancy in to unfuck the whole mess. This company comes in and suggests the company just buy a new tractor, sensibly. Unfortuntely after much consultancy, a list of requirements are drawn up which are unrelated to the real world and the only possible way to solve these requirements is that they buy a lot of raw materials in and hire lots of their engineers to form these materials into a perfect tractor. After a year of meetings, the design for the wheels is complete and there is a mock up for the body and over £2m has been spent and there are lots of engineers sitting around playing Solitaire because HR were competent for once. At a financial review it turns out the company isn't doing well because they haven't done any tractoring for about 2 years and all their competitors are tractoring hard because they hire their tractors hourly from Amazon. So round three they hired Amazon in, but unfortunately due to the amount of accumulated shit, unlike their competitors, that they should have tractored off over the previous two years, Amazon's monthly bill is rather ridiculously expensive, moreso over a year than building the tractor from scratch.

Where do I sit in this nightmare? Well I've been carefully repainting the original tractor in its native yellow, removing the donk car features, fixing all the rust and holes and paying two people to shovel as much shit as possible.

I'm sure cthulhu was at that trade conference warping minds.

Edit: apologies for rant again.

I like good tractors, hate donk and know a thing or three about diesel engines. I'm also good at shoveling shit; been doing it since I was 8. Can I have a job?

mnem
No, seriously. I'm willing to relocate.

[Neomys Sapiens]

A wondrous pump story:
I was dispatched to a automotive factory near Kassel to support a technician doing commissioning of a surface treatment plant with PLC knowledge beyond his abilities. The plant was a high capacity passivation and cataphoretic laquer (EPD) plant, so there are big basins, pumps, heat exchangers etc.
(something akin to THIS , but treating mig racks full of parts instead, wich were moved through those basins consecutively by two portal handlers)
The way to the control room lead trough the basement where about 40 pumps were working in two long rows, each on a little foundation of concrete and connected by large tubes to the basins above.
It was rather dark, hot and loud.  Flow noise, the pumps and motors and the clanking of the parts, the squeal of the handling machinery from above added up to a veritable cacophony.
I had just arrived and was respectfully escorted to the control room by this way.
One pump stuck out. From some distance, it was sort of 'highlighted' for me. That was before I saw that it is not running. (The coupling between the motor and the pump was where you saw it immediately). And it was before I felt the heat radiated by it. I called the guy who had supervised the erection and comissioning of this plant to stop and told him that there is something wrong with that pump.
He told me that all is ok and that not all pumps are running at all times. Well, it was HIS plant, but it also was HIS ass, so after seeing my face, he inquired. One could not touch this pump. The motor had a surface temperature around 100°C. It turned out that a small piece of tubing, wich had somehow gotten into the larger tubing being connected to the pump, had wandered until arriving at the latter and was stuck in the rotor. This, combined with a motor protection relay set to around 210% of the motor's nominal current, caused the pump to be in this fully powered, stalled condition. As the motor was stationary, there was also no airflow.
I have no idea what made me notice this pump immediately under those conditions. It was like 'highlighted flashing red with the word FAULT' to me.

[mnementh]

Fucking Windoze...

I go to turn off the "Old 1055T beast" since I got my desperately-needed files off it and sent via eMail... and Winbloze gives me the old "Update and shut down" rash of shit. Another 5-25 minutes of BS before I can start swapping in the new liquid cooler.

 

mnem
*Typing up another hourly invoice to that much-loathed invertebrate colony in Richmond...*

Thought you were the wizz on these things ? 

First boot never connected to the 'net, right you needed those files but what's wrong with a P-P connection or USB stick ?
--------------------
Sometimes overly cautious. 

Not first boot; maybe million-and-first. Just relocating to a new case. And I THINK I mentioned needing to eMail those files.

Besides... if you aren't connected to the intardnet, Winbleep! will just sit there and hash your hard drive for half an hour until it gives up syncing with OneDrive. And when you disable OneDrive, it just turns that shit back on with some update in the next week or three...

mnem
Meh; it's not like I needed those 25 minutes of my life anyways... 

[Specmaster]

You guys are being just MEAN. If Tautech needs a jump start for his heart on the farm this is just a custom defibrillator 

Also note the words 'backup pump' was installed still fairly nasty however even for a lashup

Yeah guys, I'll get onto it. 

In a previous installation it was hard wired.... all safe and neat !
When I needed it in another water pump failure emergency the 3 core flex was hastily installed and a contactor switched single phase supply was added when there previously was only switched 3 phase.
I should and will change the black wall mains socket too (below in bottom of pic) to a IP rated one.

Jolly good, glad to hear it as well, 

Speaking of an IP rated socket, that Clipsal socket on the bottom right, should also have a proper plug for that socket which has a rotary locking ring to maintain the IP rating once a plug is inserted, something like the following photo with the correct pin configuration to suit your sockets 

[Specmaster]

Fucking Windoze...

I go to turn off the "Old 1055T beast" since I got my desperately-needed files off it and sent via eMail... and Winbloze gives me the old "Update and shut down" rash of shit. Another 5-25 minutes of BS before I can start swapping in the new liquid cooler.

 

mnem
*Typing up another hourly invoice to that much-loathed invertebrate colony in Richmond...*

Thought you were the wizz on these things ? 

First boot never connected to the 'net, right you needed those files but what's wrong with a P-P connection or USB stick ?
--------------------
Sometimes overly cautious. 

Not first boot; maybe million-and-first. Just relocating to a new case. And I THINK I mentioned needing to eMail those files.

Besides... if you aren't connected to the intardnet, Winbleep! will just sit there and hash your hard drive for half an hour until it gives up syncing with OneDrive. And when you disable OneDrive, it just turns that shit back on with some update in the next week or three...

mnem
Meh; it's not like I needed those 25 minutes of my life anyways... 

Yeah, those automatic updates can be a PITA at times. At least IOS alerts you that an update is ready to be downloaded and installed so you can do if you want to or not. Come to think of it, I'm sure that you can turn off the Windoze auto updates as well?

[Neomys Sapiens]

Speaking of an IP rated socket, that Clipsal socket on the bottom right, should also have a proper plug for that socket which has a rotary locking ring to maintain the IP rating once a plug is inserted, something like the following photo with the correct pin configuration to suit your sockets 

I would call it rather a 'Scheusal' than a 'Clipsal'. Go IEC/CENELEC for those connectors! Even the metrically retarded former colonies are using them nowadays.

[mnementh]

A wondrous pump story:
I was dispatched to a automotive factory near Kassel to support a technician doing commissioning of a surface treatment plant with PLC knowledge beyond his abilities. The plant was a high capacity passivation and cataphoretic laquer (EPD) plant, so there are big basins, pumps, heat exchangers etc.
(something akin to THIS , but treating mig racks full of parts instead, wich were moved through those basins consecutively by two portal handlers)
The way to the control room lead trough the basement where about 40 pumps were working in two long rows, each on a little foundation of concrete and connected by large tubes to the basins above.
It was rather dark, hot and loud.  Flow noise, the pumps and motors and the clanking of the parts, the squeal of the handling machinery from above added up to a veritable cacophony.
I had just arrived and was respectfully escorted to the control room by this way.
One pump stuck out. From some distance, it was sort of 'highlighted' for me. That was before I saw that it is not running. (The coupling between the motor and the pump was where you saw it immediately). And it was before I felt the heat radiated by it. I called the guy who had supervised the erection and comissioning of this plant to stop and told him that there is something wrong with that pump.
He told me that all is ok and that not all pumps are running at all times. Well, it was HIS plant, but it also was HIS ass, so after seeing my face, he inquired. One could not touch this pump. The motor had a surface temperature around 100°C. It turned out that a small piece of tubing, wich had somehow gotten into the larger tubing being connected to the pump, had wandered until arriving at the latter and was stuck in the rotor. This, combined with a motor protection relay set to around 210% of the motor's nominal current, caused the pump to be in this fully powered, stalled condition. As the motor was stationary, there was also no airflow.
I have no idea what made me notice this pump immediately under those conditions. It was like 'highlighted flashing red with the word FAULT' to me.

It was the localized stillness and you probably noticed the heat shimmer in the air above it. That is something we as animals are instinctively sensitive to, even if only on a subconscious level.

Survival trait; avoiding really hot places. Yay Darwin! 

mnem
Also good for avoiding hungry dragons. 

[Specmaster]

A wondrous pump story:
I was dispatched to a automotive factory near Kassel to support a technician doing commissioning of a surface treatment plant with PLC knowledge beyond his abilities. The plant was a high capacity passivation and cataphoretic laquer (EPD) plant, so there are big basins, pumps, heat exchangers etc.
(something akin to THIS , but treating mig racks full of parts instead, wich were moved through those basins consecutively by two portal handlers)
The way to the control room lead trough the basement where about 40 pumps were working in two long rows, each on a little foundation of concrete and connected by large tubes to the basins above.
It was rather dark, hot and loud.  Flow noise, the pumps and motors and the clanking of the parts, the squeal of the handling machinery from above added up to a veritable cacophony.
I had just arrived and was respectfully escorted to the control room by this way.
One pump stuck out. From some distance, it was sort of 'highlighted' for me. That was before I saw that it is not running. (The coupling between the motor and the pump was where you saw it immediately). And it was before I felt the heat radiated by it. I called the guy who had supervised the erection and comissioning of this plant to stop and told him that there is something wrong with that pump.
He told me that all is ok and that not all pumps are running at all times. Well, it was HIS plant, but it also was HIS ass, so after seeing my face, he inquired. One could not touch this pump. The motor had a surface temperature around 100°C. It turned out that a small piece of tubing, wich had somehow gotten into the larger tubing being connected to the pump, had wandered until arriving at the latter and was stuck in the rotor. This, combined with a motor protection relay set to around 210% of the motor's nominal current, caused the pump to be in this fully powered, stalled condition. As the motor was stationary, there was also no airflow.
I have no idea what made me notice this pump immediately under those conditions. It was like 'highlighted flashing red with the word FAULT' to me.

I got called out to the old Belling Electric factory in Enfield many years ago where they had a huge treatment plant like that that they used to wash, treat and prime cooker panels and parts and the parts would be in massive wire baskets suspended from overhead track and be dipped into each vat in turn, about 12 huge vats in the process. The line had broken down and I was the engineer for control gear manufacturer used to control this process, opened up the huge control panel for the system and slammed it shut again. The control panel builder had only filled the panel full of relays instead of contactors with extra auxiliary contacts clipped on to provide the interlocking required. Every single relay in that panel had its main contacts evaporated which were made from pure silver as good relays should. Silver cannot stand up to the arcing that switching motors brings with it. They had to replace every relay with the correct contactor and aux contacts clipped on, a few £000 worth   

[mnementh]

Not first boot; maybe million-and-first. Just relocating to a new case. And I THINK I mentioned needing to eMail those files.

Besides... if you aren't connected to the intardnet, Winbleep! will just sit there and hash your hard drive for half an hour until it gives up syncing with OneDrive. And when you disable OneDrive, it just turns that shit back on with some update in the next week or three...

mnem
Meh; it's not like I needed those 25 minutes of my life anyways... 

Yeah, those automatic updates can be a PITA at times. At least IOS alerts you that an update is ready to be downloaded and installed so you can do if you want to or not. Come to think of it, I'm sure that you can turn off the Windoze auto updates as well?

Yeah, if you feel like disabling Defender/having one of the currently available 3rd-party Antivirus suites take over your machine... they're all worse than "Windoze as a Service". I use ShutUp10 about once a month now to keep track of what shit WaaS turns back on. Defender and a third-party browser (NOT CHROME) with all the password shit and syncing features turned off are actually a fairly inoffensive combination in general. They're just a PITA to manage.

Of course they've rigged the system... YOUR system... to make it so that you can either let them have full access to your machine and manage your privacy their way, or you can take over ALL administration thereof, with no middle ground. That "Middle ground" was Windows XP and to a lesser extent Windoze7; where you could give them the boot and still expect them to provide security updates for the biggest evils afoot in the infosphere.

mnem
They took my thumbs.

[tautech]

You guys are being just MEAN. If Tautech needs a jump start for his heart on the farm this is just a custom defibrillator 

Also note the words 'backup pump' was installed still fairly nasty however even for a lashup

Yeah guys, I'll get onto it. 

In a previous installation it was hard wired.... all safe and neat !
When I needed it in another water pump failure emergency the 3 core flex was hastily installed and a contactor switched single phase supply was added when there previously was only switched 3 phase.
I should and will change the black wall mains socket too (below in bottom of pic) to a IP rated one.

Jolly good, glad to hear it as well, 

Speaking of an IP rated socket, that Clipsal socket on the bottom right, should also have a proper plug for that socket which has a rotary locking ring to maintain the IP rating once a plug is inserted, something like the following photo with the correct pin configuration to suit your sockets 

Haha, are you guys ever gunna get off my back ? 

Yeah I know about those weather proof Clipsal plugs as yes for something permanent it would be a good idea to use them. That Clipsal socket is just for occasional power tool (and VNA) usage.
In the pic the black IEC lead was powering my VNA as I did an 'insitu' VNA Smith cart sweep to check for any 'proximity' issues after antenna installation. Nuthing else was running at the time.

The pump shed tin roof, nearby power pole and its steel wire tie back and the height above ground were all things we couldn't mimic when building and tuning the antenna so for piece of mind they were checked post installation.

Good luck humping some 40kg VNA there to check things. 

[beanflying]

Not first boot; maybe million-and-first. Just relocating to a new case. And I THINK I mentioned needing to eMail those files.

Besides... if you aren't connected to the intardnet, Winbleep! will just sit there and hash your hard drive for half an hour until it gives up syncing with OneDrive. And when you disable OneDrive, it just turns that shit back on with some update in the next week or three...

mnem
Meh; it's not like I needed those 25 minutes of my life anyways... 

There is things worse than having W10 on a machine. Having W10 and NI Lab View on your machine 

[mnementh]

*Calls an exorcist for bean*

Not sure the daemons can be expelled... they may already be rooted in the firmware. 

mnem
"The power of Gates compels you... the power of Gates compels you... Oh, wait, there's that damned blue swirlie again..." 

[mnementh]

This pleases me immensely.

mnem
*Temp-ily*

[beanflying]

Would you like to Reboot NOW 

[mnementh]

"No, no, sir... I'm going to have to ask you to stop kicking the machine. It won't help anyway..."

mnem
*The voice of experience*

[beanflying]

Done 1GB+ of downloads and install later. Lazy ASS bloated programming culture 

On a positive note my 34461A will be in tomorrow instead of next week  Playtime before it takes a short Holiday to the Agilent Cal Lab.

[med6753]

Not first boot; maybe million-and-first. Just relocating to a new case. And I THINK I mentioned needing to eMail those files.

Besides... if you aren't connected to the intardnet, Winbleep! will just sit there and hash your hard drive for half an hour until it gives up syncing with OneDrive. And when you disable OneDrive, it just turns that shit back on with some update in the next week or three...

mnem
Meh; it's not like I needed those 25 minutes of my life anyways... 

There is things worse than having W10 on a machine. Having W10 and NI Lab View on your machine 

I have both too. You can turn off automatic updates for NI Lab View so it won't bug you. Update it when you feel like it.

Edit: I also have Onedrive disabled. Yes.....some random update may turn it back on but I go and turn it off again.

[mnementh]

Fuck me.

So... trial fitting the radiator to see which way the hoses will go best, and discover that the design of the case places the RAM on my MB too high. I can JUST get the radiator in on the outermost set of slots as I intended, but the frontmost fan occludes the top row of RAM lock-levers. I'll have to drop the RAD any time I need to reseat the RAM.  You can see how close the dimensions are in the pic I posted re: my thermal sensor.

A quick look on NewEgg shows that modern MBs, both AMD and Intel, have the RAM in the same location relative to the I/O header; so this is just plain poor layout in the case. The MB should have been located approx 20mm lower. 

The AIO does not want to play nicely in a front radiator install; the hoses are just a little too short. I specifically want top radiator anyways, so I get gravity-bleed and convection circulation if the pump dies.

I know I'm probably going to just suck it up and install with it blocking the RAM anyways... but right now I'm going to bed.

mnem
 

[jlw]

Found this item on the bay of evil a few weeks ago - it was caked with about 100 years of gunk (not an exaggeration) but cleaned up pretty well.  I used to work for the company which made it, so it is a nice souvenir of a time when test gear could look like furniture and yet not be ugly.

I picked up a similar thing at a flea market a couple years ago.  Bakelite and metal, looks like.

[GregDunn]

I picked up a similar thing at a flea market a couple years ago.  Bakelite and metal, looks like.

The knobs and top panel of mine are all bakelite - but there's a nice little recessed spring and ball bearing under each knob which gives a really solid detent.  Strangely, they're entirely separate from the mechanical stops for each resistor contact, so they had to be carefully designed to match.

Sadly, at some point in its history some of the resistors got fried, so it's mostly useless as a decade box.  I elected to keep it original - wire wound resistors, low impedance contacts and all - rather than rebuild it, as it was not purchased with the intent of using it as a reference.

[mnementh]

Heh... y'all will hate me for suggesting it, but the first thing I thought when I saw it was "I wanna replace all the fasteners with stainless button head allen screws." 

mnem
*HotWod Dwagon, thwough & thwough*