Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[AVGresponding]

Phil, how many you need? I'll buy them and ship them to you.

He has 4 at $4.95 each, so I was going to get all 4, since it's not a huge amount.

That would be awesome if you could help me out med, pm me with details of how you want to do it!

OK Phil, done. Total so far with shipping/tax is $27.27 USD. We'll figure out everything else after I get them and determine cheapest shipping method to UK. I should have them delivered by this coming Tuesday.

  wow that's absolutely fantastic med!

I really owe you a solid!

[AVGresponding]

@med6753, I used to have one of those myself, good meters but boy, what a boat anchor. Be prepared to surrender a reasonable amount real estate on your bench for this bad boy.  I can get almost all 3 of my 6.5digit meters on the same footprint as that takes up. Do you know what options it comes with? IIRC it has about 8 plug-in cards and I think that the AC V and AC I and the Ohms are options that may not be present and could be difficult to come across.

It's 19" rack mount size isn't it?

[med6753]

Phil, how many you need? I'll buy them and ship them to you.

He has 4 at $4.95 each, so I was going to get all 4, since it's not a huge amount.

That would be awesome if you could help me out med, pm me with details of how you want to do it!

OK Phil, done. Total so far with shipping/tax is $27.27 USD. We'll figure out everything else after I get them and determine cheapest shipping method to UK. I should have them delivered by this coming Tuesday.

  wow that's absolutely fantastic med!

I really owe you a solid!

You're welcome Phil.  My experience with shipping items to the UK is that it generally takes less time than it does to ship something cross country here. I'm close to JFK which means it's usually on a plane to Heathrow within 2 days. But dunno what impact the cutback on flights might have.

[beanflying]

@med6753, I used to have one of those myself, good meters but boy, what a boat anchor. Be prepared to surrender a reasonable amount real estate on your bench for this bad boy.  I can get almost all 3 of my 6.5digit meters on the same footprint as that takes up. Do you know what options it comes with? IIRC it has about 8 plug-in cards and I think that the AC V and AC I and the Ohms are options that may not be present and could be difficult to come across.

Yea, I know it's big. I think I have a spot for it after I jockey some stuff around.

It has the Ohms option and the AC RMS option. Don't care about current.

If you brought that Fluke Calibrator too you could use it as a floor stand for the DMM  

[Brumby]

You're welcome Phil.  My experience with shipping items to the UK is that it generally takes less time than it does to ship something cross country here. I'm close to JFK which means it's usually on a plane to Heathrow within 2 days. But dunno what impact the cutback on flights might have.

He's in no hurry ... so it will probably be on his bench within 3 days of you posting it to him.

[AVGresponding]

Yeah the entire world's airline sector is damn near shut down, makes you wonder...

In any case as I said to the vendor, I've tons of patience, and it gives me time to build a psu for it (no I'm not buying an HP scope just to plug it in     ).


I'm leaning towards that "connecting to 0 volts" being a troll, it looks a lot like he's trying to get someone to flame him...

@med6753, I used to have one of those myself, good meters but boy, what a boat anchor. Be prepared to surrender a reasonable amount real estate on your bench for this bad boy.  I can get almost all 3 of my 6.5digit meters on the same footprint as that takes up. Do you know what options it comes with? IIRC it has about 8 plug-in cards and I think that the AC V and AC I and the Ohms are options that may not be present and could be difficult to come across.

Yea, I know it's big. I think I have a spot for it after I jockey some stuff around.

It has the Ohms option and the AC RMS option. Don't care about current.

If you brought that Fluke Calibrator too you could use it as a floor stand for the DMM (Attachment Link)  

And also wreck himself moving it!

[beanflying]

It seems like only yesterday  Next stop 7 1/2 or straight to a 3458A 

@med you are well into the voltnuttery hole watching trend plots of VRefs about seals the deal 

Next step LM399 Vref for more stability then realise you cant measure its drift without 6 1/2 digits .........

I think the 2 AD584-M references I have use the LM399 but I'm not sure. And according to everything I have here to measure them they exhibit almost no drift.

For now my rabbit hole is stopping at 5.5 digits. 

[med6753]

Yeah the entire world's airline sector is damn near shut down, makes you wonder...

In any case as I said to the vendor, I've tons of patience, and it gives me time to build a psu for it (no I'm not buying an HP scope just to plug it in     ).

They should pack small and light so I figure shipping costs should be under $20 USD. But we'll see.

[med6753]

It seems like only yesterday  Next stop 7 1/2 or straight to a 3458A 

@med you are well into the voltnuttery hole watching trend plots of VRefs about seals the deal 

Next step LM399 Vref for more stability then realise you cant measure its drift without 6 1/2 digits .........

I think the 2 AD584-M references I have use the LM399 but I'm not sure. And according to everything I have here to measure them they exhibit almost no drift.

For now my rabbit hole is stopping at 5.5 digits. 

You're really enjoying this, aren't you? 

[Kosmic]

It seems like only yesterday  Next stop 7 1/2 or straight to a 3458A 

@med you are well into the voltnuttery hole watching trend plots of VRefs about seals the deal 

Next step LM399 Vref for more stability then realise you cant measure its drift without 6 1/2 digits .........

I think the 2 AD584-M references I have use the LM399 but I'm not sure. And according to everything I have here to measure them they exhibit almost no drift.

For now my rabbit hole is stopping at 5.5 digits. 

Well the 8505a does 7.5digits on the 10V range. so pretty close to a full 7.5digits meter. Clearly in the voltnut realm 

[beanflying]

It seems like only yesterday  Next stop 7 1/2 or straight to a 3458A 

@med you are well into the voltnuttery hole watching trend plots of VRefs about seals the deal 

Next step LM399 Vref for more stability then realise you cant measure its drift without 6 1/2 digits .........

I think the 2 AD584-M references I have use the LM399 but I'm not sure. And according to everything I have here to measure them they exhibit almost no drift.

For now my rabbit hole is stopping at 5.5 digits. 

You're really enjoying this, aren't you? 

Maybe just a little 

[Cubdriver]

Yeah the entire world's airline sector is damn near shut down, makes you wonder...

In any case as I said to the vendor, I've tons of patience, and it gives me time to build a psu for it (no I'm not buying an HP scope just to plug it in     ).


I'm leaning towards that "connecting to 0 volts" being a troll, it looks a lot like he's trying to get someone to flame him...

@med6753, I used to have one of those myself, good meters but boy, what a boat anchor. Be prepared to surrender a reasonable amount real estate on your bench for this bad boy.  I can get almost all 3 of my 6.5digit meters on the same footprint as that takes up. Do you know what options it comes with? IIRC it has about 8 plug-in cards and I think that the AC V and AC I and the Ohms are options that may not be present and could be difficult to come across.

Yea, I know it's big. I think I have a spot for it after I jockey some stuff around.

It has the Ohms option and the AC RMS option. Don't care about current.

If you brought that Fluke Calibrator too you could use it as a floor stand for the DMM (Attachment Link)  

And also wreck himself moving it!

Oh come on ya buncha wusses, it's not THAT heavy!!




 

-Pat

[beanflying]

[SilverSolder]

I just bought this. 

I need a drink. 

And I said I would never go 6.5 digits. Somebody shoot me

These can be really good, plenty of owners on eevblog.

It can do 7.5 digits on the 10v range.

Yes, I have a few of these.  They can be a little temperamental to get in good tune, but once they are...

[Brumby]

It seems like only yesterday  Next stop 7 1/2 or straight to a 3458A 

@med you are well into the voltnuttery hole watching trend plots of VRefs about seals the deal 

Next step LM399 Vref for more stability then realise you cant measure its drift without 6 1/2 digits .........

I think the 2 AD584-M references I have use the LM399 but I'm not sure. And according to everything I have here to measure them they exhibit almost no drift.

For now my rabbit hole is stopping at 5.5 digits. 

You're really enjoying this, aren't you? 

Maybe just a little 

MORE than a little, IMHO.

But, I have to admit, that despite my declared ceiling of 5.5 digits, if something like that came up in Sydney for that sort of money, I'd be just as smitten - and so would my wallet.

At least that sort of temptation is well outside the realms of probability possibility here in Oz.

[Brumby]

Yes, I have a few of these.

That's it ... rub it in.


(I'd be in serious trouble if I lived in California)

[mnementh]

This should keep me off the streets & out of trouble for a day or three. With the authorities closing events and shops left & right due to the global COVID charlie-foxtrot, the wife is ALREADY ready to break my foot off in my own ass... All 3 of her children have been driving her batty for a week now. 

Help me out here because I haven't been keeping count. You have two children, your wife has three. Right?

I think the math here should be obvious...

mnem
*thing 3*

[Brumby]

... I thought it was.   

[mnementh]

Arrrrgh it's all Eclipse. Where's that spoon so I can gouge my own eyes out  Edit: ok not too painful. I used STM32CubeMX to generate the project template because I'm a lazy fucker and it's running with debugger attached!

(SNIP)

Trivial stuff sorted. Not scared of STM32 now. Will look at queues and interrupt handling etc another day.

Thanks mnem for the motivation on this one a few months back 

And that concludes my spam tonight. Now off to ebay to look for toys 

You're welcome, my friend. I'm glad my little bit of hard-won knowledge there could help someone.

I've been working with STM32Fxxx since the Bush administration; I don't know much about programming, but I DO know it is one of the "easiest to connect to" processors there is, and one of the most abuse-tolerant, mostly thanks to the protected bootloader. I'll state without reservation that if I can figure out how to connect to it and set parameters from the command line, ANYBODY can.

The fact it can be set to DFU mode EITHER via command from the correct port OR by shorting pins is a lifesaver, and I have friends who've written their Flight Controller FW so that it emulates a Windows HID node! 

mnem
 

[beanflying]

It seems like only yesterday  Next stop 7 1/2 or straight to a 3458A 

@med you are well into the voltnuttery hole watching trend plots of VRefs about seals the deal 

Next step LM399 Vref for more stability then realise you cant measure its drift without 6 1/2 digits .........

I think the 2 AD584-M references I have use the LM399 but I'm not sure. And according to everything I have here to measure them they exhibit almost no drift.

For now my rabbit hole is stopping at 5.5 digits. 

You're really enjoying this, aren't you? 

Maybe just a little 

MORE than a little, IMHO.

But, I have to admit, that despite my declared ceiling of 5.5 digits, if something like that came up in Sydney for that sort of money, I'd be just as smitten - and so would my wallet.

At least that sort of temptation is well outside the realms of probability possibility here in Oz.

A little HP 3478A slightly crusty but the shipping to Oz is not to bad eBay auction: #402165310223

[beanflying]

  Would someone from Pommie TEA like to drop around and insert a High Voltage across this butchers frontal lobes  https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/stuartiles/m.html?item=174198831839&hash=item288f0f3adf%3Ag%3AY18AAOSwcuNeUOLc&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

[Brumby]

A little HP 3478A slightly crusty but the shipping to Oz is not to bad eBay auction: #402165310223

I think I hate you just a little bit more, now.

  I've put in an offer (even though the exchange rate is crap). 

[beanflying]

A little HP 3478A slightly crusty but the shipping to Oz is not to bad eBay auction: #402165310223

I think I hate you just a little bit more, now.

  I've put in an offer (even though the exchange rate is crap). 

You are welcome 

[mnementh]

On the Bench Tonight...



Plantronics CM-310 Conference Headset Like New & NIB Fuji FinePix C10 Camera:

I should've known Murphy would come along & make me pay for riding Spec's arse about the headphone he got; today I found this ~$50 Plantronics conference headset for CAD$7. Of course I snagged it; I knew the quality would be there and when I have family present, I prefer the one-ear type anyways. The inline dongle is a PITA already; but it is light and it is hardwired so I don't have to worry about it pulling apart and related crackle/static.

Windows installs it pretty much instantly with signed drivers; controls on the dongle are CALL Hang Up/Answer with green indicator LED, Mic Mute with Red LED that indicates muted, and Headset Volume that is dedicated to the headset, not to Windows audio volume. I REALLY like that.

Single earphone sound quality is exactly what you'd expect from Plantronics; crisp and clear in the typical telephony voice frequency range, but very little real bass or treble. Microphone is excellent and sensitive by default; I need to poke around my junk drawer for a foam windscreen as it does pick up my breathing. The mic boom is rubberized with a bendable metal strip inside so it can be molded to suit your face; by default it fits very close against the headband just as I like. The single-sided headband is also just as you'd expect from Plantronics; easy to adjust, firm hold and "forget you have it on" comfortable. 

I've tested it in the Discord settings and it seems quite decent, though the Answer/Hang Up Call button DOES NOT work as I expected; it probably needs the Plantronics UI software installed to be able to assign those buttons. One thing I DID note is that the mic has a "Roger Beep" that DOES toggle voice activation on Discord reliably; this might be a boon for when I'm M/Ting and noodling around in other tabs while visiting y'all.

Worst case, even if I can't get used to that bump-in-the-wire dongle, I'll give it to the boi to use for his French lessons on Rosetta Stone and take my Labtec mic back. 

As for the Fuji Camera... ehhh, it's brand-new in box, camera still in its sealed baggie. It's at least 5 years newer than any other camera I own, and 10 MP with a proper 3x optical zoom. I figure even if I just save it to give someone who needs a camera, it's a bargain; less than $6 US.

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

[bd139]

That’s the headset I use. They are very nice.