Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[worsthorse]

They're preparing full schools shutdown here and major public transport restrictions. This isn't common knowledge yet as the media hasn't covered it in detail because Boris Johnson has been fucking his bint or something and is trying to bury some other news. Schools and offices have introduced strict hygiene controls and policies for people even looking a bit sick.

Saw this on the way to the UPS drop off point this morning. This is probably the crappest bodge I have ever seen of any kind 

I prefer to grow my Cauliflower in the garden.

Btw: Also doing Home Office now on request of the company.

McBryce.

Here in Trumplandia... I get a daily situation report from FEMA that outlines their current list of alerts and deployments.   Until the day Mr. Pence was put in charge of our "federal response team", FEMA was listing COVID as a threat, which meant it was organizing around a response. The day after, the threat disappeared from the daily report and the National Institutes responsible for managing the medical response planning were muzzled by the white house.

nothing to see here, folks, move along...

[bsudbrink]

They're preparing full schools shutdown here and major public transport restrictions. This isn't common knowledge yet as the media hasn't covered it in detail because Boris Johnson has been fucking his bint or something and is trying to bury some other news. Schools and offices have introduced strict hygiene controls and policies for people even looking a bit sick.

Saw this on the way to the UPS drop off point this morning. This is probably the crappest bodge I have ever seen of any kind 

I really don't see anything wrong with this, other than he didn't finish the job.  A little trimming with a Milwaukee SawzAll and cover it with a couple layers of duct tape.  All done.

[mnementh]

Of course... that asplains it. Heez on hizz way to Wally Wurrld to get a roll of NASCAR Tape !!!

mnem
"The Devil is in the details."

[Specmaster]

You can do the same sort of thing to electric cars. Just attach a generator to an axle and it will re-charge the battery while you are driving. 

I think you're running foul of thermodynamics there. However, if you installed a couple of small children in the back with a pedal generator...

That's terribly inefficient as you have to feed the buggers and stop to empty them every two minutes 

Forget 6 year olds as a vehicle power source. They don't get the range, the horse power is pretty lame and as far as torque is concerned, the car better be empty!
McBryce.

6 year olds? Don't be silly. Of course you can't use 6 year olds - they'd have to be, like around, oh 10 - 12 years old before you can get the power you need. 

They’d use all the power charging their phones 

Damn you're right.    This problem is very difficult!

You could put their phones on the end of fishing rods in front of the vehicle.

Yes, but then you'd have to put up with the incessant 12-year-old whine... in stereo. 

No, wait... you could use these to filter out that whine!!!        As long as you apply them percussively, I'm certain they'd be effective!!! 

mnem

No, applying them percussively is totally wrong, dude, that would kill all of your traction instantly, just wear some noise-cancelling headphones, job done 

[tautech]

Gaffa tape, string and bungees are how you fix a car properly! 

I dunno, you townies.  No. 8 fencing wire fixes anything ! 

pfft you're all living in the Dark Ages.

These days we use cable ties!

Right  and how long do they last ? Had some cable ties on a catenary wire holding a 3ph mains cable and the bloody things failed in ~3yrs as they weren't UV rated. 
Good thing the son has a 14t digger so we could reach up the 6m above the ground and replace them with better rated ones. 

[tautech]

Weakened again to TEA and bought another Tek current probe from evilBay. 
#283796443561

[mnementh]

Gaffa tape, string and bungees are how you fix a car properly! 

I dunno, you townies.  No. 8 fencing wire fixes anything ! 

pfft you're all living in the Dark Ages.   These days we use cable ties!   

Right  and how long do they last ? Had some cable ties on a catenary wire holding a 3ph mains cable and the bloody things failed in ~3yrs as they weren't UV rated. 
Good thing the son has a 14t digger so we could reach up the 6m above the ground and replace them with better rated ones. 

Yebbutt... lookit that thing; it's a drift racer. I'm pretty certain he's replacing those zip-ties, and adding new ones, every other day. 

mnem
Okay... every other week if he's REALLY good.

[mnementh]

You can do the same sort of thing to electric cars. Just attach a generator to an axle and it will re-charge the battery while you are driving. 

I think you're running foul of thermodynamics there. However, if you installed a couple of small children in the back with a pedal generator...

That's terribly inefficient as you have to feed the buggers and stop to empty them every two minutes 

Forget 6 year olds as a vehicle power source. They don't get the range, the horse power is pretty lame and as far as torque is concerned, the car better be empty!
McBryce.

6 year olds? Don't be silly. Of course you can't use 6 year olds - they'd have to be, like around, oh 10 - 12 years old before you can get the power you need. 

They’d use all the power charging their phones 

Damn you're right.    This problem is very difficult!

You could put their phones on the end of fishing rods in front of the vehicle.

Yes, but then you'd have to put up with the incessant 12-year-old whine... in stereo. 

No, wait... you could use these to filter out that whine!!!        As long as you apply them percussively, I'm certain they'd be effective!!! 

mnem

No, applying them percussively is totally wrong, dude, that would kill all of your traction instantly, just wear some noise-cancelling headphones, job done 

Wouldn't that vary, depending on whether you're using them in Star or Ring topology...? 

mnem
*Waiting on bitseeker to comer along and say "SONET!" just for shits & giggles*

[Specmaster]

Had some cable ties on a catenary wire holding a 3ph mains cable and the bloody things failed in ~3yrs as they weren't UV rated. 
Good thing the son has a 14t digger so we could reach up the 6m above the ground and replace them with better rated ones. 

How long is the cable span and what size cable are you running across?  I've run many 3 phase supplies across from building to building when I was employed as maintenance electrician at one of the English Electric Valve factories. I made up my own brackets to take some decent sized porcelain insulators, and run the cables across and looped them round the insulators, wire laced them to anchor them. They were there for years until they demolished the factory to make way for a housing development.

[Brumby]

Especially this product made me laugh.

 https://www.djmelectronics.com/gigafoilv4-inline-ethernet-filter.html


Everyone here should buy at least three for LXI ethernet network

"With an insertion loss of 100dB from 14kHz to 18GHz"
Huh? 

... or did I read that wrong?

[mansaxel]

Dear oh dear what a turd. There's probably a couple of cheap off the shelf TP link ethernet/SC media converters inside it  . Of course they will be connected to the same power source 

And here I was wondering whether I'd be able to reproduce it; you point out the obvious solution. But 550 USD(onalds) is a bit cheap for that, unless he got a good rebate for a bag of 100 converters or so. My impression is that most of these people build one prototype as bait, and then simply wait for the fool and his money to part. 

Slightly related: (opticks! as they said in the 18th century.)

Just got my 10GE switch for the home datacenter, so I'll have to use 2 more of the fibre strands between the garage and the laundry to wire it up to my in-house core switch. Going to replace the current 2x1G Port-Channel with a single 10G link. I've got ports to run a pair for 20G if needed, but I believe I can manage with a single one. For now. Gotta find a pair of 10GE 1310 SFPen, though.

[tautech]

Had some cable ties on a catenary wire holding a 3ph mains cable and the bloody things failed in ~3yrs as they weren't UV rated. 
Good thing the son has a 14t digger so we could reach up the 6m above the ground and replace them with better rated ones. 

How long is the cable span and what size cable are you running across?  I've run many 3 phase supplies across from building to building when I was employed as maintenance electrician at one of the English Electric Valve factories. I made up my own brackets to take some decent sized porcelain insulators, and run the cables across and looped them round the insulators, wire laced them to anchor them. They were there for years until they demolished the factory to make way for a housing development.

10mm² and ~15m span but the cable is a flex and not hard drawn hence the need for a catenary wire.
Yep, used porcelain on each end too.

Done much longer single phase runs myself with 2.5mm TPS and using ali TPS clips (without nails  ) and that lasted for decades.

[mnementh]

Especially this product made me laugh.

 https://www.djmelectronics.com/gigafoilv4-inline-ethernet-filter.html


Everyone here should buy at least three for LXI ethernet network

"With an insertion loss of 100dB from 14kHz to 18GHz"   Huh?     ... or did I read that wrong?

Remember; these are to be applied percussively.  I'm certain that when used as intended, 100dB insertion loss (depending on orifice) is perfectly normal; probably required for correct operation.

mnem

[mnementh]

Oh fuck me... why do I volunteer for this kind of misery...?

Today I picked up a FireTV box at the Thrift because it was CAD$7 and complete in box with remote, power and papers.
So far, I've had to update the software 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 now 12 times; it's like EVERY FUCKING UPDATE they've ever released for this thing has to be done in series... is FireOS really hiding Winbloze underneath...?

mnem
   But hey... at least I'm getting caught up on my Linus videos. Right now he's totally FUBARing a WRAITH/AORUS Water-cooled Build... 

[beanflying]

Had some cable ties on a catenary wire holding a 3ph mains cable and the bloody things failed in ~3yrs as they weren't UV rated. 
Good thing the son has a 14t digger so we could reach up the 6m above the ground and replace them with better rated ones. 

How long is the cable span and what size cable are you running across?  I've run many 3 phase supplies across from building to building when I was employed as maintenance electrician at one of the English Electric Valve factories. I made up my own brackets to take some decent sized porcelain insulators, and run the cables across and looped them round the insulators, wire laced them to anchor them. They were there for years until they demolished the factory to make way for a housing development.

10mm² and ~15m span but the cable is a flex and not hard drawn hence the need for a catenary wire.
Yep, used porcelain on each end too.

Done much longer single phase runs myself with 2.5mm TPS and using ali TPS clips (without nails  ) and that lasted for decades.

Now you have made me go outside and look at a short one I did for Mum about 10 years ago with 2.5mm sq. Still on the original Cable Ties but the Electrical Tape is carrying the load. The Gal Wire is looking a little crusty but otherwise it has survived Raven and Possum usage well.

[Specmaster]

Had some cable ties on a catenary wire holding a 3ph mains cable and the bloody things failed in ~3yrs as they weren't UV rated. 
Good thing the son has a 14t digger so we could reach up the 6m above the ground and replace them with better rated ones. 

How long is the cable span and what size cable are you running across?  I've run many 3 phase supplies across from building to building when I was employed as maintenance electrician at one of the English Electric Valve factories. I made up my own brackets to take some decent sized porcelain insulators, and run the cables across and looped them round the insulators, wire laced them to anchor them. They were there for years until they demolished the factory to make way for a housing development.

10mm² and ~15m span but the cable is a flex and not hard drawn hence the need for a catenary wire.
Yep, used porcelain on each end too.

Done much longer single phase runs myself with 2.5mm TPS and using ali TPS clips (without nails  ) and that lasted for decades.

I did wonder if it was flex, there is no mechanical strength in flex, so hence the catenary wire, I ran mine in 25mm singles, double sheathed.

[mnementh]

So glad I haven't had to do that shit in over 2 decades. 

mnem
Come on lucky 13...

[Specmaster]

Yep, it was 37 years ago when I last did it as well 

[beanflying]

Overheads are easy, most roofs with a decent pitch are ok, the worst by far was raised slab underfloor wiring. I have had to dig my way into places in the sticky Brown dirt where I grew up because my Dad wasn't well enough to do his own tunneling.... When you got to where you needed to dig a deeper pit so you can roll sideways to do the actual work 

Cursing the Departed Father a little with a smile for the memory and taking note I am now to old for this shit and will hire others to do the tough jobs

[tautech]

So glad I haven't had to do that shit in over 2 decades. 

mnem
Come on lucky 13...

Claws and ladders don't go well together anyways. 
My cat

k
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w
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[Mr. Scram]

pfft you're all living in the Dark Ages.

These days we use cable ties!

That's just a Poor-sche.

[Specmaster]

Overheads are easy, most roofs with a decent pitch are ok, the worst by far was raised slab underfloor wiring. I have had to dig my way into places in the sticky Brown dirt where I grew up because my Dad wasn't well enough to do his own tunneling.... When you got to where you needed to dig a deeper pit so you can roll sideways to do the actual work 

Cursing the Departed Father a little with a smile for the memory and taking note I am now to old for this shit and will hire others to do the tough jobs

Digging through the Essex clay is no fun either, I remember only to well having to dig a long trench down my Mums garden next to the path to run a three-phase supply to her beloved greenhouse. I also had to tunnel underneath 3 paths, it was cold wet and stank. I ran the cables in 3" heavy-duty PVC piping which was an arsehole to work with as it had a mind of its own and did not want to bend and go, where I wanted it to, I had to heat it with an old paraffin blow lamp to soften it into submission 

[Brumby]

Just received a shipment from China...

20 off 50x10x5mm N52 Neodymium magnets.  Gave each stage of unpacking a precautionary application of isopropyl alcohol.  These things are strong, as expected, but even so, one of them got away from me and snapped its way back to the stack, shattering it into 3 pieces (with some minor shrapnel).  Each magnet was individually wrapped in a piece of bubble, then in its own plastic envelope.  20 of these were then wrapped in a bigger layer of bubble with another bag.  All up, 50x40x5mm of magnets came in a parcel 35x20x15cm.

Got them to replace some I purchased a few years ago for a demonstration of magnetohydrodynamics that I sold on to a friend who wanted some.


Must build that demo one day.   

[PaulAm]

The last pack of magnets I ordered disappeared on the last leg of postal delivery.  I imagine they're still stuck to the side of the postal van somewhere 

[Cubdriver]

Nothing bugs me more than buying some piece of surplus equipment with stickers and labels all over it. It seems that the previous owner or seller tries to put the stickers in the worst places, sometimes right over the displays. Trying to get them off is a pain and involves some sort of scrapping with a thumbnail or wooden tongue depressor along with some white gas/camping fuel and paper towels.

I went shopping with my wife to a kitchen supply store and found what I think will solve the problem for about $4. It is a nylon scraper that I hope won't mar the surface but I haven't tried it yet. It looked like it was worth a try. Hopefully it will save my MANicure!

While I'll agree that dealing with stickers and labels on gear is annoying, given the choice I would prefer *me* removing them to having someone before me do so using, apparently, a hammer and cold chisel.



-Pat