Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

It is not only about nationalities. It depends also on the people involved as well.
I know people which cannot understand sarcasm. For me as person which likes
to be sarcastic (or ironic) is it hard to supress a sarcastic (ironic) comment.
I caused this way in the past lots of heated arguments. 

Now, I've never detected a note of sarcasm in anything you say, not at all, not once. You use sarcasm almost as rarely as I do.

Well. Since I am not a native English speaker, I'm very cautious about using sarcasm. In this medium here (forum) the non-verbal channel is missing. It is much easier e.g. on the TEA discord sessions. And another point is: I know most people here only from what they are writing, some from discord and very rare face-to-face. Same goes the other way around. The people here just see only a very little piece of my personality.

As I am a really big fan of irony and sarcasm ( moi...? ), (it is pretty much how I talk all the time) I've adopted the generally accepted internet etiquette of using some form of highlighting ("quotes", bolding, larger font) and/or emojis to make it clear that one should consider a specific phrase as being an ironic statement. This CAN be difficult at times, which is why you sometimes see me use multiple colors to identify different trains of thought in an (often poorly executed) attempt to keep such in order. Unfortunately, this rubs some folks the wrong way as well.

OFW; I take what I consider to be reasonable care not to be too offensive. If the worst that happens to you in a day is you have to deal with some local color, you've had a damn fine day. 

The bold and blue font I use because I like the color and it's easier for me to read. I did switch to Navy instead of Primary blue in response to complaints that all the colors made it look like Walt Disney threw up in here.

mnem
Sarchasm: The enormous gulf between your eloquent, pithy remark and the daft git who just doesn't get it.

[Cerebus]

The bold and blue font I use because I like the color and it's easier for me to read.

He means he doesn't have to move his lips quite as much when it looks like it's written in crayon.
[Fx: ducks]

[Mr. Scram]

You've definitely got a wooden ear for humour when the comedy fx aren't present, only implied. Try this:

"[Fx: mocking baby talk voice used for comic effect] Awwww, poor widdle dwagon. Don't be mean to him. "

Better? I can see that I'm going to have to telegraph the joke in future if I want you to get it, which I hate having to do.

That's what I get when I attempt to be sociable and well adjusted. No more, I say! Or that's what we get when you attempt to be funny. Pick your poison. 

[GreyWoolfe]

Venturing into 6.5 digit territory wasn't too painful after all.   

Pack extra carrots for your slide down the rabbit hole.  Don't forget a sack to sit on to keep your butt clean as you slide.

[McBryce]

It is not only about nationalities. It depends also on the people involved as well.
I know people which cannot understand sarcasm. For me as person which likes
to be sarcastic (or ironic) is it hard to supress a sarcastic (ironic) comment.
I caused this way in the past lots of heated arguments. 

I have found British and German humour to share quite a bit of common ground; we even stole one of your words for it, "schadenfreude" (I only admit to enjoying it for comic effect    ).

One stolen word? What about Kindergarten, Zeitgeist, Über.... and so many more.

Agreed! Well-done; great follow-through. We all eagerly await your empirical testing. 

I really am surprised you didn't bring the BNCs out the sides; this would naturally segregate the leads by connection and not make the leads kink against the benchtop when you have the meter upright on its bail. That is what I had in mind with my own PCB design scribbled on a napkin here somewhere; the layout of the connections to the sockets tends to lend itself to this configuration as well.

mnem
 

I had a model made up with the connectors going out the sides, but it just looked so wrong I couldn't do it. Even if you don't want to make a 4x BNC version, the Type-A Model is a blank box to recreate any connection to the DER EE that you want, so I'm sure that will be useful to someone and my entire work wasn't in vain.

McBryce.

[mnementh]

Don't be mean to him. If he'd bought something that 'just worked' he wouldn't have had to do any tinkering.
If he didn't have any tinkering to do he wouldn't be happy.
If he wasn't off happily tinkering with that printer he'd be getting under our feet.
Therefore the 'cheap' printer was a good thing - Q.E.D.

He's a right little tinker that dragon.

I wasn't trying to be mean. I was just wondering what the score was at this point. I think mnem knew full well he was going into a project and not necessarily going for value for money or ease.

You're both right. On all counts.

I love for CERTAIN THINGS to "just work". My daily driver phone, car, laptop, tablet PCs. Most cases, my sound & video equipment, though I DO love resurrecting and modding good, old examples of all of the above, as a "toy" or a project, NOT the one I use everyday.

Scram, I actually figured you were deliberately giving me an excuse to post the list I'd just made for myself...  I took it at absolute face value; I've been here long enough that I know you don't necessarily look at any single thing the same as others do.

Right now I'm happily trying to combobulate myself a convenient means of connecting all the wires on the hotend; not a big fan of the small plug ends CReality uses on the heater cartridge.

mnem
*obligatory soggy ol' boot tossed in Cerebus' general direction*

[mnementh]

You've definitely got a wooden ear for humour when the comedy fx aren't present, only implied. Try this:

"[Fx: mocking baby talk voice used for comic effect] Awwww, poor widdle dwagon. Don't be mean to him. "

Better? I can see that I'm going to have to telegraph the joke in future if I want you to get it, which I hate having to do.

That's what I get when I attempt to be sociable and well adjusted. No more, I say! Or that's what we get when you attempt to be funny. Pick your poison. 

Normal is as normal does.   

mnem
"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because you're all the same."

[Mr. Scram]

You're both right. On all counts.

I love for CERTAIN THINGS to "just work". My daily driver phone, car, laptop, tablet PCs. Most cases, my sound & video equipment, though I DO love resurrecting and modding good, old examples of all of the above, as a "toy" or a project, NOT the one I use everyday.

Scram, I actually figured you were deliberately giving me an excuse to post the list I'd just made for myself...  I took it at absolute face value; I've been here long enough that I know you don't necessarily look at any single thing the same as others do.

Right now I'm happily trying to combobulate myself a convenient means of connecting all the wires on the hotend; not a big fan of the small plug ends CReality uses on the heater cartridge.[/b][/i][/color]

mnem
*obligatory soggy ol' boot tossed in Cerebus' general direction*

Next thing you're going to tell me is that learning how to tie your shoe laces at age 12 isn't impressive or something.

[mnementh]

   Capacitive, inductive, HF, LF, common-mode noise & even sunspot interactions will all affect you when you're down around the 1-100 puff range, right where the laboratory-level accuracy you're shooting for will be most important; the longer the leads the bigger the antenna, the greater the chance for the aether to fuck with your head. 

But you're a lot more of a voltnut than I am; you know this better than me. I applaud you in your experimentative nature...     

mnem
*tinker-tinker... putter-putter...*

Meeee? A voltnut? The most accurate meter I own is a Keithley 2000 and it rounds every result down to the nearest 6.5 Digits! That's like just guessing what the voltage is!

McBryce.

 

I knew you'd get a chuckle out of that. 

mnem
*waves from  the voltmutt side of the rabbit-hole*

[Ero-Shan]

Since replacing my old workbench, I didn't any longer have the the inrush-current limited extra outlet for my Philips variable isolation transformer. I wanted to use a Grundig (yes, Grundig, me!) one in a more practical housing, but that lacked a few features. So I ordered one of those combo meters, which arrived a week ago.

So, today's project: Replace the moving pointer voltmeter by a combined volt/amps meter. Clean up the very dusty inside, add an inrush current limiter, tighten the loose screws on the transformer.

Mostly (dirty) mechanical work, fastening the cap rail for the meter turned out to be quite a task.

Eventually it was finished. Yes this took most of the day! Still not the most beautiful, but it does its job.



At last I have that important piece of gear ready to use again.

[mnementh]

@ero-shan: Nice, tidy work. No sense in trying to buy new with those features; much better to update old gear that is better-made to begin with.

You're both right. On all counts.

I love for CERTAIN THINGS to "just work". My daily driver phone, car, laptop, tablet PCs. Most cases, my sound & video equipment, though I DO love resurrecting and modding good, old examples of all of the above, as a "toy" or a project, NOT the one I use everyday.

Scram, I actually figured you were deliberately giving me an excuse to post the list I'd just made for myself...  I took it at absolute face value; I've been here long enough that I know you don't necessarily look at any single thing the same as others do.

Right now I'm happily trying to combobulate myself a convenient means of connecting all the wires on the hotend; not a big fan of the small plug ends CReality uses on the heater cartridge.[/b][/i][/color]

mnem
*obligatory soggy ol' boot tossed in Cerebus' general direction*

Next thing you're going to tell me is that learning how to tie your shoe laces at age 12 isn't impressive or something.

*looks down at the loafers on his feet, then across the room at his Velcro-trussed sneakers*

mnem
no comment.

[mansaxel]

Looking on eBay now hahaha  . Looks like some of the cheaper insulation testers may do the job but 2kv would be nice.

I'm doing it the hard way, with a Wee Megger. So much up-fuckery crammed into that little bakelite shell, with a stiff-upper-lip disregard for any security standards.  I love it. A very useful tool, next to the Safebloc.

[bd139]

I've got a slightly newer Cliff quicktest somewhere. I think I've only used it a few times as I rarely do anything mains side that isn't dead simple or encapsulated. So much so I actually got rid of my scariac and isolation transformer a couple of years back now.

As for megger, yeah something like that would do the job. I did notice the Chinese have come up with some options in the £30 bracket though which are interesting. Good to 1KV which is fine for giving the odd hooky looking transformer a poke before you kill yourself with it.

[Saskia]

*clonk* *clonk* *hammer* *disinfect*

an old AMD with an M68 board, an IDE hard drive and some RAM. Freshly installed Windows XP.
*curse* *cuss* for activation via the phone and hacking in gazillion numbers long lines in the f-ing phone and then the bloody computer.

But it boots, it is activated, and now I am trying to run that Willem Gizmo. As soon as I have the proper cable, all the ones I had have evaporated even though I did not shine at them with my class 4 flashlight.

And the software starts.

[Cerebus]

I've got a slightly newer Cliff quicktest somewhere.

Those used to be de rigueur when many things came with an attached mains lead and no plug. Now that things have removable mains cords and the cords all come with moulded plugs I don't think I've had a call to use one more than once in the last 15-20 years.

[tautech]

The bold and blue font I use because I like the color and it's easier for me to read. I did switch to Navy instead of Primary blue in response to complaints that all the colors made it look like Walt Disney threw up in here.

mnem
Sarchasm: The enormous gulf between your eloquent, pithy remark and the daft git who just doesn't get it.

Nah, it's just a feeble attempt at not falling into the gulf of Med's blue haze. 

Dig those claws in memn and resist.....if you can. 

[bd139]

I've got a slightly newer Cliff quicktest somewhere.

Those used to be de rigueur when many things came with an attached mains lead and no plug. Now that things have removable mains cords and the cords all come with moulded plugs I don't think I've had a call to use one more than once in the last 15-20 years.

Yes similar here. I was just looking at how much I can palm it off on eBay for 

Really these days the only flying leads mains things I use are meanwell power supplies and as lame as it is I tend to just chop the end off an IEC lead, put some spades on it, making a nice suicide lead, and screw those down on the power supply. Job done. 

If there’s a touch hazard it goes in one of the numerous enclosures I have lying around.

[med6753]

The bold and blue font I use because I like the color and it's easier for me to read. I did switch to Navy instead of Primary blue in response to complaints that all the colors made it look like Walt Disney threw up in here.

mnem
Sarchasm: The enormous gulf between your eloquent, pithy remark and the daft git who just doesn't get it.

Nah, it's just a feeble attempt at not falling into the gulf of Med's blue haze. 

Dig those claws in memn and resist.....if you can. 

Ahem.....keep me out of this discussion. 


sarcasm is my middle name

[Mr. Scram]

Those used to be de rigueur when many things came with an attached mains lead and no plug. Now that things have removable mains cords and the cords all come with moulded plugs I don't think I've had a call to use one more than once in the last 15-20 years.

Haha, that's hilarious! 

[0culus]

Earlier this week, I got a nifty little package, containing a very nice condition 4332A LCR meter. This is a Yokogawa product like most (all?) HP LCR meters. Unfortunately, it wasn't working. The most obvious thing was a cremated 100 ohm resistor on the A4 board. This probably resulted from someone applying a too-large signal to the guard terminal. Replaced that, but still no go. The oscillator (which also didn't work at some range settings) was stuck at 12.3 KHz rather than switching between 1 KHz and 100 KHz depending on range. After much troubleshooting (with help from a kind person on the HPAK list), I by chance unsoldered A1Q1 (an P-channel FET) to test it out of circuit, which didn't go anywhere. I soldered it back in....and it was working now? Looks like either a cold solder joint or (hopefully not) an intermittent lead on A1Q1.

Anyway, I aligned the meter movement, and it seems to be working now. 

Note -hp- calculator porn in photo, placed carefully for @nixiefreqq. 

[0culus]

More pics, including the charcoal resistor. It's also full of metal can pack Fairchild ICs.

[bd139]

Been after one of them for a few years. Thanks for the mini tear down 

[Cubdriver]

Nice, Sean - glad to see it's working again.  I'd been following the thread on the HPAK list; it's nice to see some pics of it.  That resistor certainly did its imitation of a match when it went out, huh?   

-Pat

[factory]

Finished repairing the wiring harness on the 3400A (thanks again factory/david for the photos!), applied power and nothing exploded. Proper DC voltages in the right places. That's the good news. 

The bad news is the thermocouple is bad. When I powered up the meter, the needle slowly swung to full scale and pegged. Checked the thermocouples and one of the two is out of limits.

The good news is that sphere has a couple in stock. The bad news is they cost $60 plus shipping.  So a couple more 3400A questions before I spend three times what the meter cost me for a single part 

1. If the thermocouple got fried, how likely is it that the chopper amp is damaged, too?

2. What's the likelihood of randomly finding another 3400A parts mule with a good thermocouple?  Seems like the easiest part of the meter to damage.

1). Sometimes the thermocouples die of old age, no idea if anything else can bugger them up.

My 'conceit' re HP 3400A has come back to bite me!
I hadn't used it for a long time, so I plugged it in and the meter pegged - typically a fault in one of the pair of thermocouples. Fortunately the parts unit's t-couples / board were working fine - so just a board shuffle - I have managed to find some NOS of 2 matched pairs of t-couples for not crazy money - so will have a go at fixing it - they seem to be a common failure in this unit.

2). Probably difficult to say, the second last one I bought (newer unit) had dead thermocouples, I was hoping the meter had survived, but it got damaged by DumPeD* delivery as all the screws were loose or missing. 

I'm having better luck with BD's 3400A, more on that tomorrow.

David

*They left it hidden in the garden out in the rain too (with no note through the letterbox), only noticed an email saying delivered after it finished raining.

[0culus]

Been after one of them for a few years. Thanks for the mini tear down 

You're welcome! I just chanced upon in listings from a large equipment reseller it while browsing ebay, and the price was very good. I didn't picture it, but I believe it was a gift from HP to the Univ. of Washington EE dept, as it has a property tag on the rear panel and a large "DONATED BY HEWLETT-PACKARD" nameplate nicely screwed into the top cover.

Good luck finding one!

Nice, Sean - glad to see it's working again.  I'd been following the thread on the HPAK list; it's nice to see some pics of it.  That resistor certainly did its imitation of a match when it went out, huh?   

-Pat

Yeah, that had to smell really bad when it happened.  Luckily, it appears the neighbors escaped damage (just some black soot).