Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[bd139]

Getting there

[nixiefreqq]

Oooooh seller had a 5334B for sale as well for £20 less. Missing one foot and the carry handle but meh. Shown working.  I now own it 

Five excuses:

1) It allows you to specify offset so you can plug an IF frequency in when you are playing around with VFOs
2) No battery like the 5334A
3) Reading around, the board is partially populated with option C so it's possible to retro-fit it: https://www.davmar.org/pdf/HP5334B-C-channel-retrofit.pdf
4) has external 10MHz in so I now have an excuse to buy or build a GPSDO
5) Does rise time measurements so why the hell not 

Time nuttery here I come.

if a fumble fingered old fool like me could succeed with the 1300 Mhz upgrade it should be a breeze for a steely eyed solder jockey like you.

seems like i used hsms 2810's because there were a bunch in the diode stash.   they were acquired from an ebayer called rfextra down in maryland.  (he is on vacation till after independence day so you can't find him presently, but he is a reliable source of hard to find parts).   don't remember the source for the prescaler.

the 5334b is nice.......but only 100 Mhz (w/o the c channel).   the 5335a gets a lot more use and is 200 Mhz. 

HOWEVER......they are both 7 segment rubbish.   (had to say that or risk being banished from the nixie community)



 

[bitseeker]

Did I say that I was after anything...., certainly not boat anchors..., I don't have the harbour for them 

OK, now that was a good one. 

[0culus]

Did I say that I was after anything...., certainly not boat anchors..., I don't have the harbour for them 

OK, now that was a good one. 

....and I haven't let that stop me.  Seriously looking forward to more lab space...should be in about a month. 

[bitseeker]

Speaking of the Lady Cop....just got off the phone with her. She has to attend a department wide award ceremony this Thursday in full dress blues to receive a dept award. She has no clue what the award is for. An NYPD division commander personally told her supervisor that she was required to attend. 

That's very cool. Congrats to her!

[0culus]

I have sunk to a new low of not giving a crap today. Watching old Jerry Springer's on YouTube and completely enjoying it. 

For you guys across the pond....look up Jerry Springer Show. 

Could be worse...Maury, anyone? 

You are.....NOT THE FATHER!!!

[mnementh]

The scary ones are the only ones worth the effort.

mnem
*forever falling prey to a well-swung tail*

And I've had my share besides the wacko Puerto Rican. Bat shit crazy redhead. Hot tempered Italian. The current Lady Copper for the past 8 years is a welcome relief to all that drama. 

Just a different kind of scary, that's all.  (She can shoot ya dead in a fit of PMS and not even have to hide the body...)

Oooooh seller had a 5334B for sale as well for £20 less. Missing one foot and the carry handle but meh. Shown working.  I now own it 
Time nuttery here I come.

You know it is serious when you get into phase noise and Allen deviations.

The only Allen deviations I'm interested in are George & Gracie Tim & Al. (Yes, I'm showing my true age...  )

mnem
"Goodnight, Gracie..."

[med6753]

The scary ones are the only ones worth the effort.

mnem
*forever falling prey to a well-swung tail*

And I've had my share besides the wacko Puerto Rican. Bat shit crazy redhead. Hot tempered Italian. The current Lady Copper for the past 8 years is a welcome relief to all that drama. 

Just a different kind of scary, that's all.  (She can shoot ya dead in a fit of PMS and not even have to hide the body...)

She's well beyond PMS years and NYPD School Safety Cops don't carry side arms. But I suppose she could arrest me, throw me in jail, and lose the key. 

[Specmaster]

Speaking of the Lady Cop....just got off the phone with her. She has to attend a department wide award ceremony this Thursday in full dress blues to receive a dept award. She has no clue what the award is for. An NYPD division commander personally told her supervisor that she was required to attend. 

Unfortunately the ceremony is not open to friends/family or else I'd be hoping a train to Manhattan to attend.   

Probably for her part in the incident that saw her sent to hospital, anyway, well done to her, you must so proud of her [emoji6]

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[Specmaster]

Oooooh seller had a 5334B for sale as well for £20 less. Missing one foot and the carry handle but meh. Shown working.  I now own it 

Five excuses:

1) It allows you to specify offset so you can plug an IF frequency in when you are playing around with VFOs
2) No battery like the 5334A
3) Reading around, the board is partially populated with option C so it's possible to retro-fit it: https://www.davmar.org/pdf/HP5334B-C-channel-retrofit.pdf
4) has external 10MHz in so I now have an excuse to buy or build a GPSDO
5) Does rise time measurements so why the hell not 

Time nuttery here I come.

Oh dear, quick tie a big long rope round you feet and anchor the other end a strong tree cos there's no bottom in that there rabbit hole.

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[Specmaster]

The scary ones are the only ones worth the effort.

mnem
*forever falling prey to a well-swung tail*

And I've had my share besides the wacko Puerto Rican. Bat shit crazy redhead. Hot tempered Italian. The current Lady Copper for the past 8 years is a welcome relief to all that drama. 

Just a different kind of scary, that's all.  (She can shoot ya dead in a fit of PMS and not even have to hide the body...)

She's well beyond PMS years and NYPD School Safety Cops don't carry side arms. But I suppose she could arrest me, throw me in jail, and lose the key. 

Ooh, she's more a British cop then, although it's quite a common site in London to see armed cops.

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

[bd139]

if a fumble fingered old fool like me could succeed with the 1300 Mhz upgrade it should be a breeze for a steely eyed solder jockey like you.

seems like i used hsms 2810's because there were a bunch in the diode stash.   they were acquired from an ebayer called rfextra down in maryland.  (he is on vacation till after independence day so you can't find him presently, but he is a reliable source of hard to find parts).   don't remember the source for the prescaler.

the 5334b is nice.......but only 100 Mhz (w/o the c channel).   the 5335a gets a lot more use and is 200 Mhz. 

HOWEVER......they are both 7 segment rubbish.   (had to say that or risk being banished from the nixie community)

Yeah doesn't look too difficult that one. It's a nice little hack. Four dual diodes, prescaler, BNC panel mount pigtail, job done!  I'm not sure why HP didn't just sell them all with that as the entire MMIC amplifier chain is in there already. For me one of the important things is it's small and no fan to annoy me. I looked at a 5335A and discounted that due to the fan. I actually had one and a half 5328A's a couple of years back but the things are soooooo noisy. It's like living in a room with a 747.

Edit: First step of ownership: hook out all the damn RIFAs in it!

I will tell no one of your infidelity with the LEDs

The only Allen deviations I'm interested in are George & Gracie Tim & Al. (Yes, I'm showing my true age...  )

[med6753]

Speaking of the Lady Cop....just got off the phone with her. She has to attend a department wide award ceremony this Thursday in full dress blues to receive a dept award. She has no clue what the award is for. An NYPD division commander personally told her supervisor that she was required to attend. 

Unfortunately the ceremony is not open to friends/family or else I'd be hoping a train to Manhattan to attend.   

Probably for her part in the incident that saw her sent to hospital, anyway, well done to her, you must so proud of her [emoji6]

Sent from my POT-LX1 using Tapatalk

She really doesn't know why she was ordered to be at that award ceremony in full dress uniform. We'll find out Thursday I guess.  It wouldn't be the first time she received a commendation award from the NYPD. Years ago she saved a kid who was slashed with a knife and was bleeding out. She stopped the bleeding, bare handed, until the ambulance arrived. 

To say that I am proud of her who be an understatement. I've had the privilege of her telling me her life story and overcoming extreme adversity. Most would NOT have accomplished what she has done. And it has made her the fiercely independent woman she is today.  Let me give you a quick synopsis....

(And if she found out I told this she would kill me )

She was born in Harlem.
At a young age her family moved from Harlem to a housing project in Bed-Sty Brooklyn.
Shortly after that her Father abandon the family.
She never learned to ride a bicycle or know how to swim.
At age 15 she became an unwed mother with her first son.
At age 17 she became an unwed mother again with her second son. (She never had any more children)
Both teen fathers denied paternity (of course)
She was forced to drop out of school.
She had to go on public assistance (welfare...the dole) but was determined to get off it.
That's when she began to turn things around. Despite being an unwed mother with 2 young children she managed to get her GED.
She landed her first job with the NYC dept of education as a school crossing guard and was able to support herself and her boys.
Sometime after that she transferred to what was then the dept of education school safety guards.
I think it was sometime in the 1990's the school safety guards were transferred as a full division to the NYPD and given full law enforcement capability as any typical policeman.
Sometime in between there she did get married to someone who was not very supportive and somewhat verbally abusive.
She was just blocks from all the horrors of 9/11 and on duty for 3 straight days and assisted with getting people across the Brooklyn Bridge. 
A little over 10 years ago she beat cancer.

Proud of her? Without a doubt...and I've told her, many times. 

I'm wandering way too far off subject. Gotta get back on track. I think my next project will arrive today. If it does I'll do a reveal and teardown.

[BU508A]

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is "GED"?

[med6753]

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is "GED"?

General Education Diploma. For individuals who dropped out of school. Absolutely required if you want to get a decent job.   

[Specmaster]

WTF, never seen caps fail like this before??? 

[Ero-Shan]

"And I've found a new law, let's call it "Ero-shan's law": I'm consistently the second-highest bidder on eBay.  "

It's not just you. I've been second many times. And to make matters worse, the next highest bid is always less than 1/2 of mine. If that #$%^ high bidder hadn't bid, I would have got one heck of a buy!   Of course the high bidder is also cursing me for preventing them getting a far better deal.

How do you know the next highest bid? Is there a way to find out? (I'm definitely no expert at eBay!)
But I always have the feeling that without the other one I'd score great deals!

[bd139]

WTF, never seen caps fail like this before??? 

I have. Big fucking hole in the side of one in a guitar amp I fixed for someone a few years ago. Those are pretty bad though!

[nixiefreqq]

WTF, never seen caps fail like this before??? 

I have. Big fucking hole in the side of one in a guitar amp I fixed for someone a few years ago. Those are pretty bad though!

looks like someone let the nanites escape.

[mnementh]

The scary ones are the only ones worth the effort.

mnem
*forever falling prey to a well-swung tail*

And I've had my share besides the wacko Puerto Rican. Bat shit crazy redhead. Hot tempered Italian. The current Lady Copper for the past 8 years is a welcome relief to all that drama. 

Just a different kind of scary, that's all.  (She can shoot ya dead in a fit of PMS and not even have to hide the body...)

She's well beyond PMS years and NYPD School Safety Cops don't carry side arms. But I suppose she could arrest me, throw me in jail, and lose the key. 

It's good to know that particular kind of gun crazy hasn't spread that far north. Down here we have armed cops on campus brandishing their weapons at 12-year-olds and body-slamming them for verbal unruliness in class.  Oh, and they're trying to make it state law that teachers can be FORCED to carry sidearms.  Please tell her we all said congratulations, and wonder what the hell she's doing hooked up with a wingnut like you. 

Oooooh seller had a 5334B for sale as well for £20 less. Missing one foot and the carry handle but meh. Shown working.  I now own it 
(SNIP)
Time nuttery here I come.

Oh dear, quick tie a big long rope round you feet and anchor the other end a strong tree cos there's no bottom in that there rabbit hole.

bd go down dee ho-o-ole... 

mnem
Coffee: The OTHER product of Columbia.

[Ero-Shan]

"And I've found a new law, let's call it "Ero-shan's law": I'm consistently the second-highest bidder on eBay.  "

It's not just you. I've been second many times. And to make matters worse, the next highest bid is always less than 1/2 of mine. If that #$%^ high bidder hadn't bid, I would have got one heck of a buy!   Of course the high bidder is also cursing me for preventing them getting a far better deal.  

Hmmm, just how do you know that you're both the second highest bidders?

It's a rather good indication when the winning bid is just one price increment above yours. 

[Edit: Fix typo]

[Specmaster]

"And I've found a new law, let's call it "Ero-shan's law": I'm consistently the second-highest bidder on eBay.  "

It's not just you. I've been second many times. And to make matters worse, the next highest bid is always less than 1/2 of mine. If that #$%^ high bidder hadn't bid, I would have got one heck of a buy!   Of course the high bidder is also cursing me for preventing them getting a far better deal.  

Hmmm, just how do you know that you're both the second highest bidders?

It a rather good indication when the winning bid is just one price increment above yours. 

The way Ebay works is that the first person to bid that amount would get the 2nd chance offer if the highest bidder backed out, its possible that there may others who bid the same amount ahead of you however 

[mnementh]

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is "GED"?

General Education Diploma. For individuals who dropped out of school. Absolutely required if you want to get a decent job.

General Equivalency Diploma. Used to mean GRADE Equivalency Diploma, until the American Council on Education (a shill pseudo-government office wholly owned by Pearson Publishing, the people who tried to rewrite our history to hide the formative influence of the Labor Movement and make the Calvinists look like American heroes instead of authoritarian whack-jobs who were run out of Europe with torches and pitchforks) copyrighted the term. 

   WTF, never seen caps fail like this before??? 

Looks like black RTV Silicone spooge from here. Common practice was to use it to hold a ribbon cable in place or keep it from being able to lie right up against the can where it could pick up noise.

The only Allen deviations I'm interested in are George & Gracie Tim & Al. (Yes, I'm showing my true age...  )

MORE POWER!!! Waugh-waugh-Waugh!!! 

In somewhat related news... We went to see Toy Story 4 yesterday. I went in prepared to hate it; figuring at this point it was impossible to not be "just more of the same".  I was very pleasantly surprised. Well done, PIXAR.  :-

And I've found a new law, let's call it "Ero-shan's law": I'm consistently the second-highest bidder on eBay.  "

It's not just you. I've been second many times. And to make matters worse, the next highest bid is always less than 1/2 of mine. If that #$%^ high bidder hadn't bid, I would have got one heck of a buy!   Of course the high bidder is also cursing me for preventing them getting a far better deal.  

Hmmm, just how do you know that you're both the second highest bidders?

It a rather good indication when the winning bid is just one price increment above yours. 

If you look at the listing, the number of bids in blue just to the right of the current price is a link. It takes you to the BID HISTORY, which will show you every bid placed so far. After close, you can see exactly how many bids were placed, and where you fell in the list. Other bidders' usernames will be truncation-anonymized, but if you run up against them repeatedly, you usually can tell even from that anonymised name. On Buy It Now listings with more than Qty 1 offered, that link will take you to a similarly anonymized list of who bought the item and how many.

Speaking of the Lady Cop....just got off the phone with her. She has to attend a department wide award ceremony this Thursday in full dress blues to receive a dept award. She has no clue what the award is for. An NYPD division commander personally told her supervisor that she was required to attend. 

Unfortunately the ceremony is not open to friends/family or else I'd be hoping a train to Manhattan to attend.   

Probably for her part in the incident that saw her sent to hospital, anyway, well done to her, you must so proud of her

She really doesn't know why she was ordered to be at that award ceremony in full dress uniform. We'll find out Thursday I guess.  It wouldn't be the first time she received a commendation award from the NYPD. Years ago she saved a kid who was slashed with a knife and was bleeding out. She stopped the bleeding, bare handed, until the ambulance arrived. 

To say that I am proud of her who be an understatement. I've had the privilege of her telling me her life story and overcoming extreme adversity. Most would NOT have accomplished what she has done. And it has made her the fiercely independent woman she is today.  Let me give you a quick synopsis....

(And if she found out I told this she would kill me )

She was born in Harlem.
At a young age her family moved from Harlem to a housing project in Bed-Sty Brooklyn.
Shortly after that her Father abandon the family.
She never learned to ride a bicycle or know how to swim.
At age 15 she became an unwed mother with her first son.
At age 17 she became an unwed mother again with her second son. (She never had any more children)
Both teen fathers denied paternity (of course)
She was forced to drop out of school.
She had to go on public assistance (welfare...the dole) but was determined to get off it.
That's when she began to turn things around. Despite being an unwed mother with 2 young children she managed to get her GED.
She landed her first job with the NYC dept of education as a school crossing guard and was able to support herself and her boys.
Sometime after that she transferred to what was then the dept of education school safety guards.
I think it was sometime in the 1990's the school safety guards were transferred as a full division to the NYPD and given full law enforcement capability as any typical policeman.
Sometime in between there she did get married to someone who was not very supportive and somewhat verbally abusive.
She was just blocks from all the horrors of 9/11 and on duty for 3 straight days and assisted with getting people across the Brooklyn Bridge. 
A little over 10 years ago she beat cancer.

Proud of her? Without a doubt...and I've told her, many times. 

I'm wandering way too far off subject. Gotta get back on track. I think my next project will arrive today. If it does I'll do a reveal and teardown.

Good on ya.  :-  It's never "off-subject" to share how proud you are of a loved one; this is just water-cooler-talk time, not an academic or engineering workshop. 

mnem
*currently trying to unfuck another iPwn*

[med6753]

  Please tell her we all said congratulations, and wonder what the hell she's doing hooked up with a wingnut like you. 

Very simple...she has a thing for dirty white boys. 

[bd139]

Spent my lunch cleaning. 6286A looking better without sticker crud:



More gold!



Still can't believe that was only £15