Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[AVGresponding]

On the origin of bangers and mash, technically we got potatoes from Virginia in the late 1500's. Sausages, well they were around in 500 BC or so but I'm not sure we had them or not. The gravy we stole from the French in the middle ages.

Really about the only bloody things that are native to us is bread, dogs, oats and rabbits. I suppose we invented hot dogs although being British it would be "dog on toast" 

Rabbits are a recent introduction, by the Normans. They were kept in purpose built warrens, for the (Norman) nobility.

They've been here a bit longer than that, it was the Romans that introduced them to Britain.

Hence the slang term "coney", the etymology of which derives from the Latin "cuniculus".

Make sure you spell that with one "n" or it ends up meaning something else...

[mnementh]

Mnem would be a riot running the CDC..... 

Thanks for the compliment. 

If you think I hold American cooking in high esteem I don't. Our cooking consists of a jar of corn syrup and fat.

Aw, med, it's not that bad. We do make good use of all four (junk) food groups: salt, sugar, fat and cholesterol. We can even get them all into a single "food" item.

Genuine Kraft Imitation Non-Dairy Cheesoid Byproduct   at your service. The can't even call this shit CHEESE; they have to call it "Pasteurized Process Cheese Food". And of course, they market this shit to KIDS. 

mnem
Lets tent/fumigate KRAFT corporate HQ with the owners inside too... I've been far too forgiving of their shit.

[AVGresponding]

I know a Canadianian guy living over here, gets his mother to send him "Kraft Cheese Dinner" packs as he misses them so much.

Can't say I'm unhappy at never having been offered one...

[mnementh]

RANDOM MODE:

"Like a lot of PHP code, this code wasn't written. It happened. A long chain of revisions, emergency fixes, quick and dirty hacks, and "I dunno what I did, but that fixes it," meant that it was a twisty pile of spaghetti that wasn't drained properly and now is all sort of sticking together into a starch blob that only vaguely resembles the pasta it once was..."

https://thedailywtf.com/articles/now-i-need-an-injection



mnem
My inner codemonkey is not amused.

[Brumby]

Removed the front frame/bezel of my 3478A - which was a bit like taking a T-shirt off over your feet - and checked it out.

After removing all the paint, I had a couple of rather small nicks in the base metal and played with the idea of filling them in before painting.  That lasted for a whole 10 seconds.  Repainting would reduce their appearance and it seemed a tad excessive to go so OTT for what was going to be a daily use bench meter.  Besides, it reduces the angst of the inevitable scudge while providing a modicum of character.

Have done the painting now - but it seems a bit too shiny.  Will think about that for a bit, but I might just run with it for now.

One thing I will be doing is letting the paint harden for a week or so before I start manhandling it.  Pics then.

[mnementh]

Good work! 

Put it in your oven at the lowest setting for a couple hours, then turn the oven off and let it cool to room temp before handling the part. If it has a bread proofing setting (~170 degrees F) that’s perfect, but most will go down to 200 degrees F which is fine with any acrylic lacquer or epoxy paint.

I recommend a follow up with clear satin acrylic or semi-gloss epoxy paint as well.   

mnem
*toddlies off to ded*

[med6753]

Look what FedEx just delivered. A whole bunch of goodies. Gonna take me a while to sort thru it all.

I wanted this collection of near junk for the 4 probes with PL-259 connectors to use with the Type CA plug-in. Turns out there's three 10X P6000 probes and one 10X P6017 probe. I did a quick test and one of the P6000 probes is apparently dead and open. No big deal. Will try to fix and if not hopefully the coax/PL-259 section is OK and can cobble together a 1X probe. 

The other 3 probes with BNC's are two 10X P6060 probes and one 10X P6006 probe. Haven't given them a quick test yet.

All this for about $11 USD plus tax/shipping. 

That's quite the haul, med. Looking forward to learning about all the little doodads (at least I don't recognize all the attachments, adapters, and whatnot in there).

I don't know what a lot of that stuff is either.  I did a sort of adapters that fit the probes (rear) and all the stuff that doesn't or is unknown. That's the pile in the foreground. I'm going to bag them up and put it in the TEA closest with the rest of the loose Tek parts.

On Sunday I'll be testing/compensating the probes themselves and I found a place to hang them up for the ready access. 

[mansaxel]

"Like a lot of PHP code, this code wasn't written. It happened."

This is the canonical design review of PHP. Now on its tenth year and still most relevant.

[tggzzz]

On the origin of bangers and mash, technically we got potatoes from Virginia in the late 1500's. Sausages, well they were around in 500 BC or so but I'm not sure we had them or not. The gravy we stole from the French in the middle ages.

Really about the only bloody things that are native to us is bread, dogs, oats and rabbits. I suppose we invented hot dogs although being British it would be "dog on toast" 

Rabbits are a recent introduction, by the Normans. They were kept in purpose built warrens, for the (Norman) nobility.

They've been here a bit longer than that, it was the Romans that introduced them to Britain.

Hence the slang term "coney", the etymology of which derives from the Latin "cuniculus".

Make sure you spell that with one "n" or it ends up meaning something else...

Actually, since I was a kid, it seems it has become more difficult to foretell the past...

"The question of when rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) first reappeared in Britain is somewhat more complicated. Rabbit remains have been found dating back to the warm climate of the Cromerian Interglacial (750,000 to 350,000 BP), suggesting rabbits were found in Britain before the ice sheets advanced. It seems that they didn’t, however, make their own way back to Britain after the ice retreated. Rather, it appears that Roman settlers may have been the first to bring rabbits back to Britain.

"In 2005, archaeologists excavating a Roman settlement at Lynford in Norfolk found the remains of a 2,000 year old rabbit dinner, which may represent the earliest evidence of rabbits in post-glacial Britain.

"Norman settlers subsequently brought rabbits to Britain with them and they are widely considered to be the origin of our current rabbit population. The precise date and source of the Norman introductions remain unclear, although the earliest definite mention of a rabbit warren appears to be from the Isles of Scilly in 1176."

https://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/questions/answer/are-foxes-and-rabbits-native-to-britain

[bd139]

"Like a lot of PHP code, this code wasn't written. It happened."

This is the canonical design review of PHP. Now on its tenth year and still most relevant.

I love PHP. I’ve been paid to replace lots of it 

[bd139]

Ooh this is interesting: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233507852253

10M to 15Ghz sig gen for a not too scary price.

I am actually considering an FA-2 at the moment.

[beanflying]

Ooh this is interesting: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233507852253

10M to 15Ghz sig gen for a not too scary price.

I am actually considering an FA-2 at the moment.

The lower Specced 8Ghz one is more attractive unless you really need the high end. Nice you can feed it with an external 10MHz too  On the maybe list for when our Peso recovers from the Toilet 

[bd139]

Yeah 8GHz is only just over £100. Not bad. I was looking at 10GHz band stuff though. Probably considerably easier than pissing around with cavity resonators and mixer diodes!

Yeah currency is borked here. I’m hoping it recovers back to 2005 levels here. Not going to happen 

[beanflying]

I am about 1/3 of the way into buying the bits for a bigger Laser build a dozen bottles of Glenfiddich is the difference over the last currency drop

[Saskia]

wait until after that panic ... the inflation wave is coming ...

[beanflying]

I will be holding off buying the Tube. Power Supply and controller for a few months at this stage and see where it gets to. That lot is a bit over 1/2 of the cost.

EDIT: sort of coming back but still well short of the last year.

[tggzzz]

Ooh this is interesting: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233507852253

10M to 15Ghz sig gen for a not too scary price.

I am actually considering an FA-2 at the moment.

Any idea what it is based around?

I have an LMX2954 eval board, which has good performance but a crappy tweak-all-registers UI. I was happy to only pay £30, but not happy about running WinXP in a VM.

[bd139]

Not sure. Can’t find any tear downs yet. I certainly wouldn’t want to run XP in a VM 

Today’s job is sorting out the remaining parts boxes 

[mnementh]

"Like a lot of PHP code, this code wasn't written. It happened."   

This is the canonical design review of PHP. Now on its tenth year and still most relevant.

I love PHP. I’ve been paid to replace lots of it 

*adds line item to "When I am an evil Overlord" list: Indenture all programmers responsible for the Windows HAL. Force them to write new programming language using ONLY EDLIN: BRAINFUCK (Yes, those colors will be part of the name, and REQUIRED in all correspondence and markup notes). Allow them to drink only green tea Chai and snack all they want, but only unbuttered, dry white toast. All shifts will be in Centaurian time.*

mnem
 

[bd139]

Make them write it Wordpad as well. 

Well so far on the grand tidy up all I’ve managed to do is make it worse 

[Neomys Sapiens]

Look what FedEx just delivered. A whole bunch of goodies. Gonna take me a while to sort thru it all.


I don't know what a lot of that stuff is either.  I did a sort of adapters that fit the probes (rear) and all the stuff that doesn't or is unknown. That's the pile in the foreground. I'm going to bag them up and put it in the TEA closest with the rest of the loose Tek parts.

The banana plugs in the front heap should fit the same screw-on ground leads as the alligator clips.

[Neomys Sapiens]

UK addicts might have a chance for a functional resistor decade - or not. At least they don't state 'defective'.

Item #: 313052379228

[Saskia]

Not sure. Can’t find any tear downs yet. I certainly wouldn’t want to run XP in a VM 

Today’s job is sorting out the remaining parts boxes 

Civilization 2 runs on an XP in a VM. It can't be all bad ...

[Brumby]

Good work! 

Put it in your oven at the lowest setting for a couple hours, then turn the oven off and let it cool to room temp before handling the part. If it has a bread proofing setting (~170 degrees F) that’s perfect, but most will go down to 200 degrees F which is fine with any acrylic lacquer or epoxy paint.

I recommend a follow up with clear satin acrylic or semi-gloss epoxy paint as well.   

mnem
*toddlies off to ded*

Oven not available.  I was trying to research temperature settings available, but SWMBO did a roast chicken dinner.

So I improvised:


Cardboard box open underneath.  Metalwork resting on a bit of cardboard at each end.

[mnementh]

@Brumby: Extra points for resourcefulness!!! 

*adds line item to "When I am an evil Overlord" list: Indenture all programmers responsible for the Windows HAL. Force them to write new programming language using ONLY EDLIN: BRAINFUCK (Yes, those colors will be part of the name, and REQUIRED in all correspondence and markup notes). Allow them to drink only green tea Chai and snack all they want, but only unbuttered, dry white toast. All shifts will be in Centaurian time.*

mnem
 

Make them write it Wordpad as well. 

Look again; it's worse: EDLIN. 

mnem
HAPPY EASTER all you maniacs!!!