Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[mnementh]

That is incidentally why my Willem programmer is in a box in the cupboard 

This is why I still have a CF-19 Toughbook stashed in the back of my networking closet. For nuking CISCOs and EEPROMs...

mnem
...and EEPROMs in CISCOs, if need be. 

[Neomys Sapiens]

I simply had to get this.
It might even be DOA and be a bitch to repair - I don't care.

It is only a signal tracer. But it is the cutest, most elaborate and versatile signal tracer that I have ever seen. It is a signal tracer to take on your XB-70 flight. Or beyond. A thing from a time when the U.S. were great - far beyond some utterings of contemporary figures. It was love on first sight.

Of course I could not tell this in advance. Now I have to live with the fear that one or more of you will know the thing, and describe how they once owned it until it drove them crazy and they smashed it or whatever. In that, rather unlikely case, I would refit insted of repair. But I do not think that this is the case. It looks right, so it should test right.

Thanks to the valiant Worsthorse for making it possible.

[edavid]

Re: Willem programmer: You may need the parallel port driver that "fakes" the "right" I/O addresses for port control.

Other:  No TEA traffic for almost two hours... is everybody OK?  Did I miss something big in the "real world"?

basically you can map the driver if the host supports an ECP. which in my case it does. The microsoft driver will do just fine, and you have to enable passthrough for parallel ports in the Hypervisor settings.
Microsoft VirtualPC and Oracle Virtualbox will not let you do that. VMWare will. If someone wants a howto, let me know, I think that this is not of particular interest to every reader here.

VirtualBox claims to allow parallel port passthrough: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=54187

Did you try it and find that it didn't work?

[bitseeker]

I was trying similar strategies against squirrels couple years ago. I ended up using a cage, was working quite nicely. I reckon, in your case, you would probably need to increase the size of the cage and that would probably attract neighbours attention.

* For the record, I relocated all the squirrels I caught in a park far far away.

Needs mo' powah! Didn't even make it to the fence.

[bitseeker]

How's this for a disturbing TEA listing pic?       It seems this seller likes livin' on the edge.

does he do this on purpose?   its driving my blood pressure to the point it makes me wanna' scratch my head with a banana.   https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-5350B-Microwave-Frequency-Counter-10-Hz-to-20-GHz-Powers-On-Option-001/124143559453?hash=item1ce788631d:g:jo8AAOSwGF5eG4VS

What kind of person do that ? threatening to physically abuse those poor little TE just to encourage us to buy them.

Somebody who knows his prey... 

Indeed.

[bitseeker]

But, headache is a symptom which together with fever and joint pain, would imply that I have influenza or COVID-19. I'm fairly certain I know what the answer will be if I talk to my local doctor's office - Stay at home, make sure you stay hydrated and see how you are in a week's time. Call the emergency services if you start to have trouble breathing.

I'm sure every medical service in the country has more than enough on their hands without me bugging them about something which is hardly life threatening.

I'm only 55 years young, so I'm not exactly in a risk group.

That's about the gist of it as far as when to head for the hospital. Hope it passes without much more hassle. Feel better soon!

[bitseeker]

I do have a good working B version of this lovely Nixie shod Lady eBay auction: #233147247927 and the adding an A model might make her jealous so I will just leave her on the Street Corner

the 5326/27 family was always underappreciated.   they are relatively small, light, and cute as hell.  but folks with 5245's kept them because of all the plug in goodness and avoided their little non plugin cousins.

have a stack of them and still have every one that ever came my way.  (did trade away a couple but later traded led counters to get them back).

* bitseeker raises hand.

Appreciated here and also a member of the 27 club.

never paid more than 20 bucks for one.  like i said.....underappreciated by those without nixie fever.  (the fan does get noisy sometimes....bd beware).

Wow, good deal. I paid about $30. However, they don't often go for such nice prices on extractBay due to the Nixies. I suppose I should be happy or they'd start multiplying on my bench.

[mnementh]

*3DP-ily*



Printing Rev 2 of the mounting bracket/enclosure for my 12/24V hotend mod. 

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

[Cubdriver]

I simply had to get this.
It might even be DOA and be a bitch to repair - I don't care.

It is only a signal tracer. But it is the cutest, most elaborate and versatile signal tracer that I have ever seen. It is a signal tracer to take on your XB-70 flight. Or beyond. A thing from a time when the U.S. were great - far beyond some utterings of contemporary figures. It was love on first sight.

Of course I could not tell this in advance. Now I have to live with the fear that one or more of you will know the thing, and describe how they once owned it until it drove them crazy and they smashed it or whatever. In that, rather unlikely case, I would refit insted of repair. But I do not think that this is the case. It looks right, so it should test right.

Thanks to the valiant Worsthorse for making it possible.

I gather that this was the subject of your earlier message?  If so, congrats on snagging it - it looks like a neat little thing.

-Pat

[bitseeker]

As a new member of this forum, I want to confess my addiction: collecting, repairing and using old measuring instruments. Here one of my nicest objects. And as you can see, I included a pocket calculator, guaranteed without the key that should not be mentioned. In fact, with no key at all...

Rainer
(Attachment Link)

Welcome aboard, Rainer. Nice bit of kit that is!

[Cubdriver]

I do have a good working B version of this lovely Nixie shod Lady eBay auction: #233147247927 and the adding an A model might make her jealous so I will just leave her on the Street Corner

the 5326/27 family was always underappreciated.   they are relatively small, light, and cute as hell.  but folks with 5245's kept them because of all the plug in goodness and avoided their little non plugin cousins.

have a stack of them and still have every one that ever came my way.  (did trade away a couple but later traded led counters to get them back).

* bitseeker raises hand.

Appreciated here and also a member of the 27 club.

never paid more than 20 bucks for one.  like i said.....underappreciated by those without nixie fever.  (the fan does get noisy sometimes....bd beware).

Wow, good deal. I paid about $30. However, they don't often go for such nice prices on extractBay due to the Nixies. I suppose I should be happy or they'd start multiplying on my bench.

* As am I. Sadly for us, I fear the days of the $20-30 ones are long past, and I missed them.

Nice little counters, and a bit unusual in their 'numbering', in that the 'B' model is the most capable, including both the time interval and DVM capabilities, the 'A' having the interval ability, and the 'C' being the budget model as just a universal counter.

-Pat

[bitseeker]

The "B" having more functionality than the "A" kind of makes sense. Wasn't the "C" version made a while after the "A" and "B"? Kind of hard to go backwards when "A" is already taken.

A₀

[beanflying]

My B does very nicely on the DVM front 

[bitseeker]

Having not heard any news after submitting a couple of reports about errors saving changes to the TEA thread's OP, I did some debugging on my own and discovered that the post reaches its size limit in 51 more characters.

TEA is growing too much in many ways.

Do you suppose there's a post count limit for a thread? Will it wrap around? TEA2K20

[bitseeker]

My B does very nicely on the DVM front 

Oh, wow! That is quite nice. Better than I was expecting and 5-1/2 digits! Now I have to get one. You know that, right? Evil, evil man.

[tautech]

Having not heard any news after submitting a couple of reports about errors saving changes to the TEA thread's OP, I didn't some debugging on my own and discovered that the post reaches its size limit in 51 more characters.

ez24 ran into the same OP size issues here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/other-blog-specific/dd/
Wisely he started another thread and reserved the first 3 posts so to allow room for growth.
Maybe you can link to a later reply of yours and place additional info there.....oh hang on, you already have the 2nd post to grow into. 

[beanflying]

My B does very nicely on the DVM front 

Oh, wow! That is quite nice. Better than I was expecting and 5-1/2 digits! Now I have to get one. You know that, right? Evil, evil man.

Can't imagine why I have been called a Pimp and Enabler  Those voltage checks were uncalibrated or tweaked from when it arrived from the USA but it did come from a good home.

[mnementh]

I also learned that I would very much like a faster PC for this, the old haswell is not really cutting edge.

Come on, you could run a perfectly fast CPM86 on it!

Or you could mortgage your soul and run them all... at the same time.

https://www.in-win.com/media/gaming-chassis/z-tower/20181127020551_63688.pdf

mnem
   And y'all sed I was nucking futs...

[Cubdriver]

Having not heard any news after submitting a couple of reports about errors saving changes to the TEA thread's OP, I did some debugging on my own and discovered that the post reaches its size limit in 51 more characters.

TEA is growing too much in many ways.

Do you suppose there's a post count limit for a thread? Will it wrap around? TEA2K20

Time to start spilling over and expanding post #2?  (Use some of those 51 remaining characters to say "continued below in post 2".)  If only you'd have anticipated how this thread would take on a life of its own, and put in three or four placeholder posts at the start...  Ahh, hindsight.  Always soooooo clear! 

-Pat

[Cubdriver]

My B does very nicely on the DVM front 

Oh, wow! That is quite nice. Better than I was expecting and 5-1/2 digits! Now I have to get one. You know that, right? Evil, evil man.

LOL - no TEA addict's bench is complete without at least one!  I just looked, and have a 26A, a 26B and a 27B.  Guess I need to look for a 27A and C models of both to get the whole set!  (At least these are relatively compact compared to a lot of what piques my interests gear-wise...)

-Pat

[beanflying]

Brought a pair of 'untested'  Card Extenders for using on my 740B and a few others in the fleet for $10 AUpesos more 'unused' looking at the contact areas.

[Cubdriver]

My B does very nicely on the DVM front 

Oh, wow! That is quite nice. Better than I was expecting and 5-1/2 digits! Now I have to get one. You know that, right? Evil, evil man.

Can't imagine why I have been called a Pimp and Enabler  Those voltage checks were uncalibrated or tweaked from when it arrived from the USA but it did come from a good home.

I think most of us in this thread (at least the regulars) should be sporting brightly colored velvet Zoot suits and feathered pimp hats, wearing big HP, Fluke or Tektronix emblems on chains around our necks and using giant test probe walking sticks.  That's likely how any noobs that enter here imagine us as we push test gear on them.  "Come on, take a hit of e-bay - you'll love it.  No, no, it's perfectly safe!  I've been doing it for years now!  What are you afraid of?" subtly turns on dynamic signal analyzer in hopes that the loud fan masks creaking noises of floor joists

-Pat

[Cubdriver]

Brought a pair of 'untested'  Card Extenders for using on my 740B and a few others in the fleet for $10 AUpesos more 'unused' looking at the contact areas.

Nice score, Bean - most of those I see on the bay in these parts are priced north of $20-$30 each.  Like the old feet, I shudder to think how many went to landfills.  Seems at least a lot of the older instruments came by default with a set of them.  Now they're like hen's teeth, but vital for troubleshooting and repair.

-Pat

[Ero-Shan]

I do have a good working B version of this lovely Nixie shod Lady eBay auction: #233147247927 and the adding an A model might make her jealous so I will just leave her on the Street Corner

the 5326/27 family was always underappreciated.   they are relatively small, light, and cute as hell.  but folks with 5245's kept them because of all the plug in goodness and avoided their little non plugin cousins.

have a stack of them and still have every one that ever came my way.  (did trade away a couple but later traded led counters to get them back).

* bitseeker raises hand.

Appreciated here and also a member of the 27 club.

never paid more than 20 bucks for one.  like i said.....underappreciated by those without nixie fever.  (the fan does get noisy sometimes....bd beware).

Wow, good deal. I paid about $30. However, they don't often go for such nice prices on extractBay due to the Nixies. I suppose I should be happy or they'd start multiplying on my bench.

* As am I. Sadly for us, I fear the days of the $20-30 ones are long past, and I missed them.

Nice little counters, and a bit unusual in their 'numbering', in that the 'B' model is the most capable, including both the time interval and DVM capabilities, the 'A' having the interval ability, and the 'C' being the budget model as just a universal counter.

-Pat

Hell, I paid quite a bit more for mine! Well, I'll get over it. Gotta check its DVM sometime. Seems much better than just a little add-on.

[Ero-Shan]

My B does very nicely on the DVM front 

Oh, wow! That is quite nice. Better than I was expecting and 5-1/2 digits! Now I have to get one. You know that, right? Evil, evil man.

Can't imagine why I have been called a Pimp and Enabler  Those voltage checks were uncalibrated or tweaked from when it arrived from the USA but it did come from a good home.

I think most of us in this thread (at least the regulars) should be sporting brightly colored velvet Zoot suits and feathered pimp hats, wearing big HP, Fluke or Tektronix emblems on chains around our necks and using giant test probe walking sticks.  That's likely how any noobs that enter here imagine us as we push test gear on them.  "Come on, take a hit of e-bay - you'll love it.  No, no, it's perfectly safe!  I've been doing it for years now!  What are you afraid of?" subtly turns on dynamic signal analyzer in hopes that the loud fan masks creaking noises of floor joists

-Pat

Now, how do I get these pictures out of my head?